
Rajeev Mantri
41.7K posts

Rajeev Mantri
@RMantri
Tweets on India, investing, venture capital, tech | @NavamCapital | Blog @VenturingIn | @ANewIdeaOfIndia @IECouncil


The Revolutionaries: Born in the shadow of 1857’s failure, four young bloods driven by a mad passion for justice, liberty and freedom, set out to challenge the British Raj, with guns in their hands and rebellion in their hearts, they awaken a sleeping nation, and set out to do the unthinkable. #PrimeVideoPresents #TheRevolutionariesOnPrime #ItStartsHere






We're always ready for this! 😉

Millions of Indians NEED to see these scenes. They need to see the deep religious hatred they’re dealing with across the border. They need to have the “Aman ki Asha” ghost exorcized once and for all. Ridiculous decision by Censor Board

Patrick Collison tells people in their 20s to not move to San Francisco. William largely agrees with him. He thinks SF has a consensus problem and has removed the risk from becoming a founder: "I'm a product of Silicon Valley. I started Plaid back in 2012. I've been there since I was 21, and it's very easy to stay in Silicon Valley. But you can start to get isolated and get very consensus focused. San Francisco is probably the most consensus place I've ever been to. That is both a huge crutch for us, but it's also probably the most valuable asset. As a founder, if you're building in something that SF believes is very consensus, but the world does not believe yet, that's actually a great operating environment. That's why Silicon Valley and SF are so dynamic and we're so in front of the curve. But we also have completely lost touch with how the rest of the world operates. Even how the everyday American operates. So I think it's very important to go to places that don't have that same bias. If you think about emerging markets specifically – the founders who build there, they're the everyday people, they live in this constrained society. They're constrained in a way that San Francisco and New York isn't. And that breeds a different type of creativity, it breeds a different type of innovation that you really can't get anywhere else. If you go to talk to people in London or Vienna or San Francisco, people are living in a world of abundance. And that causes a very specific creation cycle. SF and Silicon Valley are probably more akin to Wall Street in the 1990s than they are like a research lab in Cambridge in like the 1950s. Maybe that was Silicon Valley in the 90s, but it's not anymore. You talk to a 23-year-old and assuming you're like moderately competent and went to the right high school and college, you're going to get a $3 million seed round. And worst case scenario, you can go work at like a great company as an engineer and you'll have "founder" on your resume. There is no risk in that proposition. If you go back to pre-2008, you're on the edge of the knife, and I think that creates just so much intensity in creativity and fear that is such a critical part of the founder journey. Starting companies is just too f**king safe, and it's caused a lot of companies to be super safe companies -- like we're going to pivot to AI and wrap OpenAI/Anthropic. That's not bold, that's not ambitious. And it's because we are attracting founders that actually want to be employees. They don't think and say "if I don't pull this off, I'm going to become bankrupt. My life is over." I think that's pretty healthy. That's when you bring out the rawness of humanity. And I don't see that very much anymore."

🚨 BIG SHIFT! Russian oil tanker bound for China makes U-turn to India 🤯 The vessel Aqua Titan, loaded from a Baltic Sea port in late January, is now expected to arrive at New Mangalore on March 21. • Market signals: - Indian refiners bought about 30 million barrels of Russian crude in a week - At least 7 tankers rerouted mid-voyage from China to India - Russia remains a key supplier to India’s energy imports GLOBAL OIL FLOWS SHIFT TOWARDS INDIA🇮🇳






Great conversation with @shashidigital on @bharatvaarta! Shashi ji has had a remarkable journey across technology, media, and public policy. Many of you may remember his influential blog, Offstumped, which offered sharp takes on Indian politics and policy in the early days of the Indian blogosphere. He later moved back from the US and played a key role in the digital strategy behind PM Modi’s 2014 election campaign, through platforms like India272[dot]com, IndiaVotes[dot]com, and Niti Central. Shashi ji went on to become the first non-bureaucrat CEO of @prasarbharati, where he led several reforms including: > digitisation of archives > upgrading legacy broadcast infrastructure > expanding AIR and DD Free Dish, and > improving monetisation and distribution All part of a broader effort to make India’s public broadcaster more modern, digital, and financially sustainable. Today he is Co-founder of @AI4IndiaOrg, working to build a stronger ecosystem for AI and deep tech in India. We spoke about: - his journey across technology, media and governance - how bureaucracy functions and potential reforms - the evolution of India’s media ecosystem - Big Tech and narrative power, related regulation - sovereign AI and India’s technological future A long overdue conversation. Episode dropping soon on @bharatvaarta.

This day seven years ago, India lost Manohar Parrikar. That night, barely holding back my tears, I wrote this tribute to my friend. Haven’t really got over his loss even after so many years. My personal grief apart, his passing was a greater loss to the country, I feel. Later, I got down to writing his biography. Read, if you haven’t already nitinagokhale.com/manohar-parrik…

After almost six years on the ground, VT‑ALL is back in the sky. Fully restored. Test‑flown. @DGCAIndia certified. With this, we’ve revived all 30 long‑grounded aircraft that we inherited since privatisation. This transformation underscores our commitment to world‑class safety and service. Read more: airindia.com/in/en/newsroom…












