R Sriram

Let me have war, say I: it exceeds peace as far as day does night: it's sprightly, waking, audible and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible: a getter of more bastard children than war is a destroyer of men. Coriolanus, Shakespeare.

Intel just pulled off the greatest corporate comeback since Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997. 12 months ago, Intel was dying. Stock at $19. CEO fired. Market cap collapsing. Analysts writing obituaries. But on Friday, it had its BEST day since 1987. Stock hit $82. Surpassed its dot-com peak from the year 2000 that nobody thought would ever be touched again. Up 335% from its 52-week low. And the story of HOW this happened is absolutely genius: In December 2024, Intel's board forced out CEO Pat Gelsinger after a brutal tenure. The stock had cratered and market share was bleeding to AMD and Nvidia. The company that invented the modern microprocessor was dying. 3 months later, they hired Lip-Bu Tan. Former Cadence CEO and Intel board member. A guy who'd spent decades in the semiconductor trenches. His first year was ugly: In January 2026, Intel crashed 17% in a single day after Tan admitted they couldn't meet demand and yields were below targets. Worst day since August 2024. "Multiyear journey" became code for "this company might not make it." Then something shifted. Tan went back to Intel's roots: Killed the bureaucracy, cut the bloat, and focused entirely on engineering. "We need to be data driven, paranoid, and engineering driven." Paranoid. The same word Andy Grove used when he built Intel into a superpower in the 90s. And behind the scenes, Tan pulled off 3 moves that changed everything: Move 1: He got Elon Musk. Tesla announced that TERAFAB, the most ambitious chip factory ever proposed, would use Intel's next-generation 14A manufacturing process. Elon said he couldn't think of a better partner. This is the deal Intel's foundry business needed to survive. Tan had previously warned that if Intel couldn't attract outside manufacturing clients, the entire foundry division would be shut down. Move 2: He got Nvidia. Last September, Jensen Huang invested $5 billion directly into Intel. The CEO of Intel's biggest competitor put billions into the company everyone had left for dead. Intel stock jumped 23% that day alone. Move 3: He got the US government. And this is where the story gets really crazy... The CHIPS Act allocated billions to Intel for domestic chip manufacturing. But when Trump took office, his administration opposed the program's conditions - union requirements, buyback restrictions, and a $100 billion investment commitment from Intel. So instead of giving Intel the grants, Trump's team converted $8.9 billion in CHIPS Act funds into equity. Bought a 9.9% stake at $20.47 per share. They didn't want to give Intel free money, so they simply bought stock instead. After Friday's earnings beat, that stake is worth $36 billion. A $27 billion paper gain. One of the most profitable government investments in American HISTORY. And it was a complete accident. Trump tried to kill the CHIPS Act handout. Instead he accidentally created a return that would make most hedge funds jealous. The earnings that triggered all of this were truly insane: - Revenue of $13.6 billion vs $12.4 billion expected - EPS of $0.29 vs $0.01 expected - They beat by 29x on earnings - Data center and AI revenue up 22% - Demand for CPUs exceeded supply for the first time in years Tan's quote on the call: "A year ago the conversation around Intel was about whether we could survive. Today it's about how quickly we can add manufacturing capacity." 6 consecutive quarters beating guidance. 4th CEO in 7 years. And the one who finally cracked it did it by going back to the basics. No flashy pivots like other companies. Just chips, engineering, and paranoia.

So, there was no SIR related impact on voting since the percentages are sharply up over 2021

Air India telling Adani Airport Holdings NO, but nicely. The airline said it “respectfully disagree[s] with the assumption of strong airline demand to shift operations to Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) owned by Adani, in a letter to Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (AERA),. Air India told AERA that airlines may not be inclined to shift ops from Mumbai old airport to newly inaugurated NMIA, citing higher tariffs, inadequate road & Metro connectivity, and increased costs from dual/split operations. via @bsindia

Wow The Times of London reports that the Pentagon is considering punitive measures such as 'reviewing' its support for European imperial possessions such as Falkland's Islands. A Pentagon draft policy paper also recommends other measures such as suspension of Spain from the alliance, bans on certain countries occupying important Nato positions.

So, according to the WSJ, John Phelan sat in the WH for hours on Wednesday in a desperate attempt to prevent his sacking. Trump met him for one minute and declined to overrule Hegseth. Despite several missteps and the Beltway perception of bring an angry jock than a mature leader, Hegseth continues to get this way with POTUS.

Record voter turnout till 5PM: TN: 82.24% WB: 89.93%

Chennai voter turnout at 55%... overall Tamil Nadu at 56.8% till 1 pm.... it is unreal what is happening in Chennai.... simply unbelievable .....

Crazy stat I saw from a Rhodium Group post: "At only 7.92mn in 2025, total births in China were less than half that of a decade ago... 2025 data point to double the population loss from 2024 suggest the rhino is now charging directly at China’s political and economic ambitions"

EU may lift self-imposed ban on drilling for oil and gas in Arctic as energy supply crunch worsens - FT

Amazing bit of stat in The Athletic on Arsenal-City today. Under Arteta, Arsenal have led PL for over 100 days more than City. But in this period, City have won 4 trophies.

My current mental model basis what I am seeing around me and at InfoEdge in all our verticals - Naukri, 99acres, Jeevansathi and Shiksha. 1) AI is fundamentally deflationary for businesses. 2) When the cost of intelligence drops toward zero, the cost of doing many things drops with it. 3) Everyone becomes more productive but no one stays differentiated for long. 4) The natural outcome? Price compression. Margin pressure, Commoditization. 5) We’ve seen this with the internet, cloud, SaaS. AI is doing it to cognition itself. But this is only half the story. 6) AI is deflationary for existing markets and expansionary for new ones The big mistake 7) Using AI just to do the same things cheaper. That’s a race to the bottom. 8) The real question is, What becomes possible now that was previously impossible? Three ways I see AI creating real advantage 1) Solving problems that were too expensive to solve or not solvable earlier 2) Serving customers who couldn’t be served before 3) Delivering experiences and quality that wasn’t possible to deliver before In other words Don’t just lower costs. Expand the market. Because when capabilities commoditise , value shifts to, – Distribution and Customer Relationships – Brand – Trust – Proprietary data – Ecosystems The winners in the AI era won’t be the most companies which are the most efficient. They’ll be companies with the best imagination

Indias first plant for extraction of platinum comes up in Odisha

Cheese from India makes its mark globally… India made an impressive debut at the Mundial do Queijo do Brasil 2026, which is a vibrant international competition for cheese and dairy products. Four Indian products won medals, including 1 Super Gold, 2 Golds and 1 Silver. The Super Gold was won by Eleftheria Gulmarg (Brie Style), the Golds were won by Yak Churpi-Soft, Nordic Farm, Leh, Ladakh and Eleftheria Brunost (Whey Cheese) while the Silver was won by Eleftheria Kaali Miri (Belper Knolle Style). Congratulations to Mausam Narang and Thenlay Nurboo. Such successes strengthen India’s artisanal dairy sector on the world stage.

Bhagirathi Ghat (Haridwar) after PM Modi Govt's Namami Gangi Programme, that created new sewage treatment plants, industrial effluent controls, afforestation, waste management Haridwar’s Ganga stretch has been de-listed as “polluted”

Breaking: #Taiwan President Lai Ching-te has cancelled his scheduled state visit to Eswatini after three countries, Seychelles, Mauritius, and Madagascar, cancelled approval for Lai's flight to fly through their airspaces due to pressure from China.

The world’s top condom maker says it plans to raise prices by 20%-30% and possibly further due to the impact of the US-Iran war in the petrochemical industry. Malaysia's Karex Bhd told Reuters is also seeing a surge in condom demand as rising freight costs and shipping delays have left many of its customers with lower stockpiles than usual. Karex produces over 5 billion condoms annually and is a supplier to leading brands like Durex.

Something off about this Cook/Apple transition, I am not able to out ny finger in it. Cook becomes executive chairman while Ternus will be CEO. Why does Apple need an executive chairman when it has not had one in years, and how much freedom will Ternus really have with a figure like Cook dominating the board with executive powers?

Something off about this Cook/Apple transition, I am not able to out ny finger in it. Cook becomes executive chairman while Ternus will be CEO. Why does Apple need an executive chairman when it has not had one in years, and how much freedom will Ternus really have with a figure like Cook dominating the board with executive powers?

The dream of China surpassing the U.S. as the world’s largest economy is fading. In 2021, China’s GDP was about 78% of the U.S.; by 2024, that share had fallen to roughly 64%, back to around 2017 levels, with the gap between the two economies doubling in just a few years.

Mazagon Dock acquires stake in Colombo Dockyard: