Riya Upreti

India is basically two different markets. India A People in metro cities. High spending power, but smaller in number. They care about brands, trends, and trying new things. India B People in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Huge in number. More careful with money. They stick to what they trust and what works. One thing I’ve noticed working with businesses: If something works in cities like Chandigarh, Jodhpur, Kanpur, Varanasi, or Nashik, it usually works everywhere. Because these cities sit in the middle. People want better products, but they still think about price and value. So if your idea clicks there, it can scale across anywhere in India.

@FintechCopy Yes!

@riyaelity Should be the same mindsets for every woman.

When I dropped out of college, everyone was against me. Recently my Dada ji visited the office I built from scratch. When he walked in, he saw a quote on the wall: “Women are not meant to sit back and look pretty. They are meant to lead empires and create generational wealth.” He paused, looked at it, then looked at me and smiled. That’s when I knew I’d made it. I just wish my Dadi ji were here to see this day.

@AniketFiles Thank you!

@riyaelity Kudos and congratulations. Do post about your journey. How did you start, what obstacles you faced. How you overcome it. It will inspire others to start.

@kunalbinjewar09 Yes, Totally!

@riyaelity Dada ji ka woh smile that said everything words couldn't. And Dadi ji would've been so proud. 🙏

@aaraynsh Thank you!

@riyaelity Wholesome 🥹

SUVs now make up nearly 70% of car sales in India. Sedans are disappearing. Sedans aren’t bad. They’re more aerodynamic and give better mileage. But they don’t fit Indian conditions. Indian roads are rough. Potholes, random speed breakers, broken stretches, bad drainage. In monsoon, roads turn into flowing water. In many places, there’s no proper road at all. A low sedan struggles every day. It scrapes, slows down, and takes damage. SUVs and MPVs handle this better. More ground clearance, tougher build. Simple. Then comes perception. In India, bigger means powerful. A sedan can be good, but it doesn’t look strong. An SUV gives that bulky, dominant road presence. That’s what a lot of aspirational buyers want.

An MP in India costs around ₹30 lakh a year in salary. On top of that you have 34 free air tickets, free medical, housing in Delhi, security, staff. And all of this is paid by a very small group, roughly 3% of the population that actually pays income tax. Now the government is planning to increase Lok Sabha seats by 50%, the addition being discussed goes up to around 400+ MPs. Even if we take 407 extra MPs: ₹30 lakh × 407 = ₹122 crore every year in salaries. Plus security and VIP escorts, government accommodation in Delhi, travel, staff, offices pensions and long-term benefits This will easily run into hundred crores more every year. Most people can’t even name their MP, forget seeing any impact in their area. Adding more MPs doesn’t improve governance. Doesn’t look like priority. Looks like adding more load on taxpayers for no real return.

After worker protests in Noida, domestic helps have also come out to protest. In most private sector IT jobs, people may start at ₹10–20k a month, but over time they switch companies, take on more responsibility and can reach ₹1–2 lakh within 3–5 years. In sectors like domestic work or manufacturing, that kind of growth almost doesn’t exist. Someone starting at ₹10k may not even reach ₹50k even after 10 years, no matter how experienced or skilled they become. At the same time, living in a city like Delhi NCR on ₹10k a month and managing rent, food, and basic needs is clearly not sustainable. It starts to feel like exploitation. For any system to work long term, all stakeholders need to be taken care of. Workers are a big part of that. If they don’t see growth or dignity in their work, situations like this are bound to happen.

Varanasi is trying something interesting to clean up the city. If you see someone littering, you can click a clear photo and upload it on the Smart Kashi app. If it gets verified, you earn ₹500. The municipal team checks if the photo is genuine, keeps your identity anonymous, and then fines the offender: ₹250 for things like spitting Up to ₹5,000 for dumping garbage Great idea: involve citizens, create accountability, and make the city cleaner. We need similar initiatives across cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kanpur, and other metro areas.

BYD is slowly becoming visible in cities like Ahmedabad and Mumbai, but it’s still a small player in India. Most of their cars are priced above ₹22 lakh, which already limits the market. On top of that, people are leaning more towards Indian options like Tata Harrier EV and Mahindra XEV 9e. There’s also a trust gap. Many buyers are still hesitant about Chinese brands, especially when it comes to service, parts, and long-term reliability. Broadly, EV adoption in India still has challenges, like limited charging infrastructure (especially on highways), unclear resale value etc.

Unilever is shifting 50% of its ad budget from traditional ads to social media influencers. Around 300,000 influencers are now being paid to promote its brands. There was a time when brands focused on TV and sports because that’s where attention was. Today, attention has moved. People are scrolling reels, not sitting in front of TV. TV isn’t as watchable anymore, and brands are simply following where the audience is. Creator economy in India is getting bigger, and this shift is only going to accelerate.

Foreign investors are pulling money out of Indian stocks, and it’s been happening consistently. Nithin Kamath pointed out that high valuations, rising oil prices, weak rupee, fewer strong AI opportunities, and higher taxes from Budget 2024 are making India less attractive right now. The numbers also show the same trend: >FIIs sold ₹1,711 crore on April 9 >₹2,812 crore on April 8 Around ₹52,700 crore was pulled out in March alone Domestic investors are buying some of this, but overall, foreign money is moving out. Seems like tough phase to make money in the market.

Samay Raina has announced Season 2 of India's Got Latent. Have feeling this one might be more filtered and censored, which could take away from what makes his content work. It might stay raw for the live audience, but the version released to viewers could be heavily edited. Hope it keeps the same natural, unfiltered vibe as before and doesn’t end up losing what made the show special.

If you’re hosting an award show, basic decency is to respect your guests. What happened with Rajpal Yadav was so wrong. He’s an entertainer who’s already going through a tough time. Making fun of his situation in public, in front of the whole world, especially when he’s senior to Saurabh Dwivedi, was not right. Someone who has gone through mental struggles shouldn’t be put in that spot. With due respect, this didn’t come off well from Saurabh Dwivedi. The least you can show is basic human empathy. A person’s personal struggles are not something to joke about or expect people to laugh at.

Saw a video from Ahmedabad. A chana garam vendor’s container broke at a red signal, and his snacks spilled onto the road. Immediately people around him stepped in. Helped him gather what he could. Checked what was still usable. And within a couple of minutes, they put together ₹2000 for him. We usually repeat the narrative that India is a low-trust society, that people don’t help, that everyone looks away. But moments like this tell a different story. If you walk up and ask for help here, most people will help. Try asking for directions, people go an extra step to guide you. Drop something, and someone will pick it up and get it back to you. It’s not perfect, nothing is. But the default response here isn’t indifference, it’s involvement. Here the trust isn’t formal or structured. It’s human, immediate, and shows up exactly when it’s needed.

One big modern day problem today is: You are getting too much information from Instagram reels, youtube shorts, posts, news. It never stops and it keeps changing. Because of that, your mind keep changing too. One day you’re sure this is what you want to do. The next day you see the downsides, start doubting it, and put it off. Then it happens again. You lose discipline because your mind is overloaded. You need to cut the noise. Be picky about what you watch and read. Ignore the noice. Clarity comes from sticking to one thing long enough to make it work.

There’s a big shift in how Gen Z and the current generation think about work and money. They’re curious and want to move fast and less driven by “what people will say,” and more by what they care about. For millennials the early approach was to earn, save early, support family, follow what society expects and delay spending. That still exists. But a lot of Gen Z are doing it differently. They take trips early, buy good phones, join gyms, spend on quality coffee and invest in themselves from day one. They spend on things they feel improve their life or help them grow.

P.S. Don't make a deal out of your relationships tho (lol).

Looks like there's a lot to learn about business from dating. And about dating from business ;)

You can't be SINGLE and expect to make money 💔 Get a BF first. Yes, I am kidding. But I actually find sales and dating to be strangely similar.