Abhijit Agrawal

Entrepreneur | News & Politics Buff | Urdu Poetry Lover | Foodie | Ghazal & Classial Music Fan | Banarasi

[Abhijit Agrawal @AbhijitAgrawal]

@AirIndiaX booked flight from Bombay to Varanasi. Paid Rs 1700 front row seat but bumped back to 3rd row. This is blatant theft! @TataCompanies @airindia

[Harry Eccles @Heccles94]

The former British home secretary and buddhist daughter of a Kenyan descendant of Goan Catholics, and a Mauritian Hindu descendent of Tamil, born in Harrow, studied in New York, married to a Jewish South African who lived In Israel says multiculturalism has failed.

[Aviator Anil Chopra @Chopsyturvey]

The Great Circle of Crude

Somewhere in the Urals, a barrel of oil is loaded onto a tanker. It has no idea it is about to become the most morally flexible object on earth.

It sails to Jamnagar, where India buys it at a "friendship discount". India calls this strategic autonomy. The West calls it funding the war. The barrel calls it Tuesday.

At the refinery, the crude is heated, cracked and distilled, and something miraculous happens. The Russian molecules leave, and Indian diesel emerges. Nothing about the chemistry has changed, but the paperwork has undergone a spiritual rebirth. It is the only known process that turns sanctions into margins.

Europe now steps in. In the morning, it sanctions Russian oil. By lunch, it fills its tanks with Indian diesel. At dinner, it lectures India on values. Europe does not buy Russian oil. It buys Russian oil that has been to finishing school.

America is furious that India buys Russian crude and slaps on tariffs to show it. It then quietly carries on importing Russian enriched uranium, because principles are like fuel: best refined before use.

Now comes the masterstroke. Ukraine needs diesel to resist Russia, so it buys Indian diesel with money given to it by Europe. India then pays Russia for the next barrel. So European taxpayers fund Ukraine, which pays India, which pays Russia, which funds the missiles that make Ukraine ask Europe for more money. It is the first war in history with a subscription model.

Russia, meanwhile, earns money from the fuel powering the trucks that resist its own army. It is the only belligerent to have outsourced both its revenue and its opposition's logistics to the same refinery.

Final ledger:
Russia: paid for the war, by the war
Ukraine: fighting Russia on Russian fuel, bought with European money
Europe: morally clean, operationally Indian fuelled
America: outraged, selectively
India: charging a refining margin on everyone's hypocrisy
The barrel: has travelled more than most diplomats, and achieved more

The money circles the globe like a vessel on DP (Dynamic Positioning) holding station: burning enormous energy, going nowhere, and everyone on the bridge insists it is under control.

[Vikas Vij @TheClubJunto]

MDR = Monetizing a Desperate Republic

(a) UPI Merchant Fee during inflationary times shows the IQ of India’s policymakers (b) Instead of upskilling: treating poor as captive customer base (c) Why fund rich banks enjoying tax cuts from 30% to 22%?

Great Timing, Great Priorities

a. On 10 Aug, 2026, Parliament passed the Taxation Amendment Bill, removing the legal shield which had kept UPI fee-free since 2020. Until now, about 90% of this cost was borne by private players (banks & payment apps); and 10% by govt subsidies.

b. Consolidated net profit of all listed commercial banks in FY26 was a record ₹4.11 lakh cr. What was the urgent need to gift them this new revenue stream (UPI MDR) at a time when consumers are facing the monster of rising inflation and youth unemployment?

c. In 2019, banks and large private companies were gifted a corporate tax reduction from 30% to 22%. It boosted their balance sheets and cash reserves, while they invested nothing in R&D and human capital upskilling.

How MDR Indirectly Hits Consumers

a. The Pass-Through Effect: MDR has been framed as a technical fee on merchants, not consumers. This framing ignores basic retail economics:

Merchant costs are ultimately consumer costs. Merchants don’t have a cash printer like RBI. They will mark-up the MRP to absorb the cost.

b. Regressive Impact: Transaction fees on merchants (transaction size: ₹2,000+; monthly receipts: ₹1 lakh+) acts like an indirect consumption tax on people.

A jobless youth, an under-employed worker, or a low-income individual bears the same burden as the top 1% earners.

c. Shooting Your Own Foot: After earning well-deserved global recognition for creating a cash-lite digital economy (after a devastating demonetisation), the MDR toll opens the doors to creating hurdles for financial inclusion and economic efficiency.

Irrational Managements

a. Think of a company that pays fat salaries to promoters (= incentives to big corporates); ignores capital allocation for R&D; refuses to invest in workforce training & education; and yet expects employees to generate revenues.

b. When growth stalls, instead of fixing the fundamentals, management decides to raise prices (= taxes & tolls) on its captive customer base. The customer has nowhere else to go because the company (govt) is a monopoly.

c. Great nations, like great companies, think long-term. They make large capital expenditures in public education, technical training, and R&D to monetize their strongest asset: human capital.

They give policy protection and tax cuts to industry against legally binding commitments of R&D, innovation, and workforce upskilling. They do not gift an unconditional playing field to multiply personal billionaire wealth over a short time-span.

ENDQUOTE

Short-term gains carry long-term invoices.

@arabicatrader

[RÄJ @catdaddyissues]

this is really good .@OpenAI

[Harsh Goenka @hvgoenka]

An angry lady’s image shouting at a political leader and his party for having stopped the road has gone viral.
That one woman has said what millions of us feel. Stop blocking roads for your political agendas. Stop blocking roads, temples, for VIPs.
People have work, emergencies, lives. This entitlement has gone too far.

[Mohandas Pai @TVMohandasPai]

Piyush Goel: I am a semiconductor startup founder. Here is my rant in response to your rant during startup Mahakumbh! : r/StartUpIndia. ⁦@PiyushGoyal⁩ https://t.co/FRGDrieFqP

[Abhijit Agrawal @AbhijitAgrawal]

Reposting in support!

[Kunal Kamra @kunalkamra88]

Maharashtra ❤️❤️❤️

[Alok Jain ⚡ @WeekendInvestng]

Need more #Dabang citizens like this

[Abhijit Agrawal @AbhijitAgrawal]

@gauravkapoorvns @TRAI @MumbaiPolice @priyankac19 It's a scam

[Abhijit Agrawal @AbhijitAgrawal]

@sidd1307 I look forward to hearing about the details of the new fund. My best wishes!

[Dr Aniruddha Malpani, MD @malpani]

Judges claim that the reason for the unconscionable judicial backlog is the shortage of judges. It's easy to fix this by appointing more judges!The reason they don't is they like their exclusivity, and don't want to dilute their status of being part of a highly privileged club.

[Abhijit Agrawal @AbhijitAgrawal]

@malpani I call it being selectively proactive

[SANJAY HEGDE @sanjayuvacha]

Ahmad Faraz may not have written his verses with these two in mind .

[Abhijit Agrawal @AbhijitAgrawal]

Great initiative by #KalaprakashVaranasi

[Gaurav Kapoor @gauravkapoorvns]

Subscribe to the Kala Prakash @YouTubeIndia channel @calamur
@kansenclub
https://t.co/4yQ87zSaka

[Abhijit Agrawal @AbhijitAgrawal]

And that would be a brilliant buying opportunity!

[Deepak Singh @smarket]

I agree

[Abhijit Agrawal @AbhijitAgrawal]

@KotakBankLtd my email id linked with someone else's bank account. Getting unnecessary emails for months. Please help.

[Abhijit Agrawal @AbhijitAgrawal]

@SaketGokhale Pls check your numbers!

[Abhijit Agrawal @AbhijitAgrawal]

@sidd1307 Wondering if today got added to this list?

[Abhijit Agrawal @AbhijitAgrawal]

@smarket What about the dividends that have been given since then? Rs. 51.50...