Avik Ashar

Hopelessly addicted fantasy/sci buff, startup investor, equally fond of fine dining and weights

[Vijay Kedia @VijayKedia1]

Respected @nsitharaman ji and @FinMinIndia ,

Suggestion 1 of 3 for strengthening India's capital markets:
Long-term capital gains tax on listed equities should be abolished.

A long-term shareholder is not a speculator but a provider of patient risk capital. By investing in and holding businesses, investors help companies expand, create jobs, innovate and contribute to India's economic growth.

India requires enormous amounts of long-term capital to build world class enterprises, infrastructure and global champions. Tax policy should encourage households to move savings from passive assets, including imported stores of value such as gold, into productive businesses that create jobs, generate tax revenues and build national wealth.

The appreciation in a company's value is not created in isolation. During its growth journey, the government already collects corporate tax, GST, income tax from employees, customs duties, stamp duties and numerous other levies. Long-term capital gains are often the final outcome of economic activity that has already generated substantial tax revenues.

Most importantly, tax policy should clearly distinguish between investment and speculation. A long term shareholder is a partner in wealth creation, not merely a participant in market transactions. Tax policy should reward long-term ownership of productive businesses and distinguish it from short-term speculation.

India needs more patient capital, more entrepreneurship and more long term investing. Abolishing long-term capital gains tax on listed equities would be a powerful step in that direction.

Respectfully submitted.

[Avik Ashar @AvikAshar]

An awesome conversation about the history of Venture, and my investing and building journey, with Snighda Sengupta

https://t.co/P9O7qJu0N3

[Avik Ashar @AvikAshar]

@bsheth17 @mahawarchirag @MunCorpGurugram @NayabSainiBJP @cmohry Why does this seem to be every fundamentalist's reply to a question on how we must aspire to be better?

[The Kaipullai @thekaipullai]

If you are wondering why India is not able to compete with China / Vietnam in Manufacturing, here is a gist.

If you are a brave Indian who decides to start an MSME or a Manufacturing company or a factory

1. A Municipal clerk / officer can reject your land registration file because of a missing annexure on the 16th page of the 17th form
2. A clerk from the GST office could misplace your online GST Certificate application.
3. Your GST Application could be marked for physical verification despite digital Aadhar verification, because your Insta photo and Aadhar card photo, doesn’t match
4. A GST officer can reject your application and force you to start over, because you committed the cardinal offence of not being in office at 7:30 PM when the Good God McLord GST Officer visited without any warning.
5. The Tehsildar can reject your application for using your own land for your own company, citing some obscure provision which was written in annexure 578 of the Factories Act 1948
6. Their superior district officer can send you a stop work notice, under some random act which was passed in 1869
7. The Salt Commissioner's office (There actually is such a department) can send you a notice for misuse of salt pan land, despite your land being 600 kms from the nearest sea.
8. The Environment ministry can send you a notice for cutting a tree that wasn’t there.
9. The Agricultural department can send you a notice for illegal conversion of Farmland to industrial use, despite the land being barren since 1857.
10. Customs can withhold your manufacturing machinery citing wrongful declaration and impose a 600% penalty for its release.
11. Power department can refuse you a connection citing a missing signature on Pg 301 of your commercial power application form.
12. The Water Department can stall your water connection because they have run out of smart meters - This is Digital India you see.
13. State Pollution control board can impose a penalty for toxic effluence, despite your factory being idle and having no effluents
14. A no name, random, Local Political Party can stop work at your factory because they want 120% reservation for local people
15. A different no name, random Local political party can destroy your factory because you didn't give prominence to local language on the name board. We cannot tolerate Language imposition, you see.
16. The Factory opening can be indefinitely delayed, because the local councilor / MLA / MP is too busy for inauguration
17. The Import Export department can block your export license and classify you as an international smuggler because you put a wrong comma in Page 354, Annexure 45, para 6. This, while the real international smugglers, happily smuggle.
18. RBI can Freeze your bank account, for some FERA / TERA / MERA violation of $1.08
19. You can receive a random Penalty, and a stop-work notice from a department, that you didn’t know existed
20. The Legal Metrology Department can block your production, because your 1 Kg is not equal to their 1KG
21. The GST department can send you a Notice for wrongful GST interpretation, an interpretation that you ironically fixed with consultation from the same GST Department.
22. They can impose additional GST retrospectively and just for kicks, put a 1200% penalty on top of it. And freeze your bank account if you don’t pay in 7 days.
23. A random disgruntled local guy, probably paid off by someone, can shut you down by filing a petition in district court for "health hazards”
24. CBDT can freeze your bank account due to non-payment of taxes, despite the factory not earning a single rupee of revenue.
25. The local municipality can suddenly decide to re-dig and re-concretize the already dug up concrete road, which is in front of your factory.

That’s why most aspiring entrepreneurs quit and go back home wondering if they should have simply stuck to a normal salaried job.

And few of the great souls who persevere, they spend most of their time and energy fighting the Indian govt machinery on compliance.

Not China / Vietnam on cost and quality.

[Akshat Shrivastava @Akshat_World]

An average city in China has better infra than that of any major metro in India.

In the US, debate is going on: how to get more meritorious people there? who can build more firms. And, give more jobs.

Singapore has transformed its economy to the point: where they are NOW rejecting multi-millionaires from settling there. They got to this point in the last 50 years.

Thailand and Vietnam are way ahead on their tourism, compared to India. Give it 15 more years, India will be no where near.

There are 0 leaders in India who are talking about:

- Sensible taxation.
- Rolling back reservations/freebies.
- How to increase our exports.

How to build wealth in an ever competitive world.

Our game-plan seems to be: tax people to death. Use their money to support freeloaders. And, then expect them to stay and "build" the nation.

[Avik Ashar @AvikAshar]

@JadedByPolitics @YossarianLocker @elonmusk So instead you voted in someone who hires illegal immigrants across his businesses?

[Vikas Dhayal @VikasDhayal18]

What happens when an IPS trainee from the Tripura cadre smashes a whiskey glass on your head in Delhi, for sadistic pleasure?

Here’s the sequence of events:
1.6th December, 10:50 PM: The attack takes place at a wedding venue in Kapashera, Delhi.
2.10:57 PM: A PCR call is made as I’m rushed to the hospital.

#punish_rahulbalharaips

[Avik Ashar @AvikAshar]

@deepigoyal feature suggestion.

Look through loyalty of customers (I order lunch daily through Zomato) and call/ automated call in case of a payment failure.

OR even place the order and follow up with me for payment (you have enough of my order history)

Hangry to Happy

[Avik Ashar @AvikAshar]

@deepigoyal not getting deliveries leads to serious HANGER.

My order never got placed because of a UPI payment failure.

However I didn't know this because my UPI provider confirmed the money had been sent AND I got a deduction notification from my bank.

Continued

[Avik Ashar @AvikAshar]

@airindia @RamMNK Air India is effectively unable to take off at the time they claim on a regular basis.

In an 8:30pm departure flight about to take off at 9:58pm

Please do ensure everyone responsible is penalized, severely

[Chia Jeng Yang @chiajy2000]

Tired of debugging LLMs? We’ve heard from devs & PMs building chat & info retrieval systems facing issues w/ hallucinations, using complex queries & multi-hop retrieval. WhyHow is a PM/dev-focused automated LLM debugging platform to increase reliability and go to production quicker.

If you’re keen on reducing hallucinations by 80%, and fixing errors with natural language in seconds, sign up for the waitlist or DM me. Alpha with a number of folks @tomsmoker

https://t.co/qJWlJClAr4

[arndxt @arndxt_xo]

Gambling in crypto will be reshaped forever.

Building in stealth for over 2 years, @funarcade_io sets to disrupt this space with:

🚀 More than 50 years of experience in gambling
🚀 Original game design and mechanics

Insider thoughts after speaking to them at Token 2049 👇

The crypto gambling space is ripe for disruption, but most projects are stuck in the web2 mindset. Gamble has always been a keen interest of mine (if you have read my newsletter)

And one that particularly intrigued me at a Token 2049 event was @funarcade_io, which aims to bring a whole new experience to web3 gambling with original game designs and a committed team.

Make no mistake - this is not some ragtag team chasing hype trends. Led by veterans with over 50 years of combined expertise, they impressed me with its meticulous approach to merging the experience of web2 into web3.

Clearly, they understand the power of thoughtfully designed original games and products to capture the imagination of users.

But they aren't just paying lip service to innovation - team is putting their money where their mouth driven with community-centric mechanisms i.e. channeling 90% of profits back to users.

I believe Funarcade is on the cusp of reshaping the entire gambling landscape with their commitment to radical transparency and provably fair outcomes for players.

https://t.co/jL34VEBNVQ

[Avik Ashar @AvikAshar]

https://t.co/A1cI87GDqk

[Avik Ashar @AvikAshar]

Back in #Mumbai after a while, disappointed to see foreigners zooming ahead while citizens languish in long, barely staffed lines.

Can never understand why half the counters are manned and we haven't moved to automated gates.

#airportsauthorityindia @AAI_Official @BOMairport

[Avik Ashar @AvikAshar]

Check out my latest article: PTSD (Post Traumatic Startup Disorder) https://t.co/I2Hw2BSzLS via @LinkedIn

[Avik Ashar @AvikAshar]

@Singtel @singtelinnov8 never thought I would have to resort to a social media post to get anything out of you but clearly you've given up on any basic forms of customer service. What the????

[Avik Ashar @AvikAshar]

2022 Photomicrography Competition | Nikon’s Small World: https://t.co/9fXOgfapbC

[Anisha S @motherofbillis]

In Sept 2021, Axis Bank introduced #ComeAsYouAre scheme - a #DilSeOpen charter of policies for LGBTQ+ customers & employees, where same sex partners could open a joint savings bank account. My partner and I went to the 7 B'lows Branch to do this. Here's what happened - (thread)

[Avik Ashar @AvikAshar]

I just published Marketplace Dynamics https://t.co/mikwUyl33I

[Avik Ashar @AvikAshar]

I just published Employee Stock Options — A Short Guide https://t.co/7cPDVPEVOZ