As a PNB customer I am indebted to your staff. They have gone beyond duty for years. The customer–banker bond is real.
Your mass message blaming them for disruption is pure betrayal. There is no institution without the men and women who make it.
Settle with your people. Do not use customers against them.
#PNB #BankStrike #FiveDayWorkWeek
The internet was busy debating jantar Mantar & a quiet facility in India witnessed something straight out of science fiction. An engine fired up. But it did not hum & it did not roar like a normal jet.
It detonated. Continuous supersonic shockwaves raced around a circular chamber 1000s of times/sec, harnessing controlled explosions to generate thrust.
The startup D-Propulse just gave the world a sneak peek of their air-breathing Rotating Detonation Engine (RDE) with an integrated aerospike nozzle.
Every jet engine on a commercial airliner, every fighter jet & every rocket we have ever seen operates on deflagration. We mix fuel with air/oxygen, ignite it & it burns relatively slowly at subsonic speeds. It is effective, but humanity has pushed this tech to its absolute physical limits.
RDEs throw that century-old playbook into the fire. Instead of burning fuel smoothly, an RDE explodes it intentionally. A continuous detonation wave sweeps around an annular (ring-shaped) channel at supersonic speeds, reaching over 2000 m/s. This is called Pressure-Gain Combustion.
It extracts 15-25% more thermal efficiency out of the exact same amount of fuel. In the world of high-speed flight, a 25% jump in efficiency is a completely different league.
Why this Matters for India?
For decades, the narrative surrounding Indian engineering was tied to catching up on legacy systems, spending billions trying to replicate 1970s turbofan engine metallurgy/importing critical defense tech.
D-Propulse is proving that India does not need to play catch-up anymore.
By leapfrogging straight to Pressure-Gain Combustion, an Indian deep-tech startup, guided by veteran scientists & built by young engineers is standing on the frontlines alongside research labs in the US, Japan & China.
Imagine hypersonic cruise missiles, ultra-long-range combat drones & spaceplanes that do not need heavy, complex moving turbopumps to break speed records. That is the realm this technology unlocks.
The future does not belong to those who build better versions of old machines. It belongs to those who rewrite the physics of how machines work.
I spent the first 10 yrs of my life wrapped in the quiet, predictable warmth of my village. Up until class 5, my world was small, safe & deeply comforting. Every single night, w/o fail, I slept right next to my mother. Her presence was my anchor, the ultimate shield against any fear/worry.
But then came the day that changed the trajectory of my entire life.
My father, looking at the limitations of our local village school, made a hard, non-negotiable decision. He decided I was going to be sent away to Patna for a real education.
The day my bags were packed is burned into my memory. As I looked at the steel trunk & the bedrolls, a wave of sheer terror hit me. I realized that for the 1st time in my life, I was going to sleep alone, on a strange bed in a far off hostel, w/o my mother next to me. I broke down. I cried like my world was ending, begging & pleading to stay :((
It would have been so easy for us to unpack those bags & pretend the village was enough. But my father chose that moment to show a heart of steel.
He looked at my tears, stood firm against the heavy emotion in the room & cut through the drama with absolute authority:
"Nautanki band karo. Train hai aadhe ghante mein."
With those words, he pushed me out of the comfort zone of my childhood & onto that train.
At the time, it felt incredibly harsh. But today, looking back, I realize how much I owe to his resolve. If my father had not summoned the strength to be the "bad guy" that afternoon, if he had let my tears win, I would have stayed in the village.
I was a decent student, so I probably would have managed to survive & do something in life. But I would have never stepped into the wider world, never built the resilience I have today.
Sometimes, the greatest act of parental love is not holding you close, it is having the strength to push you onto the train that carries you toward your future.
Disappointed that Odisha govt employees get to celebrate #Nuakhai with a holiday while bank employees are left out! Let’s stand together for equal recognition of our traditions. Everyone deserves a chance to celebrate our cultural heritage. #NuakhaiForAll#EqualityForBankEmployee
Disappointed that Odisha govt employees get to celebrate #Nuakhai with a holiday while bank employees are left out! Let’s stand together for equal recognition of our traditions. Everyone deserves a chance to celebrate our cultural heritage. #NuakhaiForAll#EqualityForBankEmployee