Ankit

Software Engineer | Investor | Startup Enthusiast
LinkedIn Profile:

[Ankit @CalmEngineer_]

No trust. No views. No TRPs. #BoycottMainstreamMedia.

[Ankit @CalmEngineer_]

I tried Google Antigravity today.

I have been using Copilot for over a year. It’s solid.

It’s not just about code suggestions.
It has written the complete backend and frontend.
Starts the application.
Runs it.
Tests APIs.
Checks UI flows through browser integration.

But Antigravity surprised me.

I built a full app prototype, production-grade.
Frontend and backend separately.
In about 2 hours.

This is the kind of work that usually takes 2 to 3 weeks for a developer, especially at the MVP stage.

For non-coders, this is a game-changer.
You can test an idea in the market without hiring a team.
Without spending a single rupee on app development, just to see if users care.

Entrepreneurs can now validate faster than ever.
Ideas no longer die because of cost or time.

Of course, limits are real.
It cannot handle complex systems, deep architecture, or large-scale logic.
AI is still far behind in building serious, production-grade software.

But for MVPs and early experiments, this is powerful.

And it’s free, for now.

The barrier to starting has quietly collapsed.

[Ankit @CalmEngineer_]

Social media made the India–US trade deal look instant and absolute.
Reality is more nuanced.

What’s clear:
• US tariffs on Indian goods drop to 18% from an effective 50%
• This puts India at a pricing advantage versus peers like China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Brazil
• Markets reacted positively: equities up, rupee stronger

What’s not fully clear yet:
• There is no official Indian confirmation of stopping Russian oil imports.
• That claim appears in US statements, not in Indian government communication.
• Trade deals don’t get signed overnight. They move in phases, documents, and timelines

Where India stands strategically:
• India gains competitiveness in exports.
• Keeps leverage by not committing publicly beyond tariffs.

The takeaway:

This is directionally positive. Policy clarity will decide durability.
Markets are cheering intent.

Good start. Not the final chapter.

[Ankit @CalmEngineer_]

@BRICSinfo Lower US tariffs and clarity on trade direction help sentiment.

Closer India–US trade ties reduce uncertainty for exporters and investor.

Overall, It's good news for both the countries.

[Ankit @CalmEngineer_]

India-USA trade talk finalised.

[Ankit @CalmEngineer_]

Big news for India–US trade relations

25% russian oil penalty removed.

Total tarrif will be 18% affective from now.

In return, India will move forward to reduce tax to ZERO.

[Ankit @CalmEngineer_]

Xi Jinping wants the Chinese yuan (RMB) to become a global reserve currency.

Sounds big.
But the data tells a very different story.

Today’s reality, not opinion:

Global FX reserve share (IMF data):
USD ~58%
EUR ~20%
JPY ~5%
GBP ~4.5%
RMB ~2.3%

Despite China being the world’s second-largest economy, the RMB has been stuck below 3% for years. That stagnation is the signal.

Why this matters.

A reserve currency is not about size or ambition.
It is about trust under stress.

China has hard structural limits:

• Capital controls. Money cannot freely exit in a crisis.
• Managed currency. The central bank actively controls the band.
• Weak legal recourse. Foreign holders have limited protection against state action.
• Low bond market trust. Foreigners hold less than 4% of Chinese government bonds, compared to ~30% in the US.
• Opaque data. FX intervention, bank balance sheets, and local government debt lack transparency.

Reserve holders care about one thing above all else.
Can I get out safely when things go wrong?

On that test, the RMB fails.

Trade settlement growth does not change this.
Using RMB to settle sanctioned or bilateral trade is not the same as holding it as crisis reserves.

History is clear.
Large economies without convertibility and rule-based systems do not create reserve currencies. The Soviet Union tried. It failed.

So what is this really?

A geopolitical aspiration, not an economic reality.

Until China offers capital freedom, legal predictability, and transparency, the RMB has a structural ceiling.

Scale without trust does not build a reserve currency.
Trust must come first.

[Ankit @CalmEngineer_]

A reserve currency is not declared. It is earned.

• Free capital movement
• Transparent data and institutions
• Rule of law and investor protection
• Deep, trusted bond markets
• Predictability during crises

Right now, China does not offer these.
So this remains an ambition, not a reality.

[Ankit @CalmEngineer_]

Must-have skills in today’s world:

Strong communication
Clear thinking shows up in clear writing and speaking.
Careers stall when ideas stay stuck in your head.

Personal finance, at least the basics
How money grows.
How risk works.
How bad decisions compound faster than good ones.

AI
Not just using tools.
Understanding what AI can do, what it can’t, and where humans still matter.

Basic analytical skills
Breaking problems into parts.
Thinking in cause and effect instead of reacting emotionally.

And the two most underrated skills:

Learning how to learn
Skills expire.
The ability to relearn doesn’t.

Judgment
Knowing what to ignore and what deserves attention.
No course teaches this. Life does.

Trends change.
Foundations don’t.

Any add-on?

[Ankit @CalmEngineer_]

@BRICSinfo China doesn’t offer visa-free access out of goodwill.
It’s always strategic.

Closer engagement with China comes with economic incentives and long-term dependencies.

[Ankit @CalmEngineer_]

People hear dollar devaluation and get confused.

“How can the dollar fall?
It is the reserve currency.”

Here’s the simple way to understand it.

When INR falls, it’s obvious.
One dollar buys more rupees.

But when the dollar devalues, it doesn’t fall against one country.
It falls against a basket of major currencies.
This is measured by the DXY (Dollar Index).

DXY includes:
• Euro
• Japanese Yen
• British Pound
• Canadian Dollar
• Swedish Krona
• Swiss Franc

So when DXY falls, the dollar is losing global purchasing power.

The dollar weakens when:
• Too much money is printed
• Debt grows faster than real output
• Interest rates fall relative to others
• Global trust shifts toward real assets like gold, oil, and commodities

In that case, the dollar still exists,
but it buys less of the global basket.

Now comes the part most people miss.
The real impact is bigger than it looks.

Here, two things are happening at once:
• The dollar itself is weakening and buying fewer things globally
• The rupee is depreciating against this weaker dollar

Which means:
The rupee’s loss of purchasing power is much larger than we usually think.

That’s why imports feel expensive,
why global assets look costly.

Reserve currency status gives power.
It doesn’t prevent erosion.

And when both the base currency and your currency fall,
the damage compounds quietly.

[Ankit @CalmEngineer_]

@BRICSinfo So the “protector of democracy” quietly turns into the looter.

[Ankit @CalmEngineer_]

@MeghUpdates When the rulebook changes, the scorecard follows.

[Ankit @CalmEngineer_]

Copper is no longer just a metal.
It’s becoming a strategic asset.

What’s changed?

Demand has broken away from old industrial cycles.
AI data centres, EVs, power grids, and renewables now drive consumption — even when the economy slows.

And the numbers explain why this is different.

By 2026, the copper market is expected to run a deficit of ~590,000 tonnes.
By 2029, that gap could widen to ~1.1 million tonnes.

This isn’t a short-term imbalance.
It’s the early stage of a structural supercycle.

Why supply can’t keep up:

New copper mines take 15–25 years to come online.
Ore grades are declining.
ESG hurdles, water shortages, strikes, and geopolitics keep removing supply.

Most importantly, mined copper supply is expected to peak around 2030
and then slowly decline as old mines deplete.

Meanwhile, demand keeps compounding.

Total refined copper demand is projected to grow at a ~2.2% CAGR through 2035,
reaching ~34.5 million tonnes.

If energy transition demand keeps growing near 10% annually,
the supply gap by 2035 could become severe.

AI and electrification are copper-hungry by design:
• AI data centres lock in massive copper for power and cooling
• EVs use nearly 3× more copper than traditional cars
• Power grids require multi-decade upgrades

This is why prices didn’t just rise —
they reset to a higher range.

Add geopolitics to the mix:
• US stockpiling ahead of tariffs
• China dominating refining capacity
• Regional shortages despite global inventories

Copper has moved from a “cyclical commodity”
to an infrastructure, energy, and national security metal.

The big idea to understand:
This isn’t a temporary spike driven by speculation.

It’s a structural squeeze where demand is accelerating
and supply is slow, fragile, and politically constrained.

The copper market is telling us something bigger:
The future economy runs on electrons, data, and electricity.

And copper sits at the centre of all three.

[Ankit @CalmEngineer_]

The internet keeps telling engineers to “master” every new tool.

That’s noise.

Most good engineers never fully master every new Technology.
Yet they ship reliable systems at top companies.

Why?

Because software careers aren’t built on tools.
They’re built on fundamentals.

Strong basics travel well:
• Clear thinking
• Clean, readable code
• Debugging calmly under pressure
• Understanding how code behaves in production
• Knowing trade-offs, not just syntax
• Basic System design
• Strong fundamentals in any one language.

Tools change every few years.
Fundamentals compound for decades.

Start from the problems you enjoy solving.
Then pick tools that help you solve them.

If your foundations are solid,
new stacks become learnable.
Without fundamentals, even shiny tools won’t save you.

[Ankit @CalmEngineer_]

Good code doesn’t automatically make a good business.

Startups don’t win because they start with perfect systems.
They win because the market accepts what they’re building.

Almost every successful startup began with messy code.
Shortcuts.
Hard-coded logic.
Things that “shouldn’t scale.”

That’s normal.

You clean the code after users show up.
You refactor after demand is proven.
You optimize when scale forces you to.

Writing perfect code too early feels productive,
but it often delays learning what the market actually wants.

Code is the tool.
Market acceptance is the proof.

First find demand.
Then earn the right to write better code.

[Ankit @CalmEngineer_]

@BRICSinfo Feels like I've heard something positive for India after a long time.

[Ankit @CalmEngineer_]

@elonmusk This is classic marketing.

Introduce a new product when the existing alternative is under controversy question trust, create doubt, then position yourself as the solution without proof.

It’s sentiment-driven, not evidence-driven.