Girish L

[Amar Govindarajan @amargov]

This is the story of how Yogi Adityanath undid the liquor mafia in UP and shored up state finances as a result.

- for 10+ yrs one man controlled the sale of all country liquor in the state.
-Ponty Chadha's cartel pocketed thousands of crores while the government got very little.

The cartel's grip:
-licences rolled over for 9 years, no open auction
-One company in the "Meerut special zone" held nearly a fifth of all shops in the state

The break, 2018 under Yogi Adityanath:
-Meerut zone dissolved, wholesale thrown open
-Two-shop cap per licence-holder
-Licensing moved to a digital e-lottery
-all 27,308 shops rebid in 2025
-zero human interaction
-no bureaucrat or neta to approach

The finances built on it:
-excise revenue tripled: Rs 17,320 crore (2017-18) → Rs 57,722 crore (2025-26)
-the highest of any Indian state
-excise now supplies over 20% of UP's own tax revenue

story by @nishthaanushree

https://t.co/sd2GzHdRU4

[The Long Memory @TheLongMemory]

The same dynasty that built the architectural wonders of Belur and Halebidu couldn't save its last king from a tragic fate.

Read this essay by our chief Editor, Pushkar Chaudhary on the fall of Hoysalas and how they stilll survives in our long memory.

[Jai Menon (Alt) @mediacrities]

Let me summarise, and not very politely:

1. India is too close to Israel, because everybody loves the Palestinians (especially the Europeans) and Iran is dictating terms.

2. Therefore, we must show "sufficiently ambitious strategic imagination" (the current level is apparently not enough) and, this means...

3. Moving away from an "adaptive, alignment driven foreign policy - the kind that follows and adapts to alignments forged by others" towards a, wait for it: "architectonic foreign policy, which seeks to shape its own strategic environment". And that, in turn, means

4. "New Delhi's most valuable strategic asset in the coming multipolar decade is its authentic voice as a champion of the Global South..."

5. But here's the clincher: "...every visible alignment with Israel in a conflict in which the Global South overwhelmingly sympathises with the Palestinians risks putting that precious capital in jeopardy".

Bottom line: Despite the rather gratingly obvious attempts to lend balance, this gent's argument is basically that India's relationship with Israel is out of sync with the reality of the Middle East (especially Iran), Europe and I hasten to add "the Global South" (in Title Caps, no less).

The world has changed since the time when this sort of bureaucratese had any impact. Now, "the Global South" is a nonsensical term which our diplomats seem to use on occasion to articulate our fellowship with the poorer parts of the world, but that is really rather unfortunate.

Perhaps better, as my son told my daughter yesterday, to: "Stop overthinking, actionmaxx"! In other words, do good - as we have been doing - but no need to hang that on a geography. It is self-limiting. It's just the 21st century term for the erstwhile "Third World".

The most noticeable thing about the "Global South" is that no one really wants to be in it. The poorer countries of the world are as fickle as richer ones.

The Palestinians, burdened as they are by their execrable leadership, have very little traction among the governments of the Middle East. Observe how much non-aid help they have received over the past nearly three years. There are solid reasons for that.

One can make a strong case that the main sympathisers of the Palestinian cause today among non-Palestinians are the 20-45 age group in Europe and North America with leftist quasi-Marxist inclinations. But the mood in the West is changing hard, and changing fast.

I recommend that this gentleman watch "Citizen Vigilante" - a new movie banned in Germany, and almost certain to be banned across the EU - although it was fully posted by Elon Musk on his own X account (now removed, though it is said to be still fully available to view on X). Disclaimer: I haven't watched it, but the trailer gives you a pretty good outline of what to expect. Reviews strongly send ominous signals of the times to come.

It is safe to predict that the Palestinian cause will not be a front page issue in Europe for long.

The Global South's overwhelming sympathy for the Palestinians means exactly zero. There is nothing they are going to do about it, and mostly there is nothing they want to do about it - other than offer words of encouragement, sympathy and so on.

Meanwhile, India is perhaps among a very short list of countries that can engage all, including demonstrably Iran, while ensuring that its overall economic trajectory retains momentum. Considering how the rest of the world is faring, that's not something to sneeze at.

The government is being ruthlessly pragmatic in action, sufficiently salubrious in words and - at least far as I can tell - absolute kings of calibration in the face of geopolitical exigency. Pro-active when required and appropriately reactive when necessary.

There is a certain nostalgia among former bureaucrats and their cohort for the comfort of joint commiseration that used to be the balm for impoverishment, ineptitude, incompetence and plain old powerlessness. It is comforting when you didn't really have to take any major action, and appear to be prosecuting your interest, warm in the cocoon of an impotent non-alignment.

But times have changed, the public has changed, the balance sheet is much more robust, and there's a little more muscle on the bone. We are able to express our interests now, more honestly.

[मङ्गलम् @veejaysai]

One for this lovely evening!

From the ancient Avudaiyarkoil in Pudukottai!

Absolutely blissful!

☺️🙏🏼☺️🙏🏼☺️

[Vikas Vij @TheClubJunto]

IT’s Wake-Up Call

(1) Vishal Sikka says IT companies should go private. Public shareholders’ quarterly mindset will bring doom. (2) Reddit super thread of Bengaluru IT developers shows what’s coming.

Dr. Sikka’s Radical Recipe 2.0

a. Ten years ago, when no one had heard of AI, Vishal Sikka made a revolutionary move for Infosys to invest in OpenAI. Yesterday, Dr. Sikka made an equally revolutionary suggestion – but this time Murthy cannot fire him for it.

b. Dr. Sikka to CNBC India: “The tsunami has hit us. It’s not Vishal Sikka saying it. The water is already in our living room. It will wipe out the older ways of doing things. To me, the big question is how quickly do you pivot – that is, IF you see the urgency.”

c. Self-Disrupt – Go Private: Dr. Sikka says IT companies should go private. “Being private would afford you the independence to make the radical changes that are necessary.”

d. Indian IT companies are hamstrung by quarterly earning calls, retail shareholder optics, and promoter dividend dependence. (Example: 72% of TCS dividend goes to Tata Sons for funding other group companies). So, they cannot make the existential reinvention required to survive.

e. Dr. Sikka gave the example of Netflix. When Netflix decided to abandon its highly profitable DVD rental business entirely and pivot to a 100% streaming platform, it was a near-death choice.

Revenue dipped, stock crashed, shareholders complained, but Netflix extended its life cycle by decades with the bold self-disruption. Its competitor Blockbuster did not make that choice, and died.

Accenture’s Warning Bells

a. Accenture has cut its full-year revenue growth guidance. The CFO said: “More of the guidance range is in play.” Translation: things could get worse.

b. Year-to-date, Accenture already has 104 client orders of $100+ million each. But the gap between AI bookings and AI revenue realization is becoming a growing concern at every analyst call.

c. Morgan Stanley CIO Survey 2026 shows that overall IT budgets of companies (clients) will grow at 3.7%, but IT services budgets will grow at 2%. Note the difference of 1.7%. It means AI is already eating away 40% of IT services growth.

In other words, total tech spending of clients is not shrinking. But the portion going to traditional IT service providers is being cannibalized by in-house AI.

Signals from Ground Zero

Analysts have to depend on lagging indicators (evaluating past quarter’s results.) But this week, a Reddit super thread of IT developers provides some leading indicators.

a. Signal # 1: The original poster (OP) wrote his B2B product company in Bengaluru eliminated 45 of 50 tech roles overnight (90% workforce reduction). Three IT architects remain (OP is one of them) who will handle the job of 45.

b. Signal # 2: OP says: “100% (not 60% or 80%) of React + Chakra UI frontend code over the last 4 months was written by Claude.

More alarming: a full Okta SSO overhaul was done in 4 days, which would earlier take 2 months. “Claude caught, developed, backtracked, tested many things I did not even know were security holes.”

INVESTOR IMPLICATION: TCS Chairman said AI cannot be trusted for complex work like security vulnerabilities. But in reality, that “complexity ceiling” is rising with every passing day.

OP says the company’s rationale is: “If this restructuring does not pay off in 6 months, we can again hire developers who are available a dime a dozen in Bangalore with oversupply.”

c. Signal # 3: Most Important Signal: A commenter said: “Just because a company can build 3x more products or ship features at 3x faster speed does not mean there are 3x more customers waiting to buy them. Productivity can increase much faster than demand.”

Another commenter said: “Earlier the constraint was on production. Now the constraint is on consumption. Even if we could produce what we want, is there a market to consume it?”

INVESTOR IMPLICATION: “AI will expand demand for IT services (expand total addressable market or TAM)” – this was the original bull thesis for IT stocks.

The reality is the opposite of it. Clients are using AI to cut their costs of production (IT vendor contracts), and not increase sales as there is no demand elasticity.

ENDPIECE: What is Your Exit Thesis?

Question for retail IT investors: What is your exit strategy? Are you hoping that FIIs will start buying “too cheap” Indian IT at some point?

Hope is not a strategy.

As a commenter wrote on the Reddit thread:

“I expect there would mass unemployment by late 2027 or early 2028. Hopefully, that would lead to Universal Basic Income or UBI (government’s monthly payments to unemployed citizens for survival) to be put into effect.”

UBI is already the “hopium trade” in Bengaluru.

@arabicatrader

[NR @NR_Tatvamasi]

This is why I compared to AP 98 and TElengana 23 . Both were sacrificed for central nation needed. ZTN was set to be sacrificed for 29 need. So KA walked away.

[Mona Patel 🇮🇳🐅🌳 @MonaPatelT]

This heatwave showed that what matters isn't just installed capacity but who actually delivers power when demand peaks, and Adani Power's numbers stood out.

➡️ 12 plants across the country are running at full capacity
➡️ Operating at 77% PLF, far exceeding the national average (65%)
➡️ Despite accounting for just 3% of the country's capacity, it supplied 6.4% (17 GW) of electricity all by itself during peak demand.
➡️ Thanks to AI tools and pre-summer maintenance, the plants were available 96% of the time.

Adani Power delivered more than double its share of installed capacity during India's recent power demand surge, highlighting the importance of operational performance.

That's the difference between owning assets and delivering power.

[Diva Jain @DivaJain2]

India is the only energy importing country in the world that has both protected consumers from an price shock and also ensured uninterrupted supplies.
Fin Min + Oil Min + MEA have done a phenomenal job so far.
Indian Haute Bourgeoisie should stop whining about INR and NIFTY.

[Girish L @GirishLN]

@smashru197 DP (after 2014) entered LS only in 2024. Till then he was voice of BH(?) in RS! Get your point but DP is a poor example!

[Chenthil @jcrajan00]

Something nobody's connecting: India's fertilizer production hit 62.37 lakh tonnes in just Mar-Apr 2026 while West Asia is in full crisis mode. Imports were only 15.39 lakh tonnes.

Five years ago we'd have been panicking. This time the plants kept running.

Quiet wins don't trend. But domestic urea capacity going from deficit to near self-sufficiency might be the most underrated industrial story of the decade.

[Vikrant Joshi @joshivikrant75]

“No More Business as Usual: The Silent Revolution Sweeping Mumbai’s BMC”

MCGM has undergone significant dynamic changes in the past three months. With Devendra Fadnavis gaining control over the BMC after the BJP’s Mayor assumed office, the cleaning process and real work have truly begun.

The appointment of a strict, non-corrupt, and dynamic officer, Ashwini Bhide, as the new Municipal Commissioner sent a strong message. The next logical step for Fadnavis was securing complete control over the Corporation by installing a BJP Mayor — a goal achieved three months ago. The final piece in Fadnavis’s vision of creating a clean, result-oriented corporation was placing Ameet Satam as the city’s BJP President nearly ten months ago.

Mumbai needed an aggressive, no-nonsense leader who would implement Fadnavis’s vision while finding his own ways to clean up the BMC and restore its lost image. Satam has a proven track record of delivering results & fighting corruption. The old bureaucratic culture of appearing strict and insulting subordinates while quietly enjoying the “fruits” of power has now become outdated at the BMC. Ameet Satam and the BJP are in no mood to tolerate such hypocrisy. They are determined to protect the lives and interests of Mumbaikars.

Counselling and warnings have already begun from top to bottom — this is Devendra Fadnavis’s standard approach when he takes charge of any department. Corrupt officers and contractors who have exploited the MCGM for years should be on high alert.

Key Initiatives by BJP :

For starters, Satam targeted the most controversial and corruption-prone areas — tendering and purchases, long considered the “corrupt market” of the BMC.

All MCGM school purchases (benches, uniforms, and 27 other items) are now routed through the Government of India’s e-Marketplace (GeM). This single move has reduced corruption by almost 90%. While not entirely foolproof, it is a major improvement.

However, two loopholes remain: the preparation of tender specifications (still open to manipulation) and the sampling stage. Satam reportedly received calls from major suppliers and middlemen requesting him to reverse the GeM decision, but the instructions from the Chief Minister were clear: “No means No.”

BJP has also eliminated the requirement to meet the Standing Committee before any proposal moves forward — a body famously dubbed the “Under-standing Committee” by former CM Vilasrao Deshmukh. No one now needs to “meet anyone.”

The Health Department’s purchases will also be shifted to the GeM portal. It is now up to Municipal Commissioner Ashwini Bhide to closely monitor tender specifications and sampling.

Satam has also proposed a robust Construction and Demolition (C&D) Waste Policy. Currently, architects charge residents around ₹15,000 per truck to remove debris, but many operators illegally dump it in lakes and reservoirs. Mumbai generates about 8,000 metric tons of construction waste daily, while the BMC’s processing plant handles only 600 metric tons per day. The new policy mandates geo-tagging and digital tracking of every truck carrying debris, ensuring proper disposal and recycling into paver blocks and road tiles. The BMC must gradually increase plant capacity to match the city’s waste output.

In just a few months, Satam has already saved the MCGM approximately ₹1,200 crores by scrapping several dubious policies:

A managed tender requiring one who builds zoo to have built a flyover ( 490 cr)
Unnecessary railing contracts (₹380 crore saved).
Thermostatic paint tenders (₹150 crore saved).
280 cr saved in Gargai Pinjaal project tender
RTI activists are encouraged to investigate who benefited from these in the past.

Other Positive Developments:

Artificial Intelligence Labs will soon be introduced in MCGM primary and secondary schools. The ‘Teach Mumbai’ scheme has already been launched with a budget of around ₹10 crores.

The values and importance of the Indian Constitution, as envisioned by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, will be incorporated into the curriculum.

A new CSR Portal will soon be launched, allowing citizens and corporations to donate items (such as school benches) or contribute in other ways.
Requirements will be displayed on the portal for 15 days, enabling public and CSR participation.

50 young professionals (students of public policy, journalism, etc.) will be recruited as full-time trainees across various BMC departments with a stipend of ₹50,000 per month.

All 27 administrative wards have been directed by CM Fadnavis to formulate a Ground Parking Policy. The model is inspired by underground parking facilities like the one at JIO ground at BKC (approx. 2,000 cars). A dedicated budget head has been created for this.
Mumbai has 2,050 square kilometres of roads, of which around 1,900 sq km have been concretised. The remaining stretch is expected to be completed by May 2027. The city is steadily becoming pothole-free. This year, the pothole-filling tender has been reduced from ₹100 crores to just ₹40 crores — with visibly better results.

Once things stabilize, BJP also plans to promote Marathi language, culture, history, and heritage internationally through various programs.

It may sound like a fairy tale, but these changes are actually happening. The MCGM is being cleaned up. In just three months, the ball has started rolling. The clear agenda for the Mayor and all those working with the BMC and the Government is simple: Work hard, visit sites, end contractor monopolies, avoid showmanship and unnecessary friendships, and tolerate zero corruption. Its CM's vision and intent being executed on ground by a dynamic, knowledgeable, street smart leader on ground in Ameet Satam!

Vikrant Meena Hemant Joshi.

@PMOIndia @Dev_Fadnavis @AmitShahOffice @Devendra_Office @AmeetSatam @mybmc @AshwiniBhide @BJP4Mumbai @mieknathshinde

[Raj Malhotra @Rajmalhotrachd]

Dear Ambassador Vivek Katju @VivekKatju, reading your latest geopolitical post-mortem in the Indian Express @IndianExpress is not just an intellectual exercise; it is an absolute awakening.

You have done what entire university departments and think tanks fail to do: you have taken the incredibly messy, bloody, and frustrating 30-year history of India-Pakistan relations, placed it on the surgical table, and flawlessly dissected it for the entire world to see.

While armchair analysts and romantic "Track 2" diplomats sit in air-conditioned rooms in New Delhi and endlessly chant the tired mantra of "we must talk to our neighbors," you have stepped out from the shadows of history.

As the man who was literally in the room—finalizing the nitty-gritty of the Composite Dialogue in a marathon session back in 1998—your words carry the heavy, undeniable weight of absolute truth.

For every UPSC Civil Services Aspirant, Ambassador Vivek Katju has just handed you the master-key for understanding the most complex dimensions of General Studies Paper 2 (India and its Neighborhood) and International Relations.🧵👇

[Dr. Sudhir Mehta @sudhirmehtapune]

Ayodhya is emerging as one of the most consequential economic transformation stories in modern India.
What began as the reconstruction of the Shri Ram Mandir has now evolved into a full-scale urban, infrastructure and tourism-led economic revival.
The numbers are staggering:
• ₹85,000+ crore public infrastructure investment planned and underway
• 23.82 crore visitors reported by mid-2025
• ₹3,500+ crore raised through public participation
• 1 lakh+ hospitality jobs projected
• Real estate prices up 25–40%
• Small trader earnings rising from ₹400–500 a day to as much as ₹2,500
• ₹400+ crore in tax contributions linked to the project ecosystem
Ayodhya demonstrates something India has underestimated for decades:
Civilisational infrastructure can become economic infrastructure.
The project combined mass public participation, engineering, digital governance, transport upgrades, airport expansion, railway modernisation, AI-enabled crowd management, hospitality investment and urban renewal all anchored around a cultural core.
For years India looked at heritage largely as nostalgia.
Ayodhya shows it can also become a long-term economic growth engine.
The larger lesson for India:
If developed thoughtfully, places like Kashi, Ujjain, Tirupati, Puri, Nashik and Pandharpur can become globally competitive spiritual-economic hubs generating jobs, infrastructure and local prosperity while preserving cultural identity. 🇮🇳
( The Economic Renaissance of Ayodhya, India:
A Case Study on Shri Ram Mandir)

[West Bengal Diary @WestBengalDiary]

🌊 THE PORT THAT COULD CHANGE EASTERN INDIA FOREVER 🏗️

With the new government taking office yesterday, one topic has suddenly returned to the centre of discussion across Bengal’s political and economic circles — TAJPUR PORT.

For decades, Bengal’s industrial and trading potential has been talked about endlessly. But without a modern deep sea port, can Eastern India truly compete with the western coast?

Will Tajpur become the gateway that transforms trade, logistics, manufacturing, and connectivity across Bengal and neighbouring states — or will it remain another delayed mega-project?

My latest X article explores why this project matters far beyond politics.

From the Himalayas to the Bay, this could be one of the most important infrastructure stories for Bengal’s future.

https://t.co/WDhFJwXbjz

#TajpurPort

[Abhijit Majumder @abhijitmajumder]

Story of saffron surge in Bengal, set to Sinatra’s ‘My Way’.
Simply brilliant, @folksutra.

[Upamanyu Bhattacharya @upamanyu95]

Housing societies in Kolkata are throwing random parties since BJP’s win and this is not limited to a constituency or two. Its cray stuff. If you see, BJP has won entire south Kolkata.. Bhabanipur, Rashbehari, Behala Purba, Behala Paschim, Jadavpur, Tollygunge, Sonarpur Uttar and Dakshin.. It has won Bidhannagar, Rajarhat Newtown, Rajarhat Gopalpur, Baranagar. All with sizeable housing societies.. and we need to realise that TMC has been unseated from power in greater Kolkata after 26 years, not 15. Hence the outpouring of emotions is much higher than in 2011.

[Girish L @GirishLN]

@AtombergCares @arindam___paul Also let me add this - am a 65 year old retired IIMA-ite follower and well wisher of your initiatives. Great that my confidence in your initiative is very much strengthened! Best wishes!

[Girish L @GirishLN]

@arindam___paul Sorry I've to bother you. Bought a fan from your website. Have been having problems with it. Attempts to sort out haven't worked. Can you direct me to someone please?

[Girish L @GirishLN]

@AtombergCares @arindam___paul blade assembly, that the screw can work. Suggestion - review and correct your manual. In meantime happy my problem is sorted. Thank you very much!