Abhi Sid

Ad Strategist | Infra Enthusiast | Motor Lover | Cricket Freak

[Abhi Sid @KSAbhilash]

Srilanka does deserve a praise. To begin with they don’t have the social problems we have, they did not have a socialist mindset for 60 years and def not the size as we are whether geographically or population wise. Our nation has everything, mindset is what we lack. And a good mindset doesn’t come out of poverty. All the civic sense mindset is only amongst well to do urban folk or people with deep cultural roots who don’t even realize they have it. Remove poverty and you’ll see us beating Singapore in terms of neatness in no time.

[Abhi Sid @KSAbhilash]

@SauravDassss I can see Midget Pradhan here. Where is Disco Pradhan? Why isn’t he dancing today?

[Abhi Sid @KSAbhilash]

@Rajiv1841 Same like Jimmy Anderson?

[Abhi Sid @KSAbhilash]

Just cz they are perceived to be polite we need to accept their expensive and binding terms, conditions of the agreement? If not they’ll release a ‘strongly worded’ tweet? Absolute BS. The terms were not endearing to us. We rejected it and are building our own bullet rakes at BEML. So what?

[Abhi Sid @KSAbhilash]

@Iyervval Does Disco Pradhan have a shot at the next season of Bigboss?

[Abhi Sid @KSAbhilash]

@pbhushan1 Are you saying the US justice dept is compromised? C’mon they’ll stop your free money if you say that.

[Abhi Sid @KSAbhilash]

As in locking up muslims in concentration / ‘reeducation’ camps? Is that great work? Or is pulling down every single mosque, adding 24/7 surveillance to their sermons, not permitting anyone have a muslim name, is this great work? All of this is taking place the Xinxiang province. You obviously are on their payroll, why would you talk!!

[Abhi Sid @KSAbhilash]

@sabeer I’m now confirmed that you don’t research on anything before tweeting. Lazy thinking i would say. China can overtake any business house and shun any businessman if it feels that they are going against the CCP, eg.Jack Ma and several others. Are you ok with that? China when it plans to build highways doesn’t carry out any revenue survey, they plan it on a map with a ruler and begin working on it. Everything along the way is bulldozed. Are you ok with that? They don’t have a single private media house. Are you ok with it? You never see them protest about anything. Are you ok with that? Your Chinese, CIA, ISI or Soros’ money will one day let you down big time once they are done with you.

[Malay Krishna @Malay4Product]

Let me explain what this whole fight is about, because it is very different from what the tweet by the Japanese official makes it sound like.

Back in 2015, India and Japan signed the Mumbai to Ahmedabad bullet train deal. 508 km.

India would use Japan's Shinkansen trains and Shinkansen technology. Japan put up a massive soft loan, covering most of the cost, at almost no interest, 0.1 percent, to be repaid over 50 years.

On paper it sounded amazing. Cheap money, world class trains.

But every such loan has a catch. Cheap Japanese money came tied to buying Japanese things.

Their trains. Their coaches. Their signal system. Their price, largely on their terms. That is normal. No country lends billions out of pure love. They lend to sell their own industry.

Then two things went wrong, and this is where his anger comes from.

One, the price.

The Japanese Shinkansen trainsets turned out to be extremely expensive. India felt it was being overcharged for the rolling stock. So, talks hit a wall.

Two, the timeline.

The newest Japanese trains, the E10 series, would reportedly only be ready for India around 2032. India did not want to sit on a finished 1.08 lakh crore track with no trains to run on it.

So India made a call. And this is the part I am proud of.

Instead of waiting and overpaying, India decided to run its own trains first. BEML in Bengaluru got an order to build indigenous high speed trainsets at about 866 crore each, designed to run at 280 kmph.

India will open the line with Indian made trains on the Surat to Vapi stretch around 2027, and bring in the Japanese Shinkansen later.

And the signal system, the thing he is bitter about, India switched from Japan's DS-ATC to the European ETCS Level 2 system.

The same family already used on the Delhi Meerut rapid rail. That is what he means by Japan being excluded from the signal system. India looked at the Japanese option, found it too costly and too slow, and picked a different one.

Now let me be fair, because I cannot be blind just because I am pro India.

He is not lying about everything.

India is genuinely a tough, frustrating negotiator. We change our mind. We push for our own interest till the last minute. We renegotiate things others thought were settled.

To a Japanese official raised on politeness and fixed agreements, this feels like betrayal.

But flip it around and look at it from our seat.

Our job is not to protect Japanese honour. Our job is to get India a bullet train at a fair price, that runs soon, and that builds Indian factories in the process.

On all three, changing course was the right call. Waiting till 2032 and overpaying for imported trains would have been the polite choice. It would also have been the stupid choice.

There is a bigger thing hiding under his frustration, and I think it is the real reason for the anger.

For decades, the deal was simple. Rich countries gave loans and technology, and poorer countries said thank you and bought whatever came bundled with it.

You took the money, you took their trains, you did not argue.

India argued. India took the loan, then insisted on its own trains, its own signal system, its own factories getting the work. We used their money to build our capability instead of just renting theirs.

That is what stings them. Not that we were reckless. That we refused to stay the junior partner in our own project.

I will give the Japanese side genuine credit.

Their engineering is world class. In 60 years, the Shinkansen has never had a passenger death from a derailment or collision.

That safety record is worth respecting. Their frustration with our chaos is also probably fair on a human level. Working with India can be maddening. Anyone who has managed an Indian project knows this.

For me, the real issue is what’s in it for our country.

India has the track. India is building its own trains for it. India picked its own signal system.

India got a 50 year loan at almost zero interest. And India will still get the Shinkansen later, on better terms than the original bundle.

If that is what Indian recklessness produces, I will take it every single time.

Be tough. Be a nightmare to negotiate with. Just make sure the country wins at the end of it. :)

[Abhi Sid @KSAbhilash]

@luckyali What innovations? Name one. I challenge you.

[Abhi Sid @KSAbhilash]

@mishrit_vrtt Never underestimate the PR power of BJP. They are waiting for an opening opportunity. But when they’ll strike, they’ll be lethal.

[Abhi Sid @KSAbhilash]

Is this applicable only to Indians? Or does it apply to Americans who flaunt their wealth too? Most successful Indians across the world are known to be level headed and less flashy. Name one multi millionaire Indian staying abroad who’s known to be flashy? In India, we had one Mallya and one Lalit Modi and we rooted them out too. What are you smoking uncle?

[Abhi Sid @KSAbhilash]

@suchetadalal @Wangchuk66 Why don’t you too join the fast?

[Abhi Sid @KSAbhilash]

@Panther7112 I believe they are working on something bigger. Doubt anything but never underestimate the PR power of BJP.

[Abhi Sid @KSAbhilash]

@NarundarM Libs realising agency payouts to influencers and social media engagement cannot even shake a minister in the govt. Real change demands real sacrifices with a clean conscience. The sooner you learn the better.

[Abhi Sid @KSAbhilash]

@TheNavroopSingh Not to worry, India isn’t the timid country of the early 2000s. We’ve got firebrand leaders in most states and at the center to withstand this algo onslaught. People are proud of their nation and are much more resilient. Nothing can shake us easily.

[Abhi Sid @KSAbhilash]

@lolflix_ @sabeer For some reason the NRI gentleman has been compromised. Either something major from his personal life was leaked that he has to continue this for the rest of his life or he is on CIA’s payroll.

[Abhi Sid @KSAbhilash]

@sabeer @HimYossarin Says the yapper who has absolutely no counter other than ‘lazy thinking’ and ‘wrong world view’. Stop furthering the interests of the CIA here uncle. Get well soon.

[Abhi Sid @KSAbhilash]

By now it’s easy to spot a CIA asset as well. Do everything to project yourself as the smartest, the govt ignores you, doesn’t involve you in any way. Immediately flip over to the deep state, start criticising almost everything, gain praise from the DS and views on social media. In turn gain popularity amongst libs, get invited to interviews, keep yapping about America, Lazy thinking, some lowsy tech product created about 40 years ago. Ultimately they need attention. Feed them some views and you won’t hear from them for some days.

[Abhi Sid @KSAbhilash]

@oprd24 @ShubhAgrawal26 Yeah? I never saw MMS going to jail even after sitting over scams worth 21 lakh crore!!

[Abhi Sid @KSAbhilash]

@Rajib21291249 @ShubhAgrawal26 4 out 5 were produced in USA. Stop rage baiting.