Ayushraj Khare

Tech Lead at @Paytm | Engineering, AI & Product Innovation

Ex- Questt, @Cognizant | Founder @mytutor247 | Former Strategy & Growth Consultant at @Rizee

[The Offline Network @OfflineOnAir]

🇮🇳India today

1. is a $4.15T economy
2. is the fastest-growing major economy
3. holds $700B+ in forex, 4th-largest
4. has ₹2.05L per-capita income
5. exports $863B in goods & services
6. ships $421B in services exports
7. is 3rd-largest by PPP, $18T+
8. is set to be a top-3 economy soon
9. has the 4th-largest stock market
10. averages nearly ₹2L cr GST a month
11. files 9 crore+ tax returns a year
12. banks 55 crore via Jan Dhan
13. doubled its GDP in a decade
14. drives ~1/6 of global growth
15. sees record SIP inflows monthly
16. is the No.2 phone maker globally
17. makes 99% of its phones at home
18. exports ₹2.62L cr of smartphones
19. makes ₹13.11L cr of electronics
20. rolled out its first Made-in-India chips
21. is the 3rd-largest car market
22. leads in 2-wheelers & tractors
23. is the 2nd-largest steel maker
24. grew defence exports 34x in a decade
25. does 23.66B UPI txns a month
26. moved ₹29.88L cr on UPI in July
27. has 2.4L+ recognised startups
28. clears 763M UPI payments a day
29. runs UPI live in 7+ countries
30. is the 3rd-largest startup hub
31. has minted 100+ unicorns
32. made 23L+ jobs via startups
33. connects 900M+ to the internet
34. ranks 3rd in science papers
35. ranks 6th in patent filings
36. spends ₹12.2L cr on capex
37. has 99.6% rail electrification
38. rose to 38th on innovation index
39. ranks 4th in trademark filings
40. has 63.73L km of roads
41. has 1.47L km of highways
42. has 45,516 km of 4-lane roads
43. has 7,300+ km of expressways
44. has 165 operational airports
45. has the 2nd-largest road network
46. has the 4th-largest rail network
47. has 1,155+ km of metro rail
48. runs 160+ Vande Bharat trains
49. built the world's highest rail bridge
50. has 1,728 MMTPA port capacity
51. runs metro in 26 cities
52. grew its highway network 60% in a decade
53. has 552 GW of power capacity
54. more than doubled power since 2014
55. runs 300 GW of non-fossil power
56. is 3rd-largest in renewables
57. has 164 GW of solar power
58. added a record 55 GW of clean power in FY26
59. is 4th-largest in wind power
60. runs a Green Hydrogen Mission
61. has powered every village
62. targets 100 GW nuclear by 2047
63. grew renewable output to 478 billion units
64. grows 357.7 MT of foodgrain
65. grows 362 MT of horticulture
66. is the No.1 milk producer
67. leads in pulses, millets & spices
68. farms the most arable land
69. has 844 medical colleges
70. doubled its MBBS seats
71. enrols 4.3 cr in higher ed
72. keeps growing IITs and IIMs
73. has 1,100+ universities & 45,000+ colleges
74. runs the largest health cover
75. covers 55 crore under Ayushman
76. raised life expectancy past 70
77. is the 4th nation to dock in orbit
78. has 44 UNESCO heritage sites
79. hit the Moon's south pole first
80. is home to 1.46B people

And we are just getting started.

Happy Independence Day!

[Akshay Saini @akshaymarch7]

Thank you so much for your resignation, Pradhan ji.
It takes a lot of courage to make such a bold decision.

The students who were protesting against you do not have a personal problem with you. The protests were the result of multiple failures in the education system that they witnessed under your supervision, which ultimately led to this situation.

Stepping down does not make you small; in fact, it is an act of bravery.

I wish you the best for whatever you do next. 🙏

Your decision has restored my faith in democracy!

Jai Hind 🇮🇳

[Paytm @Paytm]

Q1 FY 2027: We at Paytm are building India’s AI-first payments and financial services platform for consumers and small businesses.

Strong execution is creating a business with accelerating growth, deeper monetisation and expanding profitability.

[Ayushraj Khare @ayushrajkhare]

Check out my latest article:
Outcome Engineering: Building AI Systems That Deliver Outcomes, Not Just Agents
As AI gets better, the differentiator won't be smarter models—it'll be better engineered systems that consistently deliver outcomes.

https://t.co/XMpNgb2DdD via @LinkedIn

[Ayushraj Khare @ayushrajkhare]

@kunalb11 Congratulations @kunalb11 🎉 Massive move! Excited to see how WhatsApp evolves with your user-first product vision that we've seen at CRED. Wishing you success in this new journey

[Paytm @Paytm]

Paytm UPI and all our services continue to operate without any interruptions

This includes the Paytm App, Paytm UPI, Paytm Gold, Paytm QR, Paytm Soundbox, Paytm Card Machines, Paytm Payment Gateway, Paytm Money and all other services offered by our subsidiaries and associate companies
#PaytmKaro

[Ayushraj Khare @ayushrajkhare]

Google has truly demonstrated what decades of AI research can achieve. The new suite of AI tools is impressive. I tried Gemini Live during #GoogleIO yesterday—flawless experience!

[Akhilesh Mishra @amishra77]

Here is the state of play at #Ceasefire

1) India attacked 9 Pakistan terrorist bases on 6th-7th May - deep inside Pakistan including Muridke and Bahawalpur.

2) Pakistan responded with hundreds of drones on multiple days, all failed. All show down.

3) IN response, India hit and destroyed many Pakistani military sites, including air defence sites in Lahore.

4) Pakistan tried to attack India using missiles on 9th May, failed. India's response was then brutal and devastating.

5) India destroyed multiple Pakistani airbases, including in Rawalpindi (HQ of Pak military) on 9th-10th May. Others included Rafiqui, Murid, Chaklala, Rahim Yar Khan, Sukkur, Skardu, Chunian, Pasrur, and Sialkot.

6) Pakistan called and pleaded for ceasefire at 3:30 PM on 10th May. India agreed.

So here are the new normal established by India

1) India will now treat any act of terror as an act of war.

2) India can go in and destroy Pakistani military bases, airbases, including its most protected, and Pakistan will have to accept it. Nuclear umbrella dismantled.

[Ayushraj Khare @ayushrajkhare]

Jai Hind 🇮🇳

Jai Hind ki Sena 🇮🇳

#OperationSindoor

[Ayushraj Khare @ayushrajkhare]

How can you mark an item as delivered when it hasn’t been delivered? On top of that, I’m not getting any callback from your team to support on this. I have raised my concern multiple times.
Is this the level of service provided to someone with your UNLMTD subscription?

[Ayushraj Khare @ayushrajkhare]

I regret not having had the chance to meet you in this lifetime, but your legacy will always remain in my heart as I make decisions in life. Om Shanti 🙏

[Ayushraj Khare @ayushrajkhare]

Rest in peace, Sir 🙏. You inspired an entire nation to dream big, take bold steps, and build something that makes a real difference in society, not just for personal gain. Thank you for guiding and motivating us all.

[Ayushraj Khare @ayushrajkhare]

@oneandonlyrk One of the finest marketing strategies! 😂

Happy sextember to you 🎉 @oneandonlyrk

[Ayushraj Khare @ayushrajkhare]

@amazonIN @AmazonHelp

[Ayushraj Khare @ayushrajkhare]

@zomato why are you guys not including @letsblinkit in your Gold Membership plan? @deepigoyal

[Ayushraj Khare @ayushrajkhare]

@NammaBESCOM @peakbengaluru It's resolved now. Thanks :)

[Ayushraj Khare @ayushrajkhare]

@MicrosoftTeams, can we please add a welcoming sticker for new members and a 'hi' sticker for existing ones to greet them? It would be a great addition to foster a friendly atmosphere! #MicrosoftTeams

[Ayushraj Khare @ayushrajkhare]

@riteshagar Great news, @riteshagar! Exciting times as we welcome our beloved Prabhu Shri Ram🙏. Oyo's Townhouses offering top-notch hospitality will surely enhance the experience for all visitors. 🌟 #Ayodhya #OyoTownhouses

[David Senra @FoundersPodcast]

48 smart things Sam Walton wrote in his autobiography:

1. It never occurred to me that I might lose. It was almost as if I had a right to win. Thinking like that often seems to turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

2. We just got after it and *stayed* after it.

3. We just started repeating what worked.

4. We always ran a real tight organization. We had no excess people.

5. I went to the library and checked out *every* book on retailing.

6. Commit to your business. Believe in it more than anybody else.

7. There hasn’t been a day in my adult life when I haven’t spent time thinking about merchandising. It has been an absolute passion of mine.

8. I have always pursued everything I was interested in with a true passion—some would say obsession—to win.

9. One thing I don’t even have on my list is “work hard.” If you don’t know that already, or you’re not willing to do it, you probably won’t be going far enough to need my list anyway.

10. We were serious operators who were in it for the long haul.

11. We had a disciplined financial philosophy and we had growth on our minds.

12. Our money was made by controlling expenses.

13. You can make a lot of different mistakes and still recover if you run an efficient operation. Or you can be brilliant and still go out of business if you’re too inefficient.

14. We couldn’t care less about what is forecast or what the market says we ought to do.

15. Whatever money we made in one store, we’d put it in another new one, and just keep on going.

16. Many of our best opportunities were created out of necessity. The things that we were forced to learn and do because we started out under financed and under capitalized.

17. I overcame every single one of my personal shortcomings by the sheer passion I brought to my work.

18. It didn’t take me long to start experimenting—that’s just the way I am and always have been.

19. I have always been a Maverick.

20. I’ve always thought of problems as challenges. I didn’t dwell on my disappointment.

21. I constantly meddled with the status quo.

22. I was never in anything for the short haul.

23. One thing I never did—which I’m really proud of—was to push any of my kids too hard. I knew I was a fairly overactive fellow and I didn’t expect them to try to be just like me.

24. Control your expenses better than your competition. This is where you can always find the competitive advantage. We ranked number one in our industry for the lowest ratio of expenses to sales.

25. Most everything I’ve done I’ve copied from somebody else.

26. I like to keep everybody guessing. I don't want our competitors getting too comfortable with feeling that they can predict what we're going to do next.

27. I've never done much investing in anything except Walmart.

28. We were obsessed with keeping our prices below everybody else’s. Our dedication to that idea was total.

29. We looked for the action-oriented, do-it-now, go type of folks.

30. We started out swimming upstream and it’s made us strong and lean and alert.

31. My competitive nature was such that I saw his success and admired it. I didn’t envy it. I admired it. I said to myself: maybe I will be as successful as he is someday.

32. I’ve always held the bar pretty high for myself: I’ve set extremely high personal goals.

33. I learned a long time ago that exercising your ego in public is definitely not the way to build an effective organization.

34. I learned a lesson which has stuck with me all through the years: you can learn from everybody.

35. I was always looking for offbeat suppliers or sources.

36. Growing up as the oldest child, I felt like I took a lot of the brunt of my parent's domestic discord. I swore early on that if I ever had a family, I would never expose it to that kind of squabbling.

37. I have always had the soul of an operator, somebody who wants to make things work well, then better, then the best they possibly can.

38. I probably visited more headquarter offices of more discounters than anybody else—ever. I would just show up and as often as not, they’d let me in. I’d ask lots of questions about pricing and distribution, whatever. I learned a lot that way.

39. We have been ahead of most other retailers in investing in sophisticated equipment and technology.

40. My role has been to pick good people and give them maximum authority and responsibility.

41. My style as an executive has been dictated by my talents. I’ve played to my strengths and relied on others to make up for my weaknesses.

42. One way I’ve managed to keep up with everything on my plate is by coming in to the office really early. (4:30am) That early morning time is tremendously valuable: it’s uninterrupted time when I think and plan and sort things out.

43. I’m always asked if there ever came a point, once we got rolling, when I knew what lay ahead. I don’t think that I did.

44. It’s generally my gut that makes the final decision. If it feels right, I tend to go for it, and if it doesn’t, I back off.

45. Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They’re absolutely free—and worth a fortune.

46. The folks on the front lines—the ones who actually talk to the customer—are the only ones who really know what’s going on out there. You’d better find out what they know.

47. Go the other way. Ignore the conventional wisdom. If everybody else is doing it one way, there’s a good chance you can find your niche by going in exactly the opposite direction.

48. I enjoyed doing what I was doing so much and seeing the thing grow and develop, that I never could quit.

I've read Sam's autobiography two or three times. Listen to episode 234 to learn more!