Deepan Chakravarthy

cofounder of HashCube, a mobile gaming company. San Francisco & Bangalore

[Vertigo_Warrior @VertigoWarrior]

Now that it is clarified that ISHA Yoga is not against marriage, but rather facilitates marriage, let's look at the other question. Does ISHA force MonkHood? Let's hear directly from the monks themselves.

[Sarcasmus Maximus @jamesvaikath]

@Cow__Momma

[Deepak Abbot @deepakabbot]

Is 2400cr revenue enough to settle the debate if CRED has a business model? I will stick my neck out and say they will cross 5000cr in FY25 and will be close to profitability by FY26

[NDTV Profit @NDTVProfitIndia]

"#Hindenburg is just a small brokerage trying to short sell," says Enam Holdings' @chokhani_manish. @niraj_shah

For the latest news and updates, visit: https://t.co/by4FF5o0Ew

[Prashant Sachan @prashantsachan]

The Koo app is shutting down and I have a story to tell.

It was November 2016, when I was raising the angel round for my previous startup. We had exhausted all of our savings pooled for our startup and were a month away from shutting the shop. Our original base was Powai, and we had met many angels in the Mumbai circuit. The answers were either a 'no' or get someone to lead the round before we commit.

Some seniors from IIT B Circle recommended we go to Bangalore and meet people there. They said few of the Bangalore angels might have an appetite to fund a social platform that too in travel.

A week in Bangalore flew by, we had met many people trying to raise our first cheque. Someone suggested that we meet @aprameya as he had the appetite to take risky bets as an angel, I was told that he was also fiddling with the idea of building an India-focussed social network and he might take interest in what we were trying to do.

We got introduced to him through a college senior, he called us to ITC Gardenia to pitch the next day. 25-30 minutes into the pitch he said he would invest. We asked him if he could lead the round, and we explained to him our situation. He said he would do that for us. In my mind, I was like - he met us only half an hour back and I assumed this is how it would be in Bangalore. I was wrong - this was not how Bangalore usually was, this was how he was to us, I still don't know why!

He led the round, we raised INR 1.7 CR from 25 individuals and that is how my journey to build a venture moved ahead! Over the years, we discussed ideas, products, team building, values, devotion as a category, and a lot more. He has been a friend, a guide, and an example of how one (in the startup ecosystem) can pay it forward!

I am grateful that I am getting to build my startup, the journey wouldn't have been possible without backers like him. I am grateful to him for the first 'yes', for telling us to make ambitious attempts, and for telling us to not worry while attempting to create a category or solve a difficult product problem.

There is news of the @KooAppIndia shutting down. But, we should celebrate the ambitious and audacious attempt that @aprameya , @mayankbidawatka, and the team made to create our very own answer for Twitter. Hits and misses are part of the game.

More power to Aprameya!
Always rooting for him :)

[Sajith Pai @sajithpai]

Just finished Sky High, a history of Indigo Airlines, by @shukla_tarun

Breezy read, covering the origin story and growth of India's biggest airline, which has 60% of the market, flying 360 airplanes (of a total of 800 planes in India) and a market cap of $19b which is the 3rd highest globally after Ryanair and Delta.

This is a terrific chart of how Indigo grew marketshare almost every year since it launched. It has never lost share (thus far).

The book gives you a deeper look into the decisions and operational approach that led to its dominance. Much of this was devised and led by Rakesh Gangwal, the experienced US airline CEO, and Indigo's cofounder / promoter, who negotiated the 100-order deal from Airbus at an outrageously low price and then structured the sale + lease-back arrangement which was the source of its profits for a long while. Gangwal along with the other cofounder and now sole promoter Rahul Bhatia, set in place an intensely frugal and operationalliy-focused culture, with a ruthless focus on saving of costs and turnaround of planes, so they could get more flying time in the air. This combined with Rahul Bhatia's astute lobbying and commercial instinct helped Indigo overcome on-ground challenges, and get regulatory clearances. It was a winning combination, and helped Indigo grow to become the behemoth it is. Bhatia is now the 'promoter' in control, after Gangwal decided to exit Indigo after a bruising fight with Bhatia.

Lots of anecdotes and behind the scenes stories abound in the book, written by one of India's leading aviation reporters. I wish it was better edited, but that is a small quibble given that it perhaps wasn't as easy a book to write given that the Indigo promoters are very secretive.

I thought the book was a good illustration of a well-planned and well-executed strategy. It is also about what really separates a successful airline from an also-ran. One element clearly is intense operational or process excellence, doing all the hundreds of little things in time and in sequence to ensure the planes turned around fast and flew on time at lower cost. There is a funny story about how Indigo reduced the water in the toilet water tank by half in in winter, given less water was used in winter. The attention to detail is incredible.

Another element, which comes out in Rahul Bhatia's words is that the price of the product (plane) is rarely the key cost. Rather there are hundreds of unforseen and unplanned costs that can land up which can kill you, and hence it is critical to have clear visibilty of all possible costs, and ensure that you are covered in unforeseen circumstances. As an illustration, the author points to the contracts signed by Indigo and Kingfisher with engine maker Pratt & Whitney. When Pratt & Whitney’s engines developed snags, leading to grounded planes, in Indigo's case, the downtime was paid by the engine co, while in Kingfisher's case there was no such clause, leading to huge losses for them. On such minutiae does success lie.

[Rohit Agarwal @jumbld]

Was woken up by my mom who excitedly called me after listening to this podcast!

Wait for it world, she's learning about AI engineering faster than most :D

Thanks @HaimantikaM and @hashnode! Was a lot of fun talking about AI development, the AI Gateway Pattern, @PortkeyAI and much more.

[Sel @Selwyyyyn]

Lengthy post on Heat wave, Rain/thundershowers Tropical disturbance & possible Monsoon establishment dates..

Alright, May starts with blazing hot summer conditions over several parts of the southern peninsular India making weather more horrible than the prev month.. This would continue for next several days before seasonal convective rains helps to reduce the heat . This is a generalized statement as the weather would vary from place to place.
Coastal stations have some advantage through Sea breeze phenomenon which helps to control the rising temperature but Interiors which doesn't see sea breeze phenomenon ,finds it difficult so their only hope to escape from the heat is through convective rains.
Summer convective rains do occur over interiors during afternoon/evening when N-S thermal trough cause convergence which leads to TS development.

Now the seasonal North-South Thermal Trough runs closer to East coast adj plains. Remember it was seen far west ,closer to Western ghats adj area &now it has shifted East so does the convergence area .
Now the convergence mostly favors Eastern Ghats adj Interiors .
Mid-lat westerly trough seen passing around 7/8th May enhancing the possibilities for widespread thunderstorms over interior TN especially Eastern ghats adj coastal areas. Convergence seen closer to coastline so coastal areas also may see some rains /TS . Maybe from Northerly direction ???( Ap storms invading North coastal TN ?? Lets wait & see
Before that scattered TS possibilities seen for interior TN from 3/4th May.

Moving on to Tropical developments &Monsoon establishment over Bay of Bengal, still there is no clear cut signal seen in the forecast but seasonal changes seen happening in the forecast.
Medium-extended range forecast also shows some possibility for a tropical development in the Bay as well as SE Arb sea . ER-MJO waves seen in the Indian ocean during the Considering the upper level conditions, Upper air trough seen exiting the country around 12/13th May , Upper air divergence seen increasing over Eastern Bay where there is a significant lower level confluence seen so increased chance seen for Bay as of now . Vortex might form in South-SE Bay, then drift towards Andaman sea to develop or vortex forms straight away in the Andaman sea. need to wait & see
In the arb sea large part of the basin seen with sinking flow associated with Upper Air trough so even if disturbance form ,it may be weak ,westward moving one or arb sea disturbance may take time for the conditions to improve but mostly low freq IOD forcing would help Arb sea after Mid May. so any developments in SE Arb sea have to move from Southern peninsula as UAC/CC . In this scenario, it may favor heavy rains over southern peninsula during Mid -May.
Monsoon establishment is expected by Mid may but disturbance evolution seen coinciding. More often system helps in bay onset. Andaman &Nicobar usually see monsoon in between 15-20th May. MJO is expected to coincide with this time period so this may help for cyclogenesis & Monsoon establishment.. If there is no disturbance development,it might help for monsoon establishment over Bay of Bengal.
Considering the prevailing IOD conditions, cross eq flow in the IO would be enhanced so monsoon may be early for Bay, Srilanka & kerala by at least 4-5 days or even one week ahead of the schedule if there is no systems in SW Arb sea

dc @TropicalTidbits @ECMWF
#MJO #IOD #Summer #HeatWaves #rain #TamilNadu #Chennai #Bengaluru #Arabiansea #Indianocean #ER

[Sridhar Vembu @svembu]

From Daily Thanthi Tamil newspaper last week: "Son [age 40] kills mother [age 66] because she refused to give him money to drink".

Alcohol is destroying our society, particularly our poorest and most vulnerable. The number of alcohol widows in our villages is shocking.

Sophisticated people tend to think of alcohol as "personal choice". The US experience with drug overdose deaths shows that government policy matters and it is not just "personal choice".

I stand by my conviction that we need prohibition in Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu is a deeply religious state (across religious affiliation) and it will work. We can make it work.

[Athreya Shetty 🇮🇳 @shetty_athreya]

A CC has formed in extreme south #ArabianSea as predicted. However unfavorable conditions will limit intensification to WML status at the most.

Before you ask, this disturbance WILL NOT come close to our west coast, rather will move towards Arabian peninsula similar to Cyclone Tej.

However, moisture from this system will be picked up by the STWJ & could bring some rains for us in 7-10 days time. Keeping watch.

Pc IMD Rapid

[Deepan Chakravarthy @codeshepherd]

@BKartRed @nikhilkamathcio Great insights on what goes behind the scenes in the VC world. Also a quick history of Indian VC ecosystem.

[Karthik Reddy @BKartRed]

Thanks @nikhilkamathcio for the opportunity. I’ve received a lot of great positive feedback on the episode; wanted to share a few thoughts:

* as Nikhil said, “this is school” - it’s important to understand VC and it’s operating constraints if you want to pitch and raise venture capital

* Nikhil + team do great research and the team puts in a bunch of effort to get the most out of us guests

* thanks @prashanthp and @RajanAnandan for being fun and transparent

* Nikhil’s WTF hosting skill is to get everyone to a highest common factor of ease, to be as transparent and honest

* And @Nithin0dha was a nice last min addition since he’s building a new and interesting base of capital for Indian startups and has a lot of hard questions for us older models

* the only negative comments I saw were that Nikhil was cutting the guests short - the unsaid secret there was that it was 5 hrs of almost uninterrupted recording, ending past midnight

* the 150 mins you see is about 50% of what is shot - so, the edit team has the tough job of bringing the new questions in quickly

But “school” is never easy or short - so, this is just a glimpse - so much more to learn - for us, for founders …

Keep building!

Cc: @BlumeVentures

[Praggnanandhaa @rpraggnachess]

Extremely elated to win Silver medal 🥈in Fide World Cup 2023 and qualified to the Candidates 2024!
Grateful to receive the love, support and prayers of each one of you! 🇮🇳
Thankyou everyone for the wishes🙏🏼
With my ever supportive, happiest and proud Amma❤️
📷@M_Sridharan

[Deepan Chakravarthy @codeshepherd]

@Selwyyyyn @LuharukaHarsh @wxscience What about Tamil Nadu? Good rains is above average or can it lead to floods?

Thank you @Selwyyyyn

[Deepan Chakravarthy @codeshepherd]

Wonderful podcast on ChatGPT. Thanks @nikhilkamathcio for the amazing episode! cc: @VarunMayya @thetanmay @aprameya

https://t.co/kVOoNsVCuL

[Deepan Chakravarthy @codeshepherd]

Wonderful podcast on ChatGPT. Thanks @nikhilkamathcio @VarunMayya @thetanmay @aprameya

https://t.co/kVOoNsV4Fd

[Ed Hawkins @ed_hawkins]

The complexity of winds.

Animation made by @oceanographer of wind gust strength in a 4km resolution atmospheric model.

[Dave McClure @davemcclure]

@hunterwalk epic trolling hunter. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

[Deepan Chakravarthy @codeshepherd]

VC funding in India is still so small! (compared with US and China)
@sajithpai #BlumeDay2022

[Deepan Chakravarthy @codeshepherd]

this is so sad! Wonder how the trend is in ROW. @sajithpai

[Sajith Pai @sajithpai]

The poor in fact have taken a massive hit from the economic disruptions due to COVID.