Karthikeyan Thangavel

Textile Entrepreneur | Tamil & History Enthusiast | Socially Concerned

[Basheer Ahmed @BasheerAhm49289]

இன்று வரை கிரிக்கெட்டில் இப்படி ஒரு கேட்ச்சை யாரும் எடுத்ததில்லை...!

[Karthikeyan Thangavel @karthikeyanppm]

Absurd idea. Transactions happen most of the time for convenience - dad giving money to his child and friend giving money and getting back. Even husband gives money to wife for running the household. Taxing it is crazy. Ofcourse all taxes can be clubbed in GST & IT rationalised

[INDIA EYE NOW NEWS @india_eye_now]

🚨🔥💥 𝗠𝗢𝗗𝗜 𝟯.𝟬’𝗦 𝗡𝗘𝗫𝗧 𝗕𝗜𝗚 𝗘𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗢𝗠𝗜𝗖 𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗜𝗞𝗘? 🇮🇳

𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝗡𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡. 𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝗧𝗔𝗫.

Imagine India moving away from a maze of income tax, GST, TDS, tolls and multiple levies — towards a 𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗟𝗘, 𝗦𝗜𝗠𝗣𝗟𝗘 𝗔𝗨𝗧𝗢𝗠𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗗 𝗟𝗘𝗩𝗬 on banking transactions.

⚡🇮🇳 The proposal being discussed by reform advocates is radical: a small transaction-based levy, potentially around 𝟭–𝟮%, collected automatically through the banking system.

𝗡𝗢 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗣𝗟𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗗 𝗥𝗘𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗡𝗦.
𝗡𝗢 𝗘𝗡𝗗𝗟𝗘𝗦𝗦 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗣𝗟𝗜𝗔𝗡𝗖𝗘.
𝗟𝗘𝗦𝗦 𝗖𝗔𝗦𝗛 𝗘𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗢𝗠𝗬.
𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗠𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗦𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡.

The bigger pitch? Bring more money into the formal banking system, make transactions traceable and potentially reduce the massive compliance burden on individuals and businesses.

🔥 If such a system were ever implemented successfully, it could be one of India’s 𝗠𝗢𝗦𝗧 𝗗𝗜𝗦𝗥𝗨𝗣𝗧𝗜𝗩𝗘 𝗧𝗔𝗫 𝗥𝗘𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗠𝗦.

But this remains a 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗣𝗢𝗦𝗔𝗟 — not an announced Modi government policy.

The question is no longer just “How much tax do we pay?”

𝗖𝗢𝗨𝗟𝗗 𝗜𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗔 𝗥𝗘𝗜𝗡𝗩𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗧𝗔𝗫𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗞𝗦? 🇮🇳🔥

𝗝𝗮𝗶 𝗛𝗶𝗻𝗱 🇮🇳✊

[anand mahindra @anandmahindra]

Satwik-Chirag

They just won:

The China Masters

In China

In front of a Chinese home crowd.

The word Fear?

Not in their vocabulary.

A salute, Gentlemen

🫡🇮🇳

[Karthikeyan Thangavel @karthikeyanppm]

@narayananh @nramki_Madras One of their son Mr.Vivek, I think was my classmate @ Loyola. Any chance you’ve got his contact 🤔

[Fundamental Investor ™ 🇮🇳 @FI_InvestIndia]

Kids should never grow up !!! Such natural innocence.

This is true sportsmanship. Kudos to her parents and her upbringing 🙏

This Video Made my Timeline for this Week...

#FI

[Sridhar Vembu @svembu]

In a recent interview, Dr Raghuram Rajan says we are getting only low paying manufacturing jobs in Tamil Nadu. He also opposes industrial policy at the national level. Let me explain the intrinsic contradiction between these two ideas.

Let us consider the iPhone factory in Tamil Nadu. It would take the average worker there about 5 months of work to afford the entry level iPhone. In China, it would take only 1 month of the same factory work. The work is the same.

High paying jobs, which I agree we need, come from high value addition and that requires that we not only perform the R&D but we also own the IP in India and capture the resulting economic value addition. Only then would pay in even products where India does not have much IP (like the iPhone) would go up.

If you look at major IP-rich, successful companies in the world, all of them do substantial R&D in India. But only a tiny fraction of the economic value added by these companies (measured by their gross profit, as distinct from the net profit) actually is accounted for in India. Gross profit captures employee compensation, net profit and taxes, and goes directly into GDP calculation.

I will present two admittedly crude examples, just to illustrate the issue.

Nvidia has a gross profit of well over $200 billion a year and 24% of Nvidia employees are in India, mostly in R&D. Microsoft has a gross profit of about $230 billion a year and 10% of its R&D staff are in India. India's economic accounts will not show anywhere near 24% of value added by Nvidia or 10% of value added by Microsoft. India would only show a small fraction of the $48 billion value added by Nvidia or $23 billion of value added by Microsoft (presumably) arising from Nvidia India and Microsoft India R&D operations. Again, crude example, for illustration purpose only etc.

If we create Indian companies that own the IP in India, much of their economic value will accrue in India.

This is why long term R&D and capability building is so important.

Now let me come to industrial policy. The only mechanism the world has known for a "developing country" (no IP, low value addition) to become a "devloped country" (lots of IP and value addition captured locally) is to spur the domestic entrepreneurs and industry to gain the know-how and capability. This is the lesson from East Asia, and a great book on that topic is "How Asia Works".

Dr Raghuram Rajan represents what is called the "Chicago School" economic theory, originally arising from Milton Friedman. The Chicago School does not agree with industrial policy.

Following the Chicago School will get us to Mexico's economic situation (lots of low wage manufacturing) but never to Japan or Taiwan or South Korea and now China. Getting to Japan or Taiwan or South Korea or China require us to understand "How Asia Works". China rose from very low wages and now has overtaken nations like Mexico, because China has the know-how and IP and Mexico does not.

In one interview, Dr Rajan has managed to both want high paying jobs (yes!) and oppose the very policy needed to get us there!

Book link below.

[Karthikeyan Thangavel @karthikeyanppm]

This is a good point to ponder 🤔. We do have many Bangladeshes within us. #GOI should look into businesses like #textiles which are hugely labour intensive so that development is wide spread.

[Kebbin @PunishedKebbin]

Bangladesh doesn’t have a multi-billion-dollar IT export engine like India does.

Bangladesh doesn’t have a massive petrochemical industry like India does.

Bangladesh doesn’t have global-scale pharmaceutical manufacturing like India does.

Bangladesh doesn’t have high-capacity oil refining infrastructure like India does.

Bangladesh doesn’t have heavy machinery or capital goods sectors like India does.

And yet, with ready-made garment exports alone, it has been able to catch up to India in per capita GDP, if not periodically exceed it.

[Karthikeyan Thangavel @karthikeyanppm]

@velumania If land records are digitalised and paperless registration of properties happen then it’s a great step. With so much development in remote sensing and satellite technologies now accuracies on land extent and ownership can be on dot.

[Abhishek Sinha @marginofstpdty]

Over the last five years, I’ve listened to long-form conversations with numerous fund managers and investors. I’ve learnt a lot from them.

But beyond a point, the marginal utility starts falling drastically.

If one keeps coming back to the same idea, e.g. buy cheap assets, avoid cyclicals, focus on quality, never overpay; there is only so much more you can extract by hearing the argument for the 20th time.

I buy the argument of rereading and revisiting good ideas. But there is a difference between deepening understanding and repeatedly consuming arguments that merely reinforce what you already believe. The latter can creep into dogma.

Money managers are expert at explaining the past. Once an outcome is known, it is remarkably easy to build a clean narrative around why it was inevitable. The messiness, uncertainty and alternate possibilities that existed in real time are conveniently ignored. Everything looks obvious in hindsight.

This is one reason I now spend less time listening to investors and more time listening to founders, engineers, operators and builders. Especially those who bring first-principles thinking.

Money managers (incl. me), don't add any tangible value to a business, yet we often claim/appear to know more than the builders themselves.

Operators who have built businesses, survived near-bankrupt experiences, turned around broken companies or spent 20 years solving one single problem accumulate unmatchable amounts of tacit knowledge.

[Karthikeyan Thangavel @karthikeyanppm]

If we take post settlement SGST, for 5 months period
#TN matching All-States growth: +16%

[Karthikeyan Thangavel @karthikeyanppm]

Better compliance in other states from previous months can also be the reason.

[Dr V K Balamurugan IRS(R) @KBalamuruganPhD]

Why is Tamil Nadu GST revenue falling?

A short answer is

GST is a destination based consumption tax. There are two possible reasons.
1. People in Tamil Nadu spend less.
2. GST evasion in Tamil Nadu is rampant.

Economists and experts may explore more and more and offer more and more explanations but revenue will not increase unless the root cause is addressed.

[The Kaipullai @thekaipullai]

Something extraordinary actually happened today.

Stuff so extraordinary, that even if it comes as a dream, you dismiss it as something that is impossibly improbable.

Thanks to your support and blessings, today I had the ultimate honor and privilege of having a conversation with our honorable Prime Minister on Mann Ki Baat about https://t.co/CIr1xkvilD

I still can't believe that he actually spoke to me, asked me about the website, its features and some questions on general history too. I am still in a daze.

For an amateur builder like me, i don't think there is a greater recognition or validation than this.

This conversation has given me enough motivation to take BharatRajya to the next level and make it the ideal history reference and visualization website for everyone.

Thank you @narendramodi ji, for encouraging people like us and inspiring us to achieve greater heights.

These is one conversation I will not forget in this lifetime. Or maybe even the next.

And rest assured sir, I won't let you down.

[The Rocket Media @TheRocketMediaX]

His father is a truck driver. He failed every subject in college. He then launched India's first reusable hybrid rocket and built a company now valued at ₹800 crore.

Here is how it happened.

Anand Megalingam grew up in Tamil Nadu, walking six kilometres to school every day. When he joined college to study Electrical and Electronics Engineering, he failed every single subject in his first semester. Every single one.

His love of sports saved him. It earned him a seat at a private college where, almost by accident, he enrolled in Aeronautical Engineering. The subject took over his life. He competed. He won. And when he had enough prizes and enough conviction, he founded Space Zone India in December 2021.

Before he built a rocket, he did one more thing. He made his father a co-founder and 50% stakeholder of the company.

"My dad has been there from the beginning, supporting me through every challenge," he said.

Work on RHUMI-1 began in January 2023. Tight deadlines. Limited funding. The first prototypes did not work. Regulatory hurdles piled up. The team triple-checked everything until the last minute.

On August 24, 2024, at the coastal village of Thiruvidandhai in Tamil Nadu, Anand pressed the ignition button.

Nothing happened for four seconds.

"These four seconds were probably the longest four seconds of my life," he said. "I remember that the entire year, my team, the government, and everyone's hopes flashed before my eyes."

Then RHUMI-1 lifted off. India's first reusable hybrid rocket, powered by a combination of solid fuel and liquid oxidizer, rose from a mobile launch pad, reaching suborbital space and carrying three cube satellites and 50 PICO satellites for atmospheric climate research.

The boy who once failed every subject launched India's first reusable rocket from a beach in Tamil Nadu.

And his father's name is on the company. That was Anand's first decision; Before the rocket, before the launch and before any of it.

[Muthukrishnan Dhandapani @dmuthuk]

Private initiatives like the Arivukoodam research park at Kongu Engineering College in Perundurai matter a great deal.

The Kongu Vellalar Institute of Technology Trust is putting in 100 crore to create a 40 lakh square feet facility with industry partnerships in 5G electrification and mobility.

Students and faculty will tackle live industry problems every day. This kind of private drive is a big reason Tamil Nadu stays ahead in STEM and high end manufacturing.

[Karthikeyan Thangavel @karthikeyanppm]

Thanks ☺️ to @GrasimInd @BirlaCellulose for this noble initiative to build social infrastructure in your customer base. Prayers to start @BirlaInstitute_ #BITS here in #Pallipalayam someday

[Karthikeyan Thangavel @karthikeyanppm]

Rather they can have a good public water transport or even small water taxis throughout our coastline from Chennai to Kanyakumari

[Chennai Updates @UpdatesChennai]

🚨🚨Chennai-Mahabalipuram-Puducherry Sea Link Bridge!!
Taking Mumbai's Atal bridge as a example, TN Govt will initiate works for a high level Chennai-Mahabalipuram-Puducherry Sea link in stages : PWD & Highways Minister Aadhav Arjuna in TN Assembly

[Muthukrishnan Dhandapani @dmuthuk]

Today’s story on ordinary people contributing extraordinarily to society.

In a quiet Coimbatore village, Pethanayakanur Government High School was once almost empty. Parents preferred bigger schools nearby.

Then Tamil teacher Balamurugan arrived in 2013 and quietly started changing everything.

He planted 110 saplings in a single week. Today those trees give shade, and students have planted over 960 more while making 45,000 seed balls for reforestation. The barren campus turned green.

Next came books. The library grew to more than 6,000 titles through donations, networks, and his own money. Students didn’t just read, they wrote. Their poems, stories and essays got published.

One girl’s article on the environment appeared in a state magazine read by over 8 lakh students. Suddenly kids felt like real writers.

After regular classes, two hours of Tamil folk arts began- Parai drumming, Mayilattam, Oyilattam, Karakattam.

Sports, nature walks and a plastic free culture followed.

When COVID finally ended, Balamurugan had one more idea: paint every classroom like a bright train coach. He put in ₹35,000 of his own money; parents added the rest.

Students returned to music, celebration and colourful "train" classrooms. One Class 10 girl still calls that day unforgettable.

The numbers followed. Enrolment more than tripled. The school has kept a 100% Class 10 pass rate since 2015. A former student cleared NEET.

Students have also attended seminars on forests, biodiversity and climate change.

"Climate change will shape their lives. We want our students to grow up respecting nature,"says Balamurugan.

Balamurugan’s simple goal never changed:

"Whether it is reading, writing, folk arts or environmental education, everything we do is to help students become good thinkers and good human beings."

One teacher. A few trees. Some books. A coat of paint. And a government school that kids are proud to call their own.

Source: The Better India

[Chennai Updates @UpdatesChennai]

🚨IIT Madras to further invest 3,937 Crs to expand it's campus in Guindy, Chennai. To add new academic buildings, hostels, sports complex, research centres etc spread inside the existing 608 acres campus... #IITMadras #Chennai

[Karthikeyan Thangavel @karthikeyanppm]

Best policy would be cost of growing up a child. Good education and health care for free can only make parents have children and aid talents coming in and not going out

[INDICIST @Indicfederr0d]

TN should scrap its family planning policies. With the state's TFR now around 1.4, we're heading toward a demographic disaster. If we don't reverse this trend which is unlikely we could end up needing to import more workers from Africa, Pakistan, or Bangladesh, especially as the TFR in North India is also declining and those states are beginning to develop.

A shrinking workforce and an ageing population will increase healthcare, pension, and welfare costs while making it harder to attract investment and sustain long-term economic growth @CMOTamilnadu

[Karthikeyan Thangavel @karthikeyanppm]

Scary 😟

[Indian Tech & Infra @IndianTechGuide]

🚨 Bengaluru’s 5-star hotels and resorts, including Four Seasons and Shangri-La, were found with expired milk, rotten meat, and fungus-covered vegetables. 🙏

- At The Lalit Ashok (Annex South), officials seized and destroyed 76 kg of meat, 200 kg of vegetables, and 32 liters of expired milk.

- At Shangri-La, 15 kg of meat were seized.

- At Four Seasons Hotel, officials confiscated 19 kg of meat.

- At Vivanta Bengaluru Whitefield, three kg of expired bakery products were destroyed.

- At Taj Yeshwantpur, officials seized 72 kg of meat and fish.

- At Radisson Blu (The Atria), authorities seized and destroyed 105 kg of expired food articles.