In a stunning convergence of science and nature, our satellite-tagged turtles are helping decode an ancient oceanic map ! As the Southwest Monsoon sets in, several Olive Ridleys have moved towards the southern Bay of Bengal and the waters around Sri Lanka, to seasonal hotspots where warm Bay waters meet cooler Indian Ocean currents. This oceanic mixing fuels a burst of marine productivity, creating rich feeding grounds that turtles have navigated to for millions of years. Long before satellites, they knew exactly where to go. Today, Tamil Nadu Forest Department’s pioneering satellite-tagging project is helping us understand how these remarkable navigators read the ocean and connect distant marine ecosystems Credits- TN Turtle Telemetry Project in partnership with Dr @sureshwii , @wii_india@Aiwcrteofficial & @tnforestdept #TNForest
It’s been a minute.
2015–2018
- Exited FreeCharge. Spent time learning and investing.
- Pondered about: Why can't trust be rewarded? Started with $1M of personal capital.
- Launched CRED to reward people for paying credit card bills on time.
2019–2025
- Built a system run by a team that values ownership, judgment, and craft.
- Grew from 0 to 17M members by aligning incentives with behaviour.
- Built several products during COVID lockdowns.
- Raised $900M+ from global investors. Did 4 ESOP buybacks.
- Made Indiranagar and IPL ads slightly more interesting.
- Received a full stack of regulatory licences.
- Lost 35 kilos.
- Scaled from 0 to ~$325M ( ~₹3,200 crore) in annual revenue across payments, lending, insurance, commerce, wealth, and credit cards.
2026
- First profitable quarter (yet occasionally asked what our business model is)
- Raised another $900M from Meta in primary and secondary capital.
- Announcing our 5th ESOP buyback.
Today
CRED is ready for its next phase. I am stepping back and @miten steps in as interim CEO, partnered with an incredibly talented team. He has been heading strategy and finance and suffering me since 2020. I’m stepping away from the operating role and will continue as a shareholder. My commitment doesn’t change. Just the role.
Extremely grateful to our members, partners, regulators, and investors who made this possible. And to our board, Shailendra, Micky, Saurabh for their extraordinary conviction.
Team CRED, I’ll still expect you to be a 10x version of yourselves.
As for me, I’ll be joining Meta to lead WhatsApp globally.
Meta comes in as a minority investor in CRED. No access to member data.
While it’s come very far, the delta between WhatsApp today and its full potential is massive. I look forward to working with Mark, Chris, and the leadership across Meta for the next step in WhatsApp’s journey. Will, thank you for scaling something the world relies on quietly, and for making this transition smooth.
Onwards.
Is your inflation really 4%?
My Paisanomics column in the Mumbai Mirror. Read and share.
Also, tell me your inflation story.
The retail inflation in May 2026 stood at 3.93% or around 4%.
Which is great news, unless you happen to live in the real world.
Let’s say you, like me, live in central Mumbai, where a lot of redevelopment housing projects are currently on. This has led to a housing shortage and rents have risen sharply.
But the all India rental inflation in May 2026 was 2% and for Maharashtra it was 2.4%. Not anywhere near what you and may be experiencing.
If you have taken a home loan to buy a house, chances are that the EMI takes away a good chunk of your monthly income.
So, there is an overall pressure on the financial front and that can make an inflation of 4% seem low.
Let’s say your kid is five-six years old and goes to school. The tuition fee inflation at an all India level is 3.1% and for Maharashtra it’s 2.2%.
Now, this may not make any sense to any upper middle class parent in Mumbai who send their kids to private schools.
But then everyone isn’t going to a private school. The fees in government schools don’t go up much. And that has a higher impact on the overall inflation figure.
The official inflation rate is simply an average. The trouble is that none of us lives an average life, spends like the average Indian, or experiences prices in an average way.
https://t.co/FKX7PzPldv
Jio made a net profit of ₹30,000 crores, and Airtel made a net profit of ₹38,000 crores last year.
That comes to an average of ₹185 crores extracted per day from Indians in profit (not revenue).
There’s nothing wrong with making profits, but raising plan prices even after making such huge profits is not morally right.
These companies must be forced by the govt to offer plans with 0.5 GB/day, 1 GB/day, and voice-only options.
In the current duopoly, both companies are in a race to see who can extract more from Indians.
The govt needs to wake up from its deep sleep and strengthen BSNL to restore healthy competition.
In today’s age, the internet is a human right, and forcing people to pay more for something they need less of is no less than a crime.
Look at the numbers from the NSE DRHP.
Corporate Bond Market:
India: 17.1% of GDP
China: 38.4%
US: 38.2%
South Korea: 75.7%
India is dramatically underpenetrated.
Long runway ahead for Trusteeship and Rating agencies.
@vsvicky_ Backward integration helps ITC to earn that margin. Also Tobacco export is very high margin biz.
Whereas VST and Godfrey are one product company with distributable cash flow. ITC used majority of capital into hotel and FMCG in past
Frank Whittle submitted a patent for the jet engine in 1930.
He was 22 years old.
A Royal Air Force cadet with no funding, no lab, and no institutional backing.
The British Air Ministry reviewed his idea.
Their verdict: "The project appears to be impractical."
Whittle paid the patent renewal fee out of his own pocket for 5 years.
When he ran out of money, the patent lapsed.
Germany, having seen the lapsed patent, developed their own jet engine.
The Heinkel He 178, the world's first jet-powered aircraft, flew in 1939.
Britain scrambled.
Whittle's engine finally flew in 1941, 11 years after his patent.
It powered the Gloster Meteor, the only Allied jet aircraft to see combat in WWII.
After the war, Whittle's technology was shared with the Americans, including General Electric.
GE became the world's largest jet engine manufacturer.
Whittle received a £100,000 settlement from the British government.
Adjusted for inflation: about £4 million today.
The jet engine industry is now worth $95 billion per year.
He was knighted in 1948.
He spent the last decades of his life in the US, quietly working as a consultant.
The man who made the modern world fly was told, at 22, that his idea was impractical.
India Should Discourage Excessive Investments in Stocks and Equity Mutual Funds
My column @91basispoints
India’s stock market boom has a hidden cost.
As retail investors have poured money into stocks and SIPs, foreign investors – especially VCs and private equity firms – have been cashing out of loss-making startups at eye-watering valuations and taking those gains back home.
That means more demand for dollars, more pressure on the rupee, and wider economic consequences.
This explains why FDI repatriation has gone up dramatically in the last few years. And so has selling by the FIIs.
Thus, excess money being invested into stocks and equity MFs needs to be disincentivised.
One way is to tax all kinds of income at the same rate.
Capital gains from the sale of shares or equity mutual funds should be taxed at the same rate as gains from debt mutual funds, interest earned on fixed and other deposits, or gains made from selling gold and real estate.
This will create a level playing field across asset classes and ensure that tax considerations do not disproportionately influence investment choices.
Of course, saying that India should discourage excessive investment in stocks and equity mutual funds is a great way to become unpopular.
In a country where every market correction is a "buying opportunity" and every IPO is "wealth creation", this may sound like heresy.
But if buying gold can be portrayed as unpatriotic because it hurts the rupee, perhaps buying IPOs and investing in SIPs without restraint deserves a similar hard look.
And I say this as someone who has largely been an SIP investor for more than 20 years.
(Let the abuse begin.)
https://t.co/zdYRFF44Dl
In which @AshishDhawanTCF talks about:
* 'retirement' at 40 and how it does not mean only leisure
* why the US market is a bubble
* how he remains in control of money and does not let it control him
* why Indian SIP investors are doing good
* the reality of FIRE
And why he drinks beer and not wine!
In collaboration with @_groww
#TheGrowwingIndiaPodcast
https://t.co/js8UQEP9ep
Bharti Airtel Valuation Rerating????
Airtel MCAP - Rs 11.4 lakh cr - for Mobile, Broadband, DTH, Enterprise Business, 61% Stake in Nxtra (data center), 79% Stake in Airtel Africa and 51.3% Stake in Indus Towers
Jio Equity Value Seen At Rs 11.9 lakh cr - for telecom, broadband, enterprise business and stakes in over 15 companies (which hardly contribute to profitability) – JioSaavn, Embibe, Haptik, Radisys, Sankhya Sutra Labs and many more
#Airtel #Jio #Telecom #Valuation #RelianceJio #JioPlatform #IPO