Vikram Saxena

Creators @Meta| ex Vice-Chair Planning Commission @Cupertino| @ArunayFdn| @RagazziTweets| @SFBart Around The Bay| Transit fixes Housing Affordability (eg: NYC)|

[Vikram Saxena @SaxSF]

#hope

One person who cares for you
One person who believes in you
One helping hand at a time

And then things begin to happen

h/t @Meetasengupta

[Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla]

Sidney Poitier — choking up, describing how a kind co-worker offered to teach him how to read as an adult — is one powerful moment.

From 2013.
(via @CBSSunday) #RIPSidneyPoitier 🙏🏼

[Jelani Nelson @minilek]

California state senators are now weighing in, asking the University of California to bring the SAT/ACT back as soon as possible.

@SenOchoaBogh @SenatorChoi @SenRogerNiello

Letter 1: “… students entering the University of California are not prepared for the rigorous coursework that is required to complete their degrees… we call upon the Board of Regents to move quickly towards reinstatement without delay” 1/3

[Pubity @pubity]

Over 125,000,000 Indian rural households have gained tap water since 2019, increasing access from 16.7% to 81.7% of homes.

[APNADB @APNADB_NA]

Dearest #MilindMakwana, your radiant light shines brighter than ever as we mark three years of honoring your legacy, and your unwavering commitment to Justice, Dharma, and Humanity continues to guide our path.

A founding member of @APNADB_NA, and the "honeybee" of endless inspiration, your fearless championship for marginalized Dalit & Bahujan communities taught the world a powerful truth: there can be nothing about us, without us.

You showed us that true leadership is rooted in courage, compassion, and a warm smile. Your warmth united people across communities, and your example continues to inspire countless families and volunteers around the world.

Today, we proudly renew our commitment to stand with courage, serve selflessly, and ensure every marginalized voice is heard with dignity. Your mission lives on through us. We will #NeverForget.

मन समर्पित, तन समर्पित, और यह जीवन समर्पित... 🕊️✨

#MilindMakwana #APNADB #SocialJustice #Dharma #Humanity #LegacyLivesOn #struggle #justice #harmony

[Martyn Ziegler @martynziegler]

Good move not to have played Saka for a single minute of the semi-final to keep him fresh for the prestigious bronze medal match.

[Vikram Saxena @SaxSF]

"In short, India has perhaps progressed faster in reducing deprivation than in creating prosperity. Reducing deprivation means fewer people without food, roads, electricity, sanitation, banking or basic connectivity."

Strongly agree.
Younger Indians may not have an memory of how disparate lifestyles used to be three decades ago.

[Shailaja Chandra @over2shailaja]

I broadly agree with Sadanand. India is not “stuck”. Per capita income has risen steadily, and India will almost certainly move into the upper-middle-income category in the coming years. He is also right that total GDP can flatter a country of India’s size. Per capita GDP remains the best single measure of average prosperity and productivity, and India cannot dismiss it merely because the comparison with China, Vietnam, South Korea or Taiwan is uncomfortable. The facts must be faced: India has decisively fallen behind those East Asian high-growth economies and presently its peers are Indonesia and Bangladesh.
But that is if one goes only by the GDP story. That needs to be qualified. GDP does not fully capture the unbundling of deprivation or the wider availability of public goods or the widening of everyday opportunities. A society can become "better off" even before those gains are fully reflected in per capita income.
My impressions are anecdotal but please have the patience to listen.
Post retirement I have travelled through India’s smaller towns and rural areas for the last 20 years. Something fundamental has changed.
Roads, electricity, mobile connectivity, banking, UPI, housing, consumer goods and access to markets have spread to places that once seemed like black holes- like in districts like Navrangpur, Dhaulpur, Rajnandgaon, Unao, Dewas and Barmer.
The Tier II and III towns are visibly more prosperous today. Cities such as Vijayawadal in AP; Bareilly/ Jhansi in UP; and Gwalior and even Satna in MP and Mukutban ( Tier IV) in MH have grown. Their outskirts are lined with new housing, shopping complexes, hospitalsand educational institutions. Roads are better, digital connectivity is ubiquitous, and consumer spending is visible. I saw innumerable jewellery+ appliances shops everywhere. Because people are buying not gawking!
Cleaner? Absolutely NOT! Anecdotal summation? Maybe. But truthful? YES!
Rural people are moving into towns fast. In Delhi in the massive Kusumpur Pahadi slum,next to Vasant Vihar I have third generation kids who still go to their ancestral villages in Pratapgarh in UP, Chappra in Bihar,Bundi in Rajasthan and villages in the Sunderbans and Jharkhand. Their parents are domestic helps, guards, drivers and malis. These " informal-sector " 3rd gen kids are earning and spending in ways that conventional income statistics often miss.
Their family owns a smartphone, sends money home instantly, travels on better roads, accesses subsidised food and holds a bank account.The kid is learning "graphic designing, " backend share investing and are setting up entire CCTV systems single handed in one day!
These are not substitutes for a good job or secure housing, but neither are they trivial.
That is why progress must also be judged through other indicators. The HDI, the Multidimensional Poverty Index and Household consumption data also matter- sometimes more!
Access to electricity, sanitation, piped water, cooking gas, banking and digital connectivity have spiraled upwards.Ownership of two-wheelers, refrigerators, phones have also gone up.
Direct Benefit Transfers and large-scale food support ( debatable) have left disposable income into once poor hands.
In short, India has perhaps progressed faster in reducing deprivation than in creating prosperity.Reducing deprivation means fewer people without food, roads, electricity, sanitation, banking or basic connectivity.
Creating prosperity means sustained productivity growth, high-quality employment, rising wages, better education, reliable healthcare and the capacity to compete globally.
We have the first not the second.
My conclusion is not that GDP does not matter. It matters enormously. Nor should India console itself with the size of its total economy while remaining poor per person.
But neither should we overlook the scale of change because it is imperfectly captured by one statistic.

[Hindu American Foundation @HinduAmerican]

The classroom doesn't exist in isolation. What students learn in school is shaped by broader cultural narratives, social media, and the ideas that dominate public discourse. For many Hindu American students, those narratives can influence not only how others see them, but how they come to see themselves.

In the latest episode of That's So Hindu, HAF Executive Director Suhag Shukla sits down with @indumathi37 to unpack how ideology, education, and public perceptions intersect to shape the experiences of Hindu Americans. From textbook representations to social media narratives and the challenges facing today's students, this conversation offers essential insights for parents, educators, and anyone invested in creating classrooms rooted in accuracy, inclusion, and belonging.

Tune in to the full episode 👉 https://t.co/X4WrtFpBOo

[Hindu American Foundation @HinduAmerican]

The "Indian takeover" narrative didn't emerge organically. It was cultivated.

This article in @TexasMonthly documents how influencers chasing engagement, politicians chasing votes, and social media outrage helped turn one of America's fastest-growing Indian American communities into the target of suspicion and hostility.

Manufactured outrage has real-world consequences.https://t.co/aQO5w5XkQ8

[John D. Cook @JohnDCook]

"Armed with generative AI, a B student can produce A work while turning into a C student." -- Nicholas Carr

[Vikram Saxena @SaxSF]

@CallmePat_ricia Much, much worse.

In the Kolo-Mbappe case it was a fast break, two defenders were between Kolo-Mbappe in the passing lane, and Kolo took a 1st touch shot.

Sorloth had ample time to pass, one out-of-place defender between Sorloth-Harland, clear passing lanes, and v poor shot.

[Vikram Saxena @SaxSF]

@jsensarma Plug-in hybrids are perfect for Indian conditions of stop and go urban traffic.

The only concern is that whether people can charge them every night.

Non Plug-In Hybrids do improve overall milage but still rely on gas/petrol.

[Vikram Saxena @SaxSF]

You forgot to mention that the primary reason China is hyper competitive is that the cost of capital is almost zero.

The return on capital most Chinese export companies operate on is state subsidized and hence a huge competitive edge.

That model has done wonders for China; but it does not scale.

[Hindu American Foundation @HinduAmerican]

America's founding ideals weren't just about tolerance, they were about true acceptance.

George Washington rejected the idea that religious minorities existed only through the goodwill of the majority. Instead, he envisioned a nation where every faith belonged as an equal.

In this episode of That's So Hindu, Mat McDermott speaks with @hinduprof about the overlooked history of Hinduism in America, the influence of Hindu thought on American leaders and intellectuals, and what religious freedom was meant to look like from the very beginning.

Watch the full conversation and discover a chapter of American history that deserves far more attention 👉 https://t.co/tee7n46cr0

[Suhag A. Shukla @SuhagAShukla]

This short video of @RepSuhas facing down a heckler in the halls of the US Congress is a masterclass in how to calmly handle questions of dual loyalty and attempts to malign support for India and Hindu American advocacy that many of us face every day.

If @TheDemocrats candidates have any hope of retaining the historic support they’ve enjoyed from broad swathes of our community, they must reject the sinister insinuations festering in the radical, socialist wing of the party and listen to how @RepSuhas parries, impromptu, accusations from this grifter.

Listen to how he dismantles accusations of supporting the US-India relationship, the need for India to preserve its constitutional principles along with its Hindu civilizational legacy, and how to push back against support from Hindu American supporters.

The funniest part?

The questioner, @FriedrichPieter, who was funded by the @IAMCouncil co-founder & was condemned by the Rev. Jesse Jackson for chanting “Death to @CongressmanRaja” outside his office, asked, “Did you fly to Houston to meet @HinduAmerican board member @rishi_bhutada?”

“Um, I fly to Houston because I grew up there and my parents live there,” @RepSuhas answers. 😅

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

Taiwan solved tax evasion in 1951 with a trick so cheap it should embarrass every tax authority on the planet.

The problem was an all-cash economy full of small shops. A merchant pockets the cash, skips the receipt, and the sale never existed. Auditors can't catch what was never recorded, and hiring enough of them to watch every noodle stand costs more than the missing tax.

So finance chief Ren Xianqun flipped the incentive. Print a lottery number on every receipt. Draw winners every two months on live TV. Top prize today: NT$10 million, about $310K.

Suddenly the customer and the shopkeeper want opposite things. The merchant wants the sale off the books. The customer wants the ticket. And there are millions more customers than merchants. Every transaction now carries a built-in witness demanding the paper trail.

Year one, reported tax revenue jumped 75%, from NT$29 million to NT$51 million. Seventy-five years later, roughly 70% of Taiwanese still play. Convenience stores redeem the smallest NT$200 prizes at the register, so even a coffee receipt feels like a scratch card.

The elegant part is what the audit force costs. The prize pool runs about NT$7 billion a year, roughly $20 million. In exchange, the government gets 23 million unpaid auditors working every checkout line in the country, forever. No inspector general on earth delivers that coverage at that price.

Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Slovakia all copied it. The most effective compliance tool ever built looks like a game, and that's exactly why it works.

[Naval @naval]

Happy Birthday America, Land of the Free.

Don’t give up on the First, Second, Fourth, and Ninth Amendments.

They’re unique, and your freedom - and the worlds’ - depends on them.

[Aella @Aella_Girl]

the more i learn about history, the more I appreciate America. America is actually an extremely cool and special anomaly in the timeline of civilizations. It's so successful that it's allowed the people inside it to lose touch with how bad things can truly be

[The Emissary @TheEmissaryCo]

I mean…is he wrong?

In the shadow of America’s 250th, the biggest difference I notice in the American vs Indian mentality is that Americans are naturally wired to shoot for the moon, be optimistic, & always try to win over others.

While Indians, particularly today, are prone to whining & whinging, performative cynicism, & leering at their compatriots with the most beady of eyes in envy.

How can a people build & become something greater when this is so normalized & epitomized?

[Matt Van Swol @mattvanswol]

🚨#BREAKING: A 28-year-old confirms he has spent the last 10 YEARS of his life interviewing World War II combat veterans to keep their stories alive...

...in fact, for the last 10 years, he has interviewed World War 2 veterans EVERY SINGLE DAY

He started as a teenager, ditching school to ride his BIKE to the local retirement home, walking up to the front desk and asking to, "meet some World War II heroes."

His name is Rishi Sharma.

He's crossed all 50 states and half the world.

He's slept in his car and lived on gas-station food to afford it.

He asks these men for hours of their memories, and then he hands the entire recording to their families...

...FOR FREE

So that 200 years from now, a great-great-grandchild will know not just their hero's name, but how he laughed, how he cried, and what he sacrificed.

Rishi has no military family, his parents immigrated here from India.

He does it out of pure gratitude.

In his words:

"My parents were given the opportunity to immigrate and raise a family because of veterans like these. It's a debt of love I'll spend my entire life trying to repay..."

As one 100-year-old Marine who stormed Iwo Jima told him, remembering the flag going up:

"The hair on my arms still stands up when I think about how beautiful it was."

THAT is America.

250 years of ordinary people doing extraordinary things...

God bless our veterans. 🇺🇸🇺🇸

[Vikram Saxena @SaxSF]

@avataram I have the same emotions; why play like ruffians when the whole world is watching you.

At least bow out with grace and honor.

And the referee was horrible.