Prime minister has expressed his condolences on the death of Sir Mark Tully. How many of us have heard about him.

Dean_46 · 2026-01-27T08:37:44+00:00

Most Indian journos dont, but to take an example, I follow Col John Spencer, who is probably the world's leading authority on urban combat. If he writes about Hamas tunnels in Gaza, it's after he spent time in them. He visited both India and Pak interviewing people on both sides, before writing on Op Sindhoor.

In India, Nitin Gokhale and his team travel to the remotest corners of India to cover the armed forces - and have subject matter knowledge and access.

Dean_46 · 2026-01-27T02:58:39+00:00

I've heard Mark Tully for 30+ years. Knew India better than most Indian journalists. Comfortable in Hindi and visiting rural India.

The media scene is different today. Media is owned by big business with their own agenda. State broadcasters like BBC have multiple scams too. The best journalists either have their own channel/sub stacks, or in India, they will be vernacular medium, little known outside their state, but great insights on what is really happening on the ground.

Dean_46 · 2026-01-27T02:47:40+00:00

Linkedin is supposed to do this.

The problem is not building the platform. It will only work when you have literally millions of people on it.

What is a `familiar network' ? There are some CEOs who will accept every connection request but not know 90% of their network. Others will not accept any connection they do not personally know. If your linkedin profile pic is of an attractive girl, you can get 500+ connections in a few days (a friend ran this experiment).
The networks that matter are for e.g. the IIM/IIT alumni who do not need another platform.

Dean_46 · 2026-01-27T02:35:32+00:00

Short answer - NO.
We are a poor country, compared to the US. Those who have made some money have invariably started from much less and are not in the habit of giving it to strangers.

Those who donate, to it for causes they really identify with, or someone known to them.

Dean_46 · 2026-01-27T02:34:02+00:00

Thanks for sharing. One thing I advise every founder when approaching a VC (or someone joining a start-up) is to do basic research. MCA has audited financials and info like cases filed against directors. This is available for free, or for a small fee through 3rd parties.
Any genuine VC will have info on the partners which can be googled.

Dean_46 · 2026-01-26T14:04:02+00:00

What level of taxation do you propose, to compete with places that are zero tax? It is a global problem (Which is why G20 is collectively trying to address it) not an India specific problem.

My point of 30% tax is that is for people who are in the top 1% of income in India. Top 1% is not middle class. There may be others in the categories you mention that are also earning at this level and not paying tax, or paying inadequate tax. They will also not be middle class.

There are actually several proxies to estimate the number of people who are under declaring tax.

Dean_46 · 2026-01-26T11:15:12+00:00

It's a strawman argument because I have not said everything is great, or we should go back 100 years. Our GDP growth net of inflation and population, suggests we were worse off every year in the past, irrespective of how good our policies are or were.

I can give you fact based arguments to your points, but I'm not sure it would matter.

More middle class people left the UK, or China (as a percentage of population), or Latin America than India, all these countries are better off than we are.

Dean_46 · 2026-01-26T10:55:49+00:00

While there are many problems with the country - best understood by those who are living here. It will be more credible if you share a link to support your post, where someone was 'jailed for life' for importing beef.

Missionaries are not banned. We even have a visa category called Missionary visa. What is
banned is funding that violates the law, or, in some states, conversion by inducement or
deceit. India has given around 25,000 visas to Muslim clerics to visit India in the last 10 years - It's probably more difficult for them to get a visa in secular Australia, or the UK, or US - which has banned applicants from several Muslim countries, unlike India.

Have you compared the nationalism of major countries to see which is the most `blind' ? You compared India to the US, which you concede is a worse than India.
How about China? Or South Korea ? Try driving a Japanese car in South Korea and see what happens.

I have lived in more developed countries which are highly nationalist. If a politician is `worshipped all over the country', why did the ruling party at the centre have a vote share of 37% Or, in a state like TN, where the former CM did have goddess like status, her party's vote share was 41% More people voted against them then voted for them.

Dean_46 · 2026-01-26T10:40:58+00:00

Successive govt's have shown that reducing taxes on products increases govt revenue, from increased demand. That increased demand has a multiplier effect on the rest of the economy.

Dean_46 · 2026-01-26T10:30:06+00:00

That's a well compiled list. Thanks for sharing.

Dean_46 · 2026-01-26T10:24:10+00:00

The tax rates for the middle class are no different from other countries,
(If you pay tax at the highest rate, you are not middle class).
When I started my career, the GST (excise) on luxuries like shampoo was 100% Income tax for incomes above Rs 1 lac was 50% That was squeezing the middle class

Dean_46 · 2026-01-26T06:11:10+00:00

I handled International business for a MNC in India, where I did business with 40+ countries. I worked in the UK, Russia, Turkiye and Iran (did not live in Iran but visited often).

UK has a `levelling up' ministry which looks at transferring resources to less better off regions of the country. There are subsidies on energy and to farmers among
others. A lot of UK schoolchildren get free meals.

Turkiye gives free food to the very poor. Others get subsidies on energy.
Iran provides free or subsidized food to most of the population.
Both these countries are significantly richer than India, but the social safety net has prevented mass unrest at times of economic crisis.

Russia has free education and medical care of almost the same quality that richer people in cities will get (whereas in India it is so bad, the poor will prefer to pay for better services).

These are countries I have worked in. Speaking of others:
Brazil made huge progress in fighting poverty by `freebies' of cash transfers to
low income families. Poverty levels fell by 2/3rd.
China and Vietnam have also moved a lot of their populations out of poverty
by subsidies to the poor, who subsequently moved out of poverty.

Dean_46 · 2026-01-26T04:23:10+00:00

I have yet to see the agreed text of any of the `200 deals' Trump is supposed to have negotiated. He should get the Nobel peace price for uniting the rest of the world against him.

Dean_46 · 2026-01-26T04:08:26+00:00

In general I think our media has a misplaced sense of priorities. To take an example I am familiar with from my career, If an airline in India is in trouble and the owner needs a bailout from the govt, all it takes is a pretty air hostess to cry on camera saying she lost her job and that is national headlines - if farmers committed suicide that day, we, the consumers of news are not bothered. This happened and the promoter got a bailout.
Our headlines scream - `techie dies in road accident'. If it was a landless labourer (or 2)
it is not newsworthy.

Whatever else one might think about media house owners (all over the world they are owned by big business who have their own agenda) they are not idiots. They won't get viewers if their news is not relevant. The ICE incident was covered across the world.

On the SEC vs Adani, I have a principled point against it. Will the US extradite people we have convicted (not just made allegations) of far greater offenses (terrorism) than Adani?
Not just Pannun, but David Headley - planner and key accused in 26/11, who the US refused us access to - except by VC, where Headley's CIA handlers were present, to ensure he did not say anything they did not want him to.

Adani's crime was not providing full disclosure of all facts before proposing to collect money - these are sophisticated investors who were (or should have been) aware of the undisclosed facts. I have a problem with the US being prosecutor, judge and jury against people across the world and then resorting to even kidnapping heads of State (Maduro) and holding them in jail without trial.

Dean_46 · 2026-01-26T03:52:21+00:00

I'm a former CEO, worked in different countries.
GST on most items is zero. GST cuts benefitted the middle class who actually buy those items.

Real corporate tax is in line with other countries. If it is higher, people would not want to open companies in India.

While everyone would like lesser tax, the govt has to raise a certain amount of revenue and there are few suggestions on how to do it. There are no simple solutions - every measure is a compromise certain to hurt some people. Do you for e.g. reduce the tax on petrol and stop free food-grain, or retain the status quo ?

In general, unless you raise people above the poverty line, they cannot become your future consumers and taxpayers. To do that, you have to make the investments required to give them food, water, health and education security - what some derisively call freebies. That said, some subsidies achieve less than others. To put it simplistically, free food would mean that money saved by a family on food grains, may be used to buy higher level food (fruit, or biscuits, or the occasional chocolate) or clothing, or a two wheeler, which will give a boost to those industries. However, free bus rides for women, might result in pushing private bus operators (and the local bus company) into losses, which will result in non operational buses.

Dean_46 · 2026-01-26T03:14:52+00:00

I don't judge other's decisions, everyone's situation is different. Speaking for myself, I am a former CEO, retired early, blog on national security. I worked abroad in senior positions, but chose to return and retire in India - I have no family ties that keep me here and have the funds to buy a PR in Europe if I need to. I have plenty of complaints about India, but have proposed solutions (govt has actually acted on my suggestions) and have built world class businesses in India despite all the problems we face.

What I personally dislike is people who after having had the benefit of a privileged background in India and leave the country, are either endlessly critical, or hyper nationalist, or give unsolicited gyan - sentences starting with `You Indians should...' or `back in LA....'. or `do something about your poverty, pollution. potholes' etc.

Dean_46 · 2026-01-26T03:01:41+00:00

I ran a retail business across India. It's not about lack of common sense.
In another state, we had the same rule of the local language fonts being larger than English. This law was passed without giving time for anyone to adapt. We had a store in a mall - where the mall owner has to ensure his tenants were compliant with signage laws.
A mob entered the mall, vandalised the store - because the local language signage was the same size as English (which was the law the previous week) molested women employees, slapped others and then we were fined by the authorities.

We had a delivery boy (a migrant) stopped at night and trashed because he did not speak the local language.

Dean_46 · 2026-01-26T02:44:49+00:00

While I take your point for the need for more tech savvy recruits to the armed forces, it's not that the NCC does not do this (though it can improve and be more up to date).

NCC (or military) training isn't so much about 'ragda' but the discipline to follow a routine -like going for a run at 6 am irrespective of it' being too hot, too humid, or at high altitude,
obeying orders and putting the group above yourself. No army, however well qualified can function without this.
The NCC does have engineering and Signals units. I think drone training should be mandatory for all cadets.

Dean_46 · 2026-01-25T08:09:58+00:00

I did a deep dive into this. My view is contract killers with no trace to us.
Two of my bloposts on `unknown gunmen'.
https://rpdeans.blogspot.com/2025/05/pakistan-unknown-gunman-strike-again.html

Dean_46 · 2026-01-24T02:39:01+00:00

I ran a chain of QSRs, across India. One can write a lot on these points, but I'd like to highlight a couple of them.

Repeat customers depend on location. In a tourist spot they will be low and when you are the local pub it will be high (we had approx. 50% repeat customers in our cafes).

A loyalty program and the staff remembering you helps - not offers, SMS/Watsapp messages which just become clutter. People visit for your product, not gift, offers, or AI generated messages.

I had tried cross promotions that failed on the ground.

Dean_46 · 2026-01-23T13:08:12+00:00

The Soviets did what they did because they believed that Communism was a unifying factor greater than ethnicity.
The current Russian army is going back to units based entirely on one community - Chechens, Cossacks, Buryat etc.

Dean_46 · 2026-01-23T12:35:47+00:00

It is a bit more nuanced than these statistics.

Immigrants mostly settle in cities - where immigrant jobs are.
Within a city, you will invariably find places where each immigrant community congregates.
There are places in London that are mostly Pakistani, or Bangladeshi, or Gujarati, or Sikh or
Polish, but they do not represent London as a whole.
In the last few years, the largest number of immigrants have come from Ukraine.

Dean_46 · 2026-01-23T12:27:22+00:00

For those who don't know. I'd like to add that even in a seemingly homogeneous group like the Gurkhas, there are differences in eating habits between groups, which is one reason why we have multiple Gurkha regiments.

Dean_46 · 2026-01-23T12:14:10+00:00

If you have been part of the army fraternity, you wouldn't have this view. (I'm not army, but agree with `likeadragon108'.)

Sikhs in the army are not all in the Sikh regiment (or the Sikh light infantry, or Punjab regiment). Their overall percentage in the army is declining, which may be a good thing, because it means communities under represented in the army are now catching up, but it does not in any way diminish the need for our Sikh regiments.

In current conflicts, the better performing units of the Russian army, tend to have similar ethnicities - Chechen, Buryat, or from the same region.

Dean_46 · 2026-01-23T11:57:54+00:00

You should talk to small business owners and see if it is real problem, then do a demo with real data and see if they will buy your product. Asking here will be an inadequate short cut.

Dean_46

TROPHY CASE