“Customers don’t get why this change is happening so it hasn’t been a priority item for them,” Not sure what specific input is required from customers to tokenize their cards. Isn't this a simple 1-time step with every merchant? If the RBI mandates tokenization, why does the merchant need customer consent to tokenize? Also, why wait till all cards have been tokenized? Can't cards be tokenized on an ongoing basis once the system goes live? Quoting big numbers like 1 billion cards that need to be tokenized is misleading. Do we know the addressable market of cards that have been used at least once in the past 12 months for an online transaction? I suspect this would be a much smaller number and a more solvable problem!

Srikanth Rajagopalan

I for one am celebrating telcos being systematically dismembered and dying by a thousand cuts. Back in the early to mid 2000's, telcos were the sole gatekeepers between startups and our customers. Telcos would routinely make life hell for us - by refusing to whitelist our ips, demanding exclusivity, usurious commissions - one of them even had the chutzpah to demand an equity stake! What started with appstores and OTT apps is now gathering momentum. Full speed ahead for the challengers. The story of hubris and arrogance bringing down the mightiest needs to be told again and again and again!

Srikanth Rajagopalan

I detect a hint of sympathy for the laid-off employees in your story. Think again. I've seen people reject an offer or move on from company A that's growing sensibly, move to a "hot" startup at 1.5X the previous offer, get laid off within a year, and promptly ping back company A whether the position is still open - but expecting a hike on the 1.5X. If a few ups and downs can build commonsense and humility in jobseekers and the realization that nobody is indispensable, then good!

Srikanth Rajagopalan

Kudos for putting this together. Three industry segments are getting thrown under the bus in one big mess: edtech, fintech, and auditing. The sad part is that overall trust in the startup ecosystem is evaporating due to a few high profile scandals.

Srikanth Rajagopalan

Inspiring story, tells us what real grassroots entrepreneurship looks like.

Srikanth Rajagopalan

What do banks bring to the table that fintechs don't? Can they expand the market? Unlikely to be viable given the overheads of a branch-led model. And it may already be too late. For the past several months, I've been able to ride to the remotest corners of Karnataka, TN, and Kerala with just 500 rupees in my wallet, and didn't have to stop at an ATM or pull out my credit card even once. So if banks are going to chase the same merchants, is it enough to just bet on a single app for all payments? Isn't that what BharatPe already offers regardless of the payment instrument that the consumer uses? How is a bank's app different?

Srikanth Rajagopalan

The gist of the story is this: RBI is suddenly asking banks to do something completely new and unimaginable: think about the customer!!! I wouldn't shed a tear for banks. They've always earned rent on their favored and protected regulatory status. Now they're being asked to earn those rights. Time to grow up and stop complaining of "compliance overheads".

Srikanth Rajagopalan

"New teachers or those transitioning from coding had to pass a maths test ... the passing mark was reduced from 80% to 60% last year, because enough teachers weren’t qualifying." - wait a minute, can you code without knowing how to do your sums? Kind of like Wolf in sheep's clothing no?

Srikanth Rajagopalan

Fantastic, one of your best interviews to date. Keep up the good work, The Ken. A few nit-picks though - at some point, the magic of compounding will meet the reality of the base effect. Post the $10B milestone, even Infosys has settled into a 15-18% growth momentum. And while being publicly accountable and having long-term capital are lofty goals of going public, it comes with its treadmill of investor expectations and reactions - just look at IT stocks over the past few days!

Srikanth Rajagopalan

One of your most well researched stories so far. Keep up the good work!

Srikanth Rajagopalan

The most dangerous place on this planet is your own comfort zone. Kudos to the RBI for shaking things up. Especially in areas such as data privacy, access, and on-soil location, the RBI's efforts will ease the path to compliance with the Data Protection Bill when it gets enacted. Banks will thank RBI at that time for all the hustle they're going through now. Mr. Gandhi said it best - "time well spent".

Srikanth Rajagopalan

All recent tech IPOs are massive charities where investors subsidize customers at the whims of founders who haven't grown up to public scrutiny. Several questions arise about the role of the board of a publicly listed entity in rubber-stamping irresponsible decisions. If only India had a more robust investor protection and legal framework, Zomato and PayTM could've been classic case studies for class-action lawsuits by retail investors who're being taken for a (10-minute) ride.

Srikanth Rajagopalan