DeansMusings

 I decided to write this, based on questions asked on startup forums, seeking what I would consider basic information required to startup and how one can acquire the skills required to startup. Quite often an aspiring promoter asks for example how he can acquire startup skills, if they are not from a premier college associated with startups, or how one can get knowledge of areas like valuation, or building an app, or a shareholder frugal innovation. A lot of this info is available online for free. After trawling through various sources, I have compiled this list of courses, podcasts and e-books to help in your startup journey. Podcast Series – These are intended for people with basic knowledge of startup terms and the Indian startup ecosystem. 1. The Indus Valley report 2025 and its interpretation. This is a fine overview of the Indian market from a VC perspective. Blume venture has put their report in the public domain. https://blume.vc/reports/indus-valley-annual-rep...

Six weeks after operation Sindhoor, the narrative in India, is still about how many aircraft India lost, ignoring weather or not the primary and secondary objectives of Operation Sindhoor were met, or how many aircraft Pak may have lost. I have covered this in some detail in my earlier post on Operation Sindhoor. https://rpdeans.blogspot.com/2025/05/operation-sindhoor-what-we-dont-realise.html Suffice to say that what matters in a battle is weather the objectives were met. A secondary consideration, is the cost – both human and material, in achieving that objective. Our objective was the destruction of 9 terrorist facilities. That was done, with a heavy loss of life among the terrorists and supporters, with no human loss on our side. Pakistan’s objective, which was to either deter us from attacking, or, if India did attack, either clear people from the targets and/or defend against the aircraft and missiles sent against them. That failed.   The secondary objective of India was...

I had earlier written about how `unknown gunmen’ were killing off leading figures among Pakistan’s terrorist groups and speculated that RAW was doing things that hitherto were associated only with agencies like Mossad. My reasons for believing that India had contracted out the killing of these high value targets, rather than them falling out with their handlers in Pakistan’s ISI, or inter-group rivalry were: - Several of those killed were among India’s most wanted, protected by the ISI. The loss in morale to the  group was costlier than any gain to the ISI from dispensing with that person. - People across terrorist groups were killed, so it was not as if the ISI was trying to cut one group down   to size. Nor to the groups have a history of inter group killings. - Some of those were low level operatives, but of particular importance to India. For e.g. the abductor     of Cdr. Kulbhshan Jadhav, the person responsible for beheading an Indian soldier etc (who was a...

 I decided to write this after seeing a flood of articles, videos and social media discussion on Operation Sindhoor. A lot of it either focussed on the wrong subject – possible Indian aircraft losses, or does not put the operation in context, or speculates on why we agreed to a ceasefire – with the underlying assumption that Pakistan, or at least its air force, could have been finished off if the conflict had continued. Operation Sindhoor has to be evaluated in terms of its context, what its objectives were, the extent to which they were achieved and what our alternatives were at each stage of the conflict.   Background : In 1991, at the time India started economic reform and Pakistan chose an Islamist path, Pakistan’s GDP was 27% of India’s. At the time of the Kargil war in 1999, it was 20.7% of India. In 2025, Pakistan’s economy is projected to be just 9% of India’s. At current rates of growth, in 2031, Pakistan’s GDP will be 7% of India’s. In other words, India will sta...

 A fellow war analyst, `Big Serge’ has just come out with a more complete summary of operations so far this year, than my previous article, where I anticipated a big Russian spring offensive. I can do no better than reproduce his article, here. His maps are more reader friendly and conclusions mirror mine, albeit presented in a more systematic way with a greater focus on the more important sectors of the front. https://substack.com/home/post/p-159755536 I wanted to write this to share data that has validated the assumptions I have made throughout this conflict and share new data which explains the shape this conflict is taking. A word about my sources. I rely on data more than opinions. The Ukrainian/Western side tends to mention similar statistics – not surprising since most Ukrainian channels were funded by the same source (USAID) and western channels quote them. Even when their data is obviously wrong e.g. a reporting higher casualty figure than the entire combat strength of...