Subtext by Zerodha

We cover:

- How the PLI scheme differs from India's historical approach to industrial incentives

- The tension between central and state-level policy in shaping manufacturing outcomes

- India's place in a world turning toward economic nationalism and protectionism

- The role of development finance institutions, the India-China dynamic, and green manufacturing

1:39 India's Industrial Policy in the Global Context

4:19 Centre vs. States: Fiscal Federalism & Industrial Policy

8:13 State Capacity: Tamil Nadu, Gujarat & Maharashtra Compared

13:14 How Sector-Specific Zones & Agglomeration Drive Growth

17:59 Why States, Not the Centre, Decide Where Investments Land

22:51 The PLI Scheme: How Conditionalities Shape Industrial Policy

29:24 Lessons from Japan's MITI & Korea's EPB

38:39 Authoritarianism & Industrial Policy: Separating the Myth

45:14 Competition Policy, Picking Winners & Disciplining Firms

53:33 Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) & the Licence Raj

1:08:02 Solar PV Manufacturing & Green Industrial Policy

1:18:07 India-China: FDI, Enclaving & the Geopolitics of Green Tech

1:23:13 Chinese FDI vs. Belt & Road: Why the Distinction Matters

1:27:32 The China Squeeze & India's Manufacturing Catch-Up

1:34:00 Export-Led Growth: Is the Playbook Still Valid?

1:31:44 Manufacturing vs. Services: Ha-Joon Chang vs. Dani Rodrik

1:34:53 India's Services "Resource Curse" & the Path to Global Champions

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We cover:

-Sell side vs. buy side: how each looks at quarterly results differently

-Should long-term investors even care about quarterly results?

-How to spot when management isn't telling the full truth — using numbers

-Cyclical vs. structural changes and why it matters for your thesis

-How to read sector trends across multiple companies

-Why "observations" aren't enough — the shift from observation to analysis

-How AI is changing the research process

-Whether you're an investor, a business professional, or just someone trying to stay on top of the Indian economy, this one's worth your time

2:52 Sell side vs buy side explained

6:34 Should long-term investors track quarterly results?

10:29 Cyclical vs structural stories

19:56 Buy-side process during earnings season

31:08 How earnings & valuation drive decisions

35:44 Catching management inconsistencies

57:45 One-time vs cyclical vs structural framework

1:08:44 Why everyone should read quarterly results

1:15:08 What journalists miss, what analysts overdo

1:22:12 How AI is changing research

We cover:

-What is the repo rate and why can't banks just borrow from RBI forever?

-Why banks' cost of funds has become delinked from the policy rate

-How liquidity (not just the repo rate) drives real interest rates

-The role of capital markets vs. banks in credit creation

-What the RBI's FCNR announcement really solved

-The future of Indian banking: securitization, efficiency & innovation

Timestamp: 

0:00 Introduction

1:10 Breaking Down the CNBC Statement

5:17 What Is the Repo Rate?

8:40 How Banks Fund Themselves

11:13 CASA Ratio Declining & Rising Funding Costs

14:55 Liquidity, Balance of Payments & RBI's Role

23:02 The FCNR Announcement Explained

29:40 NBFCs & Monetary Policy Transmission

39:18 Capital Markets vs Banking System

45:30 Future of Banking: Securitization & Innovation

We cover:

- Why 70% of earth is always covered by clouds — and why that breaks most satellite imagery businesses

- What synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is, and how it lets you see through clouds, fog, and even forests

- The $0 → launch journey: 5 years of R&D, drone testing, and programme management

- How GalaxEye miniaturised its sensor stack and tested it on drones before going to space

- The real customers for satellite data (hint: it's not farmers — yet)

- What it's actually like to book a launch on SpaceX and ship a satellite from Bangalore to Florida

- India's space policy reforms and the rise of IN-SPACe

- The one metric India's space ecosystem isn't tracking — but should be

If you've ever been curious about what it takes to send something into orbit and build a business around it, this one's for you.

Timestamp: 

0:00 Introduction

2:29 Why Would Anyone Start a Space Business?

4:02 The Origin Story

11:33 The Big Idea: Opto-SAR & Consistent Satellite Imagery

23:44 What You Can Unlock by Combining SAR + Optical

27:26 India's Space Policy Reform & The Rise of IN-SPACe

33:13 Building the Satellite: 5 Years from Idea to Orbit

46:50 Funding a Deep Tech Startup Before Revenue

52:13 How R&D Should Work in Indian Industry

47:06 The Real Challenges of Operating in Space

51:10 Booking a Launch with SpaceX

55:11 The Emotional Reality of Launch Day

1:06:44 Mapping India's Space Industry: Where We Stand

1:10:56 GalaxEye's Long-Term Vision

We discuss how RBI's 2022 interest rate deregulation gave lenders a freedom they arguably misused, why borrowers ended up with 14 loans simultaneously, how the JLG model is collapsing in the digital age, and what investors should actually look for before betting on an MFI stock.

If you want to understand credit cycles from first principles, this one's for you.

Video Mentioned -

Has the microfinance credit cycle turned? | Who said what? S2E37

1:38 What is Microfinance? (RBI Definition & Categories)

6:16 Why Microfinance is Prone to Credit Cycles

16:12 The Role of Fintechs & Hidden Credit Exposure

21:15 JLG Model Breakdown & Digitization

25:42 Interest Rate Deregulation & the Recent Credit Crisis

34:42 What Investors Should Look For in MFI Lending

40:07 The Future of MFI: Business Correspondents & New Models

Brad W. Setser, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and one of the most respected voices on global capital flows, joins us for a wide-ranging conversation on what is driving the dollar today, why China's export boom is a problem for the whole world, and what happens if the AI bubble bursts.

Timestamp: 

0:00 – Introduction

2:38 – History of Dollar Strength & What Drives It

5:26 – AI & Private Capital Flows into the US

9:08 – Strait of Hormuz Crisis & Oil Markets

12:49 – UAE Leaving OPEC: What It Signals

15:21 – Why Surplus Countries (China, Korea, Taiwan) Keep Buying Dollars

19:23 – Origins of Export-Led Growth: Asia's Dollar Accumulation

27:38 – What Should China Do to Fix Its Imbalances?

34:24 – Is Export-Led Growth Still Viable?

39:31 – Deglobalization: Is It Actually Happening?

45:45 – Trump-Xi Summit: Who Has the Leverage?

48:44 – Trump's Industrial Policy vs. Biden's CHIPS Act

52:42 – Brad's Experience Translating Research into Policy

56:07 – How Countries Creatively Reroute Trade & Hide Capital Flows

In this episode of Subtext, we sit down with Zohra Khan, CEO & Founder of IPEC India - a power electronics company building EV chargers for the Indian market.

We cover:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zohra-khan-889a8a14a/

Time Stamps:

0:00 – Introduction to IPEC & Zohra's Background

2:46 – How EV Chargers Work & What Differs Across OEMs

5:34 – Bottlenecks for EV End Consumers (Home vs Public Charging)

9:29 – Charging Protocols & Standardisation (CCS2, OCPP, OCPI)

11:49 – The LEAF Consortium & Two-Wheeler Standardisation Efforts

14:36 – AI & Innovation in EV Charging (Miniaturisation, Bidirectional Charging)

22:11 – Indian Power Grid & DISCOM Challenges

27:54 – Single Phase vs Three Phase for Home EV Charging

31:00 – Transformer Bottlenecks & Dynamic Load Management

34:03 – Why Indian-Made Chargers Outperform Foreign Ones

43:39 – Supply Chain & Localisation: What's Hard to Make in India

57:28 – Risk of OEM Backward Integration

63:23 – IPEC's Vision & What's Ahead for FY2027

0:00 Introduction

2:10 History of Copper Rallies (Last 25 Years)

2:22 China Industrialization Demand Shock (2000–2007)

4:48 Current Cycle: AI, EVs & Electrification

5:50 Falling Ore Grades — The Structural Supply Problem

7:14 Why Supply Takes So Long to Catch Up (5–15 Years)

13:48 Who Profits Most When Copper Prices Rise?

22:03 Global Mining Consolidation (Glencore, Rio Tinto, BHP)

25:11 Environmental Constraints on Copper Mining

27:33 CBAM & the Green Copper Future

30:19 India's Listed Copper Companies

32:47 How to Play the Copper Theme (Portfolio Strategy)

37:41 Sterlite Shutdown & India Becoming a Net Importer

42:44 Adani's Copper Plant Timeline (2029–2031)

46:01 India's Long-Term Mining Strategy

📄 Read the Bain India VC Report 2026 to dig into the data behind this conversation - India Venture Capital Report 2026 | Bain & Company 

0:00 Introduction

3:55 About the Bain VC Report

6:08 How the Data Is Sourced

11:16 Who Funds Indian VC — Global vs Domestic LPs

13:00 Why Family Offices Are Betting on VC

15:03 The 2020–22 Vintage Problem

20:48 How the VC Ecosystem Has Matured Since 2021

27:49 VC vs Family Office — What Founders Should Know

34:37 What Goes Wrong in Founder-Investor Relationships

40:12 Best Sectors to Build in for the Next 10 Years

46:25 What India's Startup Ecosystem Is Missing

57:24 Is Entrepreneurship Spreading Beyond Top Cities?

1:00:26 2025's Surprise: VC Grew While Broader PE Cooled

1:01:46 Is Global Macro Affecting Indian VC?

1:05:08 Where Private Valuations Are Correcting

1:06:46 Quick Commerce & Shifting Consumer Behaviour

1:08:44 VCs Betting on Physical Businesses

1:20:18 AI's Impact on Software & Enterprise

1:25:38 Bain vs Bain Capital — Are They the Same?

In this episode we explore:

How Trump's tariffs reshaped the global order — and why every major economy (except China) surrendered

The Supreme Court ruling on tariffs and what it means for India's ongoing US trade deal negotiations

Section 301 investigations: naked bullying or legitimate trade pressure?

India's energy sovereignty dilemma — should we have continued buying Russian oil?

Why India's trade agreements are peripheral — and what actually drives export competitiveness

The product gap: why India excels at assembly but falls short on deep manufacturing

China's $110B+ trade surplus with India — a problem of low exports, not high imports

WTO's slow death and the shift toward coalition-based trade rules

What India must do: reverse engineering, anchor firms, and plug-and-play industrial clusters

This conversation spans India's trade history from the pre-liberalisation era to today — and makes the case that trade deals are the periphery; the real battle is product development and industrial depth.

0:00 – Intro & teaser highlights

0:48 – The fracturing of the rules-based trade order

1:56 – Guest intro: Ajit Singh (GTRI)

3:16 – Trump's biggest contribution to trade literacy

4:32 – Why every major economy surrendered to Trump

6:45 – India's strategy in a fragmented world

9:23 – Recap: One year of Trump tariffs

15:42 – India's sovereignty dilemma: Russian oil & the US trade deal

20:32 – India's FTAs: 23 agreements and what they actually achieve

28:20 – Trade deals are peripheral — product quality is what matters

37:05 – India–China trade: $110B deficit explained

40:48 – What India must prioritise to become competitive

45:38 – The WTO: history, decline, and uncertain future

52:46 – Inside a trade negotiation: what really happens in the room