Reviving Darjeeling | @dorjeteas | Creating Abundance | @altcarbonindia | Making Progress | @altermagindia

Selim Hill, Darjeeling
The Age of AI demands planetary-scale Carbon Dioxide removal. @AltCarbonIndia is using volcanic rock dust to geochemically pull carbon out of the atmosphere — and we just proved it works at scale. The world's largest issuance of carbon credits through Enhanced Rock Weathering. ~10,000 tonnes of CO₂ removed. Enough to offset a small AI data centre. India has a history of scientific breakthroughs that stun the world — across medicine, space exploration, energy, & financial inclusion.🇮🇳 Climate Change is the most significant existential threat to our species. It demands Himalayan Ambitions. We're moving mountains to make that happen. Literally.
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darjeeling breakfast club
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happy diwali!!! a 🪔 for our new plant!
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NDA seat share in 2014- Maharashtra: 41/48 Rajasthan 25/25 Gujarat: 26/26 MP: 27/29 Bihar: 28/40 Chatt: 10/11 Assam: 7/14 Haryana: 7/10 Jharkh: 12/14 Karnatka: 17/28 Forget abt UP, what I cant understand is how will @BJP4India hold on to such numbers in ANY 1 of these states?
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Everyone needs a monsoon in Darjeeling
Everyone needs a fall in the states
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Behind the scenes from our Shark Tank India pitch! Story #2: @vineetasng’s Ultimatum; & the value of pivoting at the right moment. @sharktankindia @SonyLIV @DorjeTeas
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Today @AltCarbonIndia launches @AlterMagIndia-- a monthly publication bringing to the world new literary writing on science, technology, & progress from South Asia. A quarter of humanity live in the Indian subcontinent, undergoing one of the fastest economic & technological transitions in history. While the subcontinent faces its own existential crisis from the social alleviation of poverty to managing the deluge of climate change, it’s also pioneering the codes underlying new payments infrastructures and the rockets enabling us to become a multi planetary species. The future is happening here. It calls for a platform for India’s scientific and literary communities to birth, debate, and publish new ideas. Alter Magazine is dedicated to providing ink, paper, & screen pixels to these intellectual entrepreneurs imagining alternative futures. Every month, we will publish one long-form, deeply researched, and beautifully designed piece. Each story will shift how readers see our vast and diverse subcontinent, bringing to you contemporary geniuses, cutting-edge ideas, and pathbreaking discoveries. This is a living journal documenting the dreams and dilemmas shaping our subcontinent’s aspirations for progress, the attempt to blend together tradition & technology to undertake development, capturing the region’s herculean effort to undertake advancement not just for itself, but to help write the next chapter of long-term planetary evolution. We believe that a world of abundance is possible. It requires audacious thoughts & imaginative action— led by scientists, reasoned by philosophers, imagined by artists, implemented by technologists, debated by citizens and realised for everyone. Alter Magazine will document the stories & pursuits of all those working towards this shared vision — answering the question posed by one of India’s founding fathers at the stroke of the midnight hour: “The future beckons to us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavour?” Watch out for Issue #1: The Secret History of Indian Science Fiction. altermag.com/
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@AltCarbonIndia is creating a visual language for Indian Dynamism
Whose doing Bharatiya Aesthetics like us?
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I went to Oxford for grad school post Ashoka and chose to come back and revive our heritage tea garden in Darjeeling. All because the Ashoka Education/Professors instilled a sense of curiosity, responsibility & moral compass. This “western focused” education argument is bogus.
@sbikh Ashoka education is too expensive for the majority of Indians and too elitist.Focused fully on the west as if preparing Indians for the US. You need to have much more scholarships and create stars for India not students who aspire for the US-See Ashoka as a stepping stone
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Let me go collect all the possible degrees in the world from SOAS, Cambridge, Harvard etc, add it to my Twitter profile bio, continue working abroad, but for virtue signalling purposes, take a dump on Ashoka University. To put it politely, please fuck off
I'm slightly confused / alarmed at the make up of the faculty of Philosophy Dept at Ashoka Univ. - In India. Can someone explain please? . ashoka.edu.in/roles/faculty/…
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“This makes no sense whatsoever. This bag just got x-rayed and now it going through a manual check.” @willdepue
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Day 4 of the Discovery of India Trip. Featuring Bangalores startup ecosystem, speculations about Indian AI, monkeys and universities, beers, biryanis, and new beginnings, Deccan monsoons and advanced R&D. 🧵
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If you’re an artist- writer, musician, painter, ecologist, filmmaker— and you’d like to do a residency at Second Chance House, Selim Hill, write to me at sparsh@dorjeteas.com.
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very important as a founder to find a partner who is willing to support the mission and focus on the bigger picture
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There’s something that just doesn’t sit right with me when I see Indian brands celebrating the coronation of a King who’s not ours, belonging to a family we fought against, part of an institution that we’ve now removed in our own land, & from a country that once ruled over us!
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Darjeeling’s Final Harvest. 🧵 In today’s @htTweets Op-Ed section, I wrote about the perilous situation facing Darjeelings heritage tea gardens. And what we can do to help fix it. (1/n)
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Day 5 of the Discovery of India Trip Featuring early morning flights, field visits, lush tea estates, CO2 removal in action, jazz, Bombay, and a lot of reflection.
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A good time to bring this back up. An institution that has been a significant contributor to India’s growth story is facing very unfair and high handed vitriol for very petty reasons. Truly sad to see the forced bankruptcy of Indian policy and scholarship that is underway.
'Demise of Centre for Policy Research will be India’s tragedy. Here’s an insider history' @SparshAgarwall, MPhil student in International Relations at Oxford University formerly with @CPR_India, writes #ThePrintOpinion bit.ly/404m0vU
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"For many like me, who were moulded by @CPR_India's walls that whispered to us about our intellectual responsibilities, & its faculty members who taught us to think deeply, read widely, & discuss freely, it will be akin to losing a hospice & family." I wrote for @ThePrintIndia
'Demise of Centre for Policy Research will be India’s tragedy. Here’s an insider history' @SparshAgarwall, MPhil student in International Relations at Oxford University formerly with @CPR_India, writes #ThePrintOpinion bit.ly/404m0vU
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Darjeeling just hosted the first ever Carbon Removal (CDR) conference in the Global South. Here’s a thread with the key highlights from @FuturesSummit 🧵 ⬇️
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marrying science with art
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Happy Diwali from Darjeeling! A year of new beginnings.
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Very excited to pitch @DorjeTeas on @sharktankindia this January!
The Sharks are here! Watch #SharkTankIndia season 2 from 2nd Jan, on Sony LIV and Sony Entertainment Television.
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Last night some of us painted the rather dull pathways leading to Ashoka’s classrooms with the Ashokan pillar, the tricolour, poetry verses & emblems of Nehru, Gandhi and Ambedkar. In the morning we see the admin has had it washed away. How paranoid can you be @AshokaUniv?
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A Historic Milestone in India–Japan Climate Cooperation 🇮🇳🤝🇯🇵 We are honoured to share that the @AltCarbonIndia × Mitsubishi Corporation joint MoU on durable carbon removal efforts via the Darjeeling Revival Project was highlighted on yesterday’s historic India–Japan Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM) deal under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement (of the UNFCCC) 🌏 This milestone reflects the vision and leadership of Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi and Prime Minister @shigeruishiba-san, who continue to strengthen the India–Japan climate corridor. This moment marks more than recognition - it reflects how as both nations deepen climate cooperation, flagship projects like ours are helping shape the pathway forward. The Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM) will unlock new investment flows, technology transfer, and capacity-building support for low-carbon technologies — backed by Japan’s announcement of a ¥10 trillion private investment target for India over the next decade. It will also enable the international trading of carbon credits under Article 6.2, allowing high quality carbon offsets from India to transfer into the Japan ETS. This will be a major milestone for climate finance to transfer to India! The Alt Carbon × Mitsubishi Corporation partnership is a direct embodiment of this vision — bringing together India’s pioneering field operations and Japan’s global industrial leadership to deliver high-quality, permanent carbon removal credits through Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW). A sincere note of gratitude to the leaders driving this partnership forward: Shri @byadavbjp (Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change), Mr. Tanmay Kumar (Secretary, MoEFCC), Ms. @nameetaprasad (Joint Secretary, MoEFCC), Ono Keiichi-san (@JapanAmbIndia). To know more about the India–Japan Climate Corridor around carbon removal, join us at Alt Futures 2025, this October in Bangalore & Darjeeling: altfutures.in/
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thrilled that my college roommate @jyotishankar_n and I received acceptance letters from the same grad school on the same day some respite in the time of a pandemic
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TLDR - My family owns and manages the heritage Selim Hill Tea Garden in Darjeeling. In a bid to rescue it from total collapse, we have launched Dorje - a D2C Darjeeling Tea brand which works on subscriptions. Read on for how and why we began (/n)
We realised that the legacy and romance of Darjeeling, and the journey it signifies, is best represented in the symbol of its famous Toy Train (DHR). We are hoping to bring about a renaissance in Darjeeling Tea consumption in India. All aboard our Tea journey!
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Can Carbon Removal (CDR) revive Darjeeling's heritage tea gardens & provide India with a new manufacturing sector opportunity 🧵⬇️
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Day 3 of Discovery of India Trip Featuring Bangalore, space entrepreneurs, Indian unicorns, digital public infrastructure, dosas and voter fraud rallies.
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Why Agriculture is Art. A thread about Darjeeling's most exclusive, expensive, and exquisite Teas. 🧵
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So glad to announce our Seed Round for Dorje Teas has successfully been led by @blinkdigi’s Coast Fund VC. Here’s how @NakuulMehta and others joined our round! 🧵
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Asia’s first Enhanced Rock Weathering Project receives validation! Merely 18 months after @curioushrey & I started @AltCarbonIndia, our Darjeeling Revival Project has been validated by @Isometric_HQ. To put it in context-- this has NEVER been done before in India. We have worked closely with leading labs at @iiscbangalore & @AshokaUniv to make this a reality. This will now act as a catalyst for many more high quality projects to come up, mobilising climate finance by channelling India's natural advantages and scientific talent. To transform South Asia into the global hub for CDR. We're in the business of creating corals from clouds. Watch out for our deliveries coming up soon! registry.isometric.com/proje…
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Behind the scenes from our Shark Tank India pitch! Story #3: why @peyushbansal invested in @DorjeTeas. It wasn’t because of our storytelling! @sharktankindia @SonyLIV @vineetasng @AnupamMittal #SharkTankIndia
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This to me is the most important grand strategy advice that the West needs to arrive at somehow. The ideal case scenario a la Mearsheimer and Cohen.
Replying to @ThreshedThought
But there is something huge that the West can do to help this transition. The West needs to make a big-hearted, open and sincere offer to Russia. Join our clubs. Revitalise your European side. Bit like they did to Eastern Germany and Eastern Europe.
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Just another day in Paradise. At Selim Hill Tea Garden, sipping on @DorjeTeas’ fine First Flush harvest!
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Delivered my first lecture yesterday for @Mahmudabad's class. I covered Islamic Art and the spiritual unity undergirding it. Would just like to take this opportunity to apologize to all those professors who I've bitched about in the past. Damn that was tough!
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i've probably spent more time trying to get a shenghen visa appointment in london than on my thesis
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India's Leading Carbon Summit. Day 1. Bangalore. 500+ participants. Featuring international CSOs, leading deep tech startups, the global CO2 removal industry, and India's sharpest investors. 🧵
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This week I spoke to @humza_jilani of @TheEconomist to draw attention to the existential crisis facing Darjeeling Tea: 1. Proliferation of fake ‘Darjeeling tea’ from Nepal 2. Climate Change 3. Lack of appetite from govt and planters to work together economist.com/the-economist-…
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Final Day of the Discovery of India Trip Featuring Himalayan monsoons, windy roads, the toy train, tea tasting, wild hikes, unpeeling caste and entrepreneurship, Indo-Chinese cuisine, mango wars, bitcoin hype, and final goodbyes.
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Remains my favourite moment from Edge of Democracy. What an absolute political icon for having the courage to go to jail to maintain integrity to the democratic system, however unjust it was to him. To come back from jail and come back to power through the right electoral way!
our fight is in search of spring
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Hot take— I hate YouTube shorts. It really has destroyed the library of passion projects, niche ideas, and random rabbit holes that YouTube search could lead me down. Now every time I search for anything, I’m blasted with ads, AI slop and random shorts. Ughhh
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A giant leap for India’s spacetech ecosystem; merely a small step for the folks at @PixxelSpace. Electric atmosphere as the Fireflies take flight here in the Bangalore HQ of @awaisahmedna @kshitijgokul brainchild
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A touching tribute in todays TOI to the Raja of Mahmudabad, may he rest in peace. Almost exactly 5 years ago, we were hosted by him to observe Muharram— a life changing experience. He was a kind man with the heart of a king, the words of a poet, & the mind of a scientist.
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India's Leading Carbon Summit. Day 2. Darjeeling. Invite Only. 50 of the world's leading scientists, technologists, and carbon removal buyers come together. On the Foothills of the Himalayas. Tradition & Technology. Science & Storytelling. 🧵
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Passing through @AshokaUniv today. What a delight to see the campus finally fully constructed!
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This is the mode adorable thing you'll see all day-- @AshokaUniv professors @KrantiSaran @pbmehta @DubeySiddhartha @maya206 @AshwDeshpande @PramathSinha recreate John Lennon's Imagine in this video. piped.video/TAeCUFYKqZw
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“I didn’t expect to be asked so many profound questions about Nazi Germany when I was coming to India. Just leaving it out there in the room.” @adam_tooze at the @CPR_India Dialogues, in conversation with @pbmehta.
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My brother's climate tech company Alt Carbon is hiring for the Founder's Office. Primary responsibilities: Partnerships/Sales, Stakeholder Management, Product Management, Policy & PR (and creating lots of ppts). If you're from the think tank/policy world, you'll fit right in
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I spoke to the @FinancialTimes about the need to create a Futures market for Tea. The financialization of CTC teas can be a game changer. We need to price the commodity in the face of huge volatility that is staring us in the face due to climate change: ft.com/content/fc0d9bbc-8808…
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Tonight at 10 PM on @SonyLIV!
We're all set to pitch to the Sharks tonight! Keep an eye out for #Dorje at 10 pm! Watch #SharkTankIndia season 2 tonight at 10 pm Sony LIV and Sony Entertainment Television. #SharkTankIndiaSeason2 #SharkTankIndiaS2onSonyLIV #SharkTankIndiaS2onSonyEntertainmentTelevision
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should we rebrand?
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Day 1 of the Discovery of India Trip was off to a great start. Featuring the finance ministry, bful frescoes, interactions with the chief economic advisor, understanding how AGI might impact the Indian economy, and trying to navigate India’s North & South Blocks.
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I’m constantly in awe of India’s space ecosystem. My sense is that the following few factors have led to its outsized growth unparalleled compared to other sectors. 1. Bridging the industry-academia divide: I see it every day with @AltCarbonIndia, which is based out of India’s premier research institute (@iiscbangalore) that there is a clear looking down upon industry collaboration within academic circles. Plus, industry is also unable to find flexible ways to involve academia, putting in long term R&D capital to take moonshots. Space sector under the institutional guidance of @isro, @DRDO_India, @IndiaDST and its veterans has been able to expertly bridge this. I have a theory here: if ISRO was still housed within an academic institution instead of being neighbours of IISc, space sector might not have grown as fast. 2. Rise of Engineer-Scientists: India’s science ecosystem doesn’t prepare it for innovation and breaking rules. Whereas, the engineering pedagogy, institutional support and ecosystem effects have made them more conducive to reinvent sectors. We saw this in the space sector in the US and this can now be seen in india as well. One of the corollaries to this is also that scientists inherently require super specialised and longue duree training whereas engineers can be younger and therefore more prone to taking risks (second part is a hypothesis) 3. space is inherently sexy: i remember attending @PixxelSpace's satellite launch in january. Man, it was so exciting! Climate is inherently a doom and gloom sector for most. Manufacturing sounds boring (shoutout to @MuddaKaushik and the Ethereal team). But space— now thats a great flex at cocktail parties. it also attracts the most curious science fiction types in india: something that i feel is so sorely lacking in the general bangalore startup ecosystem. Anyway— best of luck to the Pixxel team (@awaisahmedna @kshitijgokul) on yet another upcoming launch. Godspeed fireflies!
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Can’t believe that this is the last week of undergraduate classes. Can’t believe that this is how we get to say goodbye to our professors, the classrooms we’ve spent so much time in, and our batchmates who we might never see again. The absurdity of it all is killing me.
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And now begins the propaganda…
CPR, that has been raided today by I-T, funded by Ford, Omidyar, Namati etc headed (CEO & Dir) by Yamini Aiyar, daughter of INC leader Mani Shankar Aiyar. CPR only aim to target economy & governance policies by Modi govt to push in other direction.
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Seeing the entire Team Indra Dhanush (Operations) from @AltCarbonIndia in the Bangalore office for the first time!
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From India all the way to the US, cutting through populist regimes in Brazil, Philippines, Hungary, Israel, Turkey and Britain: Elect a pyromaniac, expect a fire.
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Professor Vinay Sitapati's last advice to his Comparative Politics students: Take Professor @NeelanjanSircar's classes!
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Rameshwaram Cafe in the morning— game changer for Bangalore airport. Also— absolute recipe for almost missing your flight!
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Come work at @AltCarbonIndia. We like to read even on flights (especially on camera) altcarbon.notion.site/Alt-Ca…
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In this week’s The Intelligence Podcast by @TheEconomist, I was invited to speak about the fable of Darjeeling’s best kept secret: the Full Moon White Teas. Thanks to @humza_jilani for highlighting Darjeeling’s great threats. 24:00 mins onwards: open.spotify.com/episode/1d6…
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There is a major labour exodus from Maharashtra to UP/Bihar on the cards if the government doesn’t lockdown immediately. Covid 19 is going to travel through India’s railways to the rural sector. If this spillover isn’t stopped it’s going to wreck havoc for us. #Coronavirus
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Yesterday at @OxfordUnion, we presented @DorjeTeas’ catalogue of fabulous Darjeelings. Is it the greatest (worth acknowledging, quite bloody) legacy of the British Raj? @HamidMirPAK while debating in the Chambers right after, seemed to agree! @AkhiPill @ptrmadurai @aryandroz
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India’s Leading Carbon Summit. Final Day. Darjeeling. Indian Dynamism. Bengal Renaissance. Darjeeling-Climate Action Labs. Building the Future. 🧵
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celebrating my best friend’s bday today. one can never take anything for granted. @zainabeff
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ok just reached sf, gotta dress down asap else my company’s valuation might tank
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Over the last 24 hours, many of you have reached out to @curioushrey and myself, wanting to know more about @AltCarbonIndia We've decided to publish our manifesto, as well as our operating principles, for you to read. 🧵
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Ppl need to come to terms with the fact that they’re a lot of mediocrity in Indian academia and simply being westernphobic is merely an exercise in intellectual shallowness
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get yourself a team like @AltCarbonIndia nothing else matters
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Today at the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore. India’s leading Climate Tech Summit. Hosted by @AltCarbonIndia. Pop by if you’re around! luma.com/slybtciy
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The govt would do well to remember Louis Pasteur’s words: “Gentlemen, it’s the microbes who will have the last word,” & plan for the inevitable, instead of deluding itself that imm checks can prevent the disease from entering. I co-write for @the_hindu. thehindu.com/opinion/open-pa…
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keh do hawa badal raha hai bahaar jaldi naye rang le aayega
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I just hope ⁦@AshokaUniv⁩ doesn’t ever have to put out an ad like this…
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Darjeeling & Champagne, Crisis & Crossroads. 🧵 ⬇️ about the crisis facing India’s most recognisable export. And what can the Treaty of Versailles teach us! theprint.in/opinion/darjeeli…
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Replying to @Mahmudabad
You don’t seriously expect factual accuracy from someone who’s bio has his upi id…
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how will future historians do archival work? will they sit and comb through twitter feeds of politicians? how will they make sense of the information overload that we have on a daily basis? or will they just relegate it to an AI system which deals with such things?
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Day 10/11 of our South Asia Field Trip: Featuring Khan Market & Pianoman, Old Dili and yellow autos, an enriching discussion with the ever audacious @CPR_India, Bharathnatyam at the IIC, gurudwaras, temples and masjids.
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Our house at Selim Hill Tea Garden, in Darjeeling, is called Second Chance House— a moniker for our mission to revive our family estate with @DorjeTeas!
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mensho tokyo near union sq is probably the best ramen ive had outside of japan at this point
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“We’re in the business of creating corals from clouds.” @AltCarbonIndia features in today’s @FinancialTimes. Thanks to @kenza_brya74393 for the feature. ERW has truly come of age. We will scale in the Global South. For our Planet.
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Happy to be the technical cofounder for @AltCarbonIndia
Best cofounder dynamic: One person is delusional The other is technical Both are loyal
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What an absolute privilege to have worked for Yamini at CPR. How I wish I could describe what an intellectually wonderful ecosystem this used to be. Every floor and every room had a national expert working on a different field, with open doors and broad minds! More power to you!
An absolute privilege to have lead & fought for this remarkable institution. CPR's fierce intellectual independence and democratic spirit have enriched me enormously. Delighted that @CPR_India leadership will now be in the very capable hands of my wonderful colleague Srinivas.
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could be us but u playin
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Just decided that the only reunion that I will ever go to in my life will be if @AshokaUniv decides to host a reunion for the first three batches, 20 years down the line. Those batches were as important as the red brick stones in helping materialise this monumental project!
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something is brewing 👀
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another Sunday, another futile attempt at trying to understand why @tavleen_singh has a column. Happy Diwali to all!
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Science. Technology. Progress. Bringing to you @AlterMagIndia. Incubated by the Climate Studio at @AltCarbonIndia. DM me if you want to see a sneak peak of our first article. Or if you're a writer looking for a space to publish long-form, non-fiction. Launching Soon!
Coming Soon. From the subcontinent for the world. #Altermagazine
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we actively do not accept Indri bottles as gifts at our house!
Yikes, he has a point! 😱
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How does a PM take 30 minutes to say nothing of consequence in the middle of a global pandemic
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A reminder to Ashoka's Founders, Management, and Trustees of their own words. Live up to them for god's sake. Universities are made of people, minds, souls, and hearts, not land or paper.
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Day 5 of our South Asia Field Trip, ft. Second Chance House, Darjeeling. Featuring drenched hikes, human Cluedo, misty morning & washed out days, an all day barbecue, local Phalle, Risk with IR students, and surprise last moment visitors.
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More like the sufi pir who guided us on the journey. Thank you so much for the mentorship, guidance, classes and all those Chinese meals that have made this possible!
During these trying times very proud of two Ashoka students who got into @UniofOxford to pursue their graduate degrees. I had the good fortune of travelling with them for part of their journey at @AshokaUniv! #GoodNews in the time of #Covid_19
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looks good on mobile too! alt-carbon.com/eli5/enhanced…
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What kind of a Prime Ministerial address requires these kind of clarifications.
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Discussing the future of US-India deep-tech innovation with Hon'ble Lok Sabha Speaker @ombirlakota ji. One of the highlights of the recent Discovery of India trip, that I was co-organising with @arjun_ramani3 & @arjunssoin was our Parliament Day. We had the opportunity to interact with first time MPs and seasoned cabinet ministers from across the aisle, during the course of the day. It was refreshing to see that there's a genuine curiosity to meet young people and discuss the state of technology with them. On a day when India was reeling with US tariffs, there was a people-to-people interaction taking place with young Indian startups founders working on the US-India corridor. The average age of our delegation was in the mid 20s. Despite our young age, as @KirenRijiju (Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs) was passing by, the Hon'ble Speaker asked him to join our discussion as well. Kiren ji not only joined us but participated vigorously in discussing the future of US-India startup partnerships with us as well. As I was telling Om Birla ji about the climate innovations that we are undertaking at Alt Carbon, he immediately asked me if our agricultural interventions can be brought to Rajasthan as well. This is the kind of dialogue and development that is needed to create abundance for India.
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Independence Day in Darjeeling.
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this is exactly why we started @AlterMagIndia!
The team @AlterMagIndia is creating a desi technoptimism magazine and I couldn’t be more excited. I’ve always held a certain reverence for scifi as a medium. I consider it a fundamentally important pursuit. Let me explain: As humans, we’ve crafted stories about every bit of the experience of being alive. Adventures and struggle, lands and oceans, wars and voyages. Real and fictional. We wrote about the past and the present, the shape of history and how we all got to where we are. But we didn’t write much about the future. It’s only a century ago, that we as a species had expanded our technological capabilities enough that we started wondering - where does this all go. Sure there were stories of voyages to the moon or mythological space creatures, but they always leaned more fiction than science till that point. But as recently as a century ago, we began writing in earnest, about where things go as our technological capabilities rapidly expanded, and we started on this exponent. Suddenly we were speaking about galactic empires and brain interfaces, machine men and automatons, fusion spaceships and healing tanks. We became so much more ambitious as a species. The futures we wrote directly shaped it into existence. We know because we live in it. With selfdriving cars and space stations, surgery robots and lunar landers, nuclear reactors and speaking computers. And a couple dozen robots sprinkled around the solar system right now. None of this is normal. Give it reverence for a second. Scifi is a fundamentally important pursuit because it lets you imagine better futures without some asshole ruining it with the current turmoil of earthly problems. Cause yk, it’s fiction, back off. Just solving for that clever little problem yeilds so much insight into what a brilliant future could look like, and what it’d take to create it. Cultivating this lens and viewing the world through it has been a great source of pleasure for me. I consider it deeply important. And I believe we should spread it fervently. To see scifi and technoptimsitic content from India, and seeing the stories being built right here told through that same lens, is really exciting. I’ll be tuning in.
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Day 1 of our South Asia field trip: Featuring mangoes, Trincas, chaats, Old Monk, Bhetki Paturi and good friends.
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Today we woke up to a delightful surprise. @DorjeTeas & Selim Hill Tea Garden have been featured in the @nytimes. Warms my heart to see Selim Hill Collective as the centrepiece which is made up of dear friends from across the world! In picture: our dear Second Chance House!
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I spoke to @b_parkyn of @FT about the crisis facing Darjeeling. The Tatas are the biggest buyers & their decision to blend Nepal teas has been a catalyst for the crisis. The solution is staring us in the face: estates need to go direct to consumers. enterprise-sharing.ft.com/re…
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