Ashish Sinha
A Founder. A ProductGeek. Working on AI * Customer centricity
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Articles by Ashish Sinha
Japan’s Wider Footprint
Japan’s corporate story in India is no longer confined to cars, motorcycles or industrial manufacturing. A new wave of Japanese companies is increasingly embedding itself in everyday consumption and high-technology businesses, responding to rising incomes, rapid urbanisation, digitalisation and growing demand for premium products. The shift is visible across seemingly unrelated categories. Daikin is expanding air-conditioner manufacturing and local R&D as India’s cooling requirements rise.
Japan’s Auto Advantage
Japanese automotive companies have done far more than sell cars and motorcycles in India. Over four decades, they have helped shape consumer expectations, establish modern manufacturing practices, deepen supplier networks and position the country as a production base serving international markets.
Understanding India, Creating Value
India and Japan have a long-standing relationship. How do you see this partnership evolving as India enters its next phase of growth and greater global economic significance? India and Japan have developed a strong and enduring relationship, supported by cultural affinity and a shared emphasis on quality, reliability and delivering value over the long term.
The India–Japan Reset - BW Businessworld
India and Japan are seeking to translate decades of diplomatic goodwill into a more ambitious economic partnership, with expanding trade, fresh investment commitments and cooperation in advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors and clean energy providing the foundation for the next phase of growth. The opportunity is substantial.
Announcing: AMA with Rajan Anandan
Fellas The AMAs are back. One of my core thesis is that the future of newsletters / podcasts, in an AI world, is going to be less about pure consumption and more about human connection and participation. Continuing with the thesis, happy to announce our first AMA - with Rajan Anandan, Managing Director at PeakXV and Surge (earlier led Google India/SEA, Microsoft, Dell). Rajan’s book - Lift-off nation is out (you should check it out).
Global Packaging Push
India’s packaging story is moving beyond bags, films and bottles to technologies that preserve products longer while reducing dependence on cold-chain infrastructure. Aseptic liquid packaging is emerging as one of the fastest-growing segments, giving Noida-based UFlex and its Aseptic Packaging Business housed under Asepto an opportunity to expand from a local manufacturing base into a global platform.
Legacy Meets Reinvention
The Indian textile and apparel industry is at an inflection point. With the global sourcing map shifting and buyers increasingly looking beyond traditional manufacturing hubs, India has an opportunity to capture more value in textiles, apparel, technical textiles and institutional wear.
Agents will dominate Internet actions: ChatGPT head
Tibo Sottiaux, who leads ChatGPT and Codex at OpenAI, oversees some of the company’s most impactful consumer launches, including the new Dots personal agent platform. Speaking on Lenny’s Podcast, Sottiaux shares his vision for the future of AI, where autonomous agents will dominate internet interactions and manual configurations will become obsolete.
The future of newsletters and podcasts
Two shifts are changing how people find and follow ideas. There are too many amazing podcasts out there that at times, one is often confused by so many choices (and frustrating to see the average length which is ~50 mins per episode) that summarising them is probably your best bet. Second, email is becoming a weaker signal of attention. Over the next six months, AI agents will increasingly read and filter emails and newsletters on our behalf.
The Human Edge - BW Businessworld
The future of work will depend not merely on how quickly organisations adopt artificial intelligence (AI), but on how effectively they equip employees to work alongside emerging technologies. For companies navigating rapid technological change, continuous learning, people-centric leadership and measurable inclusion are becoming central to workforce strategy.
RBI Turns Hawkish Again
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has broken a four-policy streak of holding rates, raising the repo rate by 25 basis points to 5.50 per cent and shifting its monetary policy stance from neutral to “calibrated tightening”. The move, the first rate increase since February 2023, comes as inflation risks have become harder to ignore, with crude oil prices elevated, the monsoon weaker than expected and global financial conditions tightening.
Personal AI is tech’s biggest JTBD bet.
Look at what the first wave of consumer AI went after - a lot of founders went after sexy stuff - AI companions, journaling bots and mental-wellness apps: soft products with no transaction anywhere in them. These were essentially a prompting machine and we all know what happened to most (the only ones that flourished were..soft p0rn companions).
From India To The World
For a global building-materials major like Saint-Gobain, India is no longer merely a high-growth market. It is becoming something considerably more strategic: a manufacturing base, innovation hub, export platform and increasingly important profit centre. The scale of the opportunity is reflected in a business that has quadrupled over the past decade and now sits among its parent group’s top five global profit centres.
‘India Continues To Be Underinsured’
HDFC Life and India’s private life insurance industry together have completed 25 years. What have been the achievements and what remains unfinished business? The transformation over the last 25 years has been remarkable. When private participation began, life insurance was still largely viewed through the prism of savings and tax planning. Today, the conversation has broadened considerably to protection against mortality and morbidity, longevity and interest rate fluctuation.
Building Better - BW Businessworld
On India’s Strategic Importance India is much more than a growth market; it is one of Saint-Gobain’s most strategic global platforms, combining scale, innovation, manufacturing excellence, sustainability and talent. It is among the Group’s fastest-growing and most profitable markets, with an ambition to triple revenue over the next decade while consistently outpacing India’s GDP growth.
ServiceNow launches AI-native ITSM solution..Is this Siebel 2.0?
Audio Player The tech world is rife with stories of incumbents launching internal challengers to combat agile startups. One of the more telling examples is Siebel’s attempt to fend off Salesforce by rolling out CRMOnDemand.What happened? Instead of solidifying their position, Siebel created chaos. With two teams competing for the same customers, confusion reigned. One team could win, but everyone lost in clarity.
Sachin Bansal On Building Big Businesses | UnPluggd Flashback
Sachin Bansal, founder @ Flipkart spoke on building big businesses at UnPluggd 2019, and who better than him to speak on this topic. In this episode of UnPluggd Flashback, you will hear Sachin’s advice to entrepreneurs on thinking big to build big businesses. So no matter at what stage you might be in your entrepreneurial journey, we’re sure you’ll find this gem useful.
On Sam, Dario and Prisoner’s Dilemma
01 Introduction Something quite strange happened last week. Anthropic’s Dario Amodei argued that AI companies need to “pace the frontier”, essentially slow down how quickly they make their most powerful models more capable. Sam Altman agreed with him. Think about that for a second. OpenAI and Anthropic are spending billions of dollars trying to beat each other. They are fighting for the same users, developers, talent and, ultimately, the chance to build AGI first.
Housing’s Great Squeeze
India’s housing market has reached an awkward but revealing point: demand is still healthy, prices are still rising, yet the homes many Indians can afford are becoming harder to build and buy. Across the top seven cities, residential sales fell 6 per cent year-on-year in Q2 2026 to about 90,715 units, while new launches rose 7 per cent to nearly 1.06 lakh units. Available inventory crossed 6.16 lakh units, up 10 per cent annually. Bengaluru’s inventory rose 34 per cent.
On Sam, Dario and Prisoner’s Dilemma
One headline, why believe it? Everybody wants to rule the world All for freedom and for pleasure Nothing ever lasts forever Everybody wants to rule the world [Tears for fears] Something quite strange happened last week. Anthropic’s Dario Amodei argued that AI companies need to “pace the frontier”, essentially slow down how quickly they make their most powerful models more capable. Sam Altman agreed with him. Think about that for a second.
Victoria’s Secret stock beats tech stocks and there is a strong consumer insights angle to it
Victoria’s Secret is benefiting from an unexpected effect of the GLP-1 boom: when customers lose weight, bras and underwear are often among the first items that need replacing. That has turned drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound into a potential demand driver for lingerie retailers. For apparel retailers, GLP-1 drugs are not only a story about consumers eating less. They are also creating a “wardrobe reset,” as customers whose bodies and sizes have changed buy clothes that fit again.
AI moderated interviews: consumers don’t mind being interviewed by AI [Report]
Consumer research has a trade-off. Surveys can reach thousands, but most answers lack depth. Human interviews provide the “why,” but they take time, cost money, and are hard to run regularly. AI-moderated interviews could reduce this gap. AI can conduct interviews faster, and consumers seem comfortable being interviewed by AI. A survey of roughly 300 respondents across the US and UK found that 73% of UK respondents and 76% of US respondents would regularly participate in AI-moderated research.
Premium Bets, Broader Horizons
On the structural tailwinds shaping India’s consumer story, and why the opportunity remains attractive India’s consumer economy is moving through a meaningful structural shift. Rising incomes, urbanisation and a growing middle class are expanding demand, while premiumisation is lifting both value and mix. Emami believes trusted brands, wider distribution and category expansion can help capture this recovery. The company’s rural reach is also strengthening as consumption patterns improve.
Leadership That Compounds
Leadership is often easiest to admire when markets are buoyant. Its real value emerges when demand shifts, costs rise and external shocks test the operating model. The leadership journeys featured here show how stable stewardship can absorb pressure while compounding growth and profitability. Dixon Technologies provides a telling example of leadership converting India's electronics opportunity into industrial scale.
Orders Meet Opportunity
India’s engineering and infrastructure-linked companies appear to be entering another leg of growth, and the interesting part is that the opportunity is no longer confined to government capex. Domestic infrastructure, power, manufacturing, data centres, railways, water projects and renewable energy are creating a broad pipeline, while overseas demand is adding another layer of opportunity.
The ₹100 hack that built NoBroker
Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -35:29 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Most companies building marketplaces struggle with one simple truth: demand and supply need to grow together, but early hacks often go unnoticed or unscalable. Amit, CEO and co-founder of NoBroker, reveals the counterintuitive lessons learned from disrupting the $50 billion real estate industry—lessons that could redefine how you think about scaling any marketplace.
Sam Altman: Most founders do fake work. Here is how to avoid.
Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -3:18 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade.
90% of consumer AI ideas will die (use this 2 X 2 to validate)
Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -4:27 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. 90% of consumer AI ideas look sexy but crash hard — most end up in the “tar pit” with zero real traction or revenue uplift. For e.g. that new ‘productivity app’, that ‘event discovery platform’ and an all-time fav, ‘friend finder’ :) In this video, I break down why so many consumer AI startups fail and share a realistic 2×2 framework that separates doomed ideas from winners.
The Enterprise software loop: ASP, SaaS, and the Dawn of Service as a Software
Thirty years of enterprise software history really boils down to the same struggle repeating itself: how do we deliver value without dragging customers through the operational mess behind it? ASP tried one answer. SaaS tried another. Now we’re in the third attempt — and this one genuinely changes the equation. Application Service Providers had a simple pitch: don’t buy software, just rent it over the internet. No CDs, no on-prem servers, no giant maintenance contracts. Pay monthly, we’ll run it.
Why customers aren't buying your sexy AI SAAS product?
You have a "God-level" product. Your pricing is perfect. Your UI is beautiful. So why aren't customers buying? In this video, Ashish breaks down the brutal reality of why great SaaS products fail—and it has nothing to do with your features.Most founders make the mistake of trying to change a company's behavior. In SaaS, if your customer doesn't already have an existing workflow for the problem you’re solving, you aren’t just selling a tool—you’re trying to change a culture.
Of Modi, Meloni, Melody and synthetic consumer research
In May 2026, a video featuring Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and Melody toffees gained attention on social media. Retail investors then bought shares of Parle Industries, mistakenly associating the listed company with Melody. However, Melody is made by Parle Products, a separate and privately held company. Parle Industries had no ties to the chocolate. The sequence was irrational but recognizable as human behavior: PM Modi gifts Melody to Italian PM.
Humans just replaced AI..in an iconic way
Once launched in 2025 as the first AI ad maker with a $12 million domain buy, Icon faced hurdles and has now raised $30 million to relaunch as 'The Human Admaker.' The startup’s major push in 2025 was that..they are replacing ‘expensive’ humans with AI. For $1,000, customers get six finished user-generated content ads made by real creators - no AI faces or voices - with script reviews, unlimited revisions, and full refunds if unhappy.
Earnings Find Momentum
India Inc. has entered FY27 with a familiar but increasingly reassuring narrative—resilience amid uncertainty. The April-June earnings season, covering most of India's top-50 listed companies, suggests corporate profitability remains firmly on course despite geopolitical tensions, volatile crude prices, uneven consumer demand and slowing global trade.
South India Export Leap
Ravichandran Purushothaman, President, Danfoss India on why South India stands at a pivotal manufacturing moment where trade, logistics and policy can unlock global competitiveness On South India's Manufacturing Opportunity South India is uniquely positioned to emerge as a global manufacturing powerhouse. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka already lead in electronics and precision engineering, while Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are strengthening pharmaceutical and semiconductor capabilities.
The Reset - BW Businessworld
India's logistics industry is entering a new phase where scale alone is no longer enough. Companies are increasingly betting on technology, integrated service offerings and operational efficiencies to protect margins even as geopolitical tensions, higher fuel prices and freight-rate volatility continue to test the sector.
Steady Rates, Strong Homes: RBI Rate Impact
The Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) on Wednesday kept the benchmark repo rate unchanged at 5.25 per cent for the fourth consecutive policy meeting while retaining its neutral stance, signalling that inflation risks remain manageable despite heightened geopolitical tensions and volatile crude oil prices.
Power After Sunset
India's renewable energy story has long been measured in gigawatts. Every few months, another record-breaking solar park, another ambitious government target or another investment announcement reinforced the country's determination to become a global clean-energy powerhouse. But as solar panels blanket deserts, rooftops and industrial campuses at an unprecedented pace, the country's biggest power challenge is quietly changing.
Building Workplaces Smarter
India's commercial real estate story is no longer just about taller office towers or record leasing deals. Increasingly, it is about what happens after the construction ends. As multinational corporations, Global Capability Centres (GCCs), engineering companies, financial institutions and flexible workspace operators expand their footprints, the focus is shifting to workplaces that are smarter, greener and delivered at speed.
Purpose-Driven Wealth
On Indian insurance sector's growth trajectory and key factors shaping its future For years, insurance in India was something you were sold, not something you sought out—a form filled once a year, more compliance than conviction. That's finally changing. Rising healthcare costs and weaker family safety nets are pushing people to think seriously about protection rather than simply ticking a box.
Roadblocks Beyond Records
India's automobile industry could hardly have asked for a stronger start to FY27. Passenger vehicles posted their best-ever first-quarter performance, two-wheelers extended their recovery and commercial vehicles regained momentum after months of uneven demand.
AI’s Physical Frontier
As AI evolves from software intelligence to autonomous real-world systems, enterprises must rethink technology investments, governance, and scale, Piyush Jha, Group Vice President and Head, APAC, GlobalLogic, tells Ashish Sinha. Excerpts of the interview How is GlobalLogic preparing for the next wave of AI-led enterprise transformation? AI has moved well beyond experimentation and is rapidly becoming the foundation of modern enterprises.
Buyback Boom - BW Businessworld
Share buybacks are making a strong comeback in India's corporate landscape, signaling a renewed focus on shareholder returns at a time when many companies are sitting on healthy cash reserves but facing uncertain growth conditions. The trend gathered pace in April and May 2026, with companies such as Wipro, Cyient, TeamLease Services and Aurobindo Pharma announcing buyback programmes worth thousands of crores of rupees.
Scaling Industrial Intelligence
As India pushes industrial expansion, platforms connecting innovators with enterprises are becoming vital, says Akarsh Hebbar, Chairman, V-Spark DeepTech Ventures and President, Vedanta Group On The Biggest Challenge Facing India’s Innovation Ecosystem… India is not short of ideas or entrepreneurial talent. The larger challenge lies in converting innovation into meaningful industrial impact.
The most important idea in AI isn’t a better model.
AI model providers have a structural incentive to migrate as much intelligence from enterprises into their model weights—the encoded intelligence of these models—as possible. Doing so allows them to lease your insights to competitors, maximize token usage, rent-seek on your high-margin workflows, or in the most extreme case: completely replace you. As the financial pressure to grow revenue mounts, model providers have already begun directly competing with their enterprise partners.
Monetising India's Highway Future
India's infrastructure story is entering a new phase. After two decades of building highways at unprecedented scale, attention is rapidly shifting towards unlocking value from these completed assets. As government finances come under increasing pressure from competing priorities, infrastructure monetisation is emerging as the preferred route to fund the country's next growth cycle.
Grid Growth Surge
India’s power transmission sector is rapidly evolving from a support function into one of the most critical pillars of the country’s economic transformation. As India pursues ambitious renewable energy targets, expands manufacturing capacity, builds data centres, electrifies transportation systems and develops semiconductor ecosystems, the demand for reliable electricity transmission is increasing at an unprecedented pace.
Of Meta, Kunal Shah..and is lending still a feature?
Everyone is talking about Kunal Shah becoming CEO of WhatsApp. I think they’re looking at the wrong story. The bigger story is that Meta suddenly needs WhatsApp to work. For years, WhatsApp has been one of the most successful products in the world. But it has also been one of Meta’s biggest unfinished businesses. Meta paid $19 billion for WhatsApp more than a decade ago. Yet WhatsApp still contributes a tiny fraction of Meta’s revenue (less than 2%). Now look at what’s happening elsewhere.
Solar Scale Shift
As India prepares for a sharp rise in electricity demand over the next two decades, new-age energy companies are moving from ambition to execution. Among them is LNK Energy, which has announced a Rs 10,000 crore investment plan and a strategy that goes beyond simply adding solar capacity. The company wants to build an integrated clean-energy platform at a time when policymakers and industry alike are asking a simple question: who can deliver reliable power, not just promises?
Do Not Publish: Climate Strategy Shift - BW Businessworld
David Kennedy, CEO, Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) on how India’s corporates are accelerating climate alignment, with science-based targets reshaping competitiveness and long-term business resilience On what is driving Indian companies toward science-based targets at this stage? India’s rapid economic expansion, deeper global integration, and rising exposure to international investors and value chains are making climate considerations central to business strategy.
Compliance-led Growth Shapes Greenply Strategy
Greenply sharpens capacity, compliance and portfolio strategy amid evolving demand dynamics, Manoj Tulsian CEO & Joint MD tells ASHISH SINHA. Excerpts: What drove improved capacity utilisation? Over two years, Greenply strengthened manufacturing, especially MDF. Vadodara capacity rose 25 per cent to 1,000 CBM daily within the same footprint, with utilisation at ~71 per cent till Q3 FY26 and full capacity expected next year.
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