Thoughts can be all too powerful
July 4th 2005. While a country was celebrating independence, I was celebrating a different kind of milestone: my first day in the corporate world at Tata Elxsi. I walked into the office carrying a backpack full of computer science theory, a massive wave of imposter syndrome, and absolutely zero idea of what I’d actually be doing. The training programme was a daunting six-month long period and…
Ten startups, forty top-tier investors, and more than one hundred strategic connections forged in a single room. As Ruhbir , one of our volanteers and startup founder who pitched, aptly noted, the event successfully compressed twelve months of traditional ecosystem networking into a single evening. This was the high-impact reality of the inaugural Xoogler Demo Day in India. The initiative began…
The Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s decision to pull "Syrups" out of the exempted list under Schedule K of the Drugs Rules, 1945 , is easily one of the biggest regulatory shifts we’ve seen in years. By dropping the decades old exemption under the Drugs (Fifth Amendment) Rules, 2026 , the government has made it absolute: all liquid oral formulations now strictly require a doctor's…
If you’re looking for proof that the future of Indian innovation is bright, look no further than the NAIN 2.0 project. I recently got the chance to serve on the jury for this Karnataka government initiative, judging pitches from PES Mandya and JSS College Pharmacy, Mysore. Huge shoutout to the team at IIIT Bangalore for inviting me into this incredible program. It was a masterclass in spotting…
Stepping into Barcamp Bangalore for the 2026 Summer edition felt less like attending a conference and more like stepping into a nexus point where the future of technology converges with the deepest questions of the human condition. The energy was palpable, the ideas were revolutionary, and the sheer longevity of the event itself was a testament to Bangalore’s vibrant spirit. It was particularly…
While Bikaner is off the tourist map of most visitors to Rajasthan. But it provides the raw charm of the ancient desert city that no other touristy city does. It has the sophistication of the times and charms of the traditional lifestyles. Tucked away close to the India-Pakistan border, this ancestral home of mine makes you live the history away from the usual museums and in walls of the the…
I have been seeing so many "Echo of 2025" and "Year in Review" posts from my favorite apps like Mastodon , AntennaPod as well as LinkedIn lately. They inspired me to sit down and reflect on my own journey. Initially, I considered a month-by-month breakdown of significant milestones, but I realized that might read more like a calendar than a reflection. Instead, I’ve categorized my year into…
♈ Aries (March 21 – April 19): The Great Architect General Prediction The year 2026 is nothing short of a cosmic rebirth for you, Aries. As both Saturn and Neptune ingress into your first house , you are the primary vessel for the "Great Reset." The veil of distortion that has clouded your self-perception for years finally lifts, replaced by a sobering yet visionary clarity. You are stepping out…
1. Multi-Token Prediction Reshapes LLM Training Paradigms - This research proposes that training large language models to predict multiple future tokens simultaneously, rather than just the next one, improves sample efficiency. The approach involves the model predicting the next 'n' tokens at each position in the training data using separate output heads on a shared model base. When used as an…
1. The Illusion of Thinking - A recent paper from Apple's Machine Learning Research team challenges the idea that Large Reasoning Models (LRMs) can truly "think." The researchers argue that current methods for evaluating these models, which often use standard math and coding problems, are flawed due to potential data contamination and a focus on final answers rather than the reasoning process.…
1. How Major Indian Apps Are Bypassing Google’s Policy to Spy on Your App Drawer? - Report reveals that many major Android apps on the Google Play Store are allegedly bypassing Google's privacy policies to access a list of other apps installed on users' devices. Apps like Swiggy, Zepto, and HDFC are among those seemingly "peeping" into users' app drawers. While some argue this access might be…
1. How Many Decimals of Pi Do We Really Need? - This article explains that even for NASA's highest accuracy calculations, such as interplanetary navigation, only a small number of pi's decimals are needed. For example, JPL uses pi to the 15th decimal place (3.141592653589793). The article illustrates this by calculating the circumference of Voyager 1's distance from Earth, the circumference of…
After a brief hiatus I am back at publishing this. Had been heads down at getting Sudama Clinic operational. Not that I did not learn during this time, but was struggling to find time to pen down all that. Got a little breathing time now, so here is it is. 1. Dillo Browser : Dillo is a remarkably lightweight and fast web browser, prioritizing speed and efficiency above all else. Designed for…
2024 was a transformative year, marked by both challenges and cherished moments. My journey began with my work on Gemini at Google, an experience that allowed me to collaborate with brilliant minds and contribute to innovative features. However, after several years, I felt a growing desire to make a more direct impact—a feeling I'd been contemplating as I wrote this blog post . This prompted the…
1. Why you should never use !! in Kotlin - Using double-bang operator(!!) is a bad practice; multiple alternatives cover every other possible case. Using it is a hack and a shortcut that will backfire while not saving you much time at the time of writing using it. You shouldn’t use it unless you're writing a short personal script. My Take : The double-bang operator (!!) which throws null pointer…
1. Llama 3.3 - Llama 3.3 70B model offering similar performance to the Llama 3.1 405B model, allowing developers to achieve greater quality and performance on text-based applications at a fraction of the cost. My Take : Meta continues to impress with each new release. Their recent claim that the 3.3 70B model performs as well as the 3.1 405B model is particularly noteworthy. This rapid progress…
1. C++ Pitfalls - this article, explains some of the pitfalls you can fall into when programming in C++ and shares their experience with them. This includes Operator precedence, Arithmetic conversion rules, Right bit-shift, Implicit conversions and Order of evaluation. My Take : We've all read about JavaScript's quirks, leading to unexpected outputs. But let's remember that such behaviors aren't…
1. AI Makes Tech Debt More Expensive - The core argument is that generative AI significantly widens the gap between codebases with low and high tech debt. Companies with clean code can leverage generative AI to write code much faster, while companies with messy legacy codebases struggle to adopt these new tools. This widens the gap between the two codebases, making tech debt even more expensive…
1. Booleans are a trap : Booleans, while seemingly simple, can introduce complexity and limitations into domain modeling. When used to represent complex states, booleans can lead to unclear code and potential errors. To avoid these pitfalls, consider using enums or enum sets. These approaches provide a more expressive and maintainable way to model complex states in your applications. My Take : I…
1. One Company A/B Tested Hybrid Work. Here’s What They Found. - Recent research has revealed that a hybrid work model, where employees work from home three days a week, can significantly boost employee satisfaction and reduce turnover rates. This not only improves employee morale but also saves companies millions of dollars in recruitment and training costs. To successfully implement a hybrid…
1. Transforming CSV Files into Graphs with LLMs - This is a step by step guide including code to transform csv files into graphs. There are prompts, python code and samples provided in it. My Take : This is an excellent approach to streamlining data cleaning, a task that often consumes a significant portion of a data engineer's time. By leveraging the power of LLMs, we can potentially reduce this…
1. Why Founders Need to Focus More on Sales and Marketing - Harvard Business School senior lecturer Mark Roberge argues that every aspect of being an early-stage founder involves sales. But many founders lack an understanding of how to incorporates sales into their ventures. This talks about how to hire for early sales roles, design compensation, and lay a strong foundation for a growing sales…
1. ROS : ROS (Robot Operating System) is a versatile open-source framework that simplifies robot development. It provides a modular architecture, robust communication mechanisms, and a vast ecosystem of tools and libraries. This comprehensive platform empowers developers to create efficient and innovative robotic systems, from hardware abstraction to high-level behavior control. ROS's flexibility…
My career began with Tata Elxsi, right after completing my BE in Computer Science, marking a significant milestone in my career. It was my first taste of the corporate world, and while not everything was perfect, the experience I gained there has been invaluable. I'm particularly grateful to JRD Tata and Ratan Tata for his vision in establishing Tata Elxsi as a pure electronics and software…
1. Stem cells reverse woman’s diabetes - Scientists have achieved a breakthrough in treating type 1 diabetes by using reprogrammed stem cells. A woman was successfully treated by receiving a transplant of these cells into her abdominal muscles. Following the transplant, she was able to maintain stable blood sugar levels without insulin for over a year. This is the first time such an approach has…