Editor’s Note | Sharpening the Signal
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Founding Fuel
FF
Founding Fuel
Founding Fuel aims to create the new playbook of entrepreneurship. Think of us as a hub for entrepreneurs- the go-to place for ideas, insights, practices and wisdom essential to build the enterprise of tomorrow. It is co-founded by veteran journalists Indrajit Gupta and Charles Assisi, along with CS Swaminathan, the former president of Pearson's online learning venture.
My Work
·FF Life
Beyond the Headlines: The Human Complexity of the Middle East
Books, films and cultural works that help us see the Middle East beyond the noise of geopolitics
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Founding Fuel
·Artificial Intelligence
India’s AI Gambit: The Choices That Will Define Power
Speed is not strategy. The real battle is over sovereignty, science and state capacity
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Founding Fuel
·Economy, Policy & Society
The Ecology of Engagement: What Madhav Gadgil Taught Us to See
From sacred groves to the Western Ghats, Gadgil’s work rebuilt the bridge between science and lived experience.
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Founding Fuel
·FF Life
The Best of FF Life 2025
11 stories that asked us to slow down, look closer, and feel more deeply
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Founding Fuel
·Business & Strategy
The Best Stories of 2025
Ten of our best work through the year—on business, leadership, and geopolitical trends
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Founding Fuel
·Work, Careers & Personal Mastery
‘Everybody Has a Sacred Story’
An extract from Barack Obama’s speechwriter Terry Szuplat’s new book, ‘Say It Well’
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Founding Fuel
·Business & Strategy
Book Extract: From customer journeys to integrated experiences
A brand’s attempt at relevance and how AI worked for it. An extract from Sangeet Paul Choudary’s new book, “Reshuffle”
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Founding Fuel
·FF Life
Curtain Raiser: The Durga Puja Experience in Kolkata
Experiencing the world’s largest street art festival
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Founding Fuel
·FF Life
How to make cultural festivals independent, inclusive, and sustainable
Cultural festivals succeed when they put community before commerce and independence before sponsorship—while continuously experimenting to stay relevant and inclusive. Insights from the builders of the Bangalore Lit Fest and Mumbai’s MAMI film festival
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Founding Fuel
·Economy, Policy & Society
12 Places That Helped Shape Post-Independence India
They tell the story of modern India’s evolution
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Founding Fuel
·FF Life
We’ve been experimenting with intermittent fasting. Here’s what we’re learning
Charles Assisi and NS Ramnath share their journeys—and lessons—on the road to better health. And Dr Aasim Maldar, an endocrinologist, weighs in on how and why to make it something one can sustain
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Founding Fuel
·FF Life
FF Life: Getting Hands-On with AI
Five curated stories on how and why to begin experimenting with AI
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Founding Fuel
·FF Life
The best of FF Life in 2024
Nine stories that took us close to Frida Kahlo’s art; inside the best Durga Puja pandals; the most memorable moments from the Lok Sabha elections; into the world of graphic novels; a trek to Sandakphu near Darjeeling; and Ramzaan in South Mumbai’s Bhendi Bazaar
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Founding Fuel
·Entrepreneurship, Startups & Innovation
The best stories of 2024
Scintillating, insightful conversations and incisive articles on business, entrepreneurship and geopolitical trends
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Founding Fuel
·Leadership & Organisation
Practice making mistakes
An extract from ‘The Journey of Leadership: How CEOs Learn to Lead from the Inside Out’ by Dana Maor, Hans-Werner Kaas, Kurt Strovink and Ramesh Srinivasan
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Founding Fuel
·Leadership & Organisation
The red flags in your team
An excerpt from Dr Dana Sinclair’s new book, ‘Dialed In: Do Your Best When It Matters Most’
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Founding Fuel
·Economy, Policy & Society
Not the government’s cheerleader
An extract from former RBI governor Dr D Subbarao’s book, ‘Just a Mercenary?’
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Founding Fuel
·Business & Strategy
Reliability wins customers
An extract from Harit Nagpal’s new book ‘Adapt: To Thrive, Not Just Survive’ on how the new CEO of an AC company that ranked fourth in a market of six big players, found a sustainable differentiator: making the company “easy to deal with”
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Founding Fuel
·Economy, Policy & Society
13 Most Memorable Moments: Lok Sabha Elections 2024
The key turning points that defined a truly tumultuous general election
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Founding Fuel
·Economy, Policy & Society
NPAs: A problem that refuses to go away
An extract from Rajrishi Singhal’s book, 'Slip, Stitch and Stumble: The Untold Story of India's Financial Sector Reforms'
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Founding Fuel
·FF Life
The best stories of 2023
On travelling to the far reaches of Earth, good health, an eye on China, climate change, personal growth and more
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Founding Fuel
·FF Life
FF Life: Movies to binge-watch
A guide to movies and documentaries across genres
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Founding Fuel
·FF Life
FF Life: The golden seed
S Sivakumar, group head of ITC’s agri and IT businesses, and Chef Sanjeev Kapoor offer us insights on how to get started with millets and a starter kit of easy recipes
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Founding Fuel
·FF Life
FF Life: 7 favourite books
In our daily newsletter FF Insights, we cull a book extract that we believe will add value to our subscribers’ day. Here are our favourite books from that long list
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Founding Fuel
·FF Life
FF Life: Oppenheimer & the scientific phenomena of the Nuclear Age
The biopic Oppenheimer, on ‘the father of the atomic bomb’, just released in India. Here’s a curated list of books and movies that explore the people behind the Nuclear Age and the conflicts that shaped it
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Founding Fuel
·FF Life
The best of FF Life so far in 2023
17 June 2023: Work and life are not separate, discrete compartments
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Founding Fuel
·FF Life
FF Life: A parikrama… of history, architecture, culture, and spirituality
1 April 2023: India’s temples are more than just about religion
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Founding Fuel
·FF Life
FF Life: 8 Stories of Financial Fraud & Hubris that You Must Know About
February 4, 2023: History provides many examples of how the mix of business, politics, markets and finance can end up serving up a deadly cocktail
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Founding Fuel
·Business & Strategy
How does a firm develop a business model with sustainability at its core?
Book Review: ‘Sustainable Business Model Design - 45 Patterns’ by Florian Ludeke-Freund, Henning Breuer, and Lorenzo Massa
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Founding Fuel
·FF Life
FF Life: Getting AI tools to work for you
January 28, 2023: We tried it to write better, convert text to speech, enhance background scores in podcasts, and generate pictures
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Founding Fuel
·FF Life
FF Life: A peek into ChatGPT
January 7, 2023: We tooled around with the chatbot. Here are some of the possibilities
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Founding Fuel
·Economy, Policy & Society
FF Insights 723: The science of fairness
August 26, 2022: Adani NDTV Saga - an update, Why hybrid work must continue, Measure the harm, Engineer-ed
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Founding Fuel
·Economy, Policy & Society
FF Insights 722: Diversity creates dynamism
August 25, 2022: The real NDTV story, Democratising healthcare, Once upon a time…
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Founding Fuel
·Work, Careers & Personal Mastery
FF Insights 721: The nature of thought
August 24, 2022: Are Indians phone addicts?, How to change, Functions of a potato
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Founding Fuel
·Work, Careers & Personal Mastery
FF Insights 720: The neurology of empathy
August 23, 2022: To moonlight or not, The IRCTC data brouhaha, Do not dance Basanti
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Founding Fuel
·Work, Careers & Personal Mastery
FF Insights 719: Self-handicapping
August 22, 2022: Nitish Kumar & Tejashwi Yadav vs. BJP, Killing Dehradun, The Zuckerberg Effect
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Founding Fuel
·Work, Careers & Personal Mastery
FF Insights 718: Instant gratification
August 18, 2022: Who reads fake news?, The developer-influencer economy, Perspective matters
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Founding Fuel
·Economy, Policy & Society
FF Insights 717: Garbage in, garbage out
August 17, 2022: Electoral forecasting, Effective altruism, Just do it
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Founding Fuel
·Economy, Policy & Society
FF Insights 715: Peak experience
August 12, 2022: China’s data problem, How junk science spreads, The burden of expectations
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Founding Fuel
·Work, Careers & Personal Mastery
FF Insights 714: Serena Williams unplugged
August 11, 2022: The case for diversity, The problems with Bitcoin, Change explained
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Founding Fuel
·Economy, Policy & Society
FF Insight 713: Alan Greenspan and bubbles
August 10, 2022: Hack to fame, What regulation?, High debt matters
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Founding Fuel
·Economy, Policy & Society
The World in 2022: Events that shaped our world
Eight experts from various fields list the defining events of the year and their impact
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Founding Fuel
·Economy, Policy & Society
The best stories of 2022
December 24, 2022: On the US-China rivalry, Russia-Ukraine war, concerns about climate change, but also hope, India and China, contrarian leaders, and more
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Founding Fuel
·Economy, Policy & Society
US-China Tech war: The US is weaponizing its global influence
What the US CHIPS and Science Act means for China, the world and India. A podcast with Prof G Venkat Raman
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Founding Fuel
·FF Life
FF Life: Nature’s greatest spectacle
Friends, family, and the wildebeest migration in Kenya
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Founding Fuel
·Technology & the Future
When India made its first computer
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) had a pivotal role in shaping India’s computer-tech capability, as early as the 1960s. An extract from ‘Against All Odds: The IT Story of India’ by Kris Gopalakrishnan, N. Dayasindhu and Krishnan Narayanan
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Founding Fuel
·Technology & the Future
FF Insights 712: Tech & the three crises facing humanity
August 8, 2022: SuperSable, Problem with Instagram?, Gender and physics
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Founding Fuel