Gods, Guns and Missionaries with Manu Pillai; Markets with Prateek J
The Sunday Newsletter
Historian Manu Pillai is back with another fascinating book Gods, Guns and Missionaries where he explains the mutual impact of Hindu culture and Christianity upon each other.
In this riveting episode, you will learn
What did European missionaries misunderstand about Hinduism when they first arrived in India?
How did colonial power and missionary pressure help reshape Hindu identity from within?
Could the rise of modern Hindu nationalism be traced back to these early cultural and religious encounters?
Financial Market Salon
Prateek Jain is hosting a salon for those who are/have invested in the markets. This invite-only discussion (which in no way is financial advice) has two goals: first, to allow people to express their current sentiment, and second, to discuss investment approaches for the short and long term.
This will not be recorded. Please join live here.
Hemant Taneja, CEO of General Catalyst writes
India seems to have almost completely eliminated extreme poverty — a truly stunning achievement.
Growing up in India, extreme poverty (less than $1/day) was rampant. In 1995, right around when my lower-middle-class family left Delhi to pursue the American dream, over 50% of Indians lived below the international poverty line.
Fast forward to today: The latest survey shows less than 1% of Indian households are below that line.
This isn’t just a story about reducing poverty — it’s about dismantling an old myth:
❌ That *only* industrialization and manufacturing pull countries out of poverty (which is still important)
✅ India’s path was tech-enabled, rural-first, and services-led
How did it happen?
🔹 Agricultural productivity increased
🔹 Rural wages rose
🔹 Mobile banking + Aadhaar + UPI = cash transfers that actually reached people
🔹 A digital public infrastructure that scaled human dignity
This is a third way — not the Western model, not the China model:
-Distributed
-Digitally native
-Inclusive
-Resilient
Playbooks for economic development are being written not only in boardrooms in the West, but in the villages of India too.
Full piece from The Economist: https://lnkd.in/gpfnCFnG
