Subtext by Zerodha
Finance is full of noise. Everyone reacts to what just happened. We’re more interested in why it’s happening—and what lies beneath. Subtext is a series of conversations with people who have spent years thinking deeply about finance. Not necessarily the loudest voices, but those with real depth: traders who understand market structure, fund managers who have lived through multiple cycles, economists tracking India’s macro story, regulators shaping capital markets, founders building financial infrastructure, and VCs backing these companies.
Arpit Tandon on the road ahead for Indian IT
We cover:
- How AI is changing product management, why companies should think in terms of workflows instead of just software, the importance of domain knowledge, and why understanding a client's business may become more valuable than ever.
- It also covers AI spending, sales, outcome-based pricing, M&A, partnerships, access to frontier AI models, Chinese open-source models, and what AI means for the future of junior and mid-level talent in Indian IT.
Timestamps
00:00 – Intro
02:00 – The future of product management
05:00 – Why AI workflows and domain knowledge matter
...
Mausam Kumar on the state of India’s industrial policy
We cover:
- Why Tamil Nadu became a magnet for Apple and global manufacturers
- How the PLI scheme differs from India's historical approach to industrial incentives
- The tension between central and state-level policy in shaping manufacturing outcomes
- India's place in a world turning toward economic nationalism and protectionism
- The role of development finance institutions, the India-China dynamic, and green manufacturing
Timestamp:
0:00 Introduction
1:39 India's Industrial Policy in the Global Context
4:19 Centre vs. States: Fiscal Federalism & Industrial Policy
<...Sagar Lele on how to read company results like an analyst
We cover:
-Sell side vs. buy side: how each looks at quarterly results differently
-Should long-term investors even care about quarterly results?
-How to spot when management isn't telling the full truth — using numbers
-Cyclical vs. structural changes and why it matters for your thesis
-How to read sector trends across multiple companies
-Why "observations" aren't enough — the shift from observation to analysis
-How AI is changing the research process
-Whether you're an investor, a business professional, or just someone trying to stay on t...
Amit Tripathi on monetary policy and Indian banks
We cover:
-What is the repo rate and why can't banks just borrow from RBI forever?
-Why banks' cost of funds has become delinked from the policy rate
-How liquidity (not just the repo rate) drives real interest rates
-The role of capital markets vs. banks in credit creation
-What the RBI's FCNR announcement really solved
-The future of Indian banking: securitization, efficiency & innovation
Timestamp:
0:00 Introduction
1:10 Breaking Down the CNBC Statement
5:17 What Is the Repo Rate?
...
Suyash Singh on finding spaces in the space business
We cover:
- Why 70% of earth is always covered by clouds — and why that breaks most satellite imagery businesses
- What synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is, and how it lets you see through clouds, fog, and even forests
- The $0 → launch journey: 5 years of R&D, drone testing, and programme management
- How GalaxEye miniaturised its sensor stack and tested it on drones before going to space
- The real customers for satellite data (hint: it's not farmers — yet)
- What it's actually like to book a launch...
Tamal Bandyopadhyay on microfinance industry cycle
We discuss how RBI's 2022 interest rate deregulation gave lenders a freedom they arguably misused, why borrowers ended up with 14 loans simultaneously, how the JLG model is collapsing in the digital age, and what investors should actually look for before betting on an MFI stock.
If you want to understand credit cycles from first principles, this one's for you.
Video Mentioned -
Has the microfinance credit cycle turned? | Who said what? S2E37
0:00 Introduction
1:38 What is Microfinance? (RBI Definition & Categories)
6:16 Why Microfinance is Prone to...
Brad Setser on the dollar and the world's trade imbalance
Brad W. Setser, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and one of the most respected voices on global capital flows, joins us for a wide-ranging conversation on what is driving the dollar today, why China's export boom is a problem for the whole world, and what happens if the AI bubble bursts.
Timestamp:
0:00 – Introduction
2:38 – History of Dollar Strength & What Drives It
5:26 – AI & Private Capital Flows into the US
9:08 – Strait of Hormuz Crisis & Oil Markets
12:49 – UAE Leaving OPEC: What It Signals
15:21 – Why Surplus Countries (China, Korea...
Zohra Khan on the Indian EV infra industry
In this episode of Subtext, we sit down with Zohra Khan, CEO & Founder of IPEC India - a power electronics company building EV chargers for the Indian market.
We cover:
How EV chargers actually work and why they need to be customised for each vehicle brand Why India's power grid is both a challenge and an opportunity for EV adoption The push to standardise charging connectors and protocols for two-wheelers (Think EV version of USB-C) Why German and Chinese chargers often fail in Indian conditions - and how IPEC builds for that The semiconductor supply chain...Amit Kumar Gupta on copper supercycle
0:00 Introduction
2:10 History of Copper Rallies (Last 25 Years)
2:22 China Industrialization Demand Shock (2000–2007)
4:48 Current Cycle: AI, EVs & Electrification
5:50 Falling Ore Grades — The Structural Supply Problem
7:14 Why Supply Takes So Long to Catch Up (5–15 Years)
13:48 Who Profits Most When Copper Prices Rise?
22:03 Global Mining Consolidation (Glencore, Rio Tinto, BHP)
25:11 Environmental Constraints on Copper Mining
27:33 CBAM & the Green Copper Future
30:19 India's Listed Copper Companies
32:47 How to Play the Copper Theme (Portfolio Strategy)
37:41 Sterlite Shutdown & India Becoming a Net Importer
...
Decoding Bain's India Venture Capital report
📄 Read the Bain India VC Report 2026 to dig into the data behind this conversation - India Venture Capital Report 2026 | Bain & Company
0:00 Introduction
3:55 About the Bain VC Report
6:08 How the Data Is Sourced
11:16 Who Funds Indian VC — Global vs Domestic LPs
13:00 Why Family Offices Are Betting on VC
15:03 The 2020–22 Vintage Problem
20:48 How the VC Ecosystem Has Matured Since 2021
27:49 VC vs Family Office — What Founders Should Know
34:37 What Goes Wrong in Founder-Investor Relationships
40:12 Best Sectors to Build in for the Next 10 Years
...Ajay Srivastava on India's place in the chaos of world trade
In this episode we explore:
How Trump's tariffs reshaped the global order — and why every major economy (except China) surrendered
The Supreme Court ruling on tariffs and what it means for India's ongoing US trade deal negotiations
Section 301 investigations: naked bullying or legitimate trade pressure?
India's energy sovereignty dilemma — should we have continued buying Russian oil?
Why India's trade agreements are peripheral — and what actually drives export competitiveness
The product gap: why India excels at assembly but falls short on deep manufacturing
China's $110B+ trade surplu...
Rosa & Tamoghana on India's Youth Employment Crisis
In this episode we explore:
The real role of education — human capital investment vs. social signalling Why India's graduate unemployment rate has been stuck at 35–40% since 1983 The "waiting vs. fallback" dilemma — is queuing for a job better or worse than underemployment? Internal migration patterns and how states are balancing labour surpluses Caste, gender, and identity in the Indian labour market MSMEs vs. large corporations — what India actually needs for job creation Are we running out of time to cash in on the demographic dividend by 2030? The State of Working India Report is in its 5th edition, and this conv...
Kyle Chan on China's industrial dynamics
What makes China's manufacturing machine so powerful — and what does it mean for the rest of the world?
In this episode, we sit down with Kyle Chan — fellow at the Brookings Institution's China Centre, Princeton PhD, and author of the newsletter High Capacity — for a deep dive into China's industrial strategy.
We cover:
- How Chinese entrepreneurs operate within the state system
- The rise of BYD, Huawei, and China's "overtake on the curve" strategy
- The evolution debate and China's excess capacity problem
- Why the Strait...
Pranay Kotasthane on Navigating the New Uncertain World
We used to live in a world of rules. Now, we live in a world of power.
Pranav Agarwal and Pranay Kotasthane break down the "Matsya Nyaya" of modern geopolitics. We cover the weaponisation of critical minerals, the shifting influence of the US and China, and the strategic path India must take to thrive in an uncertain future.
Key topics: Geopolitics, Rare Earths, India’s Foreign Policy, and the Future of Trade.
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
2:05 Guest Introduction & Welcome
3:02 World Order, Power & Legitimacy
14:09 Crit...
Dr. Aradhna Aggarwal on SEZs, their role in economic development, and India's growth ambitions
Is India losing its competitive edge in labor-intensive industries? While big names like Foxconn, Kia, and Apple are setting up shop, the "spillover effect" that transforms a local economy often remains missing.
In this episode, Pranav Manie sits down with Professor Aradhana, one of India’s foremost experts on Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and industrial policy. They explore why many industrial zones become isolated "enclaves" rather than engines of national growth, and what India can learn from the success stories of China, Taiwan, and South Korea.
Key Topics Discussed:
The "Dutch Disease": Has India’s se...Ameya P on how Indian IT can flip the AI script
AI agents are reshaping the global IT industry and no one feels it more than Indian IT. In this conversation, Pranav Manie sits down with Ameya Pimpalgaonkar, a 20-year veteran of the IT industry (IBM, Accenture, Infosys) turned investor, to break down what's actually happening beneath the surface.
We covered
Why the shift from headcount-based to outcome-based pricing is real but slower than the hype suggests How Indian IT's pyramid org structure creates deep inertia in the age of AI agents The emerging opportunity in data labelling, annotation, and domain-specific LLM fine-tuning What deals like Infosys-Anthropic...What Phillip Capital learned running a fund in GIFT City?
Nishit and Ankush from Phillip Capital have spent years working with NRI and global investors navigating India's financial ecosystem — and they are two of the clearest voices explaining why Gift City is changing everything.
Gift City sits in a 34-kilometre stretch between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar — technically in India, but operating as an offshore jurisdiction. NRI onboarding, which used to take 30 to 45 days, now happens in two. Funds that would cost a fortune to set up in Singapore or Mauritius are being built here at a fraction of the price. And yet, most retail investors still think it's just...
Deepak Shenoy on what's happening with the rupee
Deepak Shenoy of Capital Mind joins us to explain what has been happening with the rupee over the past few weeks.
Some of it is straightforward — India imports a lot of oil, oil is now significantly more expensive, and that means we need a lot more dollars than before. But there has been a more technical layer to the story involving something called the NDF market, which most people haven't heard of, and that is what this conversation is really about.
We spoke about how India's forex market is structured and who the players are, ho...
Rory Johnston (oil expert) on what's happening in the oil markets
Rory Johnston runs Commodity Context and has spent years tracking the oil market — and he is someone who, by his own admission, is normally the calm one in the room. The fact that he is genuinely alarmed right now tells you something.
Since February 28th, the Strait of Hormuz — a 34-kilometre stretch of water that carries roughly 20% of the world's oil supply — has been closed. Asian governments are in panic mode. Flights are being cancelled because jet fuel is running short. India is already feeling the squeeze, particularly on LPG. And yet, financial markets haven't fully caught up wit...
Understanding China, with Manoj Kewalramani
Most commentary on China operates at a surface level. Xi Jinping is authoritarian, the economy is state-directed, and the Communist Party controls everything. That's all true, but it doesn't actually help you understand why specific things happen the way they do. Manoj Kewalramani is one of the few Indian analysts who can go deeper than that. He's a China Studies research fellow at the Takshashila Institution, speaks Mandarin, and spent years living in China. In this conversation, we try to understand the country as it actually is, not as the headlines describe it. We get into some genuinely interesting territory...
