Sajith Pai — Exploring Indus Valley (Ep.241)

There’s a quote I heard a long time ago that goes something like this - “India has consistently disappointed both the optimists and the pessimists”.

It is equal parts pithy and profound, and does a somewhat passable job of summarising the multitudes contained in 21st century India. It’s a quote that was brought to life for me numerous times in my conversation with this week’s guest on Infinite Loops - Sajith Pai.

Sajith is a GP at Blume Ventures, one of India’s largest homegrown VC firms. He's known for his prolific writing and sharp frameworks that have become part of Indian startup canon over the past decade.

In 2018, he swapped a long-time career as a media executive for one as a venture capitalist. This changing of lanes, relatively late in his professional life, has given him a refreshingly nuanced perspective on the Indian startup ecosystem (which he’s bestowed with the moniker of ‘Indus Valley’, as a nod to both Silicon Valley as well as the Indus Valley Civilisation, one of the cradles of the ancient world and the ancestral civilisation of the Indian people).

His most compelling insight? That India isn't the monolithic 1.5-billion-person market that many Westerners believe. Instead, it's three distinct "countries" hiding in plain sight. There's India One: 120 million affluent, English-speaking urbanites (think the population of Germany) who love their iPhones and Starbucks. Then comes India Two: 300 million aspiring middle-class citizens who inhabit the digital economy but not yet the consumption economy. Finally, there's India Three: a massive population with a similar demographic profile to Sub-Saharan Africa, that’s still waiting for its invitation to join India’s bright future.

‘India 1-2-3’ is one amongst many pearls of wisdom that Sajith gifted me over our conversation, that also touched on India as a "digital welfare state", India as a ‘low trust society’; the emergence of a new class of ‘Indo-Anglians’; how cultural nuances in India shape everything from app design to payment systems; and much, much more.

Whether you're an investor, founder, or just curious about where the next decade of innovation might come from, this conversation is your crash course to understanding India in the 21st century. Sajith likes to say that ‘India is not for beginners’. Well, if you are a beginner on India, this week you’re in luck.

For the full transcript, episode takeaways, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!”, check out our Substack.

Important Links:

• Sajith’s website
• Sajith’s Twitter
• Sajith’s Substack
• Blume VC’s Indus Valley Annual Report 2024

Show Notes:

• The Three Indias
• Navigating India in the 21st century
• India as a ‘low trust’ society
• Touring ‘India 2’
• The States and the Union
• Caste and Class in Modern India
• Governance and the Government
• Brain Drain
• The English Tax
• The Rise of the Indo-Anglians
• I, Writer
• On Media and Markets
• India as a Digital Welfare State
• The Virtues of Leapfrogging
• Sajith, The Emperor of the World

Books and Articles Mentioned:

• The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid; by C. K. Prahalad
• Supercommunicators; by Charles Duhigg
• Career Advice; by Scott Adams
• The Indus Valley Report 2024; by Blume VC