Podcast · 1 hr 20 min

Sajith Pai Unpacks the 2024 Indus Valley Report and the Changing Indian Consumer

Shruti Rajagopalan with Sajith Pai · Ideas of India, Mercatus Center Free Advanced India

This episode focuses specifically on how the consuming class is shifting and what that does to sizing over time. It helps you avoid treating the 100 million-household number as static. Useful for reasoning about whether your segment is growing into your product or standing still.

  • The consuming class is moving, so a point estimate ages fast
  • Premiumization and formalization change who can pay
  • Size for the segment you will have, not only the one today
Open on mercatus.org ↗

It answers 2 questions

  1. How do I size a market for India specifically when data is messy?
  2. What are the biggest emerging opportunities in India right now?

Read with it

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  2. Blume's annual report is the single best data-grounded read on what is actually happening in Indian internet and consumption,... Blume Ventures Article · ~180 charts Indus Valley Annual Report 2025 Sajith Pai, Anurag Pagaria and team (Blume Ventures)
  3. The single best thing ever written on customer conversations. It teaches you to ask about the customer's life and past... momtestbook.com Book · ~130 pages The Mom Test Rob Fitzpatrick
  4. The definitive essay on where good ideas come from: notice problems you personally have, don't force it. Use it as the lens for... paulgraham.com Essay · ~20 min read How to Get Startup Ideas Paul Graham
  5. The essay that put 'product-market fit' into the startup vocabulary. Read it for the gut-level description of what PMF feels... pmarchive.com Essay · ~15 min read The Only Thing That Matters Marc Andreessen
  6. A YC partner turns 'how do I get an idea' into a concrete checklist you can run today, plus the traps (tarpit ideas) that sink... YC Startup Library Video · ~50 min How to Get and Evaluate Startup Ideas Jared Friedman (Y Combinator)
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