https://nikhilsharma.com/soch Essays, columns and sutras published under समृक् Samrik. Every essay closes on a dated wager that can be proved wrong. en-IN Wed, 07 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0530 https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/stambh/nightingale-kept-a-ledger https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/stambh/nightingale-kept-a-ledger Tue, 26 Jan 2027 06:00:00 +0530 stambh The most famous nurse in history is remembered for a lamp. What changed the British Army was a table of deaths and a diagram nobody could argue with. The hospital that counts its outcomes beats the one that describes them. The fourth column of January. https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/sutra/nobody-frightened-buys-a-hospital https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/sutra/nobody-frightened-buys-a-hospital Fri, 22 Jan 2027 06:00:00 +0530 sutra Sutra 06 https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/vimarsh/india-is-already-the-doctor https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/vimarsh/india-is-already-the-doctor Wed, 20 Jan 2027 06:00:00 +0530 vimarsh India performs a large share of the world’s affordable complex surgery and sells it on the one thing nobody should sell. Price. The position it has never claimed is outcome at scale, and the layer that would let it claim that position has not been built. The fifth Vimarsh. https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/stambh/ask-how-many-times https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/stambh/ask-how-many-times Tue, 19 Jan 2027 06:00:00 +0530 stambh One question separates the surgeon you want from the one you were given, and it works on lawyers, agencies and founders too. The rule I use and the number that made me use it. The third column of January. https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/stambh/the-visa-is-the-first-appointment https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/stambh/the-visa-is-the-first-appointment Tue, 12 Jan 2027 06:00:00 +0530 stambh Three in four foreign patients who come to India come from one neighbour, and in 2024 India showed what happens to a hospital when a visa becomes a weapon. The medical visa is the cheapest diplomacy the country has. The second column of January. https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/sutra/sell-on-price-and-you-have-named-your-replacement https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/sutra/sell-on-price-and-you-have-named-your-replacement Fri, 08 Jan 2027 06:00:00 +0530 sutra Sutra 05 https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/stambh/the-discount-is-a-confession https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/stambh/the-discount-is-a-confession Tue, 05 Jan 2027 06:00:00 +0530 stambh India’s largest export industry was built on being cheaper per hour. The next cheaper country is a machine. What a services firm is actually saying when it leads with the price. The first column of January. https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/sutra/trust-gets-cheaper-every-year-you-hold-it https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/sutra/trust-gets-cheaper-every-year-you-hold-it Fri, 25 Dec 2026 06:00:00 +0530 sutra Sutra 04 https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/stambh/the-chettiars-ran-a-network-before-the-word https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/stambh/the-chettiars-ran-a-network-before-the-word Tue, 22 Dec 2026 06:00:00 +0530 stambh In 1930 one community from a dry corner of Tamil Nadu had offices in 217 towns across Burma under one standard and one rate. Then it lost everything. The fourth column of December, and the one that cuts against me. https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/vimarsh/the-argument-for-india-is-a-supply-argument https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/vimarsh/the-argument-for-india-is-a-supply-argument Wed, 16 Dec 2026 06:00:00 +0530 vimarsh Everyone arguing for India argues demand. Demand without capacity is a queue. The real argument is on the other side of the ledger, and it is the one I have spent a career inside. The fourth Vimarsh. https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/stambh/the-partner-you-see-twice-a-year https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/stambh/the-partner-you-see-twice-a-year Tue, 15 Dec 2026 06:00:00 +0530 stambh A network runs on people you do not sit with. Here is how one man keeps faith with eight of them, and the three habits that have held when nothing else did. The third column of December. https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/sutra/demand-without-capacity-is-a-queue https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/sutra/demand-without-capacity-is-a-queue Fri, 11 Dec 2026 06:00:00 +0530 sutra Sutra 03 https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/stambh/eight-cities-eight-rulebooks https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/stambh/eight-cities-eight-rulebooks Tue, 08 Dec 2026 06:00:00 +0530 stambh A national market was promised in 2017. A firm that works in eight states still obeys eight versions of the law. The compliance load is the quiet tax on every Indian network. The second column of December. https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/stambh/seven-crore-firms-and-no-firm-of-firms https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/stambh/seven-crore-firms-and-no-firm-of-firms Tue, 01 Dec 2026 06:00:00 +0530 stambh India has registered more enterprises than most countries have adults. It has registered almost nothing that joins them. The first column of December. https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/sutra/nobody-is-short-of-advice https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/sutra/nobody-is-short-of-advice Fri, 27 Nov 2026 06:00:00 +0530 sutra Sutra 02 https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/stambh/pataliputra-wrote-the-first-timetable https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/stambh/pataliputra-wrote-the-first-timetable Tue, 24 Nov 2026 06:00:00 +0530 stambh Kautilya divided a king’s day into sixteen blocks of ninety minutes and wrote down what went in each. He got the architecture right and the sleep wrong. We have done the reverse. https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/vimarsh/happiness-is-an-operations-problem https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/vimarsh/happiness-is-an-operations-problem Wed, 18 Nov 2026 06:00:00 +0530 vimarsh Every tradition that took happiness seriously ended in the same inconvenient place. It is not a feeling to be summoned. It is a set of conditions to be maintained. The third Vimarsh. https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/stambh/ten-minutes-before-the-day-votes https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/stambh/ten-minutes-before-the-day-votes Tue, 17 Nov 2026 06:00:00 +0530 stambh Anything you leave for the evening you have given to the evening. How one person actually keeps a condition, with the only habit study worth quoting. https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/sutra/happiness-is-a-condition-you-maintain https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/sutra/happiness-is-a-condition-you-maintain Fri, 13 Nov 2026 06:00:00 +0530 sutra Sutra 01 https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/stambh/ten-hour-day-say-who-pays https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/stambh/ten-hour-day-say-who-pays Tue, 10 Nov 2026 06:00:00 +0530 stambh Telangana made the ten-hour working day legal in July 2025 and called it ease of doing business. The week did not get longer. The evening got shorter. https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/stambh/seventy-hours-is-a-capacity-confession https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/stambh/seventy-hours-is-a-capacity-confession Tue, 03 Nov 2026 06:00:00 +0530 stambh When a founder asks his people for seventy hours he is telling you something about his company and nothing about his people. https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/vimarsh/the-real-startup https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/vimarsh/the-real-startup Wed, 07 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0530 vimarsh Almost nothing is coming to kill your venture. The first of the countdown to NS Transform 2027. https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/vimarsh/the-general-who-gives-it-back https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/vimarsh/the-general-who-gives-it-back Wed, 07 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0530 vimarsh Pakistan cannot be repaired from outside. Written on the day of Operation Sindoor and held for seventeen months. https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/vimarsh/the-longest-consequence-loop https://nikhilsharma.com/soch/vimarsh/the-longest-consequence-loop Sat, 12 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0530 vimarsh Why I am asking you to plant trees — and why One Tree Planted is where I would send the money.