A village in Rajasthan. A world of software startups. A fort in the desert. A mosque shaped by history. A house that continues to remind the world why peace matters.
I’m Avinash, and my journey has taken me across very different worlds.
I was raised in a small village in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan. After graduating from the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Lucknow, I spent more than seven years working as a software developer across travel, e-commerce, and fintech, including the UPI ecosystem.
Working in startups gave me rapid growth and the opportunity to build solutions used in fast-changing industries. But over time, desk-based and largely remote work also created a sense of distance from the everyday challenges faced by the broader community.
I began to realize that professional and financial growth alone could not fulfill my life’s purpose.
My travels gave me a different way to understand the world. Jaisalmer Fort reflects the bravery, persistence, and resilience of the culture that has endured in the Thar Desert. The Sultanahmet Mosque in Istanbul shows how architecture can preserve history and identity and made me think about our responsibility to protect India’s own heritage. The Anne Frank House is a reminder of the cruelty of war and the lasting necessity of peace.
That’s the power of the Subhas Chandra Bose Fellowship: connecting technology with public purpose, personal experience with wider social questions, and ambition with responsibility.
I am here to learn, engage with diverse minds, and understand how my experience in technology can contribute more directly to society. I want to move closer to the realities I once encountered from a distance and help create solutions that are both practical and meaningful.
I still enjoy movies, road trips, wildlife, historical sites, and beaches. But exploration now means more than discovering new places. It also means discovering new ways to serve.
My journey began in a village, moved through code, and is now turning towards community.
From growth to purpose. From observing the world to helping shape it.
**
Bose Fellowship is a leadership program where business meets statecraft, liberal arts meets venture logic, and policy meets platforms.
Designed for those who don’t fit in one box and never wanted to.
The Subhas Chandra Bose Fellowship is built for boundary-crossers: the thinker who understands both balance sheets and constitutions, the operator who can navigate both boardrooms and legislative corridors, and the reformer who reads poetry as strategy and policy as design.
The Next Leap: Why I’m Joining the Subhas Chandra Bose Fellowship | Fellow 2027
A cliff edge. A leap of faith. And a business philosophy built from the other side.
I’m Prashant, a second-year MBA student in Operations & Supply Chain at IIM Mumbai. My purpose is simple but non-negotiable: to build self-sustainable companies that create real, lasting impact: businesses that stand on their own, do right by people, and never depend on charity or subsidy to create change.
That belief was shaped less in a classroom and more at the edge of a cliff.
The first time I stood there, every instinct told me to step back. I jumped anyway. What came afterward was more than relief. It was confidence-proof that the things that scare me most are often the things worth doing.
That has become my working philosophy: find the difficult thing, do it anyway, and let the achievement compound.
Outside case studies and cliffs, I’m usually buried in a book, planning my next trek, or building something with my hands through DIY projects. Small habits, but they keep me curious. They keep me building.
That’s why I’m here taking the next leap with the Subhas Chandra Bose Fellowship.
I see this Fellowship as the next cliff edge: a chance to test my philosophy at a scale that actually matters.
Some sessions give you information. Others leave you with questions you carry long after the screen goes dark.
Naman Shrivastava and the Bose Fellowship representatives gathered for one of those rare experiences.
It began with teaching, moved through yoga, touched upon the stories we create about the world, and slowly turned inward:
- towards the fears we hide, - the failures we keep replaying, - the insecurities that quietly shape our choices, and - the versions of ourselves we have mistaken for reality.
This was not a discussion about the falling rupee, GDP numbers, or the political theatre of the day. It was something more personal and perhaps more unsettling. A conversation about what happens inside the human mind when fear becomes identity, when failure becomes a verdict, and when other people begin to control us simply by knowing what we are afraid of.
There were stories, disagreements, laughter, uncomfortable questions, unexpected vulnerability, and moments that felt almost therapeutic. At one point, three simple geometric shapes became an entire universe of villains, victims, heroes, myths, and interpretations. That is the power of these sessions. They do not merely teach you how the world works. They make you pause and examine the stories you have been telling yourself.
Bose Fellowship sessions are not just masterclasses. They are experiences.
A little like a festival, where every conversation adds a new colour. A little like a Formula 1 Grand Prix, where the atmosphere, the anticipation, the sudden turns, and the final lap stay with you long after the event is over.
You arrive expecting a class.
You leave with a new question about your life.
And sometimes, with the courage to write yourself a better story.
-
If a career in politics, public policy, diplomacy, governance, journalism, consulting, entrepreneurship, or public leadership excites you, we welcome you to join us.
Mathematics, Leadership, and Nation-Building: Why I’m Joining the Subhas Chandra Bose Fellowship | Fellow 2027
A finish line. A selection board. And a journey that continues beyond both.
I’m Siddharth Singh, a mathematics graduate from Bhopal with a deep interest in strategy, analytics, leadership, and nation-building.
My journey has taught me that progress is rarely a straight line. It is built through discipline, resilience, adaptability, and the willingness to keep improving, even when the outcome is uncertain.
My aspiration to serve the country led me to the Services Selection Board. The experience became more than an assessment. It became a defining chapter in my growth, strengthening my understanding of leadership, responsibility, perseverance, and the courage to keep showing up.
Today, I am working towards an MBA, seeking to combine my analytical foundation with the skills required to lead, create, and contribute meaningfully in the real world.
Netaji’s unwavering courage, vision, and commitment to India continue to inspire me. That’s why I’m here: learning, contributing, and collaborating with fellow young Indians through the Bose Fellowship.
I want to transform numbers into insight, insight into strategy, and strategy into meaningful action for society.
The journey is still evolving. And I’m ready for what comes next.
Courage, Reinvention, and Service: Why I’m Joining the Subhas Chandra Bose Fellowship | Fellow 2027
Fear is loud. Purpose is louder.
I’m Abhishek Kashyap from Patna, Bihar: a national-level martial arts player in Karate and Kudo (MMA), a Reiki practitioner and healer, and someone who has learned to fight on more than one front.
Bruce Lee’s words have stayed with me: “One day your heart will stop beating, and none of your fears will matter. What will matter is how you lived.”
I try to live by that truth: physically, mentally, and purposefully.
After completing my M.Sc. in Big Data Analytics, I began my journey in IT and Data Science. But during my internship, I realised the field did not match my personality. So I chose uncertainty over conformity and began again.
That decision led me towards Civil Services preparation, social responsibility, and the belief that helping people and working on the challenges around us is one way to serve our country.
I’m drawn to risks, new beginnings, business ideas, and the adventure of the unknown- from martial arts and healing to trekking, river rafting, swimming, and badminton.
That’s why I’m here- learning, growing, and connecting with diverse minds through the Subhas Chandra Bose Fellowship.
I want to fight my fears, explore the unknown, help others, and build a life worth remembering.
Service, Curiosity, and Statecraft: Why I’m Joining the Subhas Chandra Bose Fellowship | Fellow 2027
Twelve years in uniform. A lifetime of questions beyond it. Mine has been shaped by both.
My name is Nihal, and for twelve years, I have served as a Medical Assistant in the Indian Air Force. In spaces where every second, detail, and decision can matter, I learned discipline. I learned responsibility. I learned that teamwork is not an inspiring word - it is the quiet trust that holds people together when pressure rises.
Then there are the worlds I enter after duty ends.
A bookstore aisle. A page of literature. A chapter of history. A question about borders, power, memory, or India’s place in the world. Meeting Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah reminded me that stories can carry entire geographies - and that curiosity is also a form of service.
I am preparing for the UPSC examination, but I am not only looking for an examination hall. I am looking for a wider vocabulary for public life: one that connects healthcare with institutions, discipline with diplomacy, and individual duty with national purpose.
That’s why I’m here - learning, building, questioning with the Subhas Chandra Bose Fellowship.
I want to bring the steadiness I learned in service into the uncertain, necessary work of understanding the world.
A uniform taught me how to stand ready. Now I want to learn how to stand for something larger.
Filmmaking, Dignity, and the Courage: Why I'm joining the Subhash Chandra Bose Fellowship | Fellow 2027
This isn't just a portfolio. It's a protest in motion.
I'm Vaani Gaala - fashion designer, artist, dancer, singer, tattoo artist, and a one-woman-army filmmaker. I write, shoot, direct, edit. For six years, I've worked with Karuna Trust, London, affiliated with fifty NGOs across India, Bangladesh, and Nepal - making the marginalized seen, heard, and funded. I believed this was my impact.
That’s me in the photograph - surrounded by women whose laughter says more about resilience than any report ever could.
Lately, however, my empathetic heart can no longer just witness pain. When a child from a tribe branded as criminal dreams of becoming Prime Minister or an IAS officer, my heart breaks wondering if that dream will come true. That ache has lit a fire in me.
I was born in Mumbai on Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Road. My family forbade me from playing with the Buddhist community; I rebelled, they won, and I never understood why. Solo travels led me to Karuna Trust, founded by a Buddhist who lives by Babasaheb's principles. I believe the universe was paving this path: if there is to be a religion, let it be Humanity first. My soul resonates with Robin Hood.
That's why I'm here - learning, building, and questioning with the Bose Fellowship.
Let's spark a ripple that moves the privileged to act for the marginalized.
“Freedom of mind is real freedom.” — B. R. Ambedkar
Yesterday’s Bose Fellowship session with Naman Shrivastava was not just a discussion on politics, business, or current affairs.
It began with the independence speech but soon moved towards deeper questions. What happens when dissent is reduced to a label? How does political power interact with corporate power? What does it mean when public institutions, strategic assets, and people’s savings become closely tied to a few powerful corporate houses?
One of the most fascinating parts of the session was the discussion on how India’s biggest business groups have survived changing political eras. Governments change, prime ministers change, and economic policies evolve. Yet, some corporate empires continue to grow.
Their strength lies not merely in their size. It lies in their ability to read political shifts, build relationships across party lines, diversify their interests, and remain relevant to whoever holds power. When one alliance begins to look vulnerable, another possibility starts to emerge.
This is how corporate influence can reshape political power. A shift in the loyalties, calculations, or alliances of a major business group can alter the balance between political parties, influence access to capital and institutions, and determine who holds leverage over the future.
The session did not offer simplistic answers. Instead, it asked us to examine how political and corporate power sustain each other, how public money becomes connected to private expansion, and how strategic maneuvering allows certain houses to remain powerful across different governments.
From public finance and investigative journalism to sovereignty, leverage, political strategy, and the future of Indian democracy, the conversation offered a glimpse into the kind of thinking the Bose Fellowship seeks to cultivate.
-
Applications for the Azad Parliament Fellowship is closed. But we are accepting applications for the Subha Chandra Bose Fellowship 2027.
If your aim is a career in politics, public policy, diplomacy, governance, journalism, consulting, entrepreneurship, or public leadership, we would love for you to join us.
Every year over 6-10 Lakh of young Indians begin their UPSC journey with the hope of serving the nation. Along the way, almost 99% fail the exam. But the interesting point is that it is still NOT the problem. The real tragedy is that many of these youngsters end up wasting 4-5 of the most productive years of their lives for this exam.
And then what follows after the failure is depression, heartbreaks, loneliness, and more.
My advice to anyone preparing for UPSC Exam is simple: Do not make UPSC your five-year plan. 20s are the most productive years of your lives - there's no need to waste it in appearing for the same exam over and over again.
If things work out well in the first attempt, congratulations! If not, then please do not lose heart.
Life is definitely more than an exam that the British created 100s of years ago. And nation-building is much bigger than the civil services.
That is why I, along with Ambassador Kohli and Dean Bhaskar Chakrovarthy of the Fletcher School - we launched the Subhas Chandra Bose Fellowship last year.
There is perhaps no better person to name it after other than Subhas Chandra Bose.
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose secured the 4th rank in the Indian Civil Service examination. And then he resigned.
Because he understood something we often forget today. A prestigious government job is not the same thing as a meaningful life.
And service to the nation cannot be reduced to a designation.
The challenges India will face over the next 25 years are far more complex than anything one institution can solve.
We will need exceptional people inside government. But we will also need exceptional founders building companies, Journalists asking difficult questions, Economists understanding markets, Technologists, Doctors building new systems, Consultants solving large-scale problems, and Artists shaping culture.
And citizens who understand how all of these worlds connect.
A country of 1.4 billion people cannot be built by a few thousand civil servants. One year ago, many of our Fellows would not have imagined themselves writing serious policy papers.
They would not have imagined presenting startup ventures before platforms connected to Tufts University, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, MIT Solve.
But now that is changing. Congratulations, Mahesh! Mahesh joined the Fellowship, worked on a startup venture, tested it in the real world, and has now completed a six-month pilot with ₹6 lakh+ in revenue and 55%+ gross margins.
Education should not only give you notes, certificates, and another line on your CV.
It should give you the confidence to build. It should give you access to friend, investors, network who helps you rethink what you thought your career was supposed to look like.
**
The Last Round Applications for the Subhas Chandra Bose Fellowship 2027 are now open.
If this idea resonates with you, you can read more and apply here:
Yesterday, at the eve of the last masterclass on 'Platforms,' Naman Shrivastava & our Bose Fellowship cohort came full circle. From the doxxing of a teenage girl, a flooded state, and a country that calls its citizens “aspirants” instead of owners, today’s Bose Fellowship session tried to tie all of these threads into one uncomfortable question: what kind of platform is India becoming?
In classic MisFits fashion, the conversation swerved from lynch mobs and visas to platforms, network effects, and investment strategies. Airbnb vs Bali, USA vs India, LIC vs real assets; every example kept coming back to the same idea: price and brand can make you famous, but only institutions and network effects can lock you in.
One of the most perceptive turns was when we applied platform logic to countries. TikTok thrives because viewers become creators; Jensen Huang arrives as a student and leaves as the architect of the AI supply chain; Sundar and Satya study in India but “side‑switch” in the US. Meanwhile, India converts its brightest minds into permanent coaching‑class residents, “aspirants” perpetually trapped on one side of the platform.
Midway through, a deceptively boring equation appeared on the screen, enough to explain the most successful platforms ever created. From Uber rides to passports as “tickets to freedom,” from Delhi Police tweets to UAE’s golden visas, we kept testing that equation against platform businesses and nation‑states. The uncomfortable part was asking what India’s value unit really is today and who is rewarded or quietly pushed out.
Neither platforms nor nations are one-hit wonders. Value added by their participants is the brick with meaningful interactions as its mortar.
By the end, “platform” was no longer just a business buzzword; it was a lens to read exams, floods, visas, courts, and even stadium diplomacy.
-
Applications for the Azad Parliament Fellowship are closed. But we are accepting applications for the Subha Chandra Bose Fellowship 2027.
If you want to build a career in politics, public policy, diplomacy, governance, journalism, consulting, entrepreneurship, or public leadership, we would love to hear your story.
Bose Fellowship is a community where civil servants, Armed Forces officers, entrepreneurs, doctors, journalists, lawyers, consultants, artists, researchers, and students learn from one another and from people who have spent decades shaping India’s institutions.
Bose Fellowship HQ
A village in Rajasthan. A world of software startups. A fort in the desert. A mosque shaped by history. A house that continues to remind the world why peace matters.
I’m Avinash, and my journey has taken me across very different worlds.
I was raised in a small village in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan. After graduating from the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Lucknow, I spent more than seven years working as a software developer across travel, e-commerce, and fintech, including the UPI ecosystem.
Working in startups gave me rapid growth and the opportunity to build solutions used in fast-changing industries. But over time, desk-based and largely remote work also created a sense of distance from the everyday challenges faced by the broader community.
I began to realize that professional and financial growth alone could not fulfill my life’s purpose.
My travels gave me a different way to understand the world. Jaisalmer Fort reflects the bravery, persistence, and resilience of the culture that has endured in the Thar Desert. The Sultanahmet Mosque in Istanbul shows how architecture can preserve history and identity and made me think about our responsibility to protect India’s own heritage. The Anne Frank House is a reminder of the cruelty of war and the lasting necessity of peace.
That’s the power of the Subhas Chandra Bose Fellowship: connecting technology with public purpose, personal experience with wider social questions, and ambition with responsibility.
I am here to learn, engage with diverse minds, and understand how my experience in technology can contribute more directly to society. I want to move closer to the realities I once encountered from a distance and help create solutions that are both practical and meaningful.
I still enjoy movies, road trips, wildlife, historical sites, and beaches. But exploration now means more than discovering new places. It also means discovering new ways to serve.
My journey began in a village, moved through code, and is now turning towards community.
From growth to purpose. From observing the world to helping shape it.
**
Bose Fellowship is a leadership program where business meets statecraft, liberal arts meets venture logic, and policy meets platforms.
Designed for those who don’t fit in one box and never wanted to.
The Subhas Chandra Bose Fellowship is built for boundary-crossers: the thinker who understands both balance sheets and constitutions, the operator who can navigate both boardrooms and legislative corridors, and the reformer who reads poetry as strategy and policy as design.
Application: www.bosefellowship.org
1 week ago | [YT] | 2
View 0 replies
Bose Fellowship HQ
The Next Leap: Why I’m Joining the Subhas Chandra Bose Fellowship | Fellow 2027
A cliff edge. A leap of faith. And a business philosophy built from the other side.
I’m Prashant, a second-year MBA student in Operations & Supply Chain at IIM Mumbai. My purpose is simple but non-negotiable: to build self-sustainable companies that create real, lasting impact: businesses that stand on their own, do right by people, and never depend on charity or subsidy to create change.
That belief was shaped less in a classroom and more at the edge of a cliff.
The first time I stood there, every instinct told me to step back. I jumped anyway. What came afterward was more than relief. It was confidence-proof that the things that scare me most are often the things worth doing.
That has become my working philosophy: find the difficult thing, do it anyway, and let the achievement compound.
Outside case studies and cliffs, I’m usually buried in a book, planning my next trek, or building something with my hands through DIY projects. Small habits, but they keep me curious. They keep me building.
That’s why I’m here taking the next leap with the Subhas Chandra Bose Fellowship.
I see this Fellowship as the next cliff edge: a chance to test my philosophy at a scale that actually matters.
www.bosefellowship.org
3 weeks ago | [YT] | 3
View 0 replies
Bose Fellowship HQ
Some sessions give you information. Others leave you with questions you carry long after the screen goes dark.
Naman Shrivastava and the Bose Fellowship representatives gathered for one of those rare experiences.
It began with teaching, moved through yoga, touched upon the stories we create about the world, and slowly turned inward:
- towards the fears we hide,
- the failures we keep replaying,
- the insecurities that quietly shape our choices, and
- the versions of ourselves we have mistaken for reality.
This was not a discussion about the falling rupee, GDP numbers, or the political theatre of the day. It was something more personal and perhaps more unsettling. A conversation about what happens inside the human mind when fear becomes identity, when failure becomes a verdict, and when other people begin to control us simply by knowing what we are afraid of.
There were stories, disagreements, laughter, uncomfortable questions, unexpected vulnerability, and moments that felt almost therapeutic. At one point, three simple geometric shapes became an entire universe of villains, victims, heroes, myths, and interpretations. That is the power of these sessions. They do not merely teach you how the world works. They make you pause and examine the stories you have been telling yourself.
Bose Fellowship sessions are not just masterclasses. They are experiences.
A little like a festival, where every conversation adds a new colour. A little like a Formula 1 Grand Prix, where the atmosphere, the anticipation, the sudden turns, and the final lap stay with you long after the event is over.
You arrive expecting a class.
You leave with a new question about your life.
And sometimes, with the courage to write yourself a better story.
-
If a career in politics, public policy, diplomacy, governance, journalism, consulting, entrepreneurship, or public leadership excites you, we welcome you to join us.
Follow our journey:
www.bosefellowship.org | www.instagram.com/bosefellowship/ | youtube.com/@BoseFellowship
3 weeks ago | [YT] | 9
View 1 reply
Bose Fellowship HQ
Mathematics, Leadership, and Nation-Building: Why I’m Joining the Subhas Chandra Bose Fellowship | Fellow 2027
A finish line. A selection board. And a journey that continues beyond both.
I’m Siddharth Singh, a mathematics graduate from Bhopal with a deep interest in strategy, analytics, leadership, and nation-building.
My journey has taught me that progress is rarely a straight line. It is built through discipline, resilience, adaptability, and the willingness to keep improving, even when the outcome is uncertain.
My aspiration to serve the country led me to the Services Selection Board. The experience became more than an assessment. It became a defining chapter in my growth, strengthening my understanding of leadership, responsibility, perseverance, and the courage to keep showing up.
Today, I am working towards an MBA, seeking to combine my analytical foundation with the skills required to lead, create, and contribute meaningfully in the real world.
Netaji’s unwavering courage, vision, and commitment to India continue to inspire me. That’s why I’m here: learning, contributing, and collaborating with fellow young Indians through the Bose Fellowship.
I want to transform numbers into insight, insight into strategy, and strategy into meaningful action for society.
The journey is still evolving. And I’m ready for what comes next.
www.bosefellowship.org
4 weeks ago | [YT] | 4
View 0 replies
Bose Fellowship HQ
Courage, Reinvention, and Service: Why I’m Joining the Subhas Chandra Bose Fellowship | Fellow 2027
Fear is loud. Purpose is louder.
I’m Abhishek Kashyap from Patna, Bihar: a national-level martial arts player in Karate and Kudo (MMA), a Reiki practitioner and healer, and someone who has learned to fight on more than one front.
Bruce Lee’s words have stayed with me: “One day your heart will stop beating, and none of your fears will matter. What will matter is how you lived.”
I try to live by that truth: physically, mentally, and purposefully.
After completing my M.Sc. in Big Data Analytics, I began my journey in IT and Data Science. But during my internship, I realised the field did not match my personality. So I chose uncertainty over conformity and began again.
That decision led me towards Civil Services preparation, social responsibility, and the belief that helping people and working on the challenges around us is one way to serve our country.
I’m drawn to risks, new beginnings, business ideas, and the adventure of the unknown- from martial arts and healing to trekking, river rafting, swimming, and badminton.
That’s why I’m here- learning, growing, and connecting with diverse minds through the Subhas Chandra Bose Fellowship.
I want to fight my fears, explore the unknown, help others, and build a life worth remembering.
www.bosefellowship.org
1 month ago | [YT] | 4
View 1 reply
Bose Fellowship HQ
Service, Curiosity, and Statecraft: Why I’m Joining the Subhas Chandra Bose Fellowship | Fellow 2027
Twelve years in uniform. A lifetime of questions beyond it. Mine has been shaped by both.
My name is Nihal, and for twelve years, I have served as a Medical Assistant in the Indian Air Force. In spaces where every second, detail, and decision can matter, I learned discipline. I learned responsibility. I learned that teamwork is not an inspiring word - it is the quiet trust that holds people together when pressure rises.
Then there are the worlds I enter after duty ends.
A bookstore aisle. A page of literature. A chapter of history. A question about borders, power, memory, or India’s place in the world. Meeting Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah reminded me that stories can carry entire geographies - and that curiosity is also a form of service.
I am preparing for the UPSC examination, but I am not only looking for an examination hall. I am looking for a wider vocabulary for public life: one that connects healthcare with institutions, discipline with diplomacy, and individual duty with national purpose.
That’s why I’m here - learning, building, questioning with the Subhas Chandra Bose Fellowship.
I want to bring the steadiness I learned in service into the uncertain, necessary work of understanding the world.
A uniform taught me how to stand ready. Now I want to learn how to stand for something larger.
www.bosefellowship.org
1 month ago | [YT] | 4
View 0 replies
Bose Fellowship HQ
Filmmaking, Dignity, and the Courage: Why I'm joining the Subhash Chandra Bose Fellowship | Fellow 2027
This isn't just a portfolio. It's a protest in motion.
I'm Vaani Gaala - fashion designer, artist, dancer, singer, tattoo artist, and a one-woman-army filmmaker. I write, shoot, direct, edit. For six years, I've worked with Karuna Trust, London, affiliated with fifty NGOs across India, Bangladesh, and Nepal - making the marginalized seen, heard, and funded. I believed this was my impact.
That’s me in the photograph - surrounded by women whose laughter says more about resilience than any report ever could.
Lately, however, my empathetic heart can no longer just witness pain. When a child from a tribe branded as criminal dreams of becoming Prime Minister or an IAS officer, my heart breaks wondering if that dream will come true. That ache has lit a fire in me.
I was born in Mumbai on Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Road. My family forbade me from playing with the Buddhist community; I rebelled, they won, and I never understood why. Solo travels led me to Karuna Trust, founded by a Buddhist who lives by Babasaheb's principles. I believe the universe was paving this path: if there is to be a religion, let it be Humanity first. My soul resonates with Robin Hood.
That's why I'm here - learning, building, and questioning with the Bose Fellowship.
Let's spark a ripple that moves the privileged to act for the marginalized.
www.bosefellowship.org
1 month ago | [YT] | 6
View 0 replies
Bose Fellowship HQ
“Freedom of mind is real freedom.” — B. R. Ambedkar
Yesterday’s Bose Fellowship session with Naman Shrivastava was not just a discussion on politics, business, or current affairs.
It began with the independence speech but soon moved towards deeper questions. What happens when dissent is reduced to a label? How does political power interact with corporate power? What does it mean when public institutions, strategic assets, and people’s savings become closely tied to a few powerful corporate houses?
One of the most fascinating parts of the session was the discussion on how India’s biggest business groups have survived changing political eras. Governments change, prime ministers change, and economic policies evolve. Yet, some corporate empires continue to grow.
Their strength lies not merely in their size. It lies in their ability to read political shifts, build relationships across party lines, diversify their interests, and remain relevant to whoever holds power. When one alliance begins to look vulnerable, another possibility starts to emerge.
This is how corporate influence can reshape political power. A shift in the loyalties, calculations, or alliances of a major business group can alter the balance between political parties, influence access to capital and institutions, and determine who holds leverage over the future.
The session did not offer simplistic answers. Instead, it asked us to examine how political and corporate power sustain each other, how public money becomes connected to private expansion, and how strategic maneuvering allows certain houses to remain powerful across different governments.
From public finance and investigative journalism to sovereignty, leverage, political strategy, and the future of Indian democracy, the conversation offered a glimpse into the kind of thinking the Bose Fellowship seeks to cultivate.
-
Applications for the Azad Parliament Fellowship is closed. But we are accepting applications for the Subha Chandra Bose Fellowship 2027.
If your aim is a career in politics, public policy, diplomacy, governance, journalism, consulting, entrepreneurship, or public leadership, we would love for you to join us.
Apply Today - www.bosefellowship.org
1 month ago | [YT] | 11
View 0 replies
Bose Fellowship HQ
Every year over 6-10 Lakh of young Indians begin their UPSC journey with the hope of serving the nation. Along the way, almost 99% fail the exam. But the interesting point is that it is still NOT the problem. The real tragedy is that many of these youngsters end up wasting 4-5 of the most productive years of their lives for this exam.
And then what follows after the failure is depression, heartbreaks, loneliness, and more.
My advice to anyone preparing for UPSC Exam is simple: Do not make UPSC your five-year plan. 20s are the most productive years of your lives - there's no need to waste it in appearing for the same exam over and over again.
If things work out well in the first attempt, congratulations! If not, then please do not lose heart.
Life is definitely more than an exam that the British created 100s of years ago. And nation-building is much bigger than the civil services.
That is why I, along with Ambassador Kohli and Dean Bhaskar Chakrovarthy of the Fletcher School - we launched the Subhas Chandra Bose Fellowship last year.
There is perhaps no better person to name it after other than Subhas Chandra Bose.
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose secured the 4th rank in the Indian Civil Service examination. And then he resigned.
Because he understood something we often forget today. A prestigious government job is not the same thing as a meaningful life.
And service to the nation cannot be reduced to a designation.
The challenges India will face over the next 25 years are far more complex than anything one institution can solve.
We will need exceptional people inside government. But we will also need exceptional founders building companies, Journalists asking difficult questions, Economists understanding markets, Technologists, Doctors building new systems, Consultants solving large-scale problems, and Artists shaping culture.
And citizens who understand how all of these worlds connect.
A country of 1.4 billion people cannot be built by a few thousand civil servants. One year ago, many of our Fellows would not have imagined themselves writing serious policy papers.
They would not have imagined presenting startup ventures before platforms connected to Tufts University, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, MIT Solve.
But now that is changing. Congratulations, Mahesh! Mahesh joined the Fellowship, worked on a startup venture, tested it in the real world, and has now completed a six-month pilot with ₹6 lakh+ in revenue and 55%+ gross margins.
Education should not only give you notes, certificates, and another line on your CV.
It should give you the confidence to build. It should give you access to friend, investors, network who helps you rethink what you thought your career was supposed to look like.
**
The Last Round Applications for the Subhas Chandra Bose Fellowship 2027 are now open.
If this idea resonates with you, you can read more and apply here:
www.bosefellowship.org/
1 month ago | [YT] | 5
View 0 replies
Bose Fellowship HQ
“The beginning is always today.” - Mary Shelley
Yesterday, at the eve of the last masterclass on 'Platforms,' Naman Shrivastava & our Bose Fellowship cohort came full circle. From the doxxing of a teenage girl, a flooded state, and a country that calls its citizens “aspirants” instead of owners, today’s Bose Fellowship session tried to tie all of these threads into one uncomfortable question: what kind of platform is India becoming?
In classic MisFits fashion, the conversation swerved from lynch mobs and visas to platforms, network effects, and investment strategies. Airbnb vs Bali, USA vs India, LIC vs real assets; every example kept coming back to the same idea: price and brand can make you famous, but only institutions and network effects can lock you in.
One of the most perceptive turns was when we applied platform logic to countries. TikTok thrives because viewers become creators; Jensen Huang arrives as a student and leaves as the architect of the AI supply chain; Sundar and Satya study in India but “side‑switch” in the US. Meanwhile, India converts its brightest minds into permanent coaching‑class residents, “aspirants” perpetually trapped on one side of the platform.
Midway through, a deceptively boring equation appeared on the screen, enough to explain the most successful platforms ever created. From Uber rides to passports as “tickets to freedom,” from Delhi Police tweets to UAE’s golden visas, we kept testing that equation against platform businesses and nation‑states. The uncomfortable part was asking what India’s value unit really is today and who is rewarded or quietly pushed out.
Neither platforms nor nations are one-hit wonders. Value added by their participants is the brick with meaningful interactions as its mortar.
By the end, “platform” was no longer just a business buzzword; it was a lens to read exams, floods, visas, courts, and even stadium diplomacy.
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Applications for the Azad Parliament Fellowship are closed. But we are accepting applications for the Subha Chandra Bose Fellowship 2027.
If you want to build a career in politics, public policy, diplomacy, governance, journalism, consulting, entrepreneurship, or public leadership, we would love to hear your story.
Bose Fellowship is a community where civil servants, Armed Forces officers, entrepreneurs, doctors, journalists, lawyers, consultants, artists, researchers, and students learn from one another and from people who have spent decades shaping India’s institutions.
Apply Today - www.bosefellowship.org
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