People by WTF

Ajay Banga took Mastercard from a $30 billion company to $360 billion in a decade, was the frontrunner to run Citibank's quarter of a million people, quit to become CEO of a company with 4,000 — and today runs the World Bank Group, a $120 billion-a-year institution that was originally built to rebuild Europe and Japan after the Second World War and now exists to kill poverty by creating jobs. He says 600 million people in Africa have zero electricity and he doesn't mean inadequate electricity he means black none, that 1.2 billion young people in the developing world will turn 18 in the next 15 years with only 400 million jobs projected for them, that if you don't give them hope the demographic dividend stops being a light at the end of the tunnel and becomes a freight train, that the five sectors governments should obsess over are infrastructure and smallholder farming and primary healthcare and tourism and value-added manufacturing, that India gets fewer tourists a year than a country a fraction of its size and cultural weight, that the World Bank financed Japan's bullet trains and France's nuclear plants and helped create HDFC, that every dollar invested in tourism creates more jobs than a dollar in any other sector, that fossil fuels aren't going away but energy security is becoming a national security question, that small AI delivered on a phone to an illiterate farmer matters more to the developing world than large language models, that life is 50% luck but most people leave their luck on the station platform and forget about it, and that the only way to put a nail in the coffin of poverty is to give somebody a job because earnings are not just subsistence — they are hope and optimism and the belief that tomorrow will be better than today

00:00 Introduction
02:26 AJ's career journey across industries
09:00 Consumption patterns and consumer insecurity
15:00 World Bank's five-part structure explained
22:00 Killing poverty through job creation
29:00 Primary healthcare and farmer empowerment
35:00 Wealth concentration versus societal prosperity spread
42:00 Demographic dividend becoming freight train
49:00 Five sectors driving future jobs
56:00 Decency quotient over IQ EQ
1:03:00 Energy security and nuclear opportunities
1:10:00 Forward thinking beats historical grievances
1:17:00 Luck flexibility and taking risks
1:23:00 Closing message on optimism

Nikhil Kamath Entrepreneur & Investor

Host of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' Podcast
Twitter: https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcio/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcio/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-world-bank-group/
X - https://x.com/WorldBankGroup
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/worldbankgroup/

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Ajay Banga took Mastercard from a $30 billion company to $360 billion, left when he was the frontrunner to run Citibank's 250,000 people, and now controls $120 billion a year as the President of the World Bank Group — the institution that was built after the Second World War to stop poverty from turning into war. He says life is 50% luck but most people leave their luck on the station platform, that India gets under 20 million tourists a year which is insane for a country with beaches, mountains, culture, history, food and what he calls cool people, and that the world is about to have 1.2 billion young people turn 18 with only 400 million jobs waiting for them — and if you don't give them hope, the demographic dividend becomes a freight train. Full episode drops soon.

Nikhil Kamath Co-founder of Zerodha and Gruhas
Host of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' Podcast
Twitter: https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcio/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcio/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio/

World Bank Group:
X - https://x.com/WorldBankGroup
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/worldbankgroup/

Watch 'WTF is' Podcast on Spotify
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Watch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotify
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#WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline

Rishi Sunak says patience is a bigger competitive advantage than speed, that every decision that reaches a leader is 50-50 by definition because if it weren't someone else would have made it, that the long term is just a succession of short terms you either survived or got kicked out of, and that the thing he wishes he'd done more of in his career is read fiction — because non-fiction tells you what to do and how to do it but fiction teaches you why and gives you a deeper understanding of people.
Akshata Murty says her identity was never her father's name or her husband's title, that the middle path between stoicism and epicureanism is where the answer almost always lives, and that the validation she chases is impact — not position, not wealth, not the approval of people who've already decided who she is.
First couple's episode we've ever done, and it went places none of us expected.

Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
06:04 Foundery: India's consumer brand accelerator
12:20 Storytelling as a leadership superpower
18:05 Parents' pharmacy inspired political career
24:04 Educating children in the AI era
30:05 Leaning into human skills over AI
36:17 How Rishi and Akshata decide differently
42:10 Goldman Sachs to Prime Minister journey
48:03 Patience as an underrated competitive advantage
54:15 Entering politics: resilience, patience, service
1:00:06 Staying unapologetically Indian in British politics
1:06:51 Life inside 10 Downing Street
1:12:20 AI sovereignty and global trade tensions
1:18:32 De-globalisation and supply chain resilience
1:24:38 Free trade, tariffs, and level playing fields
1:31:17 Akshata's identity beyond famous family
1:37:53 Validation through impact, not inheritance
1:44:04 Finding balance between desire and austerity
1:50:04 Being kind to yourself after failure
1:56:42 Identity, heritage, and the living bridge
2:03:03 Nostalgic Bangalore food and childhood memories
2:09:05 Why young Indians should enter politics
2:16:03 Education, financial literacy, and compounding
2:22:04 Learning to learn in the AI age
2:29:52 How Rishi and Akshata use AI daily
2:37:09 Can AI truly be creative?
2:44:06 Losing the Prime Ministership: lessons in dharma
2:51:30 Poets versus politicians: who should we hear?
2:58:17 Motivating young people to shape policy
Nikhil Kamath
Co-founder of Zerodha and Gruhas
Host of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' Podcast
Twitter: https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcio
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcio/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio

Rishi Sunak
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@rishisunak
X: https://x.com/RishiSunak?s=20
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rishisunakmp
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rishisunak

Akshata Murty
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@akshataonline
X: https://x.com/anmurty
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rishisunakmp
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rishisunak

Watch on Spotify
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#WTFiswithnikhilkamath
#PeopleByWTF
#WTFOnline

Rishi Sunak says he could not function without his marriage, that losing the most public job in the world taught him that the Gita was right about focusing on dharma and not outcomes, and that the blank canvas at 45 is more exciting than the track that got him there. Akshata Murty says she’s not stuck on being her father’s daughter or her husband’s wife, she is clear on who she is than any title ever made her and the answer to most things lives in balance, somewhere between stoicism and epicureanism. First couple's episode. Full conversation drops soon.

#nikhilkamath Co-founder of Zerodha and Gruhas
Host of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' Podcast
Twitter: https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcio/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathcio/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio/

#rishisunak Former PM of the UK
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@rishisunak
X - https://x.com/RishiSunak?s=20
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/rishisunakmp/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/rishisunak
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rishi-sunak

#akshatamurty Businesswoman and Philanthropist
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@akshataonline
X - https://x.com/anmurty
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/rishisunakmp/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/rishisunak
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/akshata-murty-5a04232

Watch 'WTF is' Podcast on Spotify
https://tinyurl.com/4nsm4ezn

Watch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotify
https://tinyurl.com/yme92c59

Watch 'WTF Online' on Spotify
https://tinyurl.com/4tjua4th

#WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline

One of them says the Gita's line on duty over outcomes is what got him through the most public failure of his life. The other says her identity has never been her father's name or her husband's title. They've been together 20 years and still argue about ice cream flavours. First couple's episode we've ever done.

#nikhilkamath Co-founder of Zerodha and Gruhas
Host of 'WTF is' & 'People By WTF' Podcast
Twitter: https://x.com/nikhilkamathcio/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nikhilkamathcio/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilkamathkamathcio/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nikhilkamathcio/

Watch 'WTF is' Podcast on Spotify
https://tinyurl.com/4nsm4ezn

Watch 'People by WTF' Podcast on Spotify
https://tinyurl.com/yme92c59

Watch 'WTF Online' on Spotify
https://tinyurl.com/4tjua4th

#WTFiswithnikhilkamath #PeopleByWTF #WTFOnline