The Morning Brief
The Morning Brief is a thrice-weekly podcast by The Economic Times that breaks down the week's most important stories in business, economy, politics, and markets. Journalists from the ET team chat with reporters and industry leaders to provide insights and analysis. Episodes are released on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.
Episodes
The Heat Dome Files: What Europe Can Learn From India
Europe's latest heatwave is expected to leave behind a staggering human toll. But beyond the immediate crisis, it is raising a broader question: are countries prepared for a world where extreme heat becomes routine? While much of the conversation around climate change focuses on emissions, a parallel challenge is emerging around adaptation. From city design and public health systems to early warni
Tracxn Co-Founder on India’s Startup Paradox: More Money, Fewer Bets
India’s startup ecosystem is sending mixed signals. Funding deals are at a decade low, yet tech IPOs are breaking records. Investors are writing bigger cheques but backing fewer companies, while deep tech, AI and space tech are quietly reshaping the next phase of innovation. Host Anirban Chowdhury talks to Tracxn co-founder Neha Singh about what the data really reveals: why average deal size
Corn Man: The Man Who Quietly Cornered Half of India's Popcorn Market
One in two popcorn kernels eaten in India comes from one man's farms. He built the crop from nothing, the processing plant that rivals anything in North America, and a farmer network no competitor can crack. When COVID killed every client overnight, most founders would have cut and run. He doubled his acreage. He has 50Xed his revenue in 5 years, build a moat few can crack and plans to now indigen
ET Deep Dive: Can India’s Firecracker Capital Go Global?
Nestled in Virudhunagar district of Tamil Nadu, Sivakasi is India’s undisputed firecracker capital. What began as a humble cottage industry thrived in the region’s hot, dry climate — conditions too harsh for agriculture but perfect for manufacturing matches and firecrackers. Over decades, this unlikely desert town grew into a Rs 6,000 crore industry, supplying the bulk of India&r
Can Regional Aviation Finally Take Off In India?
For decades, regional aviation in India has been a story of false starts, grounded ambitions and struggling airlines. But that may finally be changing. India makes more than 4 billion intercity trips every year. Yet only 3% happen by air. That gap may be the single biggest untapped opportunity in Indian aviation — and airlines like Fly91 and aircraft maker ATR believe they are perfectly posi
Dr Ramakanta Panda On Why Bankers, Techies Are Most Susceptible To Heart Disease
Eighty percent of Dr Ramakanta Panda's young cardiac patients — below 35, below 40 — work in IT or finance. Late nights, processed food, 2 AM pizza, secondhand smoke, and a generation that doesn't sleep before midnight. The Padma Bhushan awardee and Chairman of Asian Heart Institute, Mumbai has performed over 30,000 cardiac surgeries with a 99.8% bypass success rate and zero MRSA in hi
Jio’s Historic IPO and Next Act
Jio Platforms is set to file what could be India's largest-ever IPO. But the story goes far beyond the listing. Senior telecom consultant Kalyan Parbat joins host Anirban Chowdhury to break down what the DRHP really signals. From prepaying debt to funding a sovereign LEO satellite constellation, building a homegrown AI agent called Hey Jio, and exporting its indigenous 5G stack to global operators
ET Deep Dive: The DNA Fix
A revolution is underway in cancer diagnosis. A gene-based test called next-generation sequencing can identify precise mutations in a patient’s DNA, which can then be treated with targeted therapies instead of painful chemotherapy. For an 80-year-old woman with stage 4 lung cancer, it meant walking again. For a 24-year-old with breast cancer, it meant a normal life. But since NGS tests
AI Studios: The New Entertainment Frontier
India's media and entertainment industry is actively exploring new frontiers in AI. From JioHotstar's dedicated AI content division to Kishore Lulla's $150 million Eros Innovation play, the country's biggest streaming and production companies are building AI studios from the ground up. The economics are hard to ignore, production costs down 60-70%, delivery timelines cut by half. But beyond micro
Mythos Blocked: When AI Becomes a Weapon of State
On June 12, the US government forced Anthropic to shut off its most powerful AI models Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for every foreign national on earth, citing national security. The trigger was a claimed jailbreak. The fallout was immediate. India, which had only just gained access to Mythos through Project Glasswing, was suddenly cut off. Host Anirban Chowdhury talks to Dr Rumman Chowdhury, co-founder C
Killed in America’s War: The Indian Sailors Nobody Apologised For
Three Indian mariners are dead, killed by US Navy strikes on a commercial tanker in the Gulf of Oman. Host Anirban Chowdhury talks to Abhijit Singh, a retired naval officer and former head of the maritime policy initiative at ORF, to break down what we know and what remains contested about the MT Settebello incident. Was it a legitimate blockade enforcement or an unprovoked attack on a stationary
ET Deep Dive: Hills of Brew
From the hills of Nagaland, once rattled by insurgency, comes an unlikely revolution — specialty coffee. In this episode of ET Deep Dive, we trace how a state better known for decades of conflict is quietly reinventing itself, one arabica bean at a time. From smallholder farmers in the mist-covered hills of Wokha to young entrepreneurs who studied abroad and came home to build brands, Nagala
How Long Should You Stay in an SIP?
Every month, millions of Indians put money into mutual funds through SIPs without really knowing how long to stay invested or what happens when markets crash. ET Wealth's annual SIP study with Crisil Intelligence finally puts hard numbers to these questions. Host and editor ET Wealth Kayezad E Adajania talks to Piyush Gupta, Director at Crisil Intelligence about what 15 years of data across 120 sc
RBI's Rupee Rx
The rupee has been on a sharp slide, moving from 90 to nearly 97 in just a few months. On Friday, the RBI stepped in with two major measures a concessional FCNR deposit window for NRIs and a subsidised swap facility for ECB borrowings by PSUs effectively absorbing the hedging costs to pull in foreign capital. But how much of a difference will it make, and for how long? Host Rozebud Gonsalves speak
The Gold That Wasn't There: Inside SEBI's Case Against Rajesh Exports
SEBI has accused Rajesh Exports and its promoter Rajesh Mehta of one of India's most brazen alleged financial frauds — inflating revenues by fifteen lakh crore, claiming ownership of African gold mines that don't exist, and siphoning funds through a web of overseas entities while auditors looked the other way. On this episode of The Morning Brief, Anirban Chowdhury, N Sundaresha Subramanian,
Zia Mody On Law, Legacy and Leadership
She walked into the courtroom with no playbook and built an empire anyway. Host Maulik Vyas talks to one of India's most formidable legal minds Co-Founder & Managing Partner of AZB & Partners, Zia Mody, who reflects on four decades at the forefront of corporate law, from the chaos of early liberalization to billion-dollar cross-border deals. She opens up about the cautious mood on deal str
ET Deep Dive: Lock, Stock and Worry
India's locker economy is booming — and buckling. Bank vaults remain the default choice for storing gold, heirlooms and family documents, but chronic shortages, inheritance disputes and a trust deficit are cracking the system open. Private vault operators are muscling in with biometric access and extended hours. Home-safe manufacturers are selling the idea of keeping wealth closer. And regul
Anthropic Goes Public: Can Markets Justify a $1 Trillion Value?
As Anthropic files confidentially for an IPO with a reported valuation nearing $1 trillion, markets are watching closely. Host Anirban Chowdhury talks to Daniel Newman, CEO at data intellegince, research and advisory firm The Futurum Group to break down what investors should really scrutinise from enterprise attrition data to compute cost commitments. They unpack the revenue optics inflated by clo
Habil Khorakiwala on India's First FDA-Approved Antibiotic.
Wockhardt's FDA approval of Zaynich marks a historic first, the only drug entirely discovered and developed by an Indian company to clear US-FDA scrutiny. ET’s pharma editor Vikas Dandekar and Rica Bhattacharyya talk to Habil Khorakiwala, Chairperson of Wockhardt who unpacks the 25-year innovation journey behind this milestone. From a deliberate pivot to antibiotics when big pharma was exiti
Four Economists on ‘Will The Rupee Cross 100 To The Dollar?
The rupee has briefly touched an all-time low of 96.96 in May. Is the psychological 100-to-the-dollar mark now inevitable? In this episode of The Morning Brief, Rozebud Gonsalves speaks to economists from leading financial institutions–Gaura Sengupta, chief economist at IDFC First Bank, Kanika Pasricha, chief economic advisor, Union Bank of India, Madhavi Arora, chief economist, Emkay Global
Jio Studios’ Dream To Be Part of a Global $100B Industry
What does it take to back India's highest-grossing films three years in a row? Host Anirban Chowdhury and ET’s film journalist and critic Rajesh N Naidu talk to Jyoti Deshpande, President - Jio Studios, Media & Content Business -Reliance Industries Ltd, who pulls back the curtain on how she green-lights films, why she rejects 98 out of every 100 ideas, and what Indian cinema needs to do
ET Deep Dive: Operation Octopus
Operation Octopus is Hyderabad Police’s ambitious multi-phase crackdown on the infrastructure behind cyber fraud — not just the small fish, but the entire ecosystem. From mule accounts and rogue bank employees to ghost SIMs and crypto networks, each phase peels back a new layer of a sprawling criminal enterprise spanning multiple states and international actors. Commissioner VC Sajjana
Why Doesn't India Know What To Do With Its Stray Dogs?
India has 80 million stray dogs and accounts for 30 percent of the world's rabies deaths. The Supreme Court's latest judgment proposes capturing and relocating strays from schools, hospitals, religious and tourism sites but the experts on this episode argue it may do more harm than the problem it set out to solve. Host Anirban Chowdhury sits down with Gauri Maulekhi, Trustee of People for An
Physical AI Is Here. So Are The Data Collection Risks
Physical AI is being seen as the next frontier of artificial intelligence. Not AI that lives on screens. But AI that can navigate and operate in the real world — from humanoid robots and warehouses to factories and homes. But these systems need enormous amounts of real-world human activity data to learn movement and physical tasks. And increasingly, India is emerging as a low-cost training g
Cockroach Janta Party: Did a Meme Just Become a Movement?
When the Chief Justice of India Surya Kant called young professionals “cockroaches,” he likely didn’t anticipate a political uprising on social media. Host Dia Rekhi speaks to Sudhanshu Kaushik,president and CEO of the Centre for Youth Policy and Political commentator and Visiting Fellow - India Foundation Rajat Sethi, about the party— a meme-turned-movement that amas
ET Deep Dive: How PE Firms Are Taking Over Heathcare in Kerala
Kerala has long been India’s healthcare model — high literacy, strong outcomes, a diaspora that pays for quality care. Now, private equity giants KKR and Blackstone are betting big on it, pumping nearly $900 million into the state’s hospitals in just two years. For global funds, the logic is simple: chronic disease, ageing patients, NRI money. For doctors like Charlie Cherian, wh
Corner Office Conversation: HP India MD Ipsita Dasgupta on AI PCs & Creator Economy
HP’s MD and SVP for India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka Ipsita Dasgupta joins ET’s Anirban Chowdhury in the latest Corner Office Conversation to discuss why India’s PC story is still in its early stages — and how AI PCs, creators, SMEs and students could drive the next wave of growth. She explains why HP sees “a PC in every child’s hands” as a national opportu
TCS Nashik, NCW's Findings & The POSH Failure
The TCS Nashik case has become one of the most disturbing workplace harassment scandals in India’s recent corporate history. The NCW’s findings point to systemic intimidation, leadership failure, weak POSH implementation and a culture of silence inside a major listed company. In this episode, Anirban Chowdhury speaks to Aparna Mittal, Founder of Samāna Centre for Gender, Policy and Law
Mangonomics
India grows 40% of the world’s mangoes. Yet exports less than 1%. So where does the rest go? In this episode of The Morning Brief, Anirban Chowdhury and Forum Gandhi talk to T Damodaran, Director, ICAR-CISH, Jyotsna Kaur Habibullah, founder of Lucknow Mango Festival, Kaushal Khakhar, CEO, Kay Bee Exports and mango farmers to unpack the hidden economics of India’s favourite fruit
Corner Office Conversation: Dara Khosrowshahi—India To Be Uber’s No. 1 Market
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says India could become Uber’s largest market globally over the next decade and on whether he is open to a partnership with Travis Kalanick. In this conversation with ET’s editor, ETtech.com, editor-startups, emerging business, new economy Samidha Sharma and Pranav Mukul, he explains Uber’s India strategy across AI, EVs, bike taxis, logistics, and auton
Quantum City
Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh's under-construction capital, is still a landscape of earthmovers and iron poles — but its Quantum Valley is already drawing scientists and engineers from across India and abroad. Young engineers have left metro jobs, postdoctoral researchers have returned from the US, and retired scientists are converging on this unfinished city to work on quantum computing —
Can Bollywood's Big Boys Play The Microdrama Game?
India's biggest production houses are moving into micro-drama — but entering a format is very different from mastering it. In this episode of The Morning Brief, host Anirban Chowdhury, ET's in house film journalist and critic Rajesh Naidu and AI-native micro drama platform Dashverse founder Sanidhya Narain examine three defining tensions in the micro-drama space: whether the format can genui
Can Modi Halt India’s Gold Rush?
When a Prime Minister asks a billion people to stop buying gold, something has already broken. In this episode of The Morning Brief, host Anirban Chowdhury sits down with Suvankar Sen, MD and CEO of Senco Gold, Atmadip Ray, Senior Editor at The Economic Times, and Madan Sabnavis, Chief Economist at Bank of Baroda — on what actually happened to consumer demand the moment Modi spoke, why India
Parachute to Popcorn: Marico CEO on Acquisitions, Ambition & Attrition
Marico went on a shopping spree — three deals, 700 crores, three weeks. But is it swiftly reinventing itself for the TikTok generation, or a legacy FMCG giant papering over a slowing core with shiny digital acquisitions? MD and CEO Saugata Gupta makes his case to host and ET’s FMCG editor Ratna Bhushan — a 28-year-old average workforce, founders left to run free, and a digital bu
The Chinese Cancer Fix
A quiet revolution is underway in Indian oncology. Chinese-origin cancer drugs, brought to India through a growing number of pharma partnerships, are dramatically cutting the cost of immunotherapy — making treatment accessible to patients who previously had no options. Doctors are prescribing them, patients are responding well, and Indian companies — from Glenmark to Dr Reddy’s t
Mythos and the New AI Cyber Panic
When an AI system can autonomously find and exploit vulnerabilities at scale — who controls the risk? In this episode of The Morning Brief, host Anirban Chowdhury sits down with Gary Marcus, AI expert, scientist and author to examine Anthropic's Mythos — a frontier AI system built for defensive cybersecurity that has rattled governments, central banks, and security researchers worldwid
India's Biggest Trade Partner Is China. Now what?
China just surpassed the US as India's largest trading partner, with bilateral trade hitting $151 billion and a trade deficit that has ballooned to an all-time high of $112 billion. Beijing has also rolled out sweeping new supply chain rules that could penalise companies moving manufacturing out. So what does this mean for India? John Quelch, American President, Executive Vice Chancellor and Disti
Polls on my Pod: Bengal Flips, Vijay Disrupts, Kerala Resets
A political script has been torn up across India’s key states. Tamil Nadu sees actor Vijay’s TVK disrupt decades of Dravidian dominance. West Bengal delivers a stunning power shift as BJP ends a 15-year Trinamool rule. Assam doubles down on continuity, handing Himanta Biswa Sarma a third term and deepening BJP’s hold. And Kerala returns to its classic anti-incumbency cycle, givin
How Guneet Monga Rewrote Bollywood's Rules and Won an Oscar Doing It
She grew up navigating a war zone of a family home, arrived in Bombay with ₹50 lakhs borrowed from a neighbour, and watched her debut film get pulled from theatres the morning after India lost the cricket World Cup. That's where most stories end. Guneet Monga's was just beginning. In this candid, far-ranging conversation with ET’s Anirban Chowdhury and in-house film journalist and critic Raj
Guns, Glamour & Girl Bosses
She’s dressed in designer labels at a high-profile party. She runs a beauty parlour in northeast Delhi. She has a pistol in one hand and a social media following in the other. Meet India’s new women gangsters — educated, visible, and deeply embedded in the country’s most feared criminal networks. From Rajasthan to Delhi to gang bosses operating out of Portugal, this is a st
AAP’s Breaking Point: The Exit of Seven
Seven Rajya Sabha MPs quitting together is a structural rupture inside Aam Aadmi Party. From Raghav Chadha’s distancing to the exit of key organisational architects like Sandeep Pathak, this episode traces how AAP moved from a high-moral insurgency in 2015 to a party battling credibility, governance questions, and leadership centralisation. Anirban Chowdhury and ET’s Nidhi
Sun–Organon: The scope, risks, and future of India's biggest pharma deal
India's largest drugmaker, Sun Pharma, has announced the acquisition of US-based Organon in a landmark $11.75 billion all-cash deal, the biggest overseas purchase by an Indian company since Tata-Corus in 2007. The move effectively doubles Sun Pharma's size, vaulting it into the top 25 global pharmaceutical companies with combined revenues of $12.4 billion. Host Anirban Chowdhury talks to ET's phar
Polls On My Pod: Fish, Faith & the SIR Fear: Can Mamata Hold Bengal?
West Bengal's 2026 elections should be a contest of ideas but on the ground, something far darker is unfolding. What emerges from ground reporting is not voters debating whom to choose, but fearing whether they'll be allowed to vote at all. Booth capturing, voter list manipulation, and intimidation have replaced genuine democratic exercise. While TMC faces anti-incumbency after 15 years and BJP pu
ET Deep Dive: Swipe Left on Reality
Online dating has always been a grueling hustle, but a new, invisible third wheel has entered the chat: Artificial Intelligence. In this episode of ET Deep Dive, we explore how AI has quietly wedged itself into modern romance. From perfectly crafted opening lines to entirely automated textationships, lonely daters are now outsourcing their emotional labor and linguistic charm to chatbots. But what
Polls On My Pod: TN and the Thalapathy Factor
Tamil Nadu heads to the polls with its familiar two-party battle DMK vs AIADMK facing an unprecedented challenge. Actor-turned-politician Vijay and his party TVK are injecting fresh uncertainty into a state that has ritually voted out incumbents since 1967. With law and order, corruption, and drugs dominating voter anxieties, MK Stalin's "Dravidian model" faces a tough stress test. Vijay's caste-n
India's Medical Tourism Slips Off the Table
India's medical tourism industry is in a quiet downturn. Foreign patient arrivals have fallen roughly a third since 2019 from nearly 700,000 visitors to around 500,000 dragged down by strained ties with Bangladesh, visa processing times stretching up to 60 days, and aggressive competition from Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. A tax incidence on medical referrals threatens to push costs higher ju
ET Deep Dive: The Van That Ate the SUV
India's wealthy are quietly trading flash for function. The luxury MPV — long dismissed as a hotel shuttle or family hauler — has become the unlikely status symbol of the country's new-money elite. Founders close funding rounds from reclining rear seats. Executives hold confidential meetings behind privacy partitions. Celebrities vanish into near-silent cabins. The Toyota Vellfire, Lex
The Delimitation Trap
The government has just hit the ultimate political reset button, and the electoral math is ruthless. By tethering the historic 33% Women’s Reservation Bill to a sweeping 50% flat increase in parliamentary seats via the Delimitation exercise, the ruling dispensation is drawing up a radically new political map for India. But behind the necessary veil of gender parity lies a fierce geographical
Quantum Leap: India’s Amaravati Bet
Quantum computing is here — and it's reshaping the global technology order faster than most realise. India is making its boldest move yet with a dedicated National Quantum Mission backed by ₹6,000 crore. On World Quantum Day, it unveiled the world's first open-access, Made-in-India quantum ecosystem at Amaravati. Host Nidhi Sharma join CV Sridhar, Mission Director of the AP State Quantum Mis
Indian Aviation’s Biggest CEO Shake-Up
In a single month, India's two largest airlines lost their CEOs. Pieter Elbers was pushed out of IndiGo following a catastrophic December 2025 meltdown that stranded 300,000 passengers and wiped 78% of profits. Campbell Wilson chose a more dignified exit from Air India, a planned departure from a carrier still bleeding billions, scarred by a fatal Ahmedabad crash, and hamstrung by a decades of leg
ET Deep Dive: The Menopause Reckoning
For generations, Indian women moved through perimenopause and menopause in silence — misdiagnosed, dismissed, or simply left to figure it out alone. That's changing. Driven by social media, celebrity candour, and a growing wellness economy projected to hit $24 billion globally by 2030, menopause is finally becoming a public conversation. But with awareness comes noise — supplements, co
India wants manufacturing at 25% of GDP — will AI in factories help?
What does it take to move India's manufacturing from 16% to 25% of GDP? Two industry heavyweights, Vinod Kumar, Partner & Leader – Manufacturing, PwC India and Srihari Kaninghat, Group Chief Digital Officer, JSW Group sit down with host Anirban Chowdhury to cut through the hype and get real about AI on the shop floor. From blast furnaces to boardrooms, they break down how AI is quietly r
For India’s Exporters, It’s One Battle After Another
As global tensions ripple through trade, Indian exporters are beginning to feel the strain. In this episode of The Morning Brief, host Anirban Chowdhury speaks with exporters of leather products, textile and gems and jewellery as well as Dr. Arun Singh, Chief Economist at Dun & Bradstreet, India to unpack how the Middle East crisis is impacting business realities. From rising input costs in le
Two Women Fought to Change India's Maternity Laws...and Succeeded
When Hamsaanandini Nanduri brought home two siblings — aged two and five — in 2017, she had six weeks of maternity leave, and a few of those were already gone. The law hadn't considered what it actually takes to settle a child who has known loss, institution walls, and then a new home overnight. Hamsa could manage. She knew many mothers couldn't. Four years later, she and her friend an
Polls On My Pod: Himanta's Assam - But For How Long?
A decades-old rivalry simmers beneath Assam's 2026 elections. When Himanta Biswa Sarma, once a loyalist, walked out of Congress after being sidelined for Tarun Gogoi's son Gaurav, he took 58 MLAs with him and never looked back. Today, Sarma is a fiery incumbent Chief Minister seeking a hattrick, while Gaurav leads Congress into battle to reclaim his father's throne. On Polls On My Pod, ET’s
Pharma's AI Reckoning
Is AI in pharma just hype or a full-blown revolution? In this episode, ET's pharma editor Vikas Dandekar sits down with three industry heavyweights Sujay Shetty, Partner & Leader - Health Industries, PwC India, Phanimitra B, Chief Digital and Information Officer, Dr. Reddy’s and Ramesh Swaminathan, ED, Global CFO, Head of IT, Lupin to unpack how artificial intelligence is transforming dr
Deep Dive: Ageing, Upgraded
India is ageing faster than it can care for itself — and the cracks are already showing. From missed diagnoses to absent support systems, the silver economy is full of invisible gaps. But this isn’t just a story of decline. Today’s seniors are more aware, financially independent, and unwilling to fade into irrelevance. They want agency, purpose, and dignity. Into this space, a ne
Cricket & Corporate Leadership
What does it take to lead when the stakes are high and everyone's watching? In this episode, Vikas Dandekar sits down with Sanjiv Navangul, MD & CEO of Bharat Serums and Vaccines, and cricketer Ajinkya Rahane — two leaders from opposite ends of the arena, with more in common than you'd expect. One builds companies around purpose and long-term resilience. The other has batted through some
Polls On My Pod: Pinarayi vs Pinarayi in Kerala
As the electoral bugle sounds across Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal, the nation braces itself for a whirlwind of political intrigue and upheaval. In the season opener of our special podcast series Polls on My Pod, host Nidhi Sharma is joined by ET’s CL Manoj to unpack Kerala’s fascinating crossroads. Long defined by its neat alternation between the Left Democratic Front and
Tanay Kothari Wants To Kill The Keyboard
Tanay Kothari has been building at the intersection of voice and AI since he was a teenager. His latest company, Wispr Flow, is a voice dictation tool that works across all your applications — learning your tone, cleaning your speech, and adapting to context. It's grown 30x in revenue over the past year, with Fortune 500 adoption accelerating and a strong India play underway. In this convers
Can India Truly End Naxalism?
As India approaches its self-imposed deadline to end Left Wing Extremism, host Nidhi Sharma speaks with ET’s internal security editor Rahul Tripathi, SHantanu Nandan Sharma, and Vijay Sharma, Deputy Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh. Ground reports from Bastar reveal a conflict in transition shrinking, yet not fully extinguished. Security operations have led to mass surrenders, reducing insurge
Iran War: India’s Macros Under Strain
As the Iran war enters its fourth week, global markets are scrambling to price in shocks. The impact is rapidly deepening for India. Goldman Sachs has already revised its outlook twice, flagging rising oil prices, a widening current account deficit, and slowing growth. Host Anirban Chowdhury talks to Santanu Sengupta, managing director and chief India economist and warns that Brent could average $
Markets May Be Misreading This War: UBS’ Chief Strategist
A deepening geopolitical conflict in the Middle East is forcing markets to confront a far more structural shock than recent crises. Host and ET markets editor Nishanth Vasudevan talks to Bhanu Baweja, Chief Strategist at UBS Investment Bank who warns that investors may be underestimating the scale of disruption, particularly in oil, where potential supply losses dwarf the Russia-Ukraine impact. Wh
HDFC’s Governance Ghost: What Triggered Atanu Chakraborty’s Exit?
HDFC Bank, long seen as India’s gold standard in banking, is facing rare questions on governance. The sudden exit of chairman Atanu Chakraborty—backed by a cryptic letter citing “values and ethics”—has triggered market jitters and investor unease. Host Anirban Chowdhury talks to ET’s Saloni Shukla and Sashidhar Jagdishan, CEO, HDFC Bank about what India's bankin
Corner Office Conversation with G.V. Prasad, Co-Chairman and Managing Director Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd
G.V. Prasad has spent over thirty years at the helm of Dr. Reddy's Laboratories — long enough to know where the opportunities were missed and where the potential and challenges lie. In a candid conversation with ET’s pharma editor Vikas Dandekar on Corner Office Conversation, the Co-Chairman and Managing Director pulls no punches: India is the generic pharmacy of the world, not the pha
From Doer to Director: The LinkedIn Playbook for the AI Age
A billion professionals. Eighteen years of data. And a skills gap that's widening as AI tools multiply. Mohak Shroff has watched LinkedIn evolve from a professional network into what he calls, at its core, an AI matching engine. That vantage point gives Shroff, SVP Engineering at Linkedin, a clear read on what's actually happening inside organisations right now. Not the boardroom narrative, but th
Semaglutide Goes Generic: Big Pharma’s Moat Breaks
India's semaglutide moment has arrived. As Novo Nordisk's patent expires on March 20th, over fifty generic brands are poised to flood the market potentially slashing monthly costs from ₹10,000 to ₹3,500. But this is no ordinary generic wave. Semaglutide is a complex peptide, cold chains are unforgiving, and patient adherence remains fragile. Host and ET’s pharma editor Vikas Dandekar talks t
Who Controls AI in an Age of War?
Anthropic refused the Pentagon unrestricted access to its Claude AI, and the fallout reshaped the tech-defense landscape overnight. OpenAI rushed in to fill the void, signing a classified deal that triggered internal resignations and a user exodus toward Claude. Host Himanshi Lohchab talks to Abishur Prakash, Geopolitical Strategist, to unpack the fierce power struggle between governments demandin
India Opens the Door to China Investments…a Little
Five years after slamming the door on Chinese investments, India has quietly amended Press Note 3. With FDI stagnating, institutional investors pulling billions out, and Western capital stretched thin, New Delhi is making a hard-nosed economic calculation. The amendment signals cautious optimism. welcoming Chinese capital into startups and tech sectors, while keeping telecom and security-sensitive
SPRs to LPG: How Far Will History’s Biggest Oil Shock Reverberate?
A once-in-a-generation oil shock is unfolding. Host Anirban Chowdhury speaks with Amrita Sen, Founder of Energy Aspects, Bob McNally, founder of Rapidan Energy Group and former White House energy advisor, and ET’s Puran Choudhary on a crisis triggered by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. More than 10 million barrels of crude a day have been disrupted roughly twice the scale of t
Banned But Booming: How The Money Gaming Crackdown Created an Offshore Goldmine
Despite a sweeping government crackdown, India's offshore real money gaming industry is not just surviving, it's booming. Offshore platforms like Parimatch and 1xBet exploited regulatory blind spots, processing 5.4 billion visits from Indian users by mid-2025. Using mirror sites, regional language interfaces, seamless UPI payments, and shadowy mule account networks, these platforms rendered the ba
Women Bank Better, Still Remain a $700 Billion Blind Spot
Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President and CEO of Women's World Banking, joins host Anirban Chowdhury to explore five decades of progress and persistent gaps in women's financial inclusion. From the $700 billion opportunity financial institutions are leaving on the table, to India's BC Sakhi model and the Jan Dhan transformation, to the urgent link between women's financial access and climate resilienc
Wendy Hall: One Woman's Voice in a Room Full of AI Tech Bros
She shares rooms and stages with the gods of AI...and is often the only woman there. Dame Wendy Hall, pioneering computer scientist and co-founder of Web Science, has watched the internet reshape the world. Now she's watching AI do the same. And she's worried we're repeating the same mistakes, faster. In this Women's Day Special, she pulls no punches: on why "AGI" is meaningless hype, why governan
What the Iran War Means for Indians’ Money, Jobs and Homes in the UAE
Dubai's "safe haven" image took a direct hit this week as missile debris fell near the Burj Al Arab and Palm Jumeirah following military escalations involving Iran, the US, and Israel. For Indian HNIs, family offices, and startup founders who had parked billions in Dubai real estate, the question is no longer about returns, it's about risk. Indian buyers, who account for 20-30% of prime property p
US–Israel vs Iran: The War That Could Ignite the Middle East
From January’s protests in Iran to coordinated US–Israel strikes and widening retaliation, this episode maps how internal unrest morphed into a geopolitical flashpoint. Host Anirban Chowdhury and ET’s Executive Editor (Politics) Pranab Dhal Samanta break down the escalation ladder: is this about regime change, deterrence, or domestic politics in Washington? Can Iran’s cleri
AI Has Entered the Classroom. And Your Child's Mind.
What if AI companions are inserting themselves between children and the very people meant to guide them? In this episode of The Morning Brief, host Anirban Chowdhury speaks to Dr. Sonia Livingstone, Professor of Social Psychology, Department of Media and Communications, The London School of Economics and Political Science and Dr Usha Raman, former professor,Dept of Communication, University of Hyd
Stuart Russell and Yoshua Bengio on Why AI Could Make us Irrelevant, then Extinct
The existential alignment problem sits at the heart of the AI revolution — and the consequences of getting it wrong could be irreversible. What happens when superintelligent systems pursue fixed objectives that don’t fully capture human values? How do we govern machines that may soon outperform us across domains? And who decides what level of risk humanity should accept? The conversati
Arvind Krishna: Cutting Through the AI Noise
In a wide-ranging conversation with host Surabhi Agarwal, IBM's chairman, president and CEO Arvind Krishna addresses the questions every technology leader and IT professional in India is wrestling with right now. He pushes back on AI doomsday narratives for software services, makes a compelling case for why hybrid cloud and mainframe architecture remain indispensable, and shares his candid take on
Court Says No. Trump Says Watch This. What Should India Do?
The US Supreme Court just handed Trump a legal defeat and it barely slowed him down. In a landmark ruling, the court struck down tariffs imposed under emergency economic powers, only for the White House to pivot instantly to alternative legal pathways. For India, caught just before a trade deal that had finally brought some clarity, the timing couldn't be worse. Host Anirban Chowdhury talks to Bip
Corner Office Conversation with Dilip Shanghvi, Chairman of Sun Pharma and Glenn Saldanha, Managing Director at Glenmark Pharma
In a candid, unscripted exchange, India’s pharma titans peeled back the mythology of overnight success to reveal a harder truth: conviction compounded over decades. What began as two products and a bet on neglected therapy areas evolved into a multibillion-dollar enterprise riding India’s epidemiological shift. Innovation, they argued, is a long game—scarred by failed trials, inv
