Wiki Leaks has found a new market. It is India. After tying up with The Hindu, it has released a few cables which accuse some of our politicians of selling votes for cash. Japan is still recovering from one of its worst nightmares after suffering from one of the biggest earthquakes of the century. Back home in India, Jairam Ramesh, our Environment Minister is gearing up to carry out a security check across all of Indias 20 nuclear plants. In other news, Vidharbha is the new Tiger capital of Indi...
Mar 18, 2011•20 min•Season 2011Ep. 138
Did you know that there were 18,000 Indians holed up in Libya about a week back. The Indian government is going all out to evacuate all Indians in the region as Col Gaddafi refuses to let go of his assumed control over Libya. Back home, Aruna Shanbaug lies in a vegetative state for 37 years running but sees a glimmer of hope as the court allows passive euthanasia in her case. We would love to know your views on euthanasia. Have you heard of a state stocking up on blood in anticipation of state e...
Mar 16, 2011•20 min•Season 2011Ep. 137
Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh woke up to the din surrounding him and ordered a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the corruption scandals that have rocked the government in the past few months. The High Court has upheld its death penalty sentence on Ajmal Kasab, the terrorist who was involved in the 26th November attacks. The Cricket World Cup 2011 is here and the the official website entrusted with selling tickets to fans was overwhelmed when 10 million hits landed on the website in a m...
Mar 05, 2011•20 min•Season 2011Ep. 136
Egypt showed the world how the common man can wake up and throw everything hes got against an oppressive regime. Aditya feels that India has reached its inflection point too. I beg to differ and the argument continues... In our neighbouring country, not all is well. Former president Musharraf has been accused of murdering Bhutto. In sports, the Cricket World Cup 2011 has begun. Who are you betting on
Feb 25, 2011•20 min•Season 2011Ep. 135
The legendary artist, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi passed away and Aditya recounts some of his experiences of watching Pandits live concerts. This week saw high profile exits of top CEOs from India as well as the US hopefully for the best. In some good news, India set up its first tidal plant in Gujarat. In politics, the Ekta Yatra orchestrated by BJP was predictably stopped in Jammu and Kashmir. In sports, Coke has poached Sachin from Pepsi and Gary Kirsten, argubaly India's best coach will call it qui...
Feb 03, 2011•23 min•Season 2011Ep. 134
With the World Cup only a month away, one would have thought that all TV ad spots would start advertising the biggest spectacle which is played once in four years, but IPL auctions stole the wind out of the World Cup with players being bought and sold in an open English auction. In other news, India is undertaking the biggest operation in the decade census and this time the transgenders have been recognised under the others category.
Jan 21, 2011•31 min•Season 2011Ep. 133
2010 came and went. Aditya dubs it as the year of scams and names such as A Raja, Swami Nityananda, Nira Radia, Kalmadi, Chavan come to mind. But ironically, one man who made a tremendous mark on India is from the world of politics Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar. India probably had one of its best years in sports. In this episode, we celebrate our 5 years of tormenting and entertaining each one of you. Thanks for sticking with us. Spread the word.
Jan 21, 2011•31 min•Season 2011Ep. 132
It has been 2 weeks since our honorable members of Parliaments havent done anything productive. Parliament continues to be in suspended mode. Why? Opposition is asking for a JPC. What is a JPC? We had the same question, so we decided to dig deeper. In other stories, we talk about Arundhati Roy and Geelani to be arrested for Sedition (we explain Sedition too), Indian ranked 6th in terms of nuclear power generation capabilities and 600,000 dying due to passive smoking.
Dec 03, 2010•31 min•Season 2010Ep. 131
When an IAS officer is caught for corruption, it isn't a big deal, but when he uses encrypted language in his telephone conversations to cover up, we also get a trailer of the hilarious side of such crimes. Listen to know what we mean! The 2G license scam has banks having withdrawal symptoms. While Dalai Lama contemplates retirement, the pope approves selective condom use. In sports, Kumble and Srinath become the new face of Karnataka cricket.
Nov 26, 2010•29 min•Season 2010Ep. 130
The episode covers the opinions on the 2G spam that has been reported in the CAG. Adding fuel to the fire, OPEN magazine leaked telephone taps which reveals the level of lobbying that happened while the cabinet portfolios were distributed. While politics dominated this episode, we managed to squeeze in cricket, BCCI contracts, and the latest American of Indian origin to make the news.
Nov 21, 2010•30 min•Season 2010Ep. 129
One of the biggest scams of 2010 unravel as the Adarsh Housing Colony in Colaba finds itself occupied by certain politicians and their kins. Obama visits India and the preparations are in full swing; Aditya who works in the heart of Bombay feels that we have added one more reason to the traffic jams - the Obama visit. In some good news, India comes tantalizingly close to eradicating polio. In Sports, Venkateshwara Hatcheries is betting big on an English Premier League team.
Nov 04, 2010•21 min•Season 2010Ep. 128
The Navratri and Durga festivals have ended along with the Common Wealth Games but, the action surrounding CWG seems to be heating up. CBI, Enforcement Directorate and several other investigation bodies are readying themselves for games. In other top news stories of the week, India got elected as a non permanent to the UN Security Council after 20 long years, Kerala police bust a gang of telemarketers, and Nirmohi Akhara and Muslim law board decide to take the Ayodhya issue to the supreme court.
Oct 21, 2010•21 min•Season 2010Ep. 127
After a lot of negative press leading upto CWG, the opening ceremony has a bit hit. The jugaad worked, again. India has had a successful CWG campaign so far and are ranked 2nd in the medal tally behind Australia. The other topics discussed include Sachins and Laxmans exploit against Australia, launch of Project Aadhaar, and Indias billionaire list.
Oct 14, 2010•21 min•Season 2010Ep. 126
Kalmadi, finally, stepped up and owned up to his responsibility with a few caveats about the money spent by the organizing committee but the bad press for CWG continues. The Ayodhya verdict is expected today and the government has taken the security concerns very seriously. Offices and schools plan to remain closed in anticipation of problems but does the Ayodhya issue really matter any anymore? In other topics, we discuss the unfortunate incident that killed 7 elephants, visa requirements for I...
Sep 30, 2010•37 min•Season 2010Ep. 124
We might have missed the pakistan "spot fixing" saga and then the Gokulashtami celebration but are back in time for Ganpati. The recent Jama Masjid firing might just cause a dip in the collections at Mumbai's largest Ganesh mandal. The other stories include waiting for the decision on Ayodhya, CWG mess, Sania's faux pas, Mahesh Bhupathi's innovative tax planning and China making me thank for being an Indian. In the interest of avoiding further delays, we recorded the episode via cell phone so pl...
Sep 23, 2010•32 min•Season 2010Ep. 204
This episode of Indicast starts on a rather sad note with the flood situation in Leh and Pakistan. The rescue efforts are in full swing in both places, but like most desperate situations the aid is still far from sufficient. The rest of the world is also facing a lot of heat due to climate change. The magnitude of news that the Commonwealth Games is churning has reaching new proportions with new scams and cases misappropriation of funds showing up.
Aug 23, 2010•26 min•Season 2010Ep. 123
We are back after a break and you might be getting a bit tired of us saying that over and over again. We missed a few important events like the world cup, and the pakistan peace talks breaking down for the nth time. However, we start with the new Indian rupee symbol, Bihar women fast tracking their pregnancies, Ministers by passing the gag order by Congress by taking to twitter and the active sports sections - Saina is #2 and Murli reached ends his test cricket with 800 wickets.
Aug 04, 2010•31 min•Season 2010Ep. 122
Abhijit Dasgupta, the Deputy Editor of India Today Magazine was kind enough to join us on a Skype call from the beautiful city of Kolkata which is lately the cynosure of all Indian political news. Mamata Banerjee helped get WB on the front pages by winning the civic polls and two days before her landslide victory she made some rather controversial remarks about the Gyaneshwari Express train derailment. Abhijit, very eloquently talks about his experience of interviewing and covering the colourful...
Jun 06, 2010•28 min•Season 2010Ep. 121
The episode starts on a very sombre note with discussions around the Mangalore Air crash however the topics get a bit cheerful after that. On the occassion of completing one year of UPA II, the Indian PM Manmohan Singh decided to sit face to face with the press and provide an update about the work done. the other topics on this episode include, an All India bengali team conquering Mt Everest, Dawood 3rd on the Forbes Most Wanted List, and the 99 year old half marathon runner.
May 25, 2010•40 min•Season 2010Ep. 120
It was the 150th Birth Anniversay of India's, for that matter - Asia', first Nobel Laureat. We start with remembering and talking about Rabindranath Tagore and a few side stories about his Life. We then digress to general opinions about Bengalis (hardly a surprise). The other topics include Jayram Ramesh getting pulled up by Manmohan Singh for mouthing off, Anand's winning streak, Nithari killer getting death sentence, and the death of tongas in Delhi.
May 18, 2010•34 min•Season 2010Ep. 119
Terrorist Ajmal Kasab has been given the death sentence. Ujjwal Nikam, the public procecutor deserves a special mention. INS Shivalik marks a historic breakthrough in the history of Indian navy by becoming india's first stealth warship which is non detectable in high seas. Manmohan Singh and Sachin Tendulkar among many others find their name in TIME magazine's annual list of achievers. The Delhi University gave itself a bad name this week when it sold radioactive material to a scrap dealer!
May 07, 2010•30 min•Season 2010Ep. 118
The IPL ended and so did Modi's regime. Chirayu Amin has been brought in as the interim chief of IPL. The Glocodyn man is thinking of doing away with Cheergirls and IPL nights and focus on cricket. (Modi is laughing somewhere). The other taopics include the 364 passenger having a near death experience and India's very own matahari.
May 02, 2010•42 min•Season 2010Ep. 117
We recorded this episode a day before Modi was suspended. This podcast also talks about how the Mobile service providers in India have found new ways to milk the devotional customers where you could directly connect with God through an SMS. Aditya has some interesting examples. In Jammu and Kashmir, the government almost succeeded in banning the use of bulk SMSs for the fear of spreading rumors which could cause unnecessary panic.
Apr 28, 2010•42 min•Season 2010Ep. 116
This week was all about Sania Mirza becoming Sania Malik. Aditya gives us a crash course in islamic weddings. We also end up talking a bit about the concept of VOIP marriages which Aditya is strictly against. In some sad news, 76 CRPF jawans were killed by the maoists. Mr. Chidambaram offered to quit, but his resignation was not accepted. We hold ourselves back this time before going on a rant on criticizing the government. You will know why when you listen to the episode.
Apr 18, 2010•25 min•Season 2010Ep. 115
It's very rare for abhishek to get excited about any story that we discuss on Indicast with the exception of sachin scoring a century. But Milkha Singh selling his life story to be made into a movie for Re. 1 was something that got him going. He was so impatient that I spent most time figuring out how to get thim talking on other topics like the Kingfisher bomb scare, Mayawati's Maharally, and new teams being introduced in IPL 4.
Mar 25, 2010•34 min•Season 2010Ep. 114
Here is a question for all you folks. See if you can crack it. What do you call a man who is an actor, screenwriter and director by profession, a sportsman who represented his country in one of the most physically demanding sports, a well informed social activist, a food lover, a stand up comedian and someone who describes himself as half Bengali, one fourth Maharastrian and one fourth Bengali by birth. Well, you can call the man Rahul Bose.Whether it is the Womens Reservation Bill which is maki...
Mar 14, 2010•43 min•Season 2010Ep. 113
The day started with all of us reading about the tragic death of more than 10 people living in Bangalore when an office building caught fire. One of our listeners from Bangalore, Lakshmikant joins in to give us the ground zero POV of the unfortunate event. Later in the day, Sachin made history by scoring the first double century in the history of One Day International cricket. Pune blasts toll reach 15 and Telangana state claimed the life of a 19 year old to suicide. In other news, schools seeki...
Mar 02, 2010•25 min•Season 2010Ep. 112
Whats common between Rahul Gandhi, SRK, Mukesh Ambani and Sachin Tendulkars apart from their rather envious bank accounts Yeah, its not too hard to guess. Their strong affinity towards Shiv Sena and MNS. In other news, in Egypt, some Muslim Scholar issued a fatwa stating that a woman browsing a social networking site will be considered to be a sinner. Back home here in India, Rahul Mahajan is part of an interesting reality show.
Feb 07, 2010•20 min•Season 2010Ep. 111
Some good soul has said that Having a good conversation is one of the great joys of being human And if it is coupled with the sustained charm, wit and energy of Gul Panag, you are in for a treat. A big shout out to Gul who did an encore of sorts by firing away on topics ranging from the controversial Padma Shree awards to the relevance of National awards in todays context. For a self confessed cricket un-fan, Gul was pretty vocal about the non selection of the Pakistani players in the IPL. And w...
Jan 29, 2010•25 min•Season 2010Ep. 110
Sidin, the Managing Editor of LiveMint.com joined us to talk a bit about his forthcoming book, Dork: The Incredible Adventures of Robin Einstein Varghese and a bit more about the Chetan Bhagat controversy which has found a lot of newspaper space lately. This podcast was free-flowing (uh another way of saying that we were all over the place). We spoke about how beautifully the Indian Hockey Federation is handing its hockey players demands by breaking new records in unprofessionalis
Jan 12, 2010•25 min•Season 2010Ep. 109
