Last week 10 per cent of all mankind took a nap. Most of India suffered a coordinated power failure which put about 600 million people in darkness. Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat offered help. It came at a price. In other news, Aditya brings up an interesting case study in market research. NDTV is miffed with Nielsen after the market research company allegedly tampered with the TAM ratings. We also bring you a lot of Olympics trivia and updates of the week.
Aug 06, 2012•21 min•Season 2012Ep. 168
The presidential post in India is largely a ceremonial role. But when Pranab Mukherjee took oath as the thirteeth president of India, the top bosses at Congress must have slept well that night. With the prospect of a hung parliament alive and well, Pranab da can exercise his presidential powers. In this podcast, we talk a bit about what he inherits from his predecessor and what lies ahead of him. In other big news, London prepares itself for one of the most lavish parties on earth as it hosts it...
Jul 28, 2012•17 min•Season 2012Ep. 167
This week Tarun Sehrawat, a 22 year old photographer from Tehelka died of malaria. He picked up the germ while reporting from Jharkhand for the magazine. Ghazal myestro Mehndi Hassan passed away. In some encouraging news, three young Indians were shortlisted by Google for its annual science fair contest. In sports, Bhupati and Paes go at each other. And this week, we talk about Deepika Kumari, India's entry to Olympics in archery.
Jun 20, 2012•19 min•Season 2012Ep. 166
The world is in a sportive mood this week with Saina Nehwal winning the Thailand Open and Sania Mirza and Bhupati taking the French Open. Lewis Hamilton wins the Canadian Grand Prix becoming the seventh new winner in as many races. This episode we also talk about Krishna Poonia, India's discuss thrower who will represent us at the Olympics. The Euro 2012 has kicked off too with the best match so far being that of Spain versus Italy which was tied at 1-1. But outside football, Spain dare not cele...
Jun 13, 2012•38 min•Season 2012Ep. 165
People are beginning to ask the question that every Indian dreads. Is India really shining? or is it being too pessimistic to keep expecting India to continue on its growth number while the world goes through a slowdown? The Indian government is doing its best defend the growth numbers, falling rupee, and the petrol price hike. In other topics, we talk about Indias new army chief, Vishwananthan Anand's victory, Sachin turning an MP, and Mary Koms Olympic dream
Jun 07, 2012•29 min•Season 2012Ep. 164
For the first time in many many years, Standard & Poor downgraded Indias rating from stable to BBB nevative and our politicians rehearsed their typical reaction of being "shocked" at this. In other news, a few politicians are miffed at the Haj subsidy which is an annual freebie given to those who make the trip to Haj. In what turns out to be the programing coup of the decade, Aamir Khan debuts with Satyameva Jayate, a one hour show which addresses social evils and attempt to offer a solution...
May 15, 2012•24 min•Season 2012Ep. 163
Our conversations about Sachin Tendulkar can get one-sided. We are fans. In this one, however, we are disappointed with his recent decision to accept the Rajya Sabha nomination. But our disappointment pales when we compare it with Suresh Kalmadis audacious attempt to make a comeback at the Indian Olympic Association as its president. Knowing our politics, he might even make it. A week back, India tested its Agni V long-range missile. Our neighbours responded with their own. In some pleasant news...
Apr 30, 2012•31 min•Season 2012Ep. 162
We are back after what has been the longest hiatus in the last 5 years that we have been doing Indicast. We start the episode taking about the top stories that we missed while we were away and then move on with the current affairs. This weeks stories include the successful Agni V test, The Aids train, Akaash tablets fail, Yuvraaj Singh returning back to India and Gandhi memoribilia still getting fetching big bucks.
Apr 21, 2012•26 min•Season 2012Ep. 161
Mumbai elections came and went. The 13th municipal elections since independence saw the BJP-Shiv Sena combo come into power for the fourth consecutive term. Mumbaikars however chose to stay at home and had just 46 per cent voter turnout. Down south in Karnataka, three ministers resign after they were caught watching porn at job. According to one poll, Indians are the among the happiest people on earth. In sports, Yuvraj Singh who has been diagnosed with tumor is recovering in a hospital at Bosto...
Feb 26, 2012•20 min•Season 2012Ep. 160
This episode is full high and low points for India. While India got thrashed by Australia in the cricket, India, with a lot of help from many organizations, has achieved to be Polio free for an entire year. The later is a lot more important than cricket so it not really a fair comparison. There are a few more such topic in this episode.
Jan 30, 2012•26 min•Season 2012Ep. 159
Welcome to the first episode of the year 2012. We begin our episode with our ramblings about how cold it has been in India and we somehow manage to figure out the meaning of lyrics for one of Govindas hit song. The topics that we cover in this episode include the update on UP elections, Bhaichund Bhutia playing his last match, Kingfishers woes continuing, $1 doctor visits for urban poor and Indias dismal performance in Australia.
Jan 10, 2012•31 min•Season 2012Ep. 158
Time magazine put the protester on the front page of its Person of the Year issue. 2011 was truly a year of revolutions and we sum up some of them in this podcast. This year also saw some astonishing inventions in the world of Physics. A few weeks ago some scientists claimed that some particle can indeed travel faster than light. A few days back physicists have finally seem to have put their finger on what is called the God particle. In India, such news is being pushed to the back pages of the p...
Dec 24, 2011•20 min•Season 2011Ep. 157
Kapil Sibal is not the first Indian politician to trend on Twitter, but perhaps the first one to trend with a dubious adjective (or noun, whatever), idiot. His lack of knowledge about how the internet works was evident when he asked companies like Facebook and Google to prescreen content which is posted by Indian users after he found a few morphed pictures of Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh which showed them in bad light. This year has seen quite a rew RIPs and Dev Anand and Indira Goswami get a...
Dec 12, 2011•20 min•Season 2011Ep. 156
Right from the days when trade was in barter format, the retail world has always been exciting. In the west, it has graduated from mom and pop stores to big box. The Indian government believed that India too should ape the movement, and has rejigged the Foreign Direct Investment rules in the retail sector. The opposition was not amused. In other corporate news, Cyrus Mistry will take over from Ratan Tata in December 2013. In the science field, the world's lightest material caught Adityas fancy a...
Dec 04, 2011•19 min•Season 2011Ep. 155
Mayawati has follows a strict routine for ensuring to make it to the front pages of Indian newspapers at least once a week. This time she succeeds in convincing her party to pass a resolution demanding four different states. In Himachal Pradesh, more than 800 women have been reported missing in the past few years. The Unhate Benetton advertising campaign was the most talked about news story in business and in science, a startling discovery that one can travel faster than the speed of light just ...
Nov 28, 2011•20 min•Season 2011Ep. 154
Kingfisher is all over the place. Thats the news that everyone is feeding on especially in the business newspapers. Vijay Mallyas airline company has declared its 16 straight quarterly loss and things are not about to improve in the short term. In politics, Rahul Gandhi is now been slated to be the next man in charge as he contests elections in Uttar Pradesh. Government will soon be launching a Right to Education Act which promises education to every kid upto 14 years of age. In world news, floo...
Nov 18, 2011•26 min•Season 2011Ep. 153
We start off this episode by talking a bit about the noise surrounding the Armed Forces Special Power Act which was established back in 1958. It turns out that Omar Abdullah wants it revoked in Jammu and Kashmir for it gives the army right to arrest and sometimes kill without the need of a warrant or necessary paperwork. In other news, Bhupen Hazarika and Joe Fraiser passed away this week and the mystery surrounding Michael Jackson's death was finally out when his personal physician was convicte...
Nov 13, 2011•21 min•Season 2011Ep. 152
The 150th episode of Indicast is finally here but this time with a new voice. Abhishek is out on his bike in the Himachal Pradesh and so Akhilesh, who has been on Bizination a few times, joined me on for the 150th. God seems to be feeling lonely and has called in for company of 3 greats in quick succession. We talk about Tiger Pataudi, Steve Jobs and Jagjit Singh passing away, Murthys comment on quality of IIT students and the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winners.
Oct 17, 2011•23 min•Season 2011Ep. 150
Finally, after all these years, Formula One comes to India. Thankfully, the event went off without a glitch. Sebastian Vettel won it by a huge margin and saw Mayawati on the podium hand him the trophy. In other news, Metallica performed in Bangalore after its show was cancelled in Delhi due to a lapse in security. Meanwhile, the seventh billion baby was born. In cricket, three Pakistan players were convicted for spot fixing on a day when the Indian captain was given the title of Honorary Lt Colo...
Oct 10, 2011•25 min•Season 2011Ep. 151
This is an attempt to bring to our listeners a happier and less politically inclined episode of Indicast. We will make a conscious effort to have topics from a wider interest areas. This episode covers the Sikkim earthquake, Modi ending his fast, the DMIC mega project, Indias loss in Tennis Davis Cup, BCCI banning the Kochi franchise from IPL and our regular digressions.
Sep 26, 2011•36 min•Season 2011Ep. 149
Barely a month had past since the Mumbai Serial blasts when the terrorist struck again. This time it was Delhi. Delhi is the latest entrant into the list of unresolved (yet) terror strike. Afghanistan and Pakistan also witnessed much large terror strike. The other topics that Abhishek & I discuss include Supreme Courts ruling in the Gulberg Society case, Amar Singh arrest, Ra.One marketing campaigns, Gautam Rajadhyksha death, and India winning the Hockey Asian Cup.
Sep 16, 2011•34 min•Season 2011Ep. 148
After being missing in action for over a month, we are glad to be back. The recent has had some big ticket happenings in India including Lokpal bill and India losing its #1 test ranking spot. Given the significance of the event, we spent most of the time talking about Anna Hazare's movement against corruption and discussed the key points only. Even that took about 20 minutes to cover. The other topics include India's test drubbing by England and 2011 sports awards.
Aug 29, 2011•36 min•Season 2011Ep. 147
Mumbai went through another series of blasts leading to another pointless discussion on Indicast about it. Frankly, we are tired of talking about terrorism in India, especially Mumbai. We try to bring up several points about the blasts and not talk about the usual things. Minal, who is part of Indicast Sport podcast, joined us int his episode to tell her about us experience of being at Lords Cricket Stadium on Day 1 of India vs England Test. needless to say, we dragged her into things she wasnt ...
Jul 21, 2011•38 min•Season 2011Ep. 146
We decided to start this episode by running through the top stories during our absence and then come to this weeks newsmakers. The talking points this week include the treasure found at Sri Padmanbhaswamy Temple and its interesting legal aspects. We then moved on to talk about Ghulam Nabi Azad and his panache for getting into verbal trouble, Rahul Gandhi's PR Padyatra and Indicast's Mobile apps.
Jul 11, 2011•38 min•Season 2011Ep. 145
Acclaimed Pakistani journalist, Saleem Shahzad was brutally murdered in Islamabad a few days after he wrote an opinionated article about the talks between Al Quida and the Pakistani Naval officials breaking down. Back home in India, Baba Ramdev chose to go on a fast unto death to fight against corruption. Angela Merkel visited India for a day and in sports, Afridi announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket. India, on the other hand leaves for the West Indies tour with Sures...
Jun 01, 2011•22 min•Season 2011Ep. 144
Mamata Banerjee and Jayalalitha shine in their respective states to win landslide victories. In this podcast, Aditya gives us a run down of state elections that is currently on in India. The biggest coup came from Mamata didi who ended the 34 year long Marxist regime in West Bengal where as Jayalalitha continued the cyclical phenomenon by toppling DMK in Tamil Nadu. In other news, we also talk a bit about the recently released diaries of Osama Bin Laden.
May 19, 2011•21 min•Season 2011Ep. 143
The weekend Royal wedding festivities continued in some parts of the world when a confident, and emotionless Barack Obama declared that US had killed Osama in Pakistan. The incident has left Pakistan red faced since it always maintained that Osama was not in Pakistan. Some see this military operation as a blatant disregrad to Pakistan' sovereignty. As soon as the news hit India, Chidabaram was on it asking Pakistan to now hand over Dawood and Saeed Hafiz (26/11 strategist). But this seems far fr...
May 06, 2011•28 min•Season 2011Ep. 142
Anna Hazare waited for a few days before he broke his fast. The Congress relented. In this podcast, we try and bring you what the Lokmat Bill means and why did Hazare press for it. In Sports, Sachin Tendulkar has been declared the Wisdens Leading Cricketer of the year. Pakistan plans to bring their own version of IPL amidst their captain Afridi making some interesting comments on India.
Apr 18, 2011•20 min•Season 2011Ep. 141
Sanjeev Agarwal, the Joint CEO of Big Bazaar joins us to talk about his experience of watching India play at Mohali, Ahmedabad and finally at Mumbai where India lifted the World Cup trophy after 28 years. Anna Hazares fast unto death has finally succeeded in moving people in the parliament to come up with the Lokpal bill after a longer wait of 42 years. Aditya brings up a puberty related topic where our adolescents are getting bolder by the era.
Apr 13, 2011•20 min•Season 2011Ep. 140
India takes on Pakistan in the second semi final later today at Mohali. In the universal set of India and Pakistan, if set A were cricket and Set B were politics, then A intersection B is confusion, tension and a false sense of security. But we do rely on hope. In this podcast, we talk about this and more. Warren Buffet is in India. The DGCA spanking continues on pilots who have forged their way into the service. And Adityas better half makes her debut in a film titled Bal Gandharva which is goi...
Mar 30, 2011•20 min•Season 2011Ep. 139
