This podcast covers - 1. Philosophical underpinnings of meritocracy in China and India 2. Contemporary debates about how to overcome obstacles to meritocracy and prognoses for the future 3. Actionable insights on building more equitable and meritocratic organisations and institutions Tarun Khanna is the Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at the Harvard Business School. For almost three decades, he has studied entrepreneurship as a means to social and economic development in emerging markets. At ...
Jan 11, 2023•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this podcast we cover - 1. The evolution of tech platforms from utopian marketplaces to cloud empires 2. Lessons from history of economic power and collective action for democratisation 3. The role of entrepreneurs and small business in making tech platforms democratic and accountable. Vili Lehdonvirta is Professor of Economic Sociology and Digital Social Research at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford. His research examines how digital technologies are used ...
Dec 26, 2022•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast Simon Munzert is Professor of Data Science and Public Policy at the Hertie School and part of the Hertie School Data Science Lab . His research interests include opinion formation in the digital age, public opinion, and the use of online data in social research. He is the principal investigator of an international cooperation project funded by the VolkswagenStiftung entitled "Paying Attention to Attention: Media Exposure and Opinion Formation in an Age of Information Overload", and the rec...
Dec 12, 2022•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this podcast we cover - 1. Framework for understanding the evolving web3 landspace 2. Insights on value distribution on the internet 3. Experience as an investor in the web3 and crypto ecosystem Stefano Bury has over fifteen years of experience in the business world. Stefano started their career as a Sales & Trading at BHP and then moved on to various boutique consulting firms before joining McKinsey & Company as an Engagement Manager. In February 2021, they became the Head of P...
Nov 13, 2022•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this podcast, we cover - 1. Dr. Prasad’s global career in International Relations and the importance of interdisciplinary thinking. 2. The Hertie School experience and pedagogy of discussion for a cohort of global students. 3. The art of debate and engaging with diverse ideas Shubha Kamala Prasad is an Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Hertie School. Her research examines domestic sources of foreign policy, spanning substate conflict to diaspora mobilization.&n...
Nov 11, 2022•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this podcast we cover - 1. Insights from the Indian technological revolution of 1990s and 2000s. 2. Nurturing talent and building anti-fragile profitable businesses for the long-term. 3. Happy accidents and finding meaningful partnerships This is the story of a young man who steps out of the precincts of IIT Kanpur in 1974 with a dream in his heart – to become an entrepreneur and contribute to nation-building. Undaunted by the dearth of experience and means to capital in pre-Liberalizat...
Oct 27, 2022•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this podcast, we cover - 1. Interpreting Ambedkar for India today and in 2050 2. Understanding Ambedkar on gender, caste and his relationship with Gandhi 3. The intellectual history and multitudes of Ambedkar’s work and writings Babasaheb Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, MA, MSc, PhD, DSc, DLitt, Bar-at-Law, is today among the most revered of Indians, his statues across the country second only in number to those of Mahatma Gandhi. In this new biography, Tharoor tells Ambedkar’s story with great lucidi...
Oct 25, 2022•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this podcast we cover - 1. The art and science of building no-code products 2. Business models and monetisation strategies for online products and software 3. Louis' journey of becoming an internet entrepreneur Louis in his own words - "I live a dual life. During the day, I work with my family to run an offline-first business in my hometown – the coastal state of Goa, located on the west coast of India. At night, I build assets on the internet . I started my journey as...
Sep 20, 2022•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mark-Anthony Falzon is a social anthropologist. He is a professor at the University of Malta and a life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge. His books include Cosmopolitan Connections (Oxford, 2005), Multi-Sited Ethnography (Ashgate, 2009), The Examined Life (2019), The University of Malta (2020) and Birds of Passage (Berghahn, 2020). His book examines the social and cultural infrastructure that sustains Sindhi business and its trade networks. It provides a rich historical context to the narrative b...
Sep 02, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this podcast we cover - 1. Mental models on bad jobs and great careers. 2. Nuances of ethnographic study when you are both the subject and the researcher. 3. The experience economy and bodily capital in the world of night clubs. Dr. Ashley Mears in her own words - "Working primarily at the intersections of economic and cultural sociology and gender, I study how societies value people and things. I research value and exchange in the context of labor, beauty, free stuff, elites, con...
Aug 31, 2022•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this podcast we cover - 1. Mental models for career pivots 2. The art of thinking like a contrarian 3. Navigating the investment spectrum and breaking into private equity. Sahil Bloom in his own words - "Every week, I create content that reaches over 1 million people around the world across Twitter (@SahilBloom), a newsletter (The Curiosity Chronicle), a podcast (Where It Happens), and more. I am Managing Partner of SRB Ventures, an investment firm committed to investing in and ac...
Aug 31, 2022•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast Prateek Jain, is our friendly Network Capital Rocket Scientist. He designed Business jets for years before, two tech startups and an MBA at Columbia Business School led him to Product Management. He now lives in San Francisco, and does Product Management at the Hypergrowth company - Twilio. Prateek is passionate about building technology, writing, and simplifying complex ideas to make an impact. Lately, he's trying to meditate more and perfect his Hakka Noodles recipe....
Aug 23, 2022•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast Catherine Yeo is a creator, entrepreneur, and investor studying Computer Science and English at Harvard University. By the age of fifteen, she accumulated a following of hundreds of thousands for her online content and turned content creation into a business. Over the years, her writing has spanned fiction, technical blog posts, personal essays and, now, The Creator Revolution: How Today’s Creative Talents Are Shaping Our Tomorrow. Her work has previously been featured in Teen Vogue, Los Angeles...
Aug 09, 2022•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast Manjari Jaruhar is one of the first five women police officers in India and the first from the state of Bihar. Manjari Jaruhar was selected for the Indian Police Service (IPS), the elite crime prevention and law enforcement cadre of the Indian Civil Service, in 1976 and has held positions in the State Governments of Bihar and Jharkhand, the National Police Academy (NPA), the CISF and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). From fighting crime to administering a massive organization, Manja...
Aug 01, 2022•1 hr 27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Srikant Gopal joined ETS in February 2018 as the new Senior Director for TOEFL Brand Marketing and was appointed to the position of Executive Director of the TOEFL Program in October 2018, in which he is responsible for the strategy, performance and growth of the TOEFL portfolio of products. His team, based in Princeton, NJ, USA and around the world, is focused on understanding and meeting the needs of TOEFL test takers, score users, key stakeholders and influencers in a superior way. The TOEFL ...
Jul 28, 2022•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Saumya Saxena’s research focused on family law and religion in India. She is interested in the interface between law, policy, and society and was part of the Law Commission of India (2016-2018) where she researched on amendments to religious personal laws in India. She was part of the research team that assisted the Justice Verma Committee (2013) on amendments to rape laws in India. She has taught subjects related to gender, social movements, and Indian politics. Saumya Saxena is a legal hi...
Jul 28, 2022•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Tripurdaman Singh is a historian of South Asia and currently a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London. Born in Agra, India, Tripurdaman read politics and international studies at the University of Warwick, and subsequently earned an MPhil in modern South Asian studies and a PhD in history from the University of Cambridge. He has been a Visiting Fellow at the International Institute of Asian Studies, Universiteit Leiden and an Indian Cou...
Jul 26, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Director of Research , Cambridge Central Asia Forum; Lecturer in Development Studies , and Fellow of Jesus College at University of Cambridge Dr. Shailaja Fennell is Director of Research at Cambridge Central Asia Forum and a University Lecturer in Development Studies. She is also a Fellow of Jesus College at the University of Cambridge. Since 2004, Dr. Fennell has been researching the linkages between rural development, environmental and educational strategies in India, China and Central Asia. S...
Jul 21, 2022•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast D. Shivakumar, or Shiv as he is popularly known, is a Bangalore born leader and a management thinker. He is currently the Group Executive President, Corporate Strategy at Aditya Birla Group. Previously, Shiv was the Chairperson & Chief Executive Officer at PepsiCo Holdings Private Limited, India. Prior to that he was CEO for emerging markets at Nokia. Shiv started his career as a management trainee in the Consumer Products Division at Hindustan Ciba Geigy before shifting to Hindustan Unileve...
Jul 21, 2022•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast Stefan Dercon is Professor of Economic Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government and the Economics Department, and a Fellow of Jesus College. He is also Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies. He combines his academic career with work as a policy advisor, providing strategic economic and development advice, and promoting the use of evidence in decision making. Between 2011 and 2017, he was Chief Economist of the Department of International Development (DFID), the government...
Jul 16, 2022•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sanjay Deshpande Sanjay Deshpande is a Learning Designer who currently leads L&D at Pride Circle. He has previously worked as a part of the Founding Team of Harappa Education and the skilling team of NASSCOM Foundation. He is passionate about mental health, queer rights and cancer advocacy. He got diagnosed with incurable brain cancer at the age of 29 the day he landed on Harvard University's campus to start his Master’s program in September 2021. He's currently leading an effort to write &a...
Jul 16, 2022•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Johnathan Bi is on the founding team of Lonsdale Investment Technology, a financial technology startup. He is launching a 7-part lecture series on René Girard, a French philosopher who posited a theory that rivalry, imitation (mimesis), and scapegoating mechanism govern human interaction and history, and how Girard’s Mimetic Theory impacts the contemporary world. A recent graduate of Columbia University in Philosophy and Computer Science, Bi is also writing a book on the intersection of Girardia...
Jul 14, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Over 200 million women and girls in India, and millions more across the world, cannot access a safe way to manage their period. This prevents them from participating in essential daily activities like going to school and work. My social enterprise Asan (www.asancup.com) has designed an innovative menstrual cup that is extremely easy to use. A single Asan cup can be safely reused for 10 years, averting the waste of more than 2,500 sanitary pads or tampons. For every cup that Asan sells, we donate...
Jul 13, 2022•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast Vikram Aditya is the Co-Founder & CEO of DAOLens which is in the DAOTech space. DAOLens is focused on the four-step journey in the lifecycle starting from DAO discovery -> onboarding to reduce churn -> meaningful contribution -> effective DAO infrastructure. Previously, he was heading the Product at Merkle Science (Crypto Forensics and Compliance). They were creating the infrastructure necessary to ensure the safe and healthy growth of the industry, supporting the transition as cryp...
Jun 25, 2022•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sathya MokkapatiSathya is the Co-founder & President of Kheyti, an enterprise which reduces income variability and increases climate resilience for Indian small farmers. Kheyti offers a solution called “Greenhouse in a box” which comprises an affordable greenhouse bundled with access to training and advisory. It currently signed up 1000 farmers for its program. Prior to Kheyti, Sathya co founded CosmosGreen, an enterprise focused on creating production expertise in agriculture and making far...
Jun 21, 2022•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast Rahul Sanghi most recently served as Fintech Lead for Visa in India & South Asia. He began his career as a consultant with KPMG in London, spending a majority of his time helping the firm set up its global enterprise blockchain and crypto asset advisory practice. He moved back to India in 2018 and joined Koinex (then India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange) as Director of Business and Strategy, before assuming the same role at B2B-SaaS startup FloBiz. He is currently the co-founder of Tigerf...
Jun 18, 2022•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this podcast, you will learn - 1. Cultural and geographic in trends higher education. 2. The role of trust in the ETS exam process 3. Business School Advisory Council in India & GRE in Indian colleges Alberto Acereda is the Associate Vice President of Global Higher Education at Educational Testing Service (ETS) in Princeton, NJ. He has overall responsibility for the ETS Assessment Solution Portfolio that focuses on undergraduate and graduate higher education, with special emph...
Jun 07, 2022•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Manu S Pillai is the author of the critically acclaimed The Ivory Throne: Chronicles of the House of Travancore (2015) and Rebel Sultans: The Deccan from Khilji to Shivaji (2018). Formerly chief of staff to Shashi Tharoor MP, he is also a winner of the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar (2017). His other essays and writings have appeared in Mint Lounge, The Hindu, Hindustan Times, Open Magazine, The New Statesman, and other publications. The Courtesan, the Mahatma & the Italia...
May 30, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode you will learn the following: 1. The importance of conducting micro-experiments towards shaping a meaningful career 2. The art of being a contrarian 3. The power of multi-disciplinary learning and clear thinking An author, politician, and former international civil servant, Shashi Tharoor straddles several worlds of experience. Currently a third-term Lok Sabha MP representing the Thiruvananthapuram constituency and Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affa...
May 23, 2022•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast Anirudh Suri is a venture capitalist, technology entrepreneur and policy advisor. He is the managing partner of India Internet Fund, a US and India-based technology venture capital fund, and author of The Great Tech Game: Shaping Geopolitics and the Destinies of Nations (HarperCollins, 2022). Previously, he worked with the Government of India in Delhi, McKinsey and Co. in New York, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC, and Goldman Sachs in London. Anirudh ...
May 13, 2022•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
