T.A.L.K. with Kunal Vasudeva

What does your coffee have to do with your next holiday? More than you might imagine. India is travelling more. Drinking differently. Spending differently. Seeking better experiences. And building entirely new categories around those choices. We brought Matt Chitharanjan and Indiver Rastogi together to talk about that India. We go from Blue Tokai and the rise of specialty coffee to the travel boom...

177 new markets. One changing industry. If you are starting your career today, hospitality will look very different by the time you graduate. That is why industry conversations belong in the classroom. Talk with Kunal Vasudeva feat. Nikhil Sharma, MD & COO, South Asia, Radisson Hotel Group As part of Sommet Education , the Indian School of Hospitality (ISH) stands as India's premier insti...

He left while still winning. Indian Accent was on the world’s lists. Chef Manish Mehrotra was already one of India’s most celebrated chefs. Then he chose to become a beginner again. “Happily nervous,” as he calls it. That is the story we wanted the world to hear. Beginning Again. T.A.L.K. with Kunal Vasudeva feat. Chef Manish Mehrotra. As part of Sommet Education , the Indian School of Hospitality...

HARI MARAR • INSIDE BLR T2 THIS EPISODE HAS A GATE NUMBER. We took T.A.L.K. inside Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru, and walked the terminal with the man who runs it. Hari Marar, MD & CEO of BIAL, has spent nearly two decades shaping one of the world’s finest airports. He and Kunal Vasudeva also go back to their Jet Airways days. That history takes this conversation somewhere most C...

India’s middle class carried the weight of a growth story built on the wrong foundation. 40 million income tax filers. Stagnant wages. Rising debt. A consumption engine that is running out of fuel. Saurabh Mukherjea wrote the book on it. Literally. T.A.L.K. with Kunal Vasudeva ft. Saurabh Mukherjea, Author of Breakpoint and Founder, Marcellus Investment Managers. As part of Sommet Education , the...

Middle income housing in India’s Tier 1 cities. The numbers behind the gap. A household earning ₹30 lakh a year sits in the top decile of urban earners in India. In Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Gurugram, that income does not service a home loan on a 2BHK within 30 - 60 kilometres of the city centre. Government housing schemes are designed for households earning below ₹18 lakh annually. Develo...

Season 4 of TALK with Kunal Vasudeva Show begins with a conversation that examines how individuals and societies think about risk, prevention, and long-term responsibility. Filmed across multiple environments inside Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, this episode with Dr Ajay Yadav explores what medicine reveals about decision-making under uncertainty. 👉 Why do individuals delay preventive action even when...

He took charge when India’s tech world was shaken. He stood up when everyone else looked away. This is CP Gurnani: the force behind Tech Mahindra’s rise after the Satyam collapse, and now the Co-founder & Vice Chairman of AIONOS. From Neemuch to boardrooms, from trust to technology, from silence to strategy, this conversation goes where business school never did. Talk with Kunal Vasudeva Also...

You will love the Sehgals by the end of this episode. And here’s why you should watch it: → They built it without noise. No PR. No machinery. Just clarity, consistency, and daily execution. → She’s an award-winning, plant-based chef creating ripples around the world. Every dish, every frame, every detail, driven entirely on her terms. → He redefined what luxury hospitality could feel like. Hotels,...

New Podcast Episode 🎙️ Talk with Kunal Vasudeva featuring Matthew Pohlman, Partner at Goodwin, and one of the most influential dealmakers in global hospitality law. From Dubai to Tokyo to India, Matthew has advised hotel owners, investors, and operators on projects that have reshaped global hospitality. In this conversation, we go inside the contracts, capital, and power dynamics that decide how t...

The hardest job in business isn’t what you think. Talk with Kunal Vasudeva Podcast - new episode drops this Friday. Work keeps changing. AI takes over operations, analytics drives every decision, and hybrid is the new default. But the first principle never changes: people want meaning, fairness, and growth. That’s where leadership is truly tested. In this episode, I sat down with Yuvaraj Srivastav...

The Nestlé playbook. On record. On Power Talk. Nestlé doesn’t stay still. It adapts, reinvents, and scales across markets with precision. In this episode of Power Talk with Kunal Vasudeva, the global and Indian leadership of Nestlé Professional joins the conversation. Reinhold Jakobi, Jeroen Pluijmers, and Saurabh Makhija speak openly about how the company thinks, responds, and builds for the futu...

What success couldn’t heal Ashwani Khurana is the founder of Karma Lakelands. What began as a golf course grew into a living ecosystem. He built his fortune young. He found meaning much later. This episode explores ambition, loss, and why planting trees became a way to rebuild life. He built his wealth early and gave it all meaning much later. What happened in between is raw, powerful, and honest....

You can’t automate consistency. You need people. The travel experience is only as seamless as the skill behind it. Booking.com understands that.  And Santosh Kumar, Country Manager – India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Maldives, is clear; if India wants to lead global travel systems, it has to lead in skilled execution at scale. This episode is about infrastructure, talent pipelines, and why consisten...

Empire, identity, unapologetically built.  Keshav Suri, Executive Director at The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group, leads with clarity. He builds with empathy. He walks through The Lalit in drag. Not to provoke, but to be. This episode isn’t for noise.  → It speaks to every person afraid to show themselves. → It speaks to every founder building in silence. → It speaks to every young Indian asking, am...

DLF builds. Cities follow. DLF defines India’s most aspirational way of life. In this episode of Talk with Kunal Vasudeva, Aakash Ohri, Joint Managing Director of DLF, shares how leadership creates destinations, sets lifestyle benchmarks, and moves markets. He explains how DLF delivers peace of mind, long-term value, and the experiences India aspires to own. ➡️ Catch the full conversation now on Y...

Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, Accor. You see the brand, but who really owns the hotel? In this episode of Talk with Kunal Vasudeva, we decode the business of hospitality with Jaideep Dang, MD, JLL Hotels & Hospitality India. From land costs and broken return models to why India has too few hotel rooms, and what’s holding back Indian brands from going global. This isn’t surface-level talk. This is h...

7 Founders. 1 Industry. The Truth No One Tells You. Starting a restaurant or food brand in India? Here’s what no one tells you. Banks don’t take you seriously. Suppliers won’t give you credit. Customers expect perfection, but margins are razor-thin. In this episode of Talk with Kunal Vasudeva, seven young F&B founders break it all down, the hidden challenges, the mistakes, and the wins. Is Ind...

Education is supposed to be a right. But in India, it comes with a price tag that most can’t afford. Parents pay 30% tax on their income. Then 18% tax on skilling programs. Then 18% tax on coaching. The cost never ends. But the real question is, who is education really for? 90% of Indians are excluded. Entrance exams don’t level the playing field, they widen the gap. A student from a government sc...

On this episode of Talk with Kunal Vasudeva, we sit down with Sandeep Sethi, President, JLL Work Dynamics Asia Pacific, to explore the biggest shifts shaping corporate real estate and what they mean for India, sustainability, and the future of work. 💡 What’s inside: 🌍 What real estate trends say about India’s economic future ♻️ Why sustainability is the next big business imperative 🏛️ How worksp...

The Sardar Who Dared to Dream! What happens when the President of Lemon Tree Hotels decides to reimagine Indian hospitality?  On the latest episode of Talk with Kunal Vasudeva, Vikramjit Singh, now the founder of Alivaa Hotels, shares how his journey from leading one of India’s largest hotel chains to building a brand from the ground up has been nothing short of extraordinary. Vikramjit talks abou...

Mixing Tradition with Innovation: Angad Soni’s Story! What happens when heritage meets innovation in the beverage world?  In this episode of Talk with Kunal Vasudeva, Angad Soni, founder of Sepoy & Co, takes us behind the scenes of India’s rapidly evolving beverage culture. From reimagining mixers to crafting a niche in the global market, this conversation is packed with insights, ideas, and i...

In this episode of Talk with Kunal Vasudeva with Matt Chitharanjan, the founder of Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters, to discuss what it takes to build a café brand that resonates with India’s evolving market. From understanding the unique dynamics of India’s café culture to mastering unit economics and scaling sustainably, Matt shares insights that will redefine how you view the business of coffee. We h...

In this latest episode of T.A.L.K with Kunal Vasudeva join us for an engaging conversation with Ranju Alex, Area VP - South Asia, Marriott International, and Vinay Jaswal, VP HR Operations - South Asia, Marriott International, we explored key insights on leadership, talent development, and the evolving hospitality landscape in South Asia. Here’s what you can expect: 💡 Marriott’s expansion strateg...

In his talk, "Bridging the Gap: Aligning India's Education with Economic Realities," Kunal Vasudeva explores the urgent challenges facing India's job market and the steps needed to create meaningful employment for millions of young graduates. Kunal is the Managing Director and founding member of the Indian School of Hospitality, where he oversees brand strategy and growth. With...