The Morning Brief

Why does a cancer injection bought by a hospital for ₹11,000 end up costing a patient ₹1.3 lakh? India’s drug pricing system is under scrutiny as the government caps trade margins on hundreds of cancer medicines at 30%. While prices of several drugs have fallen sharply, nearly one in four packs has seen no reduction. And a 30% margin still allows a markup of nearly 43% over the manufacturer&...

When AI agents book your flights, buy your groceries and pick your hotels, no one is scrolling, and no one sees an ad. So how does the internet make money? Lightspeed India partners Harsha Kumar and Hemanth Mohapatra explain which purchases agents will take over and which will stay human. They also cover why you can’t upsell an AI agent, what that means for the ad-based internet, and why Ind...

China challenged America's dominance in manufacturing, technology and artificial intelligence. Now, it is threatening another American stronghold: the pharmaceutical industry. Chinese biotech companies are developing breakthrough drugs faster and cheaper than their American counterparts. One Chinese cancer drug, ivonescimab, is emerging as a potential challenger to Keytruda, Merck's $31-billion bl...

India’s smartphone market is heading into Diwali on a sour note. Shipments fell sharply in the July–September quarter, with the sub-₹20,000 segment hit hardest. A global memory-chip crunch is raising costs, pushing up prices and forcing buyers to delay upgrades, settle for fewer features or choose refurbished phones. But does this slump signal a wider squeeze on household spending, or...

What if you didn’t need a tech team, or any code, to build software? In this episode of Corner Office Conversation, Anirban Chowdhury sits down with Mukund Jha, Founder and CEO of Emergent, the AI platform where anyone with an idea can build a real, hosted, working app. A former Google engineer, Mukund also co-founded Dunzo, the unicorn that became a verb in India...and then folded. He share...

The Supreme Court has set aside Yes Bank’s 2020 write-down of ₹8,415 crore in AT1 bonds. Anirban Chowdhury speaks to Sugata Ghosh of The Economic Times about how AT1 bonds work, why the Court ruled against the write-down, what the judgment means for investors and regulators, and how the case compares with Switzerland’s Credit Suisse AT1 dispute See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy i...

AI agents undergoing tests accessed Indian organisations’ live systems and read confidential business records and personal data. The companies did not detect these intrusions; AI developers disclosed them after internal reviews. What happens when an AI agent exceeds its instructions, and who should bear the consequences? Anirban Chowdhury speaks to lawyer Pavan Duggal and Prof NK Goyal of CM...

As AI becomes more powerful, who gets to shape its direction—and share its benefits? ET’s tech editor Surabhi Agarwal speaks to Google DeepMind’s Chief AI Readiness Officer, Lila Ibrahim, about the tension between rapid development and responsible deployment. They discuss India’s place in the global AI race, the role of teachers in AI-enabled classrooms, and research that c...

The rupee has bounced. So why does the RBI seem so worried? Unusually timed announcements, a special dollar window for oil companies and tougher currency trading rules reveal an aggressive effort to arrest the slide. But could making currency protection more expensive leave Indian businesses exposed? Anirban Chowdhury speaks to The Economic Times’ Sugata Ghosh about how these interventions w...

Blackstone wants to double its India investments to $100 billion in five years. What does Jonathan Gray see that nervous investors are missing? In this episode of ET Conversations, executive editor Sruthijith KK speaks to Blackstone’s president and COO about India’s growth prospects, the market pullback and the sectors attracting his capital. Gray explains why he remains optimistic abo...

Misleading packaging, restaurant inspections and scrutiny of the kitchens behind your delivery apps: FSSAI is sharpening its enforcement. ET's FMCG editor Ratna Bhushan talks to FSSAI chief Rajit Punhani about holding food businesses accountable, taking regulatory action public, and the proposed changes that could help consumers know more about what they buy. Listen in: See omnystudio.com/listener...

Airfares are rising just as the festive travel season approaches. ATF prices have jumped sharply in recent months, while a weaker rupee is adding to airlines’ fuel costs. At the same time, fewer flights and slower aircraft deliveries are tightening capacity even as demand picks up. In this episode, Host Anirban Chowdhury speaks to ET's Forum Gandhi, about what is driving the surge in airfare...

Ahead of the GST Council meeting, Bipin Sapra,  Partner and Indirect Tax Policy Leader, EY India, explains to Anirban Chowdhury the proposed changes to input tax credit, refunds, exports and e-way bills—and what they could mean for business costs, working capital and consumer prices. These are expected changes, not final decisions. Tune in: See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy inform...

The Flydubai incident has raised a difficult question for aviation security: what happens when the threat comes from within the aircraft? As investigators work to establish the facts, the incident is already forcing a rethink of how airlines identify and mitigate insider threats. Host Anirban Chowdhury speaks to aviation security experts Arik Arad and Shannon Wandmaker about the vulnerabilities ex...

AI is moving from experimental technology to an increasingly powerful part of everyday work. At The Economic Times World Leaders Forum, Krish Ramineni, Founder and CEO of Fireflies.ai, joins ET’s Himanshi Lohchab to discuss AI agents, the future of knowledge work, India’s AI opportunity, and why falling AI costs could dramatically expand its adoption Tune in. You can follow Himanshi Lo...

Xi Jinping has sat across the table from both Narendra Modi and Donald Trump within two weeks. For years, a more assertive China pushed India closer to Washington. But what happens if the US and China learn to manage their rivalry? On this episode of Morning Brief Decode, Pranab Dhal Samanta, National Editor (Politics) at The Economic Times explains to Anirban Chowdhury whether the reset is really...

The independence of India’s Election Commission rests on a constitutional framework that gives it wide powers — but questions remain over how that independence works in practice . On The Morning Brief, host Neil Ghai speaks to ET’s Anubhuti Vishnoi on the changing appointment process for Election Commissioners, the internal friction within the poll panel and the impact of elector...

The investigation into the death of IIT Bombay student Sahil Wakode is examining competing allegations and evidence. But beyond the immediate case lies a broader question: what are India’s premier institutions really preparing students for? On The Morning Brief, host Anirban Chowdhury speaks to BITS Pilani Group Vice Chancellor V Ramgopal Rao, former JNU professor Rajeev Kumar and ET’s...

What makes some CEOs and founders successful? At The Economic Times World Leaders Forum, Cheryl Lim, Partner at McKinsey & Company, joins ET’s Anirban Chowdhury to explore the mindsets and behaviours that drive long-term value creation, how leaders balance big ambitions with disciplined execution, and what it takes to build organisations that can sustain growth. Listen In You can follow...

India’s IPO market has hit the accelerator. After just 27 mainboard IPOs in the first half of 2026, July-September alone is seeing 61 issues worth roughly ₹88,000 crore. And the pipeline is staggering: 148 companies with SEBI approvals worth ₹2.8 lakh crore are waiting to tap the market.  Anirban Chowdhury speaks with ET markets editor Nishanth Vasudevan about what triggered the boom, w...

India is scaling its semiconductor ecosystem as AI development accelerates—and both are raising new questions around technology, investment and regulation. In this Corner Office Conversation, Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw speaks to ET’s tech editor Surabhi Agarwal about Semicon 2.0, global investment in India, electronics manufacturing and the country’s value-addit...

Meta has agreed to report child sexual abuse material directly to Indian authorities, rather than routing alerts through America's NCMEC. But does reporting stop algorithms amplifying such content in the first place? On the Morning Brief, lawyer Sajan Poovayya explains why Meta had little choice under POCSO and its 2020 Rules, why reporting is neither an admission of guilt nor a privacy breach, an...

India has opened insurance to 100% foreign ownership. But Sun Life CEO Kevin Strain says ownership is less important than building the right business—and that the company currently works better alongside the Aditya Birla Group than alone. In this conversation from the Economic Times World Leaders Forum, Strain explains to ET’s banking editor Sangita Mehta why Sun Life’s India ins...

Every morning in Mahim, Vijay Raut sold cutting chai to taxi drivers, construction workers and bank staff, until the BMC's pavement drive took away his stall. Now he serves from a flask. He's not alone: across Mumbai, Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram, street vendors are caught between clean-city drives and a system that never gave them secure space. In this episode, we look at India's Rs 8,000 cro...

 Volkswagen is one of the world’s largest carmakers, yet has less than 2% of India’s passenger vehicle market. Its proposed partnership with JSW could mark a striking reversal: JSW may own 51% of the venture, leaving the German giant as the junior partner. Anirban Chowdhury speaks to ET’s Arijit Barman and Shally Seth Mohile about what each side gains, why JSW wants European...