ANI Podcast with Smita Prakash

Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria (Retd.) is the former Chief of Air Staff and is a decorated officer with a career spanning over four decades. He also served as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (AOC) at Southern Air Command. He is the man who spearheaded the Rafale negotiations during his tenure as vice chief of the Air Staff. In his four-decade career, Bhadauria has the distinction of logging more...

Om Prakash Rawat is a former Chief election commissioner and an IAS officer of the 1977 batch of Madhya Pradesh cadre. He served in Madhya Pradesh as well as at the Centre in various capacities before moving to Election commission in 2015 as an election commissioner and went in to become 22nd Chief Election in 2018 during which he supervised nine state assembly elections took place. In this editio...

Jyotiraditya Scindia is a third generation politician currently serving as Minister of Civil Aviation and Steel in PM Modi’s cabinet since 2021. He is a member of the upper house of parliament from his home state of Madhya Pradesh and has also represented Guna parliamentary constituency in Lok Sabha for more than 17 years. Scindia is an economics graduate from Harvard University and has an MBA fro...

Embark on an exhilarating journey of ANI Podcast with Smita Prakash as we present to you the 'Best of 100' episodes. Brace yourself for riveting conversations with eminent personalities from various spheres of life, delving into topics that resonate with you and society as a whole. This podcast takes you through thought-provoking discussions with influential voices from the realms of politics, spo...

Nambi Narayanan is an Indian aerospace scientist who worked for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and headed the cryogenic engine development project at ISRO. Narayanan is also a recipient of Padma Bhushan, for his contribution to space technology. Nambi is also credited for the making of the VIKAS engine, which is a liquid fuelled rocket engine and continues to power most of the space...

Shiv Khera is an author, motivational speaker, business consultant and an educator who is best known for his book You Can Win. Life wasn’t easy for Khera even after being born into a business family. He had to work as a car washer, a life insurance agent before becoming a motivational speaker. Today, he is a much sought after speaker for his inspiring speeches and his clientele include companies l...

Sudhanshu Trivedi is an Indian Politician who represents the BJP in the Rajya Sabha as a member from Uttar Pradesh. Trivedi is an engineer by education and holds a PhD. in mechanical engineering. The national spokesperson of the BJP is known for oratorial skills in both English and Hindi. His sharp wit is often enhanced with poetry and couplets.  Trivedi is one of the best debaters in the country...

Muttiah Muralitharan is a Sri Lankan cricket coach, former cricketer and is regarded as one of the most successful and greatest bowlers in the history of the sport. He is the only bowler to take 800 wickets in test cricket and 530 One Day International (ODI) wickets and continues to hold a record of maximum wickets altogether in international cricket. Muralitharan, who is also known as Murali amon...

A political slugfest erupted soon after Udhayanidhi Stalin, a Tamil Nadu minister and son of Chief Minister MK Stalin, made a controversial statement comparing ‘Santana Dharma’ to diseases like Malaria, dengue and corona as he called for eradication of the faith. The statement by the Tamilnadu minister has led to registration of FIRs against him as well as a seer from Ayodhya announcing a bounty o...

Shri Thanedar is an Indian American business person, author, and politician serving as the U.S. representative from Michigan’s 13th congressional district. A member of the Democratic Party in the US, Thanedar also served as a state representative in the Michigan House of Representatives from 2021 to 2023. During his recent visit to India as part of a US Congress delegation, Thanedar, along with th...

Sheena Bora Murder Case- A mystery that baffled every interrogator and captured the attention of entire country in 2015 continues to remain unsolved to date. The more informed you become, more intricate the story appears. Indrani Mukerjea- one of the prime accused and mother of Sheena, who was in Mumbai’s Byculla jail before getting a bail in 2022 has made some shocking revelations. Watch or liste...

As elections draw near in the Naxal-affected Central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, Bhupesh Baghel, the third and incumbent Chief Minister of the state, speaks candidly about the state’s distinct politics, its issues and his approaches to tackle them. Bhupesh Baghel keeps a low profile in national politics and maintains his focus on his home state. Among many of his accomplishments he claims to hav...

Prime Minister Modi and President Xi came face to face at the BRICS summit at Johannesburg last week, but there was no bilateral meeting scheduled. The freeze remains. Pakistan could not get into the grouping though it had China’s backing. Battling economic crisis and political instability Pakistan has been offered respite from UAE which has decided to invest in assets of Pakistan. But there are g...

Pushkar Singh Dhami is the 10th chief minister of Uttarakhand and also has the distinction of becoming the youngest CM of the state. Dhami started his political career as an MLA after he was elected to Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly from Khatima constituency in 2012, which he represented till 2022 and currently represents Champawat assembly constituency. Dhami rose to prominence after he was cho...

The election fever has already started in the country with five states going to poll before general elections are held in the country. The high stakes states include Telangana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh. Apart from that Mizoram too will go to polls by the end of this year. Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh have become interesting as the grand old party in Madhya Pradesh led by v...

Ricky Kej is a three-time Grammy Award-winning Indian music composer and environmentalist. Apart from being a professional musician, he is a trained dentist and also serves as the United Nations Refugees "Goodwill Ambassador", UNCCD “Land Ambassador”, UNESCO “Global Ambassador for Kindness”, UNICEF “Celebrity Supporter” & Ambassador for “Earth Day Network. He has composed 16 albums and over 3500 j...

Shivraj Singh Chouhan is the 19th chief minister of Madhya Pradesh and also has the distinction of longest serving chief minister of the state. Chouhan started his political career as an MLA after he was elected to Madhya Pradesh state assembly from Budhni Constituency in 1990. However, he was elected to Lok Sabha and represented Vidisha constituency in the lower house of parliament till 2005. He...

Punjab is long known for its rich heritage, food, tradition and culture, but in recent times the frontier state has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, from Amritpal Singh (the self-styled Sikh preacher and Khalistan supporter who was arrested on April 23 after being on the run for 35 days and is currently lodged in Dibrugarh central jail) to drug menace among youth. This edition of ANI Po...

Dharmendra Pradhan is a second generation politician and currently serving as a minister in PM Modi’s cabinet looking after Education, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. He also has the feat of being the longest serving minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, a role which he donned for seven years between 2014-2021. Pradhan is also known as ‘Ujjwala Man’ after he successfully implemented Prad...

Yogi Adityanath is the two-time chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and head seer of the Gorakhnath Math. Prior to this, he also had the feat of becoming the youngest MP at the age of 26 after he was elected to the lower house of parliament from Gorakhpur parliamentary constituency of the state of Uttar Pradesh in 1998 after his Guru Mahant Avaidyanath chose to retire from active politics and declared...

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury is an Indian politician serving as the leader of the Indian National Congress in the 17th Lok Sabha and a Member of Parliament from Baharampur constituency in the state of West Bengal. He also heads the Public Accounts Committee as chairperson and is current president of the West Bengal Congress Committee. In his three-decade political career, Chowdhury has been an MLA in th...

Punjab is long known for its rich heritage, food, tradition and culture, but in recent times the frontier state has been in the news for all the wrong reasons, from Amritpal Singh (the self-styled Sikh preacher and Khalistan supporter who was arrested on April 23 after being on the run for 35 days and is currently lodged in Dibrugarh central jail) to drug issues among youth. This edition of ANI Po...

Jatinder Brar is the founder of Punjab Naatshala, a live performance theatre in the city of Amritsar which gave numerous actors, directors and playwrights a platform to showcase their talent, earn a livelihood and make a name for themselves in the television and film industry. Mr Brar is a trained mechanical engineer and worked in factories before starting as a full-time playwright and a theatre a...

Lt. Gen KJS Dhillon (Retd), popularly known as 'Tiny Dhillon', is a decorated officer with a career spanning over 39 years. He has served as Director General of the Defence Intelligence Agency and Deputy Chief of the Integrated Defence Staff (Intelligence). He earned widespread appreciation for initiating unconventional, people-friendly operations during his tenure as head of XV Corps in Kashmir....

With 2023 being the penultimate year before the general elections of 2024, domestic as well as international developments are going to affect the outcome of elections which will determine whether the incumbent Modi government will get a mandate for continuing in office as they seek a third term from the electorate. This special edition of ANI Podcast with Smita Prakash hosts four special guests fr...