ANI Podcast with Smita Prakash

Sheela Bhatt is a veteran journalist with a career spanning over four decades and has covered a host of beats as a field reporter and has also donned the roles of an editor and publisher. Sheela is known for her work as a crime journalist and she has interviewed all mafia dons of Mumbai’s underworld, which include Karim Lala to Vardarajan Mudaliar and Chhota Shakeel to Dawood Ibrahim. She is one o...

Mansukh Mandaviya is a minister in PM Modi’s cabinet and is known for his proactiveness and being a problem solver. Mandaviya like many other BJP politicians is known for his RSS background and started his political journey as a karyakarta of Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad. Born in a small village named Hanol in Palitana taluk of Bhavnagar district in Gujarat Mandaviya's political career took a...

Splits, switchovers, broken alliances and political drama have become a part and parcel of Maharashtra politics since the day results of 2019 assembly elections were announced, the latest addition being NCP leader Ajit Pawar taking oath as deputy chief minister in Eknath Shinde led government on Sunday. Soon after Ajit Pawar along with eight other NCP MLAs were administered an oath at Raj Bhavan i...

Piyush Goyal is a second generation politician and currently serving as a minister in PM Modi’s cabinet looking after Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs & Public Distribution and Textiles. He is also leader of the upper house of Parliament and plays a key role in ensuring smooth passage of legislation in Rajya Sabha. Goyal is a trained chartered accountant, holds a law degree and has worked as...

Nitin Gadkari is a Minister in PM Modi’s cabinet and is always termed as the Highway man of India due to the transformational change which he has brought to the country’s infrastructure and connectivity in the last nine years as minister of road transport and highways. Gadkari, like many other BJP politicians, has a RSS background and comes from the city of Nagpur where he started his political ca...

GBS Sidhu is a former official of India's external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, and has authored two books, 'Sikkim Dawn of Democracy" & 'The Khalistan Conspiracy'. Sidhu is an internal security expert and has worked closely on the merger of the Sikkim with India. Sidhu has also served at various stations of R&AW abroad and has tracked the Khalistan movement very closely, w...

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi all set to travel to the United States for his first state visit in the next couple of days, people on both sides are expecting an all-time high in India-US relations. The visit has become significant with both countries working together on ICET, who have recently concluded a UAV drone deal and are collaborating on defence technology. In this edition of ANI Podcas...

Shashi Shekhar is a technocrat, and a leader in the media and technology space as well as a regular columnist and has authored ‘Collective Spirit, Concrete Action’, a book based on Mann Ki Baat - Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship communication program for connecting with people of the country. Shekhar is also a member of Team Modi and worked in the 2014 campaign for the general elections. Sh...

Anu Malik is an Indian music composer and a playback singer who is known for his out of the box compositions and songs. Malik, who has a career spanning over four decades, started working at the age of 14 and has composed music for more than 350 movies and has been accorded the national award for best music direction for the movie Refugee in 2001. Apart from music composition, Malik has also given...

Milinda Moragoda is a Sri Lankan politician who is currently serving as the 22nd High Commissioner to India since 2020. In his decade-long political career, Mr. Moragoda served as principal government negotiator in the peace talks of 2002-2004. He has also served as cabinet minister for economic reform, science and technology, tourism, justice and law reform in the Sri Lankan government. Mr Morago...

Gurcharan Singh Grewal is the general secretary of Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, which is the largest Sikh organisation tasked with managing over 280 Gurudwaras in the state of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh. Grewal is a known face among the Sikh community and has been associated with Akalis and Sikh politics for around four decades. He considers Bhindranwale a martyr...

A wise man once said, “The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it' - this line exactly defines the stories of our special guests in this episode as they conquered their disabilities to achieve success. This episode of ANI Podcast with Smita Prakash features two sessions which include one shot in Mumbai in January 2023 and the other recorded in Amritsar in May 2023. The first part fe...

With the Reserve Bank Of India announcing the withdrawal of Rs 2000 notes from circulation as part of a currency management exercise and allowing people to exchange or deposit them in their accounts by September 30, 2023. People are in a fix over the procedure, the number of notes which can be exchanged by a person per day among others and what will be the fate of notes after the central bank's de...

Lt Col Pavithran Rajan is a former intelligence operative, academician and tech entrepreneur who is also an adjunct faculty at the Cyber Security Research Centre, Punjab Engineering College and is an advisor to Cyber Peace Foundation. He also serves on the board of two private companies currently and has authored a book Engaging China-Indian Interest in the information age. He was commissioned int...

With the war of narratives picking pace like anything after Modi coming to power in 2014, the left vs. right divide has only escalated, and now it is being claimed that history is being rewritten for political benefits. As the long push of the conservative right wing is finally being heard, this war of narratives has flown down from many places to India, where it now finds space. Is this an attemp...

A trove of talent, Divya Dutta is a noted actor and author of two books- The Stars in My Sky: Those Who Brightened My Film Journey and Main Aur Maa. She has been awarded with the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress. With her debut in 1994, Divya Dutta has marked place with her unconventional roles in films like Shaheed-e-Mohabbat Boota Singh, Veer-Zaara, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, etc. Not ju...

Afroz Shah is a lawyer by profession and an environmentalist by passion. He became a household name after organizing the world’s largest beach clean-up project at Versova Beach, Mumbai. For his efforts to make beaches garbage free and organising the world's largest beach clean-up, Shah was named by the UN as a Champion of the Earth in 2016 and was also awarded Eco warrior and Indian of the year in...

Hours after the dramatic arrest of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, huge protests intensified in several cities in Pakistan with Imran’s supporters thronging the streets of Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Karachi, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Multan, Peshawar, and Mardan. PTI supporters also stormed the Pakistan Army headquarters in Rawalpindi and also burnt down the residence of the corps co...

Professor Salvatore Babones is an American sociologist, academician and higher education commentator who is currently an associate professor at the University of Sydney and an adjunct scholar at the Centre for Independent Studies. He has authored over a dozen books and academic articles and writes about Asia’s role in the global political economy with special focus on China and India. Babones crit...

With the last US troops leaving Afghanistan in August 2021 as a result of the Doha Agreement between Taliban and United States has led to a tragic future ahead of Afghans. From banning the media to curbing women's rights, Taliban has backtracked on everything they promised, leading to one of the worst refugee crisis. In this episode of ANI Podcast with Smita Prakash held at the Raisina Dialogue in...

Anupam Kher is more than just a talented actor and not only has two national awards to his name, but has been accorded Padma Shri in 2004 and Padma Bhushan in 2016 for his contribution to the field of arts. Kher has acted in more than 500 movies, which include appearances in Indian as well as international movies, including the likes of Bend It Like Beckham. He has also donned the hat of an admini...

Jagadish Vasudev, founder of Isha Foundation who is better known as 'Sadhguru' by his millions of followers and fans across the world, is a multifaceted personality who has broken the stereotype of being a Yogi. Sadhguru dons many hats and is a Yoga-Guru, mystic, philanthropist, author as well as a podcaster. He has broken the myth that a yogi has to live in a cave meditating and he sings, dances,...

Vikram Sood, is a former chief of India's external intelligence agency the Research and Analysis Wing and an advisor to the Observer Research Foundation, an independent public policy think tank in New Delhi. Sood’s entry to R&AW was very accidental but he went on to become spymaster in 2000 in his over three-decade-long service. Sood also has the distinction of being the lone chief of R&AW who cam...

On the 39th anniversary of Operation Meghdoot which was launched by Indian Army to take control of the world’s highest battlefield Siachen Glacier, we bring to you a special episode on the story of how our defence forces captured the important peaks of Siachen Glacier against all odds in 1984. In an informative conversation with Smita Prakash, Lt Gen Sanjay Kulkarni (Retd.) who as a 28-year-old ca...

Shefali Shah, one of the most talented women actors today, has had a long and enduring career spanning over two decades, which saw her transition from an actress to every character she played. She was awarded the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the movie ‘The Last Year’ in 2007. In a candid conversation in ANI Podcast with Smita Prakash, Shefali Shah opens up about...