Bharatvaarta

The Bharatvaarta Weekly is our reaction to the news headlines of the week that was.    This week (November 22nd - 29th), we speak about the anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, Cyclone Nivar, and FII inflows crossing over 50k crore in November.   If you liked this episode, then don’t forget to subscribe to our channel and share this content. You can stay updated with everything at Bharatvaarta...

The internal working group of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has come up with a slew of recommendations around letting NBFCs above a certain size acquire a banking license, letting Payments Banks and Small Finance Banks become full-fledged banks and letting certain large corporates set up banks   In this episode, Srivatsa Subbanna hosts Nirav Kanodra (Investment Banker) and Karan Bhasin (Economist &...

In this episode, we discuss the Indian Agriculture sector with Mr. Sivakumar Surampudi, Group Head – Agri & IT Business at ITC Limited, which is one India’s best-known conglomerates. Mr. Surampudi is a renowned thought leader with interests in agribusiness, rural marketing, retailing, infrastructure, and poverty alleviation. He led the World’s largest rural digital infrastructure program, ITC eCho...

The Bharatvaarta Weekly is our reaction to the news headlines of the week that was.    This week (November 15th - 22nd), we analyse the collapse of Laxmi Vilas Bank, Twitter's apology on the India map, BPCL divestment, growth of Parler and more.   If you liked this episode, then don’t forget to subscribe to our channel and share this content. You can stay updated with everything at Bharatvaarta by...

It has been a busy couple of weeks, with elections in Bihar and Bypolls in 56 Assembly seats across 11 states.    In this episode, our resident political commentators, Aashish Chandorkar, Rohit Jayaraman, and Vivek Khaitan, discuss how these elections have panned out and their political significance. We cover the various political parties’ performance in Bihar and the future for Nitish Kumar and t...

In this episode, we discuss the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India’s ubiquitous digital payments system that recently crossed 2 billion transactions in a month.    Joining us in this discussion are Deepak Abbot, Co-founder of indiagold and former head of Product and Growth @ Paytm – India’s most valued payments company, and Nikhil Kumar, Co-founder of Setu and former Head of the Developer Eco...

Babasaheb Ambedkar, Pandit Nehru, and Sardar Patel are among the foremost architects of modern India. They are also among the most debated personalities for the far-reaching consequences of their actions and ideologies even today.   In this episode, Harsh Gupta (Author, Investor) and Abhinav Prakash Singh (Professor, Columnist) discuss the legacy and significance of these stalwarts and debate the...

The Bharatvaarta Weekly is our reaction to the news headlines of the week that was.    This week (November 8th - 15th), we analyse the Bihar elections and its implications, Atmanirbhar 3.0 stimulus and how it impacts real estate and other industries, PLI incentive scheme for ten additional industries, Mumbai Indians' dominant IPL victory and more.   If you liked this episode, then don’t forget to...

Sandeep Balakrishna is a veteran writer, author, editor, speaker and independent researcher with about 20 years of writing on Indian history, culture, literature and temples. He’s also the Founder and Chief Editor of The Dharma Dispatch, which is to quote: “a unique online platform offering rare, valuable, original, and in-depth content aimed at crafting and promoting a cultural narrative rooted i...

Shankkar Aiyar is a veteran journalist and author. In a career spanning over three and half decades, Shankkar has worked for leading publications like the Indian Express and India Today. His 1991 story on Indian government pledging the gold reserve highlighted the severe balance of payment crisis faced by India then and shot him to national limelight.    His most recent book - The Gated Republic:...

he Bharatvaarta Weekly is our reaction to the news headlines of the week that was.    This week (November 1st - 8th), we look at the controversy around the US Presidential elections, NPCI's UPI diktat, India's new coastal shipping bill and the Indian Government's reform to reduce the compliance burden of BPOs and the IT sector.   If you liked this episode, then don’t forget to subscribe to our cha...

Indian economic recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic has been a subject of much debate. After a very poor first quarter in the financial year 2020-21, the short term high frequency indicators have also bounced back in a big way. The news flow has been very positive, from investments to trade to consumption data. Is this economic recovery stable? What else does government need to do to help the eco...

It has been over a year since the Government of India revoked the special status, or limited autonomy, granted under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution to Jammu and Kashmir.    To discuss what has happened since, and how things might pan out going forward, we are joined by Sunanda Vashisht, an Author and Columnist with family ties to Kashmir, and Sreemoy Talukdar, Senior Editor with Firstpost...

The Bharatvaarta Weekly is our reaction to the news headlines of the week that was.    This week (October 25th - Nov 1st), we look at India-France Relations, Indo-US 2+2 talks, Pakistan claiming credit for terrorist attack on India and we talk in detail about PM Modi's interview to the Economic Times..   If you liked this episode, then don’t forget to subscribe to our channel and share this conten...

Dr Uday Kulkarni is an author of five excellent books on 18th century Maratha history. He is an AFMC, Pune graduate and a retired navy surgeon. Dr Kulkarni started writing about Maratha history a decade back, while still practicing medicine.    His first book Solstice at Panipat, describing the 1761 Panipat War, released in 2011 on 250th anniversary of what perhaps is the most significant war in I...

The Bharatvaarta Weekly is our reaction to the news headlines of the week that was.   This week (October 18th - 25th), we look at Jet Airway's revival plan, Reliance Jio's 5G push, UPI hitting a billion transactions in the first half of October, DRDO's atmanirbhar push and more.  If you liked this episode, then don’t forget to subscribe to our channel and share this content. You can stay updated w...

Voting in the Bihar State elections begins on October 28th and India’s 3rd most populous state goes to polls. Sentiment for the current National Democratic Alliance (NDA), a coalition of Janata Dal United (JD - U) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Nitish Kumar is mixed. While popular consensus is that governance over the last five years has been ordinary, Bihar is among the least affected S...

This year, employment and work have been impacted like no other time in recent history. While uncertainties loom over what will be relevant going forward, we try to piece together the puzzle with two very senior leaders from the HR & Recruitment industry.    Gaurav Chattur, Managing Director - Asia Pacific of Catenon India, and K Sudarshan, Managing Director and Regional Chair for Asia at EMA Part...

The Bharatvaarta Weekly is our reaction to the news headlines of the week that was.   This week (October 11th - 18th), we look at the success of Nal se Jal in Goa, the Nobel Prize for Economics, Construction of Srinagar-Leh tunnel and more.  In this episode, we have Aashish Chandorkar, Srivatsa Subbanna and Roshan Cariappa discuss these topics. If you liked this episode, then don’t forget to subsc...

Aashish Chandorkar speaks to Siddharth Shirole, Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from the Shivajinagar constituency in Pune. This conversation is about Mr Shriole's work during the Coronavirus pandemic, of which Pune has been a global hot spot. We also talk about the first-time MLA's vision for Pune and take a peek in his personal life.   Shri. Siddharth Shirole is the son of veteran Bharatiya...

Kunal Kapoor is an actor, writer, producer, and entrepreneur. He made his Bollywood debut as the male lead opposite Tabu in Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities in 2004. His next film, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Rang De Basanti, won him accolades for his acting, including a nomination in the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award category. The movie went on to become a cult classic. Acting aside, in 2012,...

We are less than a month away from the US Presidential elections and things are starting to heat up. There’s all of the drama and excitement that such a high stakes event can induce, but there’s also some nervous anticipation in terms of what this will mean to the country itself and what it will mean to us here in India.   Joining us on this fascinating deep dive are Abhishek Paul and Rohit Jayara...

‘A New Idea of India’ is an endeavour to ask the important, unresolved questions about India’s past & future. This book has been co-authored by popular political and policy commentators, Harsh Gupta and Rajeev Mantri .    In this free-flowing conversation, Harsh and Rajeev explain why they wrote the book and delve into the nuances of the book’s key ideas. They address the fundamental question of w...

Sridhar Vembu is the co-founder and CEO of Zoho, one of India’s best known software companies. He is also among the most avant-garde thinkers today, reimagining how India should view Education, Economy, and Entrepreneurship.    In this wide ranging conversation with Roshan Cariappa, he expounds his ideas on ‘transnational localism’ and becoming self-reliant or Atmanirbhar, how we should rethink Ed...

On our 50th episode, we speak to Smt. Smriti Irani ji, the honourable Union Minister for Textiles, Women and Child Development.    Smriti ji was a renowned television actress and producer before rising to prominence in politics as the Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate from Amethi. In this candid conversation, she speaks about her experience of contesting from the Congress stronghold of Amethi aga...