BusinessLine Podcasts

The Reserve Bank of India has redistributed the financial services audit market, especially for NBFCs. This will provide small- and mid-sized local audit firms an opportunity to play and grow big at the expense of the Big Firms. This has been made possible through its new audit guidelines for banks, NBFCs and Urban Cooperative Banks. Listen to the podcast. --- Send in a voice message: https://podc...

In the first episode of the Pulse podcast, PT Jyothi Datta talks to Dr Chandrakant Lahariya, public policy and health systems expert, about the effects of Covid-19 on children, black fungus and the possible third wave of the pandemic. Listen in to know if the third wave of the Covid pandemic could disproportionately affect children, what is the causes of Mucormycosis and how another surge in cases...

Urbanisation and the unscientific approaches to constructing buildings have posed a grave danger to the environment as well as the climate at large. Gitanjali Diwakar speaks with Kabir Vajpayee, an architect and the Co-Founder of VINYAS about constructing structures in an eco-friendly manner. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/business-line/message

Many top B-schools are revamping their curriculum and exploring AI offerings, mainly for the increased relevance and the long-run financial stability. Today, we are in conversation with Dr Debashis Guha, Director of Machine Learning at S P Jain School of Global Management, who believes a two-year Master of Artificial Intelligence in Business (MAIB) is more nuanced, in-depth, and addresses a large...

India is by far the biggest banana grower in the world that produces more than a quarter of the global output. But it's a laggard when it comes to export. It merely ships abroad less that 2 per cent of its produce. Things might be changing. India's tiny exports have grown 50 per cent in the last couple of years despite the pandemic. TR Vivek is in conversation with Martin Wittwer, CEO, Desai AgriF...

Twitter has lost its intermediary status in India and is now liable for users' content. Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has slammed Twitter today. He said that the American social media company has "deliberately chosen the path of non-compliance." He also said foreign entities can not use free speech in India to excuse itself from complying with the law of the land. What did the Union Minister...

A game between Zerodha founder Nikhil Kamath and five-time world chess champion Vishwanathan Anand, meant to be a fundraiser for Covid-19, ended badly with Kamath being accused of cheating. Anand was playing virtual chess games simultaneously against various celebrities as part of his effort to raise money for charity. While the others were defeated easily, the five-time World Chess Champion surpr...

In this special podcast series, BusinessLine in association with UNICEF, we discuss a myriad of ways to tackle climate change. In today’s podcast, we are going to be passing the mic to some young people who are making it happen and doing their bit in the fight against climate change. Varad Kubal is a 15-year-old environment activist who made a mark when he was just 12 by rescuing sea birds called...

Quickening the pace and coverage of vaccination is critical to help India heal and get the economy back on track, a recent Finance Ministry report said. The report called on the government to ensure heard immunity is reached by September, increase spending on health and health infrastructure and stressed on implementing Covid-appropriate behaviour. Here are the highlights of the report. --- Send i...

In this episode of Field Notes, TR Vivek speaks to Vilas Shinde, the founder of Sahyadri Farms, India's largest farmer producer company (FPC). FPCs are for-profit companies jointly owned by a collective of farmers where outsiders aren't allowed. Through economies of scale, the farmers get incredibly more bargaining power when selling their produce or buying seeds and fertilizers. Shinde shares his...

People seeking to undertake foreign travel for educational purposes or for employment opportunities and people who are on India's contingent to the Tokyo Olympic Games can now get the second jab in 28 days. The guidelines come after the government received several representations to allow permission for the second dose before the mandatory gap of 84 days for some parties. --- Send in a voice messa...

In his address to the nation on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about three major topics regarding the nation's vaccination programme -- the procurement, the production and the politics surrounding it. He announced an important change to the vaccine policy and promised that the issue of shortages would be addressed soon. What did he say? Here are three important take aways from his spee...

Pollution, climate change and ecological destruction are some of the biggest challenges we face today. We can see some of the effects of climate change already – be it more intense heatwaves, floods, droughts and other natural calamities. As we observe World Environment Day, The Hindu BusinessLine, in association with UNICEF, brings to you a special podcast series on climate change. In the first e...

The UN has recently adopted an India-sponsored resolution to mark 2023 as the Year of Millets. In this episode of Field Notes TR Vivek is in conversation with Joanna Kane-Potaka, the Assistant Director general of ICRISAT and Prashant Parameswaran, founder and managing director of Soulfull Foods on why the much-neglected and forgotten millets are 'smart foods' that help us fight malnutrition and cl...

1,600 German companies are reportedly functioning in India, including 600 joint ventures. Cumulatively Germany has invested $12.39 billion in India since 2000. India and Germany marked the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations in March. The relationship has progressed satisfactorily but not spectacularly. Let us analyse some of the reasons for this. --- Send in a voice mess...

The country Covid vaccination drive seems to be proceeding despite the debates. But the concerns related to the availability of the vaccines cease to end.   In order speed up the process, the Centre Government had granted permission to the States to procure the vaccines directly from the vaccine makers. But, now pharma companies have said that they would only work with the Union Government and not...

Despite the decline in the number of Covid cases across the country, many are still skeptical of its riddance once and for all. This could be the reason why the election commission’s statement related to the five assembly polls due early next year came as a rude shock to me. India is still bearing the brunt of the recently concluded assembly elections across Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Pondic...

The NDA outperformed expectations in the 2019 general elections– the BJP alone won 302 seats, 21 seats more than in 2014, and the NDA won 353 seats. This was a testimonial to PM Modi’s charm and it showed that the people of India placed their trust in him. But the coronavirus pandemic pushed PM Narendra Modi to declare a stringent lockdown to contain the spread of the virus. This hit the economy h...

In this episode of Field Notes TR Vivek speaks to Subhadeep Sanyal, a partner at Omnivore, India's first agriculture-focussed venture capital firm. Sanyal talks about the unique challenges faced by entrepreneurs in the agri sector and how a new breed of agripreneurs with engineering backgrounds are helping to better the lives of farmers. For comments and feedback write to vivek.tr@thehindu.co.in E...

In today’s episode of News Explained, we are going to go over some important advancements that took place at the GST Council. The GST Council, which met after October last year, decided to set up a Group of State Finance Ministers to look into the crucial question of granting tax relief to Covid materials, including vaccine and drugs. The Group of FMs will be formed today and it will submit its re...

The Delhi government had announced a lockdown on April 20 for six days as Covid cases surged in the State. It was later extended multiple times. The State recorded 28,395 new Covid-19 cases on April 20, and the cases have fallen since then. This fall has prompted Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to announce the gradual lifting of lockdown rules from May 31. What activities will be resumed? How...

The GOI has slammed Whatsapp for filing a petition in the Delhi high court. The standoff between WhatsApp and the Centre has intensified. At the centre of the latest dispute is that the government has asked social media companies to put in place a system to trace the originator of a post or a message. WhatsApp, on the other hand, said the new rule would severely undermine user privacy. Listen in t...

The Tamil Nadu government has expressed its interest in working with HLL Biotech to explore the possibility of using the Integrated Vaccine Complex for making antidotes for Covid. A high-level team led by Tamil Nadu's Industries Minister T Tennarasu will be visiting Delhi on May 27 to discuss the same. Is this a wise move or would this fizzle out before it gains steam? Here's all you need to know....

The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021) comes into effect from Today -May 26, 2021.  WhatsApp has filed a petition in the Delhi High Court challenging the new IT rule that requires the Facebook-owned company to trace the originator of any message on its platform. What do the new Information Technology rules entail for SM compa...

Ruchit Garg, a 42-year-old former Microsoft engineer who helped create X-box and sold a Silicon Valley startup for a tidy profit decided it was time to use his skills to better connect India's farmers to consumers. His startup Harvesting provides a digital platform for farmers in far-flung places across 22 states to find buyers and better prices for their produce. Edited & Produced by Gitanjali Di...