SparX by Mukesh Bansal

Can India build the next SpaceX? From building satellites at just 19 years old to founding Dhruva Space , one of India's pioneering private space companies, Sanjay Nekkanti shares the incredible journey behind India's emerging space revolution. In this episode of SparX , we explore how India's decades of investment through ISRO laid the foundation for a new generation of private space...

Tanay built a 72% habit-forming product that changed how millions compute. In 12 months, Wispr Flow went from side project to 40% MoM growth, beating OpenAI's model, while staying obsessively focused on one thing. Inside: how to build products people can't live without, why focus kills you if you lose it, and what happens when a 28-year-old founder thinks from first principles instead of c...

Legendary venture capitalist Vinod Khosla joins Mukesh Bansal on SparX, for one of the most wide-ranging and provocative conversations on the future of technology, investing, and humanity. Vinod makes bold claims: AI will replace doctors within 5 years, colleges as we know them are obsolete, space-based data centers don't make sense, India's IT and BPO industry faces an existential threat...

Is AI the biggest scam of our generation — or the most misunderstood technology in history? Cognitive scientist Gary Marcus has been studying artificial intelligence for over 30 years, and what he has to say will make you question everything you thought you knew about ChatGPT, AGI, and the trillion dollar AI gold rush. In this episode of SparX, we are talking with Gary Marcus – professor, author,...

In this episode of SparX, Mukesh Bansal sits down with Peter Diamandis to break down the future of AI, abundance, exponential technology, and the massive shift happening right now in business, society, and humanity itself.  If you’ve been wondering how artificial intelligence, AI agents, automation, and emerging technologies will impact entrepreneurs, creators, and the global economy… this intervi...

Mukesh Bansal hasn't written code in 20 years. In the last 60 days, he built two fully functional websites, an iOS app integrating four frontier AI models, and a working health tracker — live, on camera, in under an hour. This isn't your usual conversation about AI. It's a live demonstration of what's possible right now. In this solo episode of SparX, Mukesh shares his unfiltered journey from non-...

What does it look like when a Google VP, a Flipkart CTO, and a 30-year technology veteran stop managing people — and start building again with AI? In this episode of SparX , Mukesh Bansal (Founder of Myntra & Cult.fit) speaks with Peeyush Ranjan (former VP of Engineering at Google Pay and Group CTO of Flipkart) about what’s actually happening inside companies as AI agents begin to reshape how...

What happens when the most powerful technology ever built is also the one nobody fully understands - including its creators? Connor Leahy, US Director of Control AI and one of the clearest thinkers in the AI safety space, joins Mukesh Bansal for a conversation that cuts through the hype and lands somewhere far more unsettling: we may have two to five years before AI systems cross a threshold we ca...

In this episode of SparX, we sit down with Priyamvada Natarajan, theoretical astrophysicist at Yale University and author of the acclaimed book "Mapping the Heavens", for a wide-ranging conversation about black holes, dark matter, alien life, and the future of modern astrophysics. From her early fascination with science to her years at MIT and her groundbreaking research at Yale, Priyamv...

In this episode of SparX, we speak to Roman Yampolskiy, a leading AI safety researcher and professor of computer science, about the risks of creating superintelligence and whether humanity is prepared for what may come next. Roman argues that we may be closer to human-level AI than many assume, and that permanently controlling a system more intelligent than humans could prove fundamentally impossi...

In this episode of SparX, we speak with Neelkanth Mishra one of the leading voices of India Semiconductor Mission. He talks about India’s semiconductor journey from the origins of the Semiconductor Mission to the realities of execution and global competition. He breakdown how the semiconductor ecosystem works, why entry barriers are so high, and what India’s roadmap looks like today. The conversat...

In this episode of SparX, Mukesh Bansal speaks with Emad Mostaque about the rapid acceleration of artificial intelligence and how it could fundamentally reshape work, daily life, and global power over the next decade. Emad breaks down why AI is advancing faster than any previous technology, the role of data, scale, and open-source systems in driving this shift, and what it means for jobs, companie...

In this episode of SparX, Mukesh Bansal speaks with Stanford behavior scientist B.J. Fogg about how habits are designed, how they break, and the science that governs lasting behavior change. With over 30 years of research in behavior science, Fogg is the creator of the Tiny Habits method and the author of Tiny Habits, widely regarded as one of the most practical frameworks for building habits in r...

In this episode of SparX, Mukeshl sits down with, Debjani Ghosh, leader of  the Frontier Tech Hub within NITI Aayog for a critical discussion. They dive deep into India's technological future, the existential role of AI in national growth, and the dramatic changes impacting careers and geopolitics. Debjani, who brings a unique perspective from 21 years at Intel and leadership at NASSCOM, discusses...

In this episode of SparX, Mukesh Bansal sits down with economist and policy thinker Neelkanth Mishra to unpack why he believes this is the true golden age of Indian entrepreneurship. They talk about: Falling cost of capital and a stronger banking system expanding access to debt and equity. Massive domestic flows via SIPs, EPFO, and insurance fueling startups and exits. Policy shifts in GST, decrim...

In this episode of SparX, Mukesh Bansal sits down with Sanjeev Bikhchandani, founder of Info Edge (Naukri.com), the man who quietly built the foundation of India’s internet economy. From bootstrapping Naukri for 10 years without a salary to backing iconic startups like Zomato and Policybazaar, Sanjeev’s story is a masterclass in patience, conviction, and timing. He reflects on his early dreams of...

In this episode of SparX, Mukesh Bansal sits down with Peeyush Bansal, Co-founder and CEO of Lenskart. They dive into Peeyush’s journey from building early ventures to creating one of India’s most impactful consumer brands. How his mission to solve India’s vision crisis became a movement to make eyewear accessible for all. They talk about: Why India remains the blind capital of the world. The unta...

In this episode of SparX, Mukesh Bansal talks with Abhay Karandikar, Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology and former Director of IIT Kanpur. They break down how India can build core technology at home, move research from labs to real products, and grow deep tech in AI, quantum, space, biotech, energy and medical tech. They speak about: How capital will be deployed through trusted...

In this episode of SparX, Mukesh Bansal speaks with Manish Gupta, Senior Director at Google DeepMind. They discuss how artificial intelligence is evolving, what it means to build truly inclusive AI, and why India must aim higher in research, innovation, and ambition. Manish shares DeepMind’s vision of solving “root node problems,” fundamental scientific challenges that unlock breakthroughs across...

In this episode of SparX , Mukesh Bansal sits down with Roopa Kudva , former head of CRISIL and Omidyar Network India, to discuss her new book Leadership Beyond the Playbook and her powerful reflections on leadership. Roopa shares why leadership is not about following fixed frameworks but about writing your own playbook, shaped by values, lived experiences, and conscious choices. They explore: The...

In this episode of SparX, Mukesh Bansal takes a hard look at the state of India’s deep tech ecosystem. While the world races ahead with AI, semiconductors, and frontier science, India is at a crossroads: will we be creators of technology, or just consumers? Mukesh argues that true deep tech is only possible when rooted in deep science, a culture of research, curiosity, and discovery. He unpacks wh...

In this episode of SparX, Mukesh Bansal speaks with Rana Adhikari, experimental physicist at Caltech and leading voice in gravitational-wave research. From doubting Einstein as a student to helping build the LIGO detectors that confirmed his theories, Rana has been honoured with the Breakthrough Prize, Gruber Prize, and the New Horizons in Physics Prize. They dive into: What gravitational waves re...

In this episode of SparX, Mukesh Bansal speaks with Raghuram Rajan (Former RBI Governor) on India’s economic crossroads, tariff wars, shifting geopolitics, AI disruption, and the urgent need for jobs and human capital investment. They discuss: India’s position between the U.S. and China. The real impact of tariffs on trade, GDP, and livelihoods. Why 7.8% GDP growth isn’t the full story. The jobs c...

In this episode of SparX, Mukesh Bansal speaks with Sharad Sharma, one of the key minds behind Aadhaar and UPI. Sharad shares why he left a successful corporate career to focus on nation building, and how India can avoid becoming a trade colony of China or a tech colony of the US by doubling down on deep tech and research-driven innovation. They discuss: - The origins of India Stack and Digital Pu...

In this episode of SparX, Mukesh Bansal speaks with Shivkumar Kalyanaraman, CEO of the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF). India’s biggest push yet to fund science, research, and deep tech. Shiv explains why India needs to build its own technologies instead of only buying them, and how ANRF will unlock ₹50,000 crore in research grants and ₹1 lakh crore in patient capital to power innov...