The Indicast Show

One of the most versatile actors of his time, Pran was chosen for the Dadasaheb Phalke award earlier this month. India makes progress to get its polio erradication certificate from the WHO. A single man cultivates an entire forest in Assam. His name is Jadav Peyang. And the most expensive dog fetches close to a million pounds in UK.

With Vijay, Pujara, Kohli, Jadeja, Dhoni all getting their personal bests, all seems well with Indian cricket. For now. Sanjay Dutt has been ordered to serve his time in prison. A new pope gets appointed and Bill Gates floats a 100,000 USD grant for anyone who can come up with a next generation condom. Also, tell us what you think of our new website.

In this episode we talk about the Hyderabad blasts, the successful launch of a PSLV by ISRO and Fauja Singh, the 101 year old running his last marathon.

Sorry about the radio silence. In this long coming episode and the first one of 2013, we talk about the Maha Kumbh mela, changing rape laws and the perpetual peace talks that continue with our friendly neighbour inspite of the cross border firings and the most recent brutal killing of Jawans on the front.

A spate of rape cases show up on the radar as media mercifully covers the most recent gang rape of a 23 year old woman in Delhi. All politicians including the home minister and the prime minster make a mockery of themselves by reading out prepared statements or making careless remarks on television. In Gujarat, Narendra Modi gets elected for third time in a row. In sports, Sachin Tendulkar retires...

Pandit Ravi Shankar passes away. The great man was a bundle of energy and had performed on stage with his daughter in the US at the ripe age of 94. Text messaging turns 20. Saudi Arabia adds SMS tracking of wives to its increasingly long list of injustice towards women. At a village in Bihar, a local committee has banned women from carrying mobile phones. The Panchayat believes that this will lead...

This week, the Lok Sabha gives a green signal for allowing FDI in retail. Bihar pulls off an amazing track record of growth by beating Maharashtra and Gujarat. In sports, Ricky Ponting retires and Freddie Flintoff takes to boxing. Sachin finally gets a fifty after his worst slump in two decades. The Kabbadi world cup is being played in Punjab. And a weed wacking robot from two Stanford trained eng...

Four years after the grisly event, Ajmal Kasab was hanged at the Yerwada Central Jail in Pune. In international news, Israel pummels Gaza for eight straight days. More than 140 Palestinians were killed before a cease fire came into effect. Somewhere on this planet, a few people still believe that the world will come to an end this December and hope to seek refuge near a hill in France. The French...

The man had a mafia like control over the city so much that he had it change its name because he did not like it. In this podcast we talk a bit about Bal Thackerays beginnings, his quirks, agendas and of course his legendary oratorical skills. In other political news, Rahul Gandhi has been asked to lead the Congress poll campaign in the upcoming 2014 general elections. In some happy news, a bunch...

The greatest spectacle on the American soil comes to an end and Barack Obama wins it for the second time. But we are more interested in George Bush Jr accidentally voting for Obama. Back home, Arvind Kejriwal tops the popularity charts on all news channels and newspapers. Vijay Mallya sells off a majority stake in his spirit business in the hope to rescue his airline company. And Happy Diwali to e...

In this episode we talk about the alleged sweetheart deal bewtween haryana government, DLF and Shri Robert Vadra. Many knew about it but only Arvind Kejriwal decided to talk about it. The other topcis include the NSE crash, Nobel prize winners and a couple of listener emails.

It takes time. Justice. In India. The verdict for 2002 Gujarat riots is out. 32 people have been sentenced to life. Similarly, supreme court upholds Kasabs death sentence, but apparently he can appeal yet again. In other news, our prime minister makes it to the cover pages of many a newspaper. Washington post and the Wall Street Journal have called him names and the Congress demands an apology fro...

Lance Armstrong, fed up with the allegations that have hounded him for more than a decade, decided not to contest the doping charges. He has been stripped of his seven Tour-de-France titles. We talk about him and another legend who passed away in the previous week, Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon. Closer home in India, the prime minister Dr Singh has been hammered with a zillion question...

While India was celebrating its 65th Independence Day Assam was burning. More than 400,000 thousand have been displayed due to ethnic clashes. The problems also spread to Mumbai when a group agitation turned violent. In several incidents people from north east were attacked in cities like Pune and Bangalore. In other news, Olympics concluded with India winning its largest medal tally so far.

Indias Olympic games report card has four medals to show. In the 100 meter race, Usain Bolt breaks the world record in the fastest race ever run where seven out of the eight runners passed the finish line in less than ten seconds. The big news this week was about American sending an unmanned rover named Curiosity on Mars. In this podcast, two commerce brains try to explain the whole science behind...

Last week 10 per cent of all mankind took a nap. Most of India suffered a coordinated power failure which put about 600 million people in darkness. Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat offered help. It came at a price. In other news, Aditya brings up an interesting case study in market research. NDTV is miffed with Nielsen after the market research company allegedly tampered with the TAM r...

The presidential post in India is largely a ceremonial role. But when Pranab Mukherjee took oath as the thirteeth president of India, the top bosses at Congress must have slept well that night. With the prospect of a hung parliament alive and well, Pranab da can exercise his presidential powers. In this podcast, we talk a bit about what he inherits from his predecessor and what lies ahead of him....

This week Tarun Sehrawat, a 22 year old photographer from Tehelka died of malaria. He picked up the germ while reporting from Jharkhand for the magazine. Ghazal myestro Mehndi Hassan passed away. In some encouraging news, three young Indians were shortlisted by Google for its annual science fair contest. In sports, Bhupati and Paes go at each other. And this week, we talk about Deepika Kumari, Ind...

The world is in a sportive mood this week with Saina Nehwal winning the Thailand Open and Sania Mirza and Bhupati taking the French Open. Lewis Hamilton wins the Canadian Grand Prix becoming the seventh new winner in as many races. This episode we also talk about Krishna Poonia, India's discuss thrower who will represent us at the Olympics. The Euro 2012 has kicked off too with the best match so f...

People are beginning to ask the question that every Indian dreads. Is India really shining? or is it being too pessimistic to keep expecting India to continue on its growth number while the world goes through a slowdown? The Indian government is doing its best defend the growth numbers, falling rupee, and the petrol price hike. In other topics, we talk about Indias new army chief, Vishwananthan An...

For the first time in many many years, Standard & Poor downgraded Indias rating from stable to BBB nevative and our politicians rehearsed their typical reaction of being "shocked" at this. In other news, a few politicians are miffed at the Haj subsidy which is an annual freebie given to those who make the trip to Haj. In what turns out to be the programing coup of the decade, Aamir Khan debuts wit...

Our conversations about Sachin Tendulkar can get one-sided. We are fans. In this one, however, we are disappointed with his recent decision to accept the Rajya Sabha nomination. But our disappointment pales when we compare it with Suresh Kalmadis audacious attempt to make a comeback at the Indian Olympic Association as its president. Knowing our politics, he might even make it. A week back, India...

We are back after what has been the longest hiatus in the last 5 years that we have been doing Indicast. We start the episode taking about the top stories that we missed while we were away and then move on with the current affairs. This weeks stories include the successful Agni V test, The Aids train, Akaash tablets fail, Yuvraaj Singh returning back to India and Gandhi memoribilia still getting f...

Mumbai elections came and went. The 13th municipal elections since independence saw the BJP-Shiv Sena combo come into power for the fourth consecutive term. Mumbaikars however chose to stay at home and had just 46 per cent voter turnout. Down south in Karnataka, three ministers resign after they were caught watching porn at job. According to one poll, Indians are the among the happiest people on e...

This episode is full high and low points for India. While India got thrashed by Australia in the cricket, India, with a lot of help from many organizations, has achieved to be Polio free for an entire year. The later is a lot more important than cricket so it not really a fair comparison. There are a few more such topic in this episode.