The Indicast Show

One venue: Copenhagen. 192 countries. One goal To reduce carbon emissions which isnt doing any good to the climate. The Copenhagen accord was reached after rigourous debate among representatives of 192 countries. Whats it all about? You tell us if you have figured it out so far. Back home in India Congress has sanctioned the formation of a new state Telangana and in Gujarat, the Panchayat election...

25 years after the biggest man made tragedy and the victims are still on the streets fighting another tragedy the government. The Bhopal Gas tragedy completed 25 years and people out there are still hoping to receive fair compensation for the genocide that was caused due to a gas leak from a Multinational company. The absenteeism in the parliament is at a new time high. In soprts, India are world...

The last episode and week of the year 2009 and infact the decade was full of controversies and dejections. Starting from Sheila Dixits prayer for a successful CWG to 86 year old Governor beging serviced at Raj Bhavan. Any case, keep listening in the upcoming decade.

Some would say 17 years is a long time for a report to be publised especially if its a judgement coming from the Supreme Court for a genocide like a riot which killed 2000 people (reported figures) in the Babri Maszid riot (read: pogrom). 26/11 is one year old now and Maharashtra has set up a Special Task Force called Force 1 for combating any terror strikes. In another news, pilgrimage places are...

When two Sachin fans get together to talk about Him, you might expect a rather one sided conversation, but Aditya surprised me with his take on the recent unintended controversy that Sachin kicked off in the midst of his 20 years of international cricket which was spiced up a little bit with his seemingly innocent and matter of fact remark about Mumbai being a part of India and that it belongs to...

The General Elections results are out and Congress is back in power in major states. Aditya describes his experience of watching Rahul Gandhi deliver a speech in Adityas home town, Panvel. In other news, Rajdhani Express was hijacked by Maoists but the only relief was that no one was hurt. In education, Kapil Sibal makes it even more difficult to get into an IIT college in India. ISRO and IAF are...

Happy Diwali Folks. In this unusually lighthearted episode, we talk about Adityas voting experience in the recently concluded state elections. Then we move on to talk about a very serious issue of Obama winning himself an Oscar. Or was it a Nobel? In Sports, Serena Williams posed nude for the body issue of ESPN magazine. Somewhere in India, a couple was asked to tie a rakhee because the Village Pa...

We start our 101st episode by talking about how the Indian cricket team was knocked off from the Champions trophy in the second round itself. But we were a bit more fascinated with Kirsten who wanted to use sex as a weapon against other countries, but failed. In other news, 100 Indian pilots demand for VRS scheme and our PSUs are draining Rs. 31,000 crore every year. ISRO brings a smile to all our...

Indicasts much awaited episode #100 is here and its in video as promised. Gul Panag was kind enough to join us in the fracas and add to it! The episode is probably the lengthiest episode of Indicast but its worth every minute.

The last week was an exciting one for Indian sports. Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupati went head to head in the US Open. In billiards, Pankaj Advani made history. In cricket, India beat New Zealand in the tri series being played in Lanka. In other news, in real estate, a 3000 Sq feet house in Mumbai was sold for a paltry Rs. 38 crore. An Hitler ad was taken off air because it was derogartory (to who...

With Force India finishing second in the Belgian Grand Prix, the news was awash with the first "Indian" team to have made it big in the Formula 1 circuit and Aditya in his sarcastic way opines about the so called Indianess of the victory. Back home, the government has rejected to invest in the 2011 Formula 1 track that Vijay Mallya is aiming for on the grounds that Formula 1 is not sport, but ente...

This episode is dedicated to Ladakh and it's magnificent beauty. It is said that this is the only place where you can get a frostbite and a sunburn at the same time. 14 of us did this trip on bikes and a car and it was memorable. In this episode, we end up talking about why it is one place to be visited before we die. In other stories, we had the unfortunate event of Swine flu in Mumbai, Pune and...

Omar Abdulla, the youngest CM of Jammu and Kashmir resigned from his post after being accused of being part of a sex scandal sometime back in 2006. Our illustrious politicians have many crimes to their name, but if Omar is proven guilty, it'll be hard for him to comeback considering that it's not murder or burglary. In another news, our Power minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde has optimistic hopes of '...

The odds of Bihar being in the world spotlight are a million to one. An eclipse made it possible. NASA declared a small town named Taregna in Bihar as the best place to witness what was the longest and one of the most beautiful sights in the sky. Planed earth experienced a complete solar eclipse on July 23. Back on the ground, the Continental Airline has been taken to task because some ground crew...

Dr Manmohan Singh is a natural remedy for sleep disorders, says a western journalist and we couldn't help but comment on that as our PM is back from an overnight visit from Paris where he attended the French National Day Parade as the the chief guest. In politics, the Supreme court has given clearance to Mayawati to erect those statues costing crores of rupees. Aditya has strong opinions on this o...

No one knew about Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code until the High Court fished it out, amended it and the media splashed it on prime time and front pages. Section 377 stated that no man or woman could engage in sexual activity which is against the order of nature. This archiac law was finally amended by the High Court and in this episode, we mull about how big a deal is it really? The Kargil W...

She might be the chief minister of one of the poorest state in India but that doesn't mean the state has no money to splurge. Mayawati in on a statue inaugration binge which has now been challenged in the Supreme Court. In other news, we talk about the Below Poverty Lines stats that have been anounced, Nandan Nilekani joining as a cabinet minister, Afzal Guru mercy plea, and ICC's attempt to make...

Indians are once gain reminded about how how diverse the country is. While North India was undergoing a heat wave, the South eastern country was washed away by heavy rains. In the other significant news, we talk about our plans for the upcoming 100th episode of Indicast. We are looking forward to some generous financial support this time from you and hope that you empty your wallet for a good caus...

There is a new trend in Australia - Beat the Indians. Until a month ago, it was only on the cricket field but now its on the street. Indian students are being targetted and beaten up in hate crimes. While this is going on in Australia, Indian Sikhs are killing each other in Austria. As a result people went crazy in Punjab and caused damages worth Rs. 7000 crores that too in recessionary times. Oth...

Congress scores a big win in the World's largest democratic election. It no longer depends on any of its alliance parties to keep it in Power but will that mean better and sensible governance remains to be seen. In the other big news, LTTE chief Prabharakaran has been killed by Sri-lankan. We talk about what the LTTE has given the world. You will be surprised to know that the list is pretty intere...

We made a passing reference to Bofors deal in the last episode which made a research it a bit and thought that it would be good to talk about what the big deal about it was and sub inspector has been punished for possibly doing his job. Other topics include women topping the UPSC exams this year, and ISI training women for terrorism.

After all the drama and ruckus created by the Mumbaiites post 26/11, it was a no show on election day. Only 43% of us decided to vote while the rest most probably enjoyed a long weekend but a few voters in Madhya Pradesh decided to cast a "no-vote". This episode also covers the suprising death of the man who discovered pebbles in Ambani's helicopter, how the slowdown has resulted in the increase i...

The performers are ready. The biggest democracy drama is set to unveil itself. In this podcast we wonder what it would be like if Advani and Dr Manmohan Singh were to debate aka Obama and Mc Cain. But then we have Mulayam Singh Yadav wanting to ban English in schools since it soils our culture. In another news, a son kills his dad for voting for a wrong party .And IPL has kicked off and Bhajji and...

Continuing our election updates, BJP released its election manifesto containing all the things that they would do if elected and how did congress react? Congress says that 70% of the manifesto has been ripped from UPA's manifesto. Also, you know that its election time when a leader choses to address the a rally through his cell phone. The other updates include Karnatak topping the list of voters r...

We spent 21 of the 22 minutes talking about politics or the lack of it. Aditya and I ended up at two ends talking about Mayawati, the politician with a not so impeccable track record and Meera Sanyal, the ABN Amro bank head who has nothing to her credit yet, but is taking baby steps in contesting this years elections. Politics and entertainment are never mutually exclusive; we have SRK campaining...