The Morning Brief

Infosys CEO Narayana Murthy’s statement over working hours has snowballed into not just social media arguments, but also reached the boardrooms, while many industry captains align with Murthy's vision of what it takes to build and grow, others talk about the much-needed balance and not stretching till you break. So, the biggest question here is – Is productivity calculated by the clock?  Host Prac...

India’s biggest mover of things – its railways run more than 13,000 trains ferrying close to 400 crore people. Even with the rapid emergence of new and faster trains, the story has lately teetered on the brink of derailment. The Balasore accident, which happened in June, was India’s deadliest train crash in almost three decades. But who is to be blamed? Host Anirban Chowdhury talk about the safety...

5 states and over 600 assembly seats up for grabs as Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, and Telangana go to polls. As the cage fight for Hindi heartland intensifies between the BJP and Congress, who will grab the chair and who will be left standing as polling kicks off? Will this election also be the last war cry for political veterans? ET’s Political Bureau brings you the must not...

iD Fresh Food has made a place for itself in many of our kitchens with its idli and dosa batter, parothas and coffee decoction. Its innovative packaging, as with its latest butter stick product, has also made the brand popular with customers. The company is now looking to serve up some batter on Dalal Street soon, after it crosses the Rs 1000-crore revenue mark. Host Mugdha Variyar sat down with i...

The Indian financial landscape was taken by surprise when veteran banker Uday Kotak prematurely announced his resignation as the MD & CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank in September this year. What raised even more eyebrows  was the appointment of Ashok Vaswani to take control of the hot seat. Vaswani is an industry veteran but someone who has worked most of his life at international banks overseas. W...

Digital payments have made lives easy, right? Even the transactions rose from 10.2 billion in 2017 to 87.3 billion in 2022. But, this has also led to an increase in fraud. According to a report by the Reserve Bank of India, digital payments fraud amounted to ₹82.76 crore in 2021-22, up from ₹55.28 crore in the previous year. And phishing accounted for 40% of all the reported cases. Recently, Safex...

Mamaearth's parent company Honasa Consumers is finally hitting Dalal Street with a ₹1700 crore IPO. The company will raise ₹365 crore in fresh issue and the rest will be an offer for sale. What's surprising is that the company is seeking a valuation of over ₹10,000 crore - nearly 60% lower than the ₹24,000 crore figure that had gone viral on social media earlier in January. Why so? Why is the comp...

From Elon Musk to several Hollywood celebrities, the weight loss wonder drug, semaglutide, is taking the world by storm. What was an unintended consequence of a diabetes control med, the emergence of significant weight loss has raised the expectation of the wonder drug becoming a $100 bn opportunity by 2030. While the drug’s innovator Novo Nordisk launched its oral version in India last year, Dr....

Adani Group’s Vizhinjam trans-shipment port can put India on the global map as a shipping hub. It will also boost India's foreign reserves and can potentially rev up the country's woeful status in the global shipping world. Vizhinjam is Adani's toughest project yet. It is also critical to its ambition of becoming the world's biggest port operator by 2030. Why has India not had a successful trans-s...

Climate change is taking a toll on our health! Extreme weather events are leading to deaths and injuries. They are also exposing us to new illnesses and worsening existing ones.  If we fail to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°Celcius, there is a risk of approximately 15,000 new viruses, bacteria and other pathogens emerging. Mosquitoes, which are carriers of diseases like malaria and dengue, a...

On the 50th anniversary of the first oil shock that led to the price of a barrel of oil quadrupling, the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict has put the Middle East on the brink just as it did in 1973. Beyond the ever-rising body count, chances of a bigger global economic downturn have gone up. With the region being the world’s largest energy producer, price volatility can have bigger implications on gr...

Child Sexual Abuse Material or CSAM is spreading like a deadly virus on the internet. While there has been a growing awareness of the problem and a concerted effort by law enforcement and technology companies to combat CSAM, a significant increase in the production, distribution, and consumption of CSAM has been seen in recent years. A report also found that the average age of victims depicted in...

A juice seller and small time contractor from Bhilai who built a popular betting app are being chased by the cops for a 5000 crore rupees money laundering scam. Also involved are A- listers of Bollywood such as Ranbir Kapoor, social media influencers and India’s most popular standup comedian that endorsed their betting app. From a paan stall in Bhilai to the plush confines of Dubai, from hawala tr...

Bihar's caste survey results have provided a new poll plank to the Opposition. As India plans to start the decadal Census, the political parties are once again raising the demand for an all India caste census to enumerate the numerically strong Other Backward Classes. But in an era where data is the new oil, it is no surprise that the holy grail of the electoral system is uniting political parties...

Humans of Bombay opens the floodgates to the copyright conversation for creators while controversies around AP Dhillon’s Dil Nu to Made In Heaven script take centre stage. From voice identity to idea protection to direct reshares, creators are facing an uphill battle where copying is moving faster than copyright laws. When remixes and reshares become ripoffs - What options do creators have to prot...

The debate about the efficacy of Ayurveda versus Allopathy is not new. But this time it is playing out in the courtroom. Himalaya Wellness Corporation, a leading herbal health and personal care company, has in its suit stated that it has lost business due to defamatory allegations against its products made by LiverDoc through his widely followed social media account on the platform X. In part 1 of...

How alternative medicine is actually harmful for people, Dr. Abby Philipes explained all about it in the first part of this episode. For the second part, we speak with someone who suffered from Asthma in childhood and got treated through Ayurveda. Catch the full conversation between host Kiran Somvanshi and Dr. G. G. Gangadharan , the founder & director of Ramaiah Indic Specialty Ayurveda Hosp...

Indian elections are a spectacle, a circus, and a battleground all rolled into one. And a new breed of young, savvy political consultants are changing the way these battles are fought. Coming from institutes including IITs and IIMs and from big tech cos and global consultants they are the secret weapon of Indian politicians. Together they craft strategies, design campaigns, and manage their messag...

After disrupting the broking business, Nithin Kamath of Zerodha has his target fixed on the next big thing - the Mutual Fund business. What is going to be the game-changer? Will Zerodha have brick and mortar stores? And will the Kamath brothers ever consider giving up a piece of the chicken that lays the golden egg? Catch this candid conversation with host Suresh Venkat in the run-up to The Econom...

The popularity of SME stocks is rising, and with that comes the scrutiny of the market regulator as well. The BSE SME IPO index has seen a 2300% increase since the end of 2019, with average returns of over 80% for SME IPOs listed in 2023. How could this avoid SEBI's attention? So, is it a case of manipulation? Or do good things really come in small packages? Host Anupriya Nair explores the market...

Employee stock ownership plans, or ESOPs, have played a key role in the Indian startup sector. But while some employees have been able to build wealth through ESOPs, others have seen little success with this tool. ESOPs can be a great way to attract and retain talent, and to incentivize employees to work hard for the company's success. However, ESOPs also come with risks. Risks that are associated...

India's new parliament building was inaugurated with the passage of the long-awaited 27-year-old Women's Reservation Bill. Streamed live, the inaugural session buzzed with anticipation as the call for 'Naari shakti vandan adhiniyam' (Women's Reservation Act) echoed through the chambers. India's stark gender imbalance in the Lok Sabha, with just one in seven parliamentarians being a woman, in contr...

There is no beating down Shah Rukh Khan!  In the latest turning point to a career as dramatic as his films, the “King of Bollywood” is back at the top with two runaway hits-Pathan and Jawan. SRK has built a billion-dollar career out of romancing women on screen. But people close to him, know him as a sports, video game and action freak. Naturally, the 57-year-old actor is having copious amounts of...

Household savings fall to a 50-year-low at a time when borrowing and spending are touching new records. The new mantra of lenders is to bank on Gen-Zers taking the lead on loans and spending. But with the demand, comes debt and default. Unsecured lending is booming at a record pace, with the market expected to top Rs 4.5 lakh crore by this financial year. Meanwhile, credit card default tops Rs 400...

Over the next decade, 17 of the 20 fastest-growing cities in the world are expected to be from India. At the heart of it all are our local municipal bodies that have historically been plagued by a lack of governance and financial discipline. But that is gradually changing! Municipal Corporations looking to seek financial autonomy & instill financial discipline are rushing to the bond market to...