The Morning Brief

Budget 2022 chose fiscal growth over freebies. The government said it will spend more and has kept most taxes untouched. Meanwhile, fiscal deficit and inflation continue to pinch. Hosts Anirban Chowdhury and Devina Sengupta talk to ET’s Swaminathan Aiyar and Vinay Pandey to make sense of how the government has planned its finances. Credit: ET Now See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information...

India’s $375-million BrahMos deal with the Philippines is the outcome of a change in policy and politics to favour defence exports. The country has set a target of exporting defence equipment worth $5 billion by 2025. Host Nehal Chaliawala speaks to Additional Secretary, Department of Defence Production, Sanjay Jaju, President of the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers, SP Shukla and Senior Ed...

Plummeting share price, disappointing forecast, the streaming giant is under heavy scrutiny of investors. Rivals Disney Hotstar and Amazon Prime are racing ahead in India. With co-Founder Reed Hastings admitting last week that its lack of success in India was 'frustrating,' host Arijit Barman speaks to Laura Martin, LA based senior entertainment and internet analyst at Needham & Co and ET's Senior...

In the absence of a concrete data protection law in India, instances of consumer data breach are turning a lot more frequent. Host Ratna Bhushan explores how this is a case of lack of policy, traceability and accountability, in conversation with leading cyber law expert Pavan Duggal, Rajshekhar Rajaharia, a popular internet security researcher and Rajat Wahi, Partner at Deloitte India. Credits: WI...

“Tax us now”, said no Indian billionaire ever! But with growing wealth inequality in the pandemic, and hundreds of the world’s super rich asking to be taxed more, should wealth tax make a comeback in India? Kiran Somvanshi discusses with Morris Pearl, chair of Patriotic Millionaires, Amitabh Behra, CEO of Oxfam India and Hitesh Gajaria, partner at KPMG. Credits: NBC News,ABC News, Fortune, Wall St...

Google has faced four probes from the competition watchdog in India in recent years amidst growing allegations of abuse of market dominance by big tech companies. This negatively impacts the local tech ecosystem and consumers will pay the cost ultimately, host Anirban Chowdhury finds out in conversation with Amber Sinha, Executive Director at Centre for Internet and Society, Sijo George, Executive...

Apple supplier Foxconn has landed in the soup again with its workers complaining of poor working conditions. Host Dia Rekhi in conversation with Sana Hashmi, Visiting Fellow at the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation, Sasikumar Gendham, Salcomp India’s managing director and Justice K Chandru, former judge of the Madras High Court find out what led to this issue and how will this impact the growing ele...

The consumption of painkillers shot up by 23% in India last year with Dolo 650 becoming a household name. Have we turned into excessive pill-poppers during the pandemic? Host Devina Sengupta talks with Dr SP Kalantri, Medical Superintendent at Kasturba Hospital, ET Prime’s Vikas Dandekar and ET's Kiran Somvanshi to find out. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Vodafone Idea insists that despite the government becoming its largest shareholder, it will not become a public-sector company. Host Arijit Barman explores the quirks of this transaction and what’s next for the troubled telecom operator with Peter Milliken, Head of Company Research – APAC at Deutsche Bank and ET's Anandita Singh Mankotia. Credits: Mirror Now, NDTV, CNBC-TV18 See omnystudio.com/lis...

Demand-supply gaps, small town challenges, false positives or negatives, record surge in demand for home testing, shortage of technicians who’re themselves getting infected, pressures on turnaround time. Are India’s Covid Labs overwhelmed? Is testing overload compromising on quality? Are home test kits the solution? Host Ratna Bhushan speaks to Dr Lal Pathlabs MD Om Manchanda, Hasmukh Rawal, MD of...

The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 is causing less severe disease but the virus itself is not becoming less pathogenic, a new study has found. Cambridge University’s Dr Ravindra Gupta explains the implications of this study and the future of the pandemic in an interview to host Nehal Chaliawala. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bulli Bai and Sulli Deals are just two new applications making headlines for fake auction of Muslim women. But cyber bullying is not new and most cases unreported. Host Bhavya Dilipkumar talks to Hasiba Amin, an Indian National Congress office holder and a victim, NS Nappinai, a Supreme Court advocate and ET’s Krishna Kumar to understand the modus operandi of these hate crimes and the recourse for...

As the number of cases in the country surge and fear of a third wave looms large, host Devina Sengupta speaks to virologist Dr Gagandeep Kang, Dr. Alok Khullar, CEO, Gleneagles Global Health City and ET's Nidhi Sharma to assess whether India is better prepared than last year to deal with the Covid onslaught. Credits: TRT World, NDTV, CNN-News 18, WION See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy inform...

Challenges from two Covid waves and fears of a third; cost pressures and supply constraints; slow growth in the manufacturing sector and high taxes; hybrid vehicles and Totoya tie-up. Host Anirban Chowdhury in conversation with Maruti's Chairman RC. Bhargava, finds out what's ahead for the auto industry and what’s keeping the chairman occupied in 2022? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy infor...

Year-ender series Theme Five: Assembly polls in 5 states in 2022 but all eyes are on Uttar Pradesh. Host Arijit Barman along with the general secretary of All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS)Hannan Molla, BJP spokesperson Shalabh Mani Tripathi and veteran journalist Sharat Pradhan decode how the outcome of 2022 polls in UP will shape the national political narrative for BJP and its mascot Prime Minister N...

Year-ender series Theme Four: While 2021 challenged humanity, it also brought out the strongest in us: from the sheer wave of altruism during the second Covid wave, to the gritty farmers' protests, to a fresh vigour in shareholder activism, the year gave a new meaning to people power. Dia Rekhi talks to JN Gupta, founder of Stakeholder Empowerment Services, Megha Marik, research fellow at the Tata...

Year-ender Series, Theme Three: Stock markets, IPOs and funding in startups, all touched record highs in 2021. Banks had so much money to lend that it became the cheapest to borrow in a decade. But there was high inflation, job losses, slow credit growth and capital expenditure. Fears of Omicron too spooked investors. Hosts Anirban Chowdhury and Nehal Chaliawala speak to ET’s associate editor Suga...

2021 has been the year of startups - record venture capital inflows, new unicorns, mega listings and consolidations. Will the party continue in 2022? Host Arijit Barman seeks answers from Ravishankar GV, managing director at Sequoia Capital and internet billionaire Sanjeev Bikhchandani, the founder of Info Edge. Credits: YourStory, CNBC-TV18, ET Now See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informat...

2021 Year-ender Series, Theme One: From extreme weather events to the loud warning signals of the UN Report, from the blame game of Cop 26 to business leaders getting on the sustainability bus, climate change dominated headlines throughout 2021. Host Bhavya Dilipkumar in conversation with JSW Group’s CSO Prabodha Acharya, Bank of America Securities head of India Research, Amish Shah, convenor of E...

From virtual music concerts to NFT-based merchandise, metaverse presents a whole new gamut of business opportunities. Host Devina Sengupta explains the metaverse with Arvind Neelakantan, Tech Evangelist at Epic Games, Roby John, the CEO of SuperGaming and ET’s Apoorva Mittal. Credits: Meta, Forbes, Matther Maher, CNBC See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ITC Ltd had its first-ever investor meet in its 111-year history. But there was hardly anything new. What's stopping transformational changes in the conglomerate that can rejuvenate its languishing share price? Host Arijit Barman speaks to Dwijottam Bhattacharya, a former journalist turned stock market investor who has stayed invested in ITC since the 1990s and ET’s Kiran Somvanshi to decode the c...

Ola has begun delivering its Electric Scooter to customers, after much hype and delays. Product glitches remain, plans are ambitious, tough competition looms and the company has seen a string of exits. Host Anirban Chowdhury speaks to the editor of several trade magazines including CarDekho, Zigwheels and Bikedekho, Kartikeya Singhee as well as ET's Manu Toms and Nehal Chaliawala to find out what...

PepsiCo India has lost the rights to a potato variety grown exclusively for its popular Lay’s chips. Host Nehal Chaliawala speaks to activist at the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture,Kavitha Kuruganti, senior advocate Gourab Banerji & ET’s Ratna Bhushan on why PepsiCo lost this battle and what does it mean for the farmers and companies investing in innovation in India? credits: One...

There's a conflict brewing in the FMCG space that's much like what’s played out in sectors like pharma and smartphones with retail trade and FMCG companies at loggerheads. Host Ratna Bhushan speaks to AICPDF President Dhairyashil Patil, Parle Products Senior Category Head Mayank Shah and ETIG’s Kiran Somvanshi to find out if FMCG companies can afford to ignore traditional distributors who make up...

IITs are witnessing a campus recruitment boom like never before. To understand what is driving the 8-figure job offers, host Devina Sengupta talks to Anishya Obhrai Madan, head of career services at IIT Delhi; Prashant Singh, managing director at Quantbox Research – who is one of the recruiters – and ET’s Sreeradha Basu. Credits: ET Now, India Today, Business Today See omnystudio.com/listener for...