The Morning Brief

The Union government recently introduced a bill burying the controversial retrospective taxation amendment that had led to a series of rulings in the Cairn and Vodafone cases that went against India in international tribunals. Mukesh Butani, managing partner at BMR Legal, and ET's Gulveen Aulakh tell us why the bill is a positive signal from India to global investors. Clip Credits: Lok Sabha TV, C...

Contemporary Indian hockey cannot ignore the role the state has played, as a sponsor and a springboard. Rajiv Seth, Project Director, Odisha Naval Tata Hockey High Performance Centre and TOI's Manuja Veerappa tell the story of how Odisha became the biggest backer of Indian hockey. Clip credits: Yash Raj Films, OTV, Hockey India, FIH and RSTV. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From deliveries to despatches, the business of drones is set to boom as regulators relax laws. But while companies and consumers benefit, for some countries it is also becoming a security hazard and a tool for terror attacks. Academic and tech entrepreneur Vivek Wadhwa and startup Skylark Drones' CEO Mughilan Thiru Ramasamy tell us what the drones of the future will look like, and what we need to...

The Big Bull of stock markets Rakesh Jhunjhunwala is backing an ultra-low-cost airline, Akasa. Aviation industry veteran Suresh Nair and ET’s Anirban Chowdhury tell us candidly on what are the possible turbulence ahead and can it withstand the competition and take off. Clip credits: NDTV, Bloomberg, CNBC TV18, Yahoo Finance, India Today, CNA See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Star gymnast Simone Biles' pullout from the Tokyo Olympics and tennis player Naomi Osaka's withdrawal from the French Open has yet again brought mental health of athletes back in focus. Olympic bronze medalist Gagan Narang shares with us what it's like to be in the pressure cooker of the world's most intense competition, while sports psychologist to elite athletes Vaibhav Agashe shares why it's im...

An RBI-backed central bank digital currency (CBDC) could potentially bring together the best of two worlds - traditional money and cryptocurrencies. Shehnaz Ahmed, fintech lead at Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, WazirX CEO Nischal Shetty and ET’s Sugata Ghosh explain what a digital currency is and its potential impact on cryptocurrencies. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Pegasus scandal has raised allegations of snooping on politicians, journalists, and technocrats. Public policy lawyer Vrinda Bhandari, ET Prime's Nirmal John, and ET's Sachin Dave discuss why corporates and civilians should pull up their firewalls and fight for privacy. Credits: CBS, The Guardian, NDTV, WION, Pro Sound FX, Sound Response, Otternest See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy infor...

Millennial users of the online food delivery app are whetting their investment appetite by subscribing to the public issue. Varun Sridhar, CEO, Paytm Money, Rachana Ranade, CA turned Finance YouTuber & Aditya Kondawar, COO, JST Investments slice and dice the factors behind the frenzy and deliver their verdict on the internet IPO gold rush. Credits: Zomato, Chintamani Jaipuri, TV18, CA Rachana Rana...

The electric vehicle market in India is revving up with ambitious plans of product launches and subsidies from the government have helped in making them price competitive. But are consumers willing to get into the driver's seat when charging infrastructure is still lagging behind? Ather Energy CEO Tarun Mehta and ET's Nehal Chaliawala tell us if EVs will live up to the hype. Clips from YouTube cha...

The new-found enthusiasm of some states to curb population growth is a misplaced idea that will do more harm than good, experts warn. Poonam Muttreja, executive director of Population Foundation of India and S Irudaya Rajan, chairman of the International Institute of Migration and Development, explain the perils of controlling population through regulations. Credits: CNN-News18, NDTV, Al Jazeera,...

The pandemic has laid havoc to the traditional college admission timelines, forcing teachers, students, and lawmakers to adhere to an entirely new system. Is a click-and-mortar college system going to be the way forward? Aseem Chauhan, Chancellor, Amity University, Ayush Bansal, Founder & CEO, iDreamCareer, Santanu Paul, CEO & MD, TalentSprint, and ET Prime's Debleena Majumdar discuss. Credits: Pi...

Amidst massive losses and poor recoveries of corporate dues, India's bankruptcy code is slowly losing its reformatory zeal. Author and founder of financial magazine Moneylife, Debashis Basu, bankruptcy regulator Dr. MS Sahoo and ET’s Mohit Bhalla tell us whether the bankruptcy code is being gamed by opportunistic tycoons and pliant lenders, and ways to fix it. Credits: ET Now, Bloomberg Quint, TV...

As the Chinese Communist Party marks its 100th anniversary, we look at how China went from being the world’s factory to almost a superpower-like status. Amitendu Palit, Senior Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore and ET’s Pranab Dhal Samanta help answer the question – Who will stand up to China? Credits: WION, Bloomberg Quicktake, CNA Insider See omnystudio.com/listener for priv...

Amendments to the Cinematograph Act of 1952 could completely change the way Indian cinema is produced and released. Why is the government trying to supersede the CBFC and take matters into its own hands? We discuss with film industry veteran Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Kaushik Moitra, Partner at Bharucha and Partners, and independent filmmaker Rushabh Nagraj. Credits: Cinecurry Classics, ETernal ET., MO...

-Indians enjoy some of the lowest telecom charges in the world, but operators say that the current tariffs are not sustainable. Will the government intervene to let them charge you more? Prashant Singhal, TMT Emerging Markets Leader at EY and Lt Gen SP Kochhar, Director General of telecom lobby COAI, discuss the issue of floor tariff rates for the telecom sector. See omnystudio.com/listener for pr...

E-commerce companies have been thrown into a tizzy after the Department of Consumer Affairs unexpectedly released a draft of rules aimed at protecting consumers. Do the rules really benefit consumers, or will this kill a booming online market through over-regulation? Jehangir Gai, Consumer Rights Activist, Archana Tewary, Partner at J Sagar Associates and ET's Digbijay Mishra give us the highlight...

Does PM Modi’s meeting with leaders from Kashmir signal a thaw in relations between the Centre and the Valley? Or is it just realpolitik? DS Hooda, Former Army Commander, Northern Command, Policy Analyst Radha Kumar, who was a member Group of Interlocutors for J&K and ET’s Hakeem Irfan Rashid analyse the Valley's politics. Host - Anjali Venugopalan See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informati...

The bankruptcy court may have approved the resolution plan for Jet Airways, but challenges, like getting the right airport slots and managing the heavy costs of running and operating the flights, remain even as the new buyers figure how to take off again. Endau Analytics’ Founder, Shukor Yusof and ET’s Anirban Chowdhury and Tarun Shukla tell us what lies ahead for the grounded aviation giant. Cred...

By undertaking his most challenging mission — a $10 billion investment in clean power and fuel — Mukesh Ambani is pivoting India's largest conglomerate yet again. What are his motivations, and is he spreading himself too fast, too thin? Tim Buckley, Director of Energy Finance Studies, Australia/South Asia at the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) and ET's Arijit Barman di...

PMC finally has a buyer. RBI has given Centrum and BharatPe the initial approval to rescue the scam-hit co-operative bank. What does this mean for anxious PMC depositors, the new buyers, and the sector? ET's Sugata Ghosh and Ashwin Manikandan discuss. Credits: TV18, Times Now, ET Now, BloombergQuint. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The recently approved Model Tenancy Act has proposed big changes in India's rental market. But while this act may make dispute resolution between tenants and landlords easier, every state needs to adopt it and the process may be beset with bureaucratic and political challenges. Cherag Balsara, a senior lawyer specialising in property disputes and ET's Kailash Babar give us the lowdown. See omnystu...

High hospital bills and black marketing of drugs and oxygen make the treatment of Covid-19 prohibitively expensive. Dr SP Kalantri, Medical Superintendent at Kasturba Hospital, Malini Aisola, co-convenor of the All India Drug Action Network and ET's Kiran Somvanshi discuss the flaws in the existing setup and the steps to fix the financial burden of Covid-19. Audio clips from NDTV, India Today, ET...

The rise of renewable energy projects has resulted in the encroachment of the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard's habitat. Abi Vanak, Senior Fellow, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, M D Madhusudan, Independent Ecologist and Conservation Scientist, Subrahmanyam Pulipaka, CEO, National Solar Energy Federation of India, and ET's Shashwat Mohanty discuss the complex i...

India's crypto community was rattled after the Enforcement Directorate said it issued a show-cause notice to the country's largest cryptocurrency exchange WazirX in a money-laundering probe. We speak to CoinSwitch founder and CEO Ashish Singhal, and ET's Sugata Ghosh and Apoorva Mittal to understand what's ahead for investors and exchanges. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With the second wave dipping and corporate vaccination drives picking up, companies are now talking about getting employees back to work. We have Pankaj Bansal, Co-founder of People Strong Technologies. Anshul Prakash, Partner at Khaitan & Co and ET's Saumya Bhattacharya tell us the ground reality of getting back to offices, and how companies are already tracking employee vaccination status, which...