The Morning Brief

She shares rooms and stages with the gods of AI...and is often the only woman there. Dame Wendy Hall, pioneering computer scientist and co-founder of Web Science, has watched the internet reshape the world. Now she's watching AI do the same. And she's worried we're repeating the same mistakes, faster. In this Women's Day Special, she pulls no punches: on why "AGI" is meaningless hype, why governan...

Dubai's "safe haven" image took a direct hit this week as missile debris fell near the Burj Al Arab and Palm Jumeirah following military escalations involving Iran, the US, and Israel. For Indian HNIs, family offices, and startup founders who had parked billions in Dubai real estate, the question is no longer about returns, it's about risk. Indian buyers, who account for 20-30% of prime property p...

From January’s protests in Iran to coordinated US–Israel strikes and widening retaliation, this episode maps how internal unrest morphed into a geopolitical flashpoint. Host Anirban Chowdhury and ET’s Executive Editor (Politics) Pranab Dhal Samanta break down the escalation ladder: is this about regime change, deterrence, or domestic politics in Washington? Can Iran’s cleri...

What if AI companions are inserting themselves between children and the very people meant to guide them? In this episode of The Morning Brief, host Anirban Chowdhury speaks to Dr. Sonia Livingstone, Professor of Social Psychology, Department of Media and Communications , The London School of Economics and Political Science and Dr Usha Raman, former professor,Dept of Communication, University of Hy...

The existential alignment problem sits at the heart of the AI revolution — and the consequences of getting it wrong could be irreversible. What happens when superintelligent systems pursue fixed objectives that don’t fully capture human values? How do we govern machines that may soon outperform us across domains? And who decides what level of risk humanity should accept? The conversati...

In a wide-ranging conversation with host Surabhi Agarwal, IBM's chairman, president and CEO Arvind Krishna addresses the questions every technology leader and IT professional in India is wrestling with right now. He pushes back on AI doomsday narratives for software services, makes a compelling case for why hybrid cloud and mainframe architecture remain indispensable, and shares his candid take on...

The US Supreme Court just handed Trump a legal defeat and it barely slowed him down. In a landmark ruling, the court struck down tariffs imposed under emergency economic powers, only for the White House to pivot instantly to alternative legal pathways. For India, caught just before a trade deal that had finally brought some clarity, the timing couldn't be worse. Host Anirban Chowdhury talks to Bip...

In a candid, unscripted exchange, India’s pharma titans peeled back the mythology of overnight success to reveal a harder truth: conviction compounded over decades. What began as two products and a bet on neglected therapy areas evolved into a multibillion-dollar enterprise riding India’s epidemiological shift. Innovation, they argued, is a long game—scarred by failed trials, inv...

Artificial intelligence is concentrating power, profits and infrastructure in the hands of a few. Mistral AI's co-founder and CEO Arthur Mensch stands for dismantling it. In this episode Mensch talks to ET’s tech editor Surabhi Agarwal about why excessive US dominance in AI creates economic and geopolitical imbalance, and how open-weight models, sovereign cloud partnerships and efficient com...

As AI agents begin to outnumber humans 80 to one, who's truly accountable when things go wrong? In this episode, Host Suraksha P talks to Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora about the noise on what securing an agentic future actually demands from mandatory agent registries to real-time breach detection that must outpace an eight-minute attack window. He challenges India to pursue a hybrid sovereig...

What if every Indian had a personal doctor, a PhD agronomist, and a world-class tutor all free, all AI-powered, available tomorrow? Hosts Surabhi Agarwal and Swathi Moorthy talk to entrepreneur, investor Vinod Khosla on why he doesn't traffic in hypotheticals; he calls this India's most urgent opportunity. In a wide-ranging conversation, Khosla maps the turbulent decade ahead predicting political...

Can a $17 billion bet prevent India from repeating the Global South's century-long technology lag? In this episode of The Morning Brief, host Surabhi Agarwal speaks with Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith about the company's AI-ambitious vision for India as a "land of digital opportunity." The conversation explores Microsoft's infrastructure and skilling investments, the challenge of br...

Is Anthropic late to India's AI party—or perfectly timed? In this episode of The Morning Brief, host Anirban Chowdhury speaks with ET’s Disha Acharya and Puran Choudhary about Anthropic's strategic entry into India's rapidly maturing generative AI market. The conversation explores why the company prioritizes enterprise clients over price-sensitive consumers, how its partnership with In...

Infrastructure or applications where should India place its AI bets? And does Amazon, with $75 billion committed across data centers, logistics, and cloud, already have the answer? In this special episode of the Morning Brief's from India AI Impact Summit, host Suraksha P speaks to David Zapolsky, Chief Global Affairs & Legal Officer at Amazon, about the company's deepening India strategy. The...

Can India become the blueprint for the world's clean energy transition? In this episode of The Morning Brief, host Anirban Chowdhury speaks with Woochong Um, CEO of Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet about why India serves as the crucial testing ground for affordable, reliable renewable energy solutions. The conversation explores the groundbreaking Colloquy Battery Storage Project in Del...

In a market long dominated by premium playbooks, Director of Reliance Consumer Products, T Krishnakumar is scripting a different FMCG story. Handpicked by Mukesh Ambani to build Reliance Consumer Products from scratch, he talks to host Ratna Bhushan about his strategy: targeting India's 500–600 million middle-class consumers, Krishnakumar is betting big on affordability at scale—a coun...

India's 2026 income tax overhaul marks a pivotal transformation from compliance heavy bureaucracy to trust based governance. The dramatic cut in unexplained income tax from 78% to 39% signals a strategic pivot toward voluntary disclosure and broadening the tax base. Simultaneously, the unified tax year concept eliminates decades of confusing nomenclature, aligning India with international standard...

From Sputnik’s shock to Silicon Valley’s surge, the space race has been reborn, this time driven not just by governments, but by agile startups and bold private capital. In this episode, host Puran Choudhary talks to Eric Stallmer, Executive Vice President at Voyager Space and a decorated US combat veteran who unpacks how Starlab aims to succeed the ISS, why smaller firms are winning b...

From twin bell alarm clocks to vinyl records, why are Millennials and Gen Z ditching screens for tactile experiences? In this episode of The Morning Brief, host Dia Rekhi speaks with David Sax, author of "The Revenge of Analog" and "The Future is Analog," about the curious resurgence of analog living in our hyper-digital age. The conversation explores whether this trend is mere Y2K nostalgia or ge...

India's AI revolution demands strategic vision beyond enthusiasm. Host Anirban Chowdhury talks to Rajan Anand, Managing Director of Peak XV and Surge a former Microsoft India head and Google VP shaping India's venture landscape. With 120 unicorns and 300 IPOs last year, India is poised for transformation. Anand's thesis: India needs localized, hyper-affordable AI models—not trillion-paramete...

On February 2nd, Trump announced a trade deal with India via a social media post, with no signed agreement, no formal text. Trump says India has committed to stop buying Russian oil, purchase $500 billion in American goods, and grant zero-tariff access while the US merely reduces tariffs from 50% to 18%. India is quiet on specifics. Host Anirban Chowdhury examines this imbalanced framework with In...

Tamil Nadu's 234-seat assembly election hinges on an unprecedented question: can superstar Vijay's TVK disrupt the established DMK-AIADMK duopoly? Host Anirban Chowdhury talks to political analyst Sumanth Raman, who dissects the math Vijay polls around 15% vote share but may win zero seats, potentially acting as a spoiler splitting anti-DMK votes. The AIADMK-led NDA gains ground after securing PMK...

India's new labor codes just cost three companies in corporate India over ₹4,373 crore in a single quarter. TCS, Infosys, and HCLTech are reeling from retrospective gratuity provisions that go back decades. The government says it's modernizing—one unified wage definition, digital compliance, formalized workforce. Companies say it's a compliance nightmare with twenty-four states at different...

No big changes—but does that hide the biggest shifts?  Budget 2026 surprised few with bold moves, yet its quiet continuity may reshape how India's investors and taxpayers think about stability. In this episode of The Morning Brief, host Kayezad E Adajania, editor, ET Wealth, speaks to Homi Mistry, Partner, Deloitte India, and Aashish P. Somaiyaa, ED & CEO, WhiteOak Capital Asset Man...

As India’s quick-commerce frenzy collides with labour unrest and tightening economics, the race for ever-faster deliveries is being forced to slow down. Earlier this year, mass protests by gig workers exposed the hidden costs of the 10-minute promise. One logistics company, however, argues it anticipated the reckoning. In this episode, Host Anirban Chowdhury speaks with DTDC CEO Abhishek Cha...