The Morning Brief

The Economic Times

To make sense of the week’s hottest stories in business, economy, politics and markets, journalists from the Economic Times chat with reporters and industry leaders in this thrice-weekly (Tuesday, Thursday, Friday) podcast.

  • 27 minutes 46 seconds
    Markets May Be Misreading This War: UBS’ Chief Strategist

    A deepening geopolitical conflict in the Middle East is forcing markets to confront a far more structural shock than recent crises. Host and ET markets editor Nishanth Vasudevan talks to Bhanu Baweja, Chief Strategist at UBS Investment Bank who warns that investors may be underestimating the scale of disruption, particularly in oil, where potential supply losses dwarf the Russia-Ukraine impact. While markets remain anchored to a “short shock” playbook, the risk of prolonged volatility looms large. More critically, he flags a cascading threat where an oil shock morphs into a liquidity crunch and eventually disrupts AI-driven growth. For India, the real vulnerability lies not in foreign flows, but in the resilience of domestic investors.

    You can follow our host Nishanth Vasudevan on his social media: Linkedin & Twitter

    Check out other interesting episodes like: How Will a Volatile ₹ Impact You in 2026?, How Quick Commerce is Triggering a Health Crisis for Gen Z, India’s Labour Law Reboot, Viral to Valuation: Building Women’s Cricket as a Brand and much more.


    Catch the latest episode of ‘The Morning Brief’ on The Economic Times Online, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, JioSaavn, Amazon Music and Youtube.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    24 March 2026, 2:02 pm
  • 18 minutes 42 seconds
    HDFC’s Governance Ghost: What Triggered Atanu Chakraborty’s Exit?

    HDFC Bank, long seen as India’s gold standard in banking, is facing rare questions on governance. The sudden exit of chairman Atanu Chakraborty—backed by a cryptic letter citing “values and ethics”—has triggered market jitters and investor unease.

    Host Anirban Chowdhury talks to ET’s Saloni Shukla and Sashidhar Jagdishan, CEO, HDFC Bank about what India's banking world is afraid to answer: Was this one man's exit or an entire institution's warning signal?

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    24 March 2026, 12:20 am
  • 33 minutes 36 seconds
    Corner Office Conversation with G.V. Prasad, Co-Chairman and Managing Director Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd

    G.V. Prasad has spent over thirty years at the helm of Dr. Reddy's Laboratories — long enough to know where the opportunities were missed and where the potential and challenges lie. In a candid conversation with ET’s pharma editor Vikas Dandekar on Corner Office Conversation, the Co-Chairman and Managing Director pulls no punches: India is the generic pharmacy of the world, not the pharmacy of the world, and that distinction matters. He reflects on regulatory crises weathered, acquisitions never made, and an innovation pipeline that remained perpetually underfunded. On AI, he is deliberately unsentimental — helpful at the margins, not yet transformational. What he does believe in, firmly and urgently, is Dr. Reddy's next act: a decisive pivot from incremental generics to innovation-led growth, with a hard target and a ticking clock.

    You can follow Vikas Dandekar on his social media: X and Linkedin and read her Newspaper Articles.

    Listen to Corner Office Conversation: Corner Office Conversation with Sridhar Vembu, CEO, of Zoho Corporation, Corner Office Conversation with Gunjan Soni, Country Managing Director, Youtube India, Corner Office Conversation with Elizabeth Reid, Head of Search, Google, Corner Office Conversation with Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Peak XV & Surge and much more.

    Catch the latest episode of “Corner Office Conversation” on: Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts,and wherever you get your podcasts from.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    23 March 2026, 12:20 am
  • 17 minutes 7 seconds
    From Doer to Director: The LinkedIn Playbook for the AI Age

    A billion professionals. Eighteen years of data. And a skills gap that's widening as AI tools multiply. Mohak Shroff has watched LinkedIn evolve from a professional network into what he calls, at its core, an AI matching engine. That vantage point gives Shroff, SVP Engineering at Linkedin, a clear read on what's actually happening inside organisations right now. Not the boardroom narrative, but the messy reality of workers who don't know which skills to build, recruiters who can't find candidates despite better tooling, and companies confusing access to AI with genuine AI readiness.

    Listen in

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    20 March 2026, 12:20 am
  • 30 minutes 31 seconds
    Semaglutide Goes Generic: Big Pharma’s Moat Breaks

    India's semaglutide moment has arrived. As Novo Nordisk's patent expires on March 20th, over fifty generic brands are poised to flood the market potentially slashing monthly costs from ₹10,000 to ₹3,500. But this is no ordinary generic wave. Semaglutide is a complex peptide, cold chains are unforgiving, and patient adherence remains fragile. Host and ET’s pharma editor Vikas Dandekar talks to Sheetal Sapale, Vice President, Pharmarack, Dr. Rajiv Kovil, Diabetologist, Saurabh Agarwal, Director at HAB Pharmaceuticals and Research, Dr. Saurabh Jain, Vice President - Global Delivery Centers, Indegene and Vijay Charlu, President of Domestic Business, Corona Remedies to dissect who survives the shakeout, what it means for a slew of weight loss drugs in India, whether it will revolutionise metabolic treatment and whether India is truly ready for its statin moment.

    You can follow Vikas Dandekar on his social media: X and Linkedin and read her Newspaper Articles.

    Check out other interesting episodes like: How Will a Volatile ₹ Impact You in 2026?, How Quick Commerce is Triggering a Health Crisis for Gen Z, India’s Labour Law Reboot, Viral to Valuation: Building Women’s Cricket as a Brand and much more.

    Catch the latest episode of ‘The Morning Brief’ on The Economic Times Online, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, JioSaavn, Amazon Music and Youtube.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    19 March 2026, 12:20 am
  • 20 minutes 19 seconds
    Who Controls AI in an Age of War?

    Anthropic refused the Pentagon unrestricted access to its Claude AI, and the fallout reshaped the tech-defense landscape overnight. OpenAI rushed in to fill the void, signing a classified deal that triggered internal resignations and a user exodus toward Claude. Host Himanshi Lohchab talks to Abishur Prakash, Geopolitical Strategist, to unpack the fierce power struggle between governments demanding unrestricted AI and companies defending their ethical red lines. They also examine sovereign AI, battlefield automation, and whether Big Tech can or should stay out of warfare. The age of AI geopolitics has arrived.

    Listen in.

    You can follow Himanshi Lohchab on her social media: X and Linkedin

    Check out other interesting episodes like: How Will a Volatile ₹ Impact You in 2026?, How Quick Commerce is Triggering a Health Crisis for Gen Z, India’s Labour Law Reboot, Viral to Valuation: Building Women’s Cricket as a Brand and much more.

    Catch the latest episode of ‘The Morning Brief’ on The Economic Times Online, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, JioSaavn, Amazon Music and Youtube.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    17 March 2026, 12:20 am
  • 15 minutes 26 seconds
    India Opens the Door to China Investments…a Little

    Five years after slamming the door on Chinese investments, India has quietly amended Press Note 3. With FDI stagnating, institutional investors pulling billions out, and Western capital stretched thin, New Delhi is making a hard-nosed economic calculation. The amendment signals cautious optimism. welcoming Chinese capital into startups and tech sectors, while keeping telecom and security-sensitive industries closed.Host Anirban Chowdhury speaks to  Biswajit Dhar,  retired Professor, Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, JNU and Amitendu Palit, a global trade expert at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. Questions on indirect investment and security concerns remain. Also, will this signal India as a more conducive, predictable investment environment to the global investor?

    Listen in: 


    You can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media: X and Linkedin

    Check out other interesting episodes like: How Will a Volatile ₹ Impact You in 2026?, How Quick Commerce is Triggering a Health Crisis for Gen Z, India’s Labour Law Reboot, Viral to Valuation: Building Women’s Cricket as a Brand and much more.

    Catch the latest episode of ‘The Morning Brief’ on The Economic Times Online, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, JioSaavn, Amazon Music and Youtube.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    13 March 2026, 12:20 am
  • 28 minutes 34 seconds
    SPRs to LPG: How Far Will History’s Biggest Oil Shock Reverberate?

    A once-in-a-generation oil shock is unfolding. Host Anirban Chowdhury speaks with Amrita Sen, Founder of Energy Aspects, Bob McNally, founder of Rapidan Energy Group and former White House energy advisor, and ET’s Puran Choudhary on a crisis triggered by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. More than 10 million barrels of crude a day have been disrupted roughly twice the scale of the 1956 Suez Crisis and for the first time there is virtually no spare production capacity to cushion the blow. Brent has surged past $110, LNG cargoes face force majeure, and Asian refineries are cutting runs. Strategic reserves offer only limited relief. In India, the shock is already visible on the ground, with LPG shortages, rationing and black-market price spikes spreading across multiple states. The bigger question: what happens to the global energy order if this disruption persists and what kind of Iran emerges from this war.

    Listen in.

    You can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media:X and Linkedin

    Check out other interesting episodes like: How Will a Volatile ₹ Impact You in 2026?, How Quick Commerce is Triggering a Health Crisis for Gen Z, India’s Labour Law Reboot, Viral to Valuation: Building Women’s Cricket as a Brand and much more.

    Catch the latest episode of ‘The Morning Brief’ on The Economic Times Online, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, JioSaavn, Amazon Music and Youtube.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    12 March 2026, 12:20 am
  • 14 minutes 46 seconds
    Banned But Booming: How The Money Gaming Crackdown Created an Offshore Goldmine

    Despite a sweeping government crackdown, India's offshore real money gaming industry is not just surviving, it's booming. Offshore platforms like Parimatch and 1xBet exploited regulatory blind spots, processing 5.4 billion visits from Indian users by mid-2025. Using mirror sites, regional language interfaces, seamless UPI payments, and shadowy mule account networks, these platforms rendered the ban largely ineffective. Meanwhile, the domestic industry haemorrhaged 7,000 jobs lost, $840 million in asset writedowns, and $4 billion in tax revenue evaporated. Host Anirban Chowdhury talks to ET’s  Disha Acharya and Ajay Rag about the story and raises an uncomfortable question: did the ban protect consumers, or simply hand the market to unregulated foreign operators?

    Listen in.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    10 March 2026, 12:20 am
  • 28 minutes 40 seconds
    Women Bank Better, Still Remain a $700 Billion Blind Spot

    Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President and CEO of Women's World Banking, joins host Anirban Chowdhury to explore five decades of progress and persistent gaps in women's financial inclusion. From the $700 billion opportunity financial institutions are leaving on the table, to India's BC Sakhi model and the Jan Dhan transformation, to the urgent link between women's financial access and climate resilience, this is a conversation on  why banking women is not just the right thing to do, it is the smartest economic bet of our time.

    Listen in:

    You can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media: Twitter and Linkedin

    Check out other interesting episodes like: How Will a Volatile ₹ Impact You in 2026?, How Quick Commerce is Triggering a Health Crisis for Gen Z, India’s Labour Law Reboot, Viral to Valuation: Building Women’s Cricket as a Brand and much more.

     

    Catch the latest episode of ‘The Morning Brief’ on The Economic Times Online, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, JioSaavn, Amazon Music and Youtube.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    9 March 2026, 12:30 am
  • 15 minutes 54 seconds
    Wendy Hall: One Woman's Voice in a Room Full of AI Tech Bros

    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 governance can't wait, why the Global South matters, and why an industry dominated by alpha males is building systems that reflect exactly that. This is essential listening on Women's Day, for every day.

    Tune In

    You can follow Swathi Moorthy on her social media: X and Linkedin

    Check out other interesting episodes like: How Will a Volatile ₹ Impact You in 2026?, How Quick Commerce is Triggering a Health Crisis for Gen Z, India’s Labour Law Reboot, Viral to Valuation: Building Women’s Cricket as a Brand and much more.

    Catch the latest episode of ‘The Morning Brief’ on The Economic Times Online, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, JioSaavn, Amazon Music and Youtube.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    6 March 2026, 12:20 am
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