The Morning Brief

India assumes the BRICS chair amid profound contradiction. What began as an emerging economies coalition has become an unwieldy 10-nation bloc including Gulf states, Egypt, and Ethiopia bound more by grievance than vision. Host Anirban Chowdhury speaks with Alicia García-Herrero, chief economist at Natixis, and former BRICS Sherpa Sanjay Bhattacharya to explore whether BRICS can deliver tangible cooperation or remain trapped in anti-Western posturing. For India, the chairmanship means navigating between dollar-defiant Russia and hegemonic China while preserving Western partnerships. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar's "inclusive development" focus signals intent, but execution trumps rhetoric. The bloc's value lies in widening the negotiating table, not replacing existing systems. India's test: shaping BRICS without being shaped by it, proving genuine multipolarity requires Indian leadership, not Chinese dominance masquerading as collective action. The world watches whether Delhi extracts concrete benefits from this proving ground. Listen in: You can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media:X and Linkedin Check out other interesting episodes like: When Grinch Almost Stole Gig Workers' Christmas, 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.

Silicon Valley is experiencing its biggest platform shift in decades, but beneath the frenzy lies a brutal correction in progress. An early-stage AI investor reveals the uncomfortable truths emerging from the epicenter of the boom. Host Swathi Moorthy talks to Apoorva Pandhi, Managing Director of Zetta Venture Partners about why the honeymoon is over. What began as wild experimentation now faces merciless ROI demands. Startups are securing nine-figure valuations with little more than demos. The mortality rate between seed and Series A has never been higher. Each breakthrough from major AI labs creates an instant graveyard of obsolete startups entire business models evaporate overnight. This isn't typical market turbulence. Researchers, not traditional founders, now command the power. Mega-funds are abandoning late-stage discipline to chase seed deals with oversized checks. The math has broken. And at the heart of it all: a dangerous gap between what AI companies are worth and what they can actually deliver. The reckoning won't be gradual, it's already underway, and most won't see it coming. You can follow Swathi Moorthy on her social media: X and Linkedin Check out other interesting episodes of ET in the Valley: ET in the Valley: Grant Lee, Co-Founder & CEO of Gamma, ET in the Valley: Databricks Co-founder Patrick Wendell, ET in the Valley: Replit Founder and CEO Amjad Masad, ET in the Valley: ElevenLabs Co-Founder Mati Staniszewski 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.

India's quick service restaurant sector witnessed a seismic shift as Devyani International and Sapphire Foods merged to create the country's largest listed QSR platform with over 3,000 stores and consolidated revenue exceeding ₹7,800 crore. The deal brings KFC and Pizza Hut operations under one franchisee, promising annual synergies of ₹210-225 crore and positioning the entity as a formidable challenger to Jubilant FoodWorks' Domino's empire. But size alone won't guarantee success. As India's food services market fragments with regional players and artisanal chains disrupting legacy brands, the combined entity faces a critical question: can it deliver the agility needed to compete in an increasingly brand-agnostic landscape where Gen Z consumers show little loyalty? Host Anirban Chowdhury talks to ET’s Ratna Bhushan and Ankur Bisen, Management Consultant, Author And Senior Partner At The Knowledge Company about how the merger unlocks significant cost advantages and operational efficiencies, yet becoming bigger also makes you vulnerable at the edges. The next two years will reveal whether this consolidation creates a QSR powerhouse or simply a larger target for market disruption. You can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media: Twitter and Linkedin Check out other interesting episodes like: When Grinch Almost Stole Gig Workers' Christmas, 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.

Suzlon Energy controls a third of India's wind market, but co-founder and vice chairman Girish Tanti isn't celebrating. In this conversation with host Anirban Chowdhury, he confronts hard questions: Why has India tapped only 4% of its wind potential despite three decades of operations? Can the sector scale from 6 gigawatts annually to the 10+ needed to meet 2030 targets? And will promised AI data centers overwhelm renewable capacity before it's built? Tanti reveals truths about offshore wind economics, the two-year lag between planning and execution that bottlenecks growth, and why financial restructuring forced Suzlon to often choose stability over speed. He also makes an argument: with 75% local manufacturing content, India's wind sector is better positioned against supply shocks than its solar counterpart. From debunking resource myths to dissecting smart factory ROI, this is wind energy without the greenwash. Listen in. You can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media: Twitter and Linkedin Listen to Corner Office Conversation: Corner Office Conversation with Knight Frank’s William Beardmore-Gray and Shishir Baijal, 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 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.

Five years after a splashy IPO and amid a bruising market reset, Sridhar Ramaswamy is steering Snowflake through a defining moment for enterprise technology: the AI transition. In this episode, hosts Samidha Sharma and Pranav Mukul talk to Snowflake’s CEO and former Google advertising chief to cut through the hype around artificial intelligence and focus on where the real value lies. Ramaswamy makes a clear case for why AI has sharply increased the premium on clean, well-governed enterprise data and why Snowflake positions itself not as an AI company, but as the intelligence layer that makes AI practical at scale. He speaks candidly about Snowflake’s late entry into AI, its rapid catch-up through partnerships with model builders like OpenAI, and how its consumption-based model offers resilience in volatile tech cycles. The conversation also spans the AI bubble debate, the future of search beyond Google’s dominance, and India’s growing importance as a strategic growth and execution hub for Snowflake. You can follow Samidha Sharma 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.

India’s gig economy is at an inflection point. Sold as a model of flexibility and scale, it now finds itself under scrutiny as workers protest shrinking pay, rising pressure, and the absence of basic protections. This episode examines the deeper tensions powering India’s convenience economy between flexibility and dignity, efficiency and responsibility. At one end is a labour market flooded with millions of workers who struggle to find formal employment. At the other is a platform-driven system that relies on volatility, algorithmic control, and high churn to function. As gig work expands rapidly, questions around minimum earnings, accident cover, social security, and predictability have moved from the margins to the centre of policy debate. Host Neil Ghai talks to Kartik Narayan, CEO of apna.co and Anshul Prakash, Partner at Khaitan & Co as they dissect India’s new labour codes, which formally recognise gig workers but stop short of granting them full employment rights. With enforcement left largely to states, outcomes may vary sharply across the country. Listen in: You can follow Neil Ghai 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.

What does it really take to break into the world’s most selective startup accelerator? In this episode, host Swathi Moorthy speaks with Ankit Gupta, General Partner at Y Combinator, about how AI is rapidly eroding traditional advantages in entrepreneurship. Gupta explains why a growing share of YC startups, nearly 80–90% are now AI-led, and how coding agents are enabling younger, first-time founders to compress years of learning into months. He challenges the idea that pedigree, polished pitches, or early revenue matter most, arguing instead that YC continues to back builders with strong execution skills and complementary co-founding teams. The conversation also takes on prevailing narratives about Indian founders, the isolation that comes with building companies from scratch, and YC’s blunt survival mantra: “Don’t die.” Gupta closes with a sobering insight that we are living through an unusually uncertain moment, one where even a decade ahead has become impossible to predict. Listen in: You can follow Swathi Moorthy on her social media: X and Linkedin Check out other interesting episodes of ET in the Valley: ET in the Valley: Grant Lee, Co-Founder & CEO of Gamma, ET in the Valley: Databricks Co-founder Patrick Wendell, ET in the Valley: Replit Founder and CEO Amjad Masad, ET in the Valley: ElevenLabs Co-Founder Mati Staniszewski 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.

On January 3rd, 2026, Delta Force stormed Nicolás Maduro's compound in Caracas in Operation Absolute Resolve. Within hours, the Venezuelan president was shackled aboard the USS Iwo Jima, bound for Guantanamo Bay. Trump announced America would "run" Venezuela indefinitely. The prize? The world's largest oil reserves—303 billion barrels sitting beneath a nation producing less than a million barrels daily. It's regime change theatre: sanctions turned kinetic, liberation sold as law enforcement. International critics cry “land-grab”. Venezuelans are on the edge. Many express their joy on social media and thank Trump. Now the real questions emerge: Will India's Reliance and ONGC reclaim their Venezuelan stakes? Can China's sanctioned oil pipeline survive American control? And when US companies balk at investing in a country with no political legitimacy, what then? ET’s energy expert Sanjeev Choudhary and host Anirban Chowdhury decode the geopolitics, the markets, and the messy aftermath of America's latest intervention. 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. Credits: Global News, dannypryp, AP Archive, The Guardian See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Generation Z has divorced legacy brands. From fashion to food, skincare to supplements, young Indians are abandoning household names for Instagram-born startups their parents have never heard of. Zara feels too expensive and repetitive. H&M lacks uniqueness. Traditional brands feel inauthentic and mass-produced. But this isn't about price alone. It's about trust, personalization, and meaning. In an era where identity is curated pixel by pixel on social media, GenZ needs brands that speak their language—brands with personality, rough edges, and values that align with their own. Brand consulting and founder of Think9 Consumer Technologies Santosh Desai tells host Anirban Chowdhury it’s a "fundamental structural shift"— a permanent rewiring of consumer behavior driven by technology, media fragmentation, and the democratization of distribution. Brand loyalty, he argues, was always just inertia. And that inertia is dead. Welcome to the post-loyalty economy. 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.

Arvind Jain couldn't find his own company's data at Rubrik. So in 2019 before ChatGPT, before the AI boom, he built Glean, the first enterprise generative AI company. Now they're doubling past $100M ARR with 1,100 employees and watching tech giants copy their playbook. But Jain admits his biggest mistake: being too conservative. "We should have gone much bigger, much faster," he says, crediting his Indian upbringing for the cautious approach. Still, Glean remains years ahead as competitors scramble to build "AI that knows your company's data." His contrarian take on AI? It won't shrink workforces, it'll just raise the bar for everyone. The real edge isn't the technology; it's execution. And despite the relentless pace keeping him up at night, Jain's never been more optimistic about building a multi-billion dollar business. 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.

Mumbai finally has its second airport — a long-awaited addition that could reshape how India’s busiest aviation market moves. Beyond the terminal and runway, it signals the scale of Adani’s airport ambitions. In just a few years, the group has built a network of eight airports, and in FY25 its airport business turned profitable with ₹9,276 crore in revenue, ₹4,350 crore in EBITDA and ₹772 crore profit, supported by passenger growth, tariff resets and fast-expanding non-aero revenue from retail, duty-free, lounges and F&B. But there’s a road ahead — connectivity to NMIA needs to catch up, international flights will ramp gradually, and service experience will define passenger sentiment as numbers rise. On latest episode of The Morning Brief, ET’s aviation expert Forum Gandhi joins host Anirban Chowdhury to break down how Adani is building India’s biggest airport portfolio, what Navi Mumbai changes for travellers, and where the airport business goes next. 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.

Global trade is entering a more complicated phase. It is no longer outpacing global GDP, and the ideas that once drove seamless globalization are increasingly under pressure. In this episode, host Anirban Chowdhury speaks with Tobias Meyer, CEO of DHL Group, to cut through the rhetoric around “deglobalization” and focus on what is actually happening to trade flows and supply chains. Rather than collapsing, supply chains are being reworked—spread across more locations, stretched across longer routes, and shaped by political risk as much as cost. The conversation examines how US trade policy and intensifying strategic competition with China are influencing manufacturing choices and capital allocation. India and South Asia appear as potential beneficiaries, but not without limits imposed by infrastructure gaps, cost structures, and execution challenges. The episode also looks beyond policy, into logistics resilience, technology adoption, and the physical realities that still constrain commerce. You can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media: Twitter and Linkedin Listen to Corner Office Conversation: Corner Office Conversation with Knight Frank’s William Beardmore-Gray and Shishir Baijal, 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 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.

In 2025, the Indian rupee has quietly become Asia’s worst-performing currency but the real impact isn’t just on trading screens, it’s inside Indian homes. From higher cooking oil prices and costlier foreign education to travel bills and shrinking savings returns, rupee volatility is reshaping middle-class finances in ways few anticipate. Why is the currency weakening despite strong GDP growth, healthy forex reserves, and a manageable current account deficit? Host Anirban Chowdhury talks to Madan Sabnavis, Chief Economist, Bank of Baroda to unpack how import inflation seeps in with a lag, why RBI interventions focus more on volatility than levels, and why currency swings hurt consumers more than a steady decline. With foreign investors pulling billions out, US-India trade talks stalled, and global sentiment overpowering fundamentals, the rupee’s fate may lie beyond domestic control. Listen In: You can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media: X and Linkedin Check out other interesting episodes from the host like Battle Beyond Borders, Peace Perished: Explaining the Pahalgam Terror Attack, Corner Office Conversation with Sridhar Vembu, CEO, of Zoho Corporation, Rebel Foods’ chief on Building Brands, Tech, and an IPO on the Horizon 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.

Half your milk comes from animals grazing on land the government calls wasteland. The mutton in your biryani? Same story. We're talking ₹1.3 lakh crore annually 5% of India's GDP built on ecosystems we've systematically mislabeled as worthless since the British needed a tax category for "land we can't monetize. Now we're converting these "wastelands" into solar farms at scale without asking the millions of pastoralists who depend on them, or calculating the carbon stored beneath them, or wondering what happens when milk and meat prices spike because we've paved over the free grazing grounds that keep them affordable. The twist? These aren't degraded lands waiting for rehabilitation. They're ancient grasslands and savannas that have existed for millennia, doing exactly what they're supposed to do. We just never bothered to look closely enough to notice. Until now, when it might be too late. Host Anirban Chowdhury asks Dr Abi Vanak, Director, Centre for Policy Design at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE-CPD), to explain. Listen in: You can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media: X and Linkedin Check out other interesting episodes from the host like Battle Beyond Borders, Peace Perished: Explaining the Pahalgam Terror Attack, Corner Office Conversation with Sridhar Vembu, CEO, of Zoho Corporation, Rebel Foods’ chief on Building Brands, Tech, and an IPO on the Horizon 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.

What does it take to build and scale a remote-first company across borders, regulations, and cultures? In this episode, host Himanshi Lohchab talks to Alex Bouaziz, co-founder and CEO of Deel, on how the company grew from a startup idea into a global HR and payroll platform operating in over 150 countries. Bouaziz reflects on early pivots, lessons from Y Combinator, and the idea of founder–product fit that continues to shape Deel’s culture and strategy. The conversation explores Deel’s expanding product suite, investments in payroll infrastructure, its approach to compliance, and how capital has been deployed through acquisitions and innovation. The episode also examines broader shifts in global hiring, cross-border talent movement, and India’s increasing role in Deel’s long-term plans offering a clear-eyed view of how companies manage scale and complexity in a rapidly changing world. Tune in. You can follow Himanshi Lohchab on her social media: X and Linkedin Check out other interesting episodes of ET in the Valley: ET in the Valley: Grant Lee, Co-Founder & CEO of Gamma, ET in the Valley: Databricks Co-founder Patrick Wendell, ET in the Valley: Replit Founder and CEO Amjad Masad, ET in the Valley: ElevenLabs Co-Founder Mati Staniszewski 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.

India’s nuclear energy framework is set for its most consequential reset in decades with the passage of the Shanti Bill. In this episode, host Anirban Chowdhury speaks to ET’s executive editor, politics Pranab Dhal Samanta and Anubhuti Vishnoi to unpack what the new law changes and why it matters now. The discussion traces India’s long nuclear journey: from staying outside the Non-Proliferation Treaty and building indigenous capabilities, to gaining global legitimacy after the Indo-US nuclear deal. Yet, despite access to international fuel and technology, expansion remained sluggish, constrained by strict liability norms and a tightly controlled, state-led model. The Shanti Bill seeks to change that. It consolidates existing laws into a single framework, removes supplier liability, aligns compensation rules with global conventions, and introduces graded liability caps. Crucially, it opens the door to private participation, separates regulatory and operational roles, and clarifies responsibilities across the nuclear fuel cycle while keeping strategic control with the state. As nuclear power is expected to play a larger role in India’s long-term energy mix, this episode explains how the new framework could reshape the future of civilian nuclear power in the country. You can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media: X and Linkedin Check out other interesting episodes from the host like Battle Beyond Borders, Peace Perished: Explaining the Pahalgam Terror Attack, Corner Office Conversation with Sridhar Vembu, CEO, of Zoho Corporation, Rebel Foods’ chief on Building Brands, Tech, and an IPO on the Horizon and much more. Catch the latest episode of ‘The Morning Brief’ on The Economic Times Online, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, JioSaavn, Amazon Music and Youtube. Credits: Films Division, Indian National Congress, DNAIndiaNews, AP Archive, Mint See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As the global pharmaceutical industry enters a period of profound transition, this episode of Corner Office Conversation examines what lies ahead. Hosts Vikas Dandekar and Teena Thacker talk to Stefan Oelrich, Head of the Pharmaceuticals Division at Bayer AG, about the forces reshaping drug discovery and access from trade tensions and shifting innovation hubs to the promise and uncertainty of cell and gene therapies. Oelrich reflects on Europe’s struggle to stay competitive as capital and talent flow increasingly toward the US and China, and argues that meaningful reform will require faster regulation, leaner bureaucracy, and quicker patient access. He also addresses the looming loss of exclusivity for blockbuster drugs and outlines how Bayer plans to offset revenue impact with a packed pipeline of new launches. India emerges as both an opportunity and a test case, offering scale and growth while raising tough questions on affordability and access. At its core, the conversation asks whether breakthrough science can move fast enough to serve patients without losing public trust. You can follow Vikas Dandekar on his social media: X and Linkedin and read his Newspaper Articles. You can follow Teena Thacker on his social media: X and Linkedin and read her Newspaper Articles. Listen to Corner Office Conversation: Corner Office Conversation with Knight Frank’s William Beardmore-Gray and Shishir Baijal, 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 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.

Why do small businesses still wait months to be paid, even when the law says 45 days? In this episode of The Morning Brief, we examine one of the most persistent stress points in India’s MSME ecosystem: delayed payments. Host Anirban Chowdhury speaks with Basant Kaur, Country Head of C2FO and Ramesh Dharmaji Senior advisor of the Global Alliance of Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME) to unpack why payment backlogs—running into over 7.3 lakh crore rupees—continue despite legal mandates. The conversation moves from banking credit flows and risk appetite to the promise and pitfalls of platforms like TReDS, and why buyer participation remains the missing link. The episode also explores whether regulation alone is enough, or if behavioural change, digital infrastructure, and faster dispute resolution are equally critical. As MSMEs power jobs, exports, and growth, the discussion raises a timely question: can India fix its payment bottleneck before it chokes the very enterprises driving its economy? Tune in You can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media: X and Linkedin Check out other interesting episodes from the host like Battle Beyond Borders Peace Perished: Explaining the Pahalgam Terror Attack Corner Office Conversation with Sridhar Vembu, CEO, of Zoho Corporation Rebel Foods’ chief on Building Brands, Tech, and an IPO on the Horizon Booking’s APAC Chief on Travel Trends, AI, and Loyalty Reliance’s AI Playbook Text-to-Theater? How AI is Rewriting Cinema Part 1 How AI is Rewriting Cinema Part 2 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.

From no age gating on sexual content to the absence of statutory warnings around smoking on screen, Microdrama apps are violating critical rules associated with publishing curated digital content. In this episode, host Dia Rekhi speaks with Mallika Noorani of Parinam Law Associates on how platforms dismissed as “just two-minute videos” are in fact operating outside the law, despite clearly falling under India’s Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code. The discussion lays bare systemic failures: missing content ratings, weak or misleading age gates, absent parental controls, poor accessibility features, and routine neglect of mandatory health disclaimers. Noorani explains why neither format nor duration offers legal cover, how microdrama platforms qualify as publishers of online curated content, and what due diligence truly requires. The episode also probes broken grievance redress systems and opaque subscription practices that leave users exposed, with little protection or recourse. You can follow Dia Rekhi on social media: Linkedin & X Check out other interesting episodes from the host like ET in the Valley: Grant Lee, Co-Founder & CEO of Gamma, ET in the Valley: Databricks Co-founder Patrick Wendell, ET in the Valley: Replit Founder and CEO Amjad Masad, ET in the Valley: ElevenLabs Co-Founder Mati Staniszewski 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.

From big data’s earliest breakthroughs to AI-driven software automation, Ashish Thusoo has been at the centre of enterprise technology’s biggest inflection points. In this episode of ET in the Valley, host Surabhi Agarwal speaks with Ashish Thusoo, co-founder and CEO of CurieTech AI. About how data, software, and enterprise IT are being reshaped once again. Tracing his journey from Oracle in 1998 to redefining data processing at Facebook, and later building cloud-scale platforms, the conversation unpacks why AI-led automation of integrations is emerging as the next frontier. Thusoo also weighs in on whether the AI wave spells disruption or opportunity for Indian IT firms, the froth around valuations and circular deals, the uncertainty over H1B visas, and what makes technology companies endure in Silicon Valley. Listen in You can follow Surabhi Agarwal on her Linkedin, X profiles and read her Newspaper Articles. Check out other interesting episodes of ET in the Valley: ET in the Valley: Grant Lee, Co-Founder & CEO of Gamma, ET in the Valley: Databricks Co-founder Patrick Wendell, ET in the Valley: Replit Founder and CEO Amjad Masad, ET in the Valley: ElevenLabs Co-Founder Mati Staniszewski 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.