Indicast Podcast Network - Mother Feed

After a lot of negative press leading upto CWG, the opening ceremony has a bit hit. The jugaad worked, again. India has had a successful CWG campaign so far and are ranked 2nd in the medal tally behind Australia. The other topics discussed include Sachins and Laxmans exploit against Australia, launch of Project Aadhaar, and Indias billionaire list.

It's a big day for Microsoft and Manan was there to witness it. Microsoft announced the Windows Phone 7 and, according to Manan, they have got it right this time. The hardware and software are completely redesigned to be a worthy contender for your money. Manan dropped off after talking Windows phone but Rati Chaudhary, Principal Science & Technology Correspondent at CNN IBN, kept me company to discuss DRDO's attempt to create an OS for India, Microsoft and Adobe getting cozy, and a few other topics.

Kalmadi, finally, stepped up and owned up to his responsibility with a few caveats about the money spent by the organizing committee but the bad press for CWG continues. The Ayodhya verdict is expected today and the government has taken the security concerns very seriously. Offices and schools plan to remain closed in anticipation of problems but does the Ayodhya issue really matter any anymore? In other topics, we discuss the unfortunate incident that killed 7 elephants, visa requirements for Indians, space tourism, Peepli LIVE as India's entry to Oscars and update on the spot fixing controversy.

We might have missed the pakistan "spot fixing" saga and then the Gokulashtami celebration but are back in time for Ganpati. The recent Jama Masjid firing might just cause a dip in the collections at Mumbai's largest Ganesh mandal. The other stories include waiting for the decision on Ayodhya, CWG mess, Sania's faux pas, Mahesh Bhupathi's innovative tax planning and China making me thank for being an Indian. In the interest of avoiding further delays, we recorded the episode via cell phone so please bear with the audio quality.

Research in Motion, the Canadian company which manufactures the world famous business device Blackberry is in a fix. It is running against a tight deadline set by the Indian government. Like other countries where Blackberry operates, India demands that Blackberry mails and SMSs be allowed to be scanned for security reasons. In other news, Nokia entered the dual SIM market in India. Google's Youtube has opened up a pay per view for 5USD where you can rent movies online.

This episode of Indicast starts on a rather sad note with the flood situation in Leh and Pakistan. The rescue efforts are in full swing in both places, but like most desperate situations the aid is still far from sufficient. The rest of the world is also facing a lot of heat due to climate change. The magnitude of news that the Commonwealth Games is churning has reaching new proportions with new scams and cases misappropriation of funds showing up.

We have a lot of hardware oriented stories ranging from tablet PC devices, mobiles phone to even "Made-in-India" super computer called Annapurna developed by the Institute of Mathetical Sciences.Other stories include Make My Trip IPO, Blackberry getting into trouble with several countries, Yahoo Japan signing up with Google and Google shutting down Wave. Manan Kakkar joins in as a guest contributor for this podcast.

We are back after a break and you might be getting a bit tired of us saying that over and over again. We missed a few important events like the world cup, and the pakistan peace talks breaking down for the nth time. However, we start with the new Indian rupee symbol, Bihar women fast tracking their pregnancies, Ministers by passing the gag order by Congress by taking to twitter and the active sports sections - Saina is #2 and Murli reached ends his test cricket with 800 wickets.

A lovely take on arranged marriage though the me better, me better competition between Mumbai and Pune gets overbearing after the first few times. Yet, there is enough to take away from the film. Besides the basic one line concept, the dialogue between two complete strangers is written really well and delivered in a decent manner too. The chemistry shared between people who have just met but for some reason or the other end up spending a day together is beautifully directed and enacted.

The league stage of the Football World Cup 2010 is over. France and Italy faile dto make it through. Now, start the knowout phase, where one bad game and the effort put into over two years in the qualification will bite the dust. The tournament has already thrown enough surprises in the form of Slovakia and Serbia. No team can be taken for granted. Arunava joins in to discuss the Pre-quater stage and the big matches to watch out for in the Pre- Quarter final stage is the England vs Germany and Portugal vs Spain.

It's so confusing when seriousness is dealt with song and dance. Wish the film was advertised as modern Ram Leela performed in a tribal theater. That expectation would have prepped me to deal with the over-dramatization a lot better. We also briefly touched upon a very well made- Jhing Chik Jhing. It defintely is a worth a watch, preferably in the theaters to support the producers who have made an honest and decent effort.

Its been quiet a week in the technology world with a mix of product announcements - Apple iPhone 4, India's 3G auction completion, Google sniffing its into trouble, and Hotmail releasing a new feature for India to enable access hotmail via SMS. Need less to say that Apple iPhone 4 stole the limelight this week. Saket is impressed by the display and I like the front facing camera for FaceTime. We also talk about iPhone coming to India. Things are a bit hazy and we discuss the expected pricing.

Recently, India's Internet had its own Epic moment when Hidden Reflex, a Bangalore based software startup, has launched a browser targeted at Indian audiences. Saket downloaded it and gave it a quick test drive and shares his experiences. The other stories include muslims planning to quit facebook, Apple iPhone 4 rejected by Consumer Reports, XXX to be a TLD, and Maharashtras DTE website turns into rubbish.

In this episode, we review Group E consisting of Netherlands, Denmark, Cameroon, and Japan. Jan Roskott joins us as a special guest and long with Vikram, our resident contributor. Jan is the chief blogger at the NEtherlands World Cup Blog. He was also fortunate to be present behind the nets when Netherlands won the Euro 88. While Netherlands seems to be favourite to move on from this group, but the second spot is still up for grabs with Cameroon, Denmark and Japan vying for it.

Abhijit Dasgupta, the Deputy Editor of India Today Magazine was kind enough to join us on a Skype call from the beautiful city of Kolkata which is lately the cynosure of all Indian political news. Mamata Banerjee helped get WB on the front pages by winning the civic polls and two days before her landslide victory she made some rather controversial remarks about the Gyaneshwari Express train derailment. Abhijit, very eloquently talks about his experience of interviewing and covering the colourful politician over his career which spans over more than three decades. In other news, the missing black box from the Air India crash site has been retrieved. Chand Kumar Prasad, a 24 year old employed with the Indian Navy has been accused of spying. The heat wave in the north has reached new levels!

In this episode, we review Group B consisting of Argentina, Nigeria, South Korea, and Greece. Nani calls this group of indiscipline. All teams, ecept South Korea are still figuring out their match strategies, including Argentina. Argentina is having problems with selecting their final 11, Nigeria's got a new coach just a week back and Greece has never won a world cup match. The group could see South Korea causing some havoc once again.

In this episode, we review Group A consisting of South Africa, Argentia, Mexico and Uruguay. But even before getting into the podcast with the group discussion, guess how was the Soccer City Stadium inaugrated? to say the least, it was a bit different. Group A is very close to being the Group of Death and Nani tells us why.

It's that time again. The World's most popular sport will see which country is the world's best. The Football (not soccer) World Cup 2010 is all set to kick off in 3 weeks. Indicast intends to bring you a special series covering all things Football World Cup 2010 in South Africa. We will not only with doing a weekly review of the matches once the World Cup starts but will also be bringing you a round up of all teams participating group by group. In the first Sports Bench Podcast - Football World Cup 2010 edition, we decided to keep the discussion around the history of World Cup and overview about the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Vikram Nanivadekar and Adwait Patil, the resident football enthusiasts join the discussion.

The episode starts on a very sombre note with discussions around the Mangalore Air crash however the topics get a bit cheerful after that. On the occassion of completing one year of UPA II, the Indian PM Manmohan Singh decided to sit face to face with the press and provide an update about the work done. the other topics on this episode include, an All India bengali team conquering Mt Everest, Dawood 3rd on the Forbes Most Wanted List, and the 99 year old half marathon runner.

It was the 150th Birth Anniversay of India's, for that matter - Asia', first Nobel Laureat. We start with remembering and talking about Rabindranath Tagore and a few side stories about his Life. We then digress to general opinions about Bengalis (hardly a surprise). The other topics include Jayram Ramesh getting pulled up by Manmohan Singh for mouthing off, Anand's winning streak, Nithari killer getting death sentence, and the death of tongas in Delhi.