Indicast Podcast Network - Mother Feed

In this podcast, Rajdeep Sardesai takes us back to his school days and talks passionately about his cricket, table tennis and quizzing before drifting into journalism after studying Law at Oxford University. His dad, Dilip Sardesai, comes to life in the conversation when Rajdeep talks fondly about the values that he grew up on. Rajdeep started his career at a time when Television was yet to make its debut and in his words, Journalism was not as glamourous as it is today. There was a lot of drudgery involved. Rajdeep reasons out why the quality of modern journalism has been in decadence. Yet he is hopeful that this only presents an opportunity for some interesting stories to be told. He believes that news channels will soon be judged on their credibility and integrity and not on how much noise they can make. He also uses strong words against the Quick Fix journalism that Indian media indulges in under the veil of investigative journalism. Like an experienced test match opening batsman, Rajdeep Sardesai plays

In this episode, I have two TV Tech Show hosts - Sudhir Sayal of ET NOW and Aalaap Ghag, formerly of UTVs Techtree. We talk about Microsoft buying Skype - one of the most high profile acquisition in recent times. Microsof has received a lot of bashing in the press for the sort of money they spent to buy skype but here is the TKM panels take on it. Also, after discussing about the huge VC investments in the US, Indian enterpreneurs are finally seeing their share. There are no prizes that eCommerce is the focus area for VCs but is it too concentrated in one segment remains to be seen.

Terrorist Ajmal Kasab has been given the death sentence. Ujjwal Nikam, the public procecutor deserves a special mention. INS Shivalik marks a historic breakthrough in the history of Indian navy by becoming india's first stealth warship which is non detectable in high seas. Manmohan Singh and Sachin Tendulkar among many others find their name in TIME magazine's annual list of achievers. The Delhi University gave itself a bad name this week when it sold radioactive material to a scrap dealer!

The IPL ended and so did Modi's regime. Chirayu Amin has been brought in as the interim chief of IPL. The Glocodyn man is thinking of doing away with Cheergirls and IPL nights and focus on cricket. (Modi is laughing somewhere). The other taopics include the 364 passenger having a near death experience and India's very own matahari.

We recorded this episode a day before Modi was suspended. This podcast also talks about how the Mobile service providers in India have found new ways to milk the devotional customers where you could directly connect with God through an SMS. Aditya has some interesting examples. In Jammu and Kashmir, the government almost succeeded in banning the use of bulk SMSs for the fear of spreading rumors which could cause unnecessary panic.

The Indian government is contemplating on giving out direct subsidies to the poor by distributing food coupons which can be exchanged for food items at market prices. Do not hold your breath. The government is only in a contemplation mode, but in this podcast we talk about what are the highlights, advantages and consequences of such a step. The prototype of executing this step is already ready with Sri Lanka which had done this way back in 1979. In the auto industry, Daimler joins Nissan and Renault in an alliance to share technology and reduce cost. In other news, the management thinker, C K Prahlad passed away.

Santosh Ostwal is a maverick engineer who made it possible for the Indian farmer to trigger his irrigation pump with the help of a mobile phone. Do not rub your eyes. You read it right. As an adolescent, Santosh watched his 82 year old grandfather toil hard during the day and then make multiple rounds to the farm with a walking stick in the middle of the night to switch on the electric pump. This entailed facing the grave risk of being mugged or being attacked by snakes and other wild life among a host of other threats. All this to ensure that the crops are well watered. After this incident, Santosh made up his mind to use his engineering knowledge to make a difference for thousands of farmers who lived the same story.

This week was all about Sania Mirza becoming Sania Malik. Aditya gives us a crash course in islamic weddings. We also end up talking a bit about the concept of VOIP marriages which Aditya is strictly against. In some sad news, 76 CRPF jawans were killed by the maoists. Mr. Chidambaram offered to quit, but his resignation was not accepted. We hold ourselves back this time before going on a rant on criticizing the government. You will know why when you listen to the episode.

Ayaz Memon and Minal, join me to talk all things IPL for the 3rd episode at the end of 37 matches of IPL 3. The top of the IPL 3 league standings remains unchanged with Mumbai still on top but Chennai Super Kings has moved up significantly.

It's very rare for abhishek to get excited about any story that we discuss on Indicast with the exception of sachin scoring a century. But Milkha Singh selling his life story to be made into a movie for Re. 1 was something that got him going. He was so impatient that I spent most time figuring out how to get thim talking on other topics like the Kingfisher bomb scare, Mayawati's Maharally, and new teams being introduced in IPL 4.

The cricketing world sees it as a money making machine. But what are the different sources of revenue for the IPL. In this podcast, we try and give you the business side of the IPL by talking about the deals that have been signed in the run up to the third season of the IPL. All teams without exceptions have recovered their money which only proves the success of the business model which is evolving at best. In other news, Carlos Slim was declared as the world's richest man.

This show is the most "Indian" episode with ALL stories coming from India. The telecom market has been kept on toes by Tata ever since the price war cry by Tata DoCoMo. They have further launched a new internet to TV product called Dialog. The other conversations are around the bunch mobile handset players that have entered India, Google launching metro routes on Google maps in India and a special "dumb" Nexus one being planned for India.

Here is a question for all you folks. See if you can crack it. What do you call a man who is an actor, screenwriter and director by profession, a sportsman who represented his country in one of the most physically demanding sports, a well informed social activist, a food lover, a stand up comedian and someone who describes himself as half Bengali, one fourth Maharastrian and one fourth Bengali by birth. Well, you can call the man Rahul Bose.Whether it is the Womens Reservation Bill which is making news at the moment or the beautiful craft of acting in movies, Rahul, in this candid chat with us is outspoken, eloquent and modest, a deadly combination.

We all have grown up to looking up to Toyota and Honda as Gods of quality and production standards, but when you find out that a few 100,000 cars are recalled due to unintended acceleration and a few thousands for a faulty door mat which would jam the breaks, you wonder if these Gods have a sense of humour. In this episode we discuss the major recalls of the car industry and how they are dealing with them. In other news, the Wall Street goes easy on this years CEO pay packages.

The day started with all of us reading about the tragic death of more than 10 people living in Bangalore when an office building caught fire. One of our listeners from Bangalore, Lakshmikant joins in to give us the ground zero POV of the unfortunate event. Later in the day, Sachin made history by scoring the first double century in the history of One Day International cricket. Pune blasts toll reach 15 and Telangana state claimed the life of a 19 year old to suicide. In other news, schools seeking donations can face some serious trouble with a new bill being passed. On the tech front, India will launch its first stealth submarine.

We have barely completed 2 months of 2010 and we already have 3 major product announcements. At 53 minutes, this episode is the longest ever for Tech Ka Masala but with the announcement of iPad and the controversy, Google Buzz and WIndows Phone 7, we thought it deserved the extra time.

Whats common between Rahul Gandhi, SRK, Mukesh Ambani and Sachin Tendulkars apart from their rather envious bank accounts Yeah, its not too hard to guess. Their strong affinity towards Shiv Sena and MNS. In other news, in Egypt, some Muslim Scholar issued a fatwa stating that a woman browsing a social networking site will be considered to be a sinner. Back home here in India, Rahul Mahajan is part of an interesting reality show.

The Economists Business Affairs Editor joined us to talk about his cover story on the iPad. In this podcast, Tom makes some interesting observations on how the device will be more acceptable by the grandmothers and the members of the non geek world. He also shares his opinions on how the iPad will affect the online publishing and the newspaper industry. Tom is known for speaking his mind on the subject that he loves Apple and Technology and thats exactly what he does in this podcast too.

Although Cadburys is a brand from UK, it elicits a lot of fond memories from Indians here in India. Blame it on their beautiful advertising (credit goes to O and M). So when Kraft decided to make an offer that Cadbury's is mulling over, we thought why not talk about the deal from Indias perspective. Inflation in India is howering at 16 per cent and the prices of essential commodities have gone through the roof. On the other hand in Australia where Ritika is currently residing, the story is the other way around.

Some good soul has said that Having a good conversation is one of the great joys of being human and if it is coupled with the sustained charm, wit and energy of Gul Panag, you are in for a treat. A big shout out to Gul who did an encore of sorts by firing away on topics ranging from the controversial Padma Shree awards to the relevance of National awards in todays context. For a self confessed cricket un-fan, Gul was pretty vocal about the non selection of the Pakistani players in the IPL. And we also got some first hand dope on her forthcoming release, 'Rann'. Gul enriches an enviable ensemble cast which include the likes of Paresh Rawal and Amitabh Bachchan. The movie releases today. Check it our over the weekend!