Bharatvaarta

In this episode, we discuss the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India’s ubiquitous digital payments system that recently crossed 2 billion transactions in a month.   

Joining us in this discussion are Deepak Abbot, Co-founder of indiagold and former head of Product and Growth @ Paytm – India’s most valued payments company, and Nikhil Kumar, Co-founder of Setu and former Head of the Developer Ecosystem for India Stack (iSPIRT Foundation). Nikhil describes the conception of UPI in 2016 and its vision then, Deepak speaks about UPI’s growth on the P2P (People to People) and P2M (People to Merchant) fronts and how UPI impacted the payments industry. Nikhil and Deepak then discuss policy and regulation, how banks have responded to this innovation, and interesting use cases that would expand the scope and impact of UPI. We end the podcast with a vision for the future on how we can spur similar innovation in other important axes to accelerate the country’s progress.   

This is a fascinating discussion on perhaps, the most impactful innovation India has produced in the last decade from two people who have had a ringside view of its growth! The podcast is available on YouTube, Apple, Google, Spotify, Breaker, Stitcher, and other popular platforms. If you like this episode, then please rate, subscribe and share! For more information, do check out www.bharatvaarta.in.

Babasaheb Ambedkar, Pandit Nehru, and Sardar Patel are among the foremost architects of modern India. They are also among the most debated personalities for the far-reaching consequences of their actions and ideologies even today.  

In this episode, Harsh Gupta (Author, Investor) and Abhinav Prakash Singh (Professor, Columnist) discuss the legacy and significance of these stalwarts and debate the counterfactuals. What would Patel have been like as India’s first Prime Minister? How would Ambedkar reconcile with the contrasting views of their supposed followers? Would we judge Nehru as harshly if his family abstained from Politics? Would the Kashmir conflict exist today if Patel and not Nehru had led reunification? And could the partition of India have been avoided? Along the way, Harsh and Abhinav discuss the contributions of these leaders and they have shaped the country as we know it. This is a fascinating episode that brings alive the history of modern India from the lens of 3 people who had the closest view of how this republic 300 million people would evolve.    

The podcast is available on YouTube, Apple, Google, Spotify, Breaker, Stitcher, and other popular platforms. If you like this episode, then please rate, subscribe and share! For more information, do check out www.bharatvaarta.in.

Babasaheb Ambedkar, Pandit Nehru, and Sardar Patel are among the foremost architects of modern India. They are also among the most debated personalities for the far-reaching consequences of their actions and ideologies even today.  

In this episode, Harsh Gupta (Author, Investor) and Abhinav Prakash Singh (Professor, Columnist) discuss the legacy and significance of these stalwarts and debate the counterfactuals. What would Patel have been like as India’s first Prime Minister? How would Ambedkar reconcile with the contrasting views of their supposed followers? Would we judge Nehru as harshly if his family abstained from Politics? Would the Kashmir conflict exist today if Patel and not Nehru had led reunification? And could the partition of India have been avoided? Along the way, Harsh and Abhinav discuss the contributions of these leaders and they have shaped the country as we know it. This is a fascinating episode that brings alive the history of modern India from the lens of 3 people who had the closest view of how this republic 300 million people would evolve.    

The podcast is available on YouTube, Apple, Google, Spotify, Breaker, Stitcher, and other popular platforms. If you like this episode, then please rate, subscribe and share! For more information, do check out www.bharatvaarta.in.

The Bharatvaarta Weekly is our reaction to the news headlines of the week that was.   

This week (November 8th - 15th), we analyse the Bihar elections and its implications, Atmanirbhar 3.0 stimulus and how it impacts real estate and other industries, PLI incentive scheme for ten additional industries, Mumbai Indians' dominant IPL victory and more.  

If you liked this episode, then don’t forget to subscribe to our channel and share this content. You can stay updated with everything at Bharatvaarta by following us on social media: we're @bharatvaarta on Twitter, facebook.com/bharatvaarta.in on Facebook, and @bharatvaarta on Instagram).

The Bharatvaarta Weekly is our reaction to the news headlines of the week that was.   

This week (November 8th - 15th), we analyse the Bihar elections and its implications, Atmanirbhar 3.0 stimulus and how it impacts real estate and other industries, PLI incentive scheme for ten additional industries, Mumbai Indians' dominant IPL victory and more.  

If you liked this episode, then don’t forget to subscribe to our channel and share this content. You can stay updated with everything at Bharatvaarta by following us on social media: we're @bharatvaarta on Twitter, facebook.com/bharatvaarta.in on Facebook, and @bharatvaarta on Instagram).

Sandeep Balakrishna is a veteran writer, author, editor, speaker and independent researcher with about 20 years of writing on Indian history, culture, literature and temples. He’s also the Founder and Chief Editor of The Dharma Dispatch, which is to quote: “a unique online platform offering rare, valuable, original, and in-depth content aimed at crafting and promoting a cultural narrative rooted in the Sanatana ethos.”   

In this episode, we discuss the intricacies of writing the history of India, how one must view our ‘itihaasa’, and what we can do to correct the narrative of our civilization. This is a fascinating episode, one that will set you on a rabbit hole quest to discover the many different elements that make up this incredibly complex yet fundamental subject.   

The podcast is available on YouTube, Apple, Google, Spotify, Breaker, Stitcher, and other popular platforms. If you like this episode, then don’t forget to rate, subscribe and share! For more information, do check out www.bharatvaarta.in.

Sandeep Balakrishna is a veteran writer, author, editor, speaker and independent researcher with about 20 years of writing on Indian history, culture, literature and temples. He’s also the Founder and Chief Editor of The Dharma Dispatch, which is to quote: “a unique online platform offering rare, valuable, original, and in-depth content aimed at crafting and promoting a cultural narrative rooted in the Sanatana ethos.”   

In this episode, we discuss the intricacies of writing the history of India, how one must view our ‘itihaasa’, and what we can do to correct the narrative of our civilization. This is a fascinating episode, one that will set you on a rabbit hole quest to discover the many different elements that make up this incredibly complex yet fundamental subject.   

The podcast is available on YouTube, Apple, Google, Spotify, Breaker, Stitcher, and other popular platforms. If you like this episode, then don’t forget to rate, subscribe and share! For more information, do check out www.bharatvaarta.in.

Shankkar Aiyar is a veteran journalist and author. In a career spanning over three and half decades, Shankkar has worked for leading publications like the Indian Express and India Today. His 1991 story on Indian government pledging the gold reserve highlighted the severe balance of payment crisis faced by India then and shot him to national limelight.   

His most recent book - The Gated Republic: India's Public Policy Failures and Private Solutions - talks about areas like healthcare, education, security, power and water. These are basic utilities the provision of which over the years has lagged the demand, despite their essential nature. Due to the failures of government and administrative machinery, private players have intervened to fill gaps, often hurting the marginal sections of the society on pricing.   

Shankkar talks about his view on how effective public – private partnerships could have evolved in these areas with government oversight but haven’t. He also describes the meticulous research he has put in to write the book in a few months.  

Before The Gated Republic, he wrote Aadhaar: A Biometric History of India's 12-Digit Revolution. Shankkar talks about how this book was received personally by Late President Shri Pranab Mukherjee, ex-Prime Minister Shri Manmohan Singh and the incumbent Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.   

We also cover the content of his very first book Accidental India, where he wrote about governments using moments of crisis for fundamental reforms long before the concept was widely talked about in Delhi. He makes a few suggestions for the government to reimagine governance using technology coming out of the current pandemic.  

This discussion is conducted by Aashish Chandorkar, who is a public policy analyst and author based in Pune. Aashish has known Shankkar for about a decade now and Shankkar had bounced some ideas related to The Gated Republic with Aashish while he was writing the book.

Shankkar Aiyar is a veteran journalist and author. In a career spanning over three and half decades, Shankkar has worked for leading publications like the Indian Express and India Today. His 1991 story on Indian government pledging the gold reserve highlighted the severe balance of payment crisis faced by India then and shot him to national limelight.   

His most recent book - The Gated Republic: India's Public Policy Failures and Private Solutions - talks about areas like healthcare, education, security, power and water. These are basic utilities the provision of which over the years has lagged the demand, despite their essential nature. Due to the failures of government and administrative machinery, private players have intervened to fill gaps, often hurting the marginal sections of the society on pricing.   

Shankkar talks about his view on how effective public – private partnerships could have evolved in these areas with government oversight but haven’t. He also describes the meticulous research he has put in to write the book in a few months.  

Before The Gated Republic, he wrote Aadhaar: A Biometric History of India's 12-Digit Revolution. Shankkar talks about how this book was received personally by Late President Shri Pranab Mukherjee, ex-Prime Minister Shri Manmohan Singh and the incumbent Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.   

We also cover the content of his very first book Accidental India, where he wrote about governments using moments of crisis for fundamental reforms long before the concept was widely talked about in Delhi. He makes a few suggestions for the government to reimagine governance using technology coming out of the current pandemic.  

This discussion is conducted by Aashish Chandorkar, who is a public policy analyst and author based in Pune. Aashish has known Shankkar for about a decade now and Shankkar had bounced some ideas related to The Gated Republic with Aashish while he was writing the book.

he Bharatvaarta Weekly is our reaction to the news headlines of the week that was.   

This week (November 1st - 8th), we look at the controversy around the US Presidential elections, NPCI's UPI diktat, India's new coastal shipping bill and the Indian Government's reform to reduce the compliance burden of BPOs and the IT sector.  

If you liked this episode, then don’t forget to subscribe to our channel and share this content. You can stay updated with everything at Bharatvaarta by following us on social media: we're @bharatvaarta on Twitter, facebook.com/bharatvaarta.in on Facebook, and @bharatvaarta on Instagram).