The team of KC Ganapathy and Varun Thakkar will aim to create history when they take part in the 49er event. The duo had also qualified at the Oman event. They had made it to the Tokyo Games after topping their field. The team of Ganapathy and Thakkar had won a bronze medal at the Asian Games 2018 in the 49er event.

Spoke to them on the show and what a fun bit of conversation!

How can tech really be used for good? How do we build more meaningful conversations online? All this and more is answered in my conversation with Charit Jaggi on the show!

Charit Jaggi’s middle school years were hard for him. He recalls days of skipping classes just to avoid the bullies at school who made fun of his appearance.

But things turned around when he discovered playwrights such as Shakespeare and Ibsen, which began his tryst with theatre. Soon, he was a performer, transforming from someone who used to hide around his peers to one who was comfortable receiving adulation for his on-stage performances.

Founded in 2019, We The Young is a content website that gives voice to several social issues — mental health, gender inequality, bullying, harassment, free speech, LGBTQIA+ issues, sexuality, and much more — that young Indians want to talk about.

Slowly, he started to build his thesis for We The Young, and used the power of social media to harness interest and traction. He also decided to be conscientious of the fact that people needed to hear stories of others like them to be able to relate — and so, he based the platform around the lives of real, regular, ‘aam’ people, instead of celebrities and influencers.

Dr. Poonam Kaur Adarsh is treating COVID-19 patients at Adarsh clinic, Pune, a clinic she herself runs. Every day after returning home, she would narrate the difficulty faced by her and other frontline workers, who have to wear PPE suits and get themselves drenched in sweat, to her son, 19-year-old Nihaal Singh Adarsh. Nihal, who is a second-year engineering student at Mumbai’s K J Somaiya College of Engineering, wanted to do something to help his mother and many other doctors and nurses fighting COVID-19 like her.

With this aim and inspiration, Nihaal developed a ‘cool PPE kit’ which is a compact, belt-like ventilation system for PPE kits. The design of the ventilation system ensures a complete air seal from the PPE kit. It provides a breeze of fresh air to the user in a gap of just 100 seconds, he added. The PPE kit comes with a lithium-ion battery that lasts for 6 to 8 hours.

With his innovation, Nihaal went on to participate in a design challenge for COVID-related equipment, organised by Technological Business Incubator, Research Innovation Incubation Design Laboratory.

When he started working on the prototype, he developed the first model within 20 days. The initial prototype was neck-mounted, sucking in air through U-shaped air inlets, and had pillow-like structures which could be worn around the neck. Dr Vinayak Mane from Pune helped Nihaal by testing the equipment.

With the aim to provide access to the best and India’s first fully functional Bionic Hand to upper limb amputations from a quantum of over 40 million people in need of prosthetics at an affordable price keeping the economic challenges from the developing world in mind. Driven by a vision - To cater the needs and resume the daily routine of Indian & Global disabled population with an Indian alternative to serve and democratize the assistive-technology industry, a team of 23 social and tech enthusiasts came together to form Makers Hive. The HOW? - Inspired by Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, Former President of India, whose motifs helped direct our acumen towards building cutting-edge assistive technologies to solve contemporary social problems of the populace in the developing nations like India. The WHY? - Makers Hive is born to leverage the gap in the assistive-tech industry, especially Prosthetics, and build health-tech devices to turn the people with amputations from disabled to futuristically abled and from being a thing of pity to a source of envy. The WHAT? - Makers Hive has made it possible to bring the people with amputations together by developing a fully functional, customizable, and mobile app enabled Bionic Hand - KalArm®, named after Dr. Kalam as a homage, to address the problems of 40 million people globally, of which India alone holds about 6 million in need of prosthetic assistance.

Extra-curricular activities are unheard of in pandemic times. Kids are behind screens most of the time so how do they even indulge in extra curricular activities at all?

Spark Studio was founded in October 2020 by Anushree Goenka, ex-AVP, Business Strategy,  Swiggy , and an IIM Ahmedabad alumnus; along with Kaustubh Khade, ex-AVP Product,  BYJU'S  and IIT Delhi alumnus; and Namita Goel, ex-Director of Curriculum Development, LEAD School. The founding team has over 15 years of experience in education and in the edtech space.

Spark Studio claims to have over 15 extracurricular courses in three categories - music, communications, and visual arts. Hundreds of children across India, Middle East, South-East Asia, and the UK are currently learning with them. The company said it has developed a levelled curricula with leading artists as well as pedagogy experts. These courses are delivered online in live classes by experienced educators and award-winning artists, in the convenience of home. Small batch sizes ensure personal attention and interactive learning. This is followed by content for revision and self-paced learning outside class. Their curriculum is interspersed with elements that make it age-relevant and exciting for children. The startup is currently scaling its teacher network.

The concept of observing July 15 as National Plastic Surgery Day in India has been adopted by the leaders of top bodies in the speciality across the globe as World Plastic Surgery Day. The concept was discussed in a meeting of the presidents of plastic surgery associations of various countries organised by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons recently.

Dr. Karishma Kagodu is a Recognized & Leading name in Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery in India. Spoke to her on the show!

Dr. Karishma Kagodu, MBBS, MS, M CH, is a globally famed plastic cosmetic surgeon who is one of the most sought after aesthetic surgery practitioners in Bangalore. Her skill and passion for cosmetic and aesthetic surgery draw patients from all over the world.

DR. Karishma Kagodu started her Plastic & Cosmetic surgery journey at the Columbia Asia group of hospitals, Bangalore. She then moved to Kolar and worked as an Assistant Professor at Devaraj Urs Medical College. Now she becomes efficient with her profound skills and expertise to run solo faculty of plastic surgery and perfectly did it by adding intense specialties at Aster Hospital Hebbal, Bangalore, India; where she has contributed for 2 years, thereafter she launched a State-of-the-art Cosmetic Clinic in the heart city Indiranagar, Bangalore, India.

How can companies help remove stigma around non-binary people? I spoke to Akshay Tyagi who manages the Keshav Suri Foundation, lead of DEI at The Lalit.

The Keshav Suri Foundation was launched on 13th October 2018 by Dr. Jyotsna Suri, Chairperson & Managing Director, The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group, in the presence of thought leaders from various fields, at the First National Dialogue, Queering the Pitch – Agents of Change.

After the prodigious success of #PureLove Campaign, hotelier Keshav Suri, introduced the Keshav Suri Foundation to highlight the issues faced by the deeply marginalised LGBTQIA+ community. The Foundation ties up with It gets Better Project – a global platform to uplift, empower, and connect the LGBTQIA+ community. The objective of the foundation is to bring forth the unheard voices of people from the community to the fore. These are voices that have been shut and ignored, but need to be heard. Their stories and struggles are real and heart wrenching. The foundation aims to create a platform that will enable people from the community to share their stories with pride, sans judgement. This will, in turn, create awareness about the issues faced by them. With a feeling of acceptance and belonging, the foundation aims to skill people from the community and help them live a life of dignity.

Are we empathetic to people who identify as 'Non-Binary'? Let's talk stigma from an India Perspective! International Non-Binary People's Day is observed each year on 14 July and is aimed at raising awareness and organising around the issues faced by non-binary people around the world. The day was first celebrated in 2012.

Sasha is a 21 year old queer, non-binary artist and writer from Bangalore. They use the pronouns he/him and they/them. He started out as a spoken word poet in his teens, and has developed as a writer across fields over the years. They started dabbling in art in late 2020 and now sell original/commissioned work. He is very open about his queer identity on social media, and shares honest content that captures his true self. Such a unique story that I was so happy to hear! I hope you listen and share this wonderful story!

Are taking supplements bad for you? Are you aware of the long-term effects of taking supplements? Spoke to these wonderful people on the show to break it all down!

The COVID-19 pandemic has taught people one important lesson, i.e., to take care of their health. A healthy lifestyle, nutritious food, and regular exercise are a must for staying fit and healthy.

New Delhi-based  Wellowise  aims to help people live a healthy life by realising the potential health risks and diseases. Founded in 2018 by Dr Saher Mehdi and Manish Kumar, wellOwise is a precision health startup aimed at preventing lifestyle diseases and delivering a precision diagnosis.

They are trying to help people optimise their health by translating health insights into personalised and dietary supplement recommendations. We all have unique genetics, different family histories, environment, and lifestyle. They test and analyse all these factors and understand the risk of lifestyle diseases among people. For example, with their insights, one can understand if they are prone to diabetes and can then take appropriate measures to avoid the disease.

BBC Media Action has launched a campaign to improve social acceptance and draw recognition to the work done by Bengaluru’s waste pickers in an effort to improve their social standing. The campaign has been launched by BBC Media Action India, which is part of a larger collective called Saamuhika Shakti, funded by H&M Foundation, with the objective of improving the lives of informal waste pickers in Bengaluru. Partners of this collaborative include, CARE India, Hasiru Dala, LabourNet, Save the Children, Social Alpha and WaterAid along with The Nudge Foundation, serving as the backbone organisation for the intervention.

BBC Media Action’s campaign focuses on invisibles or waste pickers, as people of Bengaluru don’t recognise the ‘humans behind waste’. And over the course of the project, turn them into #Invaluables. The overall objective of #Invaluables, which is an online community of Bengalureans, is to reveal categories of waste pickers and lift the shroud of invisibility surrounding them. With this initiative, Bengaluru will come closer to the waste picker community through content that will unpack the value and interconnectedness between the two.

Radharani Mitra is Global Creative Advisor at BBC Media Action, the BBC’s international NGO that uses media and communication for development. She mines insights, shapes strategies and tells stories using new and legacy media to bring about social and behaviour change – from 30 second adverts to social media campaigns, from graphic novels to mobile games, from radio shows to rural outreach activities. She has masterminded several short format ‘fast fiction’ radio drama series in different parts of the world - on Ebola in West Africa, on sanitation in India and on Covid in Afghanistan and Somalia. She has also coneptualised two full-fledged TV dramas – AdhaFULL, a whodunit series on gender and Navrangi Re! on urban sanitation. Radharani has played a key role in designing BBC Media Action’s mHealth innovations – Mobile Kunji, Mobile Academy and Kilkari, of which the latter two have been scaled up nationally by the Government of India. She has worked extensively across Asia and Africa country programmes on a variety of themes. Her work has won several Indian and international awards.

Ragini Pasricha is the Director for Content Strategy at BBC Media Action. Combine domain knowledge of adolescent health, maternal and child health, family planning, HIV/STI prevention and nutrition with an understanding of behaviour change communication and communications research. Experience in advocacy with government to scale up RMNCH+A best practices and social and behaviour change communication. Skilled in capacity building and systems strengthening, working with both the public and private health sector. Expertise in implementing performance-based learning and training, Strong analytical and writing skills, belief in rigor and a commitment to excellence.