India takes on Pakistan in the second semi final later today at Mohali. In the universal set of India and Pakistan, if set A were cricket and Set B were politics, then A intersection B is confusion, tension and a false sense of security. But we do rely on hope. In this podcast, we talk about this and more. Warren Buffet is in India. The DGCA spanking continues on pilots who have forged their way into the service. And Adityas better half makes her debut in a film titled Bal Gandharva which is going to the Cannes Film Festival.

Even by Japans standards, the crisis is of enormous proportions. In this podcast, we try to cover the economic impact of the earthquake and the tsunami that followed. The radiation leaks in the nuclear reactor only added to the problems. Quite a few Indian IT companies have their operations in Japan and in turn Japan happens to be Indias third largest investor. While it may not affect India gravely, it is definitely not decoupled from this crisis. In other news, Rajat Gupta resigns from ISB and Grameen Banks Yunus is having his problems hanging on to the company that he created.

Sudhir Naik, the ground incharge and the curator at Wankhede joins us to talk about the efforts that went behind making the pitch, the outfield and the stadium which will soon host the finals of the World Cup on April 2, 2011. As a former test cricketer and Mumbai Ranji captain, Sudhirji speaks passionately about his role and how he kept his head when all about him were losing theirs. He along with his team made it possible to get the ground up and running for the three matches of this World Cup by spending months together on the ground and toiling it through the summer and rains.

Wiki Leaks has found a new market. It is India. After tying up with The Hindu, it has released a few cables which accuse some of our politicians of selling votes for cash. Japan is still recovering from one of its worst nightmares after suffering from one of the biggest earthquakes of the century. Back home in India, Jairam Ramesh, our Environment Minister is gearing up to carry out a security check across all of Indias 20 nuclear plants. In other news, Vidharbha is the new Tiger capital of India and right at the end of this episode, Aditya is genuinely fascinated by a pair of silicon implants killing a snake!

Scarcity makes things invaluable and that is what makes the World Cup cricket a mouth watering proposition for advertisers. All India Radio is slated to earn around Rs. 7 crore from the 45 day long event. Others like Pepsi, Castrol, Hyundai, Amul have bet their best buck hoping to capture minds and eye balls. In other news, Indigo plans to hire 1,500 employees this year with aviation sector grappling the effects of rise in the Aviation Turbine Fuel price. And scooters are back.

The Indian IT industry has a new concept to deal with and TCS has pounced onto it. It is called Cloud Computing. With a revenue projection of 1 billion USD, TCS will focus on Small and Medium Enterprises which total to a whopping 38 million. Many are calling this move as the Nano of the IT world where TATA hopes to replicate its success by tapping not the Fortune 500 companies but the smaller ones who can avail of this interesting concept. Rolls Royce, the British car maker announced record sales in India. We briefly cover the Union Budget highlights in this episode.

Did you know that there were 18,000 Indians holed up in Libya about a week back. The Indian government is going all out to evacuate all Indians in the region as Col Gaddafi refuses to let go of his assumed control over Libya. Back home, Aruna Shanbaug lies in a vegetative state for 37 years running but sees a glimmer of hope as the court allows passive euthanasia in her case. We would love to know your views on euthanasia. Have you heard of a state stocking up on blood in anticipation of state elections. We just did. It is West Bengal. In other news, our beloved Uncle Pai, the creator of Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle series passed away. RIP.

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh woke up to the din surrounding him and ordered a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the corruption scandals that have rocked the government in the past few months. The High Court has upheld its death penalty sentence on Ajmal Kasab, the terrorist who was involved in the 26th November attacks. The Cricket World Cup 2011 is here and the the official website entrusted with selling tickets to fans was overwhelmed when 10 million hits landed on the website in a matter of minutes before the servers saturated. In this rather light podcast, we talk about a little bit of everything.

The World Cup is peaking with Ireland recording the first upset of the tournament by beating England. However, Ayaz is vocal about whether they can sustain this success and that there should be a better way of inducting the minnows in the world cup by having a more rigourous selection process. Ayaz and Minal take us through the bowling strengths of all teams. The surprise package is Shahid Afridi who has already bagged two 5 fors in three matches. Imran Tahir from South Africa made a dream debut for South Africa knocking off three wickets against West Indies. Ayaz places special respect for the young man and Minal wonders when will our spinners get their act together. Minal brings up the Ponting behaviour who hurt a TV set and Ayaz has an interesting theory on why players should be allowed to do this!

Egypt showed the world how the common man can wake up and throw everything hes got against an oppressive regime. Aditya feels that India has reached its inflection point too. I beg to differ and the argument continues... In our neighbouring country, not all is well. Former president Musharraf has been accused of murdering Bhutto. In sports, the Cricket World Cup 2011 has begun. Who are you betting on