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!

In the first Bizination episode for 2010, we bring you a list of top 10 Business news of 2009 that made waves in India. Tell us if you agree with our list!

Born in India, having spent a major part of his life in Australia, and having worked on building Indo-Australian ties both on the government and business level, We can think of no one better than Mr. Neville Roach to shed light on the current state of affairs between India and Australia. The latest and a significant addition to the already enviable bio is his recent appointment to the Indian Prime Ministers Global Advisory Council of Overseas Indians.

Sidin, the Managing Editor of LiveMint.com joined us to talk a bit about his forthcoming book, Dork: The Incredible Adventures of Robin Einstein Varghese and a bit more about the Chetan Bhagat controversy which has found a lot of newspaper space lately. This podcast was free-flowing (uh another way of saying that we were all over the place). We spoke about how beautifully the Indian Hockey Federation is handing its hockey players demands by breaking new records in unprofessionalis