For years, CAG reports have exposed massive fraud, mismanagement and leakage in India’s biggest welfare schemes—from GST and DBT to housing, healthcare, skills training and drinking water projects. Yet, unlike the past, these revelations barely trigger outrage or accountability.

In this hard-hitting audio, Sucheta Dalal explains how digital systems meant to prevent corruption are increasingly enabling ghost beneficiaries, fake records, cyber fraud and misreporting involving thousands of crores of rupees. From pensions paid to the dead and fake skill certificates to housing scams, contaminated water and healthcare rackets, the evidence is overwhelming—and largely ignored.

Why have constitutional audit warnings lost their impact? And what does this silence mean for governance, public money and citizens who are denied basic services?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

India appears stable on the surface—record-high markets, busy malls, rising asset prices. But beneath this calm lies a convergence of risks that could redefine the country’s growth story.

In this audio, Debashis Basu breaks down five powerful forces shaping India’s economic future: rising government debt, slowing revenues, falling household savings, geopolitical pressure, and the return of domestic populism. Individually, India has dealt with each before. Together, they sharply reduce the margin for error.

This is not a story of crisis—yet. It is a warning about complacency, structural constraints, and why headline numbers can mislead investors, policymakers, and households alike.

Watch to understand what the data isn’t screaming yet—but soon might.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Despite official claims that 89% of NH66 is complete, the reality on the ground tells a far more disturbing story.

In this audio, Sucheta Dalal examines the decades-long failure of NH66, the crucial Mumbai–Goa highway that has remained a deadly work-in-progress for nearly 20 years. Through the extraordinary Rasta Satyagraha undertaken by Chaitanya Patil, the video exposes construction lapses, dangerous design flaws, missing safety infrastructure, poor drainage, and ecological damage—all backed by geo-tagged photographic evidence.

RTI data reveals over 2,000 deaths in Raigad and Ratnagiri districts alone since 2011, raising uncomfortable questions about accountability, corruption, and governance. While mega-projects elsewhere have been fast-tracked, NH66 continues to endanger lives daily.

This is not just a story about a highway—it is about systemic failure, bureaucratic indifference, and how meticulous citizen-led documentation is forcing authorities like Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and National Highways Authority of India to respond.

A must-watch for anyone who believes infrastructure should serve people—not propaganda.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

India celebrates growth, rankings and grand infrastructure—but what is the real price of human life in a so-called Viksit Bharat?

In this hard-hitting piece, journalist Sucheta Dalal examines how civic negligence, infrastructure failures and regulatory apathy repeatedly lead to avoidable deaths—from contaminated water in Indore to bridge collapses, train accidents and industrial disasters. While probes are announced and officials suspended, accountability rarely follows. Instead, lives are reduced to ex-gratia payouts that vary wildly based on political optics.

From the Bhopal gas tragedy to Morbi, Gambhira, Balasore and beyond, this audio asks uncomfortable questions:

- Why is negligence cheap in India?

- Why do victims wait decades for justice—or never get it at all?

- And can recent court rulings and insurance reforms finally force accountability?

A truly developed nation is not measured by GDP alone, but by how it values and protects human life. Until negligence becomes catastrophically expensive, disasters will continue—and families will be left clutching compensation cheques instead of justice.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

India’s markets are stuck in an unusual bind. Even as the Reserve Bank of India cuts rates and injects massive liquidity, bond yields remain stubbornly high and equity markets refuse to rally. What’s going wrong?

In this audio, Debashis Basu explains how a surge in state government borrowing is undermining the RBI’s easy-money policy. While the central bank is pumping liquidity through bond purchases and swaps, states are flooding the debt market with their own bond issuances—absorbing that liquidity and pushing yields higher. Weak state revenues, rigid spending commitments, and rising competitive populism through “freebie” schemes have worsened the fiscal strain.

The video breaks down why strong headline GDP growth is failing to translate into healthier public finances, how rising state debt poses hidden risks to bond and equity markets, and why investors are becoming cautious despite supportive monetary policy. A clear-eyed look at the growing fiscal tug of war between the Centre, the states, and the RBI—and why it matters for markets.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As 2025 comes to a close, India stands at a crossroads between ambition and execution. Infrastructure expansion, aviation growth, labour reform, environmental protection, digital transformation and legal reform all promised progress—but delivery often faltered, and in many cases, was rolled back.

In this audio, Sucheta Dalal examines how grand policy announcements collided with weak institutions, regulatory capture, political risk and poor implementation. From collapsing bridges and aviation disruptions to environmental reversals, labour unrest, power sector pushback, bankruptcy failures and rising digital fraud, the year exposed a recurring pattern: reforms announced at the Centre struggle when they meet ground reality.

The judiciary, often seen as the final arbiter, also saw an unusual number of reversals, raising concerns about legal certainty and finality. As India moves into 2026, the central question remains—can the country build the institutional capacity and political will needed to convert aspiration into durable outcomes?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

SEBI’s new chairman has signalled a major shift: making corporate disclosures simpler, clearer, and easier for ordinary investors to understand. The goal is ambitious—countering the growing influence of unregulated finfluencers who now shape the investment decisions of a majority of retail participants.

In this audio, Sucheta Dalal examines whether Securities and Exchange Board of India can reclaim investor trust through transparency, concise disclosures, and possibly AI-driven information tools—at a time when social media hype often carries more weight than official filings.

The audio explores why timing matters, how India’s fragmented filing system compares with the US EDGAR model, and whether SEBI can truly deliver investor-friendly transparency without political pressure, regulatory capture, or dilution of sensitive disclosures.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The government is quietly moving to give SEBI sweeping new powers through the proposed Securities Markets Code—but crucial details remain hidden from the public. There is no draft Bill, no white paper, and no clarity on how expanded authority will be balanced with accountability.

In this audio, Sucheta Dalal examines why consolidating India’s securities laws may be necessary—but dangerous—if governance failures remain unaddressed. From decades-old regulatory fragmentation and the unchecked expansion of depositories like NSDL, to unresolved conflicts of interest and weak oversight within SEBI itself, the risks are systemic.

The core question is simple but uncomfortable: can concentrated regulatory power work without equally strong checks and transparency? As Parliament prepares to consider the new Code, investors and citizens must ask—who will watch the watchdog?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

India’s stock market is at record highs—but why do so many investors feel poorer? In this sharp, data-driven analysis, Debashis Basu dismantles three deeply held beliefs about Indian equities: that Nifty returns reflect investor portfolios, that economic growth automatically translates into corporate earnings, and that earnings growth guarantees strong market returns.

In this audio Debashis Basu explains how government-led capex fuelled a small- and mid-cap boom that lifted retail portfolios while leaving Nifty heavyweights largely untouched—and why the slowdown in capex has reversed that trend. It also examines the long-term gap between India’s GDP growth and Nifty earnings, drawing comparisons with China, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea to show why fast-growing economies don’t always deliver stock market wealth.

Finally, it tackles the most dangerous myth of all: ignoring valuations. Using historical examples from India and global markets, he shows how high valuations can destroy returns even when growth looks strong. A must-watch for investors willing to question popular narratives and update their beliefs about India’s equity markets.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

India’s aviation sector is facing one of its most alarming crises yet — and this time, the turbulence comes not from the skies, but from a single airline’s power over the system.

In this hard-hitting analysis, Sucheta Dalal exposes how IndiGo, which controls nearly two-thirds of India’s domestic market, triggered unprecedented nationwide chaos by refusing to comply with long-pending pilot fatigue safety rules. As thousands of flights were cancelled, the DGCA and the Union government quietly bent safety regulations — for IndiGo alone.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.