In this episode of South Capital, the focus is on Tamil Nadu, India's manufacturing powerhouse and one of its most industrialized states. Known as the “Detroit of Asia” for its auto sector and the “Manchester of the South” for its textiles, Tamil Nadu plays a pivotal role in India’s GDP, exports, patents, and electronics manufacturing, including iPhone assembly. Host Dia Rekhi speaks with Tamil Nadu’s Industries Minister TRB Rajaa, who shares the state’s vision of becoming a $1 trillion economy, a goal built on decades of progress in education, manufacturing, IT, textiles, electronics, and renewable energy. He underscores the state’s strengths in women’s empowerment, robust infrastructure, and policy consistency, while highlighting new opportunities in semiconductors, technical textiles, shipbuilding, seafood processing, and offshore wind. Tamil Nadu also hosts India’s largest base of MSMEs, many of them women-led, which drive innovation and strengthen supply chains. Unlike states that compete domestically, Tamil Nadu positions itself against global economies, striving to stand out as a leader in industry, sustainability, and investment. With infrastructure upgrades, climate-resilient planning, and green energy targets set ahead of national goals, Tamil Nadu is firmly establishing itself as a global industrial hub.

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Listen to more of South Capital:  South Capital: Andhra Pradesh’s Comeback, South Capital: Kerala Rising,  South Capital: Karnataka Grows Beyond Bengaluru & South Capital: Telangana’s Push for Mini-Hyderabads

Check out other interesting episodes from the host like: Tariffs trump trade, Health Hazards in your Grocery Bag, Trump vs Harvard: India Impact, Explaining India’s Record FDI Freefall and much more.

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For months, India has felt the squeeze of China’s export chokehold on rare earth magnets vital for EVs, fertilizers key to food security, and raw materials that keep pharma running. Automakers faced stalled assembly lines, farmers braced for higher costs, and drugmakers feared supply disruptions. Now, with Prime Minister Modi set to visit China for the SCO summit, a narrow trade package is on the table. Host Anirban Chowdhury speaks with ET’s Sharmistha Mukherjee, Shambhavi Anand, Vikas Dandekar, and economist Sachin Chaturvedi to unpack the freeze, the fragile easing, and the big questions: Can India trust Beijing as a trade partner? Could pharma rivals really collaborate? And can China balance out an increasingly protectionist U.S. in this tense economic triangle?

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You can follow our host Sharmistha Mukherjee on his social media: Linkedin & Twitter and read his Newspaper Articles.

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You can follow our host Vikas Dandekar on his social media: Linkedin & Twitter and read his Newspaper Articles.

Check out other interesting episodes from the host like: Tariffs trump trade, Health Hazards in your Grocery Bag, Trump vs Harvard: India Impact, Explaining India’s Record FDI Freefall and much more

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Credits: Bloomberg Television, DD India, ABC News (Australia), Firstpost

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Another week, another rulebook for India’s digital economy this time, a competition code. The Digital Competition Bill (DCB) would flip enforcement from ex-post litigation to ex-ante guardrails for “systemically significant” platforms, banning self-preferencing, data misuse against business users, coercive tying, and stealth blocks on interoperability under the CCI, not a new super-regulator. It’s meant to supplement the Competition Act, not replace it.

In this episode Kazim Rizvi, Founding Director of The Dialogue, a public policy think-tank, tells Anirban Chowdhury that India may not need a new statute now: first test the 2023 Competition Act amendments (settlements/commitments), build capacity, and let case outcomes prove speed and effectiveness citing the CCI’s recent 12-month Google Android TV matter as evidence that ex-post can work with resources.
He also brings data from The Dialogue’s survey of MSMEs using digital platforms to show the rules may hobble Indian digital-first firms.

Ex-ante code now or sharper ex-post tools first?

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Check out other interesting episodes from the host like: Tariffs trump trade, Health Hazards in your Grocery Bag, Trump vs Harvard: India Impact, Explaining India’s Record FDI Freefall and much more.

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Naveen Tewari thrives on pivots and preempting market demand before it becomes obvious to everyone else.
In this deep-dive with the founder and CEO of InMobi and Glance, host Anirban Chowdhury traces India’s earliest unicorn from its 2007 pivot from mKhoj (SMS search) to mobile advertising, SoftBank’s $200 million backing, and a “born-global” scale-up: InMobi today derives 65%–70% of revenue from North America. We also unpack the second act: Glance, the AI-led lock-screen platform with 400 million users, and its newest bet—AI commerce: a business built on a foundation model trained for shopping, with monetization via transaction take-rates and brand enablement. 

Tewari argues that his businesses’ US concentration is a feature, not a bug. He outlines why post-cookie privacy guardrails have largely stabilized, and explains why advertising keeps the internet free. He also predicts 80% automation of software coding at InMobi and what that means for talent, velocity, and quality—plus where an eventual IPO fits when you’re already profitable and well-funded.

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Listen to the first installment of Corner Office Conversation called Corner Office Conversation with Pawan Goenka, Chairman, IN-SPACe

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Telangana, India’s youngest state, is charting an ambitious path to become a trillion-dollar economy by leveraging its strengths in technology, AI, and skilled talent. In a candid conversation host Dia Rekhi talks with Industries and IT Minister Sridhar Babu to analyse how Hyderabad, already a global hub for tech giants, pharma leaders, and GCCs is driving growth into tier-2 and tier-3 cities, expanding tourism, and adding value to agriculture through processing and market linkages. The state is making a bold push into AI with a planned 200-acre AI City, a dedicated AI university, and integration of AI across government services. Alongside, it is bolstering aerospace, defense, electronics manufacturing, and data centers, while ensuring sustainability through renewable energy and infrastructure planning. Competing fiercely yet strategically with its southern neighbors, Telangana is working to create multiple “mini-Hyderabads” and future-proof its workforce while speaking out against perceived biases in national project allocations.

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Listen to more of South Capital:  South Capital: Andhra Pradesh’s Comeback, South Capital: Kerala Rising & South Capital: Karnataka Grows Beyond Bengaluru

Check out other interesting episodes from the host like: Tariffs trump trade, Health Hazards in your Grocery Bag, Trump vs Harvard: India Impact, Explaining India’s Record FDI Freefall and much more.

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AI in films is no longer a fringe experiment. It moved from a backstage assistant to calling the shots. In three years, Gen AI models have evolved from conjuring massive battle scenes in Lord of the Rings to making full fledged feature films through prompts. Questions of course remain on credibility and credits, but film makers like Darren Aronofsky are helming AI film projects too. In this heady jamboree of tech, creativity and storytelling can India be far behind? In this episode, host Anirban Chowdhury chronicles the rise of this technology and talks to Gurdeep Singh Pall, a former Microsoft veteran and co-founder of Intelliflicks, to unpack his journey in creating a full length hyper-real historical AI-generated feature film. They explore the creative breakthroughs and strange quirks of synthetic actors, the ethical minefields of authorship and consent, and why Pall is determined to push the limits of what’s possible on screen. It’s a front-row seat to the moment when technology becomes both the camera and the storyteller.

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Check out other interesting episodes from the host like: Tariffs trump trade, Health Hazards in your Grocery Bag, Trump vs Harvard: India Impact, Explaining India’s Record FDI Freefall and much more.

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Credits: TheClord123

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In this episode, we dive into why foreign investors have been quietly pulling billions out of India’s stock markets even as they talk up the country’s growth potential. We break down the main drivers: stock prices are high compared to history and other Asian markets, corporate earnings growth has slowed, the rupee has weakened, and economic activity has lost some steam. And then came the curveball hefty U.S. tariffs on Indian exports. This unexpected move has rattled investors already on the edge. While strong domestic inflows from Indian investors have helped steady the market, foreign money still matters, because it’s often seen as a measure of global confidence in the economy. Host Anirban Chowdhury with ETs markets editor Nishanth Vasudevan explore the different kinds of foreign investors from “hot money” chasing short-term opportunities to patient, value-focused funds waiting for the right moment. The question now is: will they return if the market takes a dip, earnings bounce back, or growth accelerates again?

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Karnataka drives 65% of India’s aerospace and defence output, over half of its machine tools, and 60% of its biotech exports but much of that growth is concentrated in and around Bengaluru. This week, we unpack the state’s broader industrial ambitions and historic legacy from the Wadiyar dynasty’s investments in education to Asia’s first hydroelectric power in Mysore and the streetlights of Bengaluru in 1905. Host Nidhi Sharma speaks with Karnataka large and medium industries minister M.B. Patil on the state’s new industrial policy, the Invest Karnataka Forum, and its efforts to spread growth across districts. But with neighbouring states like Andhra snapping at its heels with faster land clearances and aggressive pitches, can Karnataka stay competitive and inclusive?

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Listen to the Latest installments of South Capital called South Capital: Andhra Pradesh’s Comeback & South Capital: Kerala Rising.

Check out other interesting episodes like:The Curious Case of HUL’s CEO Shuffle, Health Hazards in your Grocery Bag, Trump vs Harvard: India Impact, Brandalore Rising! and much more.

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Virtual Reality in India has long been seen as a futuristic gaming gimmick flashy, expensive, and niche. But that’s changing. Host Anirban Chowdhury and ETs Rajesh Naidu talk to national award winning film maker Ram Madhvani (Neerja, Aarya) who is reimagining VR as a cultural and spiritual experience. His latest project? A five-minute immersive film on the Bhagavad Gita not for streaming, but to be experienced through VR headsets in temples, forts, and museums across India. With plans to roll out 100 such films by 2028 and place headsets in cultural hubs, Madhvani wants to democratize VR not through Silicon Valley, but through Bharat. Priced at just ₹100, these bite-sized experiences could bring in pilgrims, students, and families, not just gamers and techies. As India’s spiritual tourism surges and the government pushes cultural pride, could this be the unlikely tipping point for VR adoption in the country? We dive into the vision, the tech, the economics and the big bet on storytelling as India’s gateway to the metaverse.

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Check out other interesting episodes from the host like: Tariffs trump trade, Health Hazards in your Grocery Bag, Trump vs Harvard: India Impact, Explaining India’s Record FDI Freefall and much more.

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CREDITS: Jaroslav Beck - Topic, Happydent, DisneyPlus Hotstar_IN, Fox Star Studios

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What happens when economic friction between two global partners sparks deeper strategic questions? In this episode of The Morning Brief, host Anirban Chowdhury talks to Agneshwar Sen, trade policy leader, EY India, to unpack the implications of recent US tariff on India and threats for more. From the unexpected 25% tariff to the intricate triangle of the US-India-Russia dynamic, the conversation navigates the fine line between trade penalties and geopolitical signaling. Is Washington's move a matter of policy consistency or a sign of deeper mistrust? Is the imminent India-US trade deal dead on arrival? As August 7 looms, the episode offers a nuanced look at how India can weather economic turbulence while safeguarding strategic autonomy. 

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Check out other interesting episodes from the host like: Tariffs trump trade, Health Hazards in your Grocery Bag, Trump vs Harvard: India Impact, Explaining India’s Record FDI Freefall and much more.

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Credits: CNBC Television, USAToday, CNN, Business Today, WION

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