The Morning Brief

The government has just hit the ultimate political reset button, and the electoral math is ruthless. By tethering the historic 33% Women’s Reservation Bill to a sweeping 50% flat increase in parliamentary seats via the Delimitation exercise, the ruling dispensation is drawing up a radically new political map for India.

But behind the necessary veil of gender parity lies a fierce geographical tug-of-war. Southern states are up in arms, bracing for a severe dilution of their political weight - effectively penalized in the legislature for their own demographic success. Meanwhile, the opposition finds itself cornered in a political masterclass: oppose the contested 2011 census-backed delimitation and risk being branded undeniably anti-women just as the electorate prepares to vote.

In this episode of The Morning Brief, host Nidhi sits down with ET's news correspondent Jatin Takkar and Sanjay Kumar, professor at Centre for the Study of Developing Societies to dissect it all.

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You can follow our host Nidhi Sharma on her social media: Twitter & Linkedin

Check out other interesting episodes like: How Will a Volatile ₹ Impact You in 2026?, How Quick Commerce is Triggering a Health Crisis for Gen Z, Two Women Fought to Change India's Maternity Laws...and Succeeded, Can India Truly End Naxalism?, Semaglutide Goes Generic: Big Pharma’s Moat Breaks  and much more.

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Quantum computing is here — and it's reshaping the global technology order faster than most realise. India is making its boldest move yet with a dedicated National Quantum Mission backed by ₹6,000 crore. On World Quantum Day, it unveiled the world's first open-access, Made-in-India quantum ecosystem at Amaravati. Host Nidhi Sharma join CV Sridhar, Mission Director of the AP State Quantum Mission, and Prudhvi Pinnaka, Founder and CEO of Qubitech to unpack the vision behind Quantum Valley — what's being planned, what's being built, and what it could mean for India's technological future. — from solving real-world challenges to training 64,000 students. The scale is striking. But is the ambition truly keeping pace with the ground reality?

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You can follow our host Nidhi Sharma on her social media: Twitter & Linkedin

Check out other interesting episodes like: How Will a Volatile ₹ Impact You in 2026?, How Quick Commerce is Triggering a Health Crisis for Gen Z, Two Women Fought to Change India's Maternity Laws...and Succeeded, Can India Truly End Naxalism?, Semaglutide Goes Generic: Big Pharma’s Moat Breaks  and much more.

Catch the latest episode of ‘The Morning Brief’ on The Economic Times Online, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, JioSaavn, Amazon Music and Youtube.

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In a single month, India's two largest airlines lost their CEOs. Pieter Elbers was pushed out of IndiGo following a catastrophic December 2025 meltdown that stranded 300,000 passengers and wiped 78% of profits. Campbell Wilson chose a more dignified exit from Air India, a planned departure from a carrier still bleeding billions, scarred by a fatal Ahmedabad crash, and hamstrung by a decades of legacy issues. Two expats, two very different tenures, two very different endings. In this episode, host Anirban Chowdhury talks to  ET's aviation tracker Arindam Majumdar and  John Strickland, a global aviation expert and founder of JLS Consulting to break down what went wrong, where both airlines stand today, Air India’s top-level void and the task ahead for Willie Walsh, one of global aviation’s toughest leaders slated to head IndiGo.

You can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media: X and Linkedin

Check out other interesting episodes like: How Will a Volatile ₹ Impact You in 2026?, How Quick Commerce is Triggering a Health Crisis for Gen Z, Two Women Fought to Change India's Maternity Laws...and Succeeded, Can India Truly End Naxalism?, Semaglutide Goes Generic: Big Pharma’s Moat Breaks  and much more.

Catch the latest episode of ‘The Morning Brief’ on The Economic Times Online, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, JioSaavn, Amazon Music and Youtube.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For generations, Indian women moved through perimenopause and menopause in silence — misdiagnosed, dismissed, or simply left to figure it out alone. That's changing. Driven by social media, celebrity candour, and a growing wellness economy projected to hit $24 billion globally by 2030, menopause is finally becoming a public conversation. But with awareness comes noise — supplements, coaches, and brand tie-ins are flooding a space where women are looking for genuine answers. This episode of ET Deep Dive is based on Nupur Amarnath’s story tracing how menopause went from stigma to storytelling, who's driving that shift in India, and what still needs to change.

Narrated by Anirban Chowdhury

Check out other interesting episodes like: How Will a Volatile ₹ Impact You in 2026?, How Quick Commerce is Triggering a Health Crisis for Gen Z, Two Women Fought to Change India's Maternity Laws...and Succeeded, Can India Truly End Naxalism?, Semaglutide Goes Generic: Big Pharma’s Moat Breaks  and much more.

Catch the latest episode of ‘The Morning Brief’ on The Economic Times Online, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, JioSaavn, Amazon Music and Youtube.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does it take to move India's manufacturing from 16% to 25% of GDP? Two industry heavyweights, Vinod Kumar, Partner & Leader – Manufacturing, PwC India and Srihari Kaninghat, Group Chief Digital Officer, JSW Group sit down with host Anirban Chowdhury to cut through the hype and get real about AI on the shop floor. From blast furnaces to boardrooms, they break down how AI is quietly revolutionising steel production, slashing material costs, predicting machine failures before they happen and why none of it matters if you can't get past the pilot stage. But here's the twist: they're not worried about robots stealing jobs. They want AI to make manufacturing cool again, attractive enough to pull India's brightest engineering minds back from IT cubicles and into the heart of industry. This one's for anyone who thinks AI is just a chatbot. Think again.

You can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media: X and Linkedin

Check out other interesting episodes like: How Will a Volatile ₹ Impact You in 2026?, How Quick Commerce is Triggering a Health Crisis for Gen Z, Two Women Fought to Change India's Maternity Laws...and Succeeded, Can India Truly End Naxalism?, Semaglutide Goes Generic: Big Pharma’s Moat Breaks  and much more.

Catch the latest episode of ‘The Morning Brief’ on The Economic Times Online, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, JioSaavn, Amazon Music and Youtube.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As global tensions ripple through trade, Indian exporters are beginning to feel the strain. In this episode of The Morning Brief, host Anirban Chowdhury speaks with exporters of leather products, textile and gems and jewellery as well as Dr. Arun Singh, Chief Economist at Dun & Bradstreet, India to unpack how the Middle East crisis is impacting business realities. From rising input costs in leather to shrinking demand in knitwear and a sharp drop in gems and jewellery exports, the conversation traces the widening impact across sectors. With supply chains under pressure and the Strait of Hormuz still in jeopardy, the moot question is: how resilient are India’s export industries in the face of prolonged global instability?


You can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media: X and Linkedin

Check out other interesting episodes like: How Will a Volatile ₹ Impact You in 2026?, How Quick Commerce is Triggering a Health Crisis for Gen Z, Two Women Fought to Change India's Maternity Laws...and Succeeded, Can India Truly End Naxalism?, Semaglutide Goes Generic: Big Pharma’s Moat Breaks  and much more.

Catch the latest episode of ‘The Morning Brief’ on The Economic Times Online, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, JioSaavn, Amazon Music and Youtube.

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When Hamsaanandini Nanduri brought home two siblings — aged two and five — in 2017, she had six weeks of maternity leave, and a few of those were already gone. The law hadn't considered what it actually takes to settle a child who has known loss, institution walls, and then a new home overnight. Hamsa could manage. She knew many mothers couldn't. Four years later, she and her friend and lawyer Bani Dikshit quietly began to challenge that. In 2026, the Supreme Court ruled in their favour. This episode is about that journey — the patience it required, the gap between law and lived experience, and why this change in rules should be the starting point for a more gender-neutral, empathetic legal transformation for parents.

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You can follow our host Apoorva Mittal on her social media: Twitter & Linkedin

Check out other interesting episodes like: How Will a Volatile ₹ Impact You in 2026?, How Quick Commerce is Triggering a Health Crisis for Gen Z, India’s Labour Law Reboot, Viral to Valuation: Building Women’s Cricket as a Brand and much more.

Catch the latest episode of ‘The Morning Brief’ on The Economic Times Online, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, JioSaavn, Amazon Music and Youtube.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A decades-old rivalry simmers beneath Assam's 2026 elections. When Himanta Biswa Sarma, once a loyalist, walked out of Congress after being sidelined for Tarun Gogoi's son Gaurav, he took 58 MLAs with him and never looked back. Today, Sarma is a fiery incumbent Chief Minister seeking a hattrick, while Gaurav leads Congress into battle to reclaim his father's throne. On Polls On My Pod, ET’s host Nidhi Sharma talks to her northeast correspondent Bikash Singh to unpack this deeply personal contest. From shifting alliances and delimitation to illegal immigration and cash transfer promises with just 0.83% separating the two sides in 2021 will legacy or development ultimately decide Assam's fate?

Don't miss out on this special election series – Polls On My Pod! episode on Pinarayi vs Pinarayi in Kerala

You can follow our host Nidhi Sharma on her social media: Twitter & Linkedin

Check out other interesting episodes like: How Will a Volatile ₹ Impact You in 2026?, How Quick Commerce is Triggering a Health Crisis for Gen Z, India’s Labour Law Reboot, Viral to Valuation: Building Women’s Cricket as a Brand and much more.

Catch the latest episode of ‘The Morning Brief’ on ET Play, The Economic Times Online, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, JioSaavn,  Amazon Music and Google Podcasts.

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Is AI in pharma just hype or a full-blown revolution? In this episode, ET's pharma editor Vikas Dandekar sits down with three industry heavyweights Sujay Shetty, Partner & Leader - Health Industries, PwC India, Phanimitra B, Chief Digital and Information Officer, Dr. Reddy’s and Ramesh Swaminathan, ED, Global CFO, Head of IT, Lupin to unpack how artificial intelligence is transforming drug discovery, clinical trials, manufacturing, and even org design. From AlphaFold collapsing years of R&D into weeks, to Lupin deploying Gen AI across 90+ data repositories, this conversation goes deep into what's actually working, who's winning, and why the companies without an AI roadmap risk being left behind.  Listen in:

You can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media: X and Linkedin

Check out other interesting episodes like: How Will a Volatile ₹ Impact You in 2026?, How Quick Commerce is Triggering a Health Crisis for Gen Z, India’s Labour Law Reboot, Viral to Valuation: Building Women’s Cricket as a Brand and much more.

Catch the latest episode of ‘The Morning Brief’ on The Economic Times Online, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, JioSaavn, Amazon Music and Youtube.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

India is ageing faster than it can care for itself — and the cracks are already showing. From missed diagnoses to absent support systems, the silver economy is full of invisible gaps. But this isn’t just a story of decline. Today’s seniors are more aware, financially independent, and unwilling to fade into irrelevance. They want agency, purpose, and dignity. Into this space, a new generation of startups is stepping in — blending technology, empathy, and design to reimagine ageing itself. Narrated by Anirban Chowdhury, the first episode of the new TMB series ET Deep Dive, is based on Lijee Philip's story that explores the tension between unmet needs and emerging solutions — and what it will take to grow old without fear.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.