The Morning Brief

Fireflies started as a small experiment by two young engineers trying to fix a simple workplace problem: remembering what was said in meetings. A decade later, it has quietly become one of the few profitable AI companies operating at global scale. In this episode, of ET in the Valley, host Himanshi Lohchab talks to Co-founder & CEO at Fireflies.ai,

Krish Ramineni traces that path from manually joining calls as “Fred” to validate demand, to rebuilding the product after securing early access to OpenAI’s APIs. He discusses the pressure of fast followers, why note-taking was only the entry point, and how Fireflies is now expanding into sector-specific workflows across healthcare, finance and retail. Krish also explains why the company resisted the fundraising race, how it approached M&A interest, and why he believes the next phase of AI will involve “AI employees” handling routine work across tools. It’s a grounded conversation about discipline, timing and what real adoption looks like in an overheated AI market.

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You can follow Himanshi Lohchab on her social media: X and Linkedin

Check out other interesting episodes of ET in the Valley: ET in the Valley:  Grant Lee, Co-Founder & CEO of Gamma, ET in the Valley: Databricks Co-founder Patrick Wendell, ET in the Valley: Replit Founder and CEO Amjad Masad, ET in the Valley: ElevenLabs Co-Founder Mati Staniszewski 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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India’s biggest airline didn’t just stumble, it unravelled. When IndiGo collapsed, thousands were stranded, but the real story runs much deeper. Aviation insiders unpack how ignored fatigue rules, poor planning, and a culture of silence pushed India’s largest carrier into chaos. In this episode, Host Anirban Chowdhury speaks to Capt. Amit Singh of Safety Matters, Ameya Joshi of Network Thoughts, and ET’s Arindam Majumdar to decode how IndiGo’s days-long meltdown exposed deep cracks in pilot planning, safety oversight, and the regulatory system meant to keep flyers safe. Experts explain why new fatigue rules triggered panic, how a shortage of captains spiralled into mass cancellations, and whether the crisis was mismanaged or engineered. A revealing look at monopolistic power, weak checks, and what happens when a dominant airline pushes the limits.

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

Check out other interesting episodes from the host like ET in the Valley:  Grant Lee, Co-Founder & CEO of Gamma, ET in the Valley: Databricks Co-founder Patrick Wendell, ET in the Valley: Replit Founder and CEO Amjad Masad, ET in the Valley: ElevenLabs Co-Founder Mati Staniszewski and much more.

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

Credits: NDTV, News9Live, CNNNews 18

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Bourbon is having a moment and Sazerac wants India to be its next big frontier. In this episode, of the Corner Office Conversation ET’s Ratna Bhushan talks to Diego Bianchi, VP,Global Hubs at Sazerac, who takes us inside Kentucky’s historic Buffalo Trace Distillery to understand how the 200-year-old American spirits giant plans to grow in a market long ruled by Scotch. Bianchi breaks down the company’s India strategy: educating new drinkers, betting on cocktail culture, expanding distribution, and building brand stories that resonate with a young, curious consumer base. He also weighs in on tariff cuts, pricing pressures, regulatory challenges, and why India is now one of Sazerac’s most important growth markets. Can bourbon move from the fringes to the mainstream in India? This conversation explores the stakes and the storytelling behind that push.

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You can follow Ratna Bhushan on her Linkedin, Twitter profiles and read her Newspaper Articles.

Listen to Corner Office Conversation: Corner Office Conversation with Knight Frank’s William Beardmore-Gray and Shishir Baijal, Corner Office Conversation with Sridhar Vembu, CEO, of Zoho Corporation, Corner Office Conversation with Gunjan Soni, Country Managing Director, Youtube India, Corner Office Conversation with Elizabeth Reid, Head of Search, Google and much more.

Catch the latest episode of “Corner Office Conversation” on: Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts,and wherever you get your podcasts from.

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India wants manufacturing to power its next big leap from 17% to 24% of GDP, and eventually to a $30 trillion economy. But how realistic is that in a world of tariffs, fractured supply chains and geopolitical churn? In this episode, host Anirban Chowdhury talks to Rahul Jain, India head at the Boston Consulting Group, who breaks down what it will actually take. He explains why India’s large domestic market is an advantage, why indigenisation and exports must rise together, and why scale, cost competitiveness and real R&D investment will decide whether India becomes a global manufacturing force, why three-quarters of cost-cutting programmes fail, how resilience has become a core business metric, and why CEOs need to get comfortable making decisions in uncertainty rather than waiting for stability. As global alliances shift and AI reshapes business, he argues that India’s demographics, STEM talent and political stability give it a rare opening if industry and government can move with speed and discipline.

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

Check out other interesting episodes from the host like ET in the Valley:  Grant Lee, Co-Founder & CEO of Gamma, ET in the Valley: Databricks Co-founder Patrick Wendell, ET in the Valley: Replit Founder and CEO Amjad Masad, ET in the Valley: ElevenLabs Co-Founder Mati Staniszewski 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's government ordered every smartphone to pre-install its Sanchaar Saathi cybersecurity app then quietly withdrew the mandate within weeks after Apple and privacy experts cried foul. But the real story isn't the U-turn. It's what this episode exposes: India's surveillance laws are 30 years old, written for phone tapping, not the digital age. The government can access your personal data without consent, without oversight, without accountability. While the app mandate failed because Apple had power to push back, most Indians don't. This episode unpacks the regulatory overreach, the privacy concerns, and why outdated laws give authorities a blank check over your digital life.

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

Check out other interesting episodes from the host like ET in the Valley:  Grant Lee, Co-Founder & CEO of Gamma, ET in the Valley: Databricks Co-founder Patrick Wendell, ET in the Valley: Replit Founder and CEO Amjad Masad, ET in the Valley: ElevenLabs Co-Founder Mati Staniszewski and much more.

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

Credits: NEWS9 live, CNBC-TV18

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This episode of “The Morning Brief” ET in the Valley series we go inside the mind of one of Silicon Valley’s most quietly influential founders a technologist who reshaped modern data centers with a single insight: keep compute and storage together because the network will always slow you down. Host Surabhi Agarwal talks to Mohit Aron, co-founder, Nutanix and founder, Cohesity about the idea that grew into hyperconverged infrastructure and why, even in an age of cloud and AI, the basic physics of data still haven’t changed. We also dive into the forgotten world of secondary data backups, archives, test systems and how cleaning up that chaos unlocked new possibilities, from ransomware detection to AI-driven analytics. Now working on his third startup, he explains why sales tech remains so broken and why fixing it felt urgent. Beyond the products and companies, the conversation widens to the Valley’s overheated AI moment, circular funding loops, and the stark contrast with India’s still-nascent deep-tech ecosystem. He also opens up about immigration, accountability, and why aligning personal incentives with national goals may be the only real way to drive long-term change.

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You can follow Surabhi Agarwal on her Linkedin, X profiles and read her Newspaper Articles. 

Check out other interesting episodes from the host like ET in the Valley:  Grant Lee, Co-Founder & CEO of Gamma, ET in the Valley: Databricks Co-founder Patrick Wendell, ET in the Valley: Replit Founder and CEO Amjad Masad, ET in the Valley: ElevenLabs Co-Founder Mati Staniszewski 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 zero-commission bet that rewired India’s e-commerce playbook. In this episode of The Morning Brief, host Samidha Sharma and ET’s Pranav Mukul break down Meesho’s unconventional rise with CEO Vidit Aatrey from leveraging WhatsApp resellers and an asset-light model to becoming a category-shaping marketplace challenging Amazon and Flipkart without owning warehouses. With 50% order growth, positive cash flows, and plans to go public, Meesho now eyes AI-led personalisation, financial services, and deeper entry into affordable categories. But as return rates climb, margins thin, and investor scrutiny sharpens, a bigger question looms: can Meesho scale sustainably while staying true to its low-cost DNA?

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You can follow Samidha Sharma on her Linkedin, X profiles and read her Newspaper Articles.

You can follow Pranav Mukul on her Linkedin, X profiles and read her Newspaper Articles.

Check out other interesting episodes from the host like

Battle Beyond Borders, Peace Perished: Explaining the Pahalgam Terror Attack, Corner Office Conversation with Sridhar Vembu, CEO, of Zoho Corporation, Rebel Foods’ chief on Building Brands, Tech, and an IPO on the Horizon 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.

How will the rise of the agentic enterprise redefine the future of work, technology and scale for Indian businesses? Host Anirban Chowdhury speaks with Arun Kumar Parameswaran, Executive Vice President and MD of Salesforce, South Asia, about the shift from traditional digital transformation to a new era where autonomous AI agents collaborate with humans to reshape how organisations operate. From hyper-personalised experiences delivered at massive scale to AI-led credit decisions, fraud detection and instant commerce builds, the conversation explores how this model is set to transform speed, efficiency and global reach. It also examines why trust, auditability and the right balance between humans and AI will determine which companies truly capture the potential of this next technological wave.

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Listen to Corner Office Conversation: Corner Office Conversation with Knight Frank’s William Beardmore-Gray and Shishir Baijal, Corner Office Conversation with Sridhar Vembu, CEO, of Zoho Corporation, Corner Office Conversation with Gunjan Soni, Country Managing Director, Youtube India, Corner Office Conversation with Elizabeth Reid, Head of Search, Google 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's biggest overhaul of labour laws has officially taken shape, reshaping how millions of workers and thousands of businesses will operate. In this episode, host Anirban Chowdhury, ET’s national editor, economics, Deepshikha Sikarwar and Yogima Seth Sharma talk to labour secretary Vandana Gurnani, Poorvi Chothani, founder and MD of LawQuest and Anjali Sardana, founder of Pronto about what the shift from 29 separate laws to four unified labour codes really means from a stricter, clearer wage definition to the long-awaited recognition of gig and platform workers. We explore how the new 50% basic pay rule could alter take-home salaries, why fixed-term employees now stand on par with permanent staff, and how the raised retrenchment threshold aims to balance flexibility with worker safeguards.The conversation also examines the realities of state-level implementation, potential compliance challenges for companies with distributed teams, and the government’s push toward faceless, tech-enabled filings. Whether you’re an employer preparing for transition or a worker trying to understand your rights, this episode offers a sharp, practical guide to India’s new labour landscape.

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

Check out other interesting episodes from the host like
Battle Beyond Borders, Peace Perished: Explaining the Pahalgam Terror Attack, Corner Office Conversation with Sridhar Vembu, CEO, of Zoho Corporation, Rebel Foods’ chief on Building Brands, Tech, and an IPO on the Horizon 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.

Is India’s stock market truly overheating, or is this simply the new normal? From stretched small- and mid-cap valuations to the frenzy in consumption, manufacturing, defence and a flood of IPOs, this episode unpacks the signals and the noise. Host and ET’s markets editor Nishanth Vasudevan talks to veteran fund manager Prashant Jain, co-founder and CIO of 3P Investment Managers, who argues that today’s markets are still far from the euphoric highs of 1992, 2000 and 2007. Jain also weighs in on the global AI bubble, India’s market resilience, and why he believes large caps could be the most sensible bet in the years ahead  whether you’re a new post-COVID investor or a seasoned market participant.

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You can follow our host Nishanth Vasudevan on his social media: Linkedin & X

Check out other interesting episodes like - Nobel Laureate James A Robinson On Power and Prosperity, AI and Society, Corner Office Conversation with Apollo’s Dr Preetha and Suneeta Reddy, Groww’s ₹6,600 Cr Leap - Fintech’s Big Market Test Begins , OML CEO on the Creator Economy’s Next Wave & much more.

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

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