The Point Blank Show

The Economists deputy news editor, Simon Wright is so good at dismembering jargons that you might even start to care about knowing a little something about natural gas, the subject of his special report that was published this month. In this podcast, Simon gives us a crash course in Shale gas and explains why is it a big deal that America has started to mine more of it in the last few years. He reckons that it may still take a while for developing countries to get their hands on it, but this discovery could lead to some interesting political repercussions in world economy.

Jon Fasman knows what it takes to be a New York Times best selling author. His book, Geographer's Library published in 2005 has been released into more than a dozen languages and his more recent novel, The Unpossessed City is a major hit. At The Economist, he covers a diverse range of subjects like food, music, chopsticks, politics, Tiger Woods, Dominique Strauss Kahn, global warming and a lot more. In this podcast, talks about American politics, drugs and Atlanta. Incidentally, Jon was working in a building close to the twin towers on September 11, 2001 and he shares his thoughts about where USA stands today, in the midst of very high unemployment rates and terror strikes. For the ones interested to know more about drugs, skip to the 12th minute to hear this father of two young kids having a refreshingly liberal attitude towards solving the problem of drug abuse which plagues not just America, but many other nations.

Philip Coggan, the Capital Markets Editor of The Economist joins us to talk about his special report on Pensions. Things have changed quite a bit since the first pension scheme was introduced by Otto Von Bismarck back in the 19th century. As people in developed countries are living longer, the pressure on the working population is mounting steadily to support the greying economies. In this podcast, Philip suggests different ways to tackle this problem by citing examples of governments which are doing it right and a few others which aren't.

Robert Lane Greene, the International Correspondent of The Economist has released his first book titled, You Are What You Speak. In this podcast, Lane clearly distinguishes the sticklers from the linguists. While he supports those who strive to write and talk by making use of correct grammar, he is against the mindless infatuation with the subject. He also tells us a bit about the process of writing his book while juggling between a day job and learning new languages while at it.

In our film industry, what Amitabh Bachchan or Dilip Kumar is to acting, Nitin Chandrakant Desai is to art direction. The winner of four national awards and many successful movies such as Lagaan, Devdas, Jodha Akbar, Hum Dil Dechuke Sanam, Munnabhai, etc talks about his craft and the challenges of his everyday job. He takes us through his experiece of working with directors like Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Sanjay Leela Bhansai, Danny Boyle and Ashutosh Gowarikar. His job demands him to think on his feet and deliver results in open sets where temperature can soar up to 45 degrees.This podcast charts the journey of the man who once lived in a 10X10 Worli chawl and today is Indias most respected Art Director who still maintains the modesty of a newcomer.

Kenneth Cukier is Japan Business and Finance correspondent of The Economist, but in the last couple of weeks, Kenn has stared at one of the most grueling assignments of his career. He is covering Japans largest earthquake, visiting disaster zones and making sense of the mayhem. In this podcast, Kenneth who is at ground zero salutes the spirit of the Japanese who are ploughing through the crisis with aplomb. He does not mince words while criticizing the Tokyo Electric Power Company which is at the core of the nuclear reactor crisis.

Andrew Palmer, the Finance Editor of The Economist joins us to talk about his recently published Special Report on Property. In this podcast, he talks about the importance accorded to property as an asset class and the reasons for its mercurial valuation especially in countries like USA, Spain, Ireland, etc which are currently in a housing soup.

Kranthi Vastikula, an MIT alumnus created an all weather jacket which ensures that you don't sweat in the Mumbai Summer and do not freeze to death if you were at the base camp of Mount Everest. In this podcast, he talks about his innovation and the challenges of commercialising it. He talks proudly about his closely knit 15 member team at Hyderabad who have been handpicked from engineering and MBA colleges, the National Institute of Design and the college from which he graduated. With The Indian Army as their Beta customers and the backing of his VCs, he plans to take his products to the masses.

Prof Kanu Doshi and his quintessential humour join us by branding this years Union budget as an Accountants budget which is neither beneficial for the khaas aadmi nor the aam aadmi. Kanu bhai takes us through the different benefits that the common man can enjoy until the Direct Tax Code is introduced in the coming year. This podcast decodes jargons like AMT, LLP, DDT and many more. The Finance Minister lay special thrust on infrastructure by alloting more than Rs. 2000 crore for development of roadways, etc. Inviting foreign companies to invest in the infrastructure bonds by increasing the ceiling limit from 5 billion USD to 25 billion USD is one of the highlights of this year's budget and Kanu bhai tells us why.

Its hard to believe that a fearless competitor who would charge at lightning speed towards his opponents to tackle a ball which can sometimes fly at 150 miles per hour can be so modest and down to earth with his words. Viren Rasquinha talks about his experience as Indian hockey team captain, the challenges plaguing Indian hockey and the demands of playing an international sport. As a merit ranker in school and an international level sportsman, Viren had the pick of jobs at the Indian School of Business, where he was pursuing his MBA. Instead, he chose to roll up his sleeves and get down to resolving the issues challenging Indian sports players by joining Olympic Gold Quest as COO. Olympic Gold Quest is an organization founded by Geet Seethi and Prakash Padukone that supports top-notch Indian players with the most potential of winning an Olympic Gold medal for India. 1 billion people in India and only 1 individual Olympic gold - Olympic Gold Quest aims to change this. Support Olympic Gold Quest at http://www.olympicgoldquest.in