The Morning Brief

 In this Morning Brief conversation, Dia Rekhi speaks with political scientist and and researcher at CERI, Sciences Po Paris Gilles Verniers about the wave of youth-led protests sweeping the globe. Starting with France’s student-led movement, they explore why young people anchor these uprisings, whether “Gen Z” is too simple a label, and how economic anxiety, shrinking opportunity and AI-driven job fears connect movements from Paris to Serbia to India’s Cockroach Janata Party. Vernier also discusses electoral conversion, why authenticity beats youth-speak in politics, how AI is reshaping campaigns, and why minority protests remain legitimate in a democracy. He closes by declining to predict where they lead.Listen InCheck out other interesting episodes like - Cognizant’s Surya Gummadi on How AI Can Deliver Returns, The Future of Insurance in India | Sarbvir Singh of PB Fintech, 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 The Economic Times Online, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, JioSaavn, Amazon Music and Youtube.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

India has become ChatGPT’s largest market by weekly active users. But can OpenAI turn that extraordinary reach into a sustainable business? In this conversation with The Economic Times’ tech editor Surabhi Agarwal, OpenAI India Managing Director Prabhjeet Singh discusses the shift from AI experimentation to enterprise adoption, the challenge of monetising Indian users, and the company’s growing investments in local infrastructure. He also addresses competition from technology giants, the rise of autonomous AI agents, ChatGPT advertising, cybersecurity risks and India’s push for AI sovereignty. As AI valuations soar, can real-world adoption justify the enormous investments being made?Listen InYou can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media: X and LinkedinCheck out other interesting episodes like - Cognizant’s Surya Gummadi on How AI Can Deliver Returns, The Future of Insurance in India | Sarbvir Singh of PB Fintech, 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 The Economic Times Online, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, JioSaavn, Amazon Music and Youtube.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

India's rapidly expanding financial ecosystem faces a growing cybersecurity challenge. While large banks have invested heavily in protecting their systems, fintech companies and non-banking financial institutions remain vulnerable to increasingly sophisticated attacks. Artificial intelligence is changing the economics of cybercrime, allowing attackers to identify weaknesses faster, at significantly lower costs and on a much larger scale. Anirban Chowdhury speaks to Yash Kakadia, founder of Security Brigade, about how these attacks work, the vulnerabilities within financial technology infrastructure, the limitations of compliance-driven security, and whether India's regulators and financial institutions can keep pace with an accelerating threat. You can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media: X and LinkedinCheck 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.

Why does a cancer injection bought by a hospital for ₹11,000 end up costing a patient ₹1.3 lakh? India’s drug pricing system is under scrutiny as the government caps trade margins on hundreds of cancer medicines at 30%. While prices of several drugs have fallen sharply, nearly one in four packs has seen no reduction. And a 30% margin still allows a markup of nearly 43% over the manufacturer’s price. So who profits from expensive medicines? Why have previous interventions failed? And will the latest price cuts actually bring relief to patients? Anirban Chowdhury talks to ET's pharma editor Vikas Dandekar. Listen in:You can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media: X and LinkedinCheck 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.

When AI agents book your flights, buy your groceries and pick your hotels, no one is scrolling, and no one sees an ad. So how does the internet make money? Lightspeed India partners Harsha Kumar and Hemanth Mohapatra explain which purchases agents will take over and which will stay human. They also cover why you can’t upsell an AI agent, what that means for the ad-based internet, and why India may prefer paying per outcome over subscriptions. They make the case for vertical AI built for tier-two and tier-three India, compare today’s AI wave with the dot-com era, and share how they use AI assistants themselves.Tune in.You can follow Himanshi Lohchab on her 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.

China challenged America's dominance in manufacturing, technology and artificial intelligence. Now, it is threatening another American stronghold: the pharmaceutical industry. Chinese biotech companies are developing breakthrough drugs faster and cheaper than their American counterparts. One Chinese cancer drug, ivonescimab, is emerging as a potential challenger to Keytruda, Merck's $31-billion blockbuster. Meanwhile, Western pharmaceutical giants are striking multibillion-dollar licensing deals with Chinese innovators. But Washington is worried. Could America's growing dependence on Chinese biotechnology become a national security threat? And could India benefit from this escalating rivalry? In this episode of The Morning Brief Decode, Anirban Chowdhury speaks to The Economic Times' pharma editor Vikas Dandekar about China's biotech revolution, the battle for the future of medicine, the US response and India's opportunity to become a bigger player in global drug innovation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

India’s smartphone market is heading into Diwali on a sour note. Shipments fell sharply in the July–September quarter, with the sub-₹20,000 segment hit hardest. A global memory-chip crunch is raising costs, pushing up prices and forcing buyers to delay upgrades, settle for fewer features or choose refurbished phones. But does this slump signal a wider squeeze on household spending, or is it a supply shock tied to the race to build AI data centres? We examine what falling shipments reveal about affordability, consumption and India’s mobile growth, with Counterpoint Research’s Tarun Pathak and Bank of Baroda chief economist Madan Sabnavis.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if you didn’t need a tech team, or any code, to build software?In this episode of Corner Office Conversation, Anirban Chowdhury sits down with Mukund Jha, Founder and CEO of Emergent, the AI platform where anyone with an idea can build a real, hosted, working app. A former Google engineer, Mukund also co-founded Dunzo, the unicorn that became a verb in India...and then folded.He shares hard-won Dunzo lessons on growth versus endurance, focus and unit economics, and why second-mover advantage matters in AI. Emergent says 18 million apps have been built on it. Mukund believes anyone could soon build any software without code.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Supreme Court has set aside Yes Bank’s 2020 write-down of ₹8,415 crore in AT1 bonds. Anirban Chowdhury speaks to Sugata Ghosh of The Economic Times about how AT1 bonds work, why the Court ruled against the write-down, what the judgment means for investors and regulators, and how the case compares with Switzerland’s Credit Suisse AT1 disputeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

AI agents undergoing tests accessed Indian organisations’ live systems and read confidential business records and personal data. The companies did not detect these intrusions; AI developers disclosed them after internal reviews. What happens when an AI agent exceeds its instructions, and who should bear the consequences? Anirban Chowdhury speaks to lawyer Pavan Duggal and Prof NK Goyal of CMAI about the warning from the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, the challenges of assigning liability and the safeguards businesses need. From disclosure requirements to protecting sensitive information, this episode examines whether India’s laws and corporate defences can keep pace with autonomous AI.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.