The Morning Brief

Anthropic refused the Pentagon unrestricted access to its Claude AI, and the fallout reshaped the tech-defense landscape overnight. OpenAI rushed in to fill the void, signing a classified deal that triggered internal resignations and a user exodus toward Claude. Host Himanshi Lohchab talks to Abishur Prakash, Geopolitical Strategist, to unpack the fierce power struggle between governments demanding unrestricted AI and companies defending their ethical red lines. They also examine sovereign AI, battlefield automation, and whether Big Tech can or should stay out of warfare. The age of AI geopolitics has arrived. Listen in.You can follow Himanshi Lohchab on her 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, 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.

Five years after slamming the door on Chinese investments, India has quietly amended Press Note 3. With FDI stagnating, institutional investors pulling billions out, and Western capital stretched thin, New Delhi is making a hard-nosed economic calculation. The amendment signals cautious optimism. welcoming Chinese capital into startups and tech sectors, while keeping telecom and security-sensitive industries closed.Host Anirban Chowdhury speaks to  Biswajit Dhar,  retired Professor, Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, JNU and Amitendu Palit, a global trade expert at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. Questions on indirect investment and security concerns remain. Also, will this signal India as a more conducive, predictable investment environment to the global investor?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, 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 once-in-a-generation oil shock is unfolding. Host Anirban Chowdhury speaks with Amrita Sen, Founder of Energy Aspects, Bob McNally, founder of Rapidan Energy Group and former White House energy advisor, and ET’s Puran Choudhary on a crisis triggered by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. More than 10 million barrels of crude a day have been disrupted roughly twice the scale of the 1956 Suez Crisis and for the first time there is virtually no spare production capacity to cushion the blow. Brent has surged past $110, LNG cargoes face force majeure, and Asian refineries are cutting runs. Strategic reserves offer only limited relief. In India, the shock is already visible on the ground, with LPG shortages, rationing and black-market price spikes spreading across multiple states. The bigger question: what happens to the global energy order if this disruption persists and what kind of Iran emerges from this war.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, 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.

Despite a sweeping government crackdown, India's offshore real money gaming industry is not just surviving, it's booming. Offshore platforms like Parimatch and 1xBet exploited regulatory blind spots, processing 5.4 billion visits from Indian users by mid-2025. Using mirror sites, regional language interfaces, seamless UPI payments, and shadowy mule account networks, these platforms rendered the ban largely ineffective. Meanwhile, the domestic industry haemorrhaged 7,000 jobs lost, $840 million in asset writedowns, and $4 billion in tax revenue evaporated. Host Anirban Chowdhury talks to ET’s  Disha Acharya and Ajay Rag about the story and raises an uncomfortable question: did the ban protect consumers, or simply hand the market to unregulated foreign operators?Listen in.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President and CEO of Women's World Banking, joins host Anirban Chowdhury to explore five decades of progress and persistent gaps in women's financial inclusion. From the $700 billion opportunity financial institutions are leaving on the table, to India's BC Sakhi model and the Jan Dhan transformation, to the urgent link between women's financial access and climate resilience, this is a conversation on  why banking women is not just the right thing to do, it is the smartest economic bet of our time. Listen in:You can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media: Twitter 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, 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.

She shares rooms and stages with the gods of AI...and is often the only woman there. Dame Wendy Hall, pioneering computer scientist and co-founder of Web Science, has watched the internet reshape the world. Now she's watching AI do the same. And she's worried we're repeating the same mistakes, faster. In this Women's Day Special, she pulls no punches: on why "AGI" is meaningless hype, why governance can't wait, why the Global South matters, and why an industry dominated by alpha males is building systems that reflect exactly that. This is essential listening on Women's Day, for every day.Tune InYou can follow Swathi Moorthy on her 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, 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.

Dubai's "safe haven" image took a direct hit this week as missile debris fell near the Burj Al Arab and Palm Jumeirah following military escalations involving Iran, the US, and Israel. For Indian HNIs, family offices, and startup founders who had parked billions in Dubai real estate, the question is no longer about returns, it's about risk. Indian buyers, who account for 20-30% of prime property purchases, are hitting pause. Markets plunged. Host Dia Rekhi talks to ET’s  Sobia Khan and Dilasha Seth aboutSovereign wealth funds if they are being watched closely. With nine million Indians working across the Gulf and remittances at stake, the Iran conflict isn't just a West Asia story, it's an India story too.Listen in.You can follow Dia Rekhi on social media: Linkedin & XCheck 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.

From January’s protests in Iran to coordinated US–Israel strikes and widening retaliation, this episode maps how internal unrest morphed into a geopolitical flashpoint. Host Anirban Chowdhury and ET’s Executive Editor (Politics) Pranab Dhal Samanta break down the escalation ladder: is this about regime change, deterrence, or domestic politics in Washington? Can Iran’s clerical system withstand external pressure without fracturing internally? We examine oil volatility, Hormuz risks, Gulf street sentiment, and the proxy chessboard. We also assess China and Russia’s limited but strategic positioning. Finally, where does India stand — balancing energy security, diaspora protection, and strategic restraint in an increasingly combustible region? 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, 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.Credits: CBN News, LiveNOW from FOX, Fox News, FRANCE 24 English, WION, Business News, Sky News Australia, Firstpost, BBC News, Guardian News, DRM NewsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if AI companions are inserting themselves between children and the very people meant to guide them? In this episode of The Morning Brief, host Anirban Chowdhury speaks to Dr. Sonia Livingstone, Professor of Social Psychology, Department of Media and Communications, The London School of Economics and Political Science and Dr Usha Raman, former professor,Dept of Communication, University of Hyderabad about the uncharted territory where generative AI meets childhood development. The conversation explores why AI systems sometimes offer dangerous advice to young users, how class and language create disparities in AI access across India, and whether the assumption of "inevitable" tech adoption overshadows critical ethical discussions.  Tune InYou 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, 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.

The existential alignment problem sits at the heart of the AI revolution — and the consequences of getting it wrong could be irreversible. What happens when superintelligent systems pursue fixed objectives that don’t fully capture human values? How do we govern machines that may soon outperform us across domains? And who decides what level of risk humanity should accept? The conversation spans AGI timelines, the concentration of economic and political power, democratic resilience, liability-based regulation, and whether governments can realistically regulate frontier AI amid an intensifying global race. From extinction-level risk estimates cited by AI CEOs to experimental evidence of systems resisting shutdown, this is no longer speculative science fiction — it is a live governance crisis unfolding in real time. On this episode of The Morning Brief, ET’s Swathi Moorthy sits down with AI scientists and pioneers Stuart Russell and Yoshua Bengio for a candid, high-stakes discussion on the trajectory of artificial intelligence and the choices that will shape humanity’s future. As capabilities surge and geopolitical rivalry sharpens, one defining question remains: are we building tools to serve humanity — or systems that could ultimately outmaneuver it? You can follow Swathi Moorthy on her social media: X and Linkedin Check out other interesting episodes like: AI Impact Summit: Amazon's Bet on India's AI Future, Anthropic’s India Play, India AI Impact Summit: Microsoft’s Brad Smith on Sovereignty, Scale and Skills,  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.

In a wide-ranging conversation with host Surabhi Agarwal, IBM's chairman, president and CEO Arvind Krishna addresses the questions every technology leader and IT professional in India is wrestling with right now. He pushes back on AI doomsday narratives for software services, makes a compelling case for why hybrid cloud and mainframe architecture remain indispensable, and shares his candid take on job displacement, quantum computing's commercial horizon, and what India's sovereign AI strategy must focus on. He also offers a measured reading of global economic uncertainty, tariffs, and why 2026 could surprise on the upside for technology spending. Listen in:You can follow Surabhi Agarwal on her Linkedin, X profiles and read her Newspaper Articles.  Listen to Corner Office Conversation: 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, Corner Office Conversation with Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Peak XV & Surge and much more. Catch the latest episode of “Corner Office Conversation” on: Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts,and wherever you get your podcasts from.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The US Supreme Court just handed Trump a legal defeat and it barely slowed him down. In a landmark ruling, the court struck down tariffs imposed under emergency economic powers, only for the White House to pivot instantly to alternative legal pathways. For India, caught just before a trade deal that had finally brought some clarity, the timing couldn't be worse. Host Anirban Chowdhury talks to Bipin Sapra, Partner and Indirect Tax Policy Leader, EY India about an 18% tariff rate that once looked certain is now up in the air. Tax structures, transfer pricing, corporate margins all recalibrating in real time. As one expert puts it bluntly: wait, watch, and don't sign anything just yet. 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, 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.

In a candid, unscripted exchange, India’s pharma titans peeled back the mythology of overnight success to reveal a harder truth: conviction compounded over decades. What began as two products and a bet on neglected therapy areas evolved into a multibillion-dollar enterprise riding India’s epidemiological shift. Innovation, they argued, is a long game—scarred by failed trials, investor backlash, and capital droughts—yet redeemed by landmark deals and scientific persistence. In this episode, host Vikas Dandekar talks to Dilip Shanghvi, Chairman of Sun Pharma and Glenn Saldanha, Managing Director at Glenmark Pharma about regulatory reforms, AI acceleration, and a renewed policy push, the message was clear: India stands at the cusp of a pharmaceutical inflection point—if it dares to back its pipeline as boldly as its past.Listen on:Listen to Corner Office Conversation: 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, Corner Office Conversation with Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Peak XV & Surge and much more. Catch the latest episode of “Corner Office Conversation” on: Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts,and wherever you get your podcasts from.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Artificial intelligence is concentrating power, profits and infrastructure in the hands of a few. Mistral AI's co-founder and CEO Arthur Mensch stands for dismantling it. In this episode Mensch talks to ET’s tech editor Surabhi Agarwal about why excessive US dominance in AI creates economic and geopolitical imbalance, and how open-weight models, sovereign cloud partnerships and efficient computers can redistribute innovation. He argues that AI must function like public infrastructure, competitive, accessible and locally controlled, not a gated utility. Listen in: You can follow Surabhi Agarwal on her Linkedin and XCheck out other interesting episodes like: AI Impact Summit: Amazon's Bet on India's AI Future, Anthropic’s India Play, India AI Impact Summit: Microsoft’s Brad Smith on Sovereignty, Scale and Skills,  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 if every Indian had a personal doctor, a PhD agronomist, and a world-class tutor all free, all AI-powered, available tomorrow? Hosts Surabhi Agarwal and Swathi Moorthy talk to entrepreneur, investor Vinod Khosla on why he doesn't traffic in hypotheticals; he calls this India's most urgent opportunity. In a wide-ranging conversation, Khosla maps the turbulent decade ahead predicting political chaos between 2030 and 2040 as AI-driven job disruption collides with policy while arguing that curiosity and agency matter more than capital. He dismantles MAGA, challenges wealth inequality narratives, and delivers a sharp verdict: India's real constraint isn't talent or technology. It's investors who think too small.You can follow Swathi Moorthy on her social media: X and LinkedinYou can follow Surabhi Agarwal on her Linkedin and XCheck out other interesting episodes like: AI Impact Summit: Amazon's Bet on India's AI Future, Anthropic’s India Play, India AI Impact Summit: Microsoft’s Brad Smith on Sovereignty, Scale and Skills,  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 AI agents begin to outnumber humans 80 to one, who's truly accountable when things go wrong? In this episode, Host Suraksha P talks to Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora about the noise on what securing an agentic future actually demands from mandatory agent registries to real-time breach detection that must outpace an eight-minute attack window. He challenges India to pursue a hybrid sovereign AI strategy, warns that AI companies are racing ahead without reckoning with consequences, and offers entrepreneurs a sharp directive: stop building features, start solving problems. The cybersecurity frontier, Arora argues, belongs to those who own the data.You can follow Suraksha P on her social media: X and Linkedin Check out other interesting episodes like: AI Impact Summit: Amazon's Bet on India's AI Future, Anthropic’s India Play, India AI Impact Summit: Microsoft’s Brad Smith on Sovereignty, Scale and Skills,  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.

Can a $17 billion bet prevent India from repeating the Global South's century-long technology lag? In this episode of The Morning Brief, host Surabhi Agarwal speaks with Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith about the company's AI-ambitious vision for India as a "land of digital opportunity." The conversation explores Microsoft's infrastructure and skilling investments, the challenge of bridging the digital divide that mirrors historical electricity gaps between North and South, and how digital sovereignty tensions shape multinational strategy. From navigating India's thoughtful privacy regulations to addressing AI's impact on job dynamics through productivity enhancement, Smith examines whether equitable AI adoption can succeed where past technologies failed. As India's vast developer community positions it uniquely at the intersection of AI infrastructure, platforms, and applications, the episode questions whether collaborative frameworks between nations like India and the US can balance open markets with security—or if digital sovereignty will fragment the very ecosystem needed for India's transformation.You can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media: X and LinkedinYou can follow Surabhi Agarwal on her Linkedin, X profiles and read her Newspaper Articles.  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.

Is Anthropic late to India's AI party—or perfectly timed? In this episode of The Morning Brief, host Anirban Chowdhury speaks with ET’s Disha Acharya and Puran Choudhary about Anthropic's strategic entry into India's rapidly maturing generative AI market. The conversation explores why the company prioritizes enterprise clients over price-sensitive consumers, how its partnership with Infosys positions it within India's multi-million dollar IT ecosystem, and what makes Claude's focus on Indic language support a genuine differentiator. From hosting developer days and hackathons to building datasets for long-tail languages through nonprofit collaborations, Anthropic’s India stack is significantly large. This episode examines whether India serves as an innovation ground or simply a data mine. As pilots transition to full-scale deployments with governance frameworks solidifying, the episode questions whether widespread IT service integration and public sector adoption will cement Anthropic's leadership.Tune 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, 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.Credit @moneycontrolSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Infrastructure or applications where should India place its AI bets? And does Amazon, with $75 billion committed across data centers, logistics, and cloud, already have the answer? In this special episode of the Morning Brief's from India AI Impact Summit, host Suraksha P speaks to David Zapolsky, Chief Global Affairs & Legal Officer at Amazon, about the company's deepening India strategy.The conversation explores Amazon's data center expansion in Hyderabad and Mumbai, India's pragmatic privacy legislation versus restrictive European frameworks, and how tax certainty until 2047 is reshaping hyperscaler confidence. From navigating India-US geopolitical complexity to the ten-minute quick commerce challenge, Zapolsky examines what building for a billion-plus users genuinely demands.You can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media: X and Linkedin You can follow Suraksha P on her 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, 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.

Can India become the blueprint for the world's clean energy transition? In this episode of The Morning Brief, host Anirban Chowdhury speaks with Woochong Um, CEO of Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet about why India serves as the crucial testing ground for affordable, reliable renewable energy solutions. The conversation explores the groundbreaking Colloquy Battery Storage Project in Delhi which slashed blackouts and attracted global interest from Vietnam to Nigeria and how AI-optimized "Grids of the Future" could cut emissions by 30%. From creating 2.2 million jobs in India by 2030 to navigating land aggregation challenges through digitization, Woochong examines whether radical collaboration among governments, private sectors, and philanthropy can overcome entrenched fossil fuel dependencies. As battery storage advances and stakeholder awareness grows, the episode questions whether India's lessons both successes and failures will inspire similar transformations globally, positioning the nation as a pioneer in sustainable energy infrastructure.Tune inYou can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media: X and LinkedinCheck out other interesting episodes like: The Return to Analog, How Will a Volatile ₹ Impact You in 2026?, Why Are Labour Laws Denting Corporate Profits?, India’s Labour Law Reboot, Why are Music Labels Buying Into Film Companies? 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.