The Morning Brief

People from all over are stepping up to help individuals in distress as Covid’s second wave ravages the country. A few bravehearts like Fashion Influencer Amrita Thakur, Mazher Ramzanali of Khaana Chahiye, Ali Shariff of NGO Mercy Mission, and Samaresh Das share their experiences.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Allowing all adults to get vaccinated against Covid-19 from next month brings new challenges – from supply chain issues to the ethical dilemma of equitable distribution. Gagandeep Kang, Virologist and Professor at Christian Medical College, Vellore, and ET’s Nidhi Sharma discuss the hurdles ahead.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Class 10 and class 12 students are in a quandary with their board exams cancelled or rescheduled because of Covid-19 cases. Sushil Dhankar, Spokesperson of National Independent Schools Alliance, Adarsh Khandelwal, CEO of Collegify, Disha Nawani, Dean of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, and Anubha Shrivastava Sahai, President of the India Wide Parents Association, tell us how this will affect the future of the students and what the government and schools can do to ease this jolt.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Not enough drugs, beds and oxygen – that’s the state of affairs in this second and larger wave of Covid-19 that’s hit India. Vikas Dandekar of ET Prime gives us the lowdown on Remdesivir, the drug that’s in high demand for treating coronavirus cases. And we have ground reports from Krishna Kumar in Mumbai, Vatsala Gaur from Lucknow and Akshatha M in Bengaluru.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As the second wave of Covid-19 batters the country, the Indian government has approved the use of vaccines authorised in the US, UK, Europe and Japan to combat the dreaded disease. ET's Teena Thacker and Nidhi Sharma tell us about the challenges ahead and how soon will every citizen in India be vaccinatedSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Global investors have converted 10 Indian startups into unicorns – each valued at $1 billion at least – this year, with six in just a week. We discuss what’s driving the funding rush and whether such valuations are sustainable with the Founders of two unicorns – Souvik Sengupta of Infra.Market and Nithin Kamath of Zerodha – along with Archana Rai, Editor-South at ET.The clips used in the audio montage at the beginning of the episode belong to ET Now and Akur Warikoo.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Young Indian hip-hop artists are now more vocal than ever about political issues and what’s brushed under the carpet. We catch up with Arivu of ‘Enjoy Enjaami’ fame, who is also a lyricist and a Tamil playback singer, and Rounok Chakraborty, alias Cizzy, a Bengali rapper with viral music videos like ‘Kolkatar Rasta,’ to find out why politics is making them angry and spurring their creativity.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With India battling the second wave of Covid, voices asking for more vaccinations and vaccines to be allowed are growing louder. What should be India's vaccine strategy? Virologist Dr. V. Ravi, who is on the Sputnik V's advisory board, and ET's Divya Rajagopal discuss.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The government's overnight u-turn on the slashing of interest rates for small savings schemes raised eyebrows. Financial Planner Melvin Joseph and ET's Sugata Ghosh talk about the significance of such schemes and suggest that even though a cut remains imminent, the interest rate cycle may be bottoming out.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The alleged data leak at Mobikwik once again highlighted shortcomings in the security infrastructure of fintech companies, which put millions of users at risk. Siddharth Vishwanath, Cybersecurity Leader at PwC, and Independent Researchers Srinivas Kodali and Rajshekhar Rajaharia explain what happens when data falls into the wrong hands and how to prevent more breaches.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.