Shortcast over Coffee

Today my guest is Prof Sachidanand Tripathi. Dr Tripathi is an acclaimed Indian scientist in atmospheric sciences. He is a professor at IIT Kanpur and has won India's top science award, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, for his work. He is an elected fellow of the country's major science academies and holds the prestigious J.C. Bose Fellowship. His research focuses on Earth's atmosphere, oceans, and climate. In this episode we discuss the recent news about the air quality in Delhi, Findings of his research in this field and the measures that are being taken to improve the air quality in India.

My guest today is Dinesh Thakur. Dinesh Thakur trained as a chemical engineer before becoming a whistleblower against the pharmaceutical company Ranbaxy. While working at Ranbaxy, he witnessed extensive data fraud and reported this wrongdoing. His actions led Ranbaxy to plead guilty in an American court in 2013 to violating US law. The company paid a $500 million dollar penalty as part of its guilty plea. For his whistleblowing efforts, he received the Joe A. Callaway Award for Civic Courage and the ACFE Cliff Robertson Sentinel Award. Since 2014, he has advocated reforming India's outdated Drugs & Cosmetics Act from 1940. He founded an advocacy group called Citizens for Affordable, Safe & Effective Medicine (CASEM) to campaign for these reforms. Dinesh also established the Thakur Family Foundation, a philanthropic organization that funds public health research and health journalism in India. He serves as the Foundation's President.In this episode I talk to Dinesh about the work of Y K Hameid and Cipla, How india became the generic drug manufacturing capital of the world and pros and cons of it. We also talk about the Ranbaxy case and few other important cases which expose the shady side of big pharma companies, the lack of regulations for clinical trials in India and many more things. So stay tuned to the episode. Do show your support to this show by subscribing on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast and buy me a coffee at buymeacoffee.com/shortcastovercoffee More about Dinesh https://dineshthakur.com/about-2/ https://twitter.com/d_s_thakur?lang=en https://magazine.unh.edu/issue/winter-2021/the-whistleblower/ https://www.wellesley.edu/albright/about/faculty/dinesh-thakur https://www.reuters.com/article/india-pharma-whistleblower/pharma-crusader-dinesh-thakur-takes-indias-drug-regulators-to-court-idUSKCN0W90C8

Today my guest is Baradwaj Rangan. Baradwaj is a National Award winning Film Critic and the Editor-in-Chief of @GalattaPlus. He is also the author of two books 'Conversations with Mani Ratnam' and Dispatches from the Wall Corner: A Journey through Indian Cinema. Support me here https://www.buymeacoffee.com/shortcas... About Baradwaj https://twitter.com/baradwajranganhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baradwa...https://baradwajrangan.wordpress.com/ (00:00) Introduction (00:50)⁠ Love for writing and the movies : Early days (30:32)⁠ Star Ratings in movie reviews (38:41)⁠ Should there be an Embargo for movie reviews? (46:23)⁠ Why does India loves its movies (50:17)⁠ Is there too much content these days? (1:03:12)⁠ Mani Ratnam, favoritism and bias (1:15:44)⁠ Interviewing with Respect and Dignity (1:23:38)⁠ Who was hard to interview? (1:30:36)⁠ National Award and staying relevant in changing times (1:33:34)⁠ Conclusion

Today my guest is Pranav Radhakrishnan. Pranav is a terrific science communicator and the man behind the popular YouTube channel Science is Dope, where he talks about pseudoscience and analyzes some popular conspiracy theorists. Pranav is an engineering graduate from the National Institute of Technology Calicut. I found out that he also grew up in Kozhikode, the city where I did a lot of my schooling. I talk to Pranav about atheism, debunking pseudoscience, alternative medicine, and of course Sadhguru Pranav's channel Main Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/ScienceIsDope Support Pranav here One-time support: UPI: scienceisdope@icici https://buymeacoffee.com/scienceisdope Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scienceisdope_ To join his WhatsApp community: https://nas.io/scienceisdope Discord: https://discord.gg/BQrBAUkA33 Subbreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/scienceisdope/ Pranav and Abby https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUKl63cSSSg

Salaam-e- Krish Ashok! Ashok has been a part of the show earlier where we spoke at length about food homeopathy veganism and Carnatic music and I highly recommend you check the episodes out . I’ll link them in the show notes. Ashok recently made a food trip to Lucknow and I thought I need to ask him in detail about the Mughal and the awadhi dishes he tried there. So here we are. Like most of my episodes we do digress quite a bit but I hope the episode is engaging and entertaining as we talk about Lucknow the city and how the Mughals influenced Indian cooking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUdZxrU5HDA&ab_channel=ShortcastoverCoffee https://youtu.be/74Q41P37ReA https://youtu.be/UUdZxrU5HDA Support me here https://www.buymeacoffee.com/shortcastovercoffee 📈 Get FREE Stocks in US https://a.webull.com/hMq1FXwqDxNxXGto77 https://a.webull.com/NcH1FXwqDxNxXGtk2b I use WeBull & RobinHood for stock trading which are legal. Link subject to change depending on the expiry of the offer Use Fiverr to Hire Top Talent : https://tinyurl.com/mxsyw37y https://tinyurl.com/3scu66p9 Enjoy 75% off + 3 Extra months with PureVPN. Limited time offer, act now! https://tinyurl.com/ymwc4ttj Contact the host and leave feedback : https://instagram.com/bala.deva06 Masala Lab on Amazon : https://www.amazon.com/Masala-Lab-Science-Indian-Cooking/dp/0143451375

Today my guest is Parth MN. Parth is an independent journalist based in Mumbai, India. He mainly covers rural India for multiple publications. His work has appeared in the LA Times, The Washington Post, Al Jazeera, People's Archive of Rural India, Times of India Digital, among other outlets. He is the recipient of the Indian Express group's Ramnath Goenka Award, as well as the European Commission's Lorenzo Natali Media Prize. Quoting the legendary P. Sainath, "National daily five-year average gives 0.67 percent of its Front Page News to news of rural origin. 69 percent of the country's population gets 0.67 percent." This pretty much sums up the state of rural reporting in India. So, in this episode I thought I will talk to Parth about his experience reporting in Vidharbha and Manipur, lessons he learned and also about the state of press freedom in India among many other things. More about Parth MN https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/authors/parth-mn/ https://x.com/parthpunter?s=20 (0:00) Introduction (01:31) Growing up and Cricket days (12:00) Shiv Sena and Press (14:55) Learning from sport (21:33) Education and early days in Journalism (27:30) Freelancing and Reporting Rural India (30:52) Deep dive into Rural Reporting (40:38) Farmer Suicide and Climate change (45:20) Mental Health programs in rural India (51:47) Reporting from Manipur (1:01:07) Freedom of the Press (1:08:00) Parth and I talk about reliable media sources (1:13:00) Conclusion

📈 Get FREE Stocks in US https://a.webull.com/hMq1FXwqDxNxXGto77 https://a.webull.com/NcH1FXwqDxNxXGtk2b I use WeBull & RobinHood for stock trading which are legal. Link subject to change depending on the expiry of the offer Use Fiverr to Hire Top Talent : https://tinyurl.com/mxsyw37y https://tinyurl.com/3scu66p9 Today my guest is Ankit Agarwal. Ankit is the co-founder of Topmate.io, a promising startup based in Bengaluru, along with his friend and colleague Dinesh Singh. Topmate empowers professionals to seamlessly manage requests for advice or guidance by letting others reach out for a personalized interaction while keeping complete control over every aspect of it. Check out the link in the description for more. In this episode, we will unveil Ankit's fascinating journey from a small town in Rajasthan to IIT Bombay, working in Iraq during civil unrest, traveling 650 km everyday for work in Saudi Arabia, leaving everything to prepare for UPSC, and all the way to co-founding Topmate. His is a story of resilience, clarity of thought, and hard work, and I can't wait to present this episode to you guys. More about Topmate.io https://www.linkedin.com/in/ankitagarwal6/ https://topmate.io/ https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ankitagarwal6_startup-entrepreneur-topmate-activity-7051083982096003072-dMn-?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop 00:00 Introduction 4:33 Growing up 10:20 Choosing IIT Bombay 12:35 Civil Engineering 15:50 Learning through Events and Leadership at IIT-B 23:00 Iraq Life, Civil Unrest and ISIS 30:00 Saudi Arabia 37:34 UPSC Prep 40:00 First startup idea 45:30 IIT Bombay- The brand the safety net 47:56 Second startup and lessons learned 53:05 Family Support System 56:21 Topmate.io deepdive 1:00:19 What makes Topmate unique 1:03:27 First Customers 1:14:00 Conclusion

Today my guest is Dr Shruti Rajagopalan. She is a Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, where she leads the Indian Political Economy Program and Emergent Ventures India. In this episode I talk to Shruti about the initiatives she works on at Mercatus, economics research in India and the US and we dive deep into the good and the bad aspects of the goods and services tax in India also known as GST More about Shruti https://www.mercatus.org/scholars/shruti-rajagopalan https://www.mercatus.org/emergent-ventures https://www.linkedin.com/in/shruti-rajagopalan-3b9228202/ https://substack.com/@srajagopalan https://srajagopalan.substack.com/about https://twitter.com/srajagopalan?lang=en https://www.mercatus.org/ideasofindia

Today my guest is Nitin Sundar. Nitin was a sub-editor with Cricinfo and has been an avid follower of the game since the mid 90s. I will talk to Nitin about his career at Cricinfo and everything cricket pretty much… from stadium experience to commentators to the 2023 World Cup More about Nitin https://linktr.ee/knittins Reach out to the host https://www.instagram.com/bala.deva06/

My guest today is Sreedhar Pillai. Sreedhar is a trade analyst and film critic and has been a journalist in the movie industry for over 35 years. I will talk to Sreedhar about the economics of the South Indian movie industry today - from ticket pricing to film distribution to OTT and satellite rights. We'll discuss the changes that have occurred in the business side of South Indian cinema over the past few decades. Sreedhar's depth of knowledge and experience covering the entertainment industry will provide insightful perspective on the financial landscape and strategies of South Indian movie studios and distributors. I look forward to an interesting conversation about the numbers, deals, and dollars behind Kollywood and the other regional film industries in South India. More on Sreedhar https://x.com/sri50?s=20 https://www.instagram.com/sreedharpillai/