The Morning Brief

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...

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 chi...

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. Mu...

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 dispute

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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...

As AI becomes more powerful, who gets to shape its direction—and share its benefits? ET’s tech editor Surabhi Agarwal speaks to Google DeepMind’s Chief AI Readiness Officer, Lila Ibrahim, about the tension between rapid development and responsible deployment. They discuss India’s place in the global AI race, the role of teachers in AI-enabled classrooms, and research that could help farmers grow more resilient crops. Ibrahim also reflects on responsibility inside DeepMind, the work around AlphaFold, and the everyday ways she uses AI as a parent. A conversation about preparing people and institutions for a technology already...

The rupee has bounced. So why does the RBI seem so worried? Unusually timed announcements, a special dollar window for oil companies and tougher currency trading rules reveal an aggressive effort to arrest the slide. But could making currency protection more expensive leave Indian businesses exposed? Anirban Chowdhury speaks to The Economic Times’ Sugata Ghosh about how these interventions work, how offshore bets influence the rupee and why a lasting recovery requires more than central bank firepower. Is the RBI restoring stability—or buying time?

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Blackstone wants to double its India investments to $100 billion in five years. What does Jonathan Gray see that nervous investors are missing? In this episode of ET Conversations, executive editor Sruthijith KK speaks to Blackstone’s president and COO about India’s growth prospects, the market pullback and the sectors attracting his capital. Gray explains why he remains optimistic about AI infrastructure, how Indian IT services firms can become AI deployment partners, and why a rising middle class creates opportunities across healthcare, travel, housing and finance. They also discuss rising interest rates, currency depreciation, private credit concerns and the disc...

Misleading packaging, restaurant inspections and scrutiny of the kitchens behind your delivery apps: FSSAI is sharpening its enforcement. ET's FMCG editor Ratna Bhushan talks to FSSAI chief Rajit Punhani about holding food businesses accountable, taking regulatory action public, and the proposed changes that could help consumers know more about what they buy. Listen in:

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Airfares are rising just as the festive travel season approaches. ATF prices have jumped sharply in recent months, while a weaker rupee is adding to airlines’ fuel costs. At the same time, fewer flights and slower aircraft deliveries are tightening capacity even as demand picks up.

In this episode, Host Anirban Chowdhury speaks to ET's Forum Gandhi, about what is driving the surge in airfares, how airlines are balancing higher costs with weaker domestic traffic, and why Mumbai flyers could face an additional hit as capacity shifts to Navi Mumbai Airport. The conversation also looks at what pa...

Ahead of the GST Council meeting, Bipin Sapra,  Partner and Indirect Tax Policy Leader, EY India, explains to Anirban Chowdhury the proposed changes to input tax credit, refunds, exports and e-way bills—and what they could mean for business costs, working capital and consumer prices. These are expected changes, not final decisions.
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The Flydubai incident has raised a difficult question for aviation security: what happens when the threat comes from within the aircraft? As investigators work to establish the facts, the incident is already forcing a rethink of how airlines identify and mitigate insider threats.
Host Anirban Chowdhury speaks to aviation security experts Arik Arad and Shannon Wandmaker about the vulnerabilities exposed by the incident, why one-time background checks may not be enough in an age of rapid online radicalisation, and whether continuous vetting and stronger security cultures can close the gap. He also explains why aviation security is ultimately...

AI is moving from experimental technology to an increasingly powerful part of everyday work. At The Economic Times World Leaders Forum, Krish Ramineni, Founder and CEO of Fireflies.ai, joins ET’s Himanshi Lohchab to discuss AI agents, the future of knowledge work, India’s AI opportunity, and why falling AI costs could dramatically expand its adoption

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You can follow Himanshi Lohchab on her social media: X and Linkedin

Check out other interesting episodes like - Cognizant’s Surya Gummadi on How AI Can Deliver Returns, The Future of Insuran...

Xi Jinping has sat across the table from both Narendra Modi and Donald Trump within two weeks. For years, a more assertive China pushed India closer to Washington. But what happens if the US and China learn to manage their rivalry?

On this episode of Morning Brief Decode, Pranab Dhal Samanta, National Editor (Politics) at The Economic Times explains to Anirban Chowdhury whether the reset is really happening in Washington, what the summit's optics signal, and how India should balance China, the US and BRICS. He also flags what to watch in the next six months: the...

The independence of India’s Election Commission rests on a constitutional framework that gives it wide powers — but questions remain over how that independence works in practice. On The Morning Brief, host Neil Ghai speaks to ET’s Anubhuti Vishnoi on the changing appointment process for Election Commissioners, the internal friction within the poll panel and the impact of electoral-roll revisions on voters. Anubhuti breaks down Article 324, the 2023 law governing the appointment of Election Commissioners and the debate over the executive’s role in selecting them.
She also examines the reported objections within the Commission over electoral-roll management, Form 6...

The investigation into the death of IIT Bombay student Sahil Wakode is examining competing allegations and evidence. But beyond the immediate case lies a broader question: what are India’s premier institutions really preparing students for?

On The Morning Brief, host Anirban Chowdhury speaks to BITS Pilani Group Vice Chancellor V Ramgopal Rao, former JNU professor Rajeev Kumar and ET’s Rashmi Rajput about the intense pressure surrounding IIT admissions, the limitations of using exam performance as a measure of intellectual ability, and the challenges students face once they enter these highly competitive institutions.

The disc...

What makes some CEOs and founders successful? At The Economic Times World Leaders Forum, Cheryl Lim, Partner at McKinsey & Company, joins ET’s Anirban Chowdhury to explore the mindsets and behaviours that drive long-term value creation, how leaders balance big ambitions with disciplined execution, and what it takes to build organisations that can sustain growth.

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You can follow Anirban Chowdhury on his social media: X and Linkedin

Check out other interesting episodes like - Cognizant’s Surya Gummadi on How AI Can Deliver Returns, The Future of Insurance in India | Sarbvir Sing...

India’s IPO market has hit the accelerator. After just 27 mainboard IPOs in the first half of 2026, July-September alone is seeing 61 issues worth roughly ₹88,000 crore. And the pipeline is staggering: 148 companies with SEBI approvals worth ₹2.8 lakh crore are waiting to tap the market.  Anirban Chowdhury speaks with ET markets editor Nishanth Vasudevan about what triggered the boom, whether Jio could suck liquidity from other issues, why smaller IPOs are still finding buyers, whether mega listings signal a market top, and whether foreign investors could finally return to India.

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India is scaling its semiconductor ecosystem as AI development accelerates—and both are raising new questions around technology, investment and regulation. In this Corner Office Conversation, Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw speaks to ET’s tech editor Surabhi Agarwal about Semicon 2.0, global investment in India, electronics manufacturing and the country’s value-addition journey. He also lays out his views on AI risks, company responsibility, techno-legal safeguards and global cooperation on AI regulation.

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You can follow Surabhi Agarwal on her Linkedin, X profiles and read her Newspaper Articles. 

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Meta has agreed to report child sexual abuse material directly to Indian authorities, rather than routing alerts through America's NCMEC. But does reporting stop algorithms amplifying such content in the first place? On the Morning Brief, lawyer Sajan Poovayya explains why Meta had little choice under POCSO and its 2020 Rules, why reporting is neither an admission of guilt nor a privacy breach, and what platforms must do beyond reporting: purge content and build checks into their algorithms. He argues India's law is adequate, but enforcement lacks the urgency shown by NCMEC. The episode opens with a clip from Sajan's...

India has opened insurance to 100% foreign ownership. But Sun Life CEO Kevin Strain says ownership is less important than building the right business—and that the company currently works better alongside the Aditya Birla Group than alone. In this conversation from the Economic Times World Leaders Forum, Strain explains to ET’s banking editor Sangita Mehta why Sun Life’s India insurance business is growing 25% annually, where its $100-billion asset manager goes next, and how private credit and infrastructure could power its expansion. He also discusses bancassurance, AI’s inability to replace empathy, and a stark longevity challenge: 40 working years ma...

Every morning in Mahim, Vijay Raut sold cutting chai to taxi drivers, construction workers and bank staff, until the BMC's pavement drive took away his stall. Now he serves from a flask. He's not alone: across Mumbai, Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram, street vendors are caught between clean-city drives and a system that never gave them secure space. In this episode, we look at India's Rs 8,000 crore-a-day street food economy, the real hygiene risks, why regulation without infrastructure backfires, and what Singapore's hawker centres might teach us about keeping street food safe and visible. Lijee Philip and Nirmal John report, Anirban...

 Volkswagen is one of the world’s largest carmakers, yet has less than 2% of India’s passenger vehicle market. Its proposed partnership with JSW could mark a striking reversal: JSW may own 51% of the venture, leaving the German giant as the junior partner. Anirban Chowdhury speaks to ET’s Arijit Barman and Shally Seth Mohile about what each side gains, why JSW wants European technology alongside its Chinese partnerships, and whether the deal can accelerate Volkswagen’s painfully slow India journey. They also examine JSW’s audacious automotive ambitions—and the risk that its three ventures could eventually compete with one anot...

UPI is no longer entirely free. From October 15, merchant payments above ₹2,000 will attract a 0.4% MDR, while smaller transactions and person-to-person transfers remain exempt. But if merchants cannot surcharge customers directly, where does that cost go? IIT Bombay’s Professor Ashish Das tells The Morning Brief why businesses may quietly fold it into prices, forcing small-ticket shoppers to subsidise larger purchases. He also explains why online platforms are different, whether high-value payments could drift back to cash, and the policy question: should UPI be treated as commercial infrastructure—or as a public good funded by the government?

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The multinational is giving way to the multi-local, as tariffs, geopolitics and supply-chain risk force companies to rebuild around regional roots rather than one global blueprint. In the latest Corner Office Conversation from The Economic Times World Leaders Forum Bain & Company Global Chairman Manny Maceda tells Anirban Chowdhury what this fragmentation means for India's shot at becoming the world's factory, why AI's payoff still eludes most companies deploying it, and whether costlier capital is quietly forcing private equity to build better businesses instead of just cheaper deals. He closes with a leadership lesson for this moment: companies that lose...

Chhattisgarh has declared an end to armed Maoism in Bastar, but the ground reality is far more complicated than a deadline. Over 1,000 surrendered cadres remain in rehabilitation centres while 1,800 others have already returned to their villages — some welcomed, others met with deep, unhealed anger. In this episode, based on Shantanu Nandan Sharma's on-ground reporting, we travel through Sukma's former conflict zones, from a courtyard once used for Maoist gatherings to a café run by surrendered women fighters, to understand what genuine reintegration looks like in a region reshaped by decades of insurgency, loss, and fragile hope.
Anirban Chowdhury nar...

HDFC Bank's Shashidhar Jagdishan is stepping down, Kotak Mahindra is searching for Ashok Vaswani's successor, and ICICI's Sandeep Bakshi has taken just a two-year extension. In this episode, Anirban Chowdhury talks to ET's Banking Editor Sangita Mehta about the wave of CEO exits hitting India's biggest banks through 2028, what really went wrong at HDFC, whether Deputy MD Kaizad Bharucha can take over given RBI's 15-year board cap, and why RBI's tenure and age rules may be quietly ending the era of the long-serving Indian bank CEO.

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AI is reshaping how businesses work, but the biggest shift may be how humans and technology work together. At The Economic Times World Leaders Forum, Nigel Vaz, CEO, Publicis Sapient, joins Dia Rekhi to break down the “Iron Man” approach to AI, why enterprises need to reimagine how work gets done, and where agentic AI can create real business value.
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You can follow Dia Rekhi on social media: Linkedin & X

Check out other interesting episodes like - Cognizant’s Surya Gummadi on How AI Can Deliver Returns, The Future of Insura...

India’s latest GDP estimate shows the economy growing at 7.8%. Rajeswari Sengupta, associate professor of economics at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research is unconvinced. She tells Anirban Chowdhury why weak job creation, subdued investment, falling import volumes and an unresponsive stock market sit uneasily beside the headline number. She also explains why a low GDP deflator is economically logical, how double deflation is supposed to improve measurement, and why India’s new producer price indices raise questions. The government may have corrected important weaknesses in the earlier GDP series. But without detailed sources, methods and historical comparisons, Seng...

ET opens its World Leaders Forum podcast series with Anu Aiyengar, global chair of investment banking, J.P.Morgan. In conversation with Anirban Chowdhury, she explains why uncertainty is driving—not deterring—big-ticket deals, and why companies are buying scale, stability and resilience. She examines the risks posed by rising yields, inflation and oil, the curious leeway investors are giving AI spending, and how automation is reshaping entry-level investment-banking work. Aiyengar also makes the case for India as an under-owned market and reveals her contrarian bets on old-economy businesses, healthcare and cross-border dealmaking over the next five years.

Se...

Climate change is making extreme weather more frequent and unpredictable. But are we making its consequences worse?

Across the Himalayas and the Western Ghats, glaciers are collapsing, rainfall patterns are shifting and landslides and flash floods are becoming increasingly destructive. At the same time, roads, hotels, hydropower projects and settlements are pushing deeper into fragile landscapes.

Reported by Alenjith K Johny, narrated by Anirban Chowdhury

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What does one of India’s original venture capitalists see coming next? Accel’s Subrata Mitra speaks to Anirban Chowdhury about a funding market moving from exuberance to discipline—and an AI boom whose economics remain deeply uncertain. He explains why India cannot fight a trillion-dollar foundational-model battle with a fraction of that capital, and where its more credible opportunities lie. The conversation explores Accel’s interest in AI-enabled services, deeptech, spacetech and advanced manufacturing, the logic behind keeping funds relatively small, and the long process of developing investors. Mitra also shares lessons from failure, reinvention and the unpredictable journeys...

HDFC Bank is staring at an unusual leadership vacuum. CEO Sashidhar Jagdishan is set to leave in October, even as India’s largest private sector bank grapples with slowing profit growth, squeezed margins and the lingering impact of its mega merger with HDFC Ltd. Who could take over — internal heavyweight Kaizad Bharucha or an outsider? And can a successor even be found in time? Anirban Chowdhury speaks to ET’s banking editor Sangita Mehta about the names in contention, a wider leadership crunch across Indian banking, what has gone wrong with HDFC Bank’s financial engine, and the challenges awaiting...

Subhash Chandra’s latest insolvency battle has produced a startling equation: ₹22,006 crore in admitted claims against just ₹6.25 crore for creditors. But the headline hides a more complicated story. These claims largely arise from personal guarantees for corporate borrowings, even as major lenders question the repayment plan, creditor voting and what happened to Chandra’s once-vast personal wealth. Meanwhile, Zee is rebuilding after the collapse of its Sony merger, and its promoters are seeking to increase their stake again. Anirban Chowdhury talks to Shiram Subramanian, founder and MD of InGovern about the Essel debt crisis, the controversial NCLT order and what a p...

ET’s Swathi Moorthy cannot code. Yet she has built four web applications using AI. That is the seductive promise of vibe coding: describe what you want and let the machine build it. The reality involves muddled prompts, unreliable advice, stubborn bugs, confusing backends, hosting headaches and subscription bills. In this episode, Moorthy joins Anirban Chowdhury to explain how a non-coder can create and publish an app, which tools make it easiest, and where human expertise remains indispensable. It is a candid account of what AI has democratised and what it still cannot do on its own for ordinary as...

Trilegal began as an outsider in a legal industry dominated by closely held, family-run firms. More than two decades later, it has become one of India’s largest law firms—and part of the establishment it once challenged. Partners Nishant Parikh and Sridhar Gorthi talk to ET’s Vinod Mahanta and Maulik Vyas about the model behind that rise, the founder-rainmaker trap holding back midsized firms, competition from global firms and the Big Four, and why AI could reshape both fees and the traditional associate pyramid. They also confront two deeper questions: whether elite credentials still determine who enters corpor...

Love can arrive at any age. But when it arrives after 60, it often comes with decades of accumulated wealth, grown-up children and expectations about inheritance. As more Indians seek companionship, remarry or choose live-in relationships later in life, families are confronting difficult questions around homes, wills, trusts and succession. Based on Lijee Philip’s report, this episode explores India’s emerging world of silver romance—and the financial negotiations that accompany it. Can older Indians build a new life without unsettling the families and fortunes built in the old one? And can love and inheritance peacefully coexist? Lijee Philp report...

Brent above $90 doesn’t tell the full story of India’s oil bill. Tight physical supplies have pushed some Gulf crude to a hefty premium, while the Russian discounts that helped Indian refiners after the Ukraine war have largely vanished. Disruptions in West Asia have also forced India to source more oil from farther-flung suppliers, adding freight costs. Anirban Chowdhury speaks to ICRA’s, senior VP and Co-Group Chair Prashant Vasisht about why the physical crude market has diverged from benchmark prices, what it means for refinery and marketing margins, whether consumers could eventually feel the pain, and what could...

India’s tax calendar looks different this year. While most salaried taxpayers wrapped up their returns by July 31, taxpayers with certain business or professional income have until August 31. But who exactly qualifies? What happens if you earn a salary alongside income from F&O trading, consulting, freelancing or content creation? Which ITR should you file, and how is F&O turnover calculated? In this episode of The Morning Brief, ET Wealth’s Preeti K talks to with Aarti Raote, Partner, Deloitte about ITR-3 versus ITR-4, presumptive taxation, reconciling AIS and brokerage statements, and the expensive mistakes taxpayers should avoid befo...

For Indian professionals chasing a US green card, even the fast lane is getting harder. Approval rates for EB-1A — the category reserved for people with extraordinary ability — have fallen sharply, from 49% to 35% in a year. That compounds an already punishing green-card backlog for Indians on H-1B visas, many of whom face waits stretching decades. So what is driving the tougher scrutiny? Can legal challenges change the trajectory? And are Canada, the UK or the investment-linked EB-5 route credible alternatives? On The Morning Brief Swathi Moorthy joins Anirban Chowdhury to unpack America’s tightening immigration maze.

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