Audio
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Behind Indian chess's big moves
Last week, the world watched as India's own 18-year-old R Praggnanandha took on World No 1 Magnus Carlsen, in a series of nail-biting finals that comprised two draws and a tie-breaker. The spotlight now is on a valiant, truly talented crop of new players, well-poised to take on the legend Viswanathan Anand's mantle. Can India produce a chess world champion in the next few years? Arjuna award winner and chess grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, the first Indian to win the Commonwealth Chess Championship, is confident that we could see one, even as soon as 2024
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Board exams twice in the year?
In a major overhaul to the education system, the NCERT has announced the new National Curriculum Framework, which includes many changes, among which one of the buzziest is that there will be two sets of board exams in the year, so students can take them whenever they feel ready—and the best scores will be considered. We discuss what this means for students, and whether some of these changes, aimed at making student life stress free, are counterproductive? Kamlesh Vyas, partner, Deloitte, who specializes in higher education and skills development, breaks down the key features for us
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India's Chandrayaan-3, a world-first feat for all humanity — what next?
"One Earth, One Family, One Future," India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, after the successful soft landing of Chandrayaan-3's lander module in the South Polar region of the Moon's surface yesterday — making India the first nation to achieve this feat. "This success belongs to all of humanity," he added. Narayan Prasad, co-founder and COO of Satsearch and co-founder of Spaceport SARABHAI, joins us to unpack the significance of what just happened, and to give us a sense of where India's deep space exploration efforts can go from here
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BRICS Summit: Will India and China hold talks, and will they end constructively?
All eyes on Johannesburg as PM Modi has landed for the BRICS summit, the first physical one since 2019. Amid geopolitical tensions, there is great anticipation over whether PM Modi will hold a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and if yes, whether that meeting ends constructively. What are India's goals at the summit? Ambassador Rajiv Bhatia, Distinguished Fellow for Foreign Policy Studies, Gateway House and former High Commissioner of India to South Africa, joins the dots for us today
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Deep Tech India: Karthee Madasamy on the role of the 'forcing function' in deep tech startups' success
As India readies its own deep tech startups policy, this is episode five in a short series of conversations with some of the entrepreneurs and VC investors who are building this ecosystem in the country. In this episode, Karthee Madasamy, founding managing partner at MFV Partners, an early-stage deep tech VC firm in the US, talks about why he thinks robotics is about to take off. He also talks about why, deep tech entrepreneurs must be aware of the state of the industry and how that will affect the adoption of their new technologies
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Firstcry, Softbank and the IPO resurgence
According to the Economic Times, Softbank has sold stake in ecommerce platform Firstcry to three Indian family offices, worth Rs435 crore. Firstcry, an online store dealing in baby products across categories, has raised close to a billion dollars in funding, and was valued at $2.7 billion post money, as of April 2023. It is expected go public next year. Forbes India's market trackers, Nasrin Sultana and Samar Srivastava, join us on ToThePoint today, to decode what Softbank's strategy is here, the comeback of the IPO cycle, and how retail investors should read into this phase
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2 billion phones made in India: Why this is a big deal
India is now the second-largest mobile phone producer, behind China, as per a report by global research firm Counterpoint. Tarun Pathak, research head at Counterpoint, takes us through the numbers, and breaks down what changed, and how India is attempting a phased strategy of moving from assembling to making. Also, a bit on how important Apple is to this play
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Can Ola Electric launch the 'world's most successful e-motorbike' yet?
Ola Electric unveiled its most affordable ride yet, the electric scooter S1X, priced at Rs79,999. Ola also launched four premium electric motorcycle concepts, meant to launch within a year. Earlier this week, Ola Electric's competitor, Ather Energy, also launched the affordable category 450S e-scooter, priced at about Rs1.3 lakh. Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal said, "The world hasn't seen a successful e-motorbike yet," and that he aims to change that. Soumen Mandal, a senior research analyst at Counterpoint Research, joins us to break down if Ola actually can
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Deep Tech India: Sateesh Andra on whether, after SaaS, deep tech can find its playbook
As India readies its own deep tech startups policy, this is episode four in a short series of conversations with some of the entrepreneurs and investors who are building this ecosystem in the country. Today, Sateesh Andra, managing director at Endiya Partners, talks about helping the entrepreneurs to stay the course and run the marathon, while celebrating the small wins along the way. Investors have a role in this, he says, to support ambitious founders who want to build globally successful tech products ventures from India
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The World Cup ticket chaos
We're 49 days away from the biggest event in four years: The ICC Men's world cup. Yet, for a tournament with 10 participating countries, massive money at stake and millions of fans around the world, tickets have not yet been released. Forbes India's in-house cricket experts—and fans—Kathakali Chanda and Naini Thaker take us through the chaos that has surrounded the big tournament, and what's at stake for businesses and those that seem to be lowest in the pecking order: Fans
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Inside Samsung's India playbook
Samsung has become a household name in India with its televisions, home appliances, and—the biggest category of all—smartphones. Over the last decade, the South Korean electronics giant ousted Nokia, Micromax and Xiaomi to claim the lion's share in the fiercely competitive smartphone market in India. But Vivo and Apple are making some aggressive expansion moves to improve their stake in the country. For the cover story, Rajiv Singh delves deep to understand Samsung's playbook for India