On Tuesday, the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremesinghe, told the parliament that the country is not only bankrupt but also has no fuel left. Government employees have been told to stay home due to fuel unavailability. Inflation spiked 54.6% in a year and is expected to hit 60% soon, and transportation costs have gone up 128% in only one month. Civilians are struggling to procure basic necessities like food and medicine. Protesters in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo stormed...

The Bharatvaarta Weekly is our reaction to the news headlines of the week that was. This week we spoke about Shinzo Abe's assassination, Boris Johnson's resignation, Twitter's lawsuit against Indian government, and more.  If you liked this episode, then don’t forget to subscribe to our channel and share this content. You can stay updated with everything at Bharatvaarta by following us on social media: we're @bharatvaarta on Twitter, facebook.com/bharatvaarta.in on Facebook, and @bharatvaarta...

The power structure in Maharashtra has seen a major shift in the last week. Eknath Shinde is now the new Chief Minister of Maharashtra, replacing Uddhav Thackeray, who resigned after a weeklong drama. To break down this intense scenario, we have our resident expert Rohit Jayaraman. In this deep dive, he spoke about topics such as a summary of recent events, reasons for fissure in the Shiv Sena, the role of each of the players in the drama, and more. 

The Bharatvaarta Weekly is our reaction to the news headlines of the  week that was. If you liked this episode, then don’t forget to subscribe to our channel and share this content. You can stay updated with everything at Bharatvaarta by following us on social media: we're @bharatvaarta on Twitter, facebook.com/bharatvaarta.in on Facebook, and @bharatvaarta on Instagram).

Mental health can affect daily living, relationships, and physical health. However, this link also works in the other direction. Factors in people’s lives, interpersonal connections, and physical factors can all contribute to mental health disruptions. Looking after mental health can preserve a person’s ability to enjoy life. Doing this involves reaching a balance between life activities, responsibilities, and efforts to achieve psychological resilience. Dr. Bhooshan is a Child &...

The Bharatvaarta Weekly is our reaction to the news headlines of the  week that was. If you liked this episode, then don’t forget to subscribe to our channel and share this content. You can stay updated with everything at Bharatvaarta by following us on social media: we're @bharatvaarta on Twitter, facebook.com/bharatvaarta.in on Facebook, and @bharatvaarta on Instagram).

Last mile delivery is one of the biggest problems of India. Due to the scale of required operations, the last mile is usually close to unreachable with the resources that the government has. Even though the government undertakes many social welfare programmes, these fail to make an impact on the ground, where they are the most needed.  This is where companies like Haqdarshak come in. They provide an agent-based welfare scheme linkage at the last mile. By using assisted tech and linking...

The Bharatvaarta Weekly is our reaction to the news headlines of the  week that was. If you liked this episode, then don’t forget to subscribe to our channel and share this content. You can stay updated with everything at Bharatvaarta by following us on social media: we're @bharatvaarta on Twitter, facebook.com/bharatvaarta.in on Facebook, and @bharatvaarta on Instagram).

Velina Tchakarova in discussion with Gray Connolly, a lawyer and writer on politics, military affairs, and geopolitics, in Sydney, Australia. Gray advises on, inter alia, energy, resources, and Admiralty law, and has advised the Australian Government on national security matters.  He previously served as a naval intelligence officer in the Royal Australian Navy.  All of Gray’s opinions are his own and not those of the Australian Government.

Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) is an initiative aiming at promoting open networks for all aspects of exchange of goods and services over digital or electronic networks. ONDC is to be based on open-sourced methodology, using open specifications and open network protocols independent of any specific platform.  T Koshy is the CEO of ONDC where he focuses on building digital solutions to population scale problems. He also has a long background in the finances space, having worked in...

The Bharatvaarta Weekly is our reaction to the news headlines of the  week that was. If you liked this episode, then don’t forget to subscribe to our channel and share this content. You can stay updated with everything at Bharatvaarta by following us on social media: we're @bharatvaarta on Twitter, facebook.com/bharatvaarta.in on Facebook, and @bharatvaarta on Instagram).

We often hear of the demographic dividend, that we have 800 million people or so under the age of 35 years. But that also poses a huge challenge in terms of skilling, development, education and employment. And the nature of work and employment itself has changed, especially post-covid. So how do we think about jobs and more generally creating work opportunities for our country?  To discuss this we have Rameesh Kailasam, who is the President & CEO of IndiaTech.org, a think tank and...

The Bharatvaarta Weekly is our reaction to the news headlines of the  week that was. If you liked this episode, then don’t forget to subscribe to our channel and share this content. You can stay updated with everything at Bharatvaarta by following us on social media: we're @bharatvaarta on Twitter, facebook.com/bharatvaarta.in on Facebook, and @bharatvaarta on Instagram).

The Bharatvaarta Weekly is our reaction to the news headlines of the  week that was. If you liked this episode, then don’t forget to subscribe to our channel and share this content. You can stay updated with everything at Bharatvaarta by following us on social media: we're @bharatvaarta on Twitter, facebook.com/bharatvaarta.in on Facebook, and @bharatvaarta on Instagram).

The US is currently the world's defacto global reserve currency, and is used for trading between most nations. It began with the Bretton Woods system established after World War 2, wherein a group of 44 nations agreed to peg their currencies to the USD, and the US would peg the USD to gold. However, due to spending in the vietnam war, the USD lost a lot of it's value in the early 1960s and was seen as overvalued. This led to a run on its gold reserves, which then prompted President Nixon to...

The Bharatvaarta Weekly is our reaction to the news headlines of the  week that was. If you liked this episode, then don’t forget to subscribe to our channel and share this content. You can stay updated with everything at Bharatvaarta by following us on social media: we're @bharatvaarta on Twitter, facebook.com/bharatvaarta.in on Facebook, and @bharatvaarta on Instagram).

With Europe's changing security landscape, several parties in the continent are favoring NATO membership. Both Finland and Sweden stayed out of NATO during the Cold War, maintaining a neutral stance throughout the period. However, Russia's annexation of Crimea, its ongoing invasion of Ukraine and routine violations of airspace by Russian forces has prompted the non-aligned nations to rethink their security policies and consider a NATO membership. Cai-Göran Alexander Stubb is a Finnish...

The Zafarnāma was a spiritual victory letter sent by Guru Gobind Singh in 1705 to the Mughal Emperor of India, Aurangzeb, after the Battle of Chamkaur. The letter is written in Persian and verse. The version currently in circulation found in the Dasam Granth, the compilation of Guru Gobind Singh’s poetry, is in Gurmukhi script and Persian verse. Guru Gobind Singh sent 5 Singhs including Daya Singh, Dharam Singh and Sambhal Singh with the help of Naib Subedar Haji Sardar Shah to deliver the...

The Bharatvaarta Weekly is our reaction to the news headlines of the   week that was. If you liked this episode, then don’t forget to subscribe  to our channel and share this content. You can stay updated with  everything at Bharatvaarta by following us on social media: we're  @bharatvaarta on Twitter, facebook.com/bharatvaarta.in on Facebook, and  @bharatvaarta on Instagram).

The ISRO human space program began as the Indian Human spaceflight  programme in 2007. This began the development of technology needed to  launch crewed orbital spacecraft into low earth orbit. In 2018, the  government approved a further $1.5bn for a 7 day crewed flight. Now  known as the Gaganyaan programme, the programme aims to send two  unmanned missions and one manned flight mission into low earth orbit by  2023.   PM Modi launched the Indian Space Association (ISpA) in late 2021 as a...

Poverty has been ever-present in India since Independence, but recent  policy stands to change the status quo. Multiple undertakings and  initiatives have raised the standard of living for those below the  poverty line, but narratives continue to emerge that India's poor are  getting poorer.   A paper, written by Arvind Virmani, Surjit Bhalla, and Karan Bhasin,  aims to find the poverty and distributional consequences of the  government's pandemic support measures. The main argument of the...

The Bharatvaarta Weekly is our reaction to the news headlines of the   week that was. If you liked this episode, then don’t forget to subscribe  to our channel and share this content. You can stay updated with  everything at Bharatvaarta by following us on social media: we're  @bharatvaarta on Twitter, facebook.com/bharatvaarta.in on Facebook, and  @bharatvaarta on Instagram).

India-UK relations have a history from the times of the Mughal empire. Now, the heads of state of these historical countries have taken another step into solidifying the relationship with an upcoming free trade agreement. In this special episode covering Indo-UK relations, we have Nirav Kanodra, who is an investment banker based out of Singapore with extensive experience in sales and trading and Sunil Sharma, the Chief Operating Officer at the Conservative Friends of the Commonwealth, an...

The Bharatvaarta Weekly is our reaction to the news headlines of the   week that was. If you liked this episode, then don’t forget to subscribe  to our channel and share this content. You can stay updated with  everything at Bharatvaarta by following us on social media: we're  @bharatvaarta on Twitter, facebook.com/bharatvaarta.in on Facebook, and  @bharatvaarta on Instagram).