Indicast - All Podcasts Various Indicast Podcast Hosts

India delivers a shock verdict to the Bharatiya Janata Party during the general elections. Narendra Modi’s BJP has done remarkably well and only lost out on the vote by 0.8 per cent as compared to the previous elections. It’s just that the votes were less effectively distributed. But by not winning the elections with a thumping majority means that the opposition will have a voice in the parliament, always a good sign for a healthy democracy. In sports Sunil Chhetri, the legendary Indian footballer retires. And in the animal kingdom, dice snakes pretend to play dead to detract predators.

Gregory Zukerman writes for the Wall Street Journal. Over the last few decades he has written several books. In 2019 he wrote "The Man Who solved the market: How Jim Simons Launched The Quant Revolution" which became a runaway hit. It tells the story of a genius mathematician who used modern quantitative techniques to make money for himself and his investors. Since 1988 one of the fund’s operated by Mr Simons generated average annual returns of 66%. Legendary investors like Warren Buffet, George Soros and Peter Lynch, too, cannot claim to have made these outsized profits with such consistency. How did Mr Simons go about his business? How did he manage a stellar team while keeping them movitated? How did he use machine learning, artificial intelligence, data and analytics in an era when these terms were unheard of in the industry? Gregory Zukerman explains it all in this podcast.

Alex Duff talks about how Brentford football club used data and analytics to improve and retain its spot in the English Premier League. His book, "Smart Money: The Fall and Rise of Brentford" is a fascinating account of how the club instilled new values and respected number crunching to make key decisions on deciding plays on the field and in the transfer market.

Ananyo Bhattacharya's "The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John Von Neumann" is a fascinating book about the Hungarian-American mathematician. It's a shame that most of us know little about the man. Dr Bhattacharya digs deep into the mathematician's early days and how he went on to have a lasting impact in different fields including nanotechnology, game theory, artificial intelligence and quantum physics.

How does it feel to witness a solar eclipse? Aditya tells us his experience in this podcast where we dig into trivia and history of this beautiful astronomical phenomenon. Bangalore faces a water crisis. How can a country as big as India deal with water shortages? Generative artificial intelligence is and will remain in the spotlight in a year when countries with a collective population of 4bn go to polls.

The Candidates Tournament is among the world’s most recognised Chess contests. This time round India has as many as five grandmasters competing for the top prize. That’s a big deal given that for around 30 years, it was Vishy Anand, the sole Indian grandmaster who represented India. In politics, “washing machine” trended for a while on Twitter in the context of corruption probes which, the opposition argued, could be washed away if one joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. And in business, Tesla scouts sites in India for a big plant. What does that mean for the giant and for the country?