Indicast - Indians on India Aditya & Abhishek

Surat's diamond industry has suffered from the prolonged war in Ukraine. Nine out ten diamonds on the planet are polished in the diamond capital of India. But after America slapped sanctions on trade with Russia, workers in Surat suddenly find themselves with lesser work than before. Wages have been hit. Australia lifted the ICC men's Cricket World Cup. Well deserved. And hard luck India. OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, had one heck of a ride last week. Its boss was sacked only to be reinstated a few days later. How can the industry be regulated and what does it mean for all of us?

India has a junk food problem. It is a big one. In this episode we talk a bit about why that is happening and some of the science behind it all. And have you tasted the world's fourth best cheese? It's from India. A year after FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange folded, Sam Bankman-Fried, the firm's infamous boss has been convicted of multiple counts of fraud. And India will play Australia in the ICC Cricket World Cup finals. Fingers crossed.

Firstly, a very Happy Diwali to everyone. Indian couples are increasingly embracing In Vitro Fertilization, often the last hope for having a baby. While it is a boon for millions of new parents, it is also a painful and demanding process on women. India has placed a multi-billion dollar order on new planes in recent times. Also, what do airlines do to save costs? According to one study by the University of Chigago, life of those who live in Delhi has been shortened by ten years due to air pollution. What could we do about it? And India continues its stellar run at the ICC World Cup.

It has been quite the year. And some of it has been rather grim. The Israel and Hamas conflict has been deadly. Thousands of civilians have lost their lives. Closer home, some folks insist on renaming India to Bharat. In cricket, the World Cup is on and India is on song. And Bishan Singh Bedi just passed away.

The Adani Group has been hit with a bunch of allegations from Hindenburg Research, an American investment firm that specialises in making bets against companies that it considers are overvalued. What does it mean for the conglomerate? Tech layoffs may have made the news but how bad will the impending recession in America turn out? Not half bad is what we learn in a podcast where we try to understand the definition of recession itself. In sports, football introduced the white card. By the way, did you know the colourful and bloody history of yellow and red cards? And Indian women's cricket is in rude health.

Once in ten years India conducts a massive exercise to count its population and collect vital data about its citizens. This time round the census, normally a once-in-a-decade-affair has been postponed yet again. Why? We delve into some of the reasons. And scientists in Switzerland have figured out a way to deflect lightning bolts with lasers.