The Morning Brief

Vijay Sharma, Deputy CM of Chhattisgarh focused on surrenders, security deployment and rehab plans for Bastar. Shantanu Nandan Sharma, ET reporter who spoke with villagers and former militants about schools and local livelihoods. Rahul Tripathi, internal security editor with on-ground reportage and interviews of surrendered Naxalites. They discuss mass surrenders, state-run camps and training, expanding security footprint, and the challenges of reintegration and development.

Santanu Sengupta, MD and Chief India Economist at Goldman Sachs, offers concise macro analysis. He explains why Middle East oil shocks hit India harder. He highlights which exports and remittances will shift. He outlines risks to gas, fertilizers and food inflation. He describes fiscal cushions, crude sourcing shifts, and likely central bank rate moves.

Bhanu Baweja, Chief Strategist at UBS Investment Bank with 20+ years tracking global markets. He warns markets may be treating Middle East conflict as a short shock. He compares potential oil losses to Russia‑Ukraine, explores long‑term energy security, and examines how an oil or liquidity shock could threaten AI investment and India’s domestic investor resilience.

Saloni Shukla, banking reporter at Economic Times, offers sharp journalistic analysis of HDFC Bank’s governance turmoil. Sashidhar Jagdishan, CEO of HDFC Bank, speaks on merger integration and board dynamics. They discuss the chairman's abrupt exit, Dubai onboarding and 81 bond complaints, market panic and RBI reassurance, and potential board and management reshuffles.

G.V. Prasad, Co-Chairman and Managing Director of Dr. Reddy’s with 30+ years steering pharma and manufacturing, talks candidly about the company’s past crises and missed bold moves. He discusses India's innovation gap, plans to build biologics and new modalities, the realistic role of AI, funding strategies beyond generics, and a ten-year target to shift a large share of revenue to innovation.

Mohak Shroff, SVP Engineering at LinkedIn with 18 years shaping its systems, explains how LinkedIn acts as an AI matching engine. He discusses AI-native jobs versus AI-augmented roles. He talks about redesigning roles for AI fluency, building adaptable skill frameworks, and using AI tools as productivity partners while keeping human judgment and accountability central.

Sheetal Sapale, VP at Pharmarack who tracks pharma market and pricing in India, and Dr. Rajiv Kovil, diabetologist and weight‑management expert, unpack semaglutide’s patent expiry. They discuss the incoming generic surge and steep price drops. They debate cold‑chain and manufacturing hurdles, patient adherence and education, shifting treatment pathways, and who might scale up or falter in the shakeout.

Abishur Prakash, geopolitical strategist and author focused on tech and security, joins to unpack the clash between companies and governments over AI access. He discusses Anthropic’s ethical stand, OpenAI’s classified pivot, sovereign AI challenges in Europe, and how AI could shift from targeting to driving battlefield decisions. The conversation maps two futures: corporate alignment with states or government-built alternatives.

Amitendu Palit, global trade expert at NUS, and Biswajit Dhar, retired JNU trade economist, analyze India’s cautious reopening to Chinese FDI. They discuss why Delhi moved now. They outline which sectors could welcome Chinese money and which remain off-limits. They probe indirect investment structures, thresholds and security-focused exceptions.

Puran Choudhary, Economic Times reporter on-the-ground in Bengaluru reporting LPG shortages and black-market impacts. Bob McNally, former White House energy advisor and Rapidan Energy founder, gives historical and geopolitical perspective on major oil shocks. Amrita Sen, founder of Energy Aspects and oil market analyst, breaks down crude, product and LPG flow disruptions. They discuss the Strait of Hormuz shutdown, supply shocks, refinery cuts, shipping and strategic reserve responses.