Bharatvaarta

On this episode of the #LongIndia series, we are pleased to have with us  Shri. NK Chaudhary ji, who is the Chairman & MD of Jaipur Rugs.  Jaipur Rugs is one of India's biggest manufacturers of hand-knotted  rugs. The company's operations span across 600 villages in India, with  the product being distributed to over 40 countries. The company manages  around 40,000 artisans.    He is often held up as a prime example of social entrepreneurship; one  of the main focuses of this episode. We also delved into his life's work  as the leader of Jaipur Rugs, hoping to pick up on some of the lessons  he received from the University of Hard Rocks of Life.   In this insightful episode, we explored the unique challenges that come  with solving for last-mile connectivity. We also delved into the founder  mentality, balancing talent management and optimization for profits,  and how to scale social enterprises.

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).

Of late, we don't just see debate on social media, but debate about it. There has been plenty of controversy about regulation, freedom of speech, big tech,  sovereignty and so on. In this podcast, we explored some of these nuances with Abhishek Ashtana.  Abhishek Asthana is an entrepreneur and founder of Ginger Monkey LLP and is a social media influencer with over 1Million followers on twitter.  In this wide-ranging podcast, we tackled issues such as the influence and power of social media. We delved into how it has evolved and grown over the past 10 years, along with discussing the nature of social engineering that allowed them to reach the ubiquity they boast today. We also discussed the nature of social media platforms, weighing whether they are platforms or publishers. We also discussed nuanced subjects such as the problem of regulating content, establishing redressal mechanisms and other similar systems, as well as how brands are viewing social media today. Finally, we concluded with discussing India's role as a market for  Big Tech companies and developing indigenous social media platforms. 

America celebrates 245 years of Independence this month, and in this  episode, we take a look at some of the social and political changes that  have taken place since the last few years. We tackled issues such as  the Trump election, the COVID-19 pandemic, wokeism, and much more.   Ruchir Sharma is an international affairs and social entrepreneurship  expert across India and Europe, with experience ranging from research at  IIM-Ahmedabad to public policy and security sector reform with a Swiss  inter-governmental agency, and from business innovation in the German  technology sector to international environmental advocacy with one of  Europe’s oldest NGOs and at the United Nations.  In 2017, he was selected as an MIT Global Entrepreneur and Indo-German  Young Leader, and in 2018, named a Climate Reality Leader by Al Gore’s  Climate Reality Project and helped ProVeg International win the UN  Momentum for Change Award for Planetary Health.   Velina Tchakarova is Head of Institute at the Austrian Institute for  European and Security Policy (AIES) in Vienna, Austria. She holds a M.A.  in political science/political science of South Asia from the  University in Heidelberg, Germany and a B.A. in international relations  from the University of World and National Economy in Sofia, Bulgaria.  Her work includes research, consulting and lectures on the global system  transformation and geostrategy of global actors as well as the EU  foreign, security, and defence policy.

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).

Much has changed in Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. We did a podcast earlier last year featuring Sunanda Vashist and Mr. Sreemoy Talukdar detailing some of the societal changes that have happened since. In this episode, we have two prominent voices in the Kashmiri pandit community, Dr. Surinder Kaul and Shri Virinder Kaul.  Shri. Virinder Kaul is an activist who has been involved in the Kashmiri pandit community's struggles since 1990 in Jammu. He was part of a dedicated team of volunteers who started interacting on a personal level at refugee camps in Nagrota, Muthi, Mishriwalla and Purkhoo. He also organised many protests and rallies to highlight the sub-par living conditions of their community.  Dr. Surinder Kaul, MD is a co-founder of the Global Kashmiri Pandit Diaspora and a board certified internist in Houston, Texas. He is currently licensed to practice medicine in Texas. He, along with others in the GKPD are working on establishing genocide of our community, bringing our perpetrators to justice, protection of our temples and shrines in the valley. They are vocal activists from the global Kashmiri pandit diaspora focused on protecting their community’s unique culture, religious practices and literature.  In this episode, we delved deep into the current situation in Kashmir and the significance of these events. We began by discussing the sitation in Kashmir after it's declaration as a Union Teritorry. Then, we explored the impact of the abrogation of Article 370. We then spoke about the role of the worldwide Kashmiri pandit diaspora in bringing attention to the issues faced by residents of the erstwhile state.  We also spoke about the attitude of media towards the situation in these states. Then, we explored the political stance that the central government has taken towards J&K. We concluded by discussing the goals of the Kashmiri pandit diaspora and what it aims to achieve. 

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).  #Bharatvaarta #BVWeekly

In this edition of our #LongIndia Series, we are privileged to speak with Mr. Shridhar Venkat, CEO of the Akshaya Patra Foundation; facilitators of the world's largest mid-day meal program, serving wholesome food to over 1.8 million children from 19,000+ schools all over India.  Mr. Venkat has been with the foundation for 16 years now and has also held leadership positions across prominent multinational like Philips and Cisco. His search for an existential purpose in life made him quit his corporate career and join Akshaya Patra Foundation. In this episode, we discussed his personal journey and the work of the foundation over the last couple of decades.  In this riveting conversation, we started off by exploring the origin of Akshaya Patra and delved into it's sustainability. We then progressed to how Akshaya Patra solves for last-mile connectivity - a historically difficult problem in India. Along the way, we also explored the challenges that the foundation overcomes when delivering hot and fresh meals to children.  Mr. Venkat also shed light on his experience working in corporates and how it translated to improving processes at Akshaya Patra. We also got a deeper look into the technology innovations made by the foundation to operate effectively at such a large scale. We ended the discussion by speaking about the various undertakings of Mr. Venkat and the Foundation to further the education of underprivileged children. 

Monica Jasuja is a senior executive with extensive experience in building innovative digital products for the financial services industry. She is passionate about creating solutions in the digital payments space. Ritu Bhandari is Head of Research, Smahi Foundation of Policy and Research. She is a Chartered Accountant, with extensive experience working in the banking industry. She has co-authored a research report titled "Digital Payments in India - An Atmanirbhar India pioneering and leading the digital revolution".    In this episode, we talk to Monica and Ritu about the evolution of digital payments in India. We start off by discussing the new payment regulations and their impact. We look at whether the NUE framework is replicating the work done by NPCI and how it will work with the interoperability requirement of the RBI. We also look at the Account Aggregator framework and what are some of the things that can be done to improve the digital payments infrastructure in India.

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).  #Bharatvaarta #BVWeekly