Podcasts about Gurgaon

Astroview, Inc. was founded by Vedic astrology counselor and educator, David Madison Hawthorne. President: International Institute of Predictive Astrology (IIPA) Member: Systems' Institute of Hindu Astrology (SIHA) Member: Systems' Approach to Vedic Astrology (SATVA) Member: Systems' Approach to Mundane Astrology (SAMVA) Honors: Master's Degree and Professorship of Vedic Astrology, and the titles of Jyotish Bhanu and Jyotish Acharya — awarded by the Systems' Institute of Hindu Astrology, Gurugram, India Mr. Hawthorne has been studying Vedic astrology since 1988. He studied or participated in more than 2,000 hours of classes, seminars, and audio or video presentations given by leading Vedic astrologers worldwide. He has read more than 108 books on Vedic astrology and has given Vedic astrology readings to thousands of clients in 54 countries worldwide. In October 1999, Mr. Hawthorne was conferred with the title, “Jyotish Bhanu” by the Systems' Institute of Hindu Astrology, New Delhi, India. In May 2002, he was awarded his Master's degree in Vedic Astrology, and subsequently the title, “Professor of Vedic Astrology”, and “Jyotish Acharya”, by the Systems' Institute of Hindu Astrology, Gurgaon, India. Mr. Hawthorne is the co-author of Astrology for Life: How to Be Your Own Vedic Astrologer. The book is a compendium of The Systems' Approach to Interpreting Horoscopes, as developed by Professor V.K. Choudhry of Gurugram, India, which is based on the empirical studies of thousands of charts conducted over a 30-year period. Mr. Hawthorne teaches classes and presents workshops on The Systems' Approach, and is has been a guest on numerous radio talk shows nationwide. He is known as “The 30-Second Astrologer”, due to his ability to quickly create and read charts live, during radio broadcasts. Mr. Hawthorne is the President of the International Institute of Predictive Astrology (IIPA), with more than 800 members from more than 40 countries worldwide. He is also a member of both the Council of Vedic Astrology (CVA), and The Systems' Institute of Hindu Astrology (SIHA). He offers free Systems' Approach to Vedic astrology study materials to those who request same. He also has an online video course that includes numerous videos — illustrating the building blocks and application of the Systems' Approach paradigm for all twelve rising signs. Mr. Hawthorne has been practicing the Transcendental Meditation Program as taught by His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, since August 1973. He resides in Fairfield, Iowa, USA — the largest community of (approximately 2,000) meditators in North America — with his wife, Eileen. They have three adult children, Brian, Sara, and Galen.

'Official Yogi of India' in the Indira-Sanjay Gandhi era, Dhirendra Brahmachari built sprawling ashrams from Delhi to Mantalai, and the Haryana govt has passed a Bill to take over his Aparna Ashram in Gurgaon. In Episode 1630 of #CutTheClutter, Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta discusses Dhirendra among India's other influential gurus, their extra-constitutional powers in the backdrop of the nexus between political & spiritual leaders, and the 'divine fate' of these 'holy men'.

In this episode, we speak with Swetha Kolluri, who works on AI and Digital Innovations at the World Bank. Previously serving as Head of Experimentation at UNDP in India, Swetha has dedicated her career to applying frontier technologies to social and environmental challenges. With her background spanning rural development, data science, and sustainability initiatives across India and the US, she brings unique perspectives on transformative solutions using AI and cloud computing. In this conversation, Swetha shares insights from her work designing innovative development experiments, and her vision for how earth observation, citizen science and AI can address global challenges such as environmental degradation and climate change. She also shares some tips managing cloud costs for organisations who may have low resource bases. --- Sign-up for thriveGEO's Cloud-Native Geospatial 101 training and use the exclusive discount code CNGPODCAST - https://bit.ly/geospatial_cloud ---   More about Swetha: LinkedIn -  https://www.linkedin.com/in/swetha-kolluri/   Projects that Swetha mentioned in the episode: GeoAI for brick kilns in India. This digital innovation applied AI to detect 48,287 brick kilns from satellite data with an accuracy of 96%, empowering environmental regulators in India to expedite climate action.  https://geo-ai.undp.org.in/   DiCRA (Data in Climate Resilient Agriculture) is an accredited digital public good (DPG) that has democratized satellite data for informing climate finance in agriculture. This innovation provided data and intelligence on climate resilience across 50 million hectares of agriculture land across 7 states in India. https://github.com/undpindia/dicra   ‘VAYU – OpenAir' with open software, open algorithms and open data collected on air pollution produced through hyperlocal mapping of air pollution in two cities - Patna and Gurgaon. This dataset is used to map point sources of air pollution and enable cities take action on specific sources.  https://github.com/undpindia/VAYU_OpenAir   More about thriveGEO - https://thrivegeo.com/

In this episode of The Brand Called You, we have the pleasure of welcoming Arun Bhati, a distinguished tech entrepreneur from Gurgaon, India. Arun shares his inspiring journey from his education at NIT Bhopal and IIM Calcutta to becoming the founder and CEO of Orahi, Consat Orahi, and the innovative 1 Million Founders Program. He delves into his rich experiences at Ericsson, contributing to groundbreaking projects like India's first mobile TV and ringback tones.Arun discusses the mission behind the 1 Million Founders Program, which aims to transform job seekers into job creators by nurturing entrepreneurial skills from a young age. He highlights the challenges and visionary solutions the program offers, focusing on innovation, practical solutions, and cross-cultural exchanges between India and Sweden.Join us in exploring how Arun Bhati is bridging the gap between different educational systems and redefining what it means to be a founder in today's world.

0:00 2012年英语专业四级听力 新闻10:59 2012年英语专业四级听力 新闻21:48 2012年英语专业四级听力 新闻32:50 2012年英语专业四级听力 新闻43:40 2012年英语专业四级听力 新闻54:14 2012年英语专业四级听力 新闻62012年英语专业四级听力 新闻1A huge storm that collapsed part of a cliff on Israel's central coast led to the discovery of a statue dating back to the Roman period, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Tuesday.以色列文物局周二表示，一场巨大的风暴击垮以色列中部海岸的悬崖，一尊罗马时期的雕像被发现。The white marble statue of a woman is estimated to be 2,000 years old.据估计，这尊白色大理石女性雕像有2000年的历史。It stands 1.2 meters tall, weighs about 200 kilograms and was found with no head or arms, according to a news release by the authority.据权威机构发布的消息称，它高1.2米，重约200公斤，没有头部和手臂。A person walking on the shore at Ashkelon on the west coast of Jerusalem made the discovery, the authority said.当局称，耶路撒冷西海岸阿什克伦海滩上的一名行人发现了这一雕像。The statue fell into the sea when the cliff collapsed as a result of the storm.由于暴风雨的袭击，这座雕像掉进了海里。The collapse also ruined a bath house and mosaics that had been in the cliff for many hundreds of years.倒塌也催毁了一间浴室，还有镶嵌在悬崖上数百年的马赛克。The storm, one of the strongest Israel has experienced in recent years, brought winds of more than 100 kph that sent 10-meter waves crashing into Israel's coast.这场风暴是以色列近年来遭遇的最强大的风暴之一，风速超过100公里，在以色列海岸掀起10米的海浪。2012年英语专业四级听力 新闻2Canadian police and military teams were working Tuesday afternoon to rescue about 300 people stranded after what a local official termed the most brutal storm to hit the Ontario region in 25 years.周二下午，加拿大警方和军事小组营救被困的300多人。安大略地区官员称这是25年来最猛烈的风暴。Some people had been stuck in their vehicles for more than 24 hours following blinding snow that piled up so high it made it almost impossible to open vehicle doors.由于积雪堆积，车门很难打开，一些人被困在车里超过24小时。Ontario Provincial Police initially reported about 360 vehicles and about 300 people had been stranded near Sarnia, Ontario, on Highway 402-a major thoroughfare linking the U.S.-Canada border to London, Ontario.安大略省警方最初公布，大约360辆汽车，300人被困在安大略省萨尼亚附近的402公路上，这是安大略省伦敦市通向美加边境的主要通道。Some of those people have since been rescued, but Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley said it could be another 24 hours before everyone is taken to safety.其中一些人已经获救，但萨尼亚市长迈克·布拉德利表示，还需要24小时才能将所有人都送往安全地带。2012年英语专业四级听力 新闻3A top anti-smoking law has taken effect in Spain.西班牙出台了一项反吸烟法案。The ban, one of the strictest in Europe, outlaws smoking in all bars and restaurants.这项禁令是欧洲最严格的禁令之一，禁止在所有酒吧和餐馆吸烟。Smokers will also be prohibited on television broadcast, near hospitals or in school playgrounds.在电视广播中、医院附近或学校操场上吸烟也受到禁止。A law tightens anti-smoking restrictions introduced in 2006.该法律比2006年出台的禁烟限制条例更加严格。The anti-smoking rules introduced in 2006 outlawed smoking only in the workplace.2006年颁布的禁烟令只禁止在工作场所吸烟。It let bar and restaurant owners choose whether or not to allow it.酒吧和餐馆老板自主选择自己的经营场所是否允许吸烟。Most chose not to impose any ban.大多数人选择不实施禁令。Only large restaurants and bars were obliged to provide a smoke-free area.只有大型的餐厅和酒吧才有义务提供无烟区。Now,hotel, restaurant and bar owners have said they could face a 10% drop in trade with the new rules.现在，酒店、餐厅和酒吧老板都表示，新规定出台后，他们的营业额可能会下降10%。The industry has already seen a sharp fall in sales due to Spain's economic problems.由于西班牙的经济问题，该行业的销售额已经急剧下降。But doctors argue the new legislation will help smokers give up.但是医生们认为新法律将有助于吸烟者戒烟。2012年英语专业四级听力 新闻4Police in India have arrested a city bank employee accused of cheating clients out of millions of dollars.印度警方逮捕了一名城市银行职员，他被控诈骗客户数百万美元。Shivraj Pierry, 32, who is expected to appear in court later, told an Indian newspaper he was innocent.32岁的希夫拉杰·皮耶里，预计稍后会在法庭上露面，他告诉一家印度报纸说他是无辜的。The alleged fraud was discovered earlier this month, in a branch of the global bank,in Gurgaon, a wealthy suburb of Delhi.本月早些时候，在德里富裕的郊区古尔冈的一家全球银行分支机构，这起涉嫌欺诈的案件被发现。The bank has said investors were promised quick, high returns from a bogus financial scheme.该银行表示，有人向投资者承诺可以迅速从一个虚假的金融计划中获得高额回报。It is alleged that Mr. Pierry transferred the money into accounts controlled by three relatives.据称，皮耶里将这笔钱转入了三名亲属控制的账户。Mr. Pierry reportedly handed himself in on Thursday, a day after police said he was wanted for questioning.据报道，皮耶里周四自首。此前一天，警方称他被通缉审问。The alleged fraud came to light earlier this month when a client mentioned this scheme to a senior bank manager.本月早些时候，一名客户向一名高级银行经理提到了这一计划，这场诈骗才被发现。2012年英语专业四级听力 新闻5Some Hotmail users are reporting that their e-mails are missing from their accounts.一些Hotmail用户称账户里的电子邮件不见了。A number of people with Hotmail accounts have posted complaints on Microsoft forums complaining that their e-mails have been deleted.很多Hotmail用户在微软论坛上投诉称自己的电子邮件被删除了。Users around the world said e-mails were missing from their inbox and other folders within their Hotmail accounts.世界各地的用户都表示，他们Hotmail账户里的收件箱和其他文件夹都有电子邮件丢失A spokeswoman from Microsoft said the issue of missing e-mails was not a widespread problem.微软的一位发言人说，丢失电子邮件的问题影响范围并不大。By Sunday evening the issue was fully resolved, she said. The company apologize for any inconvenience.她说，到周日晚上这个问题已经完全解决了。公司对由此带来的不便表示歉意。2012年英语专业四级听力 新闻6The number of North Americans who went to the cinema in 2010 was around 5 percent down on the 2009 total, figures show.数据显示，北美2010年去电影院看电影的人数比2009年下降了大约5%。Box office analysts forecast 1.35 billion tickets will be sold by the end of the year,down on 1.42 billion sold in 2009.票房分析师预测，到今年年底，将售出13.5亿张门票，低于2009年的14.2亿张。It is the biggest year-on-year drop since 2005, making 2010 the second lowest attended year of the decade.这是自2005年以来最大的同比降幅，2010年也成为10年来第二低的一年。Yet,box office revenues remained about the same at 10.7 billion dollars due to increased ticket prices.然而，由于票价上涨，票房收入仍然保持在107亿美元左右。Animated movie Toy Story 3 was the highest grossing film of the year at the U.S.box office, earning nearly 450 million dollars.动画电影《玩具总动员3》是今年美国票房收入最高的电影，收入近4.5亿美元。The Pixar sequel, like the second highest grossing title Alice in Wonderland,was one of several hit movies released in 3D.皮克斯的续集，比如票房第二高的《爱丽丝梦游仙境》，是几部热门3D电影之一。It is thought the attendance figures in the U.S. and Canada will rise next year when sequels to hit comedies The Hangover and Pirates of the Caribbean are released.有人认为，美国和加拿大的观影人数明年将会上升，届时喜剧《宿醉》和《加勒比海盗》的续集将会上映。

Gaurav, CFA and Co-founder at Zeno Realty, provides insights to investors based on raw data. Deepti Mallik is an Entrepreneur and Real Estate Portfolio Manager. She was featured in SonyLiv's Million Dollar Listing, the first reality show based on the real estate industry. They help HNIs and NRIs make better investment decisions by analyzing these numbers. The Report 2024 of All the High Rises Download Link You can follow the panel: Gaurav: https://x.com/GauravGupta_RE Deepti: https://www.instagram.com/that.realtor.girl/?igsh=bXllMmRjd2J3ZmZk In this episode, Vinamre and the panel talk about: - The rapid growth of Gurugram and the reasons behind it - Investing in real estate: good or bad, Dealing with different types of clients - The reason behind the absurd price rise of Gurgaon real estate - How high AQI affects real estate prices, Views on fractional partnership - The DLF story and how living in The Camellias and other prime apartments can change your lifestyle - The reason behind the fascination with DLF high-rises Watch the episode to dive deeper into Gurugram's real estate growth and lifestyle changes. Timestamps: 0:00 - Trailer1:00 - Their Background4:28 - Realtor vs. Broker vs. Developer vs. Real Estate Investor8:49 - How Gurgaon Rapidly Grew13:12 - Land Buyers vs. Home Buyers18:42 - Why Millennials in Gurgaon End Up Buying Homes There22:35 - Investing in Real Estate30:06 - Dealing with Clients with Different Budgets40:37 - The Absurd Rise in Housing Prices in Gurgaon45:48 - Does Pollution Affect Real Estate Prices?54:01 - Client Profiles and High-Profile Clients1:05:25 - The Worst Part of Their Job1:12:55 - The DLF Story1:20:19 - How Life Changes After Living in DLF1:23:55 - Dream International Real Estate Destinations1:30:15 - Fractional Ownership1:33:15 - Good Financing Options for Buying a Home1:38:25 - Conclusion ==================================================================== This is the official channel for Dostcast, a podcast by Vinamre Kasanaa. Connect with me LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vinamre-kasanaa-b8524496/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vinamrekasanaa/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/VinamreKasanaa Dostcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dostcast/ Dostcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dostcast Dostcast on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557567524054 ==================================================================== Contact Us For business inquiries: dostcast@egiplay.com

Last month though, things went crazy in Delhi NCR's real estate market. A DLF penthouse property in Gurgaon, a little over 16,000 square feet in size, sold for a mind-blogging Rs 190 crores. Just the stamp duty was Rs 13 crores, apparently.  What really shocked the internet though was the per-square-foot price—Rs 180,000. When The Ken reporter Rounak Kumar Gunjan first came across it, he immediately forwarded the news article to some of his friends who are planning to buy flats to give them a sense of the madness out out there. But his frinds, he says, pulled off a UNO reverse.Because they told him something else about India's real-estate space that was even more intriguing. An increasingly common sinister pattern in home loans that he has since confirmed with two bankers and two insurance industry executives. Tune in!Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India's first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

Welcome to Top of the Morning by Mint, your weekday newscast that brings you five major stories from the world of business. It's Monday, January 6, 2024. This is Nelson John, let's get started. China has a new virus! There is a rising concern about respiratory infections in the country, particularly with an increase in cases of Human Metapneumovirus among children under 14. This virus, part of the same family as the respiratory syncytial virus, has sparked worries due to its symptoms and transmission methods, which are reminiscent of COVID-19. Unlike COVID-19, however, there's no vaccine or specific treatment for HMPV, adding to the global health anxieties. The increase in cases, especially noted in northern China, comes during the usual flu season but has raised some eyebrows globally due to fears of a pandemic-like spread, reminiscent of the early COVID-19 days. However, health experts note that HMPV isn't new; it's been around since 2001 and pops up seasonally in places like the US and UK. Jessica Jani explains what the new virus is and how it could affect the human body, in today's Primer.  Donald Trump's second presidential term has reignited concerns over H-1B visas, critical for India's $250-billion IT services sector. Historically, these visas have been essential for employing highly skilled non-immigrants in the US. However, Indian tech companies are less vulnerable today than in the past due to a strategic shift towards hiring more Americans and reducing dependency on H-1B visas. Jas Bardia spoke to IT industry insiders who told him that IT companies are hiring more locally in the US, which decreases the reliance on H-1B visas. US firms now employ more Americans than H-1B visa holders in these roles. Data shows that major Indian IT firms, including Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, and Wipro, have significantly reduced their H-1B visa applications over the last decade. 2024 marked a significant increase in ultra-luxury real estate transactions in India, with cities like Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, and Bengaluru seeing record deals for homes costing over Rs 100 crore. Speaking to Mint's Khushi Malhotra, Ritesh Mehta of JLL highlighted the growth in this sector, noting high-value transactions on Gurgaon's Golf Course Road and South Mumbai's Malabar Hill. This surge reflects a robust confidence in ultra-luxury real estate as a stable investment. The data from PropEquity revealed 13 such transactions between January and October last year, a slight decrease from 21 in 2023. Anarock Group's data also shows that 99 ultra-luxury residential deals worth Rs 8,069 crore were closed over the past three years.India's new Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 is causing a stir with its latest draft rules, especially around the new requirement for parents to verify their identity when their kids want to use online platforms. This proposal is sparking quite a debate about its practicality and the potential headaches it could cause for both families and companies. The draft rules suggest parents need to prove they're really the guardians using digital IDs like the Digilocker platform, Souvik Das reports. While this is meant to keep kids safe online, it's also raising concerns about the extra burden it places on companies that now have to manage this verification process. Ketan Parekh, once celebrated as a prime mover of India's stock market, found himself implicated in a new scandal. Decades after being banned for a major 2001 market scam, Parekh is accused of using insider information to manipulate trades, profiting ₹38.7 crore. Additionally, a Singapore-based trader linked to him earned ₹27.07 crore in commissions, leading the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to seek a return of ₹65.77 crore from those involved. The investigation, lasting over two and a half years, involved deep dives into financial records, phone data, and digital communications across multiple platforms. Sebi's detailed probe revealed Parekh's use of various tactics to disguise his involvement, including using multiple mobile numbers registered under different names and employing pseudonyms. Neha Joshi takes an in-depth look at the 30-month investigation undertaken by the market regulator, which ended up with Parekh's implication.

This is the Catchup on 3 Things by The Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.Today is the 20th of November and here are the headlines.Maharashtra and Jharkhand Elections UpdateAs of 3 pm, voter turnout in Maharashtra stands at 45.53%, while Jharkhand's Phase 2 polling has recorded 61.47%. Maharashtra's 288 Assembly seats are in play, with the Mahayuti coalition facing off against the Maha Vikas Aghadi. In Jharkhand, Chief Minister Hemant Soren seeks re-election while the BJP hopes to disrupt his plans. Voter engagement is key in these crucial contests, as both states head toward pivotal elections shaping the future of their leadership.Bitcoin Allegations in Maharashtra ElectionsNationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Supriya Sule and Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole have filed complaints with cyber police and the Election Commission over Bitcoin misappropriation allegations. Former IPS officer Ravindranath Patil accused them of using misappropriated Bitcoins to influence the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections. The BJP has released voice notes, claiming a conspiracy, intensifying the controversy on the eve of voting. The investigation into these serious claims is now underway.Delhi Air Quality and Work-from-Home OrdersDelhi's Environment Minister Gopal Rai announced a 50% work-from-home policy for both private and government offices due to severe air pollution. The air quality index (AQI) hit a dangerous 430 on Wednesday, with areas like Mundka reaching 464. While slight improvements were noted, the city remains in a crisis. In response, Gurgaon has also implemented similar measures, urging residents to protect themselves from the ongoing hazardous air conditions.Suicide Bombing in PakistanA suicide bomber attacked a security post in Bannu, northwestern Pakistan, killing 12 security personnel and injuring several others. The bombing, one of the deadliest in recent months, occurred in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The Pakistani military responded to the attack, killing six militants from the Pakistani Taliban, or "khwarij," in the ensuing exchange of fire. This deadly assault marks a significant escalation in violence in the region.US Embassy Closure in KyivThe US Embassy in Kyiv closed on Wednesday, citing concerns of a "potential significant air attack." Embassy employees were instructed to shelter in place as a precautionary measure. The closure follows heightened tensions after Ukraine's missile strike on Russia using US-provided ATACMS. The embassy's warning underscores the ongoing risks in the region, as the US and Ukraine face rising threats amid the ongoing conflict.This was the Catch Up on 3 Things by The Indian Express.

In Episode 7 of Where Passion Meets Education (WPME), Sandeep Dutt engages in a lively conversation with Nisha Bhakar, who shares her passion for education, emphasising the importance of libraries and giving students space to explore and discover themselves.We celebrate Children's Day 2024 with the story of Nandha Gokulam Life School and our passionate educator, Nisha Bhakar.Nisha Bhakar's Educational Philosophy* Emphasis on creating joyful learning spaces and libraries.* Belief in allowing students to be vulnerable, explore, and discover themselves.* It is essential to give students different perspectives and understand personal growth.* Value of books in personal and professional development.Teacher's Role and Passion for Education* Nisha's journey from reluctant teacher to passionate educator.* Importance of family support in pursuing an educational career.* Value of continuous learning and self-discovery for teachers.* Emphasis on reading as a crucial tool for teacher development and reflection.About her life and workNisha Bhakar entered the world of education when big questions arose about traditional ideologues in education. Her past two decades of hands-on approach towards child development and education and her ability to sense practical solutions customised to every classroom have turned around many schools. Her understanding of curriculum and pedagogy across boards CBSE, CAIE ( CIE) & PYP-IB and her passion and thirst for learning are visible in the reading culture nurtured amongst the teachers and students of all her schools. She led the whole school transformation at The Heritage School, Gurgaon, set up one of the largest schools offering Cambridge (CAIE) qualifications in Hyderabad, and headed a GEMS-managed school in Jaipur. Nisha is currently working in education at Vishwa Samudra Holdings, Hyderabad. She is engaged in setting up an all-boys residential school with international facilities for underprivileged children at Nellore, AP.Nisha Bhakar's experience in education has been focused on planning, designing and reviewing curriculum, developing and implementing teacher training focusing on thematic approach & project-based learning to teaching learning and developing resource material for teachers as well as students along with the administrative responsibilities of running and setting up a school from inception.In the past, Ms Bhakar has also been engaged as an Advisor and consultant to schools like the United World College, Pune (IBDP School), and Mt. Carmel at Delhi, to name a few. She was a member of the Core Team of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, led by NCERT Reading Cell. Member of Indian Principal's team visiting Germany, Singapore, the UK, and Canada to understand the higher education system in these countries. Actively involved in developing the Teacher's Resource Packs for English Language Teaching (ELT) for Oxford University Press & Pearson Education. Awarded the ‘Best Educationist Award' in 2012. Ms Nisha Bhakar has also been honoured as one of Asia's most outstanding leaders of 2019, among other awards.Reading, travelling, and adventure sports, especially white-water rafting, are some of her areas of interest. Nisha cherishes skydiving at Dubai Zero Point and scuba diving.Thanks for reading Good Schools India Journal! This post is public, so feel free to share it.NGLS is yet another school that has resulted from Vishwa Samudra Holdings Chairman's desire to impact young minds with the proper schooling experience. The Group Management envisioned quality educational institutions and started this journey over a decade ago by setting up two co-educational schools for underprivileged students, one offering state board education and another a premier CBSE residential school. The third project was a CBSE school with impressive infrastructure and facilities at Nellore. NGLS is the fourth school being set up by this Management.Read more: The 7Cs of Nandha Gokulam: https://nglifeschool.com/the-7cs/What sets NGLS apart from previous schools is its core philosophy. It is a school designed to give a platform to underprivileged boys who can now dream of achieving what they truly deserve and will not be deprived because they come from economically weaker sections of our society.Find out more about NGLS at: https://nglifeschool.comGood Schools India Journal is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.gsi.in/subscribe

Sarthak Kaul is the Host of True Kauling, a podcast that helps people find clarity and inspiration to do the things that inspire them. Outside of that, he's a Founding member at Gigpay, a fintech that's revolutionizing the way the gig economy gets paid globally. He's in a MS program focused onTech Commercialization program at McCombs school of Business, UT Austin. Sarthak is originally from Gurgaon, India and loves to share moments with strangers that hopefully light them up.Listen or read below:Order some merch, Iconic Luxury Streetwear: ⁠https://www.iconicluxurystreetwear.com/⁠ Podcast & Content Creation Course: ⁠https://tanakatava.gumroad.com/l/LVySW⁠ The Download (Keys & Codes) - Newsletter featuring previous episodes of Iconic Conversations and musings of my mind: ⁠https://tanakatava.substack.com/https://tanakatava.substack.com/⁠ Book a FREE consulting call to discuss your creative strategy or business idea: ⁠https://calendly.com/tanakatava/tava-consulting-20-minute-meeting⁠ Listen to this podcast (but in audio form): ⁠Listen to Podcast⁠ GUEST: Sarthak Kaul

Welcome to Top of the Morning by Mint, your weekday newscast that brings you five major stories from the world of business. It's Tuesday, October 1, 2024. My name is Nelson John. Let's get started.Nearly 300 stocks, including JSW Steel and NTPC, reached one-year highs on the BSE, despite the Sensex and Nifty 50 dropping over one per cent amid weak global cues.Last week, the government of China infused 143 billion dollars into its economy to try and revive it out of a slump. This led the Chinese public markets to experience their best week in more than 16 years. Initiatives also included a 2 trillion yuan bond, easing rules for buying homes, and revival of consumer spending. N. Madhavan explains this stimulus package, and how it might affect the Indian economy.Investors always wondered when Swiggy would list on the public markets. After its rival Zomato touched record highs this year, that intrigue turned into a fertile ground for Swiggy to have its IPO. This has also led Swiggy's shares being sold and re-sold all over at sky-high prices in the grey market. While Swiggy's current market cap is around 80 to 90,000 crore rupees, investors are hoping that this amount at least doubles to reach the vicinity of Zomato's 2.5 trillion rupee valuation. Neil Borate and Anil Poste speak to Swiggy's investors, and outline the current situation in the grey markets.Infamous Shark Tank judge and co-founder of BharatPe Ashneer Grover reached a settlement with the fintech unicorn yesterday. He officially ended all associations with the company. Mansi Verma writes that as part of the agreement, some of Grover's shares will be transferred to the Resilient Growth Trust, while the remainder will be managed by his family trust. All ongoing legal cases between the parties will be dropped.Placement teams at India's top tech schools, notably the IITs, are getting proactive. They're reaching out to potential recruiters early this year, hoping to avoid last year's job placement struggles. Devina Sengupta however reports that companies from IT, manufacturing, and banking sectors are still on the fence about how many grads they'll hire from the 2025 batch. The older IITs, like those in Madras, Bombay, and Delhi, typically start their placement season in December, while the newer ones begin as early as August to get a head start. Last year didn't end well for many grads who remained unplaced due to a cautious hiring climate amid economic uncertainties. Some early recruiters like Samsung, Accenture, and Larsen & Toubro have already shown interest, and companies like Godrej Properties are looking to increase their hires from these institutes. IITs are also targeting startups and quick commerce platforms, with companies like Meesho planning to significantly increase their campus hires from last year.In Haryana, despite its economic prowess, life isn't as rosy for everyone. The state, boasting a per capita income much above the national average, hides a different reality in its villages, which make up about 65% of its population. As the state gears up for elections, this stark contrast between the prosperous urban areas like Gurgaon and the struggling rural regions like Kulana is shaping the political battleground. This year, the fight is straightforward, boiling down to a direct clash between the BJP, holding the fort for two terms, and the Congress. The real issues fueling this face-off aren't just economic stats but real-world problems affecting daily lives—agricultural distress, contentious army recruitment policies, and a heavy reliance on unreliable migrant labour. Sayantan Bera takes a deep dive into the issues, challenges, and problems faced by Haryana voters as the state goes to polls this coming Saturday. 

Dr. Dhruv Nath, author of The EARNICORNS - Stories of Rare, Profitable Unicorns, joins Ashutosh Garg on "The Brand Called You" to discuss the rise of profitable unicorns in a growth-at-any-cost world. Discover the essential traits that set these companies apart, including their focus on customer satisfaction, frugality, and employee loyalty. Nath shares insightful stories from successful firms like Zoho and Dream11, emphasizing the shift towards sustainable business practices and profitability. 00:39- About Dr. Dhruv Nath  Dr. Nath is the author of the book titled, EARNICORNS - Stories of Rare, Profitable Unicorns.  He is the director of the Lead Angels network.  He was earlier the senior vice president of NIIT and the professor at MDI, Gurgaon, and he's a co-author of the book titled, Funding Your Startup and Other Nightmares. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tbcy/support

Join the conversation with Prof. Asha Bhandarkar, former Professor and Dean at MDI-Gurgaon and IMI-Delhi. With over three decades in HR and leadership studies, Prof. Bhandarkar discusses the transformation of HR practices, the importance of diversity, and the future of work in India. She emphasizes the role of technology in HR, the evolving expectations from leaders, and the significance of maintaining the human touch in a tech-driven world. 00:40- About Prof. Asha Bhandarker Professor Bhandarker is the former professor and dean of MDI, Gurgaon & IMI, Delhi.  She's a well-known scholar and speaker in the field of HR and Leadership Studies in India.  She is the author of 10 books.  She's been recognized, awarded, and felicitated several times.  --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tbcy/support

The Mohua Show is a weekly podcast about everything from business, technology to art and lifestyle, But done and spoken ईमानदारी सेConnect with UsMohua Chinappa: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohua-chinappa/The Mohua Show: https://www.themohuashow.com/Connect with the GuestProfessor Dhruv Nath: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhruvnathprof/Follow UsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMohuaShowInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/themohuashow/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/themohuashow/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themohuashowFor any other queries EMAILhello@themohuashow.comBook LinkThe Earnicorns: Stories of Rare Profitable Unicorns: https://amzn.in/d/8rUj8N6Episode Summary: In this insightful episode, we have the privilege of hosting Professor Dhruv Nath, a prolific author, angel investor, startup mentor, and Director with Lead Angels Network. Formerly a Professor at MDI, Gurgaon, and Senior Vice President at NIIT Ltd., Prof. Nath has consulted with top management at companies like Glaxo, Gillette, Nestle, and Bajaj Auto, as well as leaders like the Prime Minister of Namibia and the Chief Minister of Delhi.Prof. Nath, a bestselling author, introduces a groundbreaking concept in his latest book, The Earnicorns, where he redefines the Indian startup ecosystem by focusing on unicorns that prioritize profitability. Drawing from his extensive experience as an angel investor, he explores the success stories of four Indian unicorns that defied the odds to become profitable, despite the challenges that many others face.We explore the mindset and strategies that drive these companies, highlighting the importance of a persistent business approach and a perfect attitude. Through insightful case studies of prolific B2C and B2B companies like Zoho, Zerodha, Naukri.com and Dream11, we uncover the key aspects that make a company an Earnicorn. We also discuss the evolving role of investors and VCs in the Indian startup ecosystem, offering valuable advice for both founders and investors. Whether you're a startup founder, investor, or simply interested in the future of Indian startups, this episode provides practical insights and inspiring stories that showcase what it takes to build sustainable, profitable businesses.Chapters:00:00 - Introduction02:53 - Inspiration Behind Writing The Book06:00 - Key Aspects to Become an Earnicorn08:43 - The Perfect Attitude: Key to Long-Term Success17:23 - Evolving Roles of Investors Towards Indian StartUps23:50 - Why Unicorns Fail?31:05 - Lessons from Earnicorns in Driving Sustainable Growth32:37 - Evaluating Upcoming IPOS in the Indian Stock Market35:10 - More Unicorns in The Future39:17 - Insights From The BookDisclaimerThe views expressed by our guests are their own. We do not endorse and are not responsible for any views expressed by our guests on our podcast and its associated platforms.TheMohuaShow #MohuaChinappa #Podcast #ProfDhruvNath #Unicorns #Earnicorns#Founders#Zoho #Dream11 #Naukri.com #Zerodha #IndianStartUps #PodcastEpisode Thanks for Listening!

Dr. Alok Aggarwal received his bachelor's in technology from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi in 1980. In 1984, he received his Ph. D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University. He worked at IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center in New York between 1984-2000. During 1987 and 1989 Fall Terms, he took a sabbatical from IBM to teach two courses and supervise two Ph.D. students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Between 1993-1995, along with others, he built and sold a "Supply Chain Management Solution" for paper mills and steel mills, which was the first commercial Artificial Intelligence based solution of its kind. By optimizing paper machines, trimmers, winders, warehouses, transportation, and the loading of trucks and railroad cars, their solution saved paper mills substantially in the mills' operating costs. In 1993, Madison Paper Company in the United States was the first to buy this solution. And the company used this solution until 2017, when it was sold to a Norwegian paper company. Between 1996-1997, Dr. Aggarwal joined the Strategy Department of IBM Research Division, which was then greatly involved in strategizing and organizing chess matches between Deep Blue and Gary Kasparov. In July 1997, IBM Research Division announced the formation of “IBM's India Research Laboratory” (IRL). Dr. Aggarwal “founded” IRL inside IIT Delhi on April 1, 1998. By August 2000, he had grown it from "ground zero" to a 60-member team (with 30 PhDs and 30 people with master's in computer science and related areas). In January 2001, he co-founded Evalueserve (www.evalueserve.com ), which currently has more than 4,500 employees and provides various kinds of research, analytics, and consulting services to clients worldwide. In 2003, he wrote the first article regarding “Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO),” which estimated the amount of such work that would be outsourced from high-wage countries (like the United States) to low-wage countries (like India). Today, KPO is a well-known term in the outsourcing industry and is considered a sector on its own with more than 300 KPO companies in India alone. In February 2014, Dr. Aggarwal founded Scry Analytics (now “Scry AI”) that performs research and development (R&D) in Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, and related areas. Scry AI ( www.scryai.com ) also has five product groups and a distributed platform for Internet of Things. These improve efficiency of business workflows regarding quality, timeliness, revenue, cost, customer experience, compliance, and operational risks. Scry AI has its primary center in San Jose, California. And it has three other centers in Gurgaon, Pune, and Hyderabad, India. He has published 120 research articles, has been granted 8 patents from the US Patents and Trademark Office, and has been an editor of several academic journals in Computer Science. Furthermore, between 1998-2000, he was a member of Executive Committee on Information Technology of the Confederation of the Indian Industry (CII) and the Telecom Committee of Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). During 2002 and 2005, he was on the executive board of TiE's (The Indus Entrepreneur). In 2008, Dr. Aggarwal received Distinguished Alumnus Award from IIT Delhi. In December 2000, he published a book titled, “The Fourth Industrial Revolution & 100 Years of AI (1950-2050)”, which is available on Amazon and other book stores. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crypto-hipster-podcast/support

Welcome to Top of the Morning by Mint, your weekday newscast that brings you five major stories from the world of business. It's Wednesday, July 31, 2024. My name is Nelson John. Let's get started:The Indian stock market's frontline indices, the Sensex and the Nifty, closed flat on Tuesday, July 30, reflecting mixed global cues.More than a year after the Hindenburg setback, Gautam Adani-led Adani group's expansion is in full swing. The Ahmedabad-based conglomerate is considering acquiring Jaypee Group's real estate business for up to a billion dollars. Mint's Anirudh Laskar reports that the planned deal could quadruple Adani's real estate footprint, solidifying its position in the bustling property markets of Noida and Gurgaon. This is part of a strategic offer Adani is preparing to pitch to the lenders in the massive insolvency saga of Jaiprakash Associates, which owes a staggering 50,000 crore rupees. For Jaypee's real estate and cement businesses, the Adani group is willing to invest 15,000 crore rupees. This move could catapult Adani into the league of heavyweights like Godrej, Tata, and Mahindra in the realty sector.India is on the verge of potentially opening up its online gaming sector to full foreign direct investment, a move that could significantly benefit the industry. Mint's tech correspondent Shouvik Das reports on the government's plan to allow 100% FDI in online gaming, specifically targeting real-money games of skill while excluding gambling and betting activities. This initiative aims to simplify the process for Indian startups to attract foreign investments in this high-growth sector. Although there is currently no ban on FDI in online gaming, regulatory ambiguities have made it difficult for companies to secure banking and governmental clearances, deterring potential investors.As Ola Electric prepares for its IPO this Friday, with a price band set at 72-76 rupees per share, top executives and early investors are poised for significant financial gains. CEO Bhavish Aggarwal's stake is expected to be valued at nearly 10,000 crore rupees (approximately 1.18 billion dollars). Additionally, he plans to sell some of his shares, potentially earning around 240 crore rupees at the lower end of the price band. The total issue size of the IPO is estimated to exceed 6,100 crore rupees, including an offer for sale and new shares. Mint's startup reporter Priyamvada C notes that prominent investors, such as Japan's SoftBank Group, US hedge fund Tiger Global Management, and Matrix Partners India, are also set to benefit significantly. Bollywood siblings Zoya Akhtar and Farhan Akhtar could see their shares in the company valued at 1.3 and 2.5 crore rupees, respectively.Recently, there's been a noticeable buzz around premium products in the FMCG sector, with more people willing to spend extra for quality items like hair serums, granola, and fabric conditioners. Mint's Suneera Tandon cites a report from market research firm Kantar, indicating that premium categories have seen impressive growth—about 16% in volume and 24% in value from April 2022 to April 2024. That's quite a leap! What's driving this trend? It seems that categories once considered luxury, like sensitive toothpaste and anti-aging creams, are now attracting more buyers. For example, the number of households purchasing sensitive toothpaste jumped by 47%. And it's not just more households buying these products; people are actually spending more on them.The story of Henry G. Davis, a Wall Street magnate before World War II, offers a timeless lesson on the value of long-term investment and the intricacies of market timing. Despite turbulent periods, such as the mid-1930s stock market sell-off, Davis maintained a strong, fundamental investment philosophy. His key insight? Wealth often comes from holding stocks over the long term or capitalizing on opportunities during market downturns. Interestingly, today's investors face similar challenges, especially with evolving tax policies that can influence investment decisions and capital growth. The recent Union Budget adjustments, like the increase in long-term capital gains tax, have raised concerns about future tax hikes and their impact on investor returns and behaviours. Yet, the core principle remains: successful investing is less about reacting to immediate fiscal changes and more about strategic, long-term planning. In this Long Story by Mint's Abhishek Mukherjee, you'll find a practical guide to rejig your portfolio in light of the recent budget.You can read all the featured stories by clicking at the links in show notes. We'd love to hear your feedback on this podcast. Let us know by writing to us at feedback@livemint.com. You may send us feedback, tips or anything that you feel we should be covering from your vantage point in the world of business and finance. Show notes:Adani draws mega realty plan, buy out Jaypee Group's biz for $1 billionGame, set, match: Free pass likely for foreign investors in online gamingOla Electric's IPO to bring big moolah for top employees, early investorsIndia's new consumers are increasingly buying higher-priced premium productsYour handy guide to a post-Budget portfolio rejig

“

In today's episode, we are talking about the AI-fication of the arms race around the world. From gun-toting robo-dogs to autonomous drone hordes, these questionable weapons could rewrite the rules of warfare.In other news, India's real estate market is in a bull run. Premium properties are selling out like hot cakes. Gurgaon especially has become a topic of conversation because of the number of luxury properties that are being sold there. But who are lapping up these properties? People who are actually moving into these residential units or investors? Tune in to find out! Episode Credits:The episode was researched, written, and produced by Shorbori and ManaswiniEdited by Venkat AnanthMastered and mixed by Yash Hirave

Amit Sangwan is a marital counsellor, a real estate adviser and an astrologer by hobby. He lives in Gurgaon and runs various YouTube channels like  @SangoLifeSutras ,  @GurujiFromGurugram   @sangorealestate , etc.

This is the Catch Up on 3 Things for the Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.It's the 15th of April and here are today's headlines.A Delhi Court today extended Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's judicial custody till 23rd of April in connection with the excise policy case. The Enforcement Directorate had sought a 14-day extension of the Delhi CM's custody. He will now be produced in court with co-accused K Kavitha on the next date. In more news, the Supreme Court today sought the ED's response in a plea filed by Kejriwal against his arrest in the same case. The court asked for the response to be filed on or before 24th of April and a rejoinder by 27th of April. The court will hear the matter on 29th of April 29.One of the suspects allegedly involved in shooting outside actor Salman Khan's residence in Mumbai on Sunday was arrested in a case of motorbike theft for the first time in 2020 and sent to Tihar jail. Vishal alias Kalu, associated with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, was one of the two suspects on a motorcycle who fired five rounds at Salman's residence. He is allegedly working for gangster Rohit Godara and along with his two associates, reportedly killed a Gurgaon-based bookie on 2nd of March.Wholesale inflation in the country rose marginally to 0.53 per cent in March compared to 0.20 per cent in the preceding month due to increase in prices of vegetables, potato, onion and crude oil. The Wholesale Price Index (WPI)-based inflation was in the negative zone from April to October and had turned positive in November at 0.26 per cent. The inflation in March 2023 was 1.41 per cent.Iran will permit Indian authorities to meet with the 17 Indian crew members onboard the Portuguese-flagged cargo vessel MSC Aries, seized by the Iranian military near the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's ministry of foreign affairs. This came during the telephonic call between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Sunday in the aftermath of Iran's attack on Israel. During the call, Jaishankar urged for the release of the Indians aboard the ship. The seizure of the ‘MSC Aries' by the Special Naval Forces of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps reportedly occurred due to the vessel's alleged connections with Israel.The India Meteorological Department today said the rainfall is likely to be 106 per cent of normal this monsoon season. The cumulative rainfall is estimated at 106 per cent of the long-period average of 87 cm, according to IMD. IMD also said that above-normal rainfall is expected in most parts of India, except in some regions of northwest, east and northeastern states.This was the Catch-Up on the 3 Things by The Indian Express.

Shreya Priyam Roy opens up with hilarious stories about stand-up comedy, UPSC, Bihar, Delhi life, and a lot more. #storieswithrusty #standupcomedy #vedantrusty __ In this episode: 00:00 // Intro 1:11 // Oliver twist, literature, and anya kahaniya 3:08 // Bihar stereotypes that Shreya carried from Patna 3:57 // Paise kaha gawaiye? 5:24 // Vedant's college day 7:00 // 200 real currency dilemma 7:45 // Going abroad and currency experience 8:41 // Shreya college experience post 50 hazaar 9:48 // IAS aur jaan pehchan 10:23 // Is Shreya getting blackmailed for comedy? 11:05 // 12th fail ka reaction? 11:30 // UPSC aspirants and art role in society 13:18 // Comedy ka keeda 13:54 // Why study history? 15:06 // English and Shakespeare 15:51 // Shreya's first open mic experience & IIT Kanpur 21:38 // Being on stage ka nasha 22:55 // Vedant's experience with theatre stage 25:10 // What's more exciting? Small crowd or huge crowd or comicstan 27:22 // Tours experience and excitement 33:03 // Shreya's extended characters 35:40 // Ab bus yehi karna hai to comicstan 40:25 // Middleditch &Schwartz 41:10 // Accent ka sach 43:25 // Comics & Community 44:30 // Blinkit experience for Vedant and Shreya 46:50 // Shreya ke shauks 49:10 // Hierarchy in comedy space 51:35 // Difference between Delhi and Gurgaon clubs 52:35 // Censorship and OTT comedy 54:15 // How Shreya prepares for different open mics 56:29 // Why mockumentary? 1:00:00 // How to deal with creative blocks? 1:03:33 // What shifts Shreya brought in her shows? 1:05:15 // Online content creation challenges 1:06:25 // Nostalgia, gratitude and what's next 1:11:15 // Toxic comments and how Vedant and Shreya deal with it 1:13:13 // Temptation Island and Tv 1:17:10 // Youtube and content 1:19:41 // Premium subscription addiction 1:21:09 // Shreya and Big Boss 1:23:37 // Theatre and Mumbai trip 1:27:16 // Art and food 1:34:05 // Shreya's travelling plans 1:34:24 // Topic selection for female comedians 1:41:00 // Enjoying fun content 1:41:38 // What Shreya do for fun? 1:42:51 // Ancient India and Harappan culture 1:45:25 // Quora, Reddit and Bollywood gossip 1:46:55 // How does Shreya deal with rude people? 1:47:07 // Hosting dinners and parties 1:49:10 // Freedom vs health 1:51:40 // Birthday on 1st January 1:54:56 // Award and Reality shows 1:57:19 // Competition of stand-up show 1:57: 42 // Wrap up and Pav Bhaji __ // Let's Connect If you're the Instagram type, https://instagram.com/storieswithrusty If you're the Twitter type, https://twitter.com/rustystories

Antibiotics are given to neutralize harmful bacteria, and to halt their reproduction. But their overuse is fast turning into some sort of epidemic. It is turning these germs into 'super bugs' - which are antibiotic resistant. And India has one of the highest mortality rates due to this antimicrobial resistance. So how can India stop popping antibiotics?  Kerala, meanwhile, has launched a state-wide operation to check abuse of antibiotics. It will also deploy covert squads to monitor sale of these drugs. Well, it looks like a step in the right direction. Let us now turn our focus to another threat, which is giving sleepless nights to people in various parts of the country. Incidents of leopards straying into human habitats have been on a rise for a while now. From posh NCR colonies like Gurgaon and Noida to villages in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, leopards are increasingly making their presence felt. But why?  But on Monday, bears made their presence felt on Dalal Street. Key benchmark indices tumbled amid weakness in global indices. But IT stocks shone amid this rout. Stocks of IT majors have been in the spotlight after a sharp recovery seen last year. The excitement has been led by hopes of improvement in IT spending as global rates begin to decline. But can the December quarter earnings test this optimism?  Many experts believe that IT stocks would see increased volatility in the coming weeks. Moving on, another disturbing trend has emerged in the evolving landscape of cybercrimes. It is being called “Cyber Kidnapping.” Find out more on it in this episode of the podcast. 

Welcome to Cyrus Says, Cock & Bull!Become a member of Club Cyrus SaysIn today's episode, Cyrus is joined by Antariksh and Abbas! Cyrus starts the show by discussing Samay, aka Time.During the episode, Antariksh shares a new Mercedes story, while Abbas is still seeking fame. The topics discussed include the 'education loan scam' involving Gujarat students caught in a Gurgaon start-up worth Rs 2.5 crore and the National Medical Commission's guidelines stating that students without Biology in Class 12 can still become doctors.Tune in for this and much more!Subscribe to the Cyrus Says YouTube Channel for full video episodes!Follow Antariksh on Instagram at @antarikshtFollow Abbas on Instagram at @abbasmomin88Listen to Cyrus Says across Audio PlatformsApple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Gaana | Amazon Music | Jio SaavnEmail your AMA questions to us at whatcyrussays@gmail.comDon't forget to follow Cyrus Says' official Instagram handle at @whatcyrussaysConnect with Cyrus on socials:Instagram | TwitterAnd don't forget to rate us!-x-x-xDisclaimer: The views, opinions, and statements expressed in the episodes of the shows hosted on the IVM Podcasts network are solely those of the individual participants, hosts, and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of IVM Podcasts or its management. IVM Podcasts does not endorse or assume responsibility for any content, claims, or representations made by the participants during the shows. This includes, but is not limited to, the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any information provided. Any reliance you place on such information is strictly at your own risk. IVM Podcasts is not liable for any direct, indirect, consequential, or incidental damages arising out of or in connection with the use or dissemination of the content featured in the shows. Listener discretion is advised.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Shownotes: A couple of months back I spoke with Marcia La Rose, Group People and Diversity Director, Four Agency Worldwide. Her story is uplifting - she has been at the agency for over 2 decades with over a decade in leadership roles and has been heavily involved in the agency's acquisition of B-Corp status. In our freewheeling conversation we spoke about her journey as a woman leader from the global majority, her learnings from the journey. We also spoke about

In this episode we return to talk to Vikas Pahwa from Shiv Nadar School in Gurgaon, India - but we are actually featuring some of his students who are sharing their CAS experiences. If this sounds familiar to regular listeners, that's because we are going back to back with CAS related podcasts. Last episode it was students from my backyard in Minnesota. This time the students are from northern India. I'm sure you will be struck by the similarities in student responses and the ways in which CAS experiences have shaped them and had an influence in their future plans. Please listen to both episodes. They really speak to the core values and the mission of the IB in creating a well-rounded education leading to a better and more peaceful world. Featured students: Aishwarya, Gianna, Lakshya, Anvi CAS Coordinator: Mrs Nandini KarThe BConnectt Instagram pageLearn more about CAS on the IB Website.Email IB Matters: IBMatters@mnibschools.orgTwitter @MattersIBIB Matters websiteMN Association of IB World Schools (MNIB) websiteDonate to IB MattersTo appear on the podcast or if you would like to sponsor the podcast, please contact us at the email above.

In this episode, three MTEs talk about their training, their lives before they took on the role, the state of science education in India, and societal perceptions about blindness. Most importantly, they reflect on what they contribute to society and how training as an MTE has altered their lives. Listen to Meenakshi Gupta, Neha Suri and Neetu Garg who work as MTEs in Delhi and Gurgaon. Also featuring Ashwini Rao, a Discovering Hands trainer from Enable India, Bengaluru. This mini-series has been reported by Priti Salian and the project was funded by the European Journalism Centre, through the Global Health Security Call. This programme is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  Transcript: Hands that see - Blind and visually impaired women are emerging as a workforce in early breast cancer detection part 2.pdf  See sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information.

We spoke with Vikrant Singh, Co-Founder of BATX Energies, who recycles used Lithium-ion batteries to extract critical metals chiefly Lithium, Nickel, Cobalt, and Manganese.  BATX subsequently supplies these extracted raw materials as inputs to battery cell manufacturers to create a closed-loop Circular Economy for Lithium-ion Battery Manufacturing and Electric Vehicles. With a R&D center in Gurgaon and an industrial unit in UP, Vikrant lays the brass tacks behind India's energy storage supply chain and how various extraction processes, ranging from mechanical, metallurgical, and chemical processes can play a crucial role in serving an energy starved and raw material deficient region such as ours.  Hope you enjoy this TRANSFIN. Podcast with Nikhil Arora and Sharath Toopran, where we converse with entrepreneurs and business operators running successful startups, profitable SMEs and family promoted firms on one end, and top investment professionals representing VC/PE/credit funds on the other.   The objective is to bring out an "actionable" perspective converging the world of business and investing.   If you're a founder and if you'd like us to drill down your model, feel free to drop us a line at edit@transfin.in

"Prioritizing skill development and creating a robust learning ecosystem empowers both individuals and organizations to adapt and thrive in the evolving landscape of the future of work.”In this episode of The Shape of Work podcast, brace yourself as we peel back the layers of the rapidly changing work landscape with our guest, Salil Raheja, HR Director at Schneider Electric. Salil has an overall work experience of more than seventeen years. He has worked at various organisations including Tata Capital, Tata Consultancy Services and Essar. He did his B.E from BIT Mesra Student-Industry Relations Cell and his MBA from Management Development Institute, Gurgaon.In this episode, join us for an insightful discussion, as we navigate the rising gig economy, decode the impact of technological advancements such as AI and automation, and stress the need for lifelong learning to stay afloat in these turbulent times. We dive into the transformative power of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, shedding light on strategies to cultivate an inclusive workforce.Episode HighlightsHow is the landscape of work changing with time?The importance of lifelong learning in the workplaceHow to acquire and cultivate skills for the future?Importance of Diversity and inclusion in the workplaceFollow Salil on LinkedinProduced by: Priya BhattPodcast Host: Archit SethiAbout Springworks:Springworks is a fully-distributed HR technology organisation building tools and products to simplify recruitment, onboarding, employee engagement, and retention. The product stack from Springworks includes:SpringVerify— B2B verification platformEngageWith— employee recognition and rewards platform that enriches company cultureTrivia — a suite of real-time, fun, and interactive games platforms for remote/hybrid team-buildingSpringRole — verified professional-profile platform backed by blockchain, andSpringRecruit — a forever-free applicant tracking system.Springworks prides itself on being an organisation focused on employee well-being and workplace culture, leading to a 4.8 rating on Glassdoor for the 200+ employee strength company.

The Buffalo is haunted by Barbenheimer insta stories & the sad tears of elite housing society savarnas Aunties in Gurgaon.

This week, I am joined by my very dear friend Stuti. Stuti is from Gurgaon in India and was an international student at Smith College, in western Massachusetts. She majored in Quantitative Economics with a minor in Statistics and Data Science and graduated in 2022. She currently works in the international development space, at the The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab or J-PAL and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  In this episode, we talked about the different discomforts we face as international students ranging from the weather, food, culture and even our identities. We talked about how we each navigated through the different hurdles we faced and the importance of leaning into healthy habits to cope with our discomfort. Tune-in to laugh, learn and appreciate the international student experience! Please send questions and feedbacks you have to internationaliebyruth@gmail.com or DM on the Instagram page @internationaliebyruth

This week on 'Has It Aged Well?' we're revisiting another Govinda film (what can we say, we love chi chi) 'Akhiyon Se Goli Maare' from 2002 (or is it 1998? Hmmm). Joining Abbas and Urjita for the episode is stand up comedian and Govinda super fan Supriya Joshi. Topics discussed include: the absolutely bonkers premise of the film, how the character of "Bobda Bhai" probably came into existence, that one time Supriya met her idol Govinda, whether Govinda has influenced our joke writing and a lot more. Follow Supriya here: https://instagram.com/supaarwoman You can catch Supriya doing her solo show "I'm Over It?" live in Delhi and Gurgaon. Tickets here: https://in.bookmyshow.com/events/i-m-over-it-solo-by-supriya-joshi/ET00356995 If you liked this episode check out our other Govinda films we've covered on the show: Dulhe Raja: https://youtu.be/om_5yWM50xU Kyokii...Main Jhuth Nahi Bolta: https://youtu.be/b3vC_gFcbgs Follow Abbas here: https://instagram.com/abbasmomin88 Follow Urjita here: https://instagram.com/urjitawani?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The average daily sales of electric-two wheelers slipped into slow lane in June, as the withdrawal of subsidies and the resultant jump in prices apparently forced customers to slam brake on the electric-2 wheeler purchase. So what is the road ahead? Can electric two-wheelers survive without subsidies in India?  Indeed, the fledgling electric two-wheeler segment needs a little push from the government to take off. Its increased adoption will also help the government meet its green goals. Moving on, India's residential real estate market is on a fast lane now, after a sluggish period marked by pandemic. People are loosening their purse strings like never before to purchase luxury homes. But wait. It is not only Mumbai's beach facing areas which are costing a fortune. IT hub Gurgaon too is on the fire.  A recent hike in circle rates too pushed the rates of luxury properties in Gurugram. Let us now shift our gaze to the financial markets. Shares of micro-finance lenders have surged up to 45% over the last six months, even as the benchmark indices added just 2%. We find out the reason behind this rise, and if the current rally will sustain. Powel is widely believed to reiterate his views before the US panel, which he expressed in post-Fed meeting press briefings. People in the US are breathing easy now as inflation has dropped by half from last year's peak. Back home too, people heaved a sigh of relief for a different reason. WhatsApp has introduced a new feature which can address the menace of unwanted calls. What is it? And how can it save us from spammers? Listen to this episode of the podcast for more. 

China was among the last to lift COVID restrictions at the close of 2022, but its polymer exports remain elevated amid continued sluggish domestic demand, creating more global competition for limited pockets of demand. India has been a bright spot in the region given its demand, but not enough to fill the gap left by China. Those global flows continue to force US sellers and prices to compete as all chase the same thin pockets of demand, particularly with new polymer capacity coming online in the next few months that will push more material into export markets. Kristen Hays, global market lead for polymers at S&P Global Commodity Insights, sat down with three polymer market experts at SPGCI to discuss the state of play as a rebound in China's domestic demand remains key to buyers and sellers worldwide. Joining Hays were Heng Hui, senior editor in Singapore whose coverage includes Asian polyethylene, and Fumiko Dobashi, also a senior editor in Singapore whose coverage includes Asian polyvinyl chloride, and Preeti Bhagat, associate editor in Gurgaon, India, who covers India's polyethylene and PVC markets.

Buy Ghost in the Dark Silence Buy Ghost of the Silent Hills About the book: From the author of the bestselling Ghosts of the Silent Hills, comes another collection of chilling horror stories based on true events. Encased in Ghosts in the Dark Silence are five stories that will petrify even the bravest of the brave. Some stories are gruesome and bizarre, others softly creep up on you and pull you in.The beautiful dream-house of a newly-wed couple slowly turns into their worst nightmare, malevolent spirits prance around to prey on the living, naïve youngsters are lured into the world of tantriks and black magic, and even simple games turn out to be dangerous and life-threatening.What will become of the people in these stories? They can pray. They can run. They can fight. But do they stand a chance against something that's not even of this world? About the author: Born in Shimla in 1955, Anita Krishan spent the initial twenty-two years of her life in this pristine Himalayan town, earning her master's degree in English literature from Himachal University, and moving on to a career of introducing delights of the language to her young learners. In her long tenure as an educator, she has enriched the lives of countless students with the mystery of the narrative. A versatile writer, each of her literary works appertains to a different genre... from the joys and travails of life, to terrorism that has brought the world to its tenterhooks, to now the paranormal. She has travelled extensively around the globe absorbing the diverse human ethos and cultures—the delectable food for her thoughts. Presently, she lives in Gurgaon with her family. About the publisher: Fingerprint! is part of the publishing cell of Prakash Books, which has published some of India's finest coffee table books over the past few years. Fingerprint drives this cell's foray into commercial paperbacks and e-books at affordable prices for readers. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/indiannoir/message

For episode 13, love is in the air and we will talk about falling in love with sales. My guest is Roshni Baronia who's an absolute expert in sales and who has made it her mission to teach more women to fall in love with sales. She does that with her consulting company focused on women-led startups and small businesses as well as with her podcast production company. Roshni is also the host of the Ace the Sales podcast which is the first female led sales podcast in India. Roshni lives in Gurgaon, Haryana, in India with her family.   Here is the link to the sales planner we mentioned in the episode: https://www.roshnibaronia.com/sales-planner/   If you would like to read more on the sales mindset, check out Roshni's ebook: https://www.roshnibaronia.com/e-book/   Stay in touch with Roshni:  Website: https://www.roshnibaronia.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roshnibaronia/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/roshni_baronia/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/roshni.baronia #sales #salesmindset #career #leadership #reachingyourgoals #delygate   If you have comments on the show or like to work with Johanna, you can reach her at Johanna.Herbst@delygate.com. You will also find more information on the show at https://www.delygate.com/podcast.  Lastly, to get inspiration in your inbox, please sign up for our newsletter (https://delygate.substack.com/).

Ashish Sood is the Chief Supply Chain Officer leading Landmark Retail's end-to-end supply chain across the stores and e-commerce sectors across GCC, a role he has held since July 2021.With over two decades of expertise in Supply Chain Management, Ashish has extensive experience in building effective supply chain strategies and has been instrumental in defining the supply chain vision for Landmark Retail. He is focused on driving initiatives to transform the customer experience through digitization and continuous improvement with methodologies such as KATA and other people development initiatives.Having completed his Bachelor's in engineering from the National Institute of Technology Rourkela, India, Ashish also holds a Master of Business Administration majoring in Operations and Finance from Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, India.Discover more details here.Some of the highlights of the episode:Supply Chain Function and Vision within LandmarkBuilding customer centricityNew disruptions and innovationsThe biggest challenge for supply chains in the next 10 yearsBuilding sustainability for future growth plansKey messages for professionals wanting to start a career in supply chainFollow us on:Instagram: http://bit.ly/2Wba8v7Twitter: http://bit.ly/2WeulzXLinkedin: http://bit.ly/2w9YSQXFacebook: http://bit.ly/2HtryLd

Shownotes36 %: No of women employees In the Indian tech sector (the biggest employer by far)51%: Women entry level recruits

Mohnish Pabrai's session with EO Gurgaon on January 10, 2023 (00:00:00) - Introduction (00:04:15) - I'm a better investor because I'm a businessman. I'm a better businessman because I'm an investor (00:05:00) - Capitalism is creative destruction (00:08:40) - Earnings reinvestment framework (00:10:58) - The importance of Spawning (00:13:07) - Control is over-rated (00:16:50) - From entrepreneur to investor (00:33:30) - Patel Motel Dhandho (00:40:42) - Book: Roy Thomson of Fleet Street; Trilogy (00:41:33) - Reysas (00:50:18) - Investment Shortcuts; cloning (00:52:35) - IIFL Wealth Management; Kotak (00:54:01) - The S&P 500 is a great choice (00:57:54) - Rakesh Jhunjhunwala (00:59:35) - Poor Charlie's Almanack (01:07:39) - Mohnish's Owners Manual by Jack Skeen (JackSkeen.com)

I have known Sandeep since my college days, and we have been close friends for close to three decades now! Sandeep, who is a fitness enthusiast, was instrumental in inspiring me to write this book. I decided to launch a podcast first and the book is in the baking! Over the years, I have always seen Sandeep follow a very disciplined life and fitness has always been an integral part of it. He is a marathoner & an ultra-runner and running is now a part of his daily routine. This is something that inspired me when I embarked on my own transformational journey and prompted me to get him to share his experiences.  Sandeep is an alumnus of The Bhopal School of Social sciences and NMIMS, Mumbai, and is an international aviation veteran. He works with a reputed international airline as the Head of Finance for Asia-Pacific & the Middle East, based in Gurgaon. While Sandeep was always a sportsperson, his fitness journey actually started in 2014. Since then, he has run several Half & Full Marathons and Ultra Runs. Sandeep has this dream to accomplish the Ironman challenge someday and had started his preparations to run his first Triathlon until he was plagued with a heel injury towards the end of 2021. He has, however, kept his dream alive and continues to train. It is his indomitable spirit, his will to keep fighting against all odds & positivity that prompted me to share his journey with listeners.  In the podcast, apart from his fitness philosophy, Sandeep also speaks about his diet, how his better half motivated him to embark on this journey, and the key role a group of his ‘special' friends & co-runners played in inspiring him to deliver his best. 

In this Episode, Priya is in Conversation With a Gurgaon-based sports medicine specialist Dr Manu Bora, who is a brand ambassador for Raymonds and does photo shoots with as much ease as he treats sports injuries. Listen To The Story Of Dreams, Passion and Grit. Biggest Take Away with a little extra effort, you can pursue your career as well as your passion. “All one needs is planning and not giving up on the dream.” Tune In! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In urban and peri-urban areas across the Global South, politicians, planners and developers are engaged in a voracious scramble to refashion land for global real estate investment and transfer state power to private sector actors. Much of this development has taken place on the outskirts of the traditional metropoles, in the territorially flexible urban frontier. At the forefront of these processes in India, is Gurgaon, a privately developed metropolis on the south-western hinterlands of New Delhi, that has long been touted as India's flagship neoliberal city.  Thomas G. Cowan's book Subaltern Frontiers: Property and Labour in the Neoliberal Indian City (Cambridge UP, 2022) tells a story of India's remarkable urban transformation by examining the politics of land and labour that have shaped the city of Gurgaon. The book examines how the country's flagship post-liberalisation urban project has been shaped and filtered through agrarian and subaltern histories, logics, and subjects. In doing so, the book explores how the production of globalised property and labour in contemporary urban India is filtered through colonial instruments of land governance, living histories of uneven agrarian development, material geographies of labour migration, and the worldly aspirations of peasant-agriculturalists. Garima Jaju is currently a post-doc at Cambridge University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In urban and peri-urban areas across the Global South, politicians, planners and developers are engaged in a voracious scramble to refashion land for global real estate investment and transfer state power to private sector actors. Much of this development has taken place on the outskirts of the traditional metropoles, in the territorially flexible urban frontier. At the forefront of these processes in India, is Gurgaon, a privately developed metropolis on the south-western hinterlands of New Delhi, that has long been touted as India's flagship neoliberal city.  Thomas G. Cowan's book Subaltern Frontiers: Property and Labour in the Neoliberal Indian City (Cambridge UP, 2022) tells a story of India's remarkable urban transformation by examining the politics of land and labour that have shaped the city of Gurgaon. The book examines how the country's flagship post-liberalisation urban project has been shaped and filtered through agrarian and subaltern histories, logics, and subjects. In doing so, the book explores how the production of globalised property and labour in contemporary urban India is filtered through colonial instruments of land governance, living histories of uneven agrarian development, material geographies of labour migration, and the worldly aspirations of peasant-agriculturalists. Garima Jaju is currently a post-doc at Cambridge University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/anthropology

Today's guest Sara Rossi is the Owner and Founder of Beau & Ro. This New England-bred designer started Beau & Ro while living in New York City and has since expanded into an all-encompassing line that includes dresses, handbags, jewelry, and more. The Beau & Ro team takes great pride in American craftsmanship, but also produces seasonal designs from artisans and craftsmen around the world to create a dynamic collection. Be sure to check out her store in Charleston, South Carolina. Sara and her team recently announced the launch of Olive Workshop, a boutique apparel manufacturer and exporter based in Gurgaon, India. Olive Workshop was co-founded by American designer Sara Rossi and Delhi native Sidd Chaudhary. In India, Sidd helped Sara streamline her apparel production by opening up lines of communication, improving trust, and providing much-needed transparency in the supply chain. Sara realized there was an opportunity to take these new processes in-house and create a factory that does things differently, allowing her to control the lifecycle of a dress from the very first stitch to the final transaction with the consumer. We know guests will enjoy getting to know Sara today. Be sure to share this episode with a friend! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/howdshedothat/support

I was thrilled to get a chance to talk about cities with Alain Bertaud - he has been one of the most important thinkers in urban planning for the past fifty years. His book Order Without Design is a must-read and an excellent summary of his research (conducted in collaboration with his wife Marie-Agnes, an urban planning scholar in her own right) project with aim of bridging the gap between urban planning and urban economics. Alain is a brilliant and generous teacher who has greatly influenced me - I hope my questions have done their bit to honour him.TranscriptTobi; Welcome to Ideas Untrapped podcast and my guest today is legendary urban planner, Alain Bertaud, welcome to the show, sir, it's an honour to speak to you.Alain; Thank you very much for inviting me, I'm quite honoured.Tobi; You are aware that some of the biggest cities into the future are going to be in the so-called low-income countries, because urbanization is exploding in cities like Lagos, Kinshasa, and these cities are a bit different from some of the cities in other places around the world, especially in the West, you know, in that they are lower-income, they are a bit congested, they don't have much density, and, it's a challenge for such cities having to host that many people. Now, if I may ask you, what would you say the problem has been in making some of these cities work? Are we seeing a failure of markets or planning or a bit of both? Alain; I think that there are sometimes market failures. But I think that there has been a neglect of infrastructure. For me, a city, and that's something common to all the cities of the world, whether they are, you know, in Europe, in America, in Africa, or Asia, the main things for cities are labour markets, that's why people go to cities to find a job. And that is why a big firm will go to Lagos. They will go to Lagos, rather than a small town somewhere. They will go to Lagos because they will find in Lagos people who are competent in whatever they want to do. They will find a large labour force, you will have a lot of choices. And so if I am a migrant living in a small village somewhere in Africa, and not necessarily Nigeria, I may want to go to Lagos because I know there are a lot of jobs there. So if we accept that a city is a labour market, the most important things are two things. First is transport. You should be able to move in this large city. Within an hour, you should be able, ideally, to go from one side to another side, in order to find the job you want and change jobs. You know, changing job also is very important. That's why company town, you know… sometimes you have a mining town or a town developed around a steel mill or something, and then everybody there is working for one employer - the mine or the steel mill, this is not very good, because you have no chance of changing jobs. I think the advantage of very large cities like Lagos or Abidjan or Dakar, is that there are so many employers that you can fill your way, you know, you can change jobs and learn things from other people, that's what's a city. Now, what should the planning be? Planning should be transport, you know, there should be a system of transport. And when I say transport, I don't mean necessarily a subway, I mean, subway sometimes is necessary, but not always. It could be informal transport, you know, the different minibuses, for instance, so things like that which are private. But the planners often consider them as a nuisance, you know, that they are a little messy, they stop everywhere. Sometimes they don't follow the rules very much. But if they are there, it's because there are people who prefer to take this informal thing rather than a regular bus. So we have to take them into account. And we have to make them more efficient, you know, by having specific stops where they can stop which is wide enough and things like that rather than eliminating them. So the first thing is transport. The goal is to allow people to move from one part of the city to another in less than one hour. Now, in a very large city like Lagos, I suppose it's a bit like Mexico City, you will find that this is impossible right now [to move] from one side of the city to [the other], you know, let's say you go from north to south, it may take you three hours to go there. The goal is to decrease this time, you know, [and] how do you decrease this time so that you can have access? Any individual should have access to the maximum number of jobs. And it's the same for the employer. You know, the employer, when they look for employees, if they move to Lagos, suddenly they need somebody with specialized, I don't know, a welder, for instance, somebody who is very specialized in something. They want to have a choice between competent people. If the transport system works well, they will have a choice between 100 welders and they will select what is best for their company. So transport is the most important thing and you have to take into account informal transport, you know, this is very important. You cannot just say the best will be to have a subway or... you know, it's possible that the subways might be necessary but it's only one part of the transport system. You cannot pretend that one day everybody will move by subway, or municipal buses, or even ferries or things like that.All these modes of transport have to be combined and thought together, including cars, by the way. Many of my colleagues now are dreaming of cities without cars, I don't think it can work because first you have freight, and you have certain jobs which cannot be done without a car, you know, if you are a plumber, or if you are an electrician, you have to move around with your material, you cannot take a subway… if you are a plumber, you know, with your bathtub or something like that. So a large city has acquired a lot of freight, you know, you have restaurants, you have bars, you need to bring food to those restaurants, to [bring] bottles of beers, something like that. So you need a transport system which accommodates all modes of transport. Some of my colleagues have a preferred means of transport that they love, you know, say light train, tramway, or bicycle, or scooters, or whatever, or subway, or monorail. And I think that it's possible that a monorail is a good thing, but it will be only a small component, you know. So the job of the planner is to accommodate all these different modes of transport. And if people prefer to take even a taxi motorcycle for instance, which I think in many countries of Africa, I'm sure in Lagos it exists too, you have to accept that this is the best way for some people, not everybody, but for some people. So you have to also accommodate that and say, Well, what do we do for them to reduce, for instance, reduce the pollution they cause but also reduce accident, make them more convenient, because those means of transport are serving certain groups of people who have no choice, who cannot afford it, or who live in a part of the city which is not served by the normal transport. So transport is very important and transport has to be multimodal, and you have to look at it. The other thing which is very important in every city is housing. People move to the city from the countryside or from another city, and they look for a job, but they have to find housing. And very often, I think [for] many of the cities in Africa, but also in Asia, or even in Europe, they didn't welcome the migrants, they considered that the migrants are a nuisance, you know, because usually, they are relatively poor. Some of them are coming from the countryside, so they do not have the skills. You know, they have skills, but they are raw skills, which are not necessarily very useful in the city. So they have to learn skills. The city has to welcome those people because they are the labour force of the future. They are the ones who are going to pay taxes in the future. You cannot import only people who have PhDs or things like that, I mean, those are very useful, too. But we have seen that during the pandemic. During the pandemic suddenly I remember in New York, but everywhere else, people were saying indispensable people, who are the indispensable people? And we found that the indispensable people were not professors like me, they were people who were delivering food in grocery stores, they were indispensable. They are indispensable for the life of the city. So that's why they have to be welcome too, you know, and for that they need housing. So they need housing, they need land. I think that the big mistake that many cities have done, again, everywhere in Europe, as well as in Asia, or in South Africa, by the way, is to concentrate too much on housing, and not enough on infrastructure. I think what planners need to do is to let people build whatever they want even if it's a shack, but provide clean water supply, provide sewers, and some services like health [centres] and schools, and let people build whatever they want on the lot, even on the very small lot. In my book, I have an example in Indonesia what they call the Kampung development which were villages which were absorbed by the city, and you know, if they were very poor, they will have a lot which is only 15 square meters, and they will build a house of 10 square meters with corrugated iron and bamboo and then that's it. This is okay, providing they have clean water supply and that the dirty water is evacuated. What is terrible is to live in an area where the garbage accumulates, children play in dirty water and there are no health facilities at all or schools. So, to me, the criterion of a successful city is how long do they take to absorb a migrant, a migrant who is coming from the rural area, who has no skills, he has only his arms or her arms. And how long does it take to absorb them so that they can get an urban job where they are very productive for the city and then contribute to the welfare of the city. So some cities have tried to measure it a bit informally and some cities take one or two generations. You have one or two generations of migrants living in extreme poverty, very often being sick because they live in very unhealthy neighbourhoods, and it takes two generations to be absorbed. In other cities, in some cities of Asia that I know, in half a generation, those people are absorbed. So for me, how quickly you can absorb these people in the city life is a sign of success that you can measure. Now, the attitude very often of the housing board or people in government involved in housing, is to say, well, these are poor people, let us be nice to them and build really nice houses for them. So they build kind of a walk-up apartment, or five, six-storey or something like that. And the problem with that is sometimes they are well designed, most of the time badly designed. But when they are well designed, they are too expensive. So the government, instead of delivering one million lot a year to absorb those migrants, they deliver 500 houses. So the houses are nice, you know, they have electricity, they have plumbing, but 500 houses do not solve any problem at all for all the others. So I think that you have to give up the idea of building houses. And this is not very popular, by the way. Politicians like to say, we are going to have one... usually, they say 1 million houses, and then they end up building on the 5000. And they call the press, they build a simple building and they say, you see everybody in the city now is going to be entitled to a house like that, and then never get built. And then we are back to square one. So I think we have to be very realistic, we have to accept poverty, we have to accept that there is a lot of difference in income in a city and we have to concentrate the resources of the government on the few things which are important, like water supply, sewer and things like that. Not, you know, not having an ideal city. And poverty is something which is temporary. For instance, I used to work in Korea, a long time ago, you know, Korea, in 1968-70 I think had about the GDP of Mali, you know, it has about the same and then what happened? And suddenly now it's an industrialized country. They absorbed migrants very intelligently, I think the absorbed migrants and the area which were slums are well developed, you know, you still have neighbourhoods which were former slums which have been developed. So you see, poverty is a temporary phenomenon. It's not a permanent one. And you have to accept it when it happens. But then slowly make the people employed, so slowly, they will emerge from poverty. You don't address the problem of poverty by giving say somebody who has an income of, let's say, $300 a year to give this person a house, which costs you know, $50,000 is not going to solve poverty because you will not give very many houses like that to them. And probably those houses are going to go to people of much higher income very soon. So you see where infrastructure is always useful for everybody. So that's my attitude, those two things. First, the people who live in the city are the ones who are going to make this city so the infrastructure has to serve this. And the infrastructure, in particular the roads, has to give access to a lot of land even if the cities sprawl, so that everybody has access to a piece of land where they can build something. If originally they build a shack which is not very nice,[it] doesn't matter providing they have an infrastructure which allows them to stay healthy, and to have access to jobs eventually. So then they will themselves either move to another neighbourhood or build something which is better. Again, I think my chapter on the Kampung in Indonesia in my book illustrates this very well.Tobi; I'm going to come back to cities as labour markets later, which is one of the most powerful insights I got from your book. So we're talking about housing. For example, in Nigeria, it is popularly reported that we have a housing deficit of 17 million households, there are many independent estimates that put the number higher than that. So how do we, especially, in the face of rapidly increasing urbanization… how do we increase urban housing at a big enough scale? Do we have to democratize land markets in some of these cities? For example, in Nigeria, we have a Land Use Act that places the ownership of land solely in the hands of government, though there is an informal land market but it's, of course, largely informal. So do we have to democratize ownership? And would you say the ideas of Hernando de Soto will be useful here, like, we need to absorb more people into the formal land registry?Alain; Right, yeah, I like your idea of democratizing the land market. That's exactly what you have to do. Now how do you do that? I will give you an example. In Indonesia where I worked again, when the government started investing in the Kampungs, which were slums at the time, you know, pretty bad slumps, actually, but providing the infrastructure in those slums, you know, I was working for the World Bank at the time. And we insisted that they should survey this informal area, and give tenure to everybody, even people who had only say 10 square meters of land. And then the Indonesian told us, that will cost a lot of money, it will be very, very long to do because, you know, all the streets are crooked and things like that it's very difficult to survey. And they say, why don't we just accept the informal market. And it took a long time for us to accept, and then we accepted it. And then we realized that after people were giving water, you know, clean running water in those slums, they had a bill to pay for water. And the bill was a substitute for tenure because they have an address. You have an informal market which becomes formal, because it was legal, because people could do it. So you have to legalize. It doesn't mean necessarily that we have to have a registry in the cadastral, in the formal cadastral, because that may take 20 years. In a way, the Kampung in Indonesia, you could consider an entire neighbourhood as a condominium. So it's a condominium and within this condominium, you establish the rules which are specific to the condominium. And then let people trade. They know what is the boundary of their lot, usually, they're very small. And everybody knows that and says, if you have three or four witnesses, you will have a piece of paper. And little by little, then you could formalize it. But I think that recognizing the informal trading of land, making it legal, and including, by the way, we found then in the Kampung that even banks now accept as a title, just the water bill. you know, there is a water bill, Mr So and so during last five years had paid this water bill at this address, and you know, you don't have the former survey, but you know, the lot is, say 50 square meter, and a bank will accept that as collateral, because it's recognized by the government, it's not going to be bulldozed. The problem with informal settlements is that sometimes the government will just go through and bulldoze that area, or put a highway through, and do not compensate people because they do not recognize the legitimacy of their claim. And so if you do that, then, of course, you create an enormous uncertainty on tenure. You do not encourage people to invest in their own neighbourhood. And of course, banks will never touch it, because you know, if they learn something, and then a highway goes through and there is no compensation. So I think that integrating the informal sector, not necessarily making it formal in the sense that they have to follow the same rule as the formal, but have special role for the informal sector to make it legal. And then look at land use regulation. That's been my problem all over the world. And that's true, by the way, in New York or Paris, that there are standards for housing which are not really reflective of what people want. For instance, in New York, the government imposed by regulation, larger apartments than what people want. You know, there are a lot of people now in New York who are living alone who are a small couple with only one child or no child and the regulation do not reflect that, that those people will be very happy to live in a studio and they are not allowed to build a studio. So I think it's the same in developing countries. If you are poor, you can live with your family in 10 square meters, but if that 10 square meters is close to jobs and have, again, access to clean water, and if there is a school nearby, this is what is important. And you should be able to live there legally, you know, legally without the threat of being exploited or things like that. And again, you know, you were mentioning at the beginning housing deficits, right. I don't believe in housing deficit. Deficit is only, what is your minimum standard for a house? Have you measured all the houses in Lagos to know which ones are below the standard? And what are your minimum standards? You know, is it 10 square meters? Is it 100 square meters? Do you need two bathrooms? For instance, the UN have this thing, I think you have to have, I think it's one room per person or one-half person per room or something like that. And if it's below that, it's a slum, and it's informal. It's a deficit in the housing, I don't think it is. By definition, all the people who live in Lagos live in something they can afford. The problem with housing is that they can afford very, very little, and there's no water and no electricity, maybe, I don't know. And so you have to increase the consumption of housing of the people who are already living there, it is not a question of saying this is not housing, we need to build a new house somewhere to compensate for this house. So I think that the idea of deficit, you know, doesn't lead you to good policy. It's too abstract. You could say, you know, in Lagos, for instance, we can produce only, I don't know, 20 litres of clean water per capita, per day. And so we want, of course, to increase it to, for instance, 60 or 80 or 100. And then you will need to bring more clean water or use more clean water in Lagos, that's legitimate. Let's say you have a deficit of water in the sense that you want to increase the consumption of water. Now, when you do that, you will have to look at the income distribution curve within the city, you know, but in my book, I have several of those curves, and you will have to see if you increase the supply of water in Lagos, you have to make sure that the ones who increase their consumption are the ones now who consume very little. And so you increase their consumption. So you have to measure the consumption of these different groups. Clearly to increase consumption is not to build more houses. And people will build [for] themselves more houses if there is enough land with infrastructure. So the goal of the city is to develop more land with infrastructure.Tobi;So urban planners are by nature very practical people, but I'm going to ask you a bit of an abstract question. Do you think part of the problem with this housing thing is that on some level we do not really respect or extend that abstract idea of property rights to poor people? Is that part of the problem?Alain;Absolutely. Absolutely. I think there is a paternalism, let's say, of the elite, who consider that poor people will always be dependent on a social program. And in a way, you have a society that largely lives on markets. But then you try to condemn the poor into a kind of non-market things, you know, like putting them in public housing or saying well, wait for public housing, we are going to provide you with public housing, you know, don't worry about it. So they are in a socialist system with no property rights. You know, their property rights is going to be given to them by the government, it's not something they will acquire by themselves. So you have these two societies, and then it creates a poverty trap for the poor, you know, they cannot escape because they never accumulate capital. They cannot invest in their own house because their house belongs to the government, [it] doesn't belong to them. So I think that, yes, it's a problem of poverty right. And very often also, many cities have colonized poverty right only if you have a lot developed very formally of a certain size, you know, they will not allow people to own land if the parcel is not at least 200 square meter or 500 square meters, I don't know. And this is not correct. You know, if somebody owns 100 square meters, you should recognize that this ownership is 100 square meters because if not, if you put this minimum threshold of ownership, that means you exclude from ownership half of the population of your city, and you make them live in a non-market economy while the rest of the economy is working on the markets.Tobi; Let's talk a bit about density. So when I travel to New York City, I enjoyed the fact that from my hotel, I can access a cafe, I can access the cinema, I can go to my appointments, possibly all within a walking distance of 15 to 20 minutes. Alain; Yes.Tobi; That is something that I don't have in my city. Sometimes if I want to see a movie from my house, I have to drive two, sometimes two and a half hours. So how can cities in... I don't like that phrase developing world, but that's what I'll use for now. I don't like it. So how can our cities, and by us I mean cities like Lagos and co., better optimize for density or [as] I'm also seeing, ideas by some other planners or thinkers in that space saying that perhaps some of these cities have to give up on the idea of density altogether? So?Alain; Controlling densities, yeah, you see, every land use regulation, control density, tend to put density down, always. You have a minimum lot size. So some people would like to have a small lot, but they are obliged to have a bigger lot because that's the regulation. And then you have the floor ratio or maximum height of buildings. I think that the height of buildings should be removed. So planners say ah, ah but if we do that, we will not have the infrastructure to serve higher densities. Infrastructure is much cheaper than land, always. Much cheaper than land. So what engineers are doing, they are saying, Hey, you have now a water pipe, which is only that big. Therefore, the density cannot be more than that, because we will not have enough water if the density increases. But they are making a trade-off between land and the price of your pipe. And land is more expensive, and more useful. So I think that if they let the density increase, of course, they have to have a system of taxation on land. But again, if they recognize the ownership of land to a lot of people, they can have a type of property tax or something like that which will allow them to have the resource to pay for the infrastructure. And it's always cheaper to increase the level of infrastructure in [an] existing area, to increase the capacity than to expand further away. So if your regulation restricts densities, it means that people will have to build somewhere else, you know, further away. And they're not going to leave the city because the planners say the density here is restricted to that, they are going to stay there but they are going to live further away and at lower densities. So many of those regulations should be audited. I'm not saying that all regulations are bad, not at all, I think the markets need regulation. But the regulation which regulates consumption, that the people themselves can see... you know, if I go into a studio which is 20 square meter, I know it's 20 square meters, if I want to rent it to buy it, this is my business, the government do not have to tell me, No, no, a studio has to be certain square meter, or at least you cannot buy 20 square meters, this is absurd. Let the consumer decide what is best for them. Because then they can... you know, the problem you were mentioning, they can make a trade-off between living in a smaller house but closer to amenities, or a large house far away from everything, you know, some people may prefer that. So regulation restricts the choice. And of course, regulation, because they have this minimum consumption standards, if you look at the income distribution curve, those minimum construction housing standards have a cost. So they eliminate automatically, maybe 50% of the population from anything formal. You know, informality is really created by regulation. It's not created by anything else.Tobi; I want to talk about, perhaps, maybe, there is a kind of market failure in trying to deliver density. Devon Zuegel, I'm sure you're aware [because] she is your friend, wrote...Alain; She's my friend, yes. Tobi; She wrote a blog post a couple of days ago...Alain; I read it, yes.Tobi; Very interesting. I found it very interesting. And while read in that I, because i liked it...Alain; Yeah, Devon, in the last line of her thing [blog], she says, I have not discussed regulation. And my experience is that most of the inconsistencies or contradictions of densities in cities are due to regulations. And I will argue with her about that. You know, that she has to do a blog on regulation.Tobi; I would love to read that because while internalizing the idea she was putting forward, I thought about my street. So I live on a beautiful street. There is access to a major road and so many other amenities. it's gated well secured and all that. But we have just nine houses. Landlords built these huge compound houses. And I can't help but think, every time I go back and forth, that this is an area that can actually house a lot more people. So would you say that's a failure of markets because I think that equilibrium came to be because the first settlers on my streets prefer building for space as opposed to access?Alain; Yeah, but that's not a failure of markets. The market is a mechanism. It's not a god, it's not a religion, it's a mechanism. So here you have people in your compound who live there because they enjoy having low density. And I hope that they paid for it, they didn't steal the lot. So they paid for it? And so that reflects the market. At a certain point, if there is demand for higher density there, a developer will come to your compound and say, I'm making a deal with you, you know, I will give you that much money, and we are going to build more houses here. Unless. Unless there is a regulation which says you cannot have more houses there, or unless the water company tell you, we will never provide enough water in this area for higher density. You know, there are market failures, by the way, but I don't think that density is part of market failures. I think the market predicts rational densities if they are free to [build]. So let us talk about market failure. For instance, pollution is a market failure, you know, there is no way to decrease pollution directly through markets. I mean, you can do it by taxing polluting cars more than non-polluting cars, you know, this you can do, but you have to address it through market mechanism. But the market itself is not going to create a non-polluting thing. The same with global warming, you know, you have to price carbon. The government has to put a price on carbon because the market will not go into putting a price on carbon. That's clear. And then for major infrastructure, for instance, say, if a large city like Lagos needs more water, you know, enough water, clean water for everybody, you need major work to get the water somewhere - from a river, from a deep well, I don't know. And this major work is not going to be created by markets. The government could use a private company to do it. But the initiative has to come from the government, to say we need that many millions of cubic meters of water in the next 10 years. And our engineers say that to do that, we need to have, say, deep well, or whatever water plants, and that will cost that many million dollars. And that will be recovered from taxation. So it could be tax on land, it could be tax on income tax, I don't know. And then we have to do this major work somewhere in the city or in the suburb of the city where you will have the water plant. So all this is not done by markets, the total amount of water which will be brought to [households] has to be done by government, it has to be planned. And after, you will allow the land market to work. If you are allowed to put a network of pipes with water everywhere, including in areas which are not yet developed, including areas which have very low density but could not densify without more water.Tobi; Finally on housing before I move on, do you think that some of [the] newer propositions or technologies like blockchain, for example, hold any promise in terms of land registration, and generally democratizing property rights in cities?Alain; It's quite possible. I am not knowledgeable about [blockchain]. I'm very interested and intrigued by blockchain but I have not seen an example yet. But it's quite possible that yes, this could do it. Yes. You know, at the beginning I was talking about the problem of formal cadastral you know, the traditional property rights [that is] given the cadastral way [where] you have a surveyor from the government who starts taking [measuring] things, and this is very slow, it's very costly to do. It's possible that there are better ways of doing it. And it's possible that blockchain will be [it] but I've not seen an example yet, but it's possible and it might be a good way to start in a city like Lagos, just to try it, see [if it works].Tobi; Interesting. So let's talk about charter cities. I know you're very good friends with Paul Romer. I became intrigued by the idea when I first saw his presentation. And I've sort of followed how that idea developed. But first of all, why do you think some of these projects failed? The one in Honduras and Madagascar? Yeah. What do you think were the pitfalls?Alain; Because government were not ready to allow a [...] charter city, they saw that as just a new real estate development, and they thought that they could control it. And if the existing government control it, it means it's going to be a traditional city, it's not going to be a charter city. I think that in Honduras it was very clear. In Madagascar, I'm less aware of the details. But in Honduras, I follow the [development]. By the way, there are several new charter cities in Honduras now, I'm curious to see if they will succeed or not. Actually, Devon is involved in one of them. And I'm curious... sometimes I'm a little uneasy when I see that one of the first things that the promoter of a new charter city [does] is asking a big architect to put the design first. To me, a charter city is, again, developed land, and the possibility that you were talking about the beginning, democratising land ownership. That means that if you move to a charter city, and you want to open a small restaurant where you will sell sandwiches to workers, you should be able to either rent or buy a little piece of land where you will build your restaurant. You should not go through the government and say I want to open a restaurant, please give me a permit. So for me, a charter city is first a layout of streets, not building, you know, it's a layout of streets where you can buy very small pieces of land. And you can buy some big one, you know, maybe a department store or an office building so they want a big lot, that's fine. But there should be small lots available to people who move there. Because, again, the indispensable people are not only bankers and architects and lawyers. Indispensable people are the people making sandwiches. And so I think that one of the problems is that they have to start with the layout, and making land available to all sorts of people, including very small lots. And I think that will work. Now, my argument was Paul for the first part of your question, but when we first discuss it, you know, when we started working together, and he told me, well, we think that we could do 50 charter cities, you know. My first reaction is, cities are dictated by location and there are no more locations for 50 cities. The good locations are all taken. So if you want to start from scratch, you go to the countryside, and, you know, you have some farmers there even and you say, Oh, the land is very cheap there because there is nothing, why don't we do a charter city? In Lagos land is so expensive. Don't forget that a city is people, it's not the sewers. You're not going to move to a city because it has a nice sewer system, you are going to move to a city because there are jobs, because there are other people you want to work with or be friends with. So the problem with any new city is, who is the first one? Would you leave Lagos for, let's take NEOM in Saudi Arabia (the city that the Saudis want to build) Tobi; Yeah. Alain; So if I told you, okay, in NEOM we could give you a house for $50,000 and it has this fantastic infrastructure. Would you leave Lagos to go there? Unless you know how many people are already there? Are you going to move by yourself or with your family? And you don't know if the schools are working? You don't know if there are restaurants or bars there, you know, [finding] bars in Saudi Arabia is always a problem. [laughs]And so you see, that's the problem. I have an example to explain the problem of a new city. In South Korea, they thought that Seoul was too large, and they thought that they would build a satellite town which will be self-sufficient. So they calculate how many jobs they will need, how much housing and the Koreans are very good at that, they really planned it extremely well, it was financed very well too. They matched exactly the number of jobs and they use the demographic, everything. And they're very good at logistics too. So they built the school, the sewer, the transport, the buses, all at the same time and well done. And it was nice architecture. So the idea was it will be self-sufficient [and] that the people who live there will work there. When the city is fully built and inhabited, they found that 90% of the people who live there commute to Seoul. They work in Seoul, but they live in the New City; and the people who have jobs there, they come from Seoul, they live in Seoul but they work in the New City. Why that? Why didn't they manage to match the thing? It's a question of the first inhabitants. When the plan is finished and the thing is ready to be sold, they told firms in Korea, well, you know, if you want to establish yourself here, you could have a factory of this and it will cost that much and you will pay that much more for electricity, So very attractive. So the firms say, Hey, we are in Seoul right now, but we want to expand, and in Seoul, we cannot expand because land is too expensive, so let's move to this new city where we'll something more modern. Now, these firms, if they have the money to move to the new city, completely new, it means that they already have employees, they have [an existing] business. So they are not going to fire their employees and say we are going to recruit entirely new employees. So the employees which are already in Seoul, working in the old site are going to commute to this. Now, why don't they say oh, we have this new job there and we are going to move into an apartment in the new city? Because where they are now, maybe they have their mother-in-law who is babysitting their kid and they cannot move. Or maybe they have a school that they like a lot for their children. And they don't want to move their children to a new school which has no record. You know, there are a lot of reasons why people don't want to move, or maybe because there are a couple and one of them is working in the neighbourhood and do not want to commute. So the new firms are attracting existing employees from outside and the people who take housing there... you know, if you are a young couple in Seoul, you are desperately looking for a new apartment, but it's too expensive and suddenly, they propose you a nice apartment in the new city... Now, you will need an hour 20-minute commute but you think well, this is a really nice apartment, there will be a nice school so you move there with your family. But your job is in Seoul, you know, because if you can afford an apartment in the new city it's because you already have a job. So you're not going to quit your job and say, Well, I've moved to the new city, I'm going to look for a job in the New City. Maybe after 20 years, you will do that. But initially, you won't. So you see this is a problem of new cities and that will include charter cities unless the charter city becomes so attractive in terms of, again, the democratization of land use, and of property rights. But again, you have the problem of the first mover, you see. So that's why cities like maybe Abuja or Brasilia are successful because they are civil servants so they are obliged to go there. And the government pays for it and all the taxpayers, by the way, all the taxpayers of Nigeria are paying for Abuja.Tobi; Yeah, that much is true. Alain; Yeah. And this is true also for Brasilia, you know, the people who live in Brasilia are not paying for their infrastructure, it's the Brazilians who live in Recife or Rio de Janeiro who are paying for that. So, you see, those examples are not very good examples - the new capitals. The other thing which is very difficult, and I saw that when I was working in China in a new economic zone which usually piggybacks on a city is the cash flow. You know, when you build a new city, there are certain things that are discrete, you know, for instance, you cannot build a sewer plant for 500 people, you are obliged to build a sewer plant for at least 10,000 people or 20,000 people and when you build that you have to spend for 10,000 people but you will not get 10,000 people before five or six years. So you pay interest on this capital for five or 10 years. So you have a negative cash flow for a long time and that is [for] the sewer plant but that's true for schools, that's true for roads, that's true for the water system, that's true for garbage removal, you know. You need right away to bring trucks to remove the garbage to treat it and before you have [enough] inhabitants. So you have to pay a lot of interest. My experience in developing a new economic zone in China was that the cost of interest during construction (that means the cost of interest before the lots were sold to the private sector) represents sometimes 40% of the entire expenditure. So this negative cash flow, if it's a private city, by the way, you have bankers, so the banker, let's say, trusts you. And they say, all right, you have planned to have, say 1000 people, the second year at 10,000 people, the fifth year... and then 100,000 people in 15 years. So they trust your business plan, but then imagine that it's a little slow at coming. So you are borrowing more and more money, and at the same time the bankers get cold feet, and they say, we are not going to go roll over your loan, because you know, your thing… it's too risky, you are accumulating a negative cash flow much longer than we thought. And then they will cut your finance, and then you will go bankrupt. And that's why the most successful new cities are capitals because the entire country is paying the bill, you know, money was no object.Tobi; Does this mean you're bearish on private cities generally? So I'll give you some examples. And I'll try to be brief. For example, in Lagos, there was this project called the Eko Atlantic project. This was a land that was basically reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean, it raised $6 billion, right. And at the end of the day, they ended up building office buildings for oil companies, banks and skyscraper apartments that cost $2 million. Almost nobody goes there to work, which fails the labour market condition in my view, right. There was also the story of Gurgaon, I'm not sure I'm pronouncing that right. In India... Alain; A suburb of Delhi. Yes, yes.Tobi; Yeah. So, where, maybe it was partly driven by the labour market, the tech workers and private firms. But we saw that they could not deliver on things like the sewer system... public goods investments failed woefully. But the common thread in some of these narratives and initiatives, and of course, you know that private cities are very, very hot right now in Silicon Valley...Alain; Yes. SureTobi; Is to look at Shenzhen and say, oh, yeah, this was a fishing village of 30,000 people... Alain; Yes, yes. Right. Yeah. Tobi; And it's now the manufacturing capital of the world, the centre of technology with 50 million people. So are you bearish on private cities generally, that was one? Secondly, what are we missing from the Shenzhen story?Alain; You know, Shenzhen by the way, I know it well, because when it was a little more than a fishing village, I was working for the World Bank… the Chinese invited me there with the team. We were five or six planners and economists. So at the time, it was about 300,000 people, but dispersed, it was not really a big city. And they say we want to build the city of, at the time they say, 4 million people and we want the World Bank to finance it. And this is one skeleton in my closet. I told them you are too ambitious. If you want to build a city of two million, up to 2 million, you know, I made a back of an envelope calculation, I say look 2 million is a city is so large, so fast [and] would be impossible because of logistics. You will not have enough trucks, it will be impossible and I was wrong. So after that, I followed because I was spectacularly wrong. I followed what happened in Shenzhen I went there regularly and you know what created Shenzhen? First, location. You know I was telling you at the beginning [about] location. They have a deep port. A natural deep port in Shenzhen and you know the rocks are going there. And it's next to Hong Kong. Hong Kong port is already saturated. They are at a coveting distance from Hong Kong. So when they want somebody very specialized - an architect, an engineer - at the time when they built it, that was in '83, you know, when I was there, '83-'84, the needed manpower will commute from Hong Kong. They will spend maybe the night in Shenzhen and go back. And then you have the Pearl River Delta on the other side of Hong Kong, you had Guangzhou, you know, which is a very important city too. So, they are in between. Now. The major thing which did the success of Shenzhen was Deng Xiaoping [who] for the first time in the history of China, put a line around Shenzhen and say within this area, the firms are going to pay the workers according to [the] market, and people who come to Shenzhen will negotiate their salary with their employers, depending on their skill. In China before that, if you were, say, a geologist, at 30 years old, the government will say your pay is this per month, period. If you are a welder, the government will say, for entire China, this is your pay, and the government will decide where you will be employed. You have no labour market, there was no labour market in China, you know, people were unemployed, but the government tells them where to [work]. Even the kid coming out of high school, the government will say you're going to work in this factory for the rest of your life. Now, in Shenzen, for the first time, you had the labour market, and a lot of Chinese coming from the north, from all over China (the ones who were the most courageous, you know, [it's] a bit like migrants coming to Lagos are the most courageous in a way that, you know, it's a selection of people) they decided that they were trusting their own skill, they say, we'd rather work and negotiate our salary and change employment when we want rather than stay with it. So you had an influx of people, of talent, from all over China. And that's why, you know, Shenzhen is in an area where everybody speaks Cantonese, normally, you know, in the south of China, like Hong Kong or Guangzhou, but you will find that, in Shenzen, most people speak Mandarin, because they came from all over China. They didn't [all] come from there, [the southern part]...some people from Guangzhou, obviously, from the Pearl River Delta, but say the language that you hear the most is Mandarin because they came from all over. So, you see, what created the enormous success of Shenzhen was the market. It was the labour market. It was the first time you had the labour market in China. And then after that, they used experiment, and you had that, you know. And by the way, housing, also… it was the first housing on the market that people will be paid at the market price, but then with their salary, they will have to pay for housing. Where before in China, housing was provided by your employer entirely. That means that you have no mobility and you have no capital either, by the way. You cannot leave your job because if you leave your job, you have no savings, and you have no house. So that's the story of Shenzhen, and do not forget the location. Look at the container port of Shenzhen, it is one of the best in the world and it's because location, you know, it's even better than Hong Kong. It's larger than Hong Kong's. In Hong Kong, they have to do a lot of land reclamation, whereas [in Shenzhen], it's natural. They don't need to dredge it or anything, you know, it's a natural beauty. So that's the story. So I am not bearish. You know, I like the idea of trying new cities and private cities, I think that's a good thing. But let's say, you know, just to think that if you have a good infrastructure, you know, [when] building [a] new city, they say, Oh, we will have this fantastic system for removing garbage by vacuum and things like that, this is good and well. If the city is reasonably clean, that's good enough, you know, and you don't move to a city because the garbage is vacuumed. You move to a city because there is a good job, the city's attractive, you have bars, cinemas, and you know, whatever, if you'd like to go jogging or things like that, you have nice parks. But you move to a city mostly because of the people who live there. So the question of new cities, how do you attract a lot of people right away in the beginning? Who will be the guinea pig to live in this new city? And then there is the financial aspect, you know, this cash flow, you need to have a lot of money in advance to finance it because bankers will get cold feet. Maybe I've been talking too much and not [...] enough questions. I enjoy it. That was very interesting. I hope maybe we can do it again sometime.Tobi; Okay. Thank you very much. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.ideasuntrapped.com/subscribe

Pramit Bhargava is the founder Visio apps Technology Pvt. Ltd in Gurgaon, Haryana, India and also the creator of the app Louie voice control -A voice solution that allows the use of voice commands for controlling other apps such as Uber ,WhatsApp ,You tube ,Gmail ,Contacts syncing , Messages , Facebook messenger, Google search , spreadsheets and more Louie voice control was inspired by Pramit's vision impairment and sight loss. He wanted a solution that would make day to day activities easier for visually impaired people and has built Louie as a solution to the his own challenges and that of other visually impaired people in over one hundred countries with multi lingual support available 24/7 . Pramit is a Computer Engineer from IIT-BHU and an MBA from IIM, Bangalore. He has worked with global companies such as Unilever, Motorola and Quest Diagnostics.   Pramit says, “Leveraging one's disability to build something useful for others is a rare opportunity and I am fortunate to build Louie, which potentially can help millions of users across the world. We are hence highly driven to build an app that impacts life in a truly positive way.”   on this episode we discussed : How Pramit went partially sighted overnight in reaction to a pain medication he was prescribed and how his vision deteriorated and he lost his job as n IT engineer . His reaction to the sight loss which he never envisaged. Different ways his sight loss affected his confidence Actions he took in acceptance of his sight loss Different emotions that he went through at the time The support he got from his friends, family and community and with the use of different technology and apps . The apps that he uses on his computer to help with his sight and to commute daily   Also please share the link of the episode once it is out.   Social Handles LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pramit-bhargava-1860668/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/LouieVoiceApp Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pramitl.bhargava Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pramit_bhargava/ Louie YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw6A1mTbJ2QN0b8qxT2LaYQ Website Link: https://louievoice.com/   #Louie voice Control #sightloss #Visioapps Technology Pvt. #Vision impairment #LiveInthemoment ConfrontingYourFear Listen to The Meademusings Podcast , add it to your favourite playlist on ill w #Gaana #Newsly #Podbean podcast #Apple podcast #Spotify podcast #Listennotes Podcast #Google Podcast #ItunesPodcast #Podchaser Podcast #Blubrry podcast #Bullhorn Podcast #Amazon Podcast Also on Audible ,Audapp , Anghami ,Breaker ,Castbox ,Castro ,Deezer , Fydd, Goodpods ,Headliner ,Stitcher ,Podcast addict , Radio Public , Podlink, PlayerFM Samsung Podcasts ,Tune in and Alexa ,You tube . Finally on Newsly USE promo code MEADEMUSINGS support us buymeacoffee/TheMeadeMusings or paypal.me/meademusings  

On this episode of Cock & Bull, we are joined by Aakash Mehta, the late comer Punit Pania and Silverie (Antariksh) the superstar from Himachal. Cyrus talks about fighting with ladies, whether Punit is a fan of working out and why there are gyms everywhere in Gurgaon. The panel also talks about Punit's friend's love for the vada pav outside of a specific 'shamshan ghat', the story of famous comedian Harsh Gujral slapping a person from in the crowd as a part of a bit, whether it was a planted member of the audience or not, Aakash's own account of an audience member falling onto him and the crazy story of Antariksh getting a call from Powai police station for an argument and brawl with an event organiser. Further, they talk about the research that analysed 'our' PM Modi and Rahul Gandhi's Twitter followers and the levels of engagements each of their posts receive, talk about the story of scammers scamming people out if their money under the pretense of getting food delivered or booking tables at a cafe in Shivaji Park in Mumbai. Tune in for this and much more.You can follow Punit Pania on Instagram at @punitpaniaYou can follow Aakash Mehta on Instagram at @kuchbhimehtaYou can follow Antariksh on Instagram @antariksht: https://instagram.com/antarikshtDo send in AMA questions for Cyrus by tweeting them to @cyrussaysin or e-mailing them at whatcyrussays@gmail.comDon't forget to follow Cyrus Broacha on Instagram @cyrus_broacha(https://www.instagram.com/cyrus_broacha)In case you're late to the party and want to catch up on previous episodes of Cyrus Says you can do so at: www.ivmpodcasts.com/cyrussaysYou can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the new and improved IVM Podcasts App on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios

Swapan Seth is a brand, marketing and creative consultant. He is also an author, a columnist with leading lifestyle magazines, an art collector, a wine collector. He lives between Gurgaon and Naldehra in India. Here are some key insights from this week's show: Start your branding journey with the purpose of delighting. Every brand must find its own voice that connects. Be easily inspired, keep your windows open. Always ask the question: “What do I need to know?” Find clients that are courageous. Every person has a story that is worth gathering.

2022-2-16 Krishna Katha Gurgaon, India - HG Vaisesika Dasa by Vaisesika Dasa