Vaad

संवाद # 320: संवाद # 320: Vishal Bhargava's NEW BOLD prediction on Gurgaon's real estate market 29.05.2026 1h 30min

Vishal Bhargava is one of India's most independent voices on real estate — a journalist and analyst who has tracked the sector for nearly two decades from inside both finance and media. He began his career on the institutional side, with stints at CLSA India and Bank of America, before moving to financial journalism at The Economic Times and ET NOW.Today he writes regular columns on real estate, and runs BHK-Voice, his independent platform that has become required reading for serious homebuyers, builders, and policy-watchers. He is based in Mumbai and applies the discipline of an equity analyst to a sector that has historically resisted scrutiny - pricing builders the way one would price stocks, and reading projects through their lenders, their balance sheets, and their political backers.His writing and commentary are known for being unusually plain-spoken in an industry built on spin: he has called Mumbai's market "Lower Parelised," predicted Gurgaon's coming correction long before consensus, and coined the term "location deception" for one of Indian real estate's most common scams.Beyond the numbers, he is also a chronicler of Indian cities — their architecture, their infrastructure, their slow disfigurement — which makes him one of the few people in India equipped to discuss real estate not just as a market, but as a mirror of Indian state capacity and public life.

संवाद # 319: Kashmir expert who predicted Pahalgam has a NEW WARNING | Dr Abhinav Pandya 26.05.2026 1h 14min

Dr Abhinav Pandya, a Cornell University graduate in public affairs and a bachelor's from St. Stephen's College, Delhi, is a founder and CEO of Usanas Foundation, an India-based foreign policy and security think tank. He has authored books named 'Radicalization in India: An Exploration (2019)' and 'Terror Financing in Kashmir (2023)'.He had previously advised the former governor of Jammu and Kashmir on security issues during the critical times when Kashmir's special status, Article 370, was revoked.He has written extensively for several national and international newspapers, and worked with the International Labour Organization, the United Nations.His latest book is 'The Jihad Game: Inside Pakistan's dark war'

संवाद # 318: Sanskrit scholar exposes pseudoscience in the name of Hinduism 24.05.2026 1h 47min

Nityānanda Miśra is a Mumbai-based finance professional in the investment banking industry. He specialises in quantitative finance, equity market microstructure, algorithmic trading, and execution consulting. He is an alumnus of IIM Bangalore (2007) and a gold medalist from Gujarat University (2004).Nityānanda is a multifaceted personality—a Sanskrit scholar, a polyglot, a grammarian, a littérateur, an instrumentalist, a musicologist, a researcher, an editor, an author, and a book designer. He has authored thirteen books, including several bestsellers. He is also a professional onomastician, specialising in Sanskrit names.Nityānanda is passionate about Indic culture, literature, music, and arts. He runs a popular YouTube channel, which produces content on these topics.

संवाद # 317: India's BIGGEST cover-up - Rajiv Gandhi's murder investigation | Anirudhya Mitra 21.05.2026 2h 14min

Our guest today is the journalist Anirudhya Mitra. In May 1991, when a former Prime Minister of India was assassinated at Sriperumbudur, Mitra was a young reporter who had joined India Today magazine barely a month earlier. Over the next ninety days, he covered the hunt for Rajiv Gandhi's killers from closer than almost any other journalist in the country — his investigative stories became known as the "inside story" of the assassination. That reporting also made him a target: he was followed, threatened, and publicly branded a CBI agent by both the DMK and the LTTE chief Prabhakaran himself. For thirty years he carried facts he could not put in print. In 2022, he finally wrote them down — in the book that is the subject of today's conversation, Ninety Days: The True Story of the Hunt for Rajiv Gandhi's Assassins.

संवाद # 316: India's legendary nuclear scientist tells the truth about Pokhran, US-India N-deal 16.05.2026 2h 15min

Dr Anil Kakodkar is one of the senior-most living architects of India's atomic energy programme and a Padma Vibhushan awardee. He joined the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in 1964. He served as Director of BARC from 1996 to 2000 and as Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, from 2000 to 2009.He was among the small group of scientists at Pokhran for India's first nuclear test — Smiling Buddha — on 18 May 1974, and played a central role a quarter-century later in the five Pokhran-II nuclear tests in May 1998 that established India as a declared nuclear weapons state.As a working engineer through the long sanctions era, he designed and built the Dhruva research reactor entirely indigenously, led the development of pressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR) systems that today form the backbone of India's civilian fleet, and rehabilitated Units 1 and 2 of the Madras Atomic Power Station after the 1989 failure of their moderator inlet manifolds — both reactors had been on the verge of being written off. He conceptualised the Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR), a 300 MW thorium-fuelled design that remains central to India's three-stage nuclear power programme.His team at BARC designed the miniaturised 83 MW pressurised light water reactor that powers INS Arihant, completing India's nuclear triad. Between 2005 and 2008, he was the technical anchor of the Indian negotiating team — alongside Manmohan Singh, Pranab Mukherjee, Shivshankar Menon and Shyam Saran — that delivered the 123 Agreement with the United States, the India-IAEA safeguards agreement, and the September 2008 Nuclear Suppliers Group waiver that ended three decades of India's nuclear isolation.A lifelong champion of thorium as the foundation of India's long-term energy sovereignty — India holds roughly a quarter of the world's known thorium reserves — he has continued to argue, well into his eighties, that abandoning the thorium path would be a serious strategic error. Beyond nuclear, he has chaired the Board of Governors of IIT Bombay, led high-level committees on Indian Railways safety and Maharashtra higher education, helped establish NISER and the Homi Bhabha National Institute, and currently chairs Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited.

संवाद # 315: India’s National security is now compromised | Dr Chaitanya Giri 20.04.2026 1h 15min

Dr. Chaitanya Giri is a distinguished space scientist, astrochemist, and technology strategy analyst whose expertise bridges planetary science, space policy, and astropolitics. He serves as a Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation's (ORF) Centre for Security, Strategy and Technology and is an Associate Professor at FLAME University.Dr. Giri holds a Ph.D. in Astrochemistry from the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research. His scientific career includes significant tenures at the Earth-Life Science Institute at Tokyo Institute of Technology, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and the Carnegie Institution for Science. Notably, he was a co-investigator for the COSAC payload on the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission, which made groundbreaking discoveries on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Beyond his scientific research, Dr. Giri is deeply involved in science diplomacy and policy, having consulted for India's National Security Council Secretariat and served on various government review committees. He is also the author of the book India in the Second Space Age of Interplanetary Connectivity, which explores the geopolitical and economic implications of future space exploration.His latest book is ‘The Long Siege: 500 Years of India’s Struggle for Technopolitical Freedom’.

संवाद # 314: Muslim scholar explains Islam's biggest weakness | Zahack Tanvir 17.04.2026 1h 20min

Zahack Tanvir is a Hyderabad-born independent journalist, counter-extremism expert, and the founder and editor of the UK-based media outlet Milli Chronicle. He specializes in international affairs and counter-terrorism, having completed academic programs in these fields at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands and the London School of Journalism.His educational background is diverse, also comprising an engineering degree in Computer Science from Osmania University, a post-graduate diploma in AI and Machine Learning from IIIT India, and a Master’s in AI-ML from Liverpool John Moores University.Tanvir identifies as a traditional Muslim who is vocally "anti-Islamist," often criticizing extremist ideologies and the political misuse of religion. He lived in Saudi Arabia for 13 years until a significant legal ordeal in late 2023, when he was detained by Saudi authorities following a complaint filed by Pakistan regarding his social media content, which was alleged to be anti-Pakistan. He was released in December 2024.

संवाद # 313: Why Pakistan is desperate to END Iran war | Vaibhav Singh 06.04.2026 1h 2min

Vaibhav Singh is founder of Defensive Offense and DO News.

संवाद # 312: US-Israel forgot these IMPORTANT lessons from Op Sindoor | Vishnu Som 04.04.2026 1h 1min

Vishnu Som is a prominent, award-winning Indian journalist and news anchor who currently serves as the Executive Editor and Principal Anchor for New Delhi Television (NDTV). Som has built a distinguished career spanning over 28 years in broadcast journalism. He is widely recognized for anchoring prime-time national news broadcasts, including the flagship show "Left, Right and Centre."Som is particularly noted for his extensive frontline reporting on global conflicts, aviation, the environment, and natural disasters. He has reported directly from war zones in Kargil, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Ukraine, and provided on-the-ground coverage of catastrophic events like the 2004 Asian tsunami and the 2011 Japan earthquake.His comprehensive reporting and documentary work have earned him numerous accolades, including the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Award in Journalism, the Commonwealth Broadcasting Award, and several Indian Telly Awards.

संवाद # 311: One billion Hindus do this everyday but don't know why | Ami Ganatra 28.03.2026 1h 10min

Ami Ganatra is a bestselling Indian author and management professional who has built a rare bridge between the corporate world and India's classical knowledge tradition. An alumna of IIM Ahmedabad, she spent over fifteen years in consulting and business management across sectors and geographies before turning her deeper intellectual energies toward the texts that shaped the civilisation she grew up in.Her work is defined not by imaginative retellings but by a strict commitment to the original Sanskrit sources, presenting their insights with a focus on contemporary relevance — a rare discipline in a space crowded with popular mythology. She first made her mark with the Unravelled series — Mahabharata Unravelled and Ramayana Unravelled — which have since been translated into several Indian languages.Her latest book, Why Are We This Way: A Guide to Hindu Shastras is now out (Order your copy here: https://amzn.in/d/07TzUnpz).Beyond her work for adults, she has also authored several children's books including Avadhut and His Teachers, My Friend Arjun, and My Sister Devi Amazon, driven by the belief that value-based learning must begin young. What sets Ami apart is the particular vantage point she writes from — that of an ordinary, practising Hindu who followed rituals before she understood them, and who decided, with an engineer's rigour and a devotee's sincerity, to go back to the source.

संवाद # 310: How West & Iran have been fighting for 2,527 years 21.03.2026 1h 24min

Jay Vardhan Singh is currently doing his PhD in Ancient Indian History at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. His area of interest includes the Ancient and early medieval history of the Indian subcontinent.

संवाद # 309: Iran's BOLD STRATEGY to defeat US-Israel | Col Rajesh Pawar (retd) 17.03.2026 1h 10min

Colonel Rajesh Pawar (retd) is a former officer of the Indian Army and is now a seasoned war correspondent and defense journalist for India Today. He is best known for his fearless ground reporting from some of the most volatile conflict zones in recent history.His expertise lies in global geopolitics, modern warfare tactics, and defense strategy. Most notably, he provided extensive on-ground coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war, reporting live from Kyiv even as the city was under siege.More recently, he has covered the Israel-Hamas war, reporting from locations like Tel Aviv and the Dead Sea to analyze the conflict's military and human impact. His work often focuses on the intersection of military action and its geopolitical ripple effects, making him a critical voice for understanding how global conflicts impact India's strategic interests.

संवाद # 308: India's SECRET army unit 99% Indians don't know about | Colonel Rajesh Pawar (retd) 13.03.2026 1h 11min

Colonel Rajesh Pawar (retd) is a former officer of the Indian Army and is now a seasoned war correspondent and defense journalist for India Today. He is best known for his fearless ground reporting from some of the most volatile conflict zones in recent history.His expertise lies in global geopolitics, modern warfare tactics, and defense strategy. Most notably, he provided extensive on-ground coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war, reporting live from Kyiv even as the city was under siege.More recently, he has covered the Israel-Hamas war, reporting from locations like Tel Aviv and the Dead Sea to analyze the conflict's military and human impact. His work often focuses on the intersection of military action and its geopolitical ripple effects, making him a critical voice for understanding how global conflicts impact India's strategic interests.

संवाद # 307: It's not just Nuclear - real reason behind Israel-Iran war | Jaideep Prabhu 11.03.2026 1h 21min

Jaideep A. Prabhu is a scholar of diplomatic history and nuclear policy though he has a wide range of scholarly interests from the Classics, ethics, history, law, literature, political philosophy, religion, and security. His regional interests, however, are limited to Western Europe and the Greater Levant. Prabhu has three Masters’ degrees in the humanities despite an engineering background, and has written for several periodicals as well as appeared on national television as an expert commentator.Presently, Prabhu is based in Israel and conducting research at Ben Gurion Research Institute (BGRI) on religion, secularism, and nationalism, making Israel’s early state-building and foreign policy a case study. The research also touches upon a brief comparative analysis of Zionism and the idea of a Jewish state on the one hand with Hindutva and India on the other.Prabhu spends his spare time engaged in martial arts, cooking, flamenco, travelling, and scuba diving; he is also an avid fan of football and tennis.

संवाद # 306: This Kurdish politician has a message for India 07.03.2026 1h 38min

Nilüfer Koç is an expert on the Middle East and spokeswoman for the Foreign Policy Committee of the Kurdistan National Congress. The child of Kurdish migrant workers, she came to Germany in 1976 and studied political science at Bremen University.Between 2013 and 2019, she worked as co-president of the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) and spent most of her time in western and southern Kurdistan. Alongside efforts to achieve national unity, Nilüfer Koç is also active on the international stage to raise awareness of the right to self-determination of the Kurdish people and all the ethnic and religious components of Kurdistan, and is interested in and committed to the active and autonomous participation of women in all areas of society and politics.She has also been an advocate of building vast cultural networks around the Kurdish cause, involving artists, musicians and theatre-makers in the construction of international exchanges, including the artist Jonas Staal, with whom she collaborated on the New World Summit - Rojava and New World Embassy: Rojava.

संवाद # 305: Iran war will change Middle-East map? | Iqbal Chand Malhotra 04.03.2026 1h 7min

Iqbal Chand Malhotra is a distinguished media producer and author known for his work on geopolitical history and strategic affairs. He holds a first-class degree in Economics from Queens' College, University of Cambridge.Media Career: He is the Chairman and Producer of AIM Television Pvt. Ltd. Over his career, he has produced over 500 hours of television programming and served as an advisor on India to media mogul Rupert Murdoch (1993–1995), helping to launch MTV in India.Malhotra has directed several award-winning documentaries, often focusing on historical mysteries and security issues. Notable titles include The Legend of Malerkotla, Netaji Bose and the Lost Treasure, and Kashmir’s Troubled Waters. He is a long-standing member of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and has served as a juror for the International Emmy Awards.He has written extensively on conflict and strategy. His books include Red Fear: The China Threat and Dark Secrets: Politics, Intrigue and Proxy Wars in Kashmir. He also co-authored Kashmir’s Untold Story: Declassified.

संवाद # 304: Israel's LAST CHANCE to end Iran's Mullah regime | Abhinav Pandya 27.02.2026 1h 13min

Dr Abhinav Pandya, a Cornell University graduate in public affairs and a bachelor's from St. Stephen's College, Delhi, is a founder and CEO of Usanas Foundation, an India-based foreign policy and security think tank. He has authored books named 'Radicalization in India: An Exploration (2019)' and 'Terror Financing in Kashmir (2023)'.He had previously advised the former governor of Jammu and Kashmir on security issues during the critical times when Kashmir's special status, Article 370, was revoked.He has written extensively for several national and international newspapers, and worked with the International Labour Organization, the United Nations.His latest book is 'The Jihad Game: Inside Pakistan's dark war'.

संवाद # 303: Is India committing BIG mistake in buying 114 Rafale? | Ajay Ahlawat 24.02.2026 1h 13min

Group Captain Ajay Ahlawat (Retd) A seasoned fighter pilot and strategic military thinker, Group Captain Ajay Ahlawat (Retd) brings over 25 years of distinguished service in the military (Indian Air Force) and civil aviation. Commissioned into the Indian Air Force (IAF) in Dec 1996, after graduating from the National Defence Academy (NDA), he has operated high-performance fighter jets, besides handling various command and staff appointments.He has extensive experience in aerospace operations, force application in support of national security, and planning of complex operations. He is a qualified civil aviation pilot as well and holds type ratings on the Boeing 737, Airbus A320, and Gulfstream G-200. His military tenure was defined by key leadership roles such as Commanding Officer of the IAF Hawk training squadron and Operations staff at HQ Western Air Command. He was nominated for various international courses by the IAF, including- Qualified Flying Instructor with the Royal Air Force (UK), Advanced Air Power specialization with RAAF (Australia) and Air Staff course at the Air University (Maxwell AFB, USA). With a Master’s degree in Operational Art and Science, he has contributed to doctrinal development, joint warfare planning, and strategic policy formulation within the IAF.His academic and operational exposure in the USA, UK, and Australia reflects a deep engagement with traditional and emerging military thought with a global military perspective and thought leadership. Beyond the cockpit, he served as a subject matter expert in air warfare and strategy, helping shape the IAF warfighting doctrine. Since transitioning from active service, he continues contributing as a defence expert and commentator on strategic affairs, frequently appearing in media and publishing insights on regional security, air power, space based applications and military modernization.

संवाद # 302: Elon Musk & China’s dangerous game in Space, ISRO Vs NASA | Dr Chaitanya Giri 21.02.2026 2h 2min

Dr. Chaitanya Giri is a distinguished space scientist, astrochemist, and technology strategy analyst whose expertise bridges planetary science, space policy, and astropolitics. He serves as a Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation's (ORF) Centre for Security, Strategy and Technology and is an Associate Professor at FLAME University.Dr. Giri holds a Ph.D. in Astrochemistry from the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research. His scientific career includes significant tenures at the Earth-Life Science Institute at Tokyo Institute of Technology, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and the Carnegie Institution for Science. Notably, he was a co-investigator for the COSAC payload on the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission, which made groundbreaking discoveries on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Beyond his scientific research, Dr. Giri is deeply involved in science diplomacy and policy, having consulted for India's National Security Council Secretariat and served on various government review committees. He is also the author of the book India in the Second Space Age of Interplanetary Connectivity, which explores the geopolitical and economic implications of future space exploration.His latest book is ‘The Long Siege: 500 Years of India’s Struggle for Technopolitical Freedom’.

संवाद # 301: He lost Rs 500 crores due to Modi's REFORM | Shripal Morakhia 21.02.2026 2h 6min

Shripal Morakhia is an Indian serial entrepreneur best known for founding the pioneering online retail brokerage Sharekhan and the sports-entertainment venture Smaaash. His career began in the United States, where, after earning his MBA, he served as the Executive Assistant to the President of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).Following the death of his father in 1981, Morakhia returned to India to helm his family's stockbroking business, eventually establishing SSKI, an early institutional brokerage firm serving foreign investors. Beyond finance, Morakhia explored the entertainment industry by launching iDream Productions, through which he produced and distributed notable films like Bend It Like Beckham and Monsoon Wedding, and made his directorial debut with Naina in 2005.In 2012, he partnered with cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar to create Smaaash, an innovative indoor gaming and virtual reality center. While his career has been marked by high-profile successes, it has also involved complex business challenges, including the corporate insolvency proceedings of Smaaash in recent years. Morakhia recently documented his professional journey and entrepreneurial philosophy in his candid memoir, Never Say Die: My Life in Business and Entrepreneurship, where he reflects on his business setbacks and his subsequent philosophical rebuilding, now describing himself as "Shripal 2.0."