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Mint Techcetra

Mint Techcetra

By: Mint - HT Smartcast
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About this listen

 The Mint Techcetra podcast is your navigator into the mesmerizing maze that is technology today. From decoding technologies, policies, enterprises, and legal decisions to sci-fi and pop culture, this podcast will cover it all. Every week hosts - Leslie D'Monte, Shouvik Das and Deepti Ahuja - will talk about important developments in tech and how they transform our lives, work and play as we know it. If you have any questions or suggestions you can reach out to the hosts on LinkedIn via their handles given below: Leslie D'Monte, Mint's Sr. Associate Editor: linkedin.com/in/leslie-d-monte-4985993 Shouvik Das, Mint's Assistant Editor, Mint: linkedin.com/in/shouvik-das-77a4bbba Deepti Ahuja, Content Head, HT Smartcast: linkedin.com/in/deeptea This is a Mint production brought to you by HT Smartcast. Economics Leadership Management & Leadership
Episodes
  • Why Sam Altman wants you to stop blindly trusting ChatGPT plus India's $12 billion budget for advanced R&D and AI-related job cuts

    Why Sam Altman wants you to stop blindly trusting ChatGPT plus India's $12 billion budget for advanced R&D and AI-related job cuts
    Jul 9 2025
    "You can only become a product nation if you invest in R&D. Otherwise, you stay a service economy.” In today’s episode of Mint Techcetra, we talk about what India’s $12 billion R&D push could actually mean beyond just numbers and press releases. We look at why India’s tech sector has lagged in deep research, what it will take to build serious intellectual property here, and whether this new funding will finally shift the dial. We also get into the growing unease around AI. Sam Altman says people trust ChatGPT too much. But who decides how much trust is too much? Is it on the user, the platform, or the regulators who still haven’t shown up? and finally, we look into Microsoft’s 9,000 job cuts, and ask the harder question: is AI really replacing humans, or is it just a convenient scapegoat for bigger structural shifts? It's a packed episode of policy, people, platforms, and how all three are clashing in real time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    33 mins
  • An Indian finally enters the Space Station, as Sam Altman’s World ID hits controversies

    An Indian finally enters the Space Station, as Sam Altman’s World ID hits controversies
    Jul 3 2025
    If India can rival SpaceX and send a person to the International Space Station, why can’t we have better roads back home?” In today’s episode of Mint Techcetra, we start with Group Captain Shukla’s journey to the International Space Station. The first Indian to do so in over four decades and why this moment goes beyond national pride. It marks a key milestone ahead of the Gaganyaan mission and India’s ambitions to build its own space station by 2035. Then we get into Sam Altman’s World ID, the iris-scanning, crypto-incentivised identity system that’s being pitched as a solution to bots and fake accounts. But here’s the thing: it’s already banned in India and several other countries. Why? Because when you mix biometric scans, private companies, and vague promises about data privacy, things get murky fast. We also talk about the latest round of copyright lawsuits against tech companies. Meta and Anthropic just won theirs but only because, as the judge said, the lawyers arguing against them didn’t get the case right. That doesn’t mean scraping and using copyrighted books is now fair game. So yes, it’s a packed episode. One astronaut, one crypto-powered ID system, and a copyright battle that’s far from over. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    25 mins
  • Tech jobs on the decline, but reusable rockets are on the rise

    Tech jobs on the decline, but reusable rockets are on the rise
    Jun 26 2025
    "Are we entitled to have our jobs for a lifetime in the AI age?" That’s the question this week’s episode of Techcetra opens with, as Shouvik Das and Leslie D’Monte talks about the growing instability in Big Tech employment. They examine the troubling pattern of layoffs at firms like Microsoft and Google. Is AI genuinely reshaping work, or simply replacing people under the guise of innovation? They explore how job cuts are disproportionately affecting Indian professionals in the U.S., the emotional toll of sudden unemployment, and whether private companies are doing enough to retrain talent instead of replacing it. The episode also rockets literally into another domain of innovation. With Honda testing a reusable rocket, the hosts discuss what this signals in a SpaceX-dominated world, and how India’s own players like Skyroot and Agnikul are pushing frugal innovation in aerospace. While reusability remains a nascent ambition, the bigger question raised is about India's underwhelming R&D budgets even in tech giants like TCS and how that gap might hold back long-term progress in both tech and space. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    30 mins

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