Episodes

  • What India’s DHRUV64, Samsung’s tri-fold phone, and the foundation model transparency index say about tech in 2025

    What India’s DHRUV64, Samsung’s tri-fold phone, and the foundation model transparency index say about tech in 2025
    Dec 19 2025
    DHRUV64 is India’s first homegrown 64-bit dual-core microprocessor, and it quietly says a lot about where the country’s chip ambitions are headed. In this episode, our host Lesli D'Monte and Shouvik Das talk about what DHRUV64 means for India and why it matters for infrastructure and industry and how it fits into the push to reduce dependence on imported chips.From there, the conversation moves to consumer tech experiments, starting with Samsung’s tri-fold phone, a device that clearly wants to be a tablet when opened up. We talk about what Samsung is really testing with this form factor, whether folding phones are solving a real problem, and where they sit in a world where people already juggle phones, tablets, and laptops. That leads into AI tools making their way into everyday use, including ChatGPT’s Image 1.5 generator, how it stacks up against Google’s recent image models, and why image generation has suddenly become such a crowded and competitive space.We wrap with the Foundation Model Transparency Index, which puts data behind a growing concern in AI. As models become more powerful and more widely used, the index shows how little most companies still disclose about training data, risks, and design choices, raising uncomfortable questions about trust, regulation, and accountability. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    11 mins
  • How Micron is Fueling India’s Chip Story while powering AI

    How Micron is Fueling India’s Chip Story while powering AI
    Dec 19 2025
    If AI is the brain, memory and storage are the nervous system.” In this Mint Techcetra episode, host Nelson John sits down with Anand Ramamoorthy, Managing Director, Micron India, to flip the spotlight from models to the memory and storage backbone powering AI. They discuss why memory & storage — not just processors — decide how fast, efficiently and intelligently AI can think, learn and scale, and how Micron is building that capability in India.Anand shares Micron India’s rapid journey - a 4,000+ workforce across Bangalore and Hyderabad, 600+ patents and disclosures, and homegrown DRAM engineering that produced multiple first-silicon passes with no respins. Tune in for candid takes on edge-to-cloud product strategy, skilling, R&D vs. manufacturing, and what the next five years mean for India’s semiconductor ambition. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    20 mins
  • From India's PSLV rocket launch to Google's Gemini AI push

    From India's PSLV rocket launch to Google's Gemini AI push
    Nov 28 2025
    In today's episode of Mint Techcetra, our host Leslie D'Monte and Shouvik Das talked about ISRO's trusted workhorse, the PSLV, which is now set to become a private "rocket taxi" for India, marking a major milestone in the commercialization of the country's space sector. The PSLV, known for its exceptional reliability over 32 years with more than 62 launches, including the Chandrayaan and Mangalyaan missions, is being manufactured privately by a consortium of Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). This shift allows ISRO to focus on core research and high-profile missions while private players handle commercial launches. The private PSLV is designed to cater to small satellite launches up to 500 kilograms in low Earth orbit, providing an on-demand space taxi service that eliminates the long waiting times associated with larger rideshare rockets like SpaceX's Falcon 9. This opens up new revenue streams and opportunities in India's growing $8 billion space economy, expected to reach $44 billion by 2033.Alongside this, the episode also touched upon the advances in AI with Google's Nano Banana, praised for its speed and improved accuracy in image generation, but raising concerns about misuse, such as fake ID creation. In the en,d we talked about a Chinese robot that walked 100 kilometres only to ask for new shoes a reminder that robots are still far from human-level dexterity, with significant progress yet to be made before true artificial general intelligence is reached. To catch the full insights on these tech turns from space taxis to AI antics and robotics, listen to the entire episode. If you have any questions, we’d love to answer them on the podcast. We’re also open to any suggestions on how we can make it even better because we want to have a fun time with all of you. Reach out to us on our social handles. We can’t wait to hear from you! Leslie D'Monte - https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-d-monte-4985993/ Shouvik Das - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shouvik-das-77a4bbba/?originalSubdomain=in HT Smartcast - https://www.linkedin.com/company/ht-smartcast/posts/?feedView=all Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    37 mins
  • Internet outages, massive WhatsApp data leaks, and what India's data protection laws mean for us

    Internet outages, massive WhatsApp data leaks, and what India's data protection laws mean for us
    Nov 21 2025
    With the first episode of the new season of Mint Techcetra, your host Leslie D’Monte brings over his old tech friend Shouvik Das to talk about the Cloudflare outage that quietly took big chunks of the internet offline and stalled everything from trading desks to the everyday apps we barely think about. They also dig into the recent data leak that exposed the details of nearly seventy-five million people in India and what it says about how casually platforms collect our information and how easily it slips out into the world. The conversation moves into the DPDP Act, now officially in force, and what it actually changes for anyone using a phone or app in India. Clear consent, under-18 safeguards, what platforms can and can’t do with your information, and why companies will have to stop burying rules in walls of legal text and because privacy and AI are now inseparable, the episode also touches on India’s early AI governance approach and how it tries to guide innovation without strangling it. It’s a breakdown of outages, leaks, and new rules landing all at once and what that mix means for anyone living their life online. If you have any questions, we’d love to answer them on the podcast. We’re also open to any suggestions on how we can make it even better because we want to have a fun time with all of you. Reach out to us on our social handles. We can’t wait to hear from you! Leslie D'Monte - https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-d-monte-4985993/ Shouvik Das - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shouvik-das-77a4bbba/?originalSubdomain=in HT Smartcast - https://www.linkedin.com/company/ht-smartcast/posts/?feedView=all Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    36 mins
  • Securing the Future of Bharat with AI Infrastructure: IBM preps Indian enterprises to be AI-ready

    Securing the Future of Bharat with AI Infrastructure: IBM preps Indian enterprises to be AI-ready
    Oct 31 2025
    Join host Nelson John in a riveting episode of Mint Techcetra as he explores the future of AI infrastructure with IBM's business leader for IBMZ and LinuxONE, Suresh Jayanthi. They discuss the critical aspects of building a robust, secure, and sustainable IT infrastructure crucial for AI adoption. Learn about the types of enterprise systems, the latest innovations like on-chip AI accelerators, and quantum-safe technologies. Discover how IBM's solutions are helping enterprises, especially in India’s BFSI sector, to scale their operations while maintaining high security and reliability. Get insights into how to make AI systems more efficient and sustainable, and understand why now is the perfect time to invest in AI-ready infrastructure. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    34 mins
  • Driving Relationship Banking & AI Transformation

    Driving Relationship Banking & AI Transformation
    Oct 25 2025
    In this episode of Mint Techcetra, host Kartik is joined by Suja Chandy, Managing Director of Zafin India and Global Chief Sustainability Officer, for a conversation on how Zafin is modernising the future of banking. Discover how India has become a strategic growth hub for Zafin, playing a pivotal role in supporting the development of advanced solutions such as Zafin IO, Deal Manager and much more. Learn how Zafin’s consultative, platform-led approach helps banks reimagine relationship-based pricing, accelerate innovation, and deliver hyper-personalised propositions at scale. Suja also shares how Zafin India fosters a purpose-driven culture with career acceleration programs, deep expertise in product, design, and consulting, and a strong commitment to sustainability and inclusion. Whether you are in banking, fintech, or technology leadership, this episode provides an inside look at how Zafin is empowering banks to compete, grow, and create lasting value in the age of AI. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    25 mins
  • India’s Digital Leap: The Power of Intelligent Information Management

    India’s Digital Leap: The Power of Intelligent Information Management
    Aug 13 2025
    India is going digital at a record speed, but without intelligent information management, the transformation won’t be complete.In this episode of Mint Techcetra, host Nelson John is joined by Arvind Subramanian, EVP & MD of Iron Mountain India, and Manish Yadav, Senior Principal Consultant at TechCircle, for an in-depth look at how intelligent information management is driving India’s digital leap forward.They unpack the complex challenges of moving from paper-heavy processes to secure, AI-enabled digital platforms like Iron Mountain InSight® DXP. Learn why digitising India’s 30 million tonnes of paper records is more than just a technical task; it’s a strategic necessity impacting compliance, operational speed, and customer satisfaction. The discussion explores how sectors such as BFSI, healthcare, and public services are using cloud, AI, and machine learning to unlock new efficiencies, meet regulatory demands, and deliver superior user experiences. Plus, get insights into India’s growing digital maturity, the critical need for structured governance, and what the next phase of predictive records management will look like. If you want to understand the intersection of technology, strategy, and India’s digital future, this is an episode you can’t afford to miss. Visit www.ironmountain.com/en-in to learn more about Iron Mountain in India. If you want to understand the intersection of technology, strategy, and India’s digital future, this is an episode you can’t Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    31 mins
  • Three decades of tech journalism: Leslie D’Monte of Mint steps down

    Three decades of tech journalism: Leslie D’Monte of Mint steps down
    Aug 8 2025
    This week’s episode is a little different. Our co-host Leslie D’Monte, who’s been making AI, science, and all the complicated technology easier to understand for you, is stepping down from Mint and from this podcast. A journalist who started with crime reporting. Filed stories on typewriters. Watched the Indian tech industry grow from floppy disks and getting your first email address cost ₹15,000 to AI that can build itself. He takes us through the days of Express Computer, Chip Magazine, ZDNet, the early internet in India, and that one time he walked into a basement lab in Boston to talk to a scientist building a robotic exoskeleton for human brains. Sounds interesting? It is. listen more about the time when NASSCOM was just finding its feet, IBM servers were big deal, and people were still wrapping their heads around something called HTML. GUIs and browsers had just arrived, JavaScript was going mainstream, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    31 mins