This week, Newslaundry’s Manisha Pande, Shardool Katyayan and Raman Kirpal are joined by Medianama founder and editor Nikhil Pahwa and senior journalist Maya Mirchandani.

The episode opens with the sudden rollout – and equally swift withdrawal – of the government’s Sanchar Saathi app. 

Pahwa warned that forcing a government app onto personal devices crossed a critical line between governance and surveillance. “If you look at the permissions – access to messages, calls, galleries – it’s like the government sitting in your phone all the time,” Pahwa said. 

Manisha noted that the app’s withdrawal within 24 hours raised questions about both intent and pushback. “The introduction and removal of it was very interesting. Why was it hastily introduced and then taken back?” she asked.

Pahwa acknowledged the scale of India’s fraud problem but underlined that mandatory installation was never the solution. “The intention wasn’t wrong – but the question is the method,” he said 

The conversation then moves to Putin's visit to India. Speaking on the media coverage of his visit, Manisha remarked, “Even if there is no deal or whatever happens, we've at least gifted him the great gift of our media, which is the sort of coverage that even his own state media cannot manage.”

Maya Mirchandani noted that the visit gains significance as it comes amid renewed efforts to negotiate an end to the Ukraine war and rapidly shifting global power alignments.

This and a lot more. Tune in!

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