Take that Obama
By Techgirl

If you hear someone say:  “Take that Obama”, would you associate them with failed US Presidential candidate McCain or a right wing commentator. Or Indian podcasters?  Please chose one before you read the following paragraphs.

No madam, such passionate words are being bandied in the battle of the Indian podcasts.

First some brief background. Indian newspapers are now using Podcasting (radio/video news via the internet) to reach out to wider audiences especially the new tech savvy India. 

The first off the mark this month was respected business publication Mint which commissioned Kamla Bhatt of the Kamlashow to podcast about people of interest in our tech and business domains.  Kamla has interviewed many Indian techies and businessmen who have hit it big.

Rival Newspaper Business Standard has hired super blogger Kiruba Shankar to do similar podcasts.  Kiruba is very well connected in the tech world and would easily rate as the top 3 tech journalists in India.

Kamla, who spends a large amount of time in USA, has impeccable connections in the American tech industry and has managed to scoop 3 high profile interview subjects: Yogen Dalal of Mayfield Fund, Mitchell Baker of Mozilla and Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn for her podcasts this month.

The lady had beaten the man to the punch.  And with better scoops.

Kiruba Shankar soon followed with his first podcast in the form of a ‘conversation’ with Benjamin Wegg Prosser, who is Director of Corporate Development of SUP, better known as the owners of LiveJournal.

In this battle between Mint (Kamla Bhatt) and Business Standard (Kiruba Shankar) every media is used to get an edge over competitors. 

Both Kamla and Kiruba use their popular blogs to promote and create the necessary marketing hype for their podcasts.

In his blog, Kiruba wrote about his first interview subject Benjamin Wegg Prosser: “Ben has an interesting profile. In his earlier job, Ben served as director of strategic communications at Tony Blair's cabinet, Yup, the ex-prime minister of UK. Here, he oversaw a series of innovations including the launch of e-petitions service and the first YouTube channel for any head of government in 2007. Take that Obama!”

Seriously, you can’t pay all the money for such passion for podcasting and clever one liners.

When Kiruba said: “Take that Obama” was he subconsciously saying:  “Take that Kamla”? 

Techgoss note:  Techgirl is a senior Tech journalist who reports on the IT, KPO and KPO Sectors for a leading media house.  In her spare time, she dabbles in satire in her blog http://techgirltalk.blogspot.com