VMPL
New Delhi [India], March 9: India is the world's fifth-largest economy, home to one of the fastest-growing middle classes on the planet. And yet, a staggering 73% of its population remains financially illiterate. Millions of Indians earn money, spend money, and work their entire lives - without ever truly understanding how money works. Without that understanding, wealth doesn't build. It leaks.
The consequences are not abstract. They show up as retirement savings that don't exist, as women who hand over financial control because no one ever taught them otherwise, as young professionals who earn well but live paycheck to paycheck. They show up in the anxiety of the middle class and the helplessness of the underserved.
The need for accessible, trustworthy, engaging financial education has never been more urgent. Samarya Creation heard that need and answered it.
INTRODUCING: MONEY KI BAAT ALPA KE SAATH
Samarya Creation, the content studio behind the acclaimed theatre podcast series Curtain Call with Aahana Kumra, proudly announces the launch of its second major original series: Money Ki Baat Alpa Ke Saath. Hosted by celebrated finance professional, author, and educator Alpa Shah, this podcast is built on one conviction: that financial freedom is not a privilege for the few. It is a right for every Indian.
Every Tuesday & Thursday, Alpa sits down with trailblazers from the world of finance, entrepreneurship, and wealth creation, extracting the lessons, the struggles, and the hard-won wisdom that no textbook ever captures. These are not panel discussions. These are conversations - honest, energetic, and deeply human.
Starting tomorrow, Money Ki Baat Alpa Ke Saath will be available on the Samarya Creation YouTube Channel [www.youtube.com/@samaryacreation). New episodes will drop every Tuesday & Thursday.
MEET YOUR HOST: ALPA SHAH
Social Entrepreneur • Author • Finance Professional • SEBI SMART Trainer
Alpa Shah is not a commentator on financial literacy. She is a practitioner of it, one of the most tenacious and wide-reaching forces in India's financial empowerment movement. With a career spanning over three decades, she has made it her life's mission to ensure that no Indian is left behind by a system they were never taught to understand.
Alpa began her career in the BFSI industry in 1992, spending her first decade building a deep understanding of financial markets from the ground up. From 2003 to 2013, she led strategic sales across major AMCs including Tata and SBI, developing the rare skill of making complex financial products accessible to diverse audiences. In 2013, she made a pivotal turn: leaving corporate leadership to become a Social Entrepreneur, spearheading grassroots financial literacy projects and joining the Freedom Foundation as Managing Trustee to bring financial education to India's most underserved communities.
By 2019, she had founded Empower Education and become the Master Trainer and India Partner for Value Investing College, Singapore & Malaysia - bringing globally respected investment frameworks to Indian soil. In 2022, she joined MIDAS School of Entrepreneurship as Entrepreneurial Finance Coach. In 2023, she launched the Go Beyond to Grow Beyond (GB2GB) initiative, building one of the most active Mutual Fund Distributors communities in the country.
The accolades are as formidable as the journey: Alpa is a certified SEBI SMART Trainer (among just 750 across India), holds the Chartered Wealth Manager certificate from the American Academy of Financial Management (AAFM), serves as Strategic Growth Partner & Member of the Advisory Board at AAFM India, is Chairperson of the Women Entrepreneurship Development Cell at MSME & Startup Forum Bharat (Maharashtra), and serves as State Vice President at the same body. She is also a Corporate Advisory Member at Women Entrepreneurs Enclave and a Charter President of the Rotary Club of Mumbai Inspire.
Her financial literacy sessions are not reserved for the boardroom. She has spoken to corporate employees, lawyers, Mumbai Police, the Social Welfare Board, Pink Taxi drivers, Dabbawallas, women auto drivers, self-help groups, transgenders, students across colleges, and TCS employees in Saudi Arabia. She has also extended her reach through two landmark books: The Business Woman: A Woman's Handbook on How to Become a Successful Entrepreneur, and Every Woman Should Invest, a ground-level, actionable guide to financial empowerment written from a woman's perspective.
In short: Alpa Shah doesn't just talk about changing India's financial story. She has spent thirty years doing it.
SEASON PREMIERE: GANESH MOHAN, MD, BAJAJ FINSERV MUTUAL FUND
The podcast opens with one of India's most compelling stories in asset management. Ganesh Mohan brings the rare combination of IIT Kharagpur's engineering precision and IIM Kolkata's strategic foresight, honed further through a distinguished career as Partner and Managing Director at Boston Consulting Group. But it was his next chapter that truly defined him.
When Ganesh took the helm at Bajaj Finserv AMC, the firm entered a market with 40 established players. Conventional wisdom said: build slowly, compete safely. He chose a different path, a game-changing strategy anchored not in chasing the top 1% of wealth holders, but in creating financial inclusion at scale, for every Indian. His two-part conversation with Alpa in Episodes 1 and 2 promises to be a masterclass in building conviction, leading disruption, and the philosophy of democratising wealth.
THE SEASON ONE LINE-UP: CONVERSATIONS WORTH WAITING FOR
Each guest this season has been chosen not just for their professional stature, but for the depth and diversity of the story they bring. Here is a preview of what's ahead:
Episodes 1 & 2 Ganesh Mohan
MD, Bajaj Finserv Mutual Fund
From the consulting rooms of BCG to building a challenger AMC from scratch - Ganesh Mohan's story is about what happens when you combine institutional rigour with an audacious belief that wealth creation should reach every Indian, not just the privileged few.
Episodes 3 & 4 Gargi Nandi
Finance Leader, Industry Expert & Co-Founder (IIMI)
Gargi Nandi brings sharp financial insight shaped by years at the crossroads of market intelligence and people-first leadership. As Co-Founder of the Indian Institute of Moving Images, she bridges finance and creative enterprise with a future-focused lens. In her two-part conversation, she will unpack what true financial resilience looks like today - for individuals and institutions navigating change.
Episodes 5 & 6 Ram Mohan Bhave
Faculty, Indian Institute of Management Mumbai (IIM Mumbai), Chief Finance Director (ArcelorMittal),Mutual Fund Trustee (LIC)
He is currently faculty at the Indian Institute of Management Mumbai (IIM Mumbai) His candid conversation with Alpa will offer rare insight into the architecture of trust that underpins India's financial system - and what still needs to be built.
Episodes 7 & 8 Saurabh Poddar
Wealth Management Professional , Managing Director at Sellowrap Industries Limit
Saurabh Poddar brings to the table a nuanced understanding of wealth - not just how it is created, but how it is protected, passed on, and made meaningful. Across two episodes, he unpacks the conversations most families never have about money, and why having them changes everything.
Episode 9 Anthony Gonsalves
Finance & Investment Expert
Known for a career defined by intellectual rigour and an investor's discipline, Anthony Gonsalves offers a perspective on money that cuts through the noise of market cycles and media speculation. His episode is a deep dive into the fundamentals that endure.
Episodes 11 & 12 Nandita Puri
Actor, Author and Journalist
One of Indian cinema and theatre's most respected personalities, Nandita Puri brings a uniquely powerful perspective to the conversation on money - that of a creative professional who has navigated financial independence on her own terms. Her two-part conversation explores what financial empowerment means for India's cultural community and for women who have built lives outside conventional career paths.
FROM THE MAKERS
"At Samarya Creation, we have always believed that the most powerful thing you can give someone is a story that changes how they see themselves and their world. Curtain Call showed us what happens when you take theatre seriously as a subject of public conversation. Money Ki Baat Alpa Ke Saath is born from the same conviction - that financial literacy, told through the right conversations, can be genuinely transformative. India does not have a money problem. It has an education problem. We are here to help fix that," says Narendra Ruia, Founder, Samarya Creation Global Private Limited
"I have spent thirty years sitting across from people - from corporate boardrooms to footpaths, from Mumbai Police to women auto drivers in Pune - and the one thing I have seen again and again is this: when people understand money, their lives change. Not slowly. Dramatically. Money Ki Baat Alpa Ke Saath is my attempt to take those conversations to the widest possible audience. My guests are not just successful people, they are proof that financial independence is not a dream reserved for the privileged. It is a decision, backed by knowledge. And that knowledge? It starts here."
-- Alpa Shah, Host, Money Ki Baat Alpa Ke Saath
Watch the Official Teaser Here:
https://youtu.be/pWsan0rxGGE?si=mC2_nI2AoFBrq80-
Watch & Subscribe Samarya Creation YouTube Channel: [www.youtube.com/@samaryacreation]
About Samarya Creation Leadership
Samarya Creation Global Private Limited is led by Founder Directors Manoj Agarwal, Sunil Goenka and Narendra Ruia, who bring visionary leadership and strategic expertise to the company's content creation and distribution initiatives. Vikas Agarwal serves as Director, contributing valuable industry insights and guidance. The company is privileged to have renowned music lyricist Sameer Anjaan as a partner, whose creative legacy in Indian cinema adds depth to Samarya's cultural storytelling vision. To further strengthen its position in the media and entertainment landscape, Samarya has onboarded veteran advisors who are industry leaders in their respective domains, providing strategic guidance and mentorship as the company scales its operations and expands its impact in digital content creation and cultural preservation.
About Samarya Creation Global Private Limited
Samarya Creation is a Mumbai-based original content studio committed to the belief that great storytelling drives real-world change. Founded by Manoj Aggarwal, the studio's work spans culture, finance, and human achievement - told through formats that are as engaging as they are substantive. Its debut podcast series, Curtain Call with Aahana Kumra, brought India's theatre legends to a new generation of audiences. Money Ki Baat Alpa Ke Saath marks Samarya's confident step into the world of financial storytelling. www.instagram.com/samarya.creation/
ABOUT EMPOWER EDUCATION
Founded by Alpa Shah, Empower Education is a financial literacy and investment education organisation dedicated to breaking barriers through financial independence. Operating across corporate groups, social welfare organisations, and grassroots communities, it reflects Alpa's belief that financial education must reach everyone - not just those who can already afford to seek it out. Visit: www.empowereducation.in
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