Ideas of India

Today my guests are Shreyas Narla and Kadambari Shah, who are my colleagues at the Mercatus Center and research scholars working with me on the 1991 Project. We spoke about the kinds of policy change we would like to see in the coalition government led by Modi's in his third term. We talked about the research Shreyas, Kadambari and I have been working on in the areas of competition policy, regulating India's digital marketplace, labor law reforms, scaling India's manufacturing, streamlining GST, and much more. Recorded July 1st, 2024. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Shreyas on X Follow Kadambari on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:31) - Past Budgets Announcements and Upcoming Budget (00:09:38) - Restarting reforms (00:22:56) - The Tinkering of Government (00:27:08) - Regulation of Big Tech Companies (00:51:35) - India's Labor Regulations (01:10:33) - Solutions to India's Regulatory Environment (01:20:27) - Outro

Today my guest is Sajith Pai, who is a partner at Blume Ventures and he is a long-time media executive turned VC. At Blume, Sajith supports investments in media, ed tech and e-commerce, while simultaneously helping Blume building a research and knowledge platform. We spoke about the 2024 Indus Valley Annual Report. written by Sajith and his co-authors, Anurag Pagaria, Nachammai Savithiri both at Blume Ventures; the many countries that make up the country of India; bifurcated between India1, 2, and 3; gross fixed capital formation, fintechs, the consumption led boom that India is experiencing, the space industry, and much more. Recorded June 25th, 2024. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Sajith on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:09:16) - Private Consumption and Fixed Capital Formation (00:14:15) - Gross Fixed Capital Formation (00:22:39) - Regime Uncertainty (00:26:51) - The Indian Consumer (00:35:10) - Bottlenecks and Reforms (00:42:18) - Mutual Funds Savings Model (00:47:33) - Path from Seed to IPO (00:55:40) - India's Foreign Investors (01:00:57) - India's Fintechs (01:11:09) - Space Tech in India (01:17:36) - What's on Pai's Bookshelf? (01:23:39) - Outro

Today my guest is Anne O Krueger. She is a Senior Fellow at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, and the Herald L. and Caroline Ritch Emeritus Professor of Sciences and Humanities in the Economics Department at Stanford University. She served World Bank's Chief Economist from 1982 to 1986, and the first deputy managing director at the IMF from 2001 to 2006. We talked about her famous 1974 paper "The Political Economy of a Rent Seeking Society" on its 50th anniversary, her experience understanding the license permit raj system in India, the 1991 trade liberalization, the Washington consensus, decline of the WTO, the new protectionism in the US, reforming Argentina and much more. Recorded May 17th, 2024. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:24) - Rent-Seeking in Turkey and India (00:10:49) - Professional Influences (00:15:35) - South Korean Miracle (00:18:53) - Korea vs. India (00:26:19) - Import Substitution and Rent (00:29:15) - Turning Around the World Bank (00:38:59) - The Krueger Consensus (00:42:18) - Africa (00:45:39) - India's 1991 Reforms (00:50:52) - World Trade Organization (00:53:53) - United States and Free Trade (01:02:14) - License Permit Raj in the US (01:04:36) - International Monetary Fund (01:06:47) - Hope for Milei and Argentina (01:11:30) - Looking Back on Success (01:13:31) - Outro

Today my guest is Karthik Muralidharan. He is the Tata Chancellor's Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of the recent book Accelerating India's Development: A State-Led Roadmap for Effective Governance." We talked about the lacking state capacity in India, about improving the quality of public expenditure, fiscal federalism, methods to improve the hiring process for government, better ways of staffing and using the Indian bureaucracy, randomized control trials and development and much more. Recorded May 15th, 2024. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Karthik on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:07:46) - Quality of Public Education (00:17:59) - Decentralization vs. Federalism (00:31:58) - Welfare Expenditure (00:41:30) - Personnel for the Indian State (01:09:08) - Better Approach for Skilling (01:17:26) - Empanelment (01:34:32) - The Backdrop of the Field of Economics (01:56:52) - Outro

Today my guests are Tom Easton and Arjun Ramani from The Economist. Tom Easton is Mumbai bureau chief. He joined The Economist in 2000 at the New York bureau and was appointed the Asian business editor in 2007. Arjun Ramani is on an extended stint in Mumbai and Delhi bureaus covering the Indian economy. Before this, he was the global business and economics correspondent in the London office. We spoke about various aspects of covered in a recent six-part special report on India's economy written by Arjun and Tom. Recorded May 2nd, 2024. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Arjun on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:03) - The India Express and its Future (00:01:57) - Reasons for Optimism and Pessimism Over India's Future (00:14:45) - Long-Run Economic Growth (00:18:51) - Is India Prepared to be a Capitalist Country? (00:29:37) - Unemployment vs. Informal Labor Market in India (00:47:17) - India and Education (00:51:21) - State Capacity Problems (01:02:11) - Concrete Ceilings for Indian Businesses (01:08:24) - The Binding Constraint (01:13:30) - Industrial Policy (01:31:53) - Future of Economic Journalism (01:44:50) - Outro

Today my guest is Rohit Lamba, an assistant professor of economics at Pennsylvania State University and a visiting assistant professor of economics at New York University Abu Dhabi. We spoke about his recent book Breaking the Mould: Reimagining India's Economic Future which he has coauthored with Raghuram Rajan. We spoke about their argument to shift the focus from industrial and trade policy towards a services and education policy, how India can and should decentralize, if India can scale education and health, India's growth rate numbers, and much more. Recorded April 19th, 2024. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:05:21) - Zooming into Indian States (00:20:25) - Why not Decentralization? (00:26:28) - Scaling Education (00:51:14) - Educating the Global South (00:53:22) - Picking Winners and Losers (01:10:22) - India's Growth Rate (01:18:44) - Outro Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Rohit on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Today my guest is Rasheed Griffith, who is the CEO of the Caribbean Progress Studies Institute, the host of the podcast the Rasheed Griffith Show, and one of my favorite writers on Substack. He also directs the Emergent Ventures Africa-Caribbean grants program at the Mercatus Center. We spoke about whether the former colonizers owe reparations to the Caribbean people, economic divergence in post-colonial Caribbean countries, Caribbean music, homophobia, VS Naipaul, West Indian cricket team, and much more. Recorded April 4th, 2024. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:09:37) - Do Former Colonizers Owe Reparations to the Caribbean People? (00:22:29) - The Counterfactual for Caribbean Colonies (00:35:48) - India, Caribbean and Scale (00:40:52) - Is Saint Lucia the Best at Spotting Talent? (00:49:37) - Caribbean Civil Rights Movement (00:58:01) - Innovation in Caribbean Music (01:03:59) - Homophobia (01:13:10) - Most Underrated Caribbean Island? (01:19:05) - V.S. Naipual (01:30:57) - Outro Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Rasheed on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Today my guest is Pranay Kotasthane who is the deputy director of the Takshashila Institution and chairs the High Tech Geopolitics Programme. Pranay co-writes Anticipating the Unintended, a newsletter on public policy ideas and frameworks, and co-hosts Puliyabaazi, a popular Hindi-Urdu podcast on politics, policy, and technology. He is the co-author of - Missing in Action: Why Should You Care About Public Policy, and the graphic nonfiction narrative We, the Citizens. He has co-edited India's Marathon: Reshaping the Post-Pandemic World Order. Today we are discussing his most recent book, When the Chips Are Down, coauthored with Abhiram Manchi. We spoke the evolution of the semiconductor industry, industrial targeting, Moore's law, Rock's law, Taiwan's Comparative advantage, whether India can lead in semiconductor chips and more. Recorded March 12th, 2024. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:08:35) - Moore's Law (00:14:08) - Rock's Law (00:21:41) - Geopolitics of the Semiconducter Industry (00:27:46) - Metacritical Technologies (00:38:49) - Geographical Concentration (00:48:34) - Zelenograd (00:59:44) - Unease of doing Business in India (01:09:45) - Industrial Targeting in Taiwan (01:30:57) - Outro Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Pranay on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Today my guests are M. Krishnan and Badri Narayanan Gopalakrishnan. M. Krishnan is an economist based in Chennai and Singapore, and specializes in agriculture education systems, fisheries, and aquaculture research. He is currently an advisor at Infinite-Sum Modeling Inc and was a distinguished scientist of the Agricultural Research Service of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. Badri Narayanan Gopalakrishnan is an economist specializing in trade and international policy. He is a Fellow at the (NITI) Aayog, Government of India, where he formerly led the institution's sections on Trade and Commerce, Strategic Economic Dialogue, International Cooperation, and Vision India@2047. Today we are discussing their recent coauthored paper titled Indian Fisheries in the Context of WTO Regulations, published by the Mercatus Center in collaboration with Center for Governance and Markets at the University of Pittsburgh. We spoke about the big issues concerning fisheres, in particular, India's interests in at the 13th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) recently held in Abu Dhabi. Recorded March 13th, 2024. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:50) - Fisheries in India (00:13:46) - Overfishing and Illegal Fishing in India (00:19:59) - Overfishing Negotiations (00:22:01) - Subsidies (00:26:27) - At the Negotiating Table (00:28:24) - IUUs (00:33:01) - Seasonal Fishing Ban (00:37:33) - Leading the Global South (00:45:17) - Measurement (00:48:47) - Domestic Politics (00:53:35) - The Future (00:59:38) - Outro Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Badri on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Aparna Chandra is a constitutional scholar and associate professor of law at the National Law school in Bangalore. She is the coauthor, along with Sital Kalantry and William Hubbard of the recent book Court on Trial: A Data-Driven Account of the Supreme Court of India. We spoke about the problem of pendency across all courts in the Indian judiciary, whether the Supreme Court is truly a people's court, the problem of special leave petitions, potential ways to reform the judiciary, and much more. Recorded February 16th, 2024. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Timestamps (00:01:12) - Function of the Supreme Court (00:07:05) - Special Leave Petition (SLP) (00:13:57) - A People's Court? (00:35:56) - Fast tracks and VIP Culture (00:48:25) - Malice, Incompetence or Compassion? (00:52:03) - People Like Us (01:04:41) - Ending SLPs (01:23:15) - Too Cool for Rules (01:29:51) - Chief Justice as First Among Equals (01:33:50) - Outro Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Aparna on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

This is our 100th episode and I want to thank our listeners, the guests who have been exceptionally generous with their time and insights, the fantastic team at Mercatus that helps me produce and disseminate the podcast, and to all our donors and supporters. Today my guest is Douglas Irwin, who is the John French Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College. He is the author of dozens of books and papers, most recently, Clashing over Commerce, which is a magisterial history of US trade policy. We spoke about India's liberalization moment in 1991, the five phases of globalization, British repeal of Corn laws, premature deindustrialization, the relevance of the WTO, absolute versus comparative advantage, the future Argentina, and much more. Recorded January 23rd, 2024. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Doug on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Today my guest is Rahul Matthan, a technology lawyer and partner at Trilegal. He assisted the Indian government in developing India's data privacy law and he is the author of the recent books Privacy 3.0 and The Third Way. We spoke about India's digital public infrastructure revolution, India's unified payments system, AI, blockchain, the design issues around India's NCPI, Aadhaar, privacy, and much more. Recorded January 22nd, 2024. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Rahul on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Aditya Balasubramanian is a Senior Lecturer in History at Australian National University. His research focuses on various aspects of the history of modern South Asia. And he is the author of the new book, Toward a Free Economy: Swatantra and Opposition Politics in Democratic India. We spoke about the history of a conservative and ideological opposition politics of India, influence of BR Shenoy and more generally the Austrian economists on Swatratra party, about C Rajagopalachari, other members, and much more. Recorded December 22nd, 2023. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Aditya on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Today my guest is Nasreen Munni Kabir, a documentary filmmaker, TV producer and director, author, biographer, translator/subtitler, and an absolute authority on all things Hindi cinema. We spoke about her biographical conversation series of books with artists like Javed Akhtar, Gulzar, Lata Mangeshkar, Waheeda Rahman, Zakir Hussain, AR Rahman. We also spoke about her documentary films on Guru Dutt, and television series Movie Mahal chronicling the history of Hindi cinema, how she chooses her subjects, the difficulty of subtitling Hindi films, her favorite films, songs, artists, and much more. Recorded December 12th, 2023. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Today the roles are reversed. In the 2023 end of the year review episode, producer Dallas Floer asks Shruti questions from our listeners about Shruti's ideas of India, how Shruti prepares for the podcast, various guests, the most listened to and the most underrated episode picks of the year, and much more. Recorded December 12th, 2023. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Dallas on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Our last scholar in the series this year is Rajat Kocchar, a post-doctoral scholar at University of Chicago's Energy and Environment Lab. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Southern California, and his research lies in the field of environmental economics, in particular, on the understanding the factors that incentivize adaptation to climate shocks. We discussed his paper, "Does Market Power in Local Agricultural Markets Hinder Farmer Climate Change Adaptation?" We talked about the impact of distortionary policies and regulations on farmer's ability to cope with weather shocks in India, the agricultural produce market system, the choice of crop mix, and the effectiveness of water audits in the UK and much more. Recorded September 21st, 2023. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Rajat on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Shruti spoke with Vani Swarupa Murali a PhD. Candidate and an instructor at the South Asian Studies Department in the National University of Singapore (NUS). She has a Masters in Asian Studies from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Singapore. Her research lies at the intersection of political science and agricultural policy and environmental governance. We spoke about "When Sowing is not Reaping: Decentralisation, Groundwater Extraction and Agrarian Livelihoods in Tamil Nadu." We talked about the overly centralized administrative, political, and fiscal Indian state, its impact on farmers' livelihood, groundwater depletion and other environmental consequences, and more. Recorded August 31st, 2023. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Shruti spoke with Kartikeya Batra, who is a Ph.D. candidate in economics at the University of Maryland and has a master's in international affairs from The Fletcher School. His research lies at the intersection of political economy, development economics, and economic history. They discussed his job market paper titled "Long-Run Effects of Land Redistribution: Evidence from India," and talked about the erstwhile Zamindari or Taluqdari system and its impact on modern day Uttar Pradesh, land titling versus land redistribution in India, the importance of property rights, relationship between land owning castes and socioeconomic outcomes, and much more. Recorded September 19th, 2023. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Kartikeya on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

In this episode, Shruti spoke with Vatsal Khandelwal, who is a junior research fellow at Merton College and an associate member of the Department of Economics at University of Oxford. His main research interest are development and behavioral economics, with a focus on social and economic networks. They discussed his job market paper titled "Silent Networks: The Role of Inaccurate Beliefs in Reducing Useful Social Interactions," (coauthored with Ronak Jain). They spoke about pessimistic beliefs and their impact on individual's well-being, the methods to correct incorrect beliefs about social norms, the importance of social networks, support groups, students' expectations' impact on performance more. Recorded September 21st, 2023. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Vatsal on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Shruti spoke with Sarath Pillai, who is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Center for the Advanced Study of India at University of Pennsylvania. He holds a PhD in History from the University of Chicago, a Master of Studies in Law from Yale Law School, a MA in history from the University of Delhi, and a Postgraduate Diploma in archives and records management from the National Archives of India, Delhi. They discussed his job market paper titled "German Lessons: Comparative Constitutionalism, States' Rights, and Federalist Imaginaries in Interwar India," recently published in "Comparative Studies in Society and History." They spoke about how the views of the princely states on federalism and constitutionalism are different from the view of the Indian nationalists; the influence of German thought on India in the early twentieth century; subnationalism and federalism in modern day India and more. Recorded September 6th, 2023. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Sarath on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Shruti spoke with Rithika Kumar, who is a Postdoctoral Visiting Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame. She received her PhD in political science from the University of Pennsylvania in August 2023. Her research lies at the intersection of gender, urbanization and politics in India. Shruti and Rithika discussed her job market paper titled "Left Behind or Left Ahead?" and the feminization of politics, political and social impact of migration, norms holding back women, and much more. Recorded September 6th, 2023. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Rithika on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Shruti spoke with Vanisha Sharma who is a Ph.D. candidate at the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University. She earned her BA in economics with a double minor in psychology and sociology at the University of Hong Kong. She is also the co-editor-in-chief for the blog Economics That Really Matters, which encourages early researchers to share development economics research. Vanisha's research involves estimating effects of internet expansion in developing, rural communities. We discussed her job market paper titled "Social (Media) Learning: Experimental Evidence from Indian Farmers." Shruti and Vanisha talked about how farmers learn through social media, how it impacts their farm expenditure, their battle against pests and weather shocks and more. Recorded August 31st, 2023. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Vanisha on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Duncan Webb is a Ph.D. candidate in economics at the Paris School of Economics. He received his B.A. in PPE at Oxford University and his masters in economics at Paris School of Economics. His research lies at the intersection of development and behavioral economics. We spoke about his job market paper titled, "Silence to Solidarity: Using Group Dynamics to Reduce Anti-Transgender Discrimination in India." Shruti and Duncan talked about deep-rooted prejudice versus marginal prejudice, preference falsification, behavior in group settings, endogamy, caste prejudice and more. Recorded August 31st, 2023. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Duncan on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

In this episode, Shruti speaks with Amit Ahuja, Associate Professor of Political Science at UC Santa Barbara, and Devesh Kapur, Starr Foundation Professor of South Asian Studies at SAIS at Johns Hopkins University, about their latest volume, Internal Security in India: Violence, Order, and the State. Learn more about their latest volume and their other work here. Recorded August 24th, 2023. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Amit on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

In this episode, Shruti speaks with Shreyas Narla and Kadambari Shah about women missing from the 1991 reforms high table decision making, trends in female labor force participation, how women in economics are finding their seats in various economic institutions across India, and more. To learn more about Shreyas and Kadambari's research, oral history interviews, and their work on the 1991 Project, visit the1991Project.com. Recorded July 7th, 2023. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Shreyas on X Follow Kadambari on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

In this episode, Shruti speaks with Saurabh Kirpal about the constitutional roots of marriage equality, fundamental rights, the role of the state, problems and challenges of the Indian courts and much more. Kirpal is a senior advocate at the Delhi High Court, the author of "Fifteen Judgments: Cases That Shaped India's Financial Landscape" and the editor of the anthology "Sex and the Supreme Court: How the Law Is Upholding the Dignity of the Indian Citizen." Recorded June 26th, 2023. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Saurabh on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

In this episode, Shruti speaks with Peter J. Boettke about the writings of F.A. Hayek, why artificial intelligence will not solve the knowledge problem, what many economists throughout history misunderstood about the market process, mainline vs. mainstream economics and much more. Boettke is a Distinguished University Professor of Economics and Philosophy at George Mason University, the BB&T Professor for the Study of Capitalism and the director of the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He has written dozens of books, including "The Battle of Ideas: Economics and the Struggle for a Better World," "The Economic Way of Thinking," "Living Economics: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" and, most recently, "F.A. Hayek: Economics, Political Economy and Social Philosophy." Recorded June 8th, 2023. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Pete on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

In this episode, Shruti speaks with Aditi Mittal about how to build a comedy career, why she curses and makes jokes about sex, the logistical difficulties of being a woman in comedy, male vs. female spaces and much more. Mittal is a comedian, writer and actor. She has two Netflix specials, "Things They Wouldn't Let Me Say" and "Girl Meets Mic," which is part of the Comedians of the World series. Her third show, "Mother of Invention," is on Amazon Prime U.K. and AUS and on NextUp Comedy. She's also the host and executive producer of the podcast Women in Labour. Recorded May 30th, 2023 Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Aditi on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

In this episode, Shruti speaks with Rohini Nilekani about civil society's role in the state, public infrastructure, building state capacity, democratizing access to credit and much more. Nilekani is a journalist, children's book author, activist and philanthropist. She is the founder of Arghyam, a foundation for sustainable water and sanitation, and the co-founder of Pratham Books. She is also the chairperson of Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies and the co-founder and director of EkStep, a nonprofit education platform. Her latest book is "Samaaj, Sarkaar, Bazaar: A Citizen-First Approach." Recorded May 10th, 2023 Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

In this episode, Shruti speaks with Amit Varma about being alert to changing technologies, building online communities, creating for love vs. validation, how to use ChatGPT productively and much more. Varma is a writer, journalist and podcaster based in Mumbai. He hosts the weekly podcast The Seen and the Unseen and is a columnist at the Times of India. He is also the author of the blog India Uncut, which was active from 2004 to 2008. He won the Bastiat Prize for Journalism in 2007 and 2015, the first person to win it twice. Recorded May 29th, 2023 Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Amit on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

In this episode, Shruti speaks with Rahul Sagar about East India Company rule vs. crown rule, public finance constitutionalism, effects of technology on India's intellectual history, historic preservation and much more. Sagar is the Global Network Associate Professor of Political Science at NYU Abu Dhabi. His primary research interests are in political theory, political ethics and public policy, and he has written on a range of topics including executive power, moderation and political realism. His books include "The Progressive Maharaja: Sir Madhava Rao's Hints on the Art and Science of Government," "To Raise a Fallen People: The Nineteenth-Century Origins of Indian Views on International Politics" and "Secrets and Leaks: The Dilemma of State Secrecy." Recorded May 16th, 2023 Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Rahul on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

In this episode, Shruti speaks with Montek Singh Ahluwalia about how policy reforms happen, civil servants vs. technocratic experts, the importance of expert committees, good and bad lobbying, economic growth and much more. Ahluwalia is an Indian economist and civil servant who was the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission of India, a position which carried the rank of cabinet minister. He was previously the first director of the Independent Evaluation Office at the International Monetary Fund. Recorded April 26th, 2023 Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

In this episode, Shruti speaks with Sajith Pai about the various sectors of the Indian market, unique payment systems, public versus private investment, the role of artificial intelligence and much more. Pai is a long-time media executive turned venture capitalist. After working in media and entertainment, much of it in The Times of India Group, across strategy and corporate development roles, he moved to Blume Ventures, one of India's leading early-stage venture firms, in 2018. At Blume, he actively focuses on and support its investments in the domestech space, including consumertech, smb saas, b2b marketplaces and more. He also writes on tech, business, culture and their intersections. Recorded March 29th, 2023 Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Sajith on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

In this episode, Shruti speaks with Chakravarthi Rangarajan about currency crises, how the post-liberalization reforms built on earlier reforms, fiscal dominance, capital mobility and much more. Rangarajan is an Indian economist, a former member of parliament and 19th governor of the Reserve Bank of India. He formerly chaired the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council. He is also the chair of the Madras School of Economics; a former president of the Indian Statistical Institute; the founding chairman of the C.R. Rao Advanced Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science; former chancellor of the University of Hyderabad; and a professor at Ahmedabad University. His book "Forks in the Road: My Days at RBI and Beyond" describes the path-breaking reforms that he implemented during his tenure as governor of the Reserve Bank of India. Recorded March 22nd, 2023 Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

In this episode, Shruti speaks with Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu S. Jaitley about the intersections of markets, society and the state. They discuss the importance of individual decision-making, self-governance versus good governance, why economic growth is a moral imperative, the persuasive power of Indian cinema and much more. Kotasthane is the deputy director of the Takshashila Institution and chairs the High Tech Geopolitics Programme. Jaitley is a public policy and political economy enthusiast. They co-write "Anticipating the Unintended," a newsletter on public policy ideas and frameworks. Their book, "Missing in Action: Why You Should Care About Public Policy," examines Indian public policy through the lens of the state. Recorded March 28th, 2023 Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Pranay on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

In this episode, Shruti speaks with Nitin Pai about storytelling through the lens of his book, "The Nitopadesha." They discuss the lessons of Indian folktales for citizens and bureaucrats, the importance of civic education, when democracy does and doesn't work, the effects of economic growth on individual prosperity and much more. Pai is the co-founder and director of the Takshashila Institution, an independent think tank and school of public policy based in Bangalore, whose goal is to champion India's national interest and constitutional values. Pai previously worked in technology policy for the government of Singapore and played a role in the deregulation of the telecommunications industry and deployment of broadband infrastructure. Recorded March 1st, 2023 Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Nitin on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

In this episode, Shruti speaks with Alain Bertaud about how Indian cities have evolved, utilities pricing, land use restrictions such as floor area ratio and floor space index, slums, charter cities, urbanization in Africa and much more. Bertaud is an urbanist, distinguished visiting scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and senior research scholar at New York University's Marron Institute of Urban Management. From 1980 to 1999, he was the principal urban planner at the World Bank. His book about urban planning is titled "Order Without Design: How Markets Shape Cities." Recorded February 7th, 2023 Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Alain on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

In this episode, Shruti speaks with Poornima Dore about using regions rather than states as the unit of analysis, the importance of the construction sector, diversification, balanced regional development planning and much more. Dore is the director of analytics, insights and impact at Tata Trusts. She teaches at some of India's premier management and technical institutes and is also an active musician. Her research covers macro-regional growth, smart cities and local economy insights. She co-authored "Regional Economic Diversity: Lessons from an Emergent India," a comprehensive study at the National Sample Survey regional level that quantifies regional output and talks about what kind of diversification can help India. Recorded January 31, 2023 Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Poornima on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

In this episode, Shruti speaks with Nikhil Menon about the history of Indian socialism and central planning, government-artist relationships, economists who dissented from the central-planning orthodoxy, the legacy of P.C. Mahalanobis and much more. Menon is a historian of modern South Asia, specializing in the political and economic history of 20th-century India. His research explores the histories of democracy and development in independent India. His book, "Planning Democracy: Modern India's Quest for Development," tells the story of how India wedded western-style democracy and Soviet-inspired economic planning in the middle of the 20th century. Recorded November 22nd, 2022 Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

In this episode, Shruti speaks with Nirupama Menon Rao about the South Asian Symphony, Indian stories in opera, border tensions between India and China, the importance of Tibet, Taiwan and much more. Rao is a retired Indian diplomat, foreign secretary and ambassador. She was India's first woman spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi, the first woman high commissioner from her country to Sri Lanka and the first Indian woman ambassador to the People's Republic of China. She served as India's Foreign Secretary from 2009 to 2011 and as India's ambassador to the United States from 2011 to 2013. She is the author of "The Fractured Himalaya: India, Tibet, China 1949-62" and founder of the South Asian Symphony Foundation. Recorded December 13th, 2022 Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Nirupama on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

In this episode, Shruti speaks with Janhavi Nilekani about India's high rate of C-sections compared with vaginal births, problems with maternal healthcare, the present and future of Indian midwifery and much more. Nilekani is the founder and chair of the Aastrika Foundation, which seeks to promote a future in which every woman is treated with respect and dignity during childbirth, and the right treatment is provided at the right time. She is a development economist by training and now works in the field of maternal health. She obtained her Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard and holds a 2010 B.A., cum laude, in economics and international studies from Yale. Recorded November 7th, 2022 Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Janhavi on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

In a reversal of the podcast's usual format, producer Dallas Floer interviews Shruti about the guests who appeared and the issues that were discussed on the podcast in 2022. They discuss how to get good data on India, why it's important to learn more about India, what Shruti has learned from the job market series, and much more. They also answer listener questions and discuss the all-important topic of what Shruti is binge-watching. Recorded December 12th, 2022 Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Dallas on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

This episode is the seventh installment of a series in which Shruti speaks with doctoral candidates and postdoctoral scholars about their research as they enter the job market and the world of academia. In this episode, Shruti talks with Shweta Banerjee about Indian currency before the arrival of the East India Company, how the company changed India's monetary system, demonetization, free banking and more. Banerjee is a Vanier Doctoral Scholar at the University of Toronto. Her dissertation provides a historical view of financial infrastructure in India from 1750 to 1947. She is interested in exploring finance as a site of contestation between early modern and modern states and financiers or bankers. Before entering her Ph.D. program, she spent several years at the World Bank working on financial inclusion, digitization and rural livelihood programs in South Asia. Recorded September 22nd, 2022 Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Check out our new Ideas of India merch here, and use the promo code INDIA for 10% off! Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Shweta on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

This episode is the sixth installment of a series in which Shruti speaks with doctoral candidates and postdoctoral scholars about their research as they enter the job market and the world of academia. In this episode, Shruti talks with Mahima Vasishth about her job market paper, "Local Media Reports About Sexual Crimes and Judicial Outcomes in India." They discuss the effects of media coverage on sexual harassment cases, what factors may be driving increased coverage, whether the gender of local politicians affects case outcomes and much more. Vasishth is a Ph.D. candidate in economics at the University of California, Irvine. Her research interests include labor economics, development economics and public economics, especially the factors that shape women's economic outcomes. Recorded September 22nd, 2022 Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Check out our new Ideas of India merch here, and use the promo code INDIA for 10% off! Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Mahima on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

This episode is the fifth installment of a series in which Shruti speaks with doctoral candidates and postdoctoral scholars about their research as they enter the job market and the world of academia. In this episode, Shruti talks with Khusdeep Malhotra about her dissertation, "Precarious Citizens, Excepted State: Sikh Rootedness in Kashmir After the Chittisinghpora Massacre." They discuss commonalities between Sikhs and Muslims in Kashmir, the effects of land ownership on the Sikh community, the role of women in passing on Sikh identity and much more. Malhotra received her Ph.D. from Temple University in Geography and Urban Studies in May 2022 and her research interests include conflict, displacement and minority rights in South Asia. Recorded September 22nd, 2022 Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

This episode is the fourth installment of a series in which Shruti speaks with doctoral candidates and postdoctoral scholars about their research as they enter the job market and the world of academia. In this episode, Shruti talks with Anoop Jain about his paper, "'Someone Should Be There To Take Care of It': A Case Study of Users' Views of Managed Shared Sanitation Facilities in Jharkhand, India." They discuss whether toilets should be private or shared, who should build and maintain shared toilets, the need for better infrastructure and much more. Jain is the founding director of Sanitation and Health Rights in India, an organization that fights to eliminate open defecation throughout India. He has an M.P.H. from Tulane University and received his Doctor of Public Health from UC Berkeley in 2019. He is now a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard Medical School, where his research examines the combined effects of multiple deprivations faced by households on population-level health outcomes. Recorded September 7th, 2022 Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Anoop on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

This episode is the third installment of a series in which Shruti speaks with doctoral candidates and postdoctoral scholars about their research as they enter the job market and the world of academia. In this episode, Shruti talks with Aliz Tóth about her job market paper, "My Way and the Highway: Embedded Bureaucrats and Bargaining over Land for Infrastructure." They discuss the lack of trust between landowners and the state, the role of bureaucrats and politicians in land acquisition for infrastructure projects, differences between private- and public-sector projects, and much more. Tóth is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at Stanford University. Her research examines states' problem of acquiring valuable land from landowners to build public goods. In particular, her dissertation project investigates why large-scale infrastructure projects face social opposition in India and whether the state can enforce bargains with landowners. Recorded September 7th, 2022 Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Aliz on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

This episode is the second installment of a series in which Shruti speaks with doctoral candidates and postdoctoral scholars about their research as they enter the job market and the world of academia. In this episode, Shruti talks with Raahil Madhok about his job market paper, "The Development-Biodiversity Tradeoff in India's Forests." They discuss the effects of different types of infrastructure projects, state capacity, the Forest Rights Act, bird-watching and much more. Madhok is a Ph.D. candidate in the Food and Resource Economics Group at the Faculty of Land and Food systems at the University of British Columbia. His research focuses on environmental and development economics. Recorded September 7th, 2022 Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Raahil on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

This episode is the first installment of a series in which Shruti speaks with doctoral candidates and postdoctoral scholars about their research as they enter the job market and the world of academia. In this episode, Shruti talks with Nishant Vats about his job market paper (co-authored with Pulak Ghosh), "Safety Nets, Credit and Productive Activity: Evidence from a Guaranteed Income Program for Small Entrepreneurs." Vats is a Ph.D. candidate in finance at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. His primary research interests are finance and development, financial intermediation and corporate finance, with a secondary interest in macroeconomics and political economy. Recorded September 8th, 2022 Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Nishant on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

In this episode, Shruti speaks with Tyler Cowen and Daniel Gross about their new book, "Talent: How To Identify Energizers, Creatives and Winners Around the World." They discuss how to identify and attract talent, competition vs. cooperation, the necessity of failure and resilience, effects of immigration on talent and much more. Cowen is the Holbert L. Harris Chair of Economics at George Mason University and serves as chairman and faculty director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He is co-author of the popular economics blog Marginal Revolution and co-founder of the online educational platform Marginal Revolution University. Gross is a start-up investor in technology businesses including Uber, Instacart, Coinbase, GitHub and SpaceX. He co-founded Pioneer, a quantitative start-up accelerator, and was a partner at Y-Combinator and started its AI program. This conversation is also being released as a bonus episode of Cowen's biweekly podcast, Conversations with Tyler. Recorded June 29th, 2022 Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Tyler on Twitter Follow Daniel on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Photo credit: Drew Bird Photo