Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Ideas of India
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Karthik Narayan on Measuring the Effects of Unscheduled vs. Scheduled Monetary Policy Announcements | 06 Nov 2025 | 00:48:54 | |
Our fifth scholar in the series is Karthik Narayan, who is a doctoral candidate in Economics at Nuffield College and at the Department of Economics, University of Oxford. His research focuses on monetary policy, macroeconomics and finance in developing countries. We spoke about his job market paper titled, Macroeconomic Effects of Scheduled and Unscheduled Monetary Policy Surprises. We talked about how the Reserve Bank of India makes and announces its policies, its impact on interest rates, inflation expectations and output, measuring the impact of policy announcements, the Lucas Critique and much more. Recorded August 28th, 2025. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India 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 (00:03:22) - Measuring Causality Is Hard (00:11:16) - What Counts as a Policy Surprise? (00:13:27) - OIS and MIBOR: Expectation Thermometers (00:21:11) - Short term versus long term effects on asset prices (00:27:18) - Noise and Fiscal-Monetary Coordination (00:32:46) - Inflation Before and After the MPC (00:37:24) - The Lucas Critique (00:40:51) - Practical Implications (00:45:48) - Other Research Interests (00:47:39) - Outro | |||
| Asad Tariq on Electoral Redistricting and Public Goods Provision in India | 23 Oct 2025 | 00:38:29 | |
Our fourth scholar in the series is Asad Tariq, who is a doctoral candidate in Economics at the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. His research focuses on the political economy of development, with a particular interest in religion, politics and public service delivery in India. We spoke about his job market paper titled, Constituencies of Change: Electoral Redistricting and Public Goods Provision in India. We talked about the 2008 delimitation exercise, especially at the state level, gerrymandering, the median voter versus swing voters and ethnic groups, public service delivery for minorities, especially Muslims, and much more. Recorded September 5th, 2025. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Follow Asad on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:02:42) - Packing and Cracking (00:05:10) - From Theory to Ballots (00:06:40) - Median Voter Logic: A Mechanism in Play (00:08:24) - Delimitation as an exogenous shock? (00:19:06) - Does Identity of the elected leader matter? (00:20:10) - Enter: Swing Voters (00:23:07) - Schools, Roads, and Wires: Evidence on Public Goods (00:26:21) - Crunching the Numbers (00:29:44) - Drawing the Lines: Gerrymandering Then and Now (00:37:41) - Outro | |||
| Rakesh Mohan Reflects on Dismantling the License Permit Raj | 20 Jun 2025 | 01:47:11 | |
Today my guest is Rakesh Mohan. He is the President Emeritus and Distinguished Fellow at Center for Social and Economic Progress in New Delhi. He has previously served as Executive Director on the Board of the International Monetary Fund and as Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. We talked about his work with the Government of India since the 1980s, especially dismantling the infamous License Permit Raj during the 1991 reforms, his work on urbanization and infrastructure, the kinds of structural reforms India still needs to undertake, and much more. Recorded April 25th, 2025. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:13) - Labyrinth of Control (00:23:55) - Dismantling the Licensing System (00:48:27) - Regrets (01:07:31) - The Infrastructure Report (01:28:05) - Structural Transformation (01:46:23) - Outro | |||
| Rukmini Shrinivasan on What Data Can and Cannot Tell Us | 17 Feb 2022 | 01:19:17 | |
In this episode, Shruti speaks with Rukmini about her book, "Whole Numbers and Half Truths: What Data Can and Cannot Tell Us About Modern India." They discuss Indians' multifaceted identities, endogamy, preference falsification and much more. Rukmini is a data journalist who writes columns for Mint, IndiaSpend and other publications. She has also written for HuffPost India, The Hindu and The Times of India. Additionally, she hosts a pandemic mini-podcast called The Moving Curve. Recorded January 24th, 2022 Read a full transcript of this episode enhanced with helpful links. Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Check out Conversations with Tyler Subscribe to Conversations with Tyler on your favorite podcast app. | |||
| Shrayana Bhattacharya on Women's Love, Longing and Labor Post-Liberalization | 03 Feb 2022 | 01:34:42 | |
In this episode, Shruti talks with Shrayana Bhattacharya about her book, "Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh: India's Lonely Young Women and the Search for Intimacy and Independence." They discuss the symbolic resonance of Indian film star Shah Rukh Khan, women's changing social and economic status in India, the importance of supportive communities of women, Delhi as a city in transition, and much more. Bhattacharya is an economist in the World Bank's Social Protection and Labour Unit for South Asia. Her research interests include urban bureaucracy, social protection and informality. She completed her postgraduate education in public administration and economics from Harvard University. Recorded January 21st, 2022 Read a full transcript of this episode enhanced with helpful links. Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Check out Macro Musings: https://www.mercatus.org/bridge/tags/macro-musings Follow Macro Musings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Macro_Musings Subscribe to Macro Musings on your favorite podcast app. | |||
| Arvind Elangovan on Tensions Within the Indian Constitution | 20 Jan 2022 | 01:21:01 | |
In this episode, Shruti talks with Arvind Elangovan about his book, "Norms and Politics: Sir Benegal Narsing Rau in the Making of the Indian Constitution, 1935-50." They discuss the tensions surrounding the making of the Indian Constitution, the legacy of colonialism, the differing viewpoints of leaders such as Nehru and B.N. Rau and much more. Elangovan is an associate professor of history at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. His research interests include the political and constitutional history of South Asia, postcolonial India and the history of political and social thought. Read a full transcript of this episode enhanced with helpful links. Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Check out Conversations with Tyler Subscribe to Conversations with Tyler on your favorite podcast app. | |||
| Radhika Jain on Healthcare in the Public and Private Sectors | 30 Dec 2021 | 00:30:07 | |
This episode is the twelfth in a miniseries of weekly short episodes featuring young scholars entering the academic job market who discuss their latest research. In this episode, Shruti talks with Radhika Jain about her job market paper, "Private Hospital Behavior Under Government Insurance: Evidence from Reimbursement Changes in India." They discuss the Bhamashah Health Insurance Program in Rajasthan, how hospitals are reimbursed for healthcare expenses, the effects of competition on the healthcare market and much more. Jain is the Asia Health Policy Postdoctoral Fellow for 2019-2022 at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University. Her research focuses on healthcare markets, the effectiveness of public health policy and gender disparities in health. Read a full transcript of this episode enhanced with helpful links. Follow Radhika on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. | |||
| Apurav Bhatiya on Synchronized Elections and Voter Behavior | 23 Dec 2021 | 00:32:16 | |
This episode is the 11th in a miniseries of weekly short episodes featuring young scholars entering the academic job market who discuss their latest research. In this episode, Shruti talks with Apurav Yash Bhatiya about how voters behave in simultaneous versus sequential elections, possible reasons why they behave differently, politicians' use of the bully pulpit and much more. They discussed his paper titled "Behavioral Voters in a Decentralized Democracy" (coauthored with Vimal Balasubramaniam and Sabyasachi Das). Bhatiya is a Ph.D. student in economics at the University of Warwick. His research areas include political economy, development, and labor economics. Read a full transcript of this episode enhanced with helpful links. Follow Apurav on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. | |||
| Archana Dang on Savings, Self-Control and Obesity Patterns | 16 Dec 2021 | 00:32:32 | |
This episode is the tenth in a miniseries of weekly short episodes featuring young scholars entering the academic job market who discuss their latest research. In this episode, Shruti talks with Dr. Archana Dang about her paper, "Role of Time Preferences in Explaining the Burden of Malnutrition: Evidence from Urban India." They discuss India's double burden of over- and undernutrition, why financial savings might be a good predictor of obesity, the effects of COVID on India's obesity levels and much more. Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Economic Growth. Her research interests include the economics of health, specifically issues of overweight and obesity in India. Her work has been published in the journal Economics and Human Biology. Full transcript of this episode Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Kim Fe Cramer on How Access to Banking Can Improve Health Outcomes | 09 Dec 2021 | 00:22:56 | |
This episode is the ninth in a miniseries of weekly short episodes featuring young scholars entering the academic job market who discuss their latest research. In this episode, Shruti talks with Kim Fe Cramer about her job market paper, "Bank Presence and Health." They discuss how access to banking and credit benefits health, why those benefits happen, whether healthcare should be subsidized and much more. Cramer is a Ph.D. candidate in finance and economics at Columbia Business School. She researches how the financial sector affects development outcomes and has conducted experiments in countries including India, Kenya and Ecuador. Full transcript of this episode Follow Kim on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Karan Babbar on Access to Reproductive Health | 02 Dec 2021 | 00:26:07 | |
This episode is the eighth in a miniseries of weekly short episodes featuring young scholars entering the academic job market who discuss their latest research. In this episode, Shruti and Karan Babbar talk about his job market paper, "COVID-19 and Period Products Usage Among Menstruating Women in Urban and Rural India." They discuss access to feminine hygiene products, effects of the pandemic on women's health, how reproductive knowledge is transmitted, and much more. Babbar is a Ph.D. scholar at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. His research interests include education, public health, gender and intersectionality. Full transcript of this episode Follow Karan on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Neha Gupta on Creating Affordable Housing | 25 Nov 2021 | 00:28:35 | |
This episode is the seventh in a miniseries of weekly short episodes featuring young scholars entering the academic job market who discuss their latest research. In this episode, Shruti speaks with Neha Gupta about her job market paper, "Homeownership, Renting and Market Failures: Evidence from Indian Slums." They discuss government policies to increase affordable housing, how nonstate actors affect slum and nonslum housing, the Swiss housing market and much more. Gupta has a Ph.D. in economics and finance from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. Her research interests include applied economics, causal econometrics, empirical macroeconomics, and urban and development economics. Full transcript of this episode Follow Neha on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Karmini Sharma on Sexual Harassment, Empathy Training and Gender Bias | 18 Nov 2021 | 00:28:59 | |
This episode is the sixth in a miniseries of weekly short episodes featuring young scholars entering the academic job market who discuss their latest research. In this episode, Shruti talks with Karmini Sharma about her job market paper, "Tackling Sexual Harassment: Experimental Evidence from India." They discuss how training about sexual harassment affects women's preferences and men's behavior, how long these effects are likely to persist, and the broader implications for the #MeToo movement in India. Sharma is a Ph.D. candidate in economics at the University of Warwick. Her research focuses on the intersection of economics of gender, development economics and experimental economics. She seeks to understand deterrence of sexual harassment, gender segregation and discrimination. Full transcript of this episode Follow Karmini on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Ramachandra Guha on the Origins of Indian Environmentalism | 05 Jun 2025 | 01:20:29 | |
Today my guest is environmental scholar, historian and biographer Ramachandra Guha. He is the author of a number of books, including a two-volume biography of Gandhi and the award-winning book "India After Gandhi." We talked about his latest book, "Speaking with Nature: The Origins of Indian Environmentalism." We spoke about global versus local commons, bottom up approach to environmentalism in India, urbanization, economic growth and technological progress and much more.Recorded May 7th, 2025. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Follow Ram on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:08 - Speaking with Nature 00:08:42 - Unquiet Woods 00:38:29 - Science and Progress of Environmentalism 00:47:33 - Radhakamal Mukerjee 00:55:06 - K. M. Munshi 01:03:38 - Technological Progress and Tradeoffs 01:11:22 - Jayaprakash Narayan 01:19:39 - Outro | |||
| Ashish Sedai on Water, Electricity and Female Labor Force Participation | 11 Nov 2021 | 00:35:21 | |
This episode is the fifth in a miniseries of weekly short episodes featuring young scholars entering the academic job market who discuss their latest research. In this episode, Shruti talks with Ashish Sedai about his job market paper, "Piped Water: Welfare and Empowerment: Empirical Evidence From a Gendered Analysis in India." They discuss the importance of indoor piped drinking water and its relevance to Indian women's participation in the labor force. Sedai is a Ph.D. candidate the Department of Economics at Colorado State University. His research focuses on how economic opportunities are generated and distributed in society, as well as the interplay between power and institutions and between economic behavior and the performance of the economy. Full transcript of this episode Follow Ashish on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Bhumi Purohit on Female Leaders and Bureaucratic Resistance | 04 Nov 2021 | 00:33:47 | |
This episode is the fourth in a miniseries of weekly short episodes featuring young scholars entering the academic job market who discuss their latest research. In this episode, Shruti talks with Bhumi Purohit about female leaders' access to networks, gender quotas, expanding women's access to social and political capital, and much more. Purohit is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on comparative politics, political behavior and South Asia; in particular, she seeks to understand the behavioral and institutional barriers to women's political representation. Full transcript of this episode Follow Bhumi on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Gaurav Mittal on Political Geographies and the Urban Transportation Crisis | 28 Oct 2021 | 00:37:22 | |
This episode is the third in a mini-series of weekly short episodes featuring young scholars entering the academic job market who discuss their latest research. In this episode, Shruti speaks with Dr. Gaurav Mittal about illegal and informal methods of transit, the role of courts and bureaucrats in transportation policy, failed government schemes to solve the transportation crisis and much more. Mittal is an associate faculty member at the Singapore University of Social Sciences. He obtained his Ph.D. in geography from the National University of Singapore. His research interests include urban governance, public transport and political geography. Full transcript of this episode Follow Gaurav on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Chhavi Tiwari on Internal Migration for Aspiration vs. Compulsion | 21 Oct 2021 | 00:26:45 | |
This episode is the second in a mini-series of weekly short episodes featuring young scholars entering the academic job market who discuss their latest research. In this episode, Shruti talks with Chhavi Tiwari about her job market paper titled "Internal Migration and Rural Inequalities in India" (with Sankalpa Bhattacherjee). They talk about the differences between seasonal and permanent migration in India, how economic factors influence migration patterns, why women with more children are less likely to work outside the home and much more. Tiwari is an assistant professor of economics at TAPMI, Manipal. She obtained her Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Management, Ranchi. Full transcript of this episode Follow Chhavi on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Arkadev Ghosh on Religious Divisions and Production Technology | 14 Oct 2021 | 00:28:32 | |
This episode is the first in a mini-series of weekly short episodes featuring young scholars entering the academic job market who discuss their latest research. In this episode, Shruti speaks with Arkadev Ghosh about his job market paper titled, Religious Divisions and Production Technology: Experimental Evidence from India. They discuss the effects of inter-religion work groups on team productivity, how wider political tensions can affect the workplace and much more. Ghosh is a Ph.D. candidate in economics at the University of British Columbia. He obtained his master's in economics at the London School of Economics and his bachelor's degree at the University of Edinburgh. Full transcript of this episode Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Pratap Bhanu Mehta on The Theory of Moral Sentiments | 30 Sep 2021 | 01:32:40 | |
In this episode, Shruti speaks with Dr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta about Adam Smith's "The Theory of Moral Sentiments," spectatorship and imagination, self-interest, federalism, the Scottish Enlightenment as applied to Indian politics and much more. Mehta is the Laurence Rockefeller Professor for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton University. He is also a contributing editor and columnist at the Indian Express and former president and chief executive of the Center for Policy Research, New Delhi. He has written extensively on intellectual history, constitutional law and theory, political theory, India's social transformation and world affairs. He is the recipient of the Infosys Prize, the Adiseshiah Prize and the Amartya Sen Prize. Full transcript of this episode Follow Pratap on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Alice Evans on Female Friendships and Fraternal Capital | 16 Sep 2021 | 01:05:07 | |
In this episode, Shruti talks with Alice Evans about fraternal capital, women's limited mobility, female friendships, representations of women in art and much more. Evans is a lecturer at King's College London and a faculty associate at the Center for International Development at Harvard's Kennedy School. She has published on topics such as women's labor force participation, urbanization and social change, pro-worker reforms, what drives support for gender equality and more. Her book "The Great Gender Divergence" is forthcoming from Princeton University Press. Full transcript of this episode Follow Alice on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Uday Bhatia on the Hindi Gangster Film Tradition | 02 Sep 2021 | 01:23:32 | |
In this episode, Shruti talks with Uday Bhatia about Hindi gangster films, particularly "Satya" and its legacy. They discuss vigilante cops, corrupt politicians and other movie tropes, as well as how the Indian gangster film has evolved over time. Bhatia is a film critic with Mint Lounge. He has previously worked with Time Out Delhi and The Sunday Guardian. His writing has appeared in The Caravan, GQ, The Indian Quarterly, The Indian Express and The Hindu Business Line. Bhatia is also the author of "Bullets Over Bombay," a book about the iconic Indian film "Satya" and its legacy. Full transcript of this episode Follow Uday on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| The 1991 Project | 19 Aug 2021 | 01:12:20 | |
Ideas of India is a podcast in which Mercatus Senior Research Fellow Shruti Rajagopalan examines the academic ideas that can propel India forward. You can subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, Google, Overcast, Stitcher or the podcast app of your choice. In this episode, Shruti talks with Shreyas Narla and Prakhar Misra about India's 1991 economic reforms. They discuss the role of Prime Minister Rao and Finance Minister Manmohan Singh, India's transition from socialism to a market economy, the continued relevance of the 1991 reforms today and much more. Narla and Misra are research associates in the field of Indian political economy at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Full transcript of this episode Follow Shreyas on Twitter Follow Prakhar on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Salil Tripathi on Lessons from Bangladesh for India | 05 Aug 2021 | 01:15:51 | |
In this episode, Shruti talks with Salil Tripathi about Bangladesh's economic prosperity, cultural similarities and differences with India, religious and linguistic identity, and about what India can learn from Bangaladesh on its 50th anniversary. Tripathi is an Indian journalist, author and editor, currently the chair of PEN International's Writers in Prison Committee. and he is the Senior Advisor on Global Issues at the Institute for Human Rights and Business. He is the author of "Offence: The Hindu Case," "Detours: Songs of the Open Road" and "The Colonel Who Would Not Repent: The Bangladesh War and Its Unquiet Legacy." Full transcript of this episode Follow Salil on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Rajmohan Gandhi on Revenge and Reconciliation in South Asia | 22 May 2025 | 01:18:15 | |
Today's episode is the second part of my conversation with Rajmohan Gandhi, a historian and biographer involved in efforts for trust-building and reconciliation and author of more than fifteen books, of which the most recent is Fraternity: Constitutional Norm and Human Need. He taught history and politics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1997 until he retirement in 2022. His most recent initiative is We Are One Humanity (WAOH), a writers collective responding to the worldwide thrusts against democracy and equality. Recorded April 17th, 2025. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. | |||
| Amartya Lahiri on Fostering Economic Growth | 22 Jul 2021 | 01:34:15 | |
In this episode, Shruti and Amartya Lahiri discuss the Indian economy in light of the country's socialist past, distrust of markets, current monetary policy and continuing challenges. Lahiri is a professor at the Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia. He has previously held positions at the University of California Los Angeles and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. His current research interests include macro- and microeconomic developments in India over the past three decades. Full transcript of this episode Follow Amartya on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Krish Ashok on Indian Food, Carnatic Music, and the Future of the Workplace | 08 Jul 2021 | 01:31:12 | |
In this episode, Shruti and Krish Ashok discuss different Indian cuisines, oral versus written tradition, the fusion of different musical styles, the challenges of working remotely and much more. Krish is the global head of digital workplace practice at Tata Consultancy Services in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. He is also a classical violinist, guitarist and cellist, and he has written a book, Masala Lab, on the science of Indian cooking. Full transcript of this episode Follow Krish on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Yashica Dutt on Coming Out as Dalit | 24 Jun 2021 | 01:28:02 | |
In this episode, Shruti and Yashica Dutt discuss India's caste system, being Dalit and "passing" as non-Dalit, the intersection of caste and gender, reservations in the Indian educational system and much more. Dutt is an Indian writer and journalist who has written on a broad range of topics including fashion, gender, identity, culture and caste. She has worked with the Hindustan Times, LiveMint, Scroll.in, The Wire and HuffPost India. Her new book, "Coming Out as Dalit," is a memoir of her experience as a Dalit woman and the history of the Dalit movement. Full transcript of this episode Follow Yashica on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Keshav Desiraju on Indian Classical Music and the Legacy of M. S. Subbulakshmi | 10 Jun 2021 | 01:31:33 | |
In this episode, Shruti and Keshav Desiraju discuss Indian musical traditions, devadasi women and the music of M. S. Subbulakshmi. Desiraju is the author of "Of Gifted Voice: The Life and Art of M. S. Subbulakshmi." He has recently retired from a career with the Indian Administrative Service and in 2013 was Secretary of Health & Family Welfare to the Government of India. He has held many positions with the Government of Uttarakhand, the Government of Uttar Pradesh and the Government of India. He continues to remain engaged with issues in public health, particularly mental illness, primary healthcare and community health, and he serves on the board of several nonprofit organizations. Full transcript of this episode Follow Keshav on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Chinmay Tumbe on Pandemics Then and Now | 27 May 2021 | 01:32:11 | |
In this episode, Shruti and Chinmay Tumbe discuss the history of pandemics in India and throughout the world, including cholera, influenza, plague and now COVID-19. They also discuss how issues of caste, migration and scientific progress have influenced these pandemics. Tumbe is an assistant professor of economics at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. His research interests include urban and labor economics, business and economic history, and migration studies. His most recent book is "The Age of Pandemics (1817-1920): How They Shaped India and the World." He is also the author of "India Moving: A History of Migration." Full transcript of this episode Follow Chinmay on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Alice Evans on The Great Gender Divergence | 13 May 2021 | 01:31:51 | |
In this episode, Shruti talks with Alice Evans about issues affecting women in India, including single-gender education, son preference, social media and many others. Evans is a lecturer at King's College London and a faculty associate at the Center for International Development at Harvard's Kennedy School. She has published on topics such as women's labor force participation, urbanization and social change, pro-worker reforms, what drives support for gender equality and more. Her book "The Great Gender Divergence" is forthcoming from Princeton University Press. Full transcript of this episode Follow Alice on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Virginia Postrel on the History of Textiles and their Economic Relevance Throughout the World | 15 Apr 2021 | 01:30:15 | |
In this episode, Shruti and Virginia Postrel discuss her latest book, "The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World." They talk about different methods of dyeing, spinning as a feminine occupation, the textile trade in the 17th and 18th centuries, how technological changes disrupted the industry and much more. Postrel is an author, columnist and speaker whose work spans a broad range of topics from social science to fashion, concentrating on the intersection of culture, commerce and technology. Her previous books include "The Power of Glamour: Longing and the Art of Visual Persuasion" (2013), "The Substance of Style" (2003) and "The Future and Its Enemies" (1998). She is a regular columnist for Bloomberg Opinion and contributes columns, focusing primarily on history and material culture, to Reason. Full transcript of this episode Follow Virginia on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Himanshu Jha on Institutional Change in India | 01 Apr 2021 | 01:14:34 | |
In this episode, Shruti talks to Himanshu Jha about his recent book, Capturing Institutional Change: The Case of the Right to Information Act in India. Himanshu is a lecturer and research fellow in the Department of Political Science at the South Asia Institute at Heidelberg University in Germany. Full transcript of this episode Follow Himanshu on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Milan Vaishnav on How Indian-Americans View India | 18 Mar 2021 | 01:12:11 | |
In this episode, Shruti speaks with Milan Vaishnav about a report, How Do Indian Americans View India?, in which he and his co-authors (Sumitra Badrinathan and Devesh Kapur) conducted a survey about the political beliefs of Indian Americans. They discuss the results of the survey and talk about how the Indian American community might change in the future. Vaishnav is the director and senior fellow of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is also the author of When Crime Pays: Money and Muscle in Indian Politics (Yale University Press and HarperCollins India, 2017). His research focuses on Indian political economy, examining issues such as corruption and governance, state capacity, distributive politics and electoral behavior. Full transcript of this episode Follow Milan on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Shoumitro Chatterjee on Agricultural Markets in India | 04 Mar 2021 | 01:15:09 | |
In this episode, Shruti talks with Shoumitro Chatterjee about farms and farm policy in India, particularly in terms of government subsidies and other state intervention in agricultural markets. Chatterjee is an assistant professor of economics at Pennsylvania State University. His research interests include agriculture and international trade and development. Full transcript of this episode Follow Shoumitro on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Rajmohan Gandhi Reflects on India's Founding Fathers | 08 May 2025 | 01:39:25 | |
Today my guest is Rajmohan Gandhi, a historian and biographer involved in efforts for trust-building and reconciliation and author of more than fifteen books, of which the most recent is Fraternity: Constitutional Norm and Human Need. He taught history and politics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1997 until his retirement in 2022. His most recent initiative is We Are One Humanity (WAOH), a writers collective responding to the worldwide thrusts against democracy and equality. Recorded April 18th, 2025. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps Intro - 00:00:00 Patel - 00:01:34 Rajaji - 00:31:20 Ghaffar Khan - 00:51:53 Gandhi - 01:05:53 Competing Visions - 01:17:32 Biographies of Family Members - 01:18:54 Serendipity in the Research Process - 01:23:40 Civil Rights in the US - 01:27:23 Pessimistic or Optimistic? - 01:35:16 Role of God and Faith - 01:36:27 Outro - 01:38:20 | |||
| Chandra Bhan Prasad on Ambedkarism, Caste, and Dalit Capitalism | 11 Feb 2021 | 01:33:18 | |
In this episode, Shruti and Chandra Bhan Prasad discuss the legacy of philosophy of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, the status of Dalits in India and the importance of entrepreneurship. Prasad is an Indian journalist, political commentator and activist, an entrepreneur and founder of the ByDalits.com platform, an adviser to the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the editor of Dalit Enterprise Magazine. He is also a winner of the Emergent Ventures grant for his work on Dalit capitalism and progress. Full transcript of this episode Follow Chandra on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Arvind Panagariya on Free Trade and Prosperity | 28 Jan 2021 | 01:35:38 | |
In this episode, Shruti spoke with Arvind Panagariya about his book, Free Trade and Prosperity: How Openness Helps the Developing Countries Grow Richer and Combat Poverty. Panagariya is Professor of Economics and the Jagdish Bhagwati Professor of Indian Political Economy at Columbia University. From January 2015 to August 2017, he served as the first Vice Chairman of the NITI Aayog, Government of India in Prime Minister Modi's Cabinet. His primary research is international trade policy, economic development, and Indian political economy. Full transcript of this episode Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Kunal Mangal on Government Jobs and the Labor Market in India | 14 Jan 2021 | 00:32:38 | |
This episode is the sixth and final 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. The first episode featured Vaishnavi Surendra, the second episode featured Rohit Ticku, the third episode featured Tanu Kumar, the fourth episode featured Proma Ray Chaudhury, and the fifth episode featured Vaidehi Tandel. In this episode, Shruti talks with Kunal Mangal about his research on the pursuit of government jobs in India and why the competition for these jobs is so fierce. Mangal is a Ph.D. candidate in public policy at Harvard University. His research focuses on labor markets in developing countries, and he is currently studying India's competitive exam system for government jobs. Full transcript of this episode Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Vaidehi Tandel on Urban Economics in India | 07 Jan 2021 | 00:27:21 | |
The fifth scholar in our young scholars series, Dr. Vaidehi Tandel. She is an economist specializing in urban political economy and policy in India. I spoke with Vaidehi about her work on urban economics in India, in particular, her paper on "What's in a definition? A study on the suitability of the current urban definition in India through its employment guarantee programme. (with Komal Hiranandani and Mudit Kapoor) and her paper titled paper, "Too slow for the urban march: Litigations and real estate in Mumbai, (with Sahil Gandhi, Alexander Tabarrok and Shamika Ravi) and her joint work on using a system of Adaptive Controls in the battle against Covid. Full transcript of this episode Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Proma Ray Chaudhury on Gender and Women's Political Participation | 31 Dec 2020 | 00:31:47 | |
The fourth scholar in our young scholars series is Proma Ray Chaudhury, a PhD Candidate at the School of Law and Government in Dublin City University under the EU Marie Curie ETN Global India Project, working on gender and women's political participation in contemporary India. I spoke with Proma about her paper titled, "The Political Asceticism of Mamata Banerjee: Female Populist Leadership in Contemporary India," where she studies representation of female political leaders, in particular, Mamata Bannerjee in West Bengal. Full transcript of this episode Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Tanu Kumar on the Connection Between Housing Subsidies and Political Activity | 24 Dec 2020 | 00:27:39 | |
For the next few weeks I will be speaking to young doctoral and post-doctoral candidates entering the academic job market and the policy world about their newly minted research on Indian political economy. The third scholar in our young scholars series, Dr. Tanu Kumar is a postdoctoral fellow at William and Mary's Global Research Institute. She is a political scientist studying urban politics and service delivery. I spoke with Tanu about her paper, "Home-Price Subsidies Increase Local-Level Political Participation in Urban India," which has been conditionally accepted at the Journal of Politics. In her paper, Tanu studies the effects of a housing subsidy program in Mumbai through an original survey of winners and nonwinners of program lotteries, and its effect on local political participation. We also discussed another one of Tanu's papers, "The Human Capital Effects of Subsidized Government-Constructed Homes in Urban India," on how this housing subsidy affects long-term investments in human capital. Full transcript of this episode Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Rohit Ticku on Temple Desecrations and Same-Sex Marriage Laws | 17 Dec 2020 | 00:25:52 | |
For the next few weeks I will be speaking to young doctoral and post-doctoral candidates entering the academic job market and the policy world about their newly minted research on Indian political economy. The next scholar in our young scholar series is of Dr. Rohit Ticku. Rohit is a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for the Study of Religion, Economics, and Society at Chapman University. He is working on religion, culture and identity from an economic point of view. I spoke with Rohit about his paper, titled Economic Shocks and Temple Desecrations in Medieval India, which is coauthored with Anand Shrivastava and Sriya Iyer, where they show that economic downturns led rules to strategically desecrate temples to quell mass uprisings. I also discussed another one of Rohit's papers titled Same Sex Marriage Laws and Coming out in America:Theory and Evidence from Catholic Priesthood (coauthored with Avner Seror) on the effect of the same-sex marriage laws on the expression of sexual identity in the United States. Full transcript of this episode Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Vaishnavi Surendra on the Moneylender as Middleman in Rural India | 10 Dec 2020 | 00:28:20 | |
For the next few weeks, I will be speaking to young doctoral and post-doctoral candidates entering the academic and policy works about their newly minted research on Indian political economy. The first scholar in our young scholars' series is Dr. Vaishnavi Surendra. Vaishnavi is a post-doctoral scholar at University of California, Berkley. She is a development economist working in the area of household finance and her research is focused on studying credit markets in rural India. Today I'll be speaking with her on her findings on moneylenders in rural India. In her paper titled, "The Moneylender as Middleman: Formal Credit Supply and Informal Loans in Rural India" Vaishnavi demonstrates that informal moneylenders borrow from the formal banking system and lend to households acting as intermediaries to ease lending capital constraints in rural India. Full transcript of this episode Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Adam Auerbach on Slum Residents Demanding Development | 26 Nov 2020 | 01:29:48 | |
Shruti talks with Adam Auerbach about competition, creative problem-solving, and formalizing political activity in India's urban slums. In this episode, Shruti spoke with Adam Auerbach about his 2019 book, Demanding Development: The Politics of Public Goods Provision in India's Urban Slums. Auerbach is an assistant professor in the School of International Service at American University. His research interests include local governance, urban politics, and the political economy of development, with a regional focus in South Asia and particularly in India. Shruti also talked with Adam about the ethnic and social diversity of Indian slums, the lack of geographic mobility between those neighborhoods, political representation at the extremely local level, and much more. Full transcript of this episode enhanced with helpful links: https://www.discoursemagazine.com/tag/ideas-of-india-podcast/ Connect with Shruti on Twitter: https://twitter.com/srajagopalan | |||
| Rohit De on the Everyday Life of Law in the Indian Republic | 12 Nov 2020 | 01:22:35 | |
Today's guest is Rohit De, who is an associate professor of history at Yale University. His recent book, A People's Constitution: The Everyday Life of Law in the Indian Republic, is an excellent look at how the constitution actually transformed the daily lives of citizens in profound and lasting ways. Rohit details how those on the margins of society, like butchers and prostitutes, or drinkers and traders, made claims using the constitution after India's founding and shaped India's constitutional culture. I had a chance to speak with Rohit about the four cases he makes in the book. We talked about how individuals asserted their rights against an oppressive, regulatory, and socialist state that had criminalized their daily activities and infringed on their ability to carry on their profession. We also had a chance to talk about Indian constitutionalism, economic planning and controls during the Nehruvian socialism, the meaning of constitutional franchise, constitutional symbolism during the citizenship amendment protests in India, Rohit's intellectual journey, and much more. Full transcript of this episode enhanced with helpful links: https://www.discoursemagazine.com/tag/ideas-of-india-podcast/ Connect with me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/srajagopalan | |||
| Taking Stock of the Indian Economy with Prachi Mishra | 24 Apr 2025 | 01:25:20 | |
Today my guest is Prachi Mishra, who is a Professor in the Department of Economics, and Director and Head of Isaac Center for Public Policy at Ashoka University. Prior to joining Ashoka, Prachi was Chief of the Systemic Issues Division and Advisor in the Research Department at the International Monetary Fund. We spoke about the current state of the Indian economy, India's growth trajectory, if the rupee is overvalued, India's fiscal consolidation, and much more. We also spoke about Trade, but this episode was recorded before the big tariff announcements on April 2. Recorded March 31st, 2025. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. | |||
| Biju Rao on Democracy, Deliberation, and Development | 29 Oct 2020 | 01:20:31 | |
Today my guest is Vijayendra Rao, or as he's known, Biju Rao, a lead economist in the Development Research Group at the World Bank. His recent book coauthored with professor Paromita Sanyal called Oral Democracy: Deliberation in Indian Village Assemblies, is an excellent study of citizens voice in India's Gram Sabhas, or village assemblies, which are also the largest deliberative institution in human history. I had a chance to speak with Biju about deliberative democracy in India, federalism and local governments, conducting ethnographic research, what it means to be a development economist, the relevance of methodology and history, and much more. Full transcript of this episode Follow Biju on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Viral Acharya on Restoring Financial Stability in India | 15 Oct 2020 | 01:34:09 | |
Today's guest is Viral Acharya, who is the C.V. Starr Professor of Economics in the Department of Finance at New York University's Stern School of Business. His recent book, Quest for Restoring Financial Stability in India is an excellent introduction to the problems of autonomous central banking in the face of fiscal dominance by the ever-expanding Indian state. The book contains a series of Viral's lectures given during his tenure as Deputy Governor at the Reserve Bank of India. This conversations covers his views on fiscal dominance and its impact on central banking, the current banking crisis brewing in India, India's informal economy, problems with fiscal federalism, the role of technocrats and the role of ideology, and the reversal of policy direction towards more statism. Full transcript of this episode Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||
| Sriya Iyer on the Economics of Religion in India | 01 Oct 2020 | 01:25:07 | |
My guest today is Sriya Iyer, a Bibby Fellow and College Lecturer at St Catharine's College and Affiliated Lecturer and Janeway Fellow at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Cambridge. Her recent book, The Economics of Religion in India is an excellent survey of her work on religion in India, from the economic point of view, studied using the tools of economics. In this book Sriya analyzes provisioning of religious and non-religious services by religious organizations in India, ethnic conflict, riots, competition between religious organization, and religious education. This work is extremely insightful and sheds light to understand more recent trends of nationalism in India. In this episode we cover her work on the economics of religion, caste, the rise of the BJP and Hindu nationalism, her intellectual influences, and much more. Full transcript of this episode Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox! | |||