Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Ideas of India
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Merve Demirel on the Costs of Migrating for Higher Education in India | 05 nov. 2026 | 00:52:12 | |
This is the 2026 job market series, where I speak with young scholars entering the academic job market about their latest research on India. I spoke with Merve Demirel, who is a doctoral candidate in economics at the Institute for International Economic Studies, Stockholm University. We discussed her job market paper titled, "Migration Costs and Higher Education: Experimental Evidence from India." We talked about the education opportunities available to senior secondary students in Maharashtra, why these students prefer to study close to home despite recognizing the higher returns available from colleges in Mumbai and Pune, measuring the nonfinancial costs of migration, and why those costs are especially high for women, and much more. Recorded September 14th, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Prefer to watch this episode, see the full length video here. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps: | |||
| Vaibhav Rathi on Political Influence on Bureaucratic Priorities & its Impact on Investment in India | 22 oct. 2026 | 00:45:57 | |
This is the 2026 job market series, where I speak with young scholars entering the academic job market about their latest research on India. I spoke with Vaibhav Rathi who is a doctoral candidate in economics at Stockholm University. We discussed his job market paper titled, "Political Influence, Bureaucratic Priorities, and Capital Accumulation in India." We talked about bureaucratic state capacity in India, the role of bureaucrats in approving large infrastructure projects, whether politicians use their influence to distort administrative priorities, the impact of these processes on private investment and much more. Recorded September 15th, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Prefer to watch this episode, see the full length video here. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Follow Vaibhav on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps: | |||
| Kishen Shastry on the Political Economy of Hindu Monastic Institutions (Mutts) in Karnataka | 08 oct. 2026 | 00:53:17 | |
This is the 2026 job market series, where I speak with young scholars entering the academic job market about their latest research on India. On this episode, I spoke with Kishen Shastry who is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, Judge Business School. He received his Ph.D. in economics in 2026 at the University of Cambridge where his research focus was economics of religion and informal institutions. We discussed his job market paper titled, "The Political Economy of Informal Institutions in India." We talked about the economics of religion, the role of long standing monastic institutions in India, how they are regulated by the state, and their impact on education, structural transformation, political competition in India, and much more. Recorded August 25th, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Prefer to watch this episode, see the full length video here. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Follow Kishen on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps: | |||
| Nisha Vernekar on Night-shift Reforms and Women's Work in India | 24 sept. 2026 | 00:46:29 | |
This is the 2026 job market series, where I speak with young scholars entering the academic job market about their latest research on India. On this episode, I spoke with Nisha Vernekar who is a PhD Candidate in Economics at University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. Her research focus is at the intersection of gender, education, labour economics and development economics. We discussed her job market paper, (coauthored with Karan Singhal) titled, "Breaking the Night Barrier: Night-shift Reforms and Women's Work in India." We talked about the regulatory frictions in the labor market in India, in particular the gendered restrictions imposed by the Shops and Establishments act, how labor demand changes after deregulation, how it affects overall labor force participation, India's structural transformation, and much more. Recorded August 25th, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Prefer to watch this episode, see the full length video here. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Follow Nisha on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps: | |||
| Aishwarya Kekre on Land Fragmentation and Its Impact on Structural Transformation | 10 sept. 2026 | 00:56:46 | |
This is the 2026 job market series, where I speak with young scholars entering the academic job market about their latest research on India. We are launching our series with Aishwarya Kekre, who is a PhD Candidate in Economics at the University of Virginia. Her research focus is at the intersection development, trade and spatial Economics. We discussed her job market paper, "Barriers to Structural Transformation: The Role of Agricultural Land Fragmentation." We talked about the reasons for land fragmentation in India, its impact on manufacturing enterprises, on employment in both agriculture and manufacturing, profitability of small farms, how it impacts overall structural transformation, and much more. Recorded August 21st, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Prefer to watch this episode, see the full length video here. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps: | |||
| Rana Hasan on Harnessing the Economic Potential of Indian Cities | 27 août 2026 | 01:13:28 | |
Today my guest is Rana Hasan who is the Director, Centre for Economic Growth at NCAER and Senior Affiliate Scholar at the Mercatus Center. Prior to this he was the Regional Lead Economist at the Asian Development Bank. We talked about how to classify and define a city, coordination problems in urban governance, their potential as engines of growth and employment, land use regulation, and how cities are the mother of all general equilibrium problems, and much more. Recorded July 23rd, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Prefer to watch this episode, see the full length video here. 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 | |||
| Gaurav Chiplunkar on the Frictions in India's Labor Market | 13 août 2026 | 01:31:21 | |
Today my guest is Gaurav Chiplunkar, who is an Assistant Professor in the Global Economies and Markets group at the Darden School of Business, University of Virginia. We talked about labor market frictions in India, understanding the reasons for low female labor force participation in India, the importance of information flows and networks, the role of middlemen, and much more. Recorded July 8th, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Prefer to watch this episode, see the full length video here. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Follow Gaurav on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Intro | |||
| Shreyas Narla and Kadambari Shah on the 'The 1991 Project' | 30 juil. 2026 | 01:53:57 | |
Today my guests are my colleagues Shreyas Narla and Kadambari Shah. Shreyas is a research scholar and Kadambari is a research associate at the Mercatus Center with the India program. We talked about completing five years of the 1991 Project, how it started, it's scope, the oral histories of the reformers in 1991, papers, essays, fellowships and much more. Recorded July 10th, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Prefer to watch this episode, see the full length video here. Connect with Ideas of India 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 00:01:44 - The Origin Story 00:11:07 - Launching the Oral Histories Initiative 00:20:47 -Documentation and Memory 00:37:47 - Building the Repository 00:46:18 - The 1991 Project Website 00:58:11 - Walking with Giants 01:06:45 - Where are all the Women? 01:11:27 - Making Economic Reforms 'Sexy' Again 01:22:43 - The Importance of Intergenerational Interaction 01:34:33 - Incubating New Talent 01:41:39 - Gratitude and Acknowledgments 01:53:19 - Outro | |||
| M.R. Madhavan on Party Power and the Decline of India's Legislatures | 16 juil. 2026 | 01:35:56 | |
Today my guest is M.R. Madhavan, co-founder and president of PRS Legislative Research. We talked about the role and purpose of the Rajya Sabha, treatment of money bills in a Westminster system, how the anti-defection law and party whips have hollowed out parliamentary function, parliamentary procedure, the role of the governor, and much more. Recorded June 24th, 2026. 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. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro | |||
| Rahul Sagar on the Birth of Indian Nationalism | 02 juil. 2026 | 01:03:33 | |
Today my guest is once again Rahul Sagar, who is a Global Network Associate Professor of Political Science at New York University Abu Dhabi. We talked about his new book The Birth of Indian Liberalism, the recovery of the forgotten nineteenth-century thinker Mama Parmanand, why his Letters to an Indian Raja counts as the first work of Indian political theory, how Indian liberals had to justify building a state out of chaos rather than restraining one that already existed, their fight against the social tyranny of caste, clergy, and family, the case for binding the ruler and educating the citizenry before extending the vote, the divergence between British India and the princely states, religion as a moral resource, the roots of Hindu nationalism, and much more. Recorded June 9th, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Follow Rahul on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro | |||
| Sajjid Chinoy on Whether India Faces another 1991 Moment | 18 juin 2026 | 01:19:23 | |
Today my guest is Sajjid Chinoy, managing director and chief India economist at J.P. Morgan. He is also currently serving as a part-time member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India. Sajjid previously served on the Advisory Council to India's 15th Finance Commission and has served on a number of expert committees of the Reserve Bank of India. We talked about India's current balance of payments and capital account challenges, the constraints holding back private investment, why employment and exports have become first-order policy priorities, rupee depreciation, shrinking FDI, and much more. Recorded May 21st, 2026. 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. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro | |||
| Ritam Chaurey on Placing the Firm at the Center of India's Structural Transformation | 04 juin 2026 | 01:30:30 | |
Today my guest is Ritam Chaurey, who is an Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. We talked about structural transformation in India over the last three decades, how firm level behavior responds to regulatory and fiscal changes, how firms choose between capital and labor, or permanent versus contractual labor, land use and factory location, and much more. Recorded April 29th, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Follow Ritam on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro | |||
| Pratap Bhanu Mehta on Liberalism, Nihilism, and the Collapse of Sincerity | 21 mai 2026 | 01:46:54 | |
Today my guest is Dr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, who is the Laurance Rockefeller Professor for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton and former president and chief executive of the Center for Policy Research, New Delhi. He is the author of various books and edited volumes, has served on various government committees, and is a columnist for the Indian Express. We talked about the return of nihilism in political life, the hollowing of professional identities, the politics of vishwas, Adam Smith on concentrated power, what it takes to build lasting institutions, the assumptions behind nonalignment, and much more. Recorded April 3rd, 2026. 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. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro | |||
| Shruti Rajagopalan and Milan Vaishnav on India's Delimitation Dilemma | 06 mai 2026 | 01:31:03 | |
Today we are releasing a webinar recording from April 24th where Milan Vaishnav and I had a conversation on delimitation in India. Milan is a senior fellow and the director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is also the host of the excellent Grand Tamasha podcast where this recording will be simultaneously released. We talked about the failure to pass the 131st constitutional amendment bill in Parliament, the government's intention to reapportion and increase the size of the Lok Sabha, the delimitation freeze pegged to the 1971 census that has survived five decades, why the fiscal bargain between states matters as much as the political bargain, and much more. Recorded April 24th, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Follow Milan on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro
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| Samanth Subramanian on the Fragile and Resilient Technologies that Bind Us | 23 avr. 2026 | 01:13:41 | |
Today my guest is Samanth Subramanian, who is a journalist and writer and the author of the recent books The Web Beneath the Waves and A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of J. B. S. Haldane. We talked about under water sea cables and choke points in critical global infrastructure, the intersection of technology and geopolitics, large language models, JBS Haldane and the relationship between science and politics, and much more. Recorded March 25th, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Follow Samanth on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro | |||
| Arvind Subramanian and Devesh Kapur on India's Precocious Development Odyssey | 09 avr. 2026 | 01:47:06 | |
Today my guests are Arvind Subramanian and Devesh Kapur. Arvind is a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a former Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India. Devesh is the Starr Foundation Professor of South Asian Studies and Director of the Asia Programs at the Johns Hopkins. They are co-authors of the recent book, A Sixth of Humanity: Independent India's Development Odyssey. We talked about India's redistributive democracy, why Indian states have taken such different development paths, India's socialism and consequent scarcity, manufacturing challenges, and much more. Recorded February 13th, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Follow Arvind on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro | |||
| V. Anantha Nageswaran on Surveying the Growth and Financialization of the Indian Economy | 26 mars 2026 | 01:07:49 | |
Today my guest is Dr. V Anantha Nageswaran, who is currently serving as the Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India. He is also the co-author of the books Economics of Derivatives and The Rise of Finance: Causes, Consequences and Cures. We talked about import substitution and strategic resilience, futures and options market, gross fixed capital formation, crypto markets, India's growth trajectory, and much more. Recorded March 12th, 2026. 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. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro | |||
| Ornit Shani and Rohit De on Assembling India's Constitution | 12 mars 2026 | 01:34:51 | |
Today my guests are Ornit Shani and Rohit De, historians and the authors of the latest book Assembling India's Constitution. Ornit Shani is an associate professor of history at the University of Haifa and the author of How India Became Democratic: Citizenship and the Making of the Universal Franchise. Rohit De is an associate professor of history at Yale University and the author of A People's Constitution: The Everyday Life of Law in the Indian Republic. We talked about how their latest book is a radical departure from the usual telling of the making of the Indian Constitution as an elite project, the mass mobilization that took place during the drafting of the constitution, the role of public participation in political negotiation, the status of provincial legislatures and of princely states during the constitution making, and much more. Recorded January 20th, 2026 and February 10th, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Follow Ornit on X Follow Rohit on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro | |||
| Pranay Kotasthane on the Political Economy of Rare Earths and Critical Minerals | 26 févr. 2026 | 01:47:09 | |
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, When the Chips are Down, and the graphic nonfiction narrative We, the Citizens. We spoke about rare earths and critical minerals, China's dominance, the gap between India's ambitions and opportunities, the potential for recycling, and much and more. Recorded February 2nd, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Learn more about The 1991 Fellowship. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Follow Pranay on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - 1991 Fellowship | |||
| Nachiket Mor on Rethinking India's Healthcare System | 12 févr. 2026 | 01:41:52 | |
Today my guest is Nachiket Mor, a health economist whose work focuses on the design of national and regional health systems. He is a visiting scientist at the Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health, a senior research fellow at the Centre for Information Technology and Public Policy at IIIT Bangalore, and a commissioner and author on the Lancet Citizens' Commission on Reimagining India's Health System, which published its final report in The Lancet in January 2026. We talked about the different layers of the Indian healthcare system, the design and policy failures in both public and private sector healthcare, the role of community workers, the health insurance and regulation market, and much more. Recorded January 29th, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Learn more about The 1991 Fellowship. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Follow Nachiket on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - 1991 Fellowship | |||
| Akshay Jaitly on the Making of a Modern Indian Law Firm | 29 janv. 2026 | 01:19:50 | |
Today my guest is Akshay Jaitly, the author of the recent book, Trilegal: The Making of a Modern Indian Law Firm. He is one of the founders of Trilegal and specializes in advising on energy and infrastructure projects. His research interests include power sector reform, the energy transition and public-private contracting. We talked about how Trilegal grew in the context of India's market liberalization and sectoral reforms, different partnership structures, delegated legislation, regulatory capture, the alchemy between the founding partners, and much more. Recorded January 6th, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Learn more about The 1991 Fellowship. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Follow Akshay on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - 1991 Fellowship | |||
| Renuka Sane on Regulatory Frameworks, Rule of Law, and Pensions Reforms in India | 15 janv. 2026 | 01:35:54 | |
Today my guest is Renuka Sane who is the managing director of Managing Director of Trustbridge. An institution that seeks to improve India's business environment by improving the rule of law. Renuka was a member of many expert committees including: the Task Force of Experts set up by the Employees Provident Fund Organisation; the research team of the Bankruptcy Legislative Reforms Commission; the Pension Advisory Committee of the Pension Fund Regulatory Development Authority; and the Working Group on personal insolvency at the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India. She received a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of New South Wales. We talked about the old, new, and unified pension scheme and related reforms over the last few decades in India, India's broader financial regulation framework, separation of powers in regulatory authorities, the way regulatory orders are written, and much more. Recorded December 17th, 2025. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Learn more about The 1991 Fellowship. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Follow Renuka on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - The 1991 Fellowship (00:01:09) - Intro (00:02:49) - India's Pension System (00:35:42) - Private Sector Pension Schemes (01:06:28) - Regulatory Orders (01:24:03) - Improving Transparency at the Reserve Bank of India (01:34:57) - Outro
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| Snigdha Poonam on the Political Economy of Transnational Scams | 02 janv. 2026 | 01:27:59 | |
Today my guest is Snigdha Poonam who is a journalist and writer. She is the author of the new book Scamlands and also the author of the 2018 award winning book Dreamers: How Young Indians Are Changing Their World. We talked about the scam industrial complex in different states like Jharkhand, Assam and Tamil Nadu in India, the interaction between the scam economy and the formal economy, the transnational scams in China and Cambodia and how they are connected to India, the aspirations and traumas of the scam work force and much more. Recorded November 17th, 2025. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Learn more about The 1991 Fellowship. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Follow Snigdha on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:13) - The Scam-Industrial Complex (00:03:48) - On Jamtara and the Economics of Joining a Scam (00:09:12) - The Moral Logic of Scamming (00:13:31) - How the State Enables the Scam Economy (00:15:54) - Inside Assam's Paperwork and Insurance Scams (00:23:04) - The Politics of Legibility in Assam (00:32:47) - Women in the Scam Economy (00:38:32) - How Scammers Get Trapped Inside the System (00:46:18) - From Local Scams to Transnational Cybercrime (00:52:18) - Scam Slavery in Southeast Asia (01:02:15) - Reporting on the Shadow Economy (01:10:49) - Starting the Story (01:16:54) - From Aspiration to Desperation (01:21:56) - Closing Reflections (01:27:08) - Outro | |||
| 2025 in Review | 23 déc. 2025 | 01:10:36 | |
Shruti and Ideas of India producer Dallas Floer sit down for the 2025 end-of-year episode. They look back at key themes and top episodes from the past year, address listener questions, and look forward to what's in store for Shruti and the show in 2026. Recorded December 16th, 2025. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Learn more about The 1991 Fellowship. 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 (00:01:03) - Listener Questions (00:25:50) - Big Themes and Top Episodes (00:42:21) - Personal Moments (00:46:53) - Looking to 2026 (00:49:47) - Hope or Concern for Next Generation (00:51:45) - Intellectual Mood Around India (00:53:01) - Shruti and Animals (00:56:52) - What's New for 2026 (01:00:07) - The Ideas of India Team (01:05:21) - Thank You's (01:09:49) - Outro | |||
| Ammu Lavanya on How Foreign Capital Changed Indian Bank Lending | 04 déc. 2025 | 00:54:10 | |
Our seventh and final scholar in the series is Ammu Lavanya, a PhD candidate in Economics at George Washington University. Her research is in the areas of International Finance, Monetary Economics, Empirical Banking and Financial History. Recorded October 9th, 2025. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Follow Ammu on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:03:06) - Understanding Capital Inflows and Financial Liberalization (00:04:36) - Concerns Around Foreign Capital and Hot Money Flows (00:07:12) - The Banking Reform and Ownership Landscape in India (00:12:10) - Banks Most Affected and Patterns of Foreign Investment (00:17:05) - Impact on Borrowing Capacity and Lending Behavior (00:19:38) - Productive Lending and Screening Mechanisms (00:25:53) - Managerial Practices and Governance Improvements (00:34:20) - Firm-Level Effects and Data Construction (00:39:50) - Aggregate Effects and Decline in Misallocation (00:45:19) - Implications for Policy and the Future of Liberalization (00:48:42) - Differences Between Public and Private Banks (00:53:15) - Outro | |||
| Nayantara Biswas on Demand- and Supply-Side Interventions in India's Maternal Health Policy | 20 nov. 2025 | 00:47:31 | |
Our sixth scholar in the series is Nayantara Biswas is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She received her Ph.D. in economics from Clark University. Her research focuses on health equity impact evaluations of small-scale interventions and large-scale public policies. We spoke about dissertation titled, The Impact of Social Policies on Reproductive Health, Maternal Employment, and Child Health: Evidence from India. We talked about demand side versus supply side policy interventions in public health, India's maternal health policy landscape, the ASHA workers program, variation across states in policy impact 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 Nayantara on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:35) - Setting the Stage (00:04:44) - India's Maternal–Child Health Policy Landscape (00:08:29) - Uneven Progress: State Differences, Culture, and Measurement Challenges (00:09:24) - Who Are the ASHA Workers? (00:11:56) - Trust, Access, and the Information Channel (00:14:26) - Pay, Hours, and Unionization: Why Conditions Vary by State (00:16:50) - How Incentives Are Structured (00:21:44) - From Design to Data: Building the District-Level Panel (00:25:20) - We Are Measuring ASHAs—and Something Else (00:26:45) - DiD Simplified: How the Causal Claim Works (00:33:45) - Policy Implications: Where to Invest and How to Train (00:36:53) - Cost-Effectiveness: Supply vs. Demand (00:39:53) - Why Supply-Side Effects Take Time (00:41:50) - Beyond Pregnancy: Anganwadi Daycare and Women's Work (00:46:27) - Outro | |||
| 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 | |||
| Chetana Sabnis on The Intimacy Contract and the Indian State | 09 oct. 2025 | 00:51:24 | |
Our third scholar in the series is Chetana Sabnis, who is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Political Science at Yale University. Her research focuses on how states regulate intimate relationships and construct hierarchies of familial belonging. We spoke about her job market paper titled, The Intimacy Contract in Action: How Indian Courts Determine which Extramarital Relationships Deserve Recognition. We talked about extramarital affairs, polygamous relationships, Uniform Civil Code, social versus legal acceptance, and much more. Recorded September 5th, 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. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:23) - How Courts Recognize "Family" (00:03:12) - Why This Paper? Rethinking "Family" (00:05:28) - India's Legal Patchwork: Customs vs. Code (00:11:07) - Judicial Heuristics: Rituals, Cohabitation, Children (00:14:44) - Endogamy vs. Interfaith: Law, Bias, and Recognition (00:22:22) - How the State Views Children (00:25:27) - Welfare Logic & Gendered Maintenance (00:29:29) - UCC and the "Intimacy Contract" (00:35:48) - The Role of the State (00:42:30) - Contract vs. Sacrament (00:49:00) - Outro | |||
| Sunny Rai on Using Large Language Models to Understand the Depiction of Shame and Pride in Bollywood versus Hollywood | 25 sept. 2025 | 00:38:01 | |
Our second scholar in the series is Sunny Rai, who is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Computer and Information Science University of Pennsylvania. She received her Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from University of Delhi. Her research focuses on misinformation, mental health and cross-cultural variations in human language. We spoke about her co-authored job market paper titled, Social Norms in Cinema: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Shame, Pride and Prejudice. We talked about depictions of shame and pride and heroism in Indian versus American films, the challenges with textual analysis of a visual medium, 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 Sunny on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:03:44) - Shame and Pride in Film (00:12:31) - Teaching Machines Norms (00:16:52) - Textual Analysis in a Visual Medium (00:18:26) - The Trouble with Subtitles and Scripts (00:27:41) - Self-Shaming vs. Other-Shaming (00:30:33) - LLM Alignment Needs a Culture Check (00:36:20) - Looking Ahead: A Final Reflection (00:37:01) - Outro | |||
| Kartik Srivastava on Referral-Based Hiring, Caste Networks, and Breaking Barriers in India's Labor Markets | 11 sept. 2025 | 00:47:41 | |
Our first scholar in the series is Kartik Srivastava, who is a PhD candidate at the Kennedy School at Harvard University. Before this, he received his bachelor's degree from Yale University, where he majored in Economics and Engineering Sciences. His research focuses on development economics, labor economics, and political economy. We spoke about his job market paper titled, Familiar strangers: Evidence from referral-based hiring experiments in India. We talked his large-scale experiment at a footwear manufacturing firm in Delhi, on how referral-based hiring improve firm productivity, cohesion, and inclusion, differences in hiring between higher caste versus lower caste networks, feudalism and labor opportunities, 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 Kartik on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. | |||
| Narayani Basu on K. M. Panikkar: India's Impossible Man | 28 août 2025 | 01:20:03 | |
Today my guest is Narayani Basu, who is a historian and the author of the latest book, A Man for All Seasons: The Life of K. M. Panikkar. Her last book was a biography of V.P. Menon: The Unsung Architect of Modern India. We talked about KM Panikkar, his comparison with VP Menon, the Indian nationalist movement in the interwar years, the origins of India's diplomatic relationship with China, Pannikar's Zionism and much more. Recorded August 1st, 2025. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Follow Narayani on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:07) - The Elusive K. M. Panikkar (00:07:52) - Panikkar's and the Indian National Movement (00:19:32) - Panikkar's Intellectual Arc (00:26:45) - Unifying an Indian Identity (00:35:38) - India's Princely States (00:40:19) - Panikkar and China (00:54:43) - Panikkar and the 1950s (00:59:43) - Panikkar's Thought vs. His Government Work (01:08:35) - Panikkar's Blind Spots (01:15:48) - Panikkar and Today's India (01:18:27) - Outro | |||
| Yamini Aiyar Schools Us on Education Policy in India | 14 août 2025 | 01:29:25 | |
Today my guest is Yamini Aiyar, who is currently a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Saxena Center for Contemporary South Asia at Brown University and the author of the recent book Lessons in State Capacity from Delhi's Schools. Her main research interests are contemporary politics, state capacity, welfare policy, and federalism. We talked about the challenges of education policy and welfare in India, the lack of agency experienced by school administrators and teachers, the role of local governments in education, Delhi's experiment with education reforms, portable benefits and school vouchers, and much more. Recorded July 16th, 2025. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Follow Yamini on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:27) - Delhi School Experiment (00:12:45) - Education in a Welfare State (00:28:34) - Incompetent Petty Tyrants (00:38:17) - Federalism and Education (00:50:18) - How to Build Empowerment (01:05:39) - Is the Delhi Experiment Generalizable? (01:18:52) - Portability and Education (01:28:15) - Outro | |||
| Rathin Roy on How India Slices the Fiscal Pie | 31 juil. 2025 | 01:28:44 | |
Today my guest is Rathin Roy, who's a Distinguished Fellow at the Kautilya School of Public Policy and a Visiting Senior Fellow at ODI Global. His main research interests are political economy, public finance, and development economics, and he also served on the 13th Finance Commission. We talked about India's fiscal resources are distributed across states and between the union and state governments, the divergence between rich and poor states, compensatory welfare and its consequences and much more. Recorded July 8th, 2025. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Follow Rathin on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:38) - India's Fiscal Federalism System (00:22:46) - India's Welfare State (00:34:19) - Unequal Growth (00:45:58) - Consumption Taxes (01:02:30) - Public Finance in India (01:27:06) - Outro | |||
| Chitrakshi Jain and Prashant Reddy T. on the Dysfunction in India's District Courts | 17 juil. 2025 | 01:37:48 | |
Today my guests are legal scholars Chitrakshi Jain and Prashant Reddy T, the authors of the recent book Tareekh pe Justice, Reforms for India's District Courts. We talked about the dysfunction in India's lower courts, opacity in the evaluation of district court judges, the problems with judicial data, and much more. Recorded July 1st, 2025. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Follow Chitrakshi on X Follow Prashant on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. | |||
| M.R. Sharan Examines Decentralization and Local Representation in India | 03 juil. 2025 | 01:22:00 | |
Today my guest is M.R. Sharan, an assistant professor in the department of agricultural and resource economics at the University of Maryland College Park. He is the author of numerous papers and the book Last Among Equals: Power, Caste, & Politics in Bihar's Villages. His main research interests are development economics and political economy. We talked about his research on local government in India, incentives of various political actors and the power structures they inhibit, fiscal federalism, and much more. Recorded May 21st, 2025. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Follow Sharan on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:07) - Local Political Actors (00:16:16) - Portability (00:20:36) - Village Government in India (00:53:42) - Separation of Powers (01:03:51) - Inclusion (01:21:20) - Outro | |||
| Rakesh Mohan Reflects on Dismantling the License Permit Raj | 20 juin 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 | |||
| Ramachandra Guha on the Origins of Indian Environmentalism | 05 juin 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 | |||
| Rajmohan Gandhi on Revenge and Reconciliation in South Asia | 22 mai 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. | |||
| Rajmohan Gandhi Reflects on India's Founding Fathers | 08 mai 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 | |||
| Taking Stock of the Indian Economy with Prachi Mishra | 24 avr. 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. | |||
| Sajith Pai on India's Digital Divides | 10 avr. 2025 | 01:23:09 | |
Today my guest is Sajith Pai, who is a Partner at Blume Ventures, an early stage Indian venture fund. He is also a well known writer, and the author of the annual Indus Valley Report. We spoke about the trends in the latest Indus Valley Report, the stratifications in Indian consumer markets, investor sentiment, policies and infrastructure to foster the AI boom in India, the AI start-up scene and much more. Recorded March 6th, 2025. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India 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 00:04:32 - 2025 Trends 00:24:30 - Last Year vs. This Year 00:32:25 - The Role of Artificial Intelligence 00:45:59 - Artificial Intelligence Startup Scene 01:16:40 - Sajith's Reading Habits 01:22:20 - Outro | |||
| Jasti Chelameswar on Constitutional Interpretation and Judicial Independence | 27 mars 2025 | 01:16:24 | |
Today my guest is Justice Jasti Chelameswar, who is a former justice of the Supreme Court of India. Prior to his elevation, he served as chief justice in High Courts in Gauhati and Kerala and as a justice in the Andhra Pradesh High Court. We spoke about his judgments on electoral qualifications, judicial conduct, transparency in judicial appointments, the constitutional right to privacy, separation of powers, and how dissent shapes constitutional interpretation, and much more. Recorded February 25th, 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. Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:27 - Election Law Cases 00:17:15 - Process of Writing Opinions 00:25:38 - Misconduct of Judicial Officers 00:31:34 - NJAC Opinion 00:44:47 - Fundamental Right to Privacy 01:06:29 - Death Penalty Matters 01:15:36 - Outro | |||
| Akshay Jaitly on India's Energy Sector Challenges, Reforms, and Future Pathways | 13 mars 2025 | 01:18:07 | |
Today my guest is Akshay Jaitly, one of the founders of Trilegal, one of India's leading law firms. He specializes in advising on energy and infrastructure projects. His research interests include power sector reform, the energy transition and public-private contracting. We talked about the top-down nature of electricity regulation and pricing in India, the dysfunctional DISCOMS, the reforms required for an energy transition towards renewables and nuclear energy, and much more. Recorded February 11th, 2025. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Follow Akshay on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro | |||
| Christopher Coyne on War, Conflict, and the Quest for a Stable Peace | 27 févr. 2025 | 01:45:49 | |
Today my guest is Christopher J Coyne, who is a Professor of Economics at George Mason University, the Associate Director of the F.A. Hayek Program at the Mercatus Center. We talked about the economics of conflict and peace, history of the US security state, the US intervention in Afghanistan, domestic consequences of militarism abroad, and much more. Recorded January 15th, 2025. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Follow Christopher on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. | |||
| Katherine Schofield on The Hidden History of Music in Mughal India | 13 févr. 2025 | 01:19:05 | |
Today my guest Katherine Butler Schofield who is a professor of South Asian Music and History at King's College London. She is the author of the recent book Music and Musicians in Late Mughal India: Histories of the Ephemeral, 1748–1858. She also hosted a podcast series called The Histories of the Ephemeral on the same theme. We talked about the history of classical music in India - from Natyasastra to Dhrupad and to khayals and qawallis. about Aurangzeb's relationship with music, the sacking of Delhiand it's influence on hindustani classical music, the powerful tawaifs of that time, and much more. Recorded January 24th, 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. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:02:17) - The Nāṭyaśāstra and Tasting Music (00:09:29) - Raga Style and Persian Influences (00:18:35) - The Influence of Intoxicants (00:19:42) - Aurangzeb and Other Courtly Characters (00:33:37) - Aurangzeb's Demise and Its Effect on Music (00:43:15) - Traveling Musicians and the Spread and Rise of Different Forms (00:49:49) - Development of Tomri (00:55:37) - What Makes Punjab So Different (00:59:17) - The Tawaif (01:02:06) - The Stories of Sophia Plowden and Khanam Jan (01:18:07) - Outro | |||
| Anton Howes on Trade, Innovation, and the Forgotten History of Salt | 30 janv. 2025 | 01:48:33 | |
Today my guest is Anton Howes head of innovation research at The Entrepreneurs Network, and the historian-in-residence at the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. He is the author of Arts and Minds: How the Royal Society of Arts Changed a Nation and the excellent Substack Age of Invention. We talked about salt trade in India, the Dutch culture of innovation, the Royal Society of Arts, endogenous versus O-ring theories of growth, why the Industrial Revolution took place in Britain, and much more. Recorded November 11th, 2024. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Follow Anton on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:29) - History of the Salt Trade and Salt Tax in India (00:11:12) - Harvesting Salt in Bengal (00:17:140 - The Great Hedge of India (00:23:58) - The Rationale for Taxing Salt (00:25:49) - The Western European Salt Trade and Land Control (00:34:22) - The Dutch Golden Age (00:39:44) - Baltic Salt and New Forms of Sleeching (00:45:51) - Maritime Trade (00:48:24) - Why Did the Industrial Revolution Take Place in Britain and Not Elsewhere? (01:03:14) - Solving the Problem of Debasement in Britain (01:08:33) - The Path to the Royal Society of Arts (01:16:39) - A Culture of Tinkerers and Improvers (01:20:49) - The Society of Arts' Aims and Legacy (01:31:15) - Theories of Progress (01:40:20) - The Society of Arts and the Tool of Status (01:47:43) - Outro | |||
| Anant Sudarshan on Market Solutions to Air Pollution, Energy Policy, and Ecological Disruption | 16 janv. 2025 | 01:39:31 | |
Today my guest is Anant Sudarshan, an Associate Professor at the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick and a Senior Fellow at the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC). We talked about air pollution in India, crop burning, subsidizing electricity, depleting ground water, the impact of the collapse of keystone species and much more. Recorded November 25th, 2024. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Follow Anant on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:52) - Air Pollution in India (00:06:00) - Causes of Pollution in Delhi (00:07:32) - Addressing Crop Burning as a Source of Pollution (00:14:11) - Regulatory Frameworks for Pollution in India (00:18:16) - Creating a Market for Pollution (00:39:52) - Vehicular Pollution and Rationing (00:53:56) - How Subsidies Complicate the Pollution Problem (01:02:44) - Pigouvian Subsidies (01:08:19) - Electricity as a Right (01:26:04) - The Near-Extinction of Vultures in India (01:38:41) - Outro | |||
| 2024 in Review | 26 déc. 2024 | 01:19:13 | |
Today the roles are reversed. Producer Dallas Floer interviews Shruti for the annual end of year episode where they look back at key themes and episodes from the past year, address listener questions, discuss the job market series, and share some questions from previous guests. On behalf of Shruti and the entire Ideas of India team, thank you for listening to the podcast this year. We're excited to bring you more episodes in 2025. Recorded November 26th, 2024. 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. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:23) - Listener Questions (00:02:27) - Essential readings on the Indian economy (00:04:19) - The economy of eastern India from 1970 to today (00:06:18) - Achieving a "Developed India" (00:09:20) - Alternate paths for economic students (00:014:56) - Suggested dissertation topics for PhD students (00:18:57) - Revising stances on COVID shutdowns (00:24:42) - Problematic TV news programs in India (00:27:57) - Predicting the economic impact of AI (00:30:11) - The South Korean chaebol model (00:38:24) - Karthik Muralidharan: reimagining state capacity (00:41:02) - Aparna Chandra: institutional checks on judicial bias (00:44:03) - Arjun Ramani and Thomas Easton: critical reforms to maintain growth (00:47:29) - Ruchir Sharma: the state of American capitalism (00:51:00) - The Job Market Series (00:54:01) - Questions from Past Guests (00:56:59) - Shifting stances on schooling and drugs (01:02:11) - Law and economics (01:05:36) - "Home" when living in many cultures (01:09:44) - Next up for The 1991 Project (01:11:31) - Personal goals for 2025 (01:16:26) - Thanks and Good Wishes (01:18:29) - Outro | |||
| Pravin Krishna on the Political Economy of Multilateral and Preferential Trade Agreements, Trade Liberalization, and the Future of Global Trade | 05 déc. 2024 | 01:31:41 | |
Today my guest is Pravin Krishna is the Chung Ju Yung Distinguished Professor of International Economics and Business at Johns Hopkins University, at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and Department of Economics. We talked about history of preferential trade agreements, India's approach to trade liberalization, whether such agreements are trade creating or diverting, and much more. Recorded November 12th, 2024. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow Shruti on X Follow Pravin on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:00:59) - Essential Components of the Postwar Multilateral Trade System (00:04:38) - India's Role in the GATT and the Special Status of Developing Countries (00:06:31) - India in the Global Trade System After 1991 (00:09:10) - The Decline of the WTO and New Trade Dynamics (00:17:45) - Understanding the Small Percentages of Preferential Trade (00:20:19) - Indian Trade Liberalization and Alliances from 2010–2020 (00:26:18) - Viner: Trade Creation and Trade Diversion (00:33:35) - More Optimistic View of Equilibrium (00:38:46) - Foreign Lobbies in Domestic Markets (00:49:3) - Just pick a number (00:55:21) - The Impact of Trade Liberalization (01:04:05) - Labor Elasticity in Relation to Trade Openness (01:11:17) - Predicting the Near Future Impact of U.S. Trade Tariffs (01:19:52) - How the New Administration's Plans Might Impact India (01:25:58) - Future Trade Relations Between India and China (01:30:52) - Outro | |||