Ideas of India – Details, episodes & analysis

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Ideas of India

Mercatus Center at George Mason University

Science

Society & Culture

Frequency: 1 episode/13d. Total Eps: 167

Through conversations with top thinkers in the social sciences and beyond, economist Shruti Rajagopalan explores the ideas that will propel India forward.

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Karthik Narayan on Measuring the Effects of Unscheduled vs. Scheduled Monetary Policy Announcements

Episode 147

Thursday, November 6, 2025 • Duration 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.

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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

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Asad Tariq on Electoral Redistricting and Public Goods Provision in India

Episode 146

Thursday, October 23, 2025 • Duration 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.

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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

Rakesh Mohan Reflects on Dismantling the License Permit Raj

Episode 137

Friday, June 20, 2025 • Duration 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.

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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

Rukmini Shrinivasan on What Data Can and Cannot Tell Us

Episode 46

Thursday, February 17, 2022 • Duration 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.

Follow Shruti on Twitter

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Check out Conversations with Tyler

Subscribe to Conversations with Tyler on your favorite podcast app.

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Shrayana Bhattacharya on Women's Love, Longing and Labor Post-Liberalization

Episode 45

Thursday, February 3, 2022 • Duration 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.

Follow Shruti on Twitter

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Check out Macro Musings: https://www.mercatus.org/bridge/tags/macro-musings

Follow Macro Musings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Macro_Musings

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Arvind Elangovan on Tensions Within the Indian Constitution

Episode 44

Thursday, January 20, 2022 • Duration 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.

Follow Shruti on Twitter

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.

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Radhika Jain on Healthcare in the Public and Private Sectors

Episode 43

Thursday, December 30, 2021 • Duration 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.

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Apurav Bhatiya on Synchronized Elections and Voter Behavior

Episode 42

Thursday, December 23, 2021 • Duration 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.

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Archana Dang on Savings, Self-Control and Obesity Patterns

Episode 41

Thursday, December 16, 2021 • Duration 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

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Kim Fe Cramer on How Access to Banking Can Improve Health Outcomes

Episode 40

Thursday, December 9, 2021 • Duration 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.

Ideas of India – Details, episodes & analysis

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Ideas of India – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

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Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Other99+

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