Ideas of India
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107 episodes
Today my guests are M. Krishnan and Badri Narayanan Gopalakrishnan. M. Krishnan is an economist based in Chennai and Singapore, and specializes in agriculture education systems, fisheries, and aquaculture research. He is currently an advisor at Infinite-Sum Modeling Inc and was a distinguished scientist of the Agricultural Research Service of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. Badri Narayanan Gopalakrishnan is an economist specializing in trade and international policy. He is a Fellow at the (NITI) Aayog, Government of India, where he formerly led the institution’s sections on Trade and Commerce, Strategic Economic Dialogue, International Cooperation, and Vision India@2047. Today we are discussing their recent coauthored paper titled Indian Fisheries in the Context of WTO Regulations, published by the Mercatus Center in collaboration with Center for Governance and Markets at the University of Pittsburgh. We spoke about the big issues concerning fisheres, in particular, India’s interests in at the 13th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) recently held in Abu Dhabi. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. TIMESTAMPS (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:50) - Fisheries in India (00:13:46) - Overfishing and Illegal Fishing in India (00:19:59) - Overfishing Negotiations (00:22:01) - Subsidies (00:26:27) - At the Negotiating Table (00:28:24) - IUUs (00:33:01) - Seasonal Fishing Ban (00:37:33) - Leading the Global South (00:45:17) - Measurement (00:48:47) - Domestic Politics (00:53:35) - The Future (00:59:38) - Outro CONNECT WITH IDEAS OF INDIA Follow us on X https://twitter.com/ideasofindia Follow Shruti on X Follow Badri https://twitter.com/badrinarayanang on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
Aparna Chandra is a constitutional scholar and associate professor of law at the National Law school in Bangalore. She is the coauthor, along with Sital Kalantry and William Hubbard of the recent book Court on Trial: A Data-Driven Account of the Supreme Court of India. We spoke about the problem of pendency across all courts in the Indian judiciary, whether the Supreme Court is truly a people’s court, the problem of special leave petitions, potential ways to reform the judiciary, and much more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X https://twitter.com/ideasofindia Follow Shruti on X Follow Aparna on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
This is our 100th episode and I want to thank our listeners, the guests who have been exceptionally generous with their time and insights, the fantastic team at Mercatus that helps me produce and disseminate the podcast, and to all our donors and supporters. Today my guest is Douglas Irwin, who is the John French Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College. He is the author of dozens of books and papers, most recently, magisterial We spoke about India’s liberalization moment in 1991, the five phases of globalization, British repeal of Corn laws, premature deindustrialization, the relevance of the WTO, absolute versus comparative advantage, the future Argentina, and much more. Read a full transcript https://www.mercatus.org/ideasofindia/doug-irwin-history-and-political-economy-trade-policy enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X https://twitter.com/ideasofindia Follow Shruti on X Follow Doug https://twitter.com/D_A_Irwin on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
Today my guest is Rahul Matthan, a technology lawyer and partner at Trilegal. He assisted the Indian government in developing India’s data privacy law and he is the author of the recent books and . We spoke about India’s digital public infrastructure revolution, India’s unified payments system, AI, blockchain, the design issues around India’s NCPI, Aadhaar, privacy, and much more. Read a full transcript https://www.mercatus.org/ideasofindia/rahul-matthan-ai-privacy-and-digital-public-infrastructureenhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X https://twitter.com/ideasofindia Follow Shruti on X Follow Rahul https://twitter.com/matthan on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
Today my guest Aditya Balasubramanian is a Senior Lecturer in History at Australian National University. His research focuses on various aspects of the history of modern South Asia. And he is the author of the new book, . We spoke about the history of a conservative and ideological opposition politics of India, influence of BR Shenoy and more generally the Austrian economists on Swatratra party, about C Rajagopalachari, other members, and much more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X https://twitter.com/ideasofindia Follow Shruti on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
Today my guest is Nasreen Munni Kabir, a documentary filmmaker, TV producer and director, author, biographer, translator/subtitler, and an absolute authority on all things Hindi cinema. We spoke about her biographical conversation series of books with artists like Javed Akhtar, Gulzar, Lata Mangeshkar, Waheeda Rahman, Zakir Hussain, AR Rahman. We also spoke about her documentary films on Guru Dutt, and television series Movie Mahal chronicling the history of Hindi cinema, how she chooses her subjects, the difficulty of subtitling Hindi films, her favorite films, songs, artists, and much more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X https://twitter.com/ideasofindia Follow Shruti on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
Today the roles are reversed. In the 2023 end of the year review episode, producer Dallas Floer asks Shruti questions from our listeners about Shruti's ideas of India, how Shruti prepares for the podcast, various guests, the most listened to and the most underrated episode picks of the year, and much more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X https://twitter.com/ideasofindia Follow Shruti on X Follow Dallas https://twitter.com/floerit on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
Our last scholar in the series this year is Rajat Kocchar, a post-doctoral scholar at University of Chicago’s Energy and Environment Lab. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Southern California, and his research lies in the field of environmental economics, in particular, on the understanding the factors that incentivize adaptation to climate shocks. We discussed his paper, “Does Market Power in Local Agricultural Markets Hinder Farmer Climate Change Adaptation?” We talked about the impact of distortionary policies and regulations on farmer’s ability to cope with weather shocks in India, the agricultural produce market system, the choice of crop mix, and the effectiveness of water audits in the UK and much more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X https://twitter.com/ideasofindia Follow Shruti on X Follow Rajat https://twitter.com/rajatkochhar on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
Shruti spoke with Vani Swarupa Murali a PhD. Candidate and an instructor at the South Asian Studies Department in the National University of Singapore (NUS). She has a Masters in Asian Studies from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Singapore. Her research lies at the intersection of political science and agricultural policy and environmental governance. We spoke about “When Sowing is not Reaping: Decentralisation, Groundwater Extraction and Agrarian Livelihoods in Tamil Nadu.” We talked about the overly centralized administrative, political, and fiscal Indian state, its impact on farmers’ livelihood, groundwater depletion and other environmental consequences, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X https://twitter.com/ideasofindia Follow Shruti on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
Shruti spoke with Kartikeya Batra, who is a Ph.D. candidate in economics at the University of Maryland and has a master’s in international affairs from The Fletcher School. His research lies at the intersection of political economy, development economics, and economic history. They discussed his job market paper titled “Long-Run Effects of Land Redistribution: Evidence from India,” and talked about the erstwhile Zamindari or Taluqdari system and its impact on modern day Uttar Pradesh, land titling versus land redistribution in India, the importance of property rights, relationship between land owning castes and socioeconomic outcomes, and much more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X https://twitter.com/ideasofindia Follow Shruti on X Follow Kartikeya on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
In this episode, Shruti spoke with Vatsal Khandelwal, who is a junior research fellow at Merton College https://www.merton.ox.ac.uk/ and an associate member of the Department of Economics https://www.economics.ox.ac.uk/ at University of Oxford. His main research interest are development and behavioral economics, with a focus on social and economic networks. They discussed his job market paper titled “Silent Networks: The Role of Inaccurate Beliefs in Reducing Useful Social Interactions,” (coauthored with Ronak Jain). They spoke about pessimistic beliefs and their impact on individual’s well-being, the methods to correct incorrect beliefs about social norms, the importance of social networks, support groups, students’ expectations’ impact on performance more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X https://twitter.com/ideasofindia Follow Shruti on X Follow Vatsal https://twitter.com/vatsalecon on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
In this episode, Shruti chats with Sarath Pillai about German lessons from India’s nationalism and constitutionalism and how those ideas have influenced modern day India. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X https://twitter.com/ideasofindia Follow Shruti on X Follow Sarath https://twitter.com/i_sarathpillai on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
In this episode, Shruti speaks with Rithika Kumar about the feminization of politics, impacts of migration, and norms holding back women. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X https://twitter.com/ideasofindia Follow Shruti on X Follow Rithika https://twitter.com/kumar_rithika on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
On this episode, Shruti speaks with Vanisha Sharma about her research on social media and how it impacts farmers, from their farm expenditures to their battle against pests. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X https://twitter.com/ideasofindia Follow Shruti on X Follow Vanisha on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
On this episode, Shruti speaks with Duncan Webb about his research on reducing anti-transgender discrimination and other prejudice. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X https://twitter.com/ideasofindia Follow Shruti on X Follow Duncan https://twitter.com/dunc_webb on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
In this episode, Shruti speaks with Amit Ahuja, Associate Professor of Political Science at UC Santa Barbara, and Devesh Kapur, Starr Foundation Professor of South Asian Studies at SAIS at Johns Hopkins University, about their latest volume, Internal Security in India: Violence, Order, and the State. Learn more about their latest volume and their other work here https://academic.oup.com/book/45557. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Amit on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
In this episode, Shruti speaks with Shreyas Narla and Kadambari Shah about women missing from the 1991 reforms high table decision making, trends in female labor force participation, how women in economics are finding their seats in various economic institutions across India, and more. To learn more about Shreyas and Kadambari’s research, oral history interviews, and their work on the 1991 Project, visit the1991Project.com. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X https://twitter.com/ideasofindia Follow Shruti on X Follow Shreyas https://twitter.com/shreyas_nl on X Follow Kadambari on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
In this episode, Shruti speaks with Saurabh Kirpal about the constitutional roots of marriage equality, fundamental rights, the role of the state, problems and challenges of the Indian courts and much more. Kirpal is a senior advocate at the Delhi High Court, the author of “Fifteen Judgments: Cases That Shaped India’s Financial Landscape” and the editor of the anthology “Sex and the Supreme Court: How the Law Is Upholding the Dignity of the Indian Citizen.” Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ideasofindia Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Saurabh https://twitter.com/KirpalSaurabh on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
In this episode, Shruti speaks with Peter J. Boettke about the writings of F.A. Hayek, why artificial intelligence will not solve the knowledge problem, what many economists throughout history misunderstood about the market process, mainline vs. mainstream economics and much more. Boettke is a Distinguished University Professor of Economics and Philosophy at George Mason University, the BB&T Professor for the Study of Capitalism and the director of the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He has written dozens of books, including “The Battle of Ideas: Economics and the Struggle for a Better World,” “The Economic Way of Thinking,” “Living Economics: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” and, most recently, “F.A. Hayek: Economics, Political Economy and Social Philosophy.” Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ideasofindia Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Pete https://twitter.com/PeterBoettke on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
In this episode, Shruti speaks with Aditi Mittal about how to build a comedy career, why she curses and makes jokes about sex, the logistical difficulties of being a woman in comedy, male vs. female spaces and much more. Mittal is a comedian, writer and actor. She has two Netflix specials, “Things They Wouldn’t Let Me Say” and “Girl Meets Mic,” which is part of the Comedians of the World series. Her third show, “Mother of Invention,” is on Amazon Prime U.K. and AUS and on NextUp Comedy. She’s also the host and executive producer of the podcast Women in Labour. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ideasofindia Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Aditi https://twitter.com/awryaditi on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
In this episode, Shruti speaks with Rohini Nilekani about civil society’s role in the state, public infrastructure, building state capacity, democratizing access to credit and much more. Nilekani is a journalist, children’s book author, activist and philanthropist. She is the founder of Arghyam, a foundation for sustainable water and sanitation, and the co-founder of Pratham Books. She is also the chairperson of Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies https://rohininilekaniphilanthropies.org/ and the co-founder and director of EkStep https://ekstep.org/, a nonprofit education platform. Her latest book is “Samaaj, Sarkaar, Bazaar: A Citizen-First Approach.” Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ideasofindia Follow Shruti on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
In this episode, Shruti speaks with Amit Varma https://www.amitvarma.com/ about being alert to changing technologies, building online communities, creating for love vs. validation, how to use ChatGPT productively and much more. Varma is a writer, journalist and podcaster based in Mumbai. He hosts the weekly podcast The Seen and the Unseen https://seenunseen.in/ and is a columnist at the Times of India. He is also the author of the blog India Uncut http://www.indiauncut.com/, which was active from 2004 to 2008. He won the Bastiat Prize for Journalism in 2007 and 2015, the first person to win it twice. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ideasofindia Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Amit https://twitter.com/amitvarma on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
In this episode, Shruti speaks with Rahul Sagar about East India Company rule vs. crown rule, public finance constitutionalism, effects of technology on India’s intellectual history, historic preservation and much more. Sagar is the Global Network Associate Professor of Political Science at NYU Abu Dhabi. His primary research interests are in political theory, political ethics and public policy, and he has written on a range of topics including executive power, moderation and political realism. His books include “The Progressive Maharaja: Sir Madhava Rao’s Hints on the Art and Science of Government,” “To Raise a Fallen People: The Nineteenth-Century Origins of Indian Views on International Politics” and “Secrets and Leaks: The Dilemma of State Secrecy.” Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ideasofindia Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Rahul https://twitter.com/rahulsagar on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
In this episode, Shruti speaks with Montek Singh Ahluwalia about how policy reforms happen, civil servants vs. technocratic experts, the importance of expert committees, good and bad lobbying, economic growth and much more. Ahluwalia is an Indian economist and civil servant who was the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission of India, a position which carried the rank of cabinet minister. He was previously the first director of the Independent Evaluation Office at the International Monetary Fund. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ideasofindia Follow Shruti on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
In this episode, Shruti speaks with Sajith Pai about the various sectors of the Indian market, unique payment systems, public versus private investment, the role of artificial intelligence and much more. Pai is a long-time media executive turned venture capitalist. After working in media and entertainment, much of it in The Times of India Group, across strategy and corporate development roles, he moved to Blume Ventures, one of India’s leading early-stage venture firms, in 2018. At Blume, he actively focuses on and support its investments in the domestech space, including consumertech, smb saas, b2b marketplaces and more. He also writes on tech, business, culture and their intersections https://sajithpai.com/. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ideasofindia Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Sajith https://twitter.com/sajithpai on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
In this episode, Shruti speaks with Chakravarthi Rangarajan about currency crises, how the post-liberalization reforms built on earlier reforms, fiscal dominance, capital mobility and much more. Rangarajan is an Indian economist, a former member of parliament and 19th governor of the Reserve Bank of India. He formerly chaired the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council. He is also the chair of the Madras School of Economics; a former president of the Indian Statistical Institute; the founding chairman of the C.R. Rao Advanced Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science; former chancellor of the University of Hyderabad; and a professor at Ahmedabad University. His book “Forks in the Road: My Days at RBI and Beyond” describes the path-breaking reforms that he implemented during his tenure as governor of the Reserve Bank of India. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
In this episode, Shruti speaks with Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu S. Jaitley about the intersections of markets, society and the state. They discuss the importance of individual decision-making, self-governance versus good governance, why economic growth is a moral imperative, the persuasive power of Indian cinema and much more. Kotasthane is the deputy director of the Takshashila Institution and chairs the High Tech Geopolitics Programme. Jaitley is a public policy and political economy enthusiast. They co-write “Anticipating the Unintended https://publicpolicy.substack.com/,” a newsletter on public policy ideas and frameworks. Their book, “Missing in Action: Why You Should Care About Public Policy,” examines Indian public policy through the lens of the state. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ideasofindia Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Pranay https://twitter.com/pranaykotas on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
In this episode, Shruti speaks with Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu S. Jaitley about the intersections of markets, society and the state. They discuss the importance of individual decision-making, self-governance versus good governance, why economic growth is a moral imperative, the persuasive power of Indian cinema and much more. Kotasthane is the deputy director of the Takshashila Institution and chairs the High Tech Geopolitics Programme. Jaitley is a public policy and political economy enthusiast. They co-write “Anticipating the Unintended https://publicpolicy.substack.com/,” a newsletter on public policy ideas and frameworks. Their book, “Missing in Action: Why You Should Care About Public Policy,” examines Indian public policy through the lens of the state. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ideasofindia Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Pranay https://twitter.com/pranaykotas on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
In this episode, Shruti speaks with Nitin Pai about storytelling through the lens of his book, “The Nitopadesha.” They discuss the lessons of Indian folktales for citizens and bureaucrats, the importance of civic education, when democracy does and doesn’t work, the effects of economic growth on individual prosperity and much more. Pai is the co-founder and director of the Takshashila Institution https://takshashila.org.in/, an independent think tank and school of public policy based in Bangalore, whose goal is to champion India’s national interest and constitutional values. Pai previously worked in technology policy for the government of Singapore and played a role in the deregulation of the telecommunications industry and deployment of broadband infrastructure. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ideasofindia Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Nitin https://twitter.com/acorn on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
In this episode, Shruti speaks with Alain Bertaud https://alainbertaud.com/ about how Indian cities have evolved, utilities pricing, land use restrictions such as floor area ratio and floor space index, slums, charter cities, urbanization in Africa and much more. Bertaud is an urbanist, distinguished visiting scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and senior research scholar at New York University’s Marron Institute of Urban Management. From 1980 to 1999, he was the principal urban planner at the World Bank. His book about urban planning is titled “Order Without Design: How Markets Shape Cities.” Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ideasofindia Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Alain https://www.twitter.com/alainbertaud2 on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
