Ideas of India

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 us on X Follow Shruti on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:03:44) - 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

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 us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Kartik on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

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 us on X 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

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 us on X 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

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 us on X 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

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 us on X 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.

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 us on X 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

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 us on X Follow Shruti on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:13) - 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

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 us on X 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

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. We spoke about his reflections on communal violence between Hindus and Muslims, revenge and reconciliation in South Asia, Sikhs and Buddhists, differences between north and south India, constitutional values, and much more.  Recorded April 17th, 2025. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

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. We spoke about his reflections on his biographies of the founding fathers, Vallabhai Patel, Mohandas Gandhi, C Rajagopalachari, and Gaffar Khan, their competing visions, debates with others like Ambedkar and Nehru, constitutional values, the civil rights movement, his faith, and much more.  Recorded April 18th, 2025. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps 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

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 us on X Follow Shruti on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

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 us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Sajith on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:04:32 - 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

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 us on X Follow Shruti on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:27 - 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

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 us on X 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 00:01:06 - Electricity in India 00:15:31 - DISCOMs 00:41:26 - Open Access 00:44:31 - Expanding Capacity 00:46:52 - Renewable Energy 00:50:04 - Technology Diffusion 00:59:11 - Nuclear Power 01:17:18 - Outro

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 us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Christopher on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

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 us on X Follow Shruti on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:02:17) - 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

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 us on X 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

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 us on X 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

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 us on X Follow Shruti on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:23) - 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