India Speak: The CPR Podcast

This month on CPR Perspectives — our flagship interview series commemorating the Centre for Policy Research’s 50th anniversary — we bring you a conversation with Rahul Verma, a Fellow at CPR, where he leads the Politics Initiative. Verma is a political scientist who earned his PhD from the University of California – Berkeley, with a focus on the role of political parties, ideology and dynastic families in Indian politics. His book, Ideology and Identity: The Changing Party Systems of India, questions the assumption that ideology does not play an important role in the Indian voter’s decision-making. At CPR, Verma’s work with the Politics Initiative focused on building up a core body of political research, collaborating with scholars to put out reports like Dalits in the New Millennium, and studying voter behaviour through efforts like the YouGov-CPR-Mint Millennial Survey, as well as bringing his political science lens to the State Capacity Initiative. In our conversation with Verma, we spoke about his political science background, the thinking behind his research and the motivations to enter the policy world. We also spoke about the Politics Initiative and its various projects, his work with the State Capacity Initiative and Verma’s advice for young scholars entering this world.

This month on CPR Perspectives — our flagship interview series commemorating the Centre for Policy Research’s 50th anniversary — we bring you a conversation with Mekhala Krishnamurthy, a Senior Fellow at CPR where she built the State Capacity Initiative. Krishnamurthy has spent the last 15 years engaging with questions of how the state interacts with markets and the broader economy, and what the actual lived experiences of those on the frontlines of these intersections can tell policymakers – particularly in the fields of health and agriculture. An alumna of Harvard, Cambridge and University College London, she is also Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Ashoka University, and taught at Shiv Nadar University prior to that. At CPR, Krishnamurthy set up the State Capacity Initiative, an interdisciplinary research and practice programme that has carried out pioneering research studies on the Indian administrative state, and worked directly with a number of governments on questions of institutional design and capacity. In the first part of the conversation with Krishnamurthy, we spoke about what it means to be an anthropologist in the development world, how she has managed to bridge academic and policy practitioner positions, and her reading of major shifts in India’s policy discourse over the last few decades. In the second part of the conversation, we spoke about her research and writing on mandis and Indian agriculture, the idea behind the State Capacity Initiative, and her advice for younger scholars entering the policy world.

This month on CPR Perspectives — our flagship interview series commemorating the Centre for Policy Research’s 50th anniversary — we bring you a conversation with Arkaja Singh, a Fellow at CPR, who has worked across a whole range of topics broadly converging around the idea of ‘administrative coherence. Having studied at the National Law School and SOAS, Singh spent a decade in development sector consulting and research before joining CPR. She has conducted research across a wide span of topics – from sanitation and manual scavenging to informal settlements and land titling to the framework of the Indian administrative state. The throughline across these different areas is a focus on understanding why government operates in the way it does, and what it would take to alter and reform it, not just in operations but in its international rationale. In the first part of the conversation with Singh, we spoke about her years as a ‘governance consultant’ and how that differs from her time at CPR, what she means by ‘administrative coherence’ and her research into the municipal state. In the second part of the conversation, which you will receive in a fortnight, we spoke Singh’s research on how we cannot understand about access to water without first tackling the state’s approach to land, whether there is sufficient thinking about rationalities and histories within government and what advice she has for young scholars entering the policy space.

We have a particularly special edition of CPR Perspectives – our flagship interview series commemorating the Centre for Policy Research’s 50th anniversary. This month officially marks 50 years since the Centre was founded, back in 1973, as an institution that would work to produce field-defining research and vital policy insights relevant for both the country’s decision-makers as well as an informed public.  To mark the occasion, this edition of CPR Perspectives features a conversation with Yamini Aiyar, President and Chief Executive of the Centre for Policy Research.  As with previous episodes in the series, we touch upon Aiyar’s path to CPR – including how she entered the Indian policy ecosystem with stints at Udyogini, a grassroots NGO, the Ford Foundation and the World Bank. But the bulk of the conversation takes a broader look at the history of CPR, the vital role it has played in key Indian policy debates – from industrial policy and economic liberalisation to foreign policy and climate change – and the challenges it is currently confronting.  Aiyar joined CPR in 2008, when she founded the Accountability Initiative, a research project that oversaw one of India’s largest expenditure tracking surveys for elementary education and brought a deeper, evidence-based understanding of public service delivery to the policy conversation in India. In 2017, Aiyar took charge as President and Chief Executive of the Centre for Policy Research, overseeing the deepening and expansion of the institution's research efforts and a broadening of its engagement with governments, grassroots organisations and the global policy community. She also continued her own research on public welfare, federalism and state capacity, while serving on a number of government and international policy committees.

This month on CPR Perspectives — our flagship interview series commemorating the Centre for Policy Research’s 50th anniversary — we bring you a conversation with Neelanjan Sircar, a Senior Fellow at CPR, who has brought a combination of data analysis and qualitative research to a wide range of subjects including India's political economy, urbanisation and climate change. Following degrees in Applied Mathematics and Economics, Sircar received a PhD in political science from Columbia University and then carried out research at the University of Pennsylvania's Centre for the Advanced Study of India before making his way to CPR. At CPR, Sircar was instrumental in setting up the Politics Initiative, which provides high-quality research of India's political economy from a non-partisan lens, helping us build nuanced models of why voters make their choices and how political parties operate within the broader system. He is also co-editor of Colossus; The Anatomy of Delhi, a volume that seeks to unpack the complexity of India's national capital region, building on a survey of the city that could serve as a model for other sampling efforts across the country. Sircar has also led CPR's project to evaluate the welfare delivery systems of the Andhra Pradesh government. In the first part of the conversation with Sircar, we spoke about making the move from applied mathematics to the policy world, what convinced him to come work in India and why the approach that undergirds CPR's Politics Initiative is important. In the second part of the conversation, which you will receive in a fortnight, we spoke about building frameworks and tools that other researchers can replicate, why scholars can benefit from working with governments and why it is important to look beyond India when considering complex research questions.

This month on CPR Perspectives — our flagship interview series commemorating the Centre for Policy Research’s 50th anniversary — we bring you a conversation with D Shyam Babu, a Senior Fellow at CPR, who has over the years worked on subjects as varied as nuclear non-proliferation and national security as well as socio-economic mobility among Dalits and the societal impacts of liberalisation.  Shyam Babu was first associated with CPR in 1989, after which he spent time as a journalist and then as a fellow at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies, before returning to the Centre in 2011. After working on questions of national security in his initial years in policy, Shyam Babu shifted focus to look at social change, helping conduct a number of key socio-economic surveys that examined the impacts of liberalisation on the Dalit community.  He is the co-author of Defying the Odds, a critically acclaimed book that profiled the rise of Dalit entrepreneurs, as well as co-editor of a number of other books, including The Dalit Question: Reforms and Social Justice and The India Mosaic: Searching for an Identity… More recently, Shyam Babu has been working with CPR to conduct research workshops for scholars from Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities.  In the first part of the conversation with Shyam Babu, we spoke about what it was like to work across two very different policy disciplines, why he thinks an understanding of society is vital for IR scholars and the ideas that led to his research and book on Dalit entrepreneurs.  In the second part of the conversation, which you will receive in a fortnight, we spoke about the need to challenge conventional wisdom on social justice in India, why he has looked more closely at the question of ‘social cognition’ in recent years and what role think tanks like CPR have to play in making the research world more inclusive.

This month on CPR Perspectives — our flagship interview series commemorating the Centre for Policy Research’s 50th anniversary — we bring you a conversation with Mukta Naik, a Fellow at CPR, whose work focuses on informal housing, internal migration and what these subjects can tell us about India's urban transformation. Naik is an architect and urban planner, who works with the Initiative on Cities, Economy & Society at CPR. Prior to joining CPR, she worked with a social enterprise – Micro Home Solutions – on community-based interventions aimed at improving housing in informal settlements. Naik is a graduate of the School of Planning and Architecture, and has a Master's Degree in urban and regional planning from Texas A&M University. In the first part of the conversation with Naik, we spoke about her pathway into the policy space, the importance of 'boundary-crossing' when tackling subjects like migration and urbanisation and her work on the Small City Dreaming project, looking at the aspirations and lives of young Indians beyond the big cities. In the second part of the conversation, which you will receive in two weeks, we spoke about how Covid changed the conversation on migrants in India, whether the learnings from that time are taking root, what it means to look at cities and urbanisation from a Global South perspective and why she advises young scholars not to over-define their career pathways.

This month on CPR Perspectives — our flagship interview series commemorating the Centre for Policy Research’s 50th anniversary — we bring you a conversation with KP Krishnan, an Honorary Research Professor at CPR. Krishnan spent three and a half decades in the IAS, retiring in 2019 as Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. Over his years in the civil services, he served at positions in the government of Karnataka and the Union Government, as well as a stint at the World Bank, giving him a unique vantage point to observe the changes taking place in Indian economic and development policy following the 1991 liberalization. He has previously held the BoK Visiting Professorship in Regulation in the University of Pennsylvania Law School and served as the IEPF Chair Professor at the National Council of Applied Economic Research, in addition to stints as Visiting Professor of Economics, Public Policy and Regulation at the LBSNAA Mussorie, ISB Hyderabad and Mohali, Ashoka University and IIM Bangalore. In the first part of our conversation, I spoke to Krishnan about choosing a career in the civil services, how policy feedback operated within the IAS especially as the economy opened up and the question of being research-minded vs operational within the Indian bureaucracy. In the second part of the conversation, which you will receive later this month, we spoke about how external research was integrated into government systems, Krishnan's work at CPR looking at how well we understand Indian regulators and what advice he has for young scholars.

This month on CPR Perspectives – our flagship interview series commemorating the Centre for Policy Research’s 50th anniversary – we bring you a conversation with Avani Kapur, a senior fellow at CPR, where she also leads the Accountability Initiative. The Accountability Initiative focuses on conducting cutting-edge research on India’s public service delivery systems and leveraging this information by ensuring it reaches government officials, academics and citizens with the aim of promoting administrative reforms at the frontlines of service delivery. Kapur has been at CPR since 2008, beginning as a Research Associate at the Accountability Initiative and working her way up to leading the research group today. Along the way, she has led process- and fund-tracking surveys on vital social sector schemes as well as anchored an annual budget brief series analysing the performance of the Indian government’s major welfare programmes – including, this year, a major lookback at the past 15 years of welfare spending and outcomes to mark AI’s 15th anniversary. In addition to leading AI, Kapur also set up the PULSE for Development platform in 2020, which brings together more than 90 organisations within the development community dedicated to citizen-centric policies and implementation. Kapur is a Tech4Good Fellow and part of the WICCI Council of Ethic, and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Development Policy and Practice. In the first part of our conversation, I spoke to Kapur about starting at CPR just as the Accountability Initiative was taking shape, the stunning examples of inefficiency she discovered while looking for bottlenecks in public spending in the field and getting positive feedback from the state – including how one government official described AI’s work as being that of ‘physician’ tracking the flow of blood through the body, searching for blockages. In the second part of the conversation, which you will receive later this month, we spoke about why the initiative has moved from talking about accountability to ‘Responsive Governance’, how AI does much more grassroots capacity building work beyond its flagship PAISA public expenditure tracking, and what advice she has for young scholars entering this field. If you prefer audio, this conversation is also available as a podcast here. And if you missed our previous interviews, read our conversations with Partha Mukhopadhyay (Part 1 & 2) and with Navroz Dubash (Part 1 & 2).

This month on CPR Perspectives – our flagship interview series commemorating the Centre for Policy Research’s 50th anniversary – we bring you a conversation with Partha Mukhopadhyay, a senior fellow at CPR, where he also leads the Initiative on Cities, Economy and Society. Mukhopadhyay is one of the foremost experts on urbanisation, although his expertise extends well beyond the subject. He has been at CPR since 2006, after having been on the founding team at the Infrastructure Development Finance Company, and following stints at the Export Import Bank of India and the World Bank in Washington. Over his wide-ranging career, Mukhopadhyay has introduced important concepts like ‘Subaltern Urbanisation’, referring to vibrant smaller settlements that provide a very different picture of urbanisation than the one we get from India’s mega-cities; brought careful scrutiny to India’s Special Economic Zones; studied the all-important question of informal work; and played key roles on a number of important government panels. He was chair of the Working Group on Migration, Government of India and member of the High Level Railway Restructuring Committee, Ministry of Railways and of the Technical Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation. Previously, he has been associated with the Committee on Allocation of Natural Resources and with the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Infrastructure. In the first part of our conversation, Rohan Venkat spoke to Mukhopadhyay about choosing to work on policy in India, how being at CPR has allowed him to work across a wide range of subjects and why it is important to think about government policies as a combination of safety nets and spring boards. In the second part, which you will receive later this month, we spoke about how India could be an exemplar when it comes to urban policy, why governments ought to stay away from ‘magic bullet solutions’ and why younger scholars should always balance quantitative analysis with a more thoughtful approach to processes and outcomes. If you prefer audio, this conversation is also available as a podcast.

To mark CPR’s 50th anniversary, we are delighted to present a brand new interview series called CPR Perspectives. Every month we plan to bring you a flagship conversation, with Rohan Venkat interviewing a faculty member on their research, policy practice and engagement with the most critical questions of our age. Over the past five decades, the Centre for Policy Research has played a unique role in India’s policy landscape, tackling concerns as varied and vital as climate change and federalism, urbanisation and national security and bringing a genuinely multi-disciplinary approach to the field. Today, with India facing a complex geopolitical landscape and even greater development and climate challenges, the Centre’s faculty continue to produce field-defining research while also working directly with policymakers and stakeholders in government and beyond. In the first interview, Rohan speaks to Navroz Dubash, a professor at CPR where he also runs the Initiative on Climate, Energy and Environment. Dubash is one of the world’s most renowned experts on climate change, having worked on the subject since the 1990s – well before it became a household term. Dubash’s wide-ranging career has featured landmark research papers, agenda-setting edited volumes, two authored books and key roles on a number of official and advisory committees in India and at the global level. He was a Coordinating Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations’ panel which publishes landmark reports on the state of climate change research. Dubash’s work led to CPR being the overall anchor institution and technical knowledge partner for the Indian government’s Long Term-Low Emissions and Development Strategy. He has received the TN Khoshoo Memorial Award for his work on Indian and global climate change governance, the Emerging Regions Award by Environmental Research Letters, and the SR Sen Award for Best Book in Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, for his book Tubewell Capitalism. In this conversation, Dubash talks about about working on climate change back in 1990 - well before it was in vogue, whether it is frustrating to still be going over questions of climate change vs development that have been around since then, why the Climate Initiative at CPR turned into the Initiative on Climate, Energy and the Environment, and why it’s important to make academic work accessible for wider audiences. Navroz talks about what it was like to help the Indian government draft its strategy for low-emissions development, why it’s important to not just follow the Western narrative on climate change and what advice Dubash has for younger scholars entering this important field.

In the third episode of Road to COP27, a special series as part of India Speak: The CPR Podcast, Navroz K. Dubash speaks to Rachel Kyte, Dean of The Fletcher School at Tufts University on the geopolitical context for COP27 and its implications. This series will bring leading experts in the lead up to Conference of the Parties (COP) 27, being held from 6-18 November 2022 at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. They discuss the Inflation Reduction Act, the new climate legislation passed by the United States, and what it could mean for climate diplomacy. The episode also explores questions on climate finance, whether there is a landing zone for negotiations on loss and damage and what that looks like, and delves into questions around carbon markets. About the speakers: Rachel Kyte is the 14th dean of The Fletcher School at Tufts University. Kyte is the first woman to lead the United States' oldest graduate-only school of international affairs, which attracts students from all corners of the world and at all stages of their careers. Prior to joining Fletcher, Kyte served as special representative of the UN secretary-general and chief executive officer of Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL). She previously was the World Bank Group vice president and special envoy for climate change, leading the run-up to the Paris Agreement. She was also vice president at the International Finance Corporation responsible for ESG risk and business advisory services. In her UN role and as CEO of SEforAll, a public-private platform created by the UN and World Bank, Kyte led efforts to promote and finance clean, reliable and affordable energy as part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. She served as co-chair of UN Energy. In the 2020 UK New Year Honours, Rachel was appointed as CMG for her services to sustainable energy and combating climate change. Kyte is a member of the UN secretary-general’s high-level advisory group on climate action and an advisor to the UK presidency of the UN climate talks. Kyte is co-chair of the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI), and chair of the FONERWA, the Rwanda Green Fund. She serves on the boards of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), the Climate Policy Institute and CDP. She advises investors, governments, and not-for-profits on climate, energy, and finance for sustainable development. Navroz K Dubash is a Professor at the Centre for Policy Research, a New Delhi based think-tank and an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS. He has been actively engaged in debates on climate change, air quality, energy and water as a researcher, policy advisor and activist for over 25 years. Navroz has been a Coordinating Lead Author for the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and has advised Indian government policy-making on climate change, energy, and air and water policy over the last decade. In the early 1990s, he helped establish the global Climate Action Network as its first international coordinator.

In the second episode of Road to COP27, a special series as part of India Speak: The CPR Podcast, Navroz K. Dubash speaks to Saleemul Huq, Director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) in Bangladesh, on the loss and damage debate that is expected to play a substantial role on the agenda. This series will bring leading experts in the lead up to Conference of the Parties (COP) 27, taking place from 6-18 November 2022 at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. They discuss the growing calls from developing countries for financial support to deal with the impacts of extreme climate events, such as the recent floods in Pakistan, and the possible obstacles that could emerge at the negotiations. The episode also explores the politics of this COP and the symbolism of an African COP. Saleemul Huq is the director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) in Bangladesh, and is an expert on the links between climate change and sustainable development, particularly from the perspective of developing countries. He was the lead author of the chapter on Adaptation and Sustainable Development in the third assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and was the lead author of the chapter on Adaptation and Mitigation in the IPCC’s fourth assessment report. His current focus is on supporting the engagement of the Least Developed Countries in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. He is researching the least developed countries’ vulnerability to climate change and the impact of adaptation measures. Prior to becoming a senior associate, Saleem was a senior fellow with IIED, and was also previously director of the Climate Change research group. Navroz K Dubash is a Professor at the Centre for Policy Research, a New Delhi based think-tank and an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS. He has been actively engaged in debates on climate change, air quality, energy and water as a researcher, policy advisor and activist for over 25 years. Navroz has been a Coordinating Lead Author for the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and has advised Indian government policy-making on climate change, energy, and air and water policy over the last decade. In the early 1990s, he helped establish the global Climate Action Network as its first international coordinator.

CPR is delighted to launch a new series titled, Road to COP27 as part of India Speak: The CPR Podcast. Hosted by Navroz Dubash (Professor, Initiative on Climate, Energy and Environment, CPR), this series will bring leading experts in the lead up to Conference of the Parties (COP) 27, taking place from 6-18 November 2022 at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. In the first episode of the series, Dubash speaks to Harald Winkler (Professor in PRISM, School of Economics at the University of Cape Town) on global stocktake of the Paris Agreement (GST) and its importance for climate mitigation and adaptation. They reflect on the conversations at the recently concluded Technical Dialogue, a core activity of the GST process that facilitates meaningful conversations between experts and country representatives, and how gaps in implementation of the Paris Agreement can be bridged. The episode also explores the key focus areas of this year’s COP including the debate on loss and damage. About the speakers: Harald Winkler is a Professor in PRISM, School of Economics at the University of Cape Town (UCT). His research interests are at the intersection of sustainable development and climate change mitigation. His academic publications can be accessed on Scopus. Specific focus areas for future research include equity and inequality between and within countries; just transitions; the global stock-take; and low emission development strategies. Harald is joint Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Climate Policy, a member of the South African and African Academies of Science, a coordinating lead author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and a member of the SA delegation to the negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and one of two co-facilitators of the technical dialogue of the Global Stocktake under the Paris Agreement. Navroz K Dubash is a Professor at the Centre for Policy Research, a New Delhi based think-tank and an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS. He has been actively engaged in debates on climate change, air quality, energy and water as a researcher, policy advisor and activist for over 25 years. Navroz has been a Coordinating Lead Author for the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and has advised Indian government policy-making on climate change, energy, and air and water policy over the last decade. In the early 1990s, he helped establish the global Climate Action Network as its first international coordinator.

In the sixth episode of CPR's series titled, Spotlight South Asia, we analyse the developments in Bangladesh. Hosted by Senior Fellow, Sushant Singh, this series features leading experts from India's neighborhood to make sense of the political, economic and social developments in these countries and what they mean for India. Our guest for this episode is Syed Akhtar Mahmood, an economist and former lead Private Sector Specialist in the World Bank Group where he worked on private sector development for three decades. His interests include trade, competitiveness, investment climate, mechanics of policy reforms and political economy. In the 1990s, he worked extensively in the transitional economies of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe on state-owned enterprise reforms and privatization. Akhtar Mahmood and Sushant discuss the economic situation in Bangladesh and the dependence of the country’s economy on textile manufacturing. Akhtar Mahmood speaks about the measures that Bangladesh adopted to cope up with the social indicators like public health and education in the pandemic as well as to mitigate the risks of climate change. What are the big challenges to democracy in the country? What has been the impact of modern technology on Bangladesh society? How are Bangladesh’s economic ties with China and do these ties dominate the overall relationship between the two countries? Akhtar Mahmood and Sushant explore these questions. Finally, they discuss how today’s India looks from Bangladesh.

In the fifth episode of CPR's new series titled, Spotlight South Asia, we analyse the developments in Afghanistan. Hosted by Senior Fellow, Sushant Singh, this series features leading experts from India's neighborhood to make sense of the political, economic and social developments in these countries and what they mean for India. Our guest for this episode is Mirwais Balkhi, a visiting scholar at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Services. From 2018 to 2020, he served as the minister of education of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Earlier, Balkhi served as Afghanistan's Deputy Ambassador to India. Balkhi holds a PhD in international relations with a specialisation in West Asia from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India. He has published numerous academic articles both in English and Persian. Mirwais and Sushant discuss the changes in Afghanistan in the past one year, and whether the collapse in the country is economic, social or political. They discuss if the country is facing a humanitarian crisis and the nature of government and politics in Afghanistan. Do Afghans feel let down by the international community? Have the Taliban changed from what they were earlier? What is the big change in Afghan society in the past 10 years? What role can India play in Afghanistan? Mirwais and Sushant explore these questions.

In the fourth episode of CPR's new series titled, Spotlight South Asia, we analyze the developments in Bhutan. Hosted by Senior Fellow, Sushant Singh, this series features leading experts from India's neighborhood to make sense of the political, economic and social developments in these countries and what they mean for India. Our guest for this episode is Tenzing Lamsang, the Editor of The Bhutanese, a private newspaper in Thimphu, Bhutan. He is also the President of the Media Association of Bhutan. Tenzing and Sushant draw a comparison between pre-pandemic and post-pandemic Bhutan. They discuss the economic situation in the country, particularly keeping tourism and hydropower, the two big economic earners for the country, as their focus. Tenzing also shares about the culture in Bhutan, what the customs and traditions are like. How are the social indicators holding up? Has democracy gotten embedded in the country? Has the influx of social media impacted journalism? How does today’s India look from Bhutan? Sushant and Tenzing also explore these questions. Finally, Tenzing comments on whether Bhutan sees China with a sense of fear or opportunity.

In the third episode of CPR's new series titled, Spotlight South Asia, we analyse the developments in Nepal. Hosted by Senior Fellow, Sushant Singh, this series features leading experts from India's neighborhood to make sense of the political, economic and social developments in these countries and what they mean for India. Our guest for this episode is Amish Raj Mulmi, an editor and writer based out of Kathmandu in Nepal. He is the author of the book, “All Roads Lead North: Nepal’s Turn to China”. Amish and Sushant discuss the economic situation in Nepal after two years of pandemic and if it is comparable to other South Asian countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan. They talk about the condition of tourism and remittances in the country. Amish explains the two agreements with the US that have become controversial in Nepal and the reasons behind this controversy. He also comments on the Nepal-China relationship in the light of the recent visit of the Nepalese foreign minister to meet his Chinese counterpart. The discussion revolves around various important questions about Nepal and its relationship with other South Asian countries. What is the political situation in Nepal, how are the social indicators in the country holding up? Has the increase in the Nepal army’s strength and its role in the democratic setup changed the political landscape in some manner? Finally, they discuss how today’s India looks from Nepal.

In the second episode of CPR's new series titled, Spotlight South Asia, we analyse the developments in Pakistan. Hosted by Senior Fellow, Sushant Singh, this series features leading experts from India's neighborhood to make sense of the political, economic and social developments in these countries and what they mean for India. Our guest for this episode is Mosharraf Zaidi, a Pakistani public policy professional and the Founder and CEO of Tabadlab, an Islamabad-based policy think-tank. Moshraff and Sushant discuss Pakistani politics and how it has transpired in 2022, including the role of the army and the judiciary. They discuss the troubling economic situation in the country and how the Pakistani economy can be put on a high growth path. They also talk about the social indicators like health and education in the country after the pandemic. Talking about the internal security situation in Pakistan, Moshraff and Sushant focus on the negotiation with Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Area. Finally, they discuss the possibility of a better India-Pakistan relationship and if China will play a major role in it.

CPR is delighted to launch a new series titled Spotlight South Asia as part of its podcast, India Speak. Hosted by Senior Fellow, Sushant Singh, this series features leading experts from India's neighborhood to make sense of the political, economic and social developments in these countries and what they mean for India. In the first episode of this series, we analyse the developments in Sri Lanka. Our guest is Dilrukshi Handunnetti, an international award winning investigative journalist and a lawyer. She has worked extensively across South Asia and her work has appeared in leading platforms like the Guardian, New York Times, Al Jazeera and Mongabay. She works closely with media rights and human rights organizations with a particular focus on gender. She is the Co-Convener of the South Asian Women in Media, Sri Lanka Chapter and functions as the Executive Director of the Colombo-based Center for Investigative Reporting. Dilrukshi and Sushant talk about the current economic situation in Sri Lanka- how and when things went wrong. They discuss the failure of institutional checks and balances and the reasons behind this. Dilrukshi also shares takeaways from the protests and talks about the widespread participation of the people of Sri Lanka. She also shares a Sri Lankan perspective on the India of today. Finally, they discuss how the decline of Sri Lanka is a tragedy for the whole of South Asia and how the country is keeping its hope alive in such a critical and challenging time.