Ideas of India
113 episodes - English - Latest episode: 3 days ago -Through conversations with top thinkers in the social sciences and beyond, economist Shruti Rajagopalan explores the ideas that will propel India forward.
Homepage Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Rasheed Griffith Explores the Complexities of the Caribbean
April 25, 2024 11:00 - 1 hour - 73.8 MBToday my guest is Rasheed Griffith, who is the CEO of the Caribbean Progress Studies Institute, the host of the podcast the Rasheed Griffith Show, and one of my favorite writers on Substack. He also directs the Emergent Ventures Africa-Caribbean grants program at the Mercatus Center. We spoke about whether the former colonizers owe reparations to the Caribbean people, economic divergence in post-colonial Caribbean countries, Caribbean music, homophobia, VS Naipaul, West Indian cricket ...
Pranay Kotasthane Unravels the Global Semiconductor Industry
April 11, 2024 11:30 - 1 hour - 74.2 MBToday my guest is Pranay Kotasthane who is the deputy director of the Takshashila Institution and chairs the High Tech Geopolitics Programme. Pranay co-writes Anticipating the Unintended, a newsletter on public policy ideas and frameworks, and co-hosts Puliyabaazi, a popular Hindi-Urdu podcast on politics, policy, and technology. He is the co-author of - Missing in Action: Why Should You Care About Public Policy, and the graphic nonfiction narrative We, the Citizens. He has co-edited In...
Badri Narayanan and M. Krishnan Navigate the Choppy Waters of Fisheries Negotiations
March 28, 2024 12:00 - 1 hour - 48.9 MBToday 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 Fel...
Aparna Chandra Puts the Supreme Court on Trial
March 14, 2024 11:30 - 1 hour - 87.4 MBAparna 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...
Doug Irwin on the History and Political Economy of Trade Policy
February 22, 2024 11:30 - 1 hour - 62.1 MBThis 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, Clashing over Commerce, which is a magisterial history of US trad...
Rahul Matthan on AI, Privacy, and Digital Public Infrastructure
February 08, 2024 12:30 - 1 hour - 77.8 MBToday 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 Privacy 3.0 and The Third Way. 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. Recorded January 22nd, 2024. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links....
Aditya Balasubramanian on Swatantra Party and Opposition Politics in India
January 25, 2024 14:00 - 1 hour - 64.6 MBAditya 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, Toward a Free Economy: Swatantra and Opposition Politics in Democratic India. 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 m...
The Art of Talking Films with Nasreen Munni Kabir
January 11, 2024 12:30 - 1 hour - 71.1 MBToday 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...
2023 in Review
December 28, 2023 12:30 - 1 hour - 61.6 MBToday 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. Recorded December 12th, 2023. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Dallas on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India...
Rajat Kochhar on Agricultural Market Power and Farmer Adaptation to Climate Change
December 14, 2023 12:30 - 40 minutes - 32.6 MBOur 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 ab...
Vani Swarupa Murali on the Lack of Decentralization in India and Its impact on Water Depletion
November 30, 2023 12:30 - 36 minutes - 29.3 MBShruti 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 Na...
Kartikeya Batra on Long-Run Effects of Land Redistribution in India
November 16, 2023 13:00 - 45 minutes - 37 MBShruti 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...
Vatsal Khandelwal on Pessimistic Belief Correction and its Impact on Well-Being
November 02, 2023 11:46 - 37 minutes - 30.5 MBIn this episode, Shruti spoke with Vatsal Khandelwal, who is a junior research fellow at Merton College and an associate member of the Department of Economics 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 bel...
Sarath Pillai on the Influence of Nineteenth Century German Thought on Early Twentieth Century Indian Constitutionalists
October 19, 2023 12:00 - 41 minutes - 33.8 MBShruti spoke with Sarath Pillai, who is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Center for the Advanced Study of India at University of Pennsylvania. He holds a PhD in History from the University of Chicago, a Master of Studies in Law from Yale Law School, a MA in history from the University of Delhi, and a Postgraduate Diploma in archives and records management from the National Archives of India, Delhi. They discussed his job market paper titled “German Lessons: Comparative Constitutionali...
Rithika Kumar on the Impact of Male Migration on Women’s Political Engagement
October 05, 2023 12:00 - 31 minutes - 26 MBShruti spoke with Rithika Kumar, who is a Postdoctoral Visiting Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame. She received her PhD in political science from the University of Pennsylvania in August 2023. Her research lies at the intersection of gender, urbanization and politics in India. Shruti and Rithika discussed her job market paper titled “Left Behind or Left Ahead?” and the feminization of politics, political and social impact of migration...
Vanisha Sharma on the Effects of Internet Expansion in Developing Communities
September 21, 2023 12:00 - 28 minutes - 23.6 MBShruti spoke with Vanisha Sharma who is a Ph.D. candidate at the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University. She earned her BA in economics with a double minor in psychology and sociology at the University of Hong Kong. She is also the co-editor-in-chief for the blog Economics That Really Matters, which encourages early researchers to share development economics research. Vanisha's research involves estimating effects of internet expansion in developing, rural c...
Duncan Webb on Reducing Anti-Transgender Discrimination in India
September 07, 2023 12:00 - 36 minutes - 29.7 MBDuncan Webb is a Ph.D. candidate in economics at the Paris School of Economics. He received his B.A. in PPE at Oxford University and his masters in economics at Paris School of Economics. His research lies at the intersection of development and behavioral economics. We spoke about his job market paper titled, “Silence to Solidarity: Using Group Dynamics to Reduce Anti-Transgender Discrimination in India.” Shruti and Duncan talked about deep-rooted prejudice versus marginal prejudice, prefe...
Amit Ahuja and Devesh Kapur on the Complexity of Violence and Fragility of Order in India
August 31, 2023 11:32 - 1 hour - 67 MBIn 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. Recorded August 24th, 2023. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Fo...
Shreyas Narla and Kadambari Shah on Why Women Economic Policy Makers Matter
August 17, 2023 12:00 - 1 hour - 60 MBIn 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. Recorded July 7th, 2023. Read a full transcript enhanced with he...
Saurabh Kirpal on the Constitutional Case for Marriage Equality in India
August 03, 2023 12:00 - 1 hour - 77.1 MBIn 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.” Recorded June 26th, 2023. Read...
Peter J. Boettke on Austrian Economics and the Knowledge Problem
July 19, 2023 21:00 - 2 hours - 103 MBIn 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 i...
Aditi Mittal on Being a Comedian
July 06, 2023 12:00 - 1 hour - 70.2 MBIn 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 Comed...
Rohini Nilekani on Society, State and Markets
June 22, 2023 12:00 - 1 hour - 56.8 MBIn 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 and the co-founder and director of EkStep, a nonp...
Amit Varma on The Creator Economy
June 08, 2023 12:00 - 1 hour - 74.2 MBIn this episode, Shruti speaks with Amit Varma 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 and is a columnist at the Times of India. He is also the author of the blog India Uncut, which was active from 2004 to 2008. He won the Bastiat Prize for Journalism in 2007 and 2015,...
Rahul Sagar on Finding India’s Hidden 19th-Century History
May 25, 2023 12:00 - 1 hour - 64.5 MBIn 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 reali...
Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Mapping the Journey of Policy Reform with a Policy Reformer
May 11, 2023 12:00 - 1 hour - 64 MBIn 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 Monet...
Sajith Pai on Startups and Venture Capital
April 27, 2023 12:00 - 1 hour - 62.6 MBIn 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, h...
Chakravarthi Rangarajan on Monetary Policy After Liberalization
April 13, 2023 12:00 - 1 hour - 64.5 MBIn 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 fou...
Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu S. Jaitley on Individuals and the Indian State
March 30, 2023 12:00 - 1 hour - 69.3 MBIn 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 enth...
Nitin Pai on Educating Citizens
March 16, 2023 12:00 - 1 hour - 64.5 MBIn 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, an independent think tank and school of public policy based in Bangalore, whose goal is to champ...
Alain Bertaud on Order Without Design
March 02, 2023 13:00 - 1 hour - 76.3 MBIn this episode, Shruti speaks with Alain Bertaud 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 ...
Poornima Dore on Regional Economic Diversity
February 16, 2023 13:00 - 1 hour - 64.2 MBIn this episode, Shruti speaks with Poornima Dore about using regions rather than states as the unit of analysis, the importance of the construction sector, diversification, balanced regional development planning and much more. Dore is the director of analytics, insights and impact at Tata Trusts. She teaches at some of India's premier management and technical institutes and is also an active musician. Her research covers macro-regional growth, smart cities and local economy insights. She co...
Nikhil Menon on Planning Democracy
February 02, 2023 13:00 - 1 hour - 77.8 MBIn this episode, Shruti speaks with Nikhil Menon about the history of Indian socialism and central planning, government-artist relationships, economists who dissented from the central-planning orthodoxy, the legacy of P.C. Mahalanobis and much more. Menon is a historian of modern South Asia, specializing in the political and economic history of 20th-century India. His research explores the histories of democracy and development in independent India. His book, “Planning Democracy: Modern Indi...
Nirupama Menon Rao on South Asian Identity
January 19, 2023 13:00 - 1 hour - 66.8 MBIn this episode, Shruti speaks with Nirupama Menon Rao about the South Asian Symphony, Indian stories in opera, border tensions between India and China, the importance of Tibet, Taiwan and much more. Rao is a retired Indian diplomat, foreign secretary and ambassador. She was India’s first woman spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi, the first woman high commissioner from her country to Sri Lanka and the first Indian woman ambassador to the People’s Republic of China. Sh...
Janhavi Nilekani on Maternal Healthcare and Evidence-Based Decision-Making
January 05, 2023 13:00 - 1 hour - 68 MBIn this episode, Shruti speaks with Janhavi Nilekani about India’s high rate of C-sections compared with vaginal births, problems with maternal healthcare, the present and future of Indian midwifery and much more. Nilekani is the founder and chair of the Aastrika Foundation, which seeks to promote a future in which every woman is treated with respect and dignity during childbirth, and the right treatment is provided at the right time. She is a development economist by training and now works ...
2022 in Review
December 22, 2022 13:00 - 1 hour - 56.5 MBIn a reversal of the podcast’s usual format, producer Dallas Floer interviews Shruti about the guests who appeared and the issues that were discussed on the podcast in 2022. They discuss how to get good data on India, why it’s important to learn more about India, what Shruti has learned from the job market series, and much more. They also answer listener questions and discuss the all-important topic of what Shruti is binge-watching. Recorded December 12th, 2022 Read a full transcript enh...
Shweta Banerjee on Decentralized Currency and the East India Company
December 08, 2022 13:00 - 43 minutes - 34.9 MBThis episode is the seventh installment of a series in which Shruti speaks with doctoral candidates and postdoctoral scholars about their research as they enter the job market and the world of academia. In this episode, Shruti talks with Shweta Banerjee about Indian currency before the arrival of the East India Company, how the company changed India’s monetary system, demonetization, free banking and more. Banerjee is a Vanier Doctoral Scholar at the University of Toronto. Her dissertation ...
Mahima Vasishth on the Role of Media in Judicial Outcomes of Sexual Harassment Cases
November 23, 2022 21:00 - 35 minutes - 28.9 MBThis episode is the sixth installment of a series in which Shruti speaks with doctoral candidates and postdoctoral scholars about their research as they enter the job market and the world of academia. In this episode, Shruti talks with Mahima Vasishth about her job market paper, “Local Media Reports About Sexual Crimes and Judicial Outcomes in India.” They discuss the effects of media coverage on sexual harassment cases, what factors may be driving increased coverage, whether the gender of l...
Khusdeep Malhotra on Sikh Identity in Kashmir
November 10, 2022 13:00 - 44 minutes - 36 MBThis episode is the fifth installment of a series in which Shruti speaks with doctoral candidates and postdoctoral scholars about their research as they enter the job market and the world of academia. In this episode, Shruti talks with Khusdeep Malhotra about her dissertation, “Precarious Citizens, Excepted State: Sikh Rootedness in Kashmir After the Chittisinghpora Massacre.” They discuss commonalities between Sikhs and Muslims in Kashmir, the effects of land ownership on the Sikh community...
Anoop Jain on Sanitation and Infrastructure in India
October 27, 2022 12:00 - 34 minutes - 27.7 MBThis episode is the fourth installment of a series in which Shruti speaks with doctoral candidates and postdoctoral scholars about their research as they enter the job market and the world of academia. In this episode, Shruti talks with Anoop Jain about his paper, “‘Someone Should Be There To Take Care of It’: A Case Study of Users’ Views of Managed Shared Sanitation Facilities in Jharkhand, India.” They discuss whether toilets should be private or shared, who should build and maintain share...
Aliz Tóth on State-Society Bargaining over Land Acquisition in India
October 13, 2022 12:00 - 42 minutes - 34.2 MBThis episode is the third installment of a series in which Shruti speaks with doctoral candidates and postdoctoral scholars about their research as they enter the job market and the world of academia. In this episode, Shruti talks with Aliz Tóth about her job market paper, “My Way and the Highway: Embedded Bureaucrats and Bargaining over Land for Infrastructure.” They discuss the lack of trust between landowners and the state, the role of bureaucrats and politicians in land acquisition for i...
Raahil Madhok on the Development-Biodiversity Tradeoff in India
September 29, 2022 12:00 - 29 minutes - 23.9 MBThis episode is the second installment of a series in which Shruti speaks with doctoral candidates and postdoctoral scholars about their research as they enter the job market and the world of academia. In this episode, Shruti talks with Raahil Madhok about his job market paper, “The Development-Biodiversity Tradeoff in India’s Forests.” They discuss the effects of different types of infrastructure projects, state capacity, the Forest Rights Act, bird-watching and much more. Madhok is a Ph.D....
Raahil Madhok on The Development-Biodiversity Tradeoff in India
September 29, 2022 12:00 - 29 minutes - 23.9 MBThis episode is the second installment of a series in which Shruti speaks with doctoral candidates and postdoctoral scholars about their research as they enter the job market and the world of academia. In this episode, Shruti talks with Raahil Madhok about his job market paper, “The Development-Biodiversity Tradeoff in India’s Forests.” They discuss the effects of different types of infrastructure projects, state capacity, the Forest Rights Act, bird-watching and much more. Madhok is a Ph.D....
Nishant Vats on the Impact of Income Guarantee on Farm Incomes in India
September 15, 2022 12:00 - 34 minutes - 27.7 MBThis episode is the first installment of a series in which Shruti speaks with doctoral candidates and postdoctoral scholars about their research as they enter the job market and the world of academia. In this episode, Shruti talks with Nishant Vats about his job market paper (co-authored with Pulak Ghosh), “Safety Nets, Credit and Productive Activity: Evidence from a Guaranteed Income Program for Small Entrepreneurs.” Vats is a Ph.D. candidate in finance at the Booth School of Business at th...
A Conversation on Talent
September 01, 2022 12:00 - 1 hour - 55.1 MBIn this episode, Shruti speaks with Tyler Cowen and Daniel Gross about their new book, “Talent: How To Identify Energizers, Creatives and Winners Around the World.” They discuss how to identify and attract talent, competition vs. cooperation, the necessity of failure and resilience, effects of immigration on talent and much more. Cowen is the Holbert L. Harris Chair of Economics at George Mason University and serves as chairman and faculty director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason Univ...
Mark Koyama and Jared Rubin on How the World Became Rich
August 18, 2022 12:00 - 1 hour - 75.8 MBIn this episode, Shruti speaks with Mark Koyama and Jared Rubin about their new book, “How the World Became Rich: The Historical Origins of Economic Growth.” They discuss the link between technological innovation and growth, the importance of global market competition, positive and negative effects of colonialism, the methodology of economic history and much more. Koyama is an associate professor of economics at George Mason University. He is interested in how historical institutions functio...
Jennifer Murtazashvili on The Future of Afghanistan
August 04, 2022 12:00 - 1 hour - 69.1 MBIn this episode, Shruti speaks with Jennifer Murtazashvili about the problems with imposing liberal democracy in Afghanistan, building state capacity, education, the role of the U.S. in the Ghani government’s collapse and much more. Murtazashvili is the founding director of the Center for Governance and Markets and an associate professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research focuses on issues of self-governance, security, pol...
Ashwini Deshpande on Gender and Caste Discrimination and Affirmative Action in India
July 21, 2022 12:00 - 1 hour - 75.2 MBIn this episode, Shruti speaks with Ashwini Deshpande about caste discrimination in labor markets, the reservation system and its critiques, education of women, how endogamy perpetuates caste, Bollywood films and much more. Deshpande is a professor of economics and the founding director of the Centre for Economic Data and Analysis at Ashoka University. Her Ph.D. and early publications have been on the international debt crisis of the 1980s. Subsequently, she has been working on the economics...
Vinay Sitapati on Liberalization and Narasimha Rao
July 07, 2022 12:00 - 1 hour - 68.8 MBIn this episode, Shruti speaks with Vinay Sitapati about Narasimha Rao’s socialism, his working relationships with Manmohan Singh and others, how his skills as a translator were useful in his career, and much more. Sitapati is a political scientist, lawyer and journalist. He has a Ph.D. from Princeton University and degrees from Harvard University and the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. His first book, “Half-Lion,” was a best-selling biography of P.V. Narasimha Rao. Sitap...
Saumitra Jha on Commerce and Peace
June 23, 2022 12:00 - 1 hour - 62.7 MBIn this episode, Shruti speaks with Saumitra Jha about medieval ports, competition versus complementarity, marriage endogamy, the effect of military experience on the prevalence of violence and much more. Jha is a professor in the political economy group at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a senior fellow at the Center for Democracy, Development and Rule of Law in the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Affairs. He also convenes the Conflict and Polarization Lab within the...