Ideas of India

Today my guest is Sajjid Chinoy, managing director and chief India economist at J.P. Morgan. He is also currently serving as a part-time member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India. Sajjid previously served on the Advisory Council to India's 15th Finance Commission and has served on a number of expert committees of the Reserve Bank of India. We talked about India's current balance of payments and capital account challenges, the constraints holding back private investment, why employment and exports have become first-order policy priorities, rupee depreciation, shrinking FDI, and much more. Recorded May 21st, 2026. 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 (00:01:18) - Taking Stock of the Indian Economy (00:11:26) - Factors Dragging on Aggregate Demand (00:15:46) - Changing Policy Priorities for Indian Economic Growth (00:22:13) - Rethinking Fiscal Architecture in a Shock-Prone World (00:33:44) - Let the Rupee Depreciate (00:42:46) - Coping with Shrinking Capital Flows (00:50:00) - Improving India's Pull Factors (00:54:12) - Export-Led Growth and Improved Resilience (01:00:53) - Navigating Choke Points While Avoiding Autarky (01:07:33) - India's Trilemma (01:14:55) - Positive Signs of Resilience in the Indian Economy (01:18:41) - Outro

Today my guest is Dr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, who is the Laurance Rockefeller Professor for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton and former president and chief executive of the Center for Policy Research, New Delhi. He is the author of various books and edited volumes, has served on various government committees, and is a columnist for the Indian Express. We talked about the return of nihilism in political life, the hollowing of professional identities, the politics of vishwas, Adam Smith on concentrated power, what it takes to build lasting institutions, the assumptions behind nonalignment, and much more. Recorded April 3rd, 2026. 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 (00:01:11) - The Challenges Facing Liberalism (00:06:50) - The Erosion of Moral Authority (00:11:32) - Nationalism, Feminism, and the Arc of History (00:16:55) - Globalization and the Crisis of Community (00:22:06) - Sincerity, Context, and Intelligibility in a Digital Age (00:30:37) - Professional Identities as Sources of Moral Meaning (00:40:45) - Formal Inclusion and Continued Inequality (00:45:54) - Concentration of Power and the Distortion of the State (00:51:37) - The Politics of Vishwas (01:01:57) - On Caste and the Limits of Identity Politics (01:05:34) - The Question of Social Trust (01:14:08) - Trust-Building and Barriers to Desegregation (01:24:53) - Institutions of Higher Learning (01:39:31) - The Assumptions of Nonalignment (01:46:12) - Outro

Today my guest is Samanth Subramanian, who is a journalist and writer and the author of the recent books The Web Beneath the Waves and A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of J. B. S. Haldane. We talked about under water sea cables and choke points in critical global infrastructure, the intersection of technology and geopolitics, large language models, JBS Haldane and the relationship between science and politics, and much more. Recorded March 25th, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Samanth on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:02:35) - Vulnerability and Resilience: Grappling with the Fragility of Undersea Connections (00:03:48) - Underwater Sea Cables (00:10:48) - How America's Big Tech Companies Dominate Bandwidth (00:14:37) - Concentration of Infrastructure (00:20:27) - The 2Africa Cable and Countries Without Leverage (00:27:17) - Geopolitical Vulnerabilities (00:34:51) - Indian Resilience (00:39:27) - Choke Points in the Global AI Economy (00:44:05) - The Challenges of Decommissioning Nuclear Plants (00:49:45) - On the Frontiers and Ethics of AI Technology (00:56:37) - Haldane's Legacy and Science in the Public Square (01:06:34) - Optimism and Pessimism About the Future of Science (01:12:59) - Outro

Today my guest is Dr. V Anantha Nageswaran, who is currently serving as the Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India. He is also the co-author of the books Economics of Derivatives and The Rise of Finance: Causes, Consequences and Cures. We talked about import substitution and strategic resilience, futures and options market, gross fixed capital formation, crypto markets, India's growth trajectory, and much more. Recorded March 12th, 2026. 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 (00:02:38) - Import Substitution as a Policy (00:11:19) - Indian States' Spending Problem (00:18:16) - Capital Formation (00:25:47) - Increasing Financialization (00:30:21) - Options and Futures Markets in India (00:34:15) - Securities Transactions Tax (STT) (00:40:27) - Curbing Crypto (00:46:01) - How Should We Approach Policy Regulation? (00:51:04) - Deregulation (00:53:41) - Digital Public Infrastructure (00:56:28) - India's Growth Trajectory

Today 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, When the Chips are Down, and the graphic nonfiction narrative We, the Citizens. We spoke about rare earths and critical minerals, China's dominance, the gap between India's ambitions and opportunities, the potential for recycling, and much and more. Recorded February 2nd, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Learn more about The 1991 Fellowship. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Pranay on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - 1991 Fellowship (00:01:11) - Intro (00:02:59) - Rare Earths versus Critical Minerals (00:10:15) - Why Are Rare Earths and Critical Minerals So Important Now? (00:29:29) - Geopolitical Uncertainty (00:33:14) - China's Process Advantage (00:44:10) - Industrial Policy (00:48:10) - India's Critical Elements Mission (00:53:00) - Auctions (00:56:53) - India's Position in the Value Chain (01:04:36) - Recycling (01:34:04) - Law of One Price (01:41:28) - Pakistan and Rare Earth Reserves (01:46:26) - Outro

Today my guest is Akshay Jaitly, the author of the recent book, Trilegal: The Making of a Modern Indian Law Firm. He is one of the founders of Trilegal and 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 how Trilegal grew in the context of India's market liberalization and sectoral reforms, different partnership structures, delegated legislation, regulatory capture, the alchemy between the founding partners, and much more. Recorded January 6th, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Learn more about The 1991 Fellowship. 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) - 1991 Fellowship (00:01:11) - Intro (00:02:20) - In the Shadow of Liberalization (00:07:28) - Specialization (00:20:55) - Delegated Legislation (00:28:35) - Managing Risk (00:33:30) - Dispute Resolution (00:38:44) - Trilegal's Partnership Structure (00:51:57) - Scaling (00:59:42) - Design or Alchemy? (01:05:08) - Regulatory Capture (01:11:27) - Foreign Law Firms (01:19:08) - Outro

Today my guest is Snigdha Poonam who is a journalist and writer. She is the author of the new book Scamlands and also the author of the 2018 award winning book Dreamers: How Young Indians Are Changing Their World. We talked about the scam industrial complex in different states like Jharkhand, Assam and Tamil Nadu in India, the interaction between the scam economy and the formal economy, the transnational scams in China and Cambodia and how they are connected to India, the aspirations and traumas of the scam work force and much more. Recorded November 17th, 2025. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Learn more about The 1991 Fellowship. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Snigdha on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:13) - The Scam-Industrial Complex (00:03:48) - On Jamtara and the Economics of Joining a Scam (00:09:12) - The Moral Logic of Scamming (00:13:31) - How the State Enables the Scam Economy (00:15:54) - Inside Assam's Paperwork and Insurance Scams (00:23:04) - The Politics of Legibility in Assam (00:32:47) - Women in the Scam Economy (00:38:32) - How Scammers Get Trapped Inside the System (00:46:18) - From Local Scams to Transnational Cybercrime (00:52:18) - Scam Slavery in Southeast Asia (01:02:15) - Reporting on the Shadow Economy (01:10:49) - Starting the Story (01:16:54) - From Aspiration to Desperation (01:21:56) - Closing Reflections (01:27:08) - Outro

Our seventh and final scholar in the series is Ammu Lavanya, a PhD candidate in Economics at George Washington University. Her research is in the areas of International Finance, Monetary Economics, Empirical Banking and Financial History. We spoke about her job market paper titled International Financial Flows, Credit Allocation and Productivity. We talked about financial liberalization in India, the 2004 banking reform that increased the ceiling on raising foreign equity its impact on market value, lending capacity and increasing productivity through credit in India, the difference between private versus state owned banks, and much more. Recorded October 9th, 2025. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Ammu on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:03:06) - Understanding Capital Inflows and Financial Liberalization (00:04:36) - Concerns Around Foreign Capital and Hot Money Flows (00:07:12) - The Banking Reform and Ownership Landscape in India (00:12:10) - Banks Most Affected and Patterns of Foreign Investment (00:17:05) - Impact on Borrowing Capacity and Lending Behavior (00:19:38) - Productive Lending and Screening Mechanisms (00:25:53) - Managerial Practices and Governance Improvements (00:34:20) - Firm-Level Effects and Data Construction (00:39:50) - Aggregate Effects and Decline in Misallocation (00:45:19) - Implications for Policy and the Future of Liberalization (00:48:42) - Differences Between Public and Private Banks (00:53:15) - Outro

Our fifth scholar in the series is Karthik Narayan, who is a doctoral candidate in Economics at Nuffield College and at the Department of Economics, University of Oxford. His research focuses on monetary policy, macroeconomics and finance in developing countries. We spoke about his job market paper titled, Macroeconomic Effects of Scheduled and Unscheduled Monetary Policy Surprises. We talked about how the Reserve Bank of India makes and announces its policies, its impact on interest rates, inflation expectations and output, measuring the impact of policy announcements, the Lucas Critique and much more. Recorded August 28th, 2025. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Karthik on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:03:22) - Measuring Causality Is Hard (00:11:16) - What Counts as a Policy Surprise? (00:13:27) - OIS and MIBOR: Expectation Thermometers (00:21:11) - Short term versus long term effects on asset prices (00:27:18) - Noise and Fiscal-Monetary Coordination (00:32:46) - Inflation Before and After the MPC (00:37:24) - The Lucas Critique (00:40:51) - Practical Implications (00:45:48) - Other Research Interests (00:47:39) - Outro

Our third scholar in the series is Chetana Sabnis, who is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Political Science at Yale University. Her research focuses on how states regulate intimate relationships and construct hierarchies of familial belonging. We spoke about her job market paper titled, The Intimacy Contract in Action: How Indian Courts Determine which Extramarital Relationships Deserve Recognition. We talked about extramarital affairs, polygamous relationships, Uniform Civil Code, social versus legal acceptance, 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 (00:01:23) - How Courts Recognize "Family" (00:03:12) - Why This Paper? Rethinking "Family" (00:05:28) - India's Legal Patchwork: Customs vs. Code (00:11:07) - Judicial Heuristics: Rituals, Cohabitation, Children (00:14:44) - Endogamy vs. Interfaith: Law, Bias, and Recognition (00:22:22) - How the State Views Children (00:25:27) - Welfare Logic & Gendered Maintenance (00:29:29) - UCC and the "Intimacy Contract" (00:35:48) - The Role of the State (00:42:30) - Contract vs. Sacrament (00:49:00) - 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 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 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.