Ideas of India

Latest Episodes:

Kartik Srivastava on Referral-Based Hiring, Caste Networks, and Breaking Barriers in India's Labor Markets Sep 11, 2025

Show notes

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 Shruti on X

Follow Kartik on X

Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Narayani Basu on K. M. Panikkar: India's Impossible Man Aug 28, 2025

Show notes

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 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

Yamini Aiyar Schools Us on Education Policy in India Aug 14, 2025

Show notes

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 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

Rathin Roy on How India Slices the Fiscal Pie Jul 31, 2025

Show notes

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 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

Chitrakshi Jain and Prashant Reddy T. on the Dysfunction in India's District Courts Jul 17, 2025

Show notes

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 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.

M.R. Sharan Examines Decentralization and Local Representation in India Jul 03, 2025

Show notes

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 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

Rakesh Mohan Reflects on Dismantling the License Permit Raj Jun 20, 2025

Show notes

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 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

Ramachandra Guha on the Origins of Indian Environmentalism Jun 05, 2025

Show notes

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 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

Rajmohan Gandhi on Revenge and Reconciliation in South Asia May 22, 2025

Show notes

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 Shruti on X

Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Rajmohan Gandhi Reflects on India's Founding Fathers May 08, 2025

Show notes

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 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