Ideas of India

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Amol Agrawal on the Bankers who Built Modern India Aug 29, 2024

Show notes

Today my guest is Amol Agrawal, who is the author of History of Private Banking in South Canara District (1906-69). He teaches economics at Ahmedabad University and blogs at the excellent blog Mostly Economics.

We spoke about the colonial and post-colonial history of banking in India, the unique features of the South Canara district, and its bankers, inclusive banking by state and private banks, bank nationalization, and much more.

Recorded July 26th, 2024.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:01:21) - History of Private Banking in India

(00:12:06) - Lending and Deposits

(00:16:17) - Industrial Development and Banking

(00:21:24) - Bank Runs in India

(00:25:54) - Success of South Canara Banks

(00:28:38) - Systemic Risk in South Canara

(00:36:16) - Banking Castes?

(00:40:29) - What was the RBI so wrong about with South Canara banking?

(00:47:50) - Pigmy Deposit Scheme

(01:05:28) - Why Were India's Banks Nationalized?

(01:23:35) - Outro

Amartya Lahiri and Devashish Mitra on Trade and Manufacturing-Led Economic Growth in India Aug 15, 2024

Show notes

Today my guests are Amartya Lahiri and Devashish Mitra who are joining me to discuss their latest paper for the 1991 project titled India's Development Policy Challenge. Amartya Lahiri is the Royal Bank Research Professor in the Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Devashish Mitra the Gerald B. and Daphna Cramer Professor of Global Affairs at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University. We spoke about structural transformation and increasing total factor productivity, manufacturing versus services led growth, industrial policy, export led growth, how to employ India's youth in more productive sectors, and much more.

Recorded July 29th, 2024.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:01:27) - State of India's Structural Transformation

(00:08:28) - Has India's Growth Peaked?

(00:15:39) - Trade-, Export-, and Manufacturing-Led Growth

(00:27:50) - Manufacturing-Led or Services-Led Growth Model?

(00:47:16) - Scaling Manufacturing

(00:59:38) - Labor Productivity in India

(01:06:41) - Rising Protectionism

(01:19:44) - Monetary Policy and Trade Policy

(01:35:26) - Outro

Anirudh Burman on Rethinking India's Land Regulation Aug 01, 2024

Show notes

Today my guest is Anirudh Burman. He is an associate research director and fellow at Carnegie Endowment India, and prior to that, he worked at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy and the Centre for Policy Research, both in New Delhi. He has his master's in law from Harvard Law School. We spoke about the dysfunctional land markets and the kinds of reforms required in land use policy, land sale and land transfers. We also talked about the various experiments with land pooling and leasing in India, how to think about eminent domain law, land titling, land title insurance and much more.

Recorded July 15th, 2024.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro (00:02:46) - How does India's Land Market work? (00:15:23) - Why do we have such bad regulation? (00:23:519) - Land Transfer and Consolidation (00:40:35) - Transitioning to an efficient land regulation system (00:45:25) - Eminent Domain (01:05:35) - Land Leasing

(01:11:01) - Land Pooling (01:28:37) - Outro

Kadambari Shah and Shreyas Narla on Continuing the Reform Agenda Jul 18, 2024

Show notes

Today my guests are Shreyas Narla and Kadambari Shah, who are my colleagues at the Mercatus Center and research scholars working with me on the 1991 Project.

We spoke about the kinds of policy change we would like to see in the coalition government led by Modi's in his third term. We talked about the research Shreyas, Kadambari and I have been working on in the areas of competition policy, regulating India's digital marketplace, labor law reforms, scaling India's manufacturing, streamlining GST, and much more.

Recorded July 1st, 2024.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:31) - Past Budgets Announcements and Upcoming Budget (00:09:38) - Restarting reforms (00:22:56) - The Tinkering of Government (00:27:08) - Regulation of Big Tech Companies (00:51:35) - India's Labor Regulations (01:10:33) - Solutions to India's Regulatory Environment (01:20:27) - Outro

Sajith Pai Unpacks the 2024 Indus Valley Annual Report and the Changing Indian Consumer Jul 04, 2024

Show notes

Today my guest is Sajith Pai, who is a partner at Blume Ventures and he is a long-time media executive turned VC. At Blume, Sajith supports investments in media, ed tech and e-commerce, while simultaneously helping Blume building a research and knowledge platform.

We spoke about the 2024 Indus Valley Annual Report. written by Sajith and his co-authors, Anurag Pagaria, Nachammai Savithiri both at Blume Ventures; the many countries that make up the country of India; bifurcated between India1, 2, and 3; gross fixed capital formation, fintechs, the consumption led boom that India is experiencing, the space industry, and much more.

Recorded June 25th, 2024.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro (00:09:16) - Private Consumption and Fixed Capital Formation

(00:14:15) - Gross Fixed Capital Formation (00:22:39) - Regime Uncertainty (00:26:51) - The Indian Consumer (00:35:10) - Bottlenecks and Reforms (00:42:18) - Mutual Funds Savings Model (00:47:33) - Path from Seed to IPO (00:55:40) - India's Foreign Investors

(01:00:57) - India's Fintechs

(01:11:09) - Space Tech in India

(01:17:36) - What's on Pai's Bookshelf?

(01:23:39) - Outro

Anne Krueger Reflects on 50 Years of Rent-Seeking, Trade, and Economic Development Jun 20, 2024

Show notes

Today my guest is Anne O Krueger. She is a Senior Fellow at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, and the Herald L. and Caroline Ritch Emeritus Professor of Sciences and Humanities in the Economics Department at Stanford University. She served World Bank's Chief Economist from 1982 to 1986, and the first deputy managing director at the IMF from 2001 to 2006. We talked about her famous 1974 paper "The Political Economy of a Rent Seeking Society" on its 50th anniversary, her experience understanding the license permit raj system in India, the 1991 trade liberalization, the Washington consensus, decline of the WTO, the new protectionism in the US, reforming Argentina and much more.

Recorded May 17th, 2024.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:24) - Rent-Seeking in Turkey and India

(00:10:49) - Professional Influences (00:15:35) - South Korean Miracle (00:18:53) - Korea vs. India (00:26:19) - Import Substitution and Rent (00:29:15) - Turning Around the World Bank (00:38:59) - The Krueger Consensus (00:42:18) - Africa

(00:45:39) - India's 1991 Reforms

(00:50:52) - World Trade Organization

(00:53:53) - United States and Free Trade

(01:02:14) - License Permit Raj in the US

(01:04:36) - International Monetary Fund

(01:06:47) - Hope for Milei and Argentina

(01:11:30) - Looking Back on Success

(01:13:31) - Outro

Karthik Muralidharan Examines the State of the Indian State Jun 06, 2024

Show notes

Today my guest is Karthik Muralidharan. He is the Tata Chancellor's Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of the recent book Accelerating India's Development: A State-Led Roadmap for Effective Governance." We talked about the lacking state capacity in India, about improving the quality of public expenditure, fiscal federalism, methods to improve the hiring process for government, better ways of staffing and using the Indian bureaucracy, randomized control trials and development and much more.

Recorded May 15th, 2024.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro (00:07:46) - Quality of Public Education (00:17:59) - Decentralization vs. Federalism (00:31:58) - Welfare Expenditure (00:41:30) - Personnel for the Indian State (01:09:08) - Better Approach for Skilling (01:17:26) - Empanelment (01:34:32) - The Backdrop of the Field of Economics (01:56:52) - Outro

Arjun Ramani and Thomas Easton Decode India's Changing Economic Landscape May 23, 2024

Show notes

Today my guests are Tom Easton and Arjun Ramani from The Economist. Tom Easton is Mumbai bureau chief. He joined The Economist in 2000 at the New York bureau and was appointed the Asian business editor in 2007. Arjun Ramani is on an extended stint in Mumbai and Delhi bureaus covering the Indian economy. Before this, he was the global business and economics correspondent in the London office. We spoke about various aspects of covered in a recent six-part special report on India's economy written by Arjun and Tom.

Recorded May 2nd, 2024.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:03) - The India Express and its Future (00:01:57) - Reasons for Optimism and Pessimism Over India's Future (00:14:45) - Long-Run Economic Growth (00:18:51) - Is India Prepared to be a Capitalist Country? (00:29:37) - Unemployment vs. Informal Labor Market in India (00:47:17) - India and Education (00:51:21) - State Capacity Problems (01:02:11) - Concrete Ceilings for Indian Businesses (01:08:24) - The Binding Constraint (01:13:30) - Industrial Policy (01:31:53) - Future of Economic Journalism (01:44:50) - Outro

Rohit Lamba Reimagines India's Economic Policy Emphasis May 08, 2024

Show notes

Today my guest is Rohit Lamba, an assistant professor of economics at Pennsylvania State University and a visiting assistant professor of economics at New York University Abu Dhabi. We spoke about his recent book Breaking the Mould: Reimagining India's Economic Future which he has coauthored with Raghuram Rajan.

We spoke about their argument to shift the focus from industrial and trade policy towards a services and education policy, how India can and should decentralize, if India can scale education and health, India's growth rate numbers, and much more.

Recorded April 19th, 2024.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:05:21) - Zooming into Indian States

(00:20:25) - Why not Decentralization?

(00:26:28) - Scaling Education

(00:51:14) - Educating the Global South

(00:53:22) - Picking Winners and Losers

(01:10:22) - India's Growth Rate

(01:18:44) - Outro

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Rasheed Griffith Explores the Complexities of the Caribbean Apr 25, 2024

Show notes

Today 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 team, and much more.

Recorded April 4th, 2024.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:09:37) - Do Former Colonizers Owe Reparations to the Caribbean People?

(00:22:29) - The Counterfactual for Caribbean Colonies

(00:35:48) - India, Caribbean and Scale

(00:40:52) - Is Saint Lucia the Best at Spotting Talent?

(00:49:37) - Caribbean Civil Rights Movement

(00:58:01) - Innovation in Caribbean Music

(01:03:59) - Homophobia

(01:13:10) - Most Underrated Caribbean Island?