Ideas of India

Latest Episodes:

Kartikeya Batra on Long-Run Effects of Land Redistribution in India Nov 16, 2023

Show notes

Shruti 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 titling versus land redistribution in India, the importance of property rights, relationship between land owning castes and socioeconomic outcomes, and much more.

Recorded September 19th, 2023.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Follow Shruti on X

Follow Kartikeya on X

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

Vatsal Khandelwal on Pessimistic Belief Correction and its Impact on Well-Being Nov 02, 2023

Show notes

In 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 beliefs and their impact on individual's well-being, the methods to correct incorrect beliefs about social norms, the importance of social networks, support groups, students' expectations' impact on performance more.

Recorded September 21st, 2023.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Follow Shruti on X

Follow Vatsal on X

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

Sarath Pillai on the Influence of Nineteenth Century German Thought on Early Twentieth Century Indian Constitutionalists Oct 19, 2023

Show notes

Shruti 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 Constitutionalism, States' Rights, and Federalist Imaginaries in Interwar India," recently published in "Comparative Studies in Society and History." They spoke about how the views of the princely states on federalism and constitutionalism are different from the view of the Indian nationalists; the influence of German thought on India in the early twentieth century; subnationalism and federalism in modern day India and more.

Recorded September 6th, 2023.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Follow Shruti on X

Follow Sarath on X

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

Rithika Kumar on the Impact of Male Migration on Women's Political Engagement Oct 05, 2023

Show notes

Shruti 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, norms holding back women, and much more.

Recorded September 6th, 2023.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Follow Shruti on X

Follow Rithika on X

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

Vanisha Sharma on the Effects of Internet Expansion in Developing Communities Sep 21, 2023

Show notes

Shruti 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 communities. We discussed her job market paper titled "Social (Media) Learning: Experimental Evidence from Indian Farmers ." Shruti and Vanisha talked about how farmers learn through social media, how it impacts their farm expenditure, their battle against pests and weather shocks and more.

Recorded August 31st, 2023.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Follow Shruti on X

Follow Vanisha on X

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

Duncan Webb on Reducing Anti-Transgender Discrimination in India Sep 07, 2023

Show notes

Duncan 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, preference falsification, behavior in group settings, endogamy, caste prejudice and more.

Recorded August 31st, 2023.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Follow Shruti on X

Follow Duncan on X

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

Amit Ahuja and Devesh Kapur on the Complexity of Violence and Fragility of Order in India Aug 31, 2023

Show notes

In 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 Shruti on X

Follow Amit on X

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

Shreyas Narla and Kadambari Shah on Why Women Economic Policy Makers Matter Aug 17, 2023

Show notes

In 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 helpful links.

Follow Shruti on X

Follow Shreyas on X

Follow Kadambari on X

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

Saurabh Kirpal on the Constitutional Case for Marriage Equality in India Aug 03, 2023

Show notes

In 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 a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Follow Shruti on Twitter

Follow Saurabh on Twitter

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

Peter J. Boettke on Austrian Economics and the Knowledge Problem Jul 19, 2023

Show notes

In 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 in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He has written dozens of books, including "The Battle of Ideas: Economics and the Struggle for a Better World," "The Economic Way of Thinking," "Living Economics: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" and, most recently, "F.A. Hayek: Economics, Political Economy and Social Philosophy."

Recorded June 8th, 2023.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Follow Shruti on Twitter

Follow Pete on Twitter

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