Interpreting India

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Every two weeks, Interpreting India brings you diverse voices from India and around the world to explore the critical questions shaping the nation's future. We delve into how technology, the economy, and foreign policy intertwine to influence India's relationship with the global stage.

As a Carnegie India production, hosted by Carnegie scholars, Interpreting India, a Carnegie India production, provides insightful perspectives and cutting-edge by tackling the defining questions that chart India's course through the next decade.

Stay tuned for thought-provoking discussions, expert insights, and a deeper understanding of India's place in the world.

Don't forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review to join the conversation and be part of Interpreting India's journey.

Analyzing India's Fiscal Trends with Pinaki Chakraborty Apr 16, 2021

Show notes

Pinaki Chakraborty, Director NIPFP, joins Carnegie India's Suyash Rai to analyze India’s fiscal responses to the pandemic. Together, they assess how India’s fiscal policy to tackle the pandemic has fared so far. What fiscal measures may be taken to boost economic output? What are some of the prominent obstacles likely to hinder these efforts?

EPISODE CONTRIBUTORS

Pinaki Chakraborty is the Director, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy New Delhi. Prior to this, he was the Chief-Social Policy-UNICEF, and the Chief of Field Office-UNICEF Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Since 2008, he has been Professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi.

Suyash Rai is a deputy director and fellow at Carnegie India. His research focuses on the political economy of economic reforms, and the performance of public institutions in India.

Additional Reading:

1. GST in India: Simple Tax in a Complex Federal System by Pinaki Chakraborty

2. State Finance Commissions: How successful have they been in Empowering Local Governments? by Pinaki Chakraborty

3. Many good things in Budget 2021. But wait for Modi govt to show its will, capability by Suyash Rai

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Carnegie India Socials:

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Stay tuned for thought-provoking discussions, expert insights, and a deeper understanding of India's place in the world.

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Jonathan Dharmapalan Answers: How Might Central Bank Digital Currencies Change the Way We Transact? Mar 25, 2021

Show notes

What would a cashless India and world look like? Jonathan Dharmapalan joins Carnegie India's Rajesh Bansal to shed light on Central Bank Digital Currencies, which are meant to act as a replacement for cash. Together, they unpack what digital currencies are, and how they could affect the way we transact.

EPISODE CONTRIBUTORS

As founder and CEO of eCurrency, Jonathan Dharmapalan provides technology solutions to central banks to issue digital currencies. He was most recently Head of Ernst & Young’s Global Telecommunications Practice and Chair of its Mobile Money Office. Prior to his appointment to the global leadership role, Jonathan was Partner in Charge of EY’s Telecoms Center in Beijing, China.

Rajesh Bansal leads Carnegie India's Tech & Society program to find ways in which digital financial technologies can be made more inclusive. His research focuses on financial technologies, particularly electronic payment systems, electronic cash transfers, and digital financial services to enable inclusive development. He leads the center’s technology and society program.

Additional Reading:

1. Govt can ban Bitcoin but for ‘digital rupee’ to succeed, India has to do a lot by Rajesh Bansal and Prateek Jha

2. Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures by Bank of International Settlements

🎙️ Check out our podcast, Interpreting India available now on

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Carnegie India Socials:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnegieindia/ (@CarnegieIndia)

Stay tuned for thought-provoking discussions, expert insights, and a deeper understanding of India's place in the world.

Don't forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review to join the conversation and be part of Interpreting India's journey.

Season 2 Trailer: Questions for the Next Decade Mar 22, 2021

Show notes

Introducing the hosts of Season 2, in the order that they appear on the trailer: Shruti Sharma, Suyash Rai , Anirudh Burman, Shibani Mehta , Rajesh Bansal, and Deep Pal.

EPISODE CONTRIBUTORS

Shruti Sharma is a senior research analyst with the Technology and International Affairs Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She works primarily on the safety, security, and ethical implications of emerging biotechnologies.

Suyash Rai is a deputy director and fellow at Carnegie India. His research focuses on the political economy of economic reforms, and the performance of public institutions in India.

Anirudh Burman is an associate research director and fellow at Carnegie India. He works on key issues relating to public institutions, public administration, the administrative and regulatory state, and state capacity.

Shibani Mehta is a research analyst with the Security Studies Program at Carnegie India. Her research focuses on India’s security and foreign policies.

Rajesh Bansal was a senior adviser at Carnegie India. His research focuses on financial technologies, particularly electronic payment systems, electronic cash transfers, and digital financial services to enable inclusive development. He leads the center’s technology and society program.

Deep Pal is a visiting scholar in the Asia program at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is also affiliated with the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR) as a non-resident fellow.

Stay tuned for thought-provoking discussions, expert insights, and a deeper understanding of India's place in the world.

Don't forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review to join the conversation and be part of Interpreting India's journey.

Analyzing India's Agricultural Markets and Farm Laws with Mekhala Krishnamurthy Feb 11, 2021

Show notes

Mekhala Krishnamurthy joins Srinath Raghavan to analyze India’s agricultural sector, its markets, and the impact of the new farms laws. Can these laws effectively tackle the main issues prevalent in India’s agrarian economy? Why have these laws stoked so much protest across certain farmer groups? And finally, how shall the agricultural landscape change once these laws are properly implemented?

EPISODE CONTRIBUTORS

Mekhala Krishnamurthy is a Senior Fellow at CPR and Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Ashoka University. Over the last fifteen years, Krishnamurthy’s research, publications, policy and professional engagements have involved work within and across a range of field sites and subjects, including women’s courts and dispute resolution, community health workers and public health systems, agriculture and agricultural markets, and land, water and livelihood security.

Srinath Raghavan is a nonresident senior fellow at Carnegie India. He is also a professor of International Relations and History at Ashoka University. His primary research focus is on the contemporary and historical aspects of India’s foreign and security policies. He has written a number of books spanning international relations, strategic studies and modern South Asian history.

Additional Reading:

1. Understanding and misunderstanding e-NAM by Mekhala Krishnamurthy and Shoumitro Chatterjee

2. Farm laws: First-Principles and the Political Economy of Agricultural Market Regulation by Mekhala Krishnamurthy and Shoumitro Chatterjee

3. Why are Indian Farmers Protesting? by The Economist

🎙️ Check out our podcast, Interpreting India available now on

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Carnegie India Socials:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnegieindia/ (@CarnegieIndia)

Stay tuned for thought-provoking discussions, expert insights, and a deeper understanding of India's place in the world.

Don't forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review to join the conversation and be part of Interpreting India's journey.

The Biden Administration and U.S.- India Relations with Tanvi Madan Jan 25, 2021

Show notes

Tanvi Madan joins Srinath Raghavan to discuss the Biden administration, its composition, and how this might have an effect on U.S.-India relations.

EPISODE CONTRIBUTORS

Tanvi Madan is a senior fellow in the Project on International Order and Strategy in the Foreign Policy program, and director of The India Project at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. Madan’s work explores India’s role in the world and its foreign policy, focusing in particular on India's relations with China and the United States.

Additional Reading:

1. View: The Modi government will find a Biden presidency to be less volatile by Tanvi Madan

2. For Delhi, US election result is consequential in terms of how the next administration approaches China by Tanvi Madan

3. Transcript: Dialogues on American Foreign Policy and World Affairs: A Conversation with Former Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken by Walter Russell Mead

🎙️ Check out our podcast, Interpreting India available now on

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Carnegie India Socials:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnegieindia/ (@CarnegieIndia)

Stay tuned for thought-provoking discussions, expert insights, and a deeper understanding of India's place in the world.

Don't forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review to join the conversation and be part of Interpreting India's journey.

Unpacking the Naga Peace Negotiations with Sanjib Baruah Dec 07, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, Sanjib Baruah joins Srinath Raghavan to unpack the Naga peace negotiations and the recent setbacks. They explore the factors affecting the positions of the various stakeholders. Further, they ask—what shall happen to the peace process going forward, if the antagonism between the government and the NSCN (IM) persists?

EPISODE CONTRIBUTORS

Sanjib Baruah is an honorary research professor at CPR and professor of political studies at Bard College in the US, where he teaches comparative politics and international relations. Dr Baruah was born in Shillong, a hill station in northeast India, and educated at Cotton College in Guwahati, Assam, the University of Delhi, and the University of Chicago.

Additional Reading:

1. A Pseudo Peace by Sanjib Baruah

2. Question about Stakeholders in the Naga Conflict still Needs a Satisfactory Answer by Sanjib Baruah

3. Confronting Constructionism: Ending India's Naga War by Sanjib Baruah

🎙️ Check out our podcast, Interpreting India available now on

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Carnegie India Socials:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnegieindia/ (@CarnegieIndia)

Stay tuned for thought-provoking discussions, expert insights, and a deeper understanding of India's place in the world.

Don't forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review to join the conversation and be part of Interpreting India's journey.

Navigating State-Capital Relations with Rohit Chandra Nov 19, 2020

Show notes

In this episode Rohit Chandra joins Srinath Raghavan to analyze the relationship between state and capital in India.

EPISODE CONTRIBUTORS

Rohit Chandra is a political scientist and an economic historian working primarily on energy, infrastructure and state capitalism in India. His recent work has covered the coal and power industries. Over the last decade, he has worked in the policy space on coal sector reforms, the politics of state discoms (particularly in Jharkhand), and public finance decisions behind large infrastructure projects.

Additional Reading:

1. Seminar Issue 734: Untangling Business-State Relations in India by Rohit Chandra and Rahul Verma

2. Big potential, big risks? Indian capitalism, economic reform and populism in the BJP era by Rohit Chandra and Michael Walton

3. Winner takes all: Big fish swallow the small ones amid demand slowdown by Krishna Kant

🎙️ Check out our podcast, Interpreting India available now on

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Carnegie India Socials:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnegieindia/ (@CarnegieIndia)

Stay tuned for thought-provoking discussions, expert insights, and a deeper understanding of India's place in the world.

Don't forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review to join the conversation and be part of Interpreting India's journey.

Assessing India's Inflation Targeting Regime with Radhika Pandey Nov 05, 2020

Show notes

Radhika Pandey joins Srinath Raghavan to analyze India's inflation targeting system. They assess how the system has fared since 2015, particularly in the wake of the pandemic.

EPISODE CONTRIBUTORS

Radhika Pandey is a Senior Fellow at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy. Prior to this, she taught at the National Law University (Jodhpur). Dr Pandey was the lead co-ordinator for the Ministry of Finance instituted Task-Force on Public Debt Management Agency.

Additional Reading:

1. Moving to Inflation Targeting by Ila Patnaik and Radhika Pandey.

2. Higher Inflation Doesn't Mean RBI's Monetary Policy Committee Should Increase Interest Rates by Ila Patnaik and Radhika Pandey

3. Inflation Targeting in India: An Interim Assessment by Barry Eichengreen, Poonam Gupta, Rishabh Choudhary

🎙️ Check out our podcast, Interpreting India available now on

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Carnegie India Socials:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnegieindia/ (@CarnegieIndia)

Stay tuned for thought-provoking discussions, expert insights, and a deeper understanding of India's place in the world.

Don't forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review to join the conversation and be part of Interpreting India's journey.

Analyzing the Afghan Peace Negotiations with Anatol Lieven and Rudra Chaudhuri Oct 23, 2020

Show notes

Anatol Lieven and Rudra Chaudhuri join Srinath Raghavan to analyze the implications of the recent intra-Afghan negotiations. Are the negotiating parties well-poised towards building a peace deal? How has South Asia been involved in this arduous process? And finally, what are the prospects of talks leading to a successful peace deal in Afghanistan?

EPISODE CONTRIBUTORS

Anatol Lieven is senior research fellow on Russia and Europe at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He was formerly a professor at Georgetown University in Qatar and in the War Studies Department of King’s College London. He is a member of the academic board of the Valdai discussion club in Russia, and a member of the advisory committee of the South Asia Department of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Rudra Chaudhuri is the director of Carnegie India. His primary research interests include the diplomatic history of South Asia and contemporary security issues.

Additional Reading:

1. Dealing With the Taliban: India’s Strategy in Afghanistan After U.S. Withdrawal by Rudra Chaudhuri and Shreyas Shende.

2. It's Time to Trust the Talibanby Anatol Lieven.

3. Afghanistan, Then and Now by Anatol Lieven.

4. Taliban Perspectives on Reconciliation by Anatol Lieven, Rudra Chaudhuri, Michael Semple, Theo Farrell.

🎙️ Check out our podcast, Interpreting India available now on

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