Working with Civil Servants: Challenges and Prioritization

Cities are that miraculous technology that bring people together to make us all better, richer, happier. But bad planning, or even too much planning, can turn them into hellholes. Pritika Hingorani joins Amit Varma in episode 361 of The Seen and the Unseen to share her insights on how we should think about cities, how governments do policy, and what economics can bring to urban planning. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Pritika Hingorani at Artha Global and Twitter. 2. The Importance of Cities — Episode 108 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Reuben Abraham & Pritika Hingorani). 3. Financing urban infrastructure for an evolving India -- Pritika Hingorani, Sharmadha Srinivasan & Harshita Agrawal. 4. Reforming Urban India -- Pritika Hingorani et al. (Page 14 of this report has the map Pritika mentions in the episode.) 5. India Infrastructure Report: Making Housing Affordable -- Various authors. 6. Bombay: The Cities Within -- Sharada Dwiwedi and Rahul Mehrotra. 7. Order without Design: How Markets Shape Cities -- Alain Bertaud. 8. The Death and Life of Great American Cities -- Jane Jacobs. 9. Norwegian Wood -- Haruki Murakami. 10. Absolutely on Music -- Haruki Murakami and Seiji Ozawa. 11. Haruki Murakami and Ryu Murakami on Amazon. 12. Piercing -- Ryu Murakami. 13. Pranay Kotasthane Talks Public Policy -- Episode 233 of The Seen and the Unseen. 14. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength — Amit Varma. 15. Miniature early episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on FSI and Rent Control with Alex Tabarrok, and Slums with Pavan Srinath. 16. The Mystery of Capital —  Hernando De Soto. 17. The Incredible Insights of Timur Kuran — Episode 349 of The Seen and the Unseen. 18. The Power Broker -- Robert Caro. 19. Urban expansion: theory, evidence and practice -- Shlomo Angel. 20. Atlas of Urban Expansion. 21. Islamic Empires: Fifteen Cities that Define a Civilization -- Justin Marozzi. 22. The City and the City -- China Miéville. 23. The Faltering Escalator of Urban Opportunity -- David Autor. 24. The Shane Parrish tweet on WFH. 25. Securing the Home Market -- Alice Amsden. 26. The Elusive Quest for Growth -- William Easterly. 27. Participatory Democracy — Episode 160 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh). 28. Cities and Citizens — Episode 198 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh). 29. Helping Others in the Fog of Pandemic -- Episode 226 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh). 30. Parkinson’s Law. 31. Karthik Muralidharan Examines the Indian State -- Episode 290 of The Seen and the Unseen. 32. We Are Fighting Two Disasters: Covid-19 and the Indian State — Amit Varma. 33. Urban Governance in India -- Episode 31 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 34. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 35. The Skeptical Environmentalist — Bjorn Lomborg. 36. London 1870-1914: A City at Its Zenith -- Andrew Saint. 37. Modi’s Lost Opportunity — ep 119 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Salman Soz). 38. Wanting — Luke Burgis. 39. Luke Burgis Sees the Deer at His Window — Episode 337 of The Seen and the Unseen. 40. We Should Celebrate Rising Divorce Rates (2008) — Amit Varma. 41. Lady Doctors: The Untold Stories of India’s First Women in Medicine — Kavitha Rao. 42. Kavitha Rao and Our Lady Doctors — Episode 235 of The Seen and the Unseen. 43. The Memoirs of Dr Haimabati Sen — Haimabati Sen (translated by Tapan Raychoudhuri). 44. Living London History -- The blog Pritika mentions. 45. Good Bye, Lenin -- Wolfgang Becker. This episode is sponsored by the Pune Public Policy Festival 2024, which takes place on January 19 & 20, 2024. The theme this year is Trade-offs! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! Episode art: ‘These Are People’ by Simahina.