Pranay Kotasthane

Pranay Kotasthane, a foreign policy expert, and Aditya Ramanathan, a military strategist, dive into the recent tensions between India and Pakistan following the Pahalgam attacks. They discuss the evolving geopolitical dynamics and military strategies, highlighting the significance of public discourse in shaping national security. The duo examines the complexities of the Pakistani military jihadi complex, the influence of technological advances on warfare, and the implications of India's military preparedness. A fascinating exploration of strategy, narrative, and regional stability!

Nitin Pai, a public policy thinker and founder of the Takshashila Institution, is joined by Pranay Kotasthane, a policy scholar and colleague, to discuss their revolutionary journey in reshaping India's policy landscape. They explore the evolution of Takshashila, advocating for constitutional values and economic freedom. The duo shares insights on building a networked think tank, the importance of nurturing young thinkers, and the balancing act between advocacy and education. Their approach to addressing misinformation in public discourse is engaging and profound.

Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu S Jaitley, experts in public policy and writers of the newsletter 'Anticipating the Unintended', tackle the polarizing issue of the caste census in India. They delve into its historical background and the implications for public policy, discussing how caste classification has evolved into a political tool. The conversation explores the impact of caste reservations, the role of census data, and critiques of current policies, while also examining the intersection of caste dynamics with economic growth and representation.

Shruti Rajagopalan, a public intellectual and conference organizer, joins Pranay Kotasthane, a policy commentator, to share insights on friendship and life's winding paths. They explore the magic of spontaneous conversations at unconferences and the importance of vulnerability. The trio discusses the balance between structure and spontaneity, emphasizing small, meaningful gestures in daily life. They also delve into the fun of learning equestrian skills, reflect on personal growth, and recommend books that foster humility and creativity.

Public policy may seem arcane and complicated, a field only for geeks. But all our lives are shaped by it. Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu S Jaitley join Amit Varma in episode 313 of The Seen and the Unseen to describe their efforts to make policy great again. (For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.) Also check out: 1. Missing In Action: Why You Should Care About Public Policy -- Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu S Jaitley. 2. Anticipating the Unintended — Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu Sanjaylal Jaitley's newsletter. 3. Puliyabaazi — Pranay Kotasthane's podcast (with Saurabh Chandra). 4. Raghu Sanjaylal Jaitley's Father's Scooter -- Episode 214 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. Pranay Kotasthane Talks Public Policy -- Episode 233 of The Seen and the Unseen. 6. Foreign Policy is a Big Deal — Episode 170 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Manoj Kewalramani). 7. Older episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Pranay Kotasthane: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 8. The Art and Science of Economic Policy — Episode 154 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah). 9. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah. 10. Angus Maddison's chart on GDP through the ages. 11. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. 12. What Have We Done With Our Independence? — Episode 186 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pratap Bhanu Mehta). 13. The Gentle Wisdom of Pratap Bhanu Mehta — Episode 300 of The Seen and the Unseen. 14. Bhaktamal -- Nabha Dass. 15. The Three Languages of Politics — Arnold Kling. 16. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 17. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 18. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 19. The Overton Window. 20. India's Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality — Amit Varma. 21. Where Did Development Economics Go Wrong? -- Shruti Rajagopalan speaks to Lant Pritchett on the Ideas of India podcast. 22. Government's End: Why Washington Stopped Working -- Jonathan Rauch. 23. Public Opinion — Walter Lippmann. 24. Democracy in America — Alexis De Tocqueville. 25. Yeh Jo Public Hai Sab Janti Hai -- Song from Roti. 26. Price Controls Lead to Shortages and Harm the Poor -- Amit Varma. 27. Amit Varma's prescient 2017 tweet on the price caps on stents. 28. Varun Grover Is in the House — Episode 292 of The Seen and the Unseen. 29. Tu Kisi Rail Si — Lyrics by Varun Grover. 30. Gyan Prakash on the Emergency — Episode 103 of The Seen and the Unseen. 31. The Moral Arc: How Science Makes Us Better People -- Michael Shermer. 32. History of European Morals — WEH Lecky. 33. The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress — Peter Singer. 34. State Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century — Francis Fukuyama. 35. The Origins of Political Order — Francis Fukuyama. 36. Political Order and Political Decay — Francis Fukuyama. 37. The Right to Property -- Episode 26 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 38. The Baptist, the Bootlegger and the Dead Man Walking — Amit Varma. 39. Bootleggers and Baptists-The Education of a Regulatory Economist — Bruce Yandle. 40. Zanjeer (Prakash Mehra) and Gol Maal (Hrishikesh Mukherjee). 41. A People's Constitution— Rohit De. 42. Laws Against Victimless Crimes Should Be Scrapped -- Amit Varma. 43. We All Gamble. Make It Legal -- Devangshu Datta. 44. Yes We Cannabis! -- Devangshu Datta. 45. Prohibition doesn't work. Tax Alcohol Instead -- Devangshu Datta. 46. Legalise Prostitution to Fight Trafficking -- Amit Varma. 47. Sea of Poppies -- Amitav Ghosh. 48. Elite Imitation in Public Policy — Episode 180 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Alex Tabarrok). 49. Rent Control — Ep 14 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Alex Tabarrok). 50. A Theory of Justice — John Rawls. 51. Anarchy, State and Utopia — Robert Nozick. 52. Politics and Money -- Amit Varma's limerick. 53. The Great Redistribution — Amit Varma. 54. Power and Prosperity — Mancur Olson. 55. Swaminathan S Aiyar at Times of India, Amazon and his own website. 56. The Lost Decade — Puja Mehra. 57. India's Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 58. Episode of The Seen and the Unseen on GST: 1, 2, 3. 59. DeMon, Morality and the Predatory Indian State — Episode 85 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 60. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills — Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 61. A Game Theory Problem: Who Will Bell The Congress Cat? — Amit Varma. 62. Kashi Ka Assi — Kashinath Singh. 63. A Beast Called Government (2007) -- Amit Varma. 64. We Are Fighting Two Disasters: Covid-19 and the Indian State -- Amit Varma. 65. Policy Paradox – The Art of Political Decision Making — Deborah Stone. 66. Bara -- UR Ananthamurthy 67. Sookha -- MS Sathyu's film based on Bara, 68. Russia, Ukraine, Foreign Policy -- Episode 268 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane and Nitin Pai). 69. Nuclear Power Can Save the World — Joshua S Goldstein, Staffan A Qvist and Steven Pinker. 70. The Third Pillar -- Raghuram Rajan. 71. Samaaj, Sarkaar, Bazaar : A citizen-first approach -- Rohini Nilekani. 72. The Double 'Thank-You' Moment — John Stossel. 73. Every Act of Government Is an Act of Violence -- Amit Varma. 74. Frédéric Bastiat's writings at Bastiat.org and Amazon. 75. The Use of Knowledge in Society — Friedrich Hayek. 76. ये लिबरल आख़िर है कौन? — Episode 37 of Puliyabaazi (w Amit Varma, on Hayek). 77. Econ Talk — Russ Roberts's podcast. 78. Conversation and Society — Episode 182 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Russ Roberts). 79. The Economist as Scapegoat -- Russ Roberts. 80. Bollywood's New Capitalist Hero (2007) -- Amit Varma. 81. Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho! -- Saaed Mirza. 82. Scam 1992 -- Hansal Mehta. 83. Bharat Ane Nenu -- Koratal Siva. 84. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 85. Education in India — Episode 77 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Amit Chandra). 86. Our Unlucky Children (2008) — Amit Varma. 87. Fund Schooling, Not Schools (2007) — Amit Varma. 88. Participatory Democracy — Episode 160 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh). 89. Cities and Citizens — Episode 198 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh). 90. Helping Others in the Fog of Pandemic — Episode 226 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ashwin Mahesh). 91. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength — Amit Varma. 92. Profit = Philanthropy — Amit Varma. 93. The Solution -- Bertolt Brecht. 94. Abby Philips Fights for Science and Medicine -- Episode 310 of The Seen and the Unseen. 95. Who Broke Our Republic? — Episode 163 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Kapil Komireddi). 96. The Multitudes of Our Maharajahs -- Episode 244 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manu Pillai). 97. What is Libertarianism? — Episode 117 of The Seen and the Unseen (w David Boaz). 98. Sansar Se Bhage Phirte Ho -- Song from Chitralekha with lyrics by Sahir Ludhianvi. 99. Crimemaster Gogo in the house! Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! Episode art: 'Graveyard of Good Intentions' by Simahina.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine is not just a seminal moment in world history, but a teachable one. Pranay Kotasthane and Nitin Pai join Amit Varma in episode 268 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss concepts and frameworks of foreign policy that can help us make sense of this turmoil. If this subject interests you, consider signing up for Takashshila's GCPP: Defence & Foreign Affairs course. Registration is open for the May Cohort. Also check out: 1. Pranay Kotasthane Talks Public Policy -- Episode 233 of The Seen and the Unseen. 2. Foreign Policy is a Big Deal — Episode 170 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Manoj Kewalramani). 3. Radically Networked Societies — Episode 158 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane). 4. Democracy in Pakistan -- Episode 79 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Hamsini Hariharan.) 5. Older episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Pranay Kotasthane: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 6. Understanding Foreign Policy — Episode 63 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nitin Pai). 7. Anticipating the Unintended — Pranay Kotasthane's newsletter (with RSJ). 8. Puliyabaazi — Pranay Kotasthane's podcast (with Saurabh Chandra). 9. Selected episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on China: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 10. Ram Guha Reflects on His Life -- Episode 266 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. Dhanya Rajendran Fights the Gaze -- Episode 267 of The Seen and the Unseen. 12. The End of History? -- Francis Fukuyama's essay. 13. The End of History and the Last Man -- Francis Fukuyama's book. 14. The Great Man Theory of History. 15. Russia's War on Ukraine: A Roundtable -- Bari Weiss speaks to Niall Ferguson, Walter Russell Mead and Francis Fukuyama. 16. Around the halls: Implications of Russia's invasion of Ukraine -- Brookings roundup of expert views, including from Marvin Kalb. 17. Modi's Domination – What We Often Overlook — Keshava Guha. 18. The Median Voter Theorem. 19. Social Theory of International Politics -- Alexander Wendt on constructivism in international relations. 20. Hindutva -- VD Savarkar. 21. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva -- Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel, discussing Hindutva among other things). 22. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 23. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism -- Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 24. Whole Numbers and Half Truths — Rukmini S. 25. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes -- Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 26. Why I am a Hindu -- Shashi Tharoor. 27. The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of A Nation -- Granville Austin. 28. A People's Constitution -- Rohit De. 29. Three Conundrums -- Anticipating the Unintended #159 by RSJ and Pranay Kotasthane. 30. Through The Looking Glass -- Anticipating the Unintended #160 by RSJ and Pranay Kotasthane. 31. No man is an island entire of itself... -- Anticipating the Unintended #161 by RSJ and Pranay Kotasthane. 32. The Overton Window. 33. India's Strategies for a New World Order -- Anirudh Kanisetti, Anupam Manur, Pranay Kotasthane and Akshay Alladi. 34. The Uses and Abuses of Weaponized Interdependence -- Daniel Drezner, Henry Farrell and Abraham L Newman. 35. Nuclear Power Can Save the World -- Joshua S Goldstein, Staffan A Qvist and Steven Pinker. 36. Public Choice Theory -- Episode 121 of The Seen and the Unseen. 37. The Idiot -- Fyodor Dostoevsky. 38. 'Stop the war.' 44 Top Russian Players Publish Open Letter To Putin -- Sam Copeland. 39. Alexander Grischuk's emotional press conference after Russia invaded Ukraine. (Watch from 4:20.) 40. Power and International Relations -- David A Baldwin. 41. The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers -- Paul M Kennedy. 42. The Power of Nations: Measuring What Matters -- Michael Beckley. 43. The game theory concept of Chicken. 44. India in the Nuclear Age -- Episode 80 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Lt Gen Prakash Menon). 45. National Power After AI -- Matthew Daniels and Ben Chang. 46. Why liberal democracies have a distinct edge on cyber capability -- Nitin Pai. 47. The Business of Winning Elections -- Episode 247 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shivam Shankar Singh.) 48. Can Democracy Survive in the Information Age? -- Eric Rosenbach and Katherine Mansted on the Authoritarian Information Paradox. 49. The Use of Knowledge in Society -- Friedrich Hayek. 50. ये लिबरल आख़िर है कौन? — Episode 37 of Puliyabaazi (w Amit Varma, on Hayek.) 51. Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas -- Natasha Dow Schüll. 52. Irresistible: Why We Can't Stop Checking, Scrolling, Clicking and Watching -- Adam Alter. 53. The Dark Psychology of Social Networks -- Jonathan Haidt and Tobias Rose-Stockwell. 54. The Revolt of The Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium -- Martin Gurri. 55. Social media are turbocharging the export of America's political culture -- The Economist. 56. America in South Asia -- Episode 93 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 57. The Geopolitics of the Bangladesh War -- Episode 113 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 58. The India-Pakistan Conflict -- Episode 111 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 59. Public Choice Theory and the Illusion of Grand Strategy -- Richard Hanania. 60. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy -- Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen. 61. The Lessons of History -- Will and Ariel Durant. 62. Fallout of the Ukraine-Russia Conflict + -- A constantly evolving note by the Takshashila Institution. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free!

Semiconductors power modern technology and have a significant impact on geopolitics. Pranay Kotasthane and Abhiram Manchi discuss the complexities of the semiconductor supply chain, the historical context of Bell Labs, the race for technological superiority, challenges in the semiconductor industry in India, and future trends in tech wars and geopolitics. They also explore the alignment between private players and national governments in the semiconductor industry.

Pranay Kotasthane, a former chip designer at TI and Qualcomm, and Chris Miller, co-author of 'Chip War', dive into India's semiconductor landscape. They explore why India excels in software yet struggles with chip manufacturing. The guests discuss the impact of historical policies on technology growth, contrasting India's journey with that of China. Insights on the collaborative nature of chip design reveal what it takes to build successful semiconductor ventures, while also examining India’s evolving challenges and future in this competitive field.

Pranay Kotasthane, Chair of the high-tech geopolitics program at the Takshashila Institution, dives deep into the world of rare earths. He discusses America's race to reduce reliance on Chinese supply chains and the implications of Beijing's export controls. The conversation touches on how quickly firms can diversify their sources and the importance of supply-chain resilience in the face of geopolitical tensions. Kotasthane also explores strategies for policymakers and businesses to navigate this complex landscape, urging proactive measures in a shifting global power dynamic.

KPM Das, an expert on wireless technology, and Pranay Kotasthane, a commentator on supply chain security, delve into the serious implications of recent wireless device explosions in Lebanon. They discuss the intersection of legacy technology and modern warfare, highlighting the evolving tactics of attacks. The conversation emphasizes the urgent need for rigorous supply chain validation and reassessing security frameworks in India. They also unpack risk-based assessments crucial for protecting national infrastructure, stressing the importance of tailored security solutions.