Ideas of India

Take our listener survey here. In this episode, Shruti speaks with Anand Swamy and Tirthankar Roy about their new book, “Law and the Economy in a Young Democracy: India 1947 and Beyond.” They discuss India’s colonial legacy, forest laws, problems with eminent domain, the messiness of Indian legislation and much more. Swamy is the Willmott Family Third Century Professor of Economics at Williams College. His research interests are the economics of institutions and land, labor and credit markets in developing countries and South Asia. Roy is a professor at the London School of Economics, teaching South Asian and global history. His research focuses on Indian capitalism, specifically whether the country’s history reveals patterns that can help understand how Indian capitalism works today. Recorded March 2nd, 2022 Read a full transcript of this episode enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Anand on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Take our listener survey here. In this episode, Shruti speaks with Ramachandra Guha about his latest book, “Rebels Against the Raj.” They discuss the influence of foreigners who renounced their native nationalities to become Indian, Gandhi’s legacy, economic protectionism, constraints on free speech, cricket and much more. Guha is an Indian historian, environmentalist, writer and public intellectual whose research interests include social, political, contemporary, environmental and cricket history. For the academic year 2011–12, he held a visiting position at the London School of Economics He has also been a visiting professor at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. Recorded February 24th, 2022 Read a full transcript of this episode enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Ramachandra on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Check out Macro Musings: https://www.mercatus.org/bridge/tags/macro-musings Follow Macro Musings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Macro_Musings Subscribe to Macro Musings on your favorite podcast app.

In this episode, Shruti speaks with Lant Pritchett about economic convergence, academic skepticism about growth, flawed methodologies in development economics, the shortcomings of India’s educational system and much more. Pritchett is a development economist from Idaho. He is currently affiliated with Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government as the research director of the RISE Programme, is the Research Director at LaMP (Labor Mobility Partnerships) and is a fellow at the London School of Economics. He previously worked with the World Bank from 1988 to 2007, living in Indonesia 1998-2000 and India 2004-2007. His publications span a wide range of development topics including economic growth, state capability, education, labor mobility and development assistance. Recorded February 21st, 2022 Read a full transcript of this episode enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Check out Conversations with Tyler Subscribe to Conversations with Tyler on your favorite podcast app.

In this episode, Shruti speaks with Rajesh Veeraraghavan about his book, “Patching Development: Information Politics and Social Change in India.” They discuss the pros and cons of centralized welfare programs, why technology is not a cure-all, academia, Tamil comedy and much more. Veeraraghavan is an assistant professor of science, technology and international affairs at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He has a Ph.D. in information systems from the University of California, Berkeley, and he worked as a software developer at Microsoft for nearly a decade. His research interests include developing digital technology-enabled interventions to address inequality and critically examining the role of algorithms and technology and its potential harms for marginalized people. Recorded February 11th, 2022 Read a full transcript of this episode enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Rajesh on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Check out the 1991 Project here: https://the1991project.com  Check out Macro Musings: https://www.mercatus.org/bridge/tags/macro-musings Follow Macro Musings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Macro_Musings Subscribe to Macro Musings on your favorite podcast app.

In this episode, Shruti speaks with Rukmini about her book, “Whole Numbers and Half Truths: What Data Can and Cannot Tell Us About Modern India.” They discuss Indians’ multifaceted identities, endogamy, preference falsification and much more. Rukmini is a data journalist who writes columns for Mint, IndiaSpend and other publications. She has also written for HuffPost India, The Hindu and The Times of India. Additionally, she hosts a pandemic mini-podcast called The Moving Curve. Recorded January 24th, 2022 Read a full transcript of this episode enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Check out Conversations with Tyler  Subscribe to Conversations with Tyler on your favorite podcast app.

In this episode, Shruti talks with Shrayana Bhattacharya about her book, “Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh: India’s Lonely Young Women and the Search for Intimacy and Independence.” They discuss the symbolic resonance of Indian film star Shah Rukh Khan, women’s changing social and economic status in India, the importance of supportive communities of women, Delhi as a city in transition, and much more. Bhattacharya is an economist in the World Bank’s Social Protection and Labour Unit for South Asia. Her research interests include urban bureaucracy, social protection and informality. She completed her postgraduate education in public administration and economics from Harvard University. Recorded January 21st, 2022 Read a full transcript of this episode enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Check out Macro Musings: https://www.mercatus.org/bridge/tags/macro-musings Follow Macro Musings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Macro_Musings Subscribe to Macro Musings on your favorite podcast app.

In this episode, Shruti talks with Arvind Elangovan about his book, “Norms and Politics: Sir Benegal Narsing Rau in the Making of the Indian Constitution, 1935-50.” They discuss the tensions surrounding the making of the Indian Constitution, the legacy of colonialism, the differing viewpoints of leaders such as Nehru and B.N. Rau and much more. Elangovan is an associate professor of history at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. His research interests include the political and constitutional history of South Asia, postcolonial India and the history of political and social thought. Read a full transcript of this episode enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Check out Conversations with Tyler Subscribe to Conversations with Tyler on your favorite podcast app.

This episode is the twelfth in a miniseries of weekly short episodes featuring young scholars entering the academic job market who discuss their latest research. In this episode, Shruti talks with Radhika Jain about her job market paper, “Private Hospital Behavior Under Government Insurance: Evidence from Reimbursement Changes in India.” They discuss the Bhamashah Health Insurance Program in Rajasthan, how hospitals are reimbursed for healthcare expenses, the effects of competition on the healthcare market and much more. Jain is the Asia Health Policy Postdoctoral Fellow for 2019-2022 at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University. Her research focuses on healthcare markets, the effectiveness of public health policy and gender disparities in health. Read a full transcript of this episode enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Radhika on Twitter  Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

This episode is the 11th in a miniseries of weekly short episodes featuring young scholars entering the academic job market who discuss their latest research. In this episode, Shruti talks with Apurav Yash Bhatiya about how voters behave in simultaneous versus sequential elections, possible reasons why they behave differently, politicians’ use of the bully pulpit and much more. They discussed his paper titled “Behavioral Voters in a Decentralized Democracy” (coauthored with Vimal Balasubramaniam and Sabyasachi Das). Bhatiya is a Ph.D. student in economics at the University of Warwick. His research areas include political economy, development, and labor economics. Read a full transcript of this episode enhanced with helpful links. Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Apurav on Twitter  Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

This episode is the tenth in a miniseries of weekly short episodes featuring young scholars entering the academic job market who discuss their latest research. In this episode, Shruti talks with Dr. Archana Dang about her paper, “Role of Time Preferences in Explaining the Burden of Malnutrition: Evidence from Urban India.” They discuss India’s double burden of over- and undernutrition, why financial savings might be a good predictor of obesity, the effects of COVID on India’s obesity levels and much more. Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Economic Growth. Her research interests include the economics of health, specifically issues of overweight and obesity in India. Her work has been published in the journal Economics and Human Biology. Full transcript of this episode Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox!