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Ideas of India: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Mercatus Center at George Mason University
Through conversations with top thinkers in the social sciences and beyond, economist Shruti Rajagopalan explores the ideas that will propel India forward.
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- 2 weeks ago1h 46m
Pratap Bhanu Mehta on Liberalism, Nihilism, and the Collapse of Sincerity
Today my guest is Dr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, who is the Laurance Rockefeller Professor for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton and former president and chief executive of the Center for Policy Research, New Delhi. He is the author of various books and edited volumes, has served on various government committees, and is a columnist for the Indian Express. We talked about the return of nihilism in political life, the hollowing of professional identities, the politics of vishwas, Adam Smith on concentrated power, what it takes to build lasting institutions, the assumptions behind nonalignment, and much more. Recorded April 3rd, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps - Intro - The Challenges Facing Liberalism - The Erosion of Moral Authority - Nationalism, Feminism, and the Arc of History - Globalization and the Crisis of Community - Sincerity, Context, and Intelligibility in a Digital Age - Professional Identities as Sources of Moral Meaning - Formal Inclusion and Continued Inequality - Concentration of Power and the Distortion of the State - The Politics of Vishwas - On Caste and the Limits of Identity Politics - The Question of Social Trust - Trust-Building and Barriers to Desegregation - Institutions of Higher Learning - The Assumptions of Nonalignment - Outro
- May 6, 20261h 31m
Shruti Rajagopalan and Milan Vaishnav on India's Delimitation Dilemma
Today we are releasing a webinar recording from April 24th where Milan Vaishnav and I had a conversation on delimitation in India. Milan is a senior fellow and the director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is also the host of the excellent Grand Tamasha podcast where this recording will be simultaneously released. We talked about the failure to pass the 131st constitutional amendment bill in Parliament, the government's intention to reapportion and increase the size of the Lok Sabha, the delimitation freeze pegged to the 1971 census that has survived five decades, why the fiscal bargain between states matters as much as the political bargain, and much more. Recorded April 24th, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Milan on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps - Intro - What is Delimitation? - The Politics Behind the Constitutional Amendment - The Political Arithmetic - The Financial Bargain - Outro
- Apr 23, 20261h 13m
Samanth Subramanian on the Fragile and Resilient Technologies that Bind Us
Today my guest is Samanth Subramanian, who is a journalist and writer and the author of the recent books The Web Beneath the Waves and A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and Restless Politics of J. B. S. Haldane. We talked about under water sea cables and choke points in critical global infrastructure, the intersection of technology and geopolitics, large language models, JBS Haldane and the relationship between science and politics, and much more. Recorded March 25th, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Samanth on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps - Intro - Vulnerability and Resilience: Grappling with the Fragility of Undersea Connections - Underwater Sea Cables - How America's Big Tech Companies Dominate Bandwidth - Concentration of Infrastructure - The 2Africa Cable and Countries Without Leverage - Geopolitical Vulnerabilities - Indian Resilience - Choke Points in the Global AI Economy - The Challenges of Decommissioning Nuclear Plants - On the Frontiers and Ethics of AI Technology - Haldane's Legacy and Science in the Public Square - Optimism and Pessimism About the Future of Science - Outro
- Apr 9, 20261h 47m
Arvind Subramanian and Devesh Kapur on India's Precocious Development Odyssey
Today my guests are Arvind Subramanian and Devesh Kapur. Arvind is a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a former Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India. Devesh is the Starr Foundation Professor of South Asian Studies and Director of the Asia Programs at the Johns Hopkins. They are co-authors of the recent book, A Sixth of Humanity: Independent India's Development Odyssey. We talked about India's redistributive democracy, why Indian states have taken such different development paths, India's socialism and consequent scarcity, manufacturing challenges, and much more. Recorded February 13th, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Arvind on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps - Intro - A Sixth of Humanity - The Effect of Education on State Development - Redistributive Democracy in India - One Democracy, Multiple Outcomes at the State Level - Tamil Nadu - The Collapse of Punjab - Shades of Socialism in India - Upside-Down State - Manufacturing - Outro
- Mar 26, 20261h 7m
V. Anantha Nageswaran on Surveying the Growth and Financialization of the Indian Economy
Today my guest is Dr. V Anantha Nageswaran, who is currently serving as the Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India. He is also the co-author of the books Economics of Derivatives and The Rise of Finance: Causes, Consequences and Cures. We talked about import substitution and strategic resilience, futures and options market, gross fixed capital formation, crypto markets, India's growth trajectory, and much more. Recorded March 12th, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps - Intro - Import Substitution as a Policy - Indian States' Spending Problem - Capital Formation - Increasing Financialization - Options and Futures Markets in India - Securities Transactions Tax (STT) - Curbing Crypto - How Should We Approach Policy Regulation? - Deregulation - Digital Public Infrastructure - India's Growth Trajectory
- Mar 12, 20261h 34m
Ornit Shani and Rohit De on Assembling India's Constitution
Today my guests are Ornit Shani and Rohit De, historians and the authors of the latest book Assembling India's Constitution. Ornit Shani is an associate professor of history at the University of Haifa and the author of How India Became Democratic: Citizenship and the Making of the Universal Franchise. Rohit De is an associate professor of history at Yale University and the author of A People's Constitution: The Everyday Life of Law in the Indian Republic. We talked about how their latest book is a radical departure from the usual telling of the making of the Indian Constitution as an elite project, the mass mobilization that took place during the drafting of the constitution, the role of public participation in political negotiation, the status of provincial legislatures and of princely states during the constitution making, and much more. Recorded January 20th, 2026 and February 10th, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Ornit on X Follow Rohit on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps - Intro - Situating Rohit and Ornit's Book - More Than the Text - Provincial Legislatures - India's Princely States - Mass Mobilization - Theater and the Constitution - Judicial Interpretation - Future Projects - Outro
- Feb 26, 20261h 47m
Pranay Kotasthane on the Political Economy of Rare Earths and Critical Minerals
Today my guest is Pranay Kotasthane who is the deputy director of the Takshashila Institution and chairs the High Tech Geopolitics Programme. Pranay co-writes Anticipating the Unintended, a newsletter on public policy ideas and frameworks, and co-hosts Puliyabaazi, a popular Hindi-Urdu podcast on politics, policy, and technology. He is the co-author of - Missing in Action: Why Should You Care About Public Policy, When the Chips are Down, and the graphic nonfiction narrative We, the Citizens. We spoke about rare earths and critical minerals, China's dominance, the gap between India's ambitions and opportunities, the potential for recycling, and much and more. Recorded February 2nd, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Learn more about The 1991 Fellowship. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Pranay on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps - 1991 Fellowship - Intro - Rare Earths versus Critical Minerals - Why Are Rare Earths and Critical Minerals So Important Now? - Geopolitical Uncertainty - China's Process Advantage - Industrial Policy - India's Critical Elements Mission - Auctions - India's Position in the Value Chain - Recycling - Law of One Price - Pakistan and Rare Earth Reserves - Outro
- Feb 12, 20261h 41m
Nachiket Mor on Rethinking India's Healthcare System
Today my guest is Nachiket Mor, a health economist whose work focuses on the design of national and regional health systems. He is a visiting scientist at the Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health, a senior research fellow at the Centre for Information Technology and Public Policy at IIIT Bangalore, and a commissioner and author on the Lancet Citizens' Commission on Reimagining India's Health System, which published its final report in The Lancet in January 2026. We talked about the different layers of the Indian healthcare system, the design and policy failures in both public and private sector healthcare, the role of community workers, the health insurance and regulation market, and much more. Recorded January 29th, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Learn more about The 1991 Fellowship. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Nachiket on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps - 1991 Fellowship - Intro - Policy Design Failure in India's Healthcare System - Layers of Indian Healthcare - ASHA Workers - State Capacity - The Exit to the Private Sector - Getting Ambitious with ASHA Workers - Stacking Healthcare - India's Private Sector Healthcare - Government Insurance Instruments - Insurance Regulation in India - Outro
About Ideas of India
Through conversations with top thinkers in the social sciences and beyond, economist Shruti Rajagopalan explores the ideas that will propel India forward.
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