All Things Policy

Why do governments, including India’s, struggle in the cybersecurity domain? In the context of global AI governance wherein the US and EU are pushing for soft touch and hard touch regulation, respectively, what is the Indian approach to AI governance? How can we secure supply chains? To find answers, Lokendra, Rijesh and Bharath sit down with Michael (Mike) R. Nelon (Senior fellow in the Carnegie...

In this episode, Avinash Shet and Anisree Suresh explore how policies like Minimum Export Price (MEP) affect global trade, particularly for essential commodities like onions and rice. We delve into the reasons behind these regulations, such as controlling domestic inflation and stabilizing food prices, while also examining their consequences on farmers and exporters. All Things Policy is a daily p...

While the Government has been the primary driver of sports since independence, it is time the other 2 pillars the society and markets, who have equal or more agency, stop being spectators, but get into the action and actively promoting a sporting culture in India. We are in an economically viable space to see this unfold. Ram Mohan and Vinay Rao who attended the expert capsule course "Building a s...

In mid-2023, some imagined the Middle East and North Africa would move on from internecine conflicts to an age of economic connectivity. The war that followed laid bare the poor assumptions that underpinned these hopes. In a conversation with Aditya Ramanathan, Egyptian scholar Muhammad Alaraby discusses the ongoing conflict, the risks that lie ahead, and the prospects for a brighter future. All T...

India won the gold medals in both the open and women's categories in the recently concluded 2024 Chess Olympiad. Regarding this massive success, Miheer Karandikar and Malathi Renati talk about how chess has developed over the years and how society, government and technology play a role in it. All Things Policy is a daily podcast on public policy brought to you by the Takshashila Institution, Benga...

In this episode of All Things Policy, Rakshith Shetty and Anisree Suresh discuss carbon pricing in India, its significance as an economic tool, policy design challenges, and possible ways of adopting it. They also discuss the impact of the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism on Indian exporters and how geopolitical pressures force India to look at carbon pricing as a policy option...

Join Yusuf Unjhawala and Arindam Goswami in this episode of All Things Policy, where they talk about the new Japanese Prime Minister's rather provocative proposal to form an Asian NATO that includes India, and what should be India's response to this proposal. Yusuf has also recently written an op-ed on this which you can read here: https://theprint.in/opinion/india-should-steer-clear-of-an-asian-n...

In July 2024, what is being called the biggest global tech outage was caused not by a malicious actor but a cybersecurity company. A mere 40 KB faulty update pushed by CrowdStrike caused millions of devices running Windows operating system to crash. As the dust settles down, it becomes only timely to discuss the long-term lessons from the tech outage. In this episode of All Things Policy, Lokendra...

Neha Dixit's The Many lives of Syeda X weaves a compelling tale around the intersectionality of poverty, gender and religion. In this episode, Miheer and Suman were in a free wheeling conversation with Neha to talk about this and a whole host of other topics around economics, regulation and its effects and more. All Things Policy is a daily podcast on public policy brought to you by the Takshashil...

What are the major sources of water for Bengaluru? Why did the city face a water crisis earlier this year? What steps can be taken to prevent similar situations in the future? In this episode, Sarthak Pradhan speaks with urban hydrologist Shashank Palur to understand Bengaluru's water challenges. How Water Flows Through Bengaluru: Urban Water Balance Report- https://welllabs.org/wp-content/uploads...

In this episode of All Things Policy, Adya Madhavan speaks to entrepreneur and investor Mohit Satyanand. As a long-time investor. Mohit speaks about the entrepreneurial spirit and the start-up ecosystem. He also sheds light on the complexities of unemployment in India and the many layers of the problem. The conversation highlights the many factors that contribute to high unemployment rates through...

In this episode, Aditya and Shambhavi discuss the new developments in biotechnology how they can help create bioweapons and the likelihood of their use. All Things Policy is a daily podcast on public policy brought to you by the Takshashila Institution, Bengaluru. Find out more on our research and other work here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://takshashila.org.in/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠...

The past two years have given us a glimpse of what is possible with artificial intelligence. Some say that AI will have a transformative impact to rival or even exceed that of past industrial revolutions. Rijesh Panicker and Bharath Reddy speak with Mallory Knodel, executive director of the Social Web Foundation, looking beyond the AI hype to discuss the impact of AI on society. All Things Policy...

In this episode, Vanshika Saraf discusses the outcomes of the recent Quad Leaders' Summit with Professor Pradeep Taneja from the University of Melbourne. The conversation highlights the Quad's expanding agenda, a hot-mic incident involving US President Joe Biden and undoubtedly, the role of China in the Indo-Pacific. They also discuss the dynamics of the India-Australia relationship within the fra...

Lakshmi Shashidhar and Sowmya Prabhakar join Smita Murthy in an engaging conversation about food—an essential part of everyone's life. Together, they explore the intricate role that society, markets, and government play in shaping the food ecosystem. The discussion delves deeper into how the food supply chain is regulated by global and national standards, particularly CODEX and FSSAI, highlighting...

The entire edifice of economics is predicated on the assumption that human beings are rational creatures, who are capable of maximising their self-interest. This idea of homo-economicus has been challenged by the newer branches of economics, namely behavioural economics. Ashish Kulkarni joins Anupam Manur in discussing whether the idea of homo-economicus can still withstand the scrutiny of our mod...

U.S. President Joe Biden hosted an unusual Quad Summit at his residence in his hometown of Wilmington. Despite the intimate setting, the summit resulted in concrete decisions and some tough talk. Manoj Kewalramani joins Aditya Ramanathan to discuss the key takeaways from the latest summit and what we can expect from the Quad over the coming year. Also, check out Takshashila's newsletter, the Q...

August 2024 was an eventful month for the global social media landscape. Pavel Durov, CEO of the popular Telegram platform was arrested in France. In the same month, Musk’s X was banned in Brazil after a months-long confrontation with the Supreme Court. While autocratic states have had a history of banning social media platforms or arresting tech moguls, liberal democracies have been reluctant to...

In this episode of All Things Policy, Carl Jaison speaks to Pranav Gupta, PhD candidate in Political Science at UC Berkeley on the idea of ‘Data Daan’, a proposal on a nation-wide programme for voluntary data sharing for training of AI models and innovation. The objective is to enable startups & researchers building AI-based solutions to access relevant, usable and contextually appropriate dat...

India has had an uneven history with military firearms. Satya Sahu walks us through how the country has variously designed, reverse-engineered, and imported firearms in the nearly eight decades since independence, with mixed results. In a conversation with Aditya Ramanathan, he provides concrete recommendations on how the country must consolidate and improve its arsenal of these most essential wea...

KPM Das and Pranay Kotasthane discuss recent wireless device explosions in Lebanon. They assess what these developments mean for India's supply chain security.  All Things Policy is a daily podcast on public policy brought to you by the Takshashila Institution, Bengaluru. Find out more on our research and other work here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://takshashila.org...

Join Sarthak Pradhan and Arindam Goswami in this episode of All Things Policy, where we'll dive deep into a very important problem in public finance: that of the devolution of taxes/revenue to the states. This problem has various facets to it. Quite often, it plays out as a horizontal devolution or North vs South problem in public discourse. Due to that, the vertical devolution aspect is ignor...

In this episode of All things policy, Avinash Shet is in conversation with Arindam Goswami. They discuss India’s talent landscape, the talent gap and need for skilling for our workforce in this ever changing economic and geopolitical realities. Source material: https://takshashila.org.in/research/geopolitics-of-indian-talent All Things Policy is a daily podcast on public policy brought to you by t...

In this episode, we have Mr. Debmalya Sen, who currently leads the World Economic Forum’s global initiatives on Advanced Energy Solutions and is leading the Forum’s work on Energy in India. Who better than him to address a few important queries regarding India's advanced energy solutions? In this episode, Rakshith and Debmalya discuss a variety of energy-related topics specific to India, such...

Join Ashwin and Satya as they engage in a brief conversation on the reasons why AI hardware has become a critical public policy question, and why policymakers should know the tradeoffs associated with it. All Things Policy is a daily podcast on public policy brought to you by the Takshashila Institution, Bengaluru. Find out more on our research and other work here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠...