Anticipating the Unintended

Global Policy Watch: Woe Vs Raid Insights on policy issues making news around the World - RSJ On Friday, Justice Samuel Alito along with the conservative bloc of the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) overturned the landmark Roe v Wade judgment that had granted women a federal right to terminate a pregnancy about half a century ago. The conservative raid into the SCOTUS that started with the efforts of Bus...

India Policy Watch: The Road Of Fire Insights on burning policy issues in India - RSJ The Union Defence Minister along with the chiefs of the three armed services on Tuesday announced the ‘Agnipath’ scheme for recruitment into the Indian military. You can read more about the scheme here . I have summarised the key features below: * The soldiers under this scheme (referred to as ‘Agniveers’) will b...

PolicyWTF: See No Evil, Read No Evil, Hear No Evil This section looks at egregious public policies. Policies that make you go: WTF, Did that really happen? — Pranay Kotasthane Earlier this week, I stumbled on this headline in the Business Standard : "Remove price cap and channel bundling restrictions: Broadcasters tell TRAI”. For someone writing a weekly newsletter on Indian public policy, price c...

Global Policy Watch #1: The Man Who Broke Capitalism? Global policy issues relevant for India - RSJ Over the last couple of years, I have run through a list of books in what I call the ‘crisis in liberalism’ genre. There is a template that most of these books follow – begin with the fall of the Berlin wall, remind readers about Fukuyama’s ‘The End of History’ paper, run through the mistakes that a...

India Policy Watch: Why is UBI Back Again? Insights on burning policy issues in India - Pranay Kotasthane The Universal Basic Income (UBI) proposal made it to last week's policy headlines. The occasion was the release of a report commissioned by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. Written by the Institute for Competitiveness, the State of Inequality in India Report bats for “raisi...

India Policy Watch #1: Silver Linings Playbook Insights on burning policy issues in India - RSJ Hello Readers! We are back after a nice, little break.   Things have changed a bit in the past four weeks; haven’t they? Stock markets around the world are down by 10 per cent. Central banks have hiked interest rates by 40-50 bps. Inflation in the US is running at a 40-year high of over eight per cent....

Programming Note: Anticipating The Unintended will be on a 3 week break. We will send you select pieces from our archives during this period. Normal service will resume from May 15. India Policy Watch #1: Hindi Hain Hum... Insights on burning policy issues in India - RSJ There’s that oft-quoted line of sociolinguist Max Weinreich that goes ‘a language is a dialect with an army and navy’. Like many...

India Policy Watch #1: Love For Putin Insights on burning policy issues in India - RSJ You must have noticed a distinct anti-west, pro-Putin tone in the media outlets that toe the government’s line in India. The intellectual right has been busy with columns equivocating on who has to shoulder the blame for the war. What could be the reasons for this?  There’s of course the strategic autonomy argum...

Not(PolicyWTF): Trade Deals Are Good This section looks at policies that are surprisingly sane. - RSJ We signed a trade deal with Australia yesterday. For over a decade now, we have been trying to get this going. The deal falls just short of a free trade agreement (FTA) but that’s a minor quibble that should get sorted in future. Australia’s desire to reduce its dependence on China as the primary...

India Policy Watch: The Indispensability of Economic Growth Insights on burning policy issues in India — Pranay Kotasthane Shruti Rajagopalan and Lant Pritchett's of India conversation is full of insights for all public policy students. From that conversation, there was one particular claim that I want to discuss this week: economic growth is not just necessary, but also a sufficient condition for...

PolicyWTF: Learning Everyday From GST This section looks at egregious public policies. Policies that make you go: WTF, Did that really happen? - RSJ Many years ago, I went out for dinner with a client in Paris. It was a nice restaurant. Soon, the wines started flowing, escargots were polished off and I was educated on the mother sauces of French cuisine. The lark was on the wing, the snail was on...

India Policy Watch #1: What UP Tells Us Insights on burning policy issues in India — RSJ If there was more proof needed that Indian politics has changed forever, it came this week with the results of five state assembly elections. BJP won the big prize, UP, with a comfortable margin while AAP swept Punjab marking its presence beyond Delhi in a spectacular fashion. The question is what is this thin...

Global Policy Watch: Possible End Game In Ukraine? Indian perspectives on global events — RSJ Things have escalated a bit since I wrote last week about the economic sanctions on Russia by the West. Apart from cutting loose a few Russian banks from the SWIFT messaging system, we also had the unprecedented move to freeze the access of the Russian central bank to its forex reserves that are held with...

Global Policy Watch: What Ukraine Tells Us Indian perspectives on global events — RSJ Among the rare joys of writing a weekly newsletter is the ability to pretend you’re an expert on everything under the sun. That way the last 2 years has been a gift that has kept on giving. Science of epidemiology, methods of lockdown, the efficacy of vaccines, how fiscal stimulus should be structured, what to do...

PolicyWTF: Band-aids for Bullet Wounds This section looks at egregious public policies. Policies that make you go: WTF, Did that really happen?  -  Pranay Kotasthane The ongoing political crisis in Ukraine has a small sub-plot that links to India’s education policy self-goals. Before the current crisis unfolded, I had heard that Russia and Ukraine were popular destinations for aspiring medical stu...

India Policy Watch #1: On Hijab And Freedom Insights on burning policy issues in India — RSJ The hijab row roiling colleges in the Udupi district of Karnataka reached the courts this week. A full bench of the Karnataka High Court ruled on Thursday that all students are restrained from wearing clothes with religious symbolism within classrooms in institutions that have a prescribed dress code or un...

Programming Note: It’s just me this time. RSJ will be back next week. - Pranay India Policy Watch #1: The Indefensibility of India’s Defence Financing Insights on burning policy issues in India — Pranay Kotasthane Government budgets should be seen in the context of on-ground realities and future targets. The immediate context of the latest defence budget is the continuing stand-off between Indian...

A long edition for your leisurely Sunday. Thanks for your patience India Policy Watch #1: Call Of Duty Insights on burning policy issues in India -  RSJ Many among you of a particular age might remember a familiar trope from old Hindi films. A key protagonist, grievously injured or sick, is wheeled into the operation theatre. There’s a small red bulb on top of the door that turns on. Grim music pl...

Global Policy Watch: Who’s Afraid Of Stakeholder Capitalism? Insights on global issues of the day -  RSJ Sometime in late 2019, Alan Jope, chief executive of Unilever, the global food and cosmetics giant, declared that brands without an evangelical purpose of contributing to society will soon face extinction. As the Guardian reported then: Alan Jope, Unilever’s chief executive, said it was no long...

Global Policy Watch: Joan Didion On Morality Insights on global issues of the day -  RSJ I want to write about the Andhra Pradesh cinema ticket price cap kerfuffle this week ( read here for context). A regular reader, Prem Sagar, wrote to us last week giving us a picture of what was happening in Tollywood. All the great ingredients of a timeless PolicyWTF have come together there - good intentions...

India Policy Watch: Prediction Time Insights on burning policy issues in India — RSJ Happy New Year! This is a time of hope, optimism and new beginnings. But 2022 has signalled it has no time for such niceties. It is already hitting high notes on all kinds of wrong metrics - peak COVID-19 positivity rates, deeper social polarisation and dangerous levels of toxicity on social media. And it is only...

Programming Note: Anticipating The Unintended will be on its annual year-end break for the next two weeks. Normal services will resume from Jan 9, 2022. Happy Holidays. This is the last edition for 2021. There’s always a temptation to look back at the year gone and arrive at some kind of things-we-learnt-this-year list. As much as we’d like to do that, we really have nothing insightful to offer. I...

India Policy Watch #1: Imitating The Enemy Insights on burning policy issues in India — RSJ Pranay made an interesting point in the last edition on how India should avoid mimicking China if it were to position itself as a counter to them. The core idea was we often fall into the trap of behaving like our ‘enemy’ when we compete with them. This hurts our long term interests. I was thinking about it...

Hey all, our little newsletter hits a 150 with this edition! That’s about 600,000+ words. We also completed two years of bringing you Anticipating The Unintended last month. The process has been rewarding for us (heh, what else can we say about a free newsletter, really?). We hope it’s been of use to you. Thank you for your attention and time. We will be grateful to hear from you. India Policy Wat...

India Policy Watch: Crypto And Samvidhaan   Insights on burning policy issues in India — RSJ When you write a weekly newsletter you view every news item as possible content for the next edition. You shoehorn some framework or stretch things to draw a historical parallel with that event. Trust me, it can be tiring - speaking for me, not for Pranay who has frameworks for his breakfast with poha . Bu...