Chats Over Chai

As a pioneer in her field, Kishwar is contributing to the food tapestry of Australia through cultural exchange. In this podcast, Kishwar sheds a light on roots of South Asian cooking, celebrating Australian produce and local growers. Listen to how Kishwar shares her experience of India, her leadership as a South Asian woman making an impact on India Australia ties through shared produce. As an adv...

Investing in Renewable Energy: Collaborating through Tech This podcast was recorded live in New Delhi on the sixth of September, during the Australia India Leadership Dialogue. It is conversation between Mike Cannon-Brookes, the co-CEO and co-Founder of Australian founded tech company Atlassian, and Suhasini Haidar, the Diplomatic Editor of The Hindu. It delves into Mike's passion for investi...

Tagore is one of the founding fathers of the Republic of India, alongside the likes of Nehru, Gandhi and Ambedkar. He was a world-renowned poet, composer, playwright, painter and social reformer among many other things and was best known outside of South Asia for his collection of poems, Gitanjali, that awarded him the Nobel prize in Literature 1913, the first non-European to win such a prize. Tag...

Dr. Surjeet Dhanji, Manager for Victorian Government Projects at the Australia India Institute chats to Arpita Das, founder of Yoda Press, and Editor of South Asian Series, Melbourne University Press. Arpita is also visiting faculty, lecturer at Ashoka University, where she teaches critical thinking. Amongst her many other ventures is her feminist electives, and in this podcast, Arpita shares with...

Tamil Nadu located in the southern Part of India, is the country’s 2nd largest economy, 3rd largest exporting state and currently contributes 8.95% to India's net exports. Over the years the state has attracted tremendous investment and emerged as the number one investment destination in the first nine months of the Financial Year of 2022. The state is also a leader in renewables and has been...

Published in 2018, An India Economic Strategy to 2035: Navigating Potential to Delivery, created a blueprint for the future of Australia’s economic engagement with India and remains a key framework for driving the Australia-India relationship forward. This month, the India Economic Strategy Update was published and launched by Trade, Tourism and Investment Minister Dan Tehan in Melbourne. Join Amb...

Frank Wesley was a prolific and influential artist from Azamgarh who later worked in Mussoorie, India. He became known for pushing boundaries in religious art forms and he won various accolades. His artwork had broad appeal, with his work featuring in a Vatican display, on the first UNICEF Christmas card and, perhaps most notably, on the urn for the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the natio...

On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. Going beyond the contested regions in the East, the Russian troops marched on other Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, and Putin announced that his nuclear forces were on high alert. This war has had a significant humanitarian, economic, and geopolitical fallout. Meanwhile the UN General Assembly has voted to adopt a resolution condemning Russia’s invasi...

2021 witnessed the historic elevation of the QUAD when the leaders of the four nations met in the US and discussed the future of the QUAD and the Indo-Pacific. The members also agreed to work together on multiple issues of significance, and through their QUAD vaccine diplomacy played a crucial role in helping the region deal with the pandemic. QUAD nations have time and again expressed concerns ov...

The Australia India Institute's Director, Lisa Singh in conversation with Professor Bindu Puri from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on the significance of satyagraha as a method of earning rights through self-suffering rather than inflicting suffering on others and the influence of such satyagraha on contemporary movements and as an inspiration to those who seek to fight oppression and inju...

COVID-19 is the virus that shut down the world. High vaccination rates have the potential to unlock global travel, however both India and Australia have a long way to go to vaccinate their populations. What can India and Australia learn from each other’s experiences in rolling out COVID-19 vaccines? And what role does, or could, the media play towards a successful vaccine rollout in India and Aust...

India’s devastating second wave of COVID-19 is finally showing signs of easing after weeks of lockdowns across the country. But hospitals in India are still overflowing with COVID-19 patients. In this podcast, we hear from two frontline health workers in India who share their experiences treating COVID-19 patients in intensive care and counselling patients and their families. This podcast was a co...

As coronavirus continues to ravage India, students from India find themselves torn between family responsibilities at home and their studies in Australia. Monash University PhD candidate Shaheen Ahmed is in Melbourne and unable to be with her family in India. While Dr Akash Aaron is using his medical skills to support a charitable hospital in India, but his situation is hindering his studies at th...

In this podcast, the Australia India Institute’s Professor Ashok Muthupandian, Professor Nathan Grills and Dr Haripriya (Priya) Rangan discuss the current COVID-19 crisis devastating India and how the Institute and University of Melbourne are lending support. Professor Ashok Muthupandian is the AII’s Acting Director and the Assistant Deputy Vice-Chancellor International at the University of Melbou...

In the second episode of Ten Minutes India, we speak with Senior Research Adviser at the Australia India Institute, Jyoti Shukla. Jyoti Shukla is a Lecturer in Property at the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne. She also works as a Senior Research Adviser at the Australia India Institute. Issues related to housing and land economics are of prime interest...

In the first episode of our new podcast series for 2020, Ten Minutes India, we speak with Dr Roja Singh. Roja Singh's critical ethnography on caste and gender is rooted in interactions and lived experiences in communities of Dalit women in Tamil Nadu, India. Situated in transnational feminist discourses, Singh's perspective as a Dalit woman, provides an intersectional social analysis of...

Senator Lisa Singh was the first woman of South Asian heritage to be elected to Australia's Parliament. She spoke to Dr Priya Chacko about why Australia needs to forge stronger bonds with India and what steps can be taken to strengthen the bilateral relationship. Host: Dr Priya ChackoProducer: Simon PapagiorcopuloAudio Engineer: Chris Hatzis

Has the Modi government delivered on its election promises? What does February's interim budget tell us about the future of the world's fastest-growing economy? Dr Amitendu Palit from the National University of Singapore's Institute for South Asian Studies shares his expert insights with the Aii. Host: Simon PapagiorcopuloProducer: Simon PapagiorcopuloAudio Engineer: Chris Hatzis

Vice-Chancellor of the University of Witwatersrand Adam Habib joins Professor Haripriya Rangan to discuss how India is perceived in South Africa and how institutions in the Global South are moving to address inequality in education. Host: Haripriya RanganAudio Engineer: Chris Hatzis

There are 22 official languages in India, but more than 780 have been recognised. It can be a challenge to communicate across the country, and while the most common language is Hindi there’s a communication of all sorts in a variety of dialects and scripts. Guests: Professor Robin Jeffrey, Professor Ian WoolfordHost: Matthew Smith

Religion and caste divide Indians in many ways – religion primarily between Hindu and Muslim, with Hindus further divided by a complex caste system that can influence where they work, how they live and who they marry. How is modern India dealing with internal divisions? Guest: Professor Robin JeffreyHost: Matthew Smith

With a fast-growing population and aspirations to join the throwaway prosperity of the developed world, India generates vast quantities of waste, sewage and pollution. How does it deal with the problem? Guests: Emeritus Professor Robin Jeffrey, Associate Professor Assa DoronHost: Matthew Smith

Over the years, the Indian National Congress has largely looked to the Nehru-Gandhi family for leadership, making them powerful figures in India's political landscape. Does current leader Rahul Gandhi have what it takes? Guest: Emeritus Professor Robin JeffreyHost: Matthew Smith

India goes to the polls in 2019, and popular incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi is currently favoured to retain his position. With close to a billion people eligible to vote, elections in India present immense organisational hurdles. Guest: Emeritus Professor Robin JeffreyHost: Matthew Smith

In 2017, India celebrated 70 years of independence from British rule. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the country, calling for the people to set aside their differences. “India is about peace, unity and goodwill,” said Modi. “we have to take the country ahead with the determination of creating a new India.” Can a new India emerge from the old? How has it been shaped by its years in the Brit...