Ideas of India

This episode is the seventh in a miniseries of weekly short episodes featuring young scholars entering the academic job market who discuss their latest research. In this episode, Shruti speaks with Neha Gupta about her job market paper, " Homeownership, Renting and Market Failures: Evidence from Indian Slums ." They discuss government policies to increase affordable housing, how nonstate actors af...

This episode is the sixth 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 Karmini Sharma about her job market paper, " Tackling Sexual Harassment: Experimental Evidence from India ." They discuss how training about sexual harassment affects women's preferences and men's behavior...

This episode is the fifth 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 Ashish Sedai about his job market paper, " Piped Water: Welfare and Empowerment: Empirical Evidence From a Gendered Analysis in India ." They discuss the importance of indoor piped drinking water and its r...

This episode is the fourth 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 Bhumi Purohit about female leaders' access to networks, gender quotas, expanding women's access to social and political capital, and much more. Purohit is a Ph. D. candidate in political science at the Un...

This episode is the third in a mini-series of weekly short episodes featuring young scholars entering the academic job market who discuss their latest research. In this episode, Shruti speaks with Dr. Gaurav Mittal about illegal and informal methods of transit, the role of courts and bureaucrats in transportation policy, failed government schemes to solve the transportation crisis and much more. M...

This episode is the second in a mini-series of weekly short episodes featuring young scholars entering the academic job market who discuss their latest research. In this episode, Shruti talks with Chhavi Tiwari  about her job market paper titled " Internal Migration and Rural Inequalities in India " (with Sankalpa Bhattacherjee). They talk about the differences between seasonal and permanent migra...

This episode is the first in a mini-series of weekly short episodes featuring young scholars entering the academic job market who discuss their latest research. In this episode, Shruti speaks with Arkadev Ghosh about his job market paper titled, Religious Divisions and Production Technology: Experimental Evidence from India . They discuss the effects of inter-religion work groups on team productiv...

In this episode, Shruti speaks with Dr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta about Adam Smith's "The Theory of Moral Sentiments," spectatorship and imagination, self-interest, federalism, the Scottish Enlightenment as applied to Indian politics and much more. Mehta is the Laurence Rockefeller Professor for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton University. He is also a contributing editor and columnist at the Indian E...

In this episode, Shruti talks with Alice Evans about fraternal capital, women's limited mobility, female friendships, representations of women in art and much more. Evans is a lecturer at King's College London and a faculty associate at the Center for International Development at Harvard's Kennedy School. She has published on topics such as women's labor force participation, urbanization and socia...

In this episode, Shruti talks with Uday Bhatia about Hindi gangster films, particularly "Satya" and its legacy. They discuss vigilante cops, corrupt politicians and other movie tropes, as well as how the Indian gangster film has evolved over time. Bhatia is a film critic with Mint Lounge. He has previously worked with Time Out Delhi and The Sunday Guardian. His writing has appeared in The Caravan,...

Ideas of India is a podcast in which Mercatus Senior Research Fellow Shruti Rajagopalan examines the academic ideas that can propel India forward. You can subscribe to the podcast on  Apple ,  Spotify ,  Google ,  Overcast ,  Stitcher  or the podcast app of your choice. In this episode, Shruti talks with Shreyas Narla and Prakhar Misra about India's 1991 economic reforms. They discuss the role of...

In this episode, Shruti talks with Salil Tripathi about Bangladesh's economic prosperity, cultural similarities and differences with India, religious and linguistic identity, and about what India can learn from Bangaladesh on its 50th anniversary. Tripathi is an Indian journalist, author and editor, currently the chair of PEN International's Writers in Prison Committee. and he is the Senior Adviso...

In this episode, Shruti and Amartya Lahiri discuss the Indian economy in light of the country's socialist past, distrust of markets, current monetary policy and continuing challenges. Lahiri is a professor at the Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia. He has previously held positions at the University of California Los Angeles and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York....

In this episode, Shruti and Krish Ashok discuss different Indian cuisines, oral versus written tradition, the fusion of different musical styles, the challenges of working remotely and much more. Krish is the global head of digital workplace practice at Tata Consultancy Services in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. He is also a classical violinist, guitarist and cellist, and he has written a book, Masal...

In this episode, Shruti and Yashica Dutt discuss India's caste system, being Dalit and "passing" as non-Dalit, the intersection of caste and gender, reservations in the Indian educational system and much more. Dutt is an Indian writer and journalist who has written on a broad range of topics including fashion, gender, identity, culture and caste. She has worked with the Hindustan Times, LiveMint,...

In this episode, Shruti and Keshav Desiraju discuss Indian musical traditions, devadasi women and the music of M. S. Subbulakshmi. Desiraju is the author of " Of Gifted Voice: The Life and Art of M. S. Subbulakshmi ." He has recently retired from a career with the Indian Administrative Service and in 2013 was Secretary of Health & Family Welfare to the Government of India. He has held many positio...

In this episode, Shruti and Chinmay Tumbe discuss the history of pandemics in India and throughout the world, including cholera, influenza, plague and now COVID-19. They also discuss how issues of caste, migration and scientific progress have influenced these pandemics. Tumbe is an assistant professor of economics at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. His research interests include urba...

In this episode, Shruti talks with Alice Evans about issues affecting women in India, including single-gender education, son preference, social media and many others. Evans is a lecturer at King's College London and a faculty associate at the Center for International Development at Harvard's Kennedy School. She has published on topics such as women's labor force participation, urbanization and soc...

In this episode, Shruti and Virginia Postrel discuss her latest book, " The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World ." They talk about different methods of dyeing, spinning as a feminine occupation, the textile trade in the 17th and 18th centuries, how technological changes disrupted the industry and much more. Postrel is an author, columnist and speaker whose work spans a broad range...

In this episode, Shruti talks to Himanshu Jha about his recent book, Capturing Institutional Change: The Case of the Right to Information Act in India .  Himanshu is a lecturer and research fellow in the Department of Political Science at the South Asia Institute at Heidelberg University in Germany. Full transcript of this episode Follow us on Twitter Follow Shruti on Twitter Follow Himanshu on Tw...

In this episode, Shruti speaks with Milan Vaishnav about a report, How Do Indian Americans View India? , in which he and his co-authors ( Sumitra Badrinathan and Devesh Kapur ) conducted a survey about the political beliefs of Indian Americans. They discuss the results of the survey and talk about how the Indian American community might change in the future. Vaishnav is the director and senior fel...

In this episode, Shruti talks with Shoumitro Chatterjee about farms and farm policy in India, particularly in terms of government subsidies and other state intervention in agricultural markets. Chatterjee is an assistant professor of economics at Pennsylvania State University. His research interests include agriculture and international trade and development. Full transcript of this episode Follow...

In this episode, Shruti and Chandra Bhan Prasad discuss the legacy of philosophy of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, the status of Dalits in India and the importance of entrepreneurship. Prasad is an Indian journalist, political commentator and activist, an entrepreneur and founder of the ByDalits.com platform, an adviser to the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the editor of Dalit Enterprise...

In this episode, Shruti spoke with Arvind Panagariya about his book, Free Trade and Prosperity: How Openness Helps the Developing Countries Grow Richer and Combat Poverty . Panagariya is Professor of Economics and the Jagdish Bhagwati Professor of Indian Political Economy at Columbia University. From January 2015 to August 2017, he served as the first Vice Chairman of the NITI Aayog, Government of...

This episode is the sixth and final installment of a series in which Shruti speaks with doctoral candidates and postdoctoral scholars about their research as they enter the job market and the world of academia. The first episode featured Vaishnavi Surendra, the second episode featured Rohit Ticku, the third episode featured Tanu Kumar, the fourth episode featured Proma Ray Chaudhury, and the fifth...