Ideas of India

The fifth scholar in our young scholars series, Dr. Vaidehi Tandel . She is an economist specializing in urban political economy and policy in India. I spoke with Vaidehi about her work on urban economics in India, in particular, her paper on " What's in a definition? A study on the suitability of the current urban definition in India through its employment guarantee programme. (with Komal Hiranan...

The fourth scholar in our young scholars series is Proma Ray Chaudhury , a PhD Candidate at the School of Law and Government in Dublin City University under the EU Marie Curie ETN Global India Project, working on gender and women's political participation in contemporary India. I spoke with Proma about her paper titled, " The Political Asceticism of Mamata  Banerjee: Female Populist Leadership in...

For the next few weeks I will be speaking to young doctoral and post-doctoral candidates entering the academic job market and the policy world about their newly minted research on Indian political economy. The third scholar in our young scholars series, Dr. Tanu Kumar is a postdoctoral fellow at William and Mary's Global Research Institute . She is a political scientist studying urban politics and...

For the next few weeks I will be speaking to young doctoral and post-doctoral candidates entering the academic job market and the policy world about their newly minted research on Indian political economy. The next scholar in our young scholar series is of Dr. Rohit Ticku . Rohit is a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for the Study of Religion, Economics, and Society at Chapman University . He...

For the next few weeks, I will be speaking to young doctoral and post-doctoral candidates entering the academic and policy works about their newly minted research on Indian political economy. The first scholar in our young scholars' series is Dr. Vaishnavi Surendra . Vaishnavi is a post-doctoral scholar at University of California, Berkley. She is a development economist working in the area of hou...

Shruti talks with Adam Auerbach about competition, creative problem-solving, and formalizing political activity in India's urban slums. In this episode, Shruti spoke with Adam Auerbach about his 2019 book, Demanding Development: The Politics of Public Goods Provision in India's Urban Slums . Auerbach is an assistant professor in the School of International Service at American University. His resea...

Today's guest is Rohit De, who is an associate professor of history at Yale University. His recent book, A People's Constitution: The Everyday Life of Law in the Indian Republic , is an excellent look at how the constitution actually transformed the daily lives of citizens in profound and lasting ways. Rohit details how those on the margins of society, like butchers and prostitutes, or drinkers an...

Today my guest is Vijayendra Rao, or as he's known, Biju Rao, a lead economist in the Development Research Group at the World Bank. His recent book coauthored with professor Paromita Sanyal called  Oral Democracy: Deliberation in Indian Village Assemblies , is an excellent study of citizens voice in India's Gram Sabhas, or village assemblies, which are also the largest deliberative institution in...

Today's guest is Viral Acharya, who is the C.V. Starr Professor of Economics in the Department of Finance at New York University's Stern School of Business. His recent book, Quest for Restoring Financial Stability in India is an excellent introduction to the problems of autonomous central banking in the face of fiscal dominance by the ever-expanding Indian state. The book contains a series of Vira...

My guest today is  Sriya Iyer , a Bibby Fellow and College Lecturer at St Catharine's College and Affiliated Lecturer and Janeway Fellow at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Cambridge.  Her recent book,  The Economics of Religion in India   is an excellent survey of her work on religion in India, from the economic point of view, studied using the tools of economics.  In this book Sriya...

Anuj is a professor at the Jindal Global Law School. And his recent book, Courting the People: Public Interest Litigation in Post-Emergency India is an excellent account of the development and failure of the Public Interest Litigation movement. In this book Anuj details the big PIL cases in the last few decades – concerning pollution of the Taj Mahal, pollution of river Ganges, as well as cases de...

Dinyar Patel an Assistant Professor of South Asian History at the SP Jain Institute of Management & Research and a research affiliate at the Mittal Institute at Harvard University.  His latest book, Naoroji: Pioneer of Indian Nationalism , is an excellent biography of Dadabhai Naoroji, a foundational figure in the building of modern-day India. I had a chance to speak with Dinyar about the trajecto...

Welcome to Ideas of India , a podcast where we examine academic thinking that can propel India forward. My name is Shruti Rajagopalan. Today, my guest is Madhav Khosla, associate professor of political science at Ashoka University and the Ambedkar Visiting Associate Professor at Columbia Law School . His latest book, India's Founding Moment: The Constitution of a Most Surprising Democracy , detail...

Welcome to Ideas Of India, where we examine the academic ideas that can propel India forward. My name is Shruti Rajagopalan, and I'm an economist at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. My guest today is Ajay Shah, professor of economics at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy in New Delhi. Over the years I've learned a lot from Ajay's academic and policy-oriented researc...