Interpreting India

How far has India come since independence, and where is it going? What are the opportunities and challenges it has witnessed in the past, and what all awaits it in the near future? In this episode, Suyash Rai invites his colleagues who have previously hosted episodes of Interpreting India to share insights from their work. Anirudh Burman talks about land markets and policy framework for India’s ne...

Collaborative technologies like blockchain promise the ability to improve business processes between entities in any domain, radically lowering the "cost of trust." Sarang Bhoyar joins Priyadarshini D. to discuss the adoption and limitations of blockchain in the Indian context. -- Episode Contributors Sarang Bhoyar is currently the head of blockchain (Centre of Excellence) at the National Payments...

The Indo-Pacific has emerged as a region of great significance. China is cementing its strategic presence in the region with a push toward financing infrastructure, announcements of alternative security and development mechanisms, and security pacts, most recently, with the Solomon Islands. Meanwhile, the United States remains preoccupied with its various priorities including the war in Ukraine an...

Ever since its adoption in October 2000, the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda has emerged as the landmark global framework promoting women’s participation in conflict resolution and achieving sustainable peace. Through its four pillars, participation, conflict prevention, protection, and relief and recovery, the WPS agenda aims to provide a holistic approach to international security. Since...

Lately, Turkey’s actions have come into the limelight. It notably delayed Sweden's and Finland’s memberships in NATO in exchange for fulfilling its own security demands. Meanwhile, it continues to supply drones and other weapons to Ukraine to resist Russian aggression while maintaining its relationship with Moscow at the same time. Turkey has further been involved in the conflict between Azerbaija...

Today, semiconductors are ubiquitous—whether it’s the device on which you’re streaming this episode, the drive assist or safety features of a car, or aerospace and defense equipment. In the last couple of years there has been a dearth of semiconductor supply. The semiconductor shortage today can be attributed to supply chain disruptions and several geopolitical factors that have their origins in t...

Over the last few months, the Indo-Pacific has seen a flurry of activity. China launched the Global Security Initiative and its foreign minister Wang Yi embarked on a tour of the Pacific Islands. More significantly, Beijing inked a security agreement with the Solomon Islands that sent shockwaves across the region. Around the same time, the Quad held its second in-person summit in Tokyo, and the Un...

In this episode of Interpreting India, Radhika Pandey joins Suyash Rai to analyze why India and other major economies are experiencing high inflation, the measures that have been taken to control inflation, the expected impact of these measures on economic growth, and the future course of action. Episode Contributors Radhika Pandey is a Senior Fellow at the National Institute of Public Finance and...

The Group of Seven or G7, an informal forum of leading industrial nations, comprising of the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and Canada, hosted its 48th Summit on June 26-28 in Germany. The Summit, which aims to coordinate global policy, has come at a time when countries across the globe are still coping with the economic and political disruptions caused by the pa...

In December 2021, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, which also regulates commodity markets, issued directions banning new derivative contracts in seven agricultural commodities. This ban covered more than 70 percent of the traded volumes in the Indian agricultural commodity futures market.  What were the reasons for this sudden move, and what repercussions did this have for the spot mark...

Meera Srinivasan, talking about the Sri Lankan government’s lack of planning to deal with an impending economic disaster, reported, “Hospitals are putting off surgeries without enough medical supplies, ink and newsprint shortages have forced newspapers to suspend editions, and schools have postponed term exams because there is no paper to print the questions.” Moreover, Sri Lanka’s foreign currenc...

In this episode, Narayan Prasad Nagendra joins Konark Bhandari to discuss the key developments in India’s space sector. India's space program has been widely recognized for its ability to produce cost effective space technology. This has slowly driven down the costs of missions, including orbital missions, lunar missions, and even Martian missions. However, these endeavors have largely been driven...

Formal decolonization of India came two years after the terrific demonstration of the power of the atom in a volatile international order. The arrival of the nuclear age, with the departure of the British presented Indian physicists a unique opportunity to take a capable decision on the nuclear question in a new country.  In this episode of Interpreting India, Jahnavi Phalkey joins Shibani Mehta t...

In this episode, Tanvi Madan and P.S. Raghavan join Deep Pal to discuss the evolving dynamic between Russia, India, and China, against the background of the war in Ukraine.  The concept of a tripartite alliance between Russia, China, and India was first proposed by then-Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov in 1998, and Moscow has been working to promote it ever since. After a gap of 12 years, R...

In this episode, Naushad Forbes joins Suyash Rai to discuss his recently published book, ' The Struggle and the Promise: Restoring India’s Potential ' . The book, written by Naushad Forbes, is a wide-ranging exploration of India’s developmental potential, and the challenges that could impede the realization of that potential. Naushad Forbes is the co-chairman of Forbes Marshall, India's leading St...

In this episode, Vijay Gokhale joins Rudra Chaudhuri to take stock of the recent meet between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and the External Affairs Minister of India, Dr. S. Jaishankar. Together, they discuss the significance of Wang Yi’s visit to India, particularly against the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine crisis. How does the Ukraine crisis shape the Sino-Indian relationship? Separately, w...

In this episode of Interpreting India,  Jayita Sarkar  joins Shibani Mehta to take a step back and understand the history of the Rohingya Crisis. Who are the Rohingya people? What does their story tell us about Myanmar’s political history? When did the polarization between the communities begin? In Myanmar, the Rohingya people have been subjected to decades of brutality, prejudice, and persecution...

In this episode of Interpreting India, Robert Greene joins Priyadarshini D. to explore the use and impact of China’s digital yuan. What's China's motivation behind its e-CNY? How does it work? What are some of the domestic and international implications of its rollout?  The digital yuan is a centralized, cash-like digital currency. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC)--the Chinese central bank--and d...

In this episode of Interpreting India, Sanjay Gupta joins Konark Bhandari to shed an industry perspective at semiconductor supply chains and India’s potential in the space.  Today, semiconductors are used everywhere. Whether it’s the device on which you’re streaming this episode, the drive assist or safety features of a car, or aerospace and defense equipment—semiconductors are ubiquitous. However...

In this episode, Dmitri Trenin joins Rudra Chaudhuri to discuss the tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Together, they take a closer look at the current impasse and the geopolitics shaping it. With more than 100,000 Russian troops stationed near Ukraine's northern and eastern borders, the situation between Russia and Ukraine is getting more tense. The United States has deployed nearly 2000 additi...

In this episode, Arvind Subramanian joins Suyash Rai to discuss the rise and fall of India's economic growth. The pandemic has been costly for the Indian economy, delaying India's journey to prosperity by at least two years. But even before the pandemic, India's economy wasn't necessarily in the best shape. The official GDP estimates show a sharp slowdown since 2017, and investments and exports--t...

In this episode, Tanvi Ratna , CEO of Policy 4.0, joins   Priyadarshini , Associate Fellow, Carnegie India, to discuss the cryptocurrency space in India. World over, cryptocurrencies have reached a market capitalization of more than 2.5 trillion dollars in a little over a decade, since Satoshi Nakamoto--the person(s) who remain anonymous to this day--released the white paper on Bitcoin and set off...

In this episode, Deep Pal joins Shibani Mehta to delve deep into China’s influence in South Asia.  In recent years, China’s engagement in South Asia has expanded significantly beyond commercial and development projects to encompass political and security interests. While this interaction often targets the needs of specific countries, even states with relatively robust state institutions and civil...

In this episode, Matthew D. Green joins Udbhav Tiwari to delve into the debate surrounding end-to-end encryption. In February, the Indian government issued new rules requiring companies like WhatsApp to implement traceability in their end-to-end encrypted communications platforms. The decision originated from the government’s concerns about the proliferation of illegal activities on these services...

In this episode, Shanthie Mariet D'Souza joins Shibani Mehta to analyze the question of aid and development in a Taliban led Afghanistan. The Western withdrawal from Afghanistan and the ensuing ascent of the Taliban has led to the collapse of the Afghan economy. The foreign aid, crucial towards sustaining the economy, has mostly stopped, resulting in food shortages, a decline in the value of local...