Puliyabaazi Hindi Podcast पुलियाबाज़ी हिन्दी पॉडकास्ट

In this episode, we discuss India’s economic trajectory before, during, and after COVID-19 with Ajit Ranade, Senior Fellow at the Takshashila Institution. Ajit talks about the factors that derailed the Indian economy and suggests concrete actions that Indian governments can take to bounce back from the economic crisis. Listen in! इस एपिसोड में चर्चा भारतीय अर्थव्यवस्था पर जाने-माने अर्थशास्त्री अज...

In this episode, we discuss how COVID-19 is likely to affect geopolitical and geoeconomic trends. Pranay and Saurabh discuss how the world might change due to the COVID-19 pandemic, how this new world order will affect India, the domestic policy reforms needed to prosper in this world, and India’s foreign policy outlook for a changed world. कोविड-19 की वजह से विश्व व्यवस्था में कई बड़े बदलाव आ रहे...

How and why do Indian political parties use digital platforms such as Twitter even though only a small percentage of the Indian population is on this platform? Is a techno-savvy image a bane or a boon for a politician in India? Are different social media platforms suited for different kinds of political uses? Listen to this Puliyabaazi with Joyojeet Pal (@joyopal) who researches the use of social...

Pavan Srinath (@zeusisdead) returns as a guest to discuss three key elements for overcoming Covid-19: testing strategies, vaccination development, and societal immunity. यह एपिसोड है कोविड-१९ का ख़ात्मा करने के लिए ज़रूरी तीन चीज़ों पर: टेस्टिंग, टीकाकरण, और इम्युनिटी| पवन श्रीनाथ (@zeusisdead) के साथ इस चर्चा में आपको मिलेगा उत्तर इन सवालों का: 1. कितने प्रकार के टेस्ट है कोविड-१९ की जाँच करने के लि...

How is it that Indian governments are good at conducting elections and organising Kumbh Melas but are terrible at maintaining public infrastructure? Why does the Indian State seem to be omnipresent and inadequate at the same time? These are some questions that ‘State Capacity’ literature deals with. So in this episode, we discuss insights on Indian state capacity with Prakhar Misra (@PrakharMisra)...

Karl Popper once said “We are all philosophers; we all accept certain philosophical theories, if only unconsciously.” But what does the formal academic discipline of philosophy entail? How does a philosophical inquiry help us resolve some fundamental dilemmas in our minds? This is the focus of this puliyabaazi with Sushruth Ravish, research scholar at Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Depart...

The world is still trying to figure a way out of the coronavirus outbreak. So in this episode, we take a step back and discuss common epidemics in India — their reasons, cures, and preparedness. Joining us is Shambhavi Naik, a cancer biologist and fellow at Takshashila Institution’s Technology Policy Programme. वायरस क्या हैं और इतने घातक क्यों हैं? महामारियाँ कैसे फैलती हैं? अब जब करोनावायरस महाम...

Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality, Extended Reality — these terms have been the town of the tech town for over half a decade now. So in this geeky episode, we discuss how these technologies are changing the world of entertainment and education. Joining us is Vineet Devaiah , Founder of TeliportMe , a virtual reality content company. Vineet takes us through the strides that virtual...

Street vendors are a quintessential part of Indian cities. Yet, their right to carry out their trade in public spaces is hampered by inherent class bias and state corruption. So in this episode, we speak to Prashant Narang , lawyer and Associate Director at Centre for Civil Society in Delhi. Prashant is the mind behind the Street Vendor Compliance Index, a study that assesses the implementation of...

Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Michael Kremer won the Nobel Prize in Economics 2019 “for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty”. This experimental approach — Randomised Control Trials (RCTs) — is an alternative paradigm for conducting economics research. Adopted from medicine, RCTs are arguably referred to as the ‘gold standard’ for establishing causality. So this episode...

What does the future of electric vehicles and electric storage in India look like? Charging stations or battery swapping - which model is better for Indian conditions? What role can the government play to encourage this industry? We take stock of the EV revolution in India with Rahul Raj, co-founder of energy storage solution company, Inverted Energy . शहरों में आजकल एक-दो इलेक्ट्रिक गाड़ियाँ दिख ह...

2019 was a record-breaking one for Indian startups. Across sectors, companies raised more than $4 billion in venture capital last year. In fact, the first three quarters of 2019 alone witnessed the emergence of eight new unicorns (valuation > $ 1billion). So, in this episode, we take a close look at the world of venture capital which invests risk capital in these companies. To discuss this, we...

The Preamble of the Indian Constitution has become a rallying point for lakhs of anti-CAA and NRC protesters across India. The preamble is being read out every single day on the streets of several cities. However, the Hindi version of the Preamble is hardly being read out, possibly because it uses ornate and archaic Hindi. So in this special episode of Puliyabaazi, we attempt a simpler version of...

In this episode, Saurabh and Pranay discuss how the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register for Indian Citizens is likely to work on the ground. They also discuss the ways in which these moves will hurt the Indian national interest. ये नागरिकता संशोधन अधिनियम आख़िर है क्या? इसका NRC से क्या रिश्ता है? इसी विषय पर विस्तार से चर्चा इस पुलियाबाज़ी में। Puliyabaazi is on these platforms: Twitter...

Energy security — what does it really mean? Can a country like India, heavily dependent on imports for its energy demands ever become energy secure? What are the global trends on oil, natural gas, nuclear, and renewable sources of energy? These are some themes we explore in this episode with Siddharth Singh @siddharth3 , a climate change and energy policy researcher, and author of ‘ The Great Smog...

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria finally met its demise with the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on October 26th. So in this episode of Puliyabaazi we take a look at ISIS, its recruitment methods, its use of technology, and its bureaucracy. We also discuss cases in the Indian sub-continent that claimed links with the ISIS. Joining us for this conversation is Kabir Taneja, a Fellow with the Observ...

Puliyabaazi is fifty episodes old now! To mark this occasion, we return to discussing a foundational text. In this episode, we discuss insights from Nobel Prize laureate Daniel Kahneman’s classic Thinking, Fast and Slow. The work in this book was instrumental in creating a new discipline of economics known as behavioral economics. The central thesis of the book is that human thinking is actually a...

In episodes  11  and  12  we discussed contemporary China from a political and economic angle. So this episode is about China’s society. We discuss the lived experience of an Indian in smaller cities of China and try to understand the similarities and differences in the two societies. Joining us for this Puliyabaazi is  Sunny Mewati , academic director of Sunrise International. Sunny has been in C...

The future of mobility is autonomous. But it’s hard to imagine that future in Indian conditions where roads occupy spots between potholes, the traffic pattern is Brownian, and non-verbal communication is a lead indicator of vehicular movement. So in this episode, we speak about Indian challenges and opportunities in the autonomous vehicle space. Explicating this history, present, and future of aut...

Fake news, disinformation, misinformation, and social media manipulation — these are elements of perhaps the most significant global story of these times. And yet, this phenomenon remains underexplored. We do not fully understand what causes people to generate, share, and believe in fake propaganda. So in this episode, we discuss the anatomy of fake news with Pratik Sinha, editor and co-founder of...

The events surrounding Chandrayaan-2’s landing attempt captured India’s imagination earlier this month. This also gave us a reason to talk about Space on Puliyabaazi again. In our previous episode on space, we discussed  the story of ISRO . In this episode, we explore the world of rocketry — the enabling technology for space exploration. Joining us in this conversation is Divyanshu Poddar, co-foun...

The National Registry of Citizens (NRC) has been in the national news recently. So in this episode, we take a step back to understand the causes and dynamics of insider-outsider tensions in North-East India. Joining us is author and journalist  Samrat , who has co-edited a book with Preeti Gill on this topic, titled  Insider-Outsider: Belonging and Unbelonging in North-East India . Puliyabaazi is...

बलोचिस्तान आजकल भारत में एक बहुचर्चित विषय हो गया है | प्रधानमंत्री मोदी ने तीन साल पहले अपने स्वतंत्रता दिवस भाषण में इसका उल्लेख किया | इससे पहले पाकिस्तान ने भारत के एक नागरिक कुलभूषण जाधव को ईरान से कब्ज़े में ले लिया और आरोप लगाया कि भारत की ख़ुफ़िया एजेंसी R&AW बलोचिस्तान में आतंकवादी गतिविधियों को बढ़ावा दे रही है | तो इस बार की पुलियाबाज़ी बलोचिस्तान पर तिलक देवाशर के साथ | देवाशर जी  Pakistan:...

बौद्धिक सम्पदा: पेटेंट, कॉपीराइट, और ट्रेड सीक्रेट की कहानी कोका कोला के ट्रेड सीक्रेस्ट फॉर्मूले की कहानियाँ तो सभी ने सुनी है | पर यह कॉपीराइट, पेटेंट, और ट्रेड सीक्रेट आख़िर है क्या? बौद्धिक सम्पदा (Intellectual Property) के अधिकार के यह सभी साधन एक अर्थव्यवस्था के लिए क्या फ़ायदे-नुक़सान लाते हैं? इसी विषय पर सुनिए अगली पुलियाबाज़ी  मिहिर महाजन  के साथ जो पेटेंट नीति विशेषज्ञ है | कुछ सवाल जिनपर ह...

The debate on governmental reform often takes one of these three turns: privatization, nationalization, or devolution. But none of the three narratives provides a comprehensive framework for reforming government organisations. For example, privatization might not always be possible nor advisable. Similarly, devolution of policy and regulatory roles can have adverse effects on efficiency. Nationali...