Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy's Podcast

Ritwika Sharma discusses the Fundamental Values that Shaped India, from the Objectives Resolution passed in the Constituent Assembly in December 1946, to the final Constitution that came into force across India and its contemporary challenges. The Book of India Conversations is a podcast series by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy aiming to make the Constitution of India accessible to the larger p...

In Episode 2 of Season 2 of the Feminist City podcast series, Sneha Visakha is in conversation with Dr. Govind Gopakumar, Associate Professor and Chair, Centre for Engineering in Society at Concordia University. In this episode, they discuss Dr. Gopakumar’s work in Bengaluru on topics ranging from the politics of urban infrastructure, urban mobility policies surrounding cars, buses and car-centric...

Zoya Hasan and Lalit Panda discuss the idea of Secularism in India, its Constitutional Position and the evolution of Secularism and Pluralism across the Indian political space. The Book of India Conversations is a podcast series by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy aiming to make the Constitution of India accessible to the larger public. Join us to Open the Book of India.

Ritwika Sharma and Lalit Panda discuss the Constitution of India, its significance and its journey over the years. As India turns 75, the Constitution is a cornerstone of the Indian story. The Book of India Conversations is a podcast series by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy aiming to make the Constitution of India accessible to the larger public. Join us to Open the Book of India.

Listen to Chapter 1 of Hamīñ Ast? A Biography of Article 370 read by Kevin James. Hamīñ Ast? traces the constitutional and legal history of Article 370 from its origins as a placeholder that guaranteed the state a say in any future constitutional arrangement till they drafted their own Constitution until its sudden nullification whose political and legal ramifications are still unfolding. Read the...

Listen to Chapter 2 of Hamīñ Ast? A Biography of Article 370 read by Kevin James. Hamīñ Ast? traces the constitutional and legal history of Article 370 from its origins as a placeholder that guaranteed the state a say in any future constitutional arrangement till they drafted their own Constitution until its sudden nullification whose political and legal ramifications are still unfolding. Read the...

In the 11th and last episode of Justify Season 3, Dr Arghya Sengupta discusses the accomplished and award-winning movie Once Upon A Time in Calcutta with its director, Aditya Vikram Sengupta. Among other things, they discuss growing up in Calcutta, their experiences of the city, and the genesis of the film.

In the 10th episode of Justify Season 3, Dr Arghya Sengupta discusses the Gyanvapi controversy with Valay Singh, a journalist and author of the acclaimed work, ‘Ayodhya: City of Faith, City of Discord’, and Ronojoy Sen, Research Lead at National University of Singapore, and the author of ‘Articles of Faith: Religion, Secularism, and the Indian Supreme Court’. In this respect, they examine the Plac...

In the 9th episode of Justify Season 3, Vidhi’s podcast on law and politics in India, Dr Arghya Sengupta discusses the software Pegasus with Subhashis Banerjee, a professor of computer science and engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. They deep dive into the social and legal issues surrounding surveillance technology, examine the concerns of privacy and national security, and t...

In the 8th episode of Justify Season 3, Vidhi’s podcast on law and politics in India, Dr Arghya Sengupta discusses the role of internet and social media on free speech, particularly within academic institutions, with Faisal Devji, Professor of History at Oxford University. Watch out for Vidhi’s quiz, CLATTR, at the end of the episode, and stand a chance to win a voucher for a Disney+Hotstar subscr...

In the 7th episode of Justify Season 3, Vidhi’s podcast on law and politics in India, Dr Arghya Sengupta discusses the status of religious minorities, framing it in the context of the recent Hijab row, with Raag Yadava, Professor at National Law School of India University, Bangalore. They deep dive into how India's religious minorities are treated by the state, discrimination, hate speech, and mor...

In the 6th episode of Justify Season 3, Vidhi’s podcast on law and politics in India, Dr Arghya Sengupta discusses political violence in India and its interface with elections with Shruti Kapila, a professor of history at the University of Cambridge and the author of Violent Fraternity: Political Thought in the Global Age. Watch out for Vidhi’s quiz, CLATTR, at the end of the episode, and stand a...

In the 5th episode of Justify Season 3, Vidhi’s podcast on law and politics in India, Dr Arghya Sengupta discusses the conflict between Russia and Ukraine with Priya Pillai, a leading international law expert. Delving deep into international law, they examine the role of the United Nations and international judicial bodies in containing this conflict. They also analyse India's diplomatic position...

In the 4th episode of Justify Season 3, Vidhi’s podcast on law and politics in India, Dr Arghya Sengupta discusses the passage and the eventual repeal of the notorious farm laws, with Ireena Vittal. Continuing from their discussion on the farm laws in Justify S2, they discuss the state of the farming sector in India and the reforms it needs. Watch out for Vidhi’s quiz, CLATTR, at the end of the ep...

In the 3rd episode of Justify Season 3, Vidhi’s podcast on law and politics in India, Dr Arghya Sengupta discusses the longstanding concerns with the mining industry in Goa, with Claude Alvares, the Executive Director of Goa Foundation, the foremost environmental action group that has led the charge against illegal mining in the state. Watch out for Vidhi’s quiz, CLATTR, at the end of the episode,...

In the 2nd episode of Justify Season 3, Vidhi’s podcast on law and politics in India, Dr Arghya Sengupta discusses cryptocurrency with Shehnaz Ahmad, the Lead of FinTech Team at Vidhi. With the boom of cryptocurrency in India and elsewhere, they discuss India's policy response to it, the geopolitical ramifications of a digital currency, its impact on small household investors, and more. Watch out...

In the first episode of Justify Season 3, Arghya Sengupta discusses drug abuse, criminalization of addicts and tackling the drug menace in the state of Punjab with Neha Singhal, the Lead of the Criminal Justice Team at Vidhi and one of India’s foremost experts on drug regulation and Animesh Sharma, a leading advocate practising before the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Hosted & Edited by: Sneha Visakha Intro Music: Wehrmut by Godmode Outro Music: Ophelia's Blues by Audionautix Assisted by: Ranu Tiwari TW – References to male violence against women, hijab ban, hindu supremacist politics In part 1 of the first episode of Season 2 of the Feminist City podcast series, Sneha Visakha is in conversation with Kavita Krishnan, noted feminist activist and author of Fearle...

How has politics interplayed with the development and adoption of technology in India? When and how did the opinions of politicians and the public diverge? How has India's relationship with the rest of the world shaped its destiny with regard to technology? In this episode of ALTRnative Perspectives, Jai Vipra talks to Arun Mohan Sukumar, author of the book Midnight's Machines, which explores answ...

The advent of technology over the last two decades has heralded a movement towards the digitisation of processes across society. The narrative of digitisation has taken a foothold in societal thinking about designing processes, yet the idea of 'paperwork' in the physical form continues to be commonly experienced, particularly in the context of 'paper monsters' like businesses, government processes...

'Low code' is an approach to programming that avoids repetitive and boilerplate coding work through pre-coded templates. An increasing number of Indian tech startups are using low code. In this episode of ALTRnative Perspectives, we speak to experts Akshay Rangasai of Appsmith and Siddhant Puri of Retool to understand three main issues: One, the blurry line between low code and the general abstrac...

In the final episode of Season 1 of Healthy Dose, Yogini Oke speaks to Mathavi Senguttuvan of the Centre for Biomedical Ethics, Singapore, on vaccine passports and immunity certifications and whether they are our passport to normalcy. They discuss the ethical considerations that stakeholders look at when introducing immunity certifications/vaccine passports, their historical and contemporary prece...

Producer and Host: Sneha Visakha; Intro Music: Wehrmut by Godmode; Outro Music: Opheliea's Blues by Audionautix TW: references to violence against women, girls, gender and sexual minorities In the final episode of this season of the Feminist City podcast series, Sneha Visakha engages with the why feminist urbanism matters, reflecting on the learnings garnered from this project so far. She describe...

As the second wave of COVID-19 burgeons with a furious pace, vaccines become even more important. The site of vaccination becomes a site of resistance, quite literally. In Episode 5 of the podcast ‘Healthy Dose’, Vidhi’s Shreya Shrivastava speaks to Dr. Aqsa Shaikh, Associate Professor, Jamia Hamdard, regarding the logistics of vaccine delivery and the day to day functioning of a COVID-19 vaccinat...

In the 21st century, almost all aspects of our life are governed by technology. There is an app for everything. India’s vaccination programme against COVID-19 is no exception to this. The challenge however, is of an epic proportion – to vaccinate a population of 1.3 billion, not all of who have a smartphone. In Episode 4 of the podcast ‘Healthy Dose’, Vidhi’s Shreya Shrivastava speaks with Dr RS S...