All Things Policy

From the Indus Waters Treaty to the Brahmaputra's origins on the Tibetan Plateau, India's water security sits at the intersection of climate stress, outdated irrigation infrastructure, and some of the most contested river systems in the world. In this episode of All Things Policy, Adya Madhavan sits down with Maj Gen Akash Kaushik, author of India's Water Security: Threats, Strategies...

In this episode of All Things Policy, Anisree Suresh and Bhumika Sevkani critically examine the Ethanol Blending Programme as India’s long-term strategy. They unpack the complexities of the entire supply chain, from the impact of Fair and Remunerative Prices (FRP) to stifled innovation in agriculture on the ethanol supply chain. To read more about this, please visit and subscribe https://thebiolog...

India experiences a cycle of disasters throughout the year—from scorching heatwaves and droughts to floods, landslides, cyclones, and glacial hazards. Can technology help us anticipate these risks before they become catastrophes? In this episode of All Things Policy, Kavya Rai speaks with Prof. Y. Nithiyanandam about how satellites, GIS, remote sensing, and geospatial intelligence are reshaping di...

July has been an exceptionally busy month for Indian diplomacy. PM Modi embarked on a three-nation tour of Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, NATO leaders gathered for their annual summit. Join Vanshika Saraf and Amit Kumar as they assess each of these meetings and their importance. They also explore the growing—yet often incomplete—alignment between I...

For eighty years, a single architecture has run the global economy with important institutions at the helm, including the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO, and the US dollar at the centre of it all. Today, that architecture is under more strain than at any point in living memory: tariff walls are rising, finance is being turned into a weapon, and supply chains are being torn up and re-stitched along t...

Kavya Rai sits down with Aishwaria Sonavane (Pakistan Studies) and Raja Karthikeya (West Asia Studies, UN peace mediation veteran) to unpack why India's Pakistan policy has stayed more consistent than it gets credit for, why the current diplomatic freeze runs deeper than past standoffs, and why grand gestures keep failing while quiet back-channels persist. All Things Policy is a daily podcast...

The Supreme Court's recent recognition of the right to walk as a fundamental right has been celebrated as a landmark victory for pedestrians in India. In this episode of All Things Policy, Sowmya Prabhakar and Shreya Ramakrishnan examine the current state of India's footpaths, the competing interests and governance challenges that shape them, and the gap between constitutional ideals and a...

Wars were once fought with hardware that governments owned. Today, some of the most vital assets in warfighting belong to private companies. Ashwin Prasad Rao and Abhishek Kadiyala discuss how militaries are drafting commerce into war and what that means for the companies, the battlefield, and India. Explore the strategic side of space with Takshashila's Expert Capsule Course on Space Power: h...

In this episode of All Things Policy , titled "Flowers are Blooming" - a phrase dating back to a discreet, bloodless Indian naval operation in the Seychelles that marked an early milestone in India’s role as a regional security provider - Vanshika Saraf and Anisree Suresh delve deep into India’s strategic relationships blossoming across the globe. Together, they critically analyse the la...

 In June 2026, two of the world's most powerful AI models were pulled off the shelf by government directive and then switched back on two weeks later, just as abruptly. In this episode, Shobhankita Reddy and Bharath Reddy discuss what the Fable 5 saga reveals about how Washington and Beijing actually think about artificial intelligence.  Recommended readings: https://indianexpress.com/article/...

Beijing’s rise as a major arms exporter and the internal and external deficiencies in its arms trade engagements present the paradox at the heart of China's military-industrial statecraft. In this episode of 'All Things Policy', Bhumika Sevkani quizzes Anushka Saxena on how China got catapulted to the position of the 5th largest arms exporter in the world, how well its weapons have wor...

Amidst the escalating conflict in West Asia and the resulting constriction of oil and gas supply, the urgency to deploy renewable energy for enhanced energy security has grown. However, emerging economies like India must adopt a pragmatic approach to reconcile their increasing energy demands with their decarbonisation commitments. Join Bhumika Sevkani, Research Analyst with the Geostrategy Program...

How should we understand the growing rivalry between two 'tigers', Japan and China? The tension between both countries reached a critical point following Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae’s November 2025 declaration that a Chinese attack on Taiwan constitutes a "survival-threatening situation".  Such developments, inter alia, demonstrate how Japan's military and diplomatic engage...

With the U.S. midterm elections on 3 November 2026 fast approaching, voter sentiment has crystallised around four overlapping national fault lines: inflation, institutional trust, the Iran war, and immigration. In this episode of All Things Policy, Bhumika Sevkani is joined by Abhishek Kadiyala to examine how each of these pressures is reshaping the congressional battleground and what they collect...

India lists 51 minerals in its critical mineral list. This is 67% of all commercially mined minerals. And globally too, critical mineral lists are swelling. But not all critical minerals are critical in the same way. In any case, if 2/3rds of the periodic table is deemed critical, this strips any nuance for informed policy action and mineral prioritisation. In this episode of All Things Policy, Ta...

The G7 summit recently unfolded in France, bringing together rich democracies across the either sides of the Atlantic that also included Japan (the only G7 member from Asia) and invitees like India. But what did the summit achieve in the current turbulent geopolitical context? In this episode of All Things Policy, tech geopolitics researcher Lokendra Sharma is joined by Anushka Saxena, Takshashila...

On May 26th, India and the US signed a bilateral critical minerals framework; the same day, the QUAD unveiled a $20 billion initiative spanning mining, processing and recycling of critical minerals. These join a growing list of critical mineral partnerships like the FORGE, Pax Silica, the bilateral TRUST and the Strategic Mineral Recovery Initiative. Shobhankita Reddy and Tannmay Baid, researchers...

What are the complex web of regulations driving China's economic statecraft? Set against the backdrop of intensifying US-China technological competition and the race for frontier AI models, Kripa Koshy (Staff Programme Manager) and Amit Kumar (Staff Research Analyst, Geostrategy Programme) explore how Beijing is systematically codifying its ability to use its economy for geopolitical leverage....

As Pakistan gains diplomatic attention in West Asia, unrest has intensified in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, exposing the deeper questions about the region's governance, representation, and political marginalisation. In this episode, Aishwaria Sonavane is joined by Malik Moin Abbas to understand the roots of the protests, the controversy over reserved seats, and the gap between Pakistan’s interna...

The past couple of weeks have been interesting and eventful in terms of India’s foreign policy visits. From Myanmar, Nepal, Venezuela to the UK, France, Slovakia and the G7, Indian diplomats have been busy hosting and traversing the world. Join Vanshika Saraf and Anisree Suresh as they assess the various agendas behind each meeting, outcomes achieved, and the different approaches used to advance I...

Biotechnology is more likely to shape warfare through improvements in health protection, sensing, and distributed manufacturing than through exotic  ‘super soldier’  technologies. In this episode, Shambhavi Naik discusses with Sarthak Pradhan how biotechnology can make a difference at the individual soldier, operational unit, and theatre levels.  The episode is based on Shambhavi's recent pape...

Japan spent most of the last eighty years as the textbook case of a pacifist state. A constitution that renounces war, a one percent cap on defence spending, a ban on selling weapons abroad. That picture is now changing fast. Tokyo has built counterstrike missiles, started exporting lethal equipment, and set out to double its defence budget. Join Arindam Goswami and Vanshika Saraf in this episode...

A recent investigation argues that Pakistan, with Chinese support, has rapidly expanded its Earth-observation satellite network, creating the ability to monitor Indian territory with increasing frequency. At the same time, India is building its own ambitious space-based surveillance architecture. So what should we really be worried about? Is this a story about satellites? About data? About militar...

How relevant or securitised is the Quad? Is the Quad doing enough? These are recurrent questions that dominate the narrative around the grouping. When the foreign ministers of the four countries gathered recently for their 11th meeting in New Delhi, these questions again made headlines. And the criticism isn’t without substance. Tune in to this episode of ATP, where Bhumika Sevakani is joined by A...

After Operation Sindoor, there was a significant push to increase the use of drones in India’s military operations. Since then, drones have been used extensively in conflicts globally, giving us a chance to see how they can be deployed and a front-row seat to the rapid evolution of drone technology. In light of the pace of these developments, Adya Madhavan and Ashwin Prasad Rao unpack the unique c...