All Things Policy

Power cuts have become so routine that we've stopped noticing them. But this normalisation of unreliability has a cost — and it's a cost that shows up not on your electricity bill, but in your diesel expenses, your inverter battery, and your lost productive hours. But why is our electricity so unreliable? In this episode of All Things Policy, Anwesha Sen speaks to Sarthak Pradhan, Assistan...

Six weeks of US-Israel strikes on Iran destroyed infrastructure, eliminated leadership, and degraded Iran's missile arsenal. Yet when peace talks in Islamabad collapsed in April, the US still lacked the leverage to bring Iran to the table on its terms. Enter the naval blockade of Iranian ports. In this episode, host Kavya Rai speaks with Abhishek Kadiyala, Research Analyst at the Takshashila I...

The recent meeting between Taiwanese Kuomintang party Chairwoman Cheng Li-Wun and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing marked a new effort between the two sides to renew ties and talk about the future of Taiwan. But what were the signals from the meeting speaking to China’s view of KMT’s role? How is KMT placed politically within Taiwan to be able to effect change? Finally, how does the Taiwane...

In this episode of All Things Policy, Bhumika Sevkani and Anisree Suresh examine the impact of the war in Iran on the Indian economy, tracing how the conflict is transmitting through India's energy, currency, fiscal, and labour markets, and what the cost of a prolonged conflict in the region would be. Are you passionate about shaping India's future? Keen to find solutions for India's m...

In this episode of All Things Policy, Brigadier Anil Raman and Air Marshal T.D. Joseph are joined by Dr. Kelly Grieco, Senior Fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington D.C., to assess whether U.S. air operations in the Iran conflict constitute a coherent theory of limited war. Drawing on Thomas Schelling's coercion framework, the episode asks whether air power alone can compel a regime fighti...

In this episode of the All Things Policy podcast, Abhishek Kadiyala and Brigadier Anil Raman speak with Soren Dayton about why the U.S. Congress has repeatedly failed to restrain President Donald Trump's military operations against Iran, even as the 60-day clock under the War Powers Resolution of 1973 continues to tick. The conversation examines the structural weaknesses of the War Powers Reso...

The global conversation on power is evolving, from energy security to supply chain resilience, and now to the minerals that underpin modern technology. Despite significant geological potential, India remains a marginal player in global rare earth production. The gap between what exists and what is extracted raises deeper questions. In this episode, Shobhankita Reddy and Shreya Ramakrishnan of the...

China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030), formalised, inter alia, its "dual-track" energy strategy investing in coal and renewable energy in tandem. How does this approach sit within the country's current energy security landscape? How has the diversification of supply played into China's energy needs and how prepared is China to manage the energy implications of the war in We...

Pakistan finds itself in a critical mediatory position as the US and Iran navigate a fragile ceasefire, and add to that, decades of mistrust. Pakistan's Field Marshal Asim Munir is engaging across Washington, Tehran, Riyadh, and Beijing, even as Islamabad manages complex dynamics with neighbours like Afghanistan and India. In this episode of The Iran Brief, Aishwaria Sonavane speaks with Anand...

In a society marked by a trust deficit, even the best solutions run into limits. This episode explores how intentional, hyper-local communities can lower transaction costs, unlock participation, and improve public outcomes. Malathi Renati and Sowmya Prabhakar unpack the role of culture, community, and grassroots action in building social capital and why, without it, policy alone rarely delivers. A...

Anthropic just revealed an AI model that found a 27-year-old bug in one of the world's most secure operating systems. In this episode, Col KPM Das and Bharath Reddy discuss the implications when vulnerability discovery just got automated at scale. Check out Takshashila's brand-new offering - an Expert Capsule Course on the Politics and Policy of Critical Minerals - school.takshashila.org.i...

Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) represent a significant technological shift in nuclear power generation, offering scaled-down versions of traditional nuclear reactors with output capacities between 20 and 300 MW. In this episode, Bhumika Sevkani and Anwesha Sen examine the increasing importance of SMRs, their distinction from conventional nuclear power plants, the emerging economic evidence surround...

India’s Census 2027 promises to be more than just a population count. With digital tools, geospatial mapping, and innovations like DigiPin, it could fundamentally change how the Indian state collects and understands population data. But what makes this census different from previous exercises? And how could better spatial data improve planning, infrastructure, and governance? In this episode of Al...

AI isn't coming to Indian schools; it's already there, and students are embracing it. But is the Indian school system ready? Survey findings by Center of Policy Research and Governance (CPRG) reveal how AI tools are transforming academic habits and their impact on exam preparation, time management, performance, and overall learning journeys. Carl Jaison speaks to Pranav Gupta, PhD candidat...

In this conversation, Professor Kingshuk Chatterjee joins Aishwaria Sonavane to place the current West Asian conflict in its deeper historical context. The discussion explores the argument that West Asia is facing a structural crisis and examines how this breakdown manifests in ongoing conflicts across Lebanon, Gaza, and Iran. The conversation also traces the ideological legacy of the Iranian Revo...

Is India's sports integrity on the line? Listen to the latest podcast: "India’s Sporting Achilles’ Heel: Age Fraud, Doping, Coaching Gaps" Malathi Renati (Head of Policy School, Takshashila) converses with the experienced sports journalist G Rajaraman, who has 40+ years as a sports communication specialist and was the Paris 2024 Olympics Media Attaché. From grassroots age cheats domi...

Cities are the engines of economic growth - generating the bulk of GDP, driving innovation, and shaping the everyday lived experience of millions. Yet in India, cities are constrained in terms of power, finances, and accountability. In this episode, Sarthak Pradhan speaks with Prabhat Kumar, who discusses Janaagraha’s Municipal Finance Blueprint submitted to the 16th Finance Commission and unpacks...

November 2025 saw the launch of BIRSA 101- India’s first indigenous CRISPR-based gene therapy for sickle cell disease. What does this mean for affordable gene therapy, disease reduction and the research ecosystem in India? Shambhavi Naik explains some interesting aspects of this in this conversation with Suman Joshi. Check out Takshashila's brand-new offering - an Expert Capsule Course on the...

Amid the bleak news coverage of the projectile war in West Asia, there was one development that served as a glimmer of hope for humanity at large. NASA’s Artemis 2 mission, which took astronauts from the US and Canada on a flyby of the moon, came about after a long interregnum and also took humans the farthest from Earth. To discuss the mission technicalities, history and some larger questions abo...

The opening campaign of the US/Israeli - Iran War has witnessed an asymmetric fight between the two parties, playing to their different strengths. The US and Israel relied heavily on airpower and widespread degradation and breaking the will of the population, while Iran has focused on selective missile bombardment and drone attacks for strategic leverage. How are the two parties faring? Join our m...

Navigation satellites are invisible infrastructure - until they aren't. In an era where GPS signals are being jammed over conflict zones, spoofed to sink ships, and denied to adversaries in wartime, controlling your own navigation system has become a marker of true strategic sovereignty. India built NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation) for exactly this reason. But today, the system has...

Following the failure of the last atomic clock on IRNSS-1F, India’s homegrown navigation system, NavIC, has fallen below operational strength. In this episode, Kavya Rai sits down with Dr. Y. Nithiyanandam to discuss why this "invisible" infrastructure failure threatens India's ₹1 lakh crore geospatial economy and what it means for our strategic autonomy. All Things Policy is a daily...

In this episode of the Iran Brief of Takshashila’s All Things Policy podcast, Amit Kumar discusses with Anushka Saxena the reactions of three of the so-called "CRINK" countries - China, Russia and North Korea - to the war of their fourth counterpart, Iran. They talk about potential military and dual-use relations within the CRINK, and how US and Israel's actions may be changing their...

As the Indian Ocean grows in strategic importance, India and Australia are increasingly seen as key partners in shaping its future. In this episode, Vanshika Saraf speaks with Rushali Saha on how the two countries can move beyond parallel engagement towards a more coordinated maritime partnership, with a focus on non-traditional security challenges and regional capacity-building. All Things Policy...

In this episode of the All Things Policy podcast, Abhishek Kadiyala and Bhumika Sevkani examine why the US Congress has repeatedly failed to restrain President Trump’s military actions in Iran, despite multiple attempts to invoke its constitutional authority. The conversation centres on the War Powers Resolution of 1973 and how it was designed to limit unilateral presidential war-making. Tracing l...