Deepti Sharma on Survey Methods and the Hidden Biases in Economic Data
Release Date: 11/21/2024
M.R. Sharan Examines Decentralization and Local Representation in India
Ideas of India
Today my guest is , an assistant professor in the department of agricultural and resource economics at the University of Maryland College Park. He is the author of numerous papers and the book . His main research interests are development economics and political economy. We talked about his research on local government in India, incentives of various political actors and the power structures they inhibit, fiscal federalism, and much more. Recorded May 21st, 2025. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Connect with Ideas of India Follow on X Follow on X...
info_outline
Rakesh Mohan Reflects on Dismantling the License Permit Raj
Ideas of India
Today my guest is He is the President Emeritus and Distinguished Fellow at in New Delhi. He has previously served as Executive Director on the Board of the International Monetary Fund and as Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. We talked about his work with the Government of India since the 1980s, especially dismantling the infamous License Permit Raj during the 1991 reforms, his work on urbanization and infrastructure, the kinds of structural reforms India still needs to undertake, and much more. Recorded April 25th, 2025. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or...
info_outline
Ramachandra Guha on the Origins of Indian Environmentalism
Ideas of India
Today my guest is environmental scholar, historian and biographer . He is the author of a number of books, including a two-volume biography of Gandhi and the award-winning book “.” We talked about his latest book, ".” We spoke about global versus local commons, bottom up approach to environmentalism in India, urbanization, economic growth and technological progress and much more. Recorded May 7th, 2025. Read a enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow on X Follow on X Click for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight...
info_outline
Rajmohan Gandhi on Revenge and Reconciliation in South Asia
Ideas of India
Today’s episode is the second part of my conversation with , a historian and biographer involved in efforts for trust-building and reconciliation and author of more than fifteen books, of which the most recent is . He taught history and politics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1997 until he retirement in 2022. His most recent initiative is , a writers collective responding to the worldwide thrusts against democracy and equality. We spoke about his reflections on communal violence between Hindus and Muslims, revenge and reconciliation in South Asia, Sikhs and...
info_outline
Rajmohan Gandhi Reflects on India's Founding Fathers
Ideas of India
Today my guest is , a historian and biographer involved in efforts for trust-building and reconciliation and author of more than fifteen books, of which the most recent is . He taught history and politics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1997 until his retirement in 2022. His most recent initiative is , a writers collective responding to the worldwide thrusts against democracy and equality. We spoke about his reflections on his biographies of the founding fathers, , , , and , their competing visions, debates with others like Ambedkar...
info_outline
Taking Stock of the Indian Economy with Prachi Mishra
Ideas of India
Today my guest is Prachi Mishra, who is a Professor in the Department of Economics, and Director and Head of Isaac Center for Public Policy at Ashoka University. Prior to joining Ashoka, Prachi was Chief of the Systemic Issues Division and Advisor in the Research Department at the International Monetary Fund. We spoke about the current state of the Indian economy, India’s growth trajectory, if the rupee is overvalued, India’s fiscal consolidation, and much more. We also spoke about Trade, but this episode was recorded before the big tariff announcements on April 2. ...
info_outline
Sajith Pai on India's Digital Divides
Ideas of India
Today my guest is , who is a Partner at , an early stage Indian venture fund. He is also a well known writer, and the author of the annual Indus Valley Report. We spoke about the trends in the latest Indus Valley Report, the stratifications in Indian consumer markets, investor sentiment, policies and infrastructure to foster the AI boom in India, the AI start-up scene and much more. Recorded March 6th, 2025. Read a enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow on X Follow on X Click for the latest Ideas of...
info_outline
Jasti Chelameswar on Constitutional Interpretation and Judicial Independence
Ideas of India
Today my guest is , who is a former justice of the Supreme Court of India. Prior to his elevation, he served as chief justice in High Courts in Gauhati and Kerala and as a justice in the Andhra Pradesh High Court. We spoke about his judgments on electoral qualifications, judicial conduct, transparency in judicial appointments, the constitutional right to privacy, separation of powers, and how dissent shapes constitutional interpretation, and much more. Recorded February 25th, 2025. Read a enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow on X...
info_outline
Akshay Jaitly on India's Energy Sector Challenges, Reforms, and Future Pathways
Ideas of India
Today my guest is , one of the founders of Trilegal, one of India’s leading law firms. He specializes in advising on energy and infrastructure projects. His research interests include power sector reform, the energy transition and public-private contracting. We talked about the top-down nature of electricity regulation and pricing in India, the dysfunctional DISCOMS, the reforms required for an energy transition towards renewables and nuclear energy, and much more. Recorded February 11th, 2025. Read a enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow on X...
info_outline
Christopher Coyne on War, Conflict, and the Quest for a Stable Peace
Ideas of India
Today my guest is , who is a Professor of at George Mason University, the Associate Director of the at the Mercatus Center. We talked about the economics of conflict and peace, history of the US security state, the US intervention in Afghanistan, domestic consequences of militarism abroad, and much more. Recorded January 15th, 2025. Read a enhanced with helpful links, or watch the . Connect with Ideas of India Follow on X Follow on X Click for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
info_outlineSubscribe to Grand Tamasha on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, or your favorite podcast app.
I spoke with Deepti Sharma, who's an Assistant Professor at Ahmedabad University. She completed her PhD in public policy from the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Management of Health Services at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad. Her current research focus is empirical methods, applied microeconomics, public health and gender studies. We discussed her job market paper, Does it matter who you ask for Time Use Data? We talked about the systematic bias in proxy reporting when compared to self-reporting in time use surveys, some techniques used to fix those biases, the gendered nature of these biases, policy implications of using these time use surveys and much more.
Recorded September 12th, 2024.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.
Connect with Ideas of India
Follow Shruti on X
Follow Deepti on X
Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
Timestamps
(00:00:00) - Intro
(00:01:12) - Grand Tamasha
(00:02:42) - Proxy-Reporting Versus Self-Reporting in Time-Use Surveys
(00:07:16) - Gender Bias and Systematic Bias in Proxy-Reported Data
(00:10:27) - How Cultural Norms and Gender Perceptions Shape Reporting
(00:16:59) - Challenges in Collecting Accurate Time-Use Data
(00:19:34) - Methodological Approaches to Working with Proxy-Reported Data
(00:24:43) - Suggested Approaches to Conducting Time-Use Surveys
(00:31:21) - Impact of Climate Change on Gendered Agricultural Work
(00:33:17) - Hysterectomy Rates and Health Insurance Policies in India
(00:36:03) - Outro