Pranay Kotasthane on the Political Economy of Rare Earths and Critical Minerals
Ideas of India
Today my guest is who is the deputy director of the Takshashila Institution and chairs the . Pranay co-writes a newsletter on public policy ideas and frameworks, and co-hosts a popular Hindi-Urdu podcast on politics, policy, and technology. He is the co-author of - When the Chips are Down, and the graphic nonfiction narrative . We spoke about rare earths and critical minerals, China’s dominance, the gap between India’s ambitions and opportunities, the potential for recycling, and much and...
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Nachiket Mor on Rethinking India’s Healthcare System
Ideas of India
Today my guest is , a health economist whose work focuses on the design of national and regional health systems. He is a visiting scientist at the Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health, a senior research fellow at the Centre for Information Technology and Public Policy at IIIT Bangalore, and a commissioner and author on the , which published its . We talked about the different layers of the Indian healthcare system, the design and policy failures in both public and private sector healthcare, the role of community workers, the health insurance and regulation market, and...
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Akshay Jaitly on the Making of a Modern Indian Law Firm
Ideas of India
Today my guest is , the author of the recent book, . He is one of the founders of Trilegal and 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 how Trilegal grew in the context of India’s market liberalization and sectoral reforms, different partnership structures, delegated legislation, regulatory capture, the alchemy between the founding partners, and much more. Recorded January 6th, 2026. Read a enhanced with helpful links. Learn...
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Renuka Sane on Regulatory Frameworks, Rule of Law, and Pensions Reforms in India
Ideas of India
Today my guest is who is the managing director of Managing Director of . An institution that seeks to improve India’s business environment by improving the rule of law. Renuka was a member of many expert committees including: the Task Force of Experts set up by the Employees Provident Fund Organisation; the research team of the Bankruptcy Legislative Reforms Commission; the Pension Advisory Committee of the Pension Fund Regulatory Development Authority; and the Working Group on personal insolvency at the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India. She received a Ph.D. in...
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Snigdha Poonam on the Political Economy of Transnational Scams
Ideas of India
Today my guest is who is a journalist and writer. She is the author of the new book and also the author of the 2018 award winning book : How Young Indians Are Changing Their World. We talked about the scam industrial complex in different states like Jharkhand, Assam and Tamil Nadu in India, the interaction between the scam economy and the formal economy, the transnational scams in China and Cambodia and how they are connected to India, the aspirations and traumas of the scam work force and much more. Recorded November 17th, 2025. Read a enhanced...
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2025 in Review
Ideas of India
Shruti and Ideas of India producer Dallas Floer sit down for the 2025 end-of-year episode. They look back at key themes and top episodes from the past year, address listener questions, and look forward to what’s in store for Shruti and the show in 2026. Recorded December 16th, 2025. Read a enhanced with helpful links. Learn more about . Connect with Ideas of India Follow on X Click for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:03) - Listener Questions (00:25:50) - Big Themes and Top Episodes (00:42:21) -...
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Ammu Lavanya on How Foreign Capital Changed Indian Bank Lending
Ideas of India
Our seventh and final scholar in the series is , a PhD candidate in Economics at George Washington University. Her research is in the areas of International Finance, Monetary Economics, Empirical Banking and Financial History. We spoke about her job market paper titled . We talked about financial liberalization in India, the 2004 banking reform that increased the ceiling on raising foreign equity its impact on market value, lending capacity and increasing productivity through credit in India, the difference between private versus state owned banks, and much more. Recorded...
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Nayantara Biswas on Demand- and Supply-Side Interventions in India's Maternal Health Policy
Ideas of India
Our sixth scholar in the series is is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She received her Ph.D. in economics from Clark University. Her research focuses on health equity impact evaluations of small-scale interventions and large-scale public policies. We spoke about dissertation titled, . We talked about demand side versus supply side policy interventions in public health, India’s maternal health policy landscape, the ASHA workers program, variation across states in policy impact and much more. Recorded August 28th, 2025. Read...
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Karthik Narayan on Measuring the Effects of Unscheduled vs. Scheduled Monetary Policy Announcements
Ideas of India
Our fifth scholar in the series is , who is a doctoral candidate in Economics at Nuffield College and at the Department of Economics, University of Oxford. His research focuses on monetary policy, macroeconomics and finance in developing countries. We spoke about his job market paper titled, We talked about how the Reserve Bank of India makes and announces its policies, its impact on interest rates, inflation expectations and output, measuring the impact of policy announcements, the Lucas Critique and much more. Recorded August 28th, 2025. Read a enhanced with...
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Asad Tariq on Electoral Redistricting and Public Goods Provision in India
Ideas of India
Our fourth scholar in the series is , who is a doctoral candidate in Economics at the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. His research focuses on the political economy of development, with a particular interest in religion, politics and public service delivery in India. We spoke about his job market paper titled, . We talked about the 2008 delimitation exercise, especially at the state level, gerrymandering, the median voter versus swing voters and ethnic groups, public service delivery for minorities, especially Muslims, and much more. Recorded September 5th, 2025. Read...
info_outlineToday my guest is Sajith Pai, who is a Partner at Blume Ventures, 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 full transcript enhanced with helpful links.
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Timestamps
00:00:00 - Intro
00:04:32 - 2025 Trends
00:24:30 - Last Year vs. This Year
00:32:25 - The Role of Artificial Intelligence
00:45:59 - Artificial Intelligence Startup Scene
01:16:40 - Sajith’s Reading Habits
01:22:20 - Outro