Kartik Srivastava on Referral-Based Hiring, Caste Networks, and Breaking Barriers in India's Labor Markets
Ideas of India
Our first scholar in the series is , who is a PhD candidate at the Kennedy School at Harvard University. Before this, he received his bachelor's degree from Yale University, where he majored in Economics and Engineering Sciences. His research focuses on development economics, labor economics, and political economy. We spoke about his job market paper titled, . We talked his large-scale experiment at a footwear manufacturing firm in Delhi, on how referral-based hiring improve firm productivity, cohesion, and inclusion, differences in hiring between higher caste versus lower...
info_outline
Narayani Basu on K. M. Panikkar: India’s Impossible Man
Ideas of India
Today my guest is Narayani Basu, who is a historian and the author of the latest book, . Her last book was a biography of . We talked about KM Panikkar, his comparison with VP Menon, the Indian nationalist movement in the interwar years, the origins of India’s diplomatic relationship with China, Pannikar’s Zionism and much more. Recorded August 1st, 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 to your inbox. Timestamps...
info_outline
Yamini Aiyar Schools Us on Education Policy in India
Ideas of India
Today my guest is , who is currently a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Saxena Center for Contemporary South Asia at Brown University and the author of the recent book . Her main research interests are contemporary politics, state capacity, welfare policy, and federalism. We talked about the challenges of education policy and welfare in India, the lack of agency experienced by school administrators and teachers, the role of local governments in education, Delhi’s experiment with education reforms, portable benefits and school vouchers, and much more. Recorded July 16th, 2025....
info_outline
Rathin Roy on How India Slices the Fiscal Pie
Ideas of India
Today my guest is , who's a Distinguished Fellow at the Kautilya School of Public Policy and a Visiting Senior Fellow at ODI Global. His main research interests are political economy, public finance, and development economics, and he also served on the 13th Finance Commission. We talked about India's fiscal resources are distributed across states and between the union and state governments, the divergence between rich and poor states, compensatory welfare and its consequences and much more. Recorded July 8th, 2025. Read a enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of...
info_outline
Chitrakshi Jain and Prashant Reddy T. on the Dysfunction in India's District Courts
Ideas of India
Today my guests are legal scholars and , the authors of the recent book . We talked about the dysfunction in India’s lower courts, opacity in the evaluation of district court judges, the problems with judicial data, and much more. Recorded July 1st, 2025. Read a enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow on X Follow on X Follow on X Click for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
info_outline
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_outlineToday my guest is Rajmohan Gandhi, 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 Fraternity: Constitutional Norm and Human Need. 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 We Are One Humanity (WAOH), a writers collective responding to the worldwide thrusts against democracy and equality.
We spoke about his reflections on his biographies of the founding fathers, Vallabhai Patel, Mohandas Gandhi, C Rajagopalachari, and Gaffar Khan, their competing visions, debates with others like Ambedkar and Nehru, constitutional values, the civil rights movement, his faith, and much more.
Recorded April 18th, 2025.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.
Connect with Ideas of India
Follow Shruti on X
Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
Timestamps
Intro - 00:00:00
Patel - 00:01:34
Rajaji - 00:31:20
Ghaffar Khan - 00:51:53
Gandhi - 01:05:53
Competing Visions - 01:17:32
Biographies of Family Members - 01:18:54
Serendipity in the Research Process - 01:23:40
Civil Rights in the US - 01:27:23
Pessimistic or Optimistic? - 01:35:16
Role of God and Faith - 01:36:27
Outro - 01:38:20