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Only one or two of every ten drug candidates discovered in the lab succeed in human trials. Many of the rest looked safe in animals first. That gap is why the US, UK, EU and China are investing in human-relevant testing: organoids, organs-on-chips and computer models, known as New Approach Methodologies (NAMs). India had been moving the same way. It banned cosmetics testing on animals in 2014, accepted non-animal methods in its drug rules in 2023, and has funded 109 NAM projects across 71 institutes. The Committee for Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CCSEA) has now proposed draft rules for lab animals, which look regressive.
In the latest episode of All Things Policy, Malathi Renati speaks with Dr Surat Parvatam, cell biologist and Senior Program Director, Research and Toxicology at Humane World for Animals India. We discuss the draft changes, why they matter for scientific credibility, and where India could lead.
All Things Policy is a daily podcast on public policy brought to you by the Takshashila Institution, Bengaluru.
Find out more on our research and other work here: https://takshashila.org.in/research-areas
Check out our public policy courses here: https://school.takshashila.org.in
The Strait of Hormuz has remained physically open through the West Asia crisis, but commercial shipping traffic has collapsed. In this episode of All Things Policy, Nithiyanandam Y and Shreya Ramakrishnan examine why vessels remain reluctant to use the waterway despite the absence of a physical blockade, and what sustained, data-driven tracking reveals about how the disruption is evolving.
Show Notes:
Explore Nithiya's India Risk Dashboard, which tracks maritime activity, geospatial developments, and economic indicators related to the crisis: https://nithiyageo.github.io/india-risk-dashboard/
All Things Policy is a daily podcast on public policy brought to you by the Takshashila Institution, Bengaluru.
Find out more on our research and other work here: https://takshashila.org.in/research-areas
Check out our public policy courses here: https://school.takshashila.org.in
India wants to train AI on its own data: medical records, bank files, government databases. But that data belongs to real people. Can a locked digital room let the model learn without anyone’s secrets leaving? Anwesha Sen, in conversation with Kavya Rai, discusses the government’s new plan to train AI on sensitive data without breaching privacy, and why the hardest problem isn’t the technology at all.
All Things Policy is a daily podcast on public policy brought to you by the Takshashila Institution, Bengaluru.
Find out more on our research and other work here: https://takshashila.org.in/research-areas
Check out our public policy courses here: https://school.takshashila.org.in
With a 'blue wave' washing over republican states, energy was a key concern in flipping swing states. How did energy prices shape the outcome of the 2026 US Midterm Elections? In this episode of All Things Policy, Bhumika Sevkani, Research Analyst at the Takshashila Institution, speaks with Abhishek Kadiyala, who has been closely tracking the US midterm elections, to examine how energy affordability became a decisive political issue. From Trump’s ‘Drill Baby Drill’ agenda and rising gasoline and electricity costs to the growing public backlash against AI data centres driving up residential power bills, the conversation explores how energy politics influenced voter sentiment across key swing states. Finally, the episode examines what the election results mean for Trump’s political influence, the future of US foreign policy, and the broader implications for India.
All Things Policy is a daily podcast on public policy brought to you by the Takshashila Institution, Bengaluru.
Find out more on our research and other work here: https://takshashila.org.in/research-areas
Check out our public policy courses here: https://school.takshashila.org.in
The question of the decline of the West, and the rise of "superstates" like India and China, has no easy answers. In this episode of 'All Things Policy', however, former UK Cabinet Minister Sir Vincent Cable discusses his perceptions of the West's relative decline and argues that the 30-year trajectory of both India and China indicates a surge in economic output and global ambition. He explains the three scenarios he sees the world moving towards: "The Global West," "The Multipolar World," and "The Multilateral World." Find out what these mean by tuning in and picking up a copy of his latest book, 'Eclipsing The West: China, India, and the Forging of a New World'.
All Things Policy is a daily podcast on public policy brought to you by the Takshashila Institution, Bengaluru.
Find out more on our research and other work here: https://takshashila.org.in/research-areas
Check out our public policy courses here: https://school.takshashila.org.in
Democrats have taken the House, the Senate and a majority of governorships, and the wave reached as far as Texas, Kansas and Ohio. But what were Americans really saying? Was it a verdict on Trump himself, on prices, or on the Iran war? And why does a president who has lost Congress still stay in office? Brigadier Anil Raman (Retd.), along with Dr Stephen J. Farnsworth, one of America’s leading scholars of presidential communication and political media, explains the results. He also discusses what is next for the Republicans and Democrats as they plan for 2028, and what the next two years hold.
All Things Policy is a daily podcast on public policy brought to you by the Takshashila Institution, Bengaluru.
Find out more on our research and other work here: https://takshashila.org.in/research-areas
Check out our public policy courses here: https://school.takshashila.org.in
Nearly two years into the second Trump administration, immigration of both legal and illegal kind continues to be a contested issue. One latest development surrounding labour mobility was on 8 October, when the US government announced suspending large firms like Infosys, Tata and Wipro from the Permanent Labor Certification Program. How do Republicans and Democrats look at the immigration issue? Would the results of mid-term impact how immigration issue plays out in the future? To unpack everything immigration, tech geopolitics researcher Lokendra Sharma is joined by geostrategy researcher Abhishek Kadiyala in this episode of All Things Policy.
Check out Takshashila’s US mid-term tracker here: https://dcdossier.github.io/Generational-Mid-terms/
All Things Policy is a daily podcast on public policy brought to you by the Takshashila Institution, Bengaluru.
Find out more on our research and other work here: https://takshashila.org.in/research-areas
Check out our public policy courses here: https://school.takshashila.org.in
In this episode of All Things Policy, Aditi Palo and Shambhavi Naik explore the untapped potential of seaweed cultivation in India’s Blue Bioeconomy. While recent enabling statutory reforms and marine biotechnology policies in Karnataka and Gujarat mark a significant shift toward high-value biomanufacturing, critical bottlenecks remain. The policies currently fail to resolve the sector’s core issues: a lack of comprehensive ocean resource mapping, the absence of secure, bankable property rights for farmers, and an industrial setup for value addition to seaweed. Aditi and Shambhavi discuss how Takshashila’s proposed Seaweed Ocean Lease (SOL) framework offers a viable institutional solution to drive seaweed cultivation growth further.
Read more: takshashila.org.in/content/publications/20260401-India-seaweed-opportunity.html
All Things Policy is a daily podcast on public policy brought to you by the Takshashila Institution, Bengaluru.
Find out more on our research and other work here: https://takshashila.org.in/research-areas
Check out our public policy courses here: https://school.takshashila.org.in
Can the future of protein look different from what’s on our plates today? From plant-based alternatives to fermentation-derived proteins to cultivated proteins, smart proteins promise to change how we produce and consume food. What do they mean for India? In this episode of All Things Policy, Suman Joshi speaks with Shambhavi Naik about the science behind smart proteins, their potential for food security and sustainability, the regulatory challenges, and the opportunities for India's emerging smart protein industry.
All Things Policy is a daily podcast on public policy brought to you by the Takshashila Institution, Bengaluru.
Find out more on our research and other work here: https://takshashila.org.in/research-areas
Check out our public policy courses here: https://school.takshashila.org.in
Recently, a researcher at a Siberian anti-plague institute died of severe pneumonia of unknown cause. Two weeks later, the US Army announced a shift to AI-driven predictive biosurveillance. Both raise a question for India, a densely populated country with a growing biotech sector: how prepared are we?
Sarthak Pradhan is joined by Aditi Palo, Research Analyst with the Advanced Biology Programme at Takshashila, to unpack terms such as biosafety, biosecurity and biosurveillance, assess where India’s preparedness stands today, and discuss what the government should prioritise.
All Things Policy is a daily podcast on public policy brought to you by the Takshashila Institution, Bengaluru.
Find out more on our research and other work here: https://takshashila.org.in/research-areas
Check out our public policy courses here: https://school.takshashila.org.in
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