Ashley J. Tellis holds the Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs and is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Previously, he served on the National Security Council (NSC) as special assistant to President George W. Bush and senior director for strategic planning and Southwest Asia. On the NSC he was a top negotiator of the pivotal 2005 U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement – a landmark agreement that helped transform the U.S.-India relationship. On this episode, Rexon and Shery spoke with Ashley about India’s struggle to control the deadly second wave of COVID-19, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership and prospects in Indian domestic politics, and India’s “self-reliance” economic policy, protectionism, and actions against large tech companies. On the security front, they discussed opportunities and challenges in U.S.-India relations, the Quad partnership, and India’s relations with China and Russia.