Center for New Economics Studies

In this episode of Vichaar, we are in conversation with Tejaswini Ganti, an Associate Professor of Anthropology and core faculty in the Program in Culture & Media at New York University. Ganti draws from her experience of conducting research about the social world and filmmaking practices of the Hindi film industry since 1996. She elaborates on the percolation of the Hindu Nationalist agenda into the medium of Hindi film, and the further perpetuation of the same through their insidious portrayals of nationalism, religion and class.

Interviewer: Aarjavi Shah

In this episode of Interlinked, Prof Godbole sheds light on the Chinese political economy, discussing the red dragon's role and legitimacy in the larger world affairs. He talks about the Chinese economic model's efficacy in managing supply, investment, debt and excess capacity and looks into whether the new political impulses are affecting the country's business dynamism and growth. The conversation also focuses on how China's domestic governance may stand to impact India, concluding with some policy suggestions for the country.

Professor Avinash Godbole is an Associate Professor of International Relations and China Studies and is also the Associate Academic Dean at the Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities. He has previously worked at the Indian Council of World Affairs and the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses. His research interests are in the fields of Chinese Foreign Policy, Environmental Changes in China, Minorities in China, Domestic Politics in China, China’s Asia strategy and India-China Relations.

Image Source: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2019-08-14/party-man 

Interviewer: Ojus Sharma

The discussion entailed a conversion on the so-called ‘collapse’ of the Chinese political and economic system. It included addressing the adequacy with which the country managed to deal with the blow of the COVID-19 pandemic, and how its public policy has sustained after the ‘Zero COVID Policy’ which has quite literally locked residents of cities with even one case on gunpoint. The Evergrande crisis and the subsequent real estate fall has also aided this ‘downturn’ in China’s growth trajectory which witnessed growth for consecutive decades. The concept of ‘Tank protecting the Banks’ has been a concern, making foreign outlets terming it a ‘Tiananmen 2.0’. The conversation analysed whether these far flung rhetorics are accurate, or whether it’s just a temporary downturn which will fix itself with time.

Mr Sushil is a seasoned professional with over 30 years of experience in leadership and management roles within complex operations, supervising diverse teams and managing challenging programs/assignments within India and abroad. He has provided customised Risk Management solutions to a variety of MNCs and Indian companies; in Myanmar, Iraq, Bangladesh, China, Japan, Sri Lanka and difficult geographies of India. He is also a prolific speaker in several influential and high-profile industry forums not only in India but also in London, Dubai, New York, Singapore, Beijing, Colombo and Dhaka. To his credit, various articles published in industry and strategic journals; and has also made several appearances as a security/defence expert on national television.

Image Source: Dan Matutina/Agent Pekka

Bindu Doddahatti draws from her experience from working on a report on s. 498A with Women’s organisation Vimochana. With her interests lying in criminal law and the Constitution, criminal justice, and Abolition Feminism, she hasworked as a litigator at the Lawyers Collective, New Delhi, and at the Alternative Law Forum, Bengaluru. She is currently associated with the School of Policy and Governance at the Azim Premji University, Bangalore as well as Prisons Forum, Karnataka. She has a Bachelor of Law degree from the Karnataka State Law University, and a Master of Law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, where she was a Fulbright-Nehru and Dean’s Scholar, and a Penn Law Human Rights fellow.

Interviewer: Bilquis Calcuttawala

In this episode of Interlinked, Professor Mukherjee shares his insights on game theory and behavioural economics, one of the most upcoming and exciting topics in this domain. This conversation highlights the interdisciplinary nature of game theory by outlining basic terminology, introducing the prisoner's dilemma (one of the most popular games to study the concept), and discussing the various applications in auctions, online portals, analysing players' reactions to rivals in sports, and understanding the change in dynamics after COVID-19. It ends with a discussion on the direction of future research with influences from the fields of geopolitics, machine learning and robotics, alongside sharing resources for those who would like to know more about game theory!

Professor Saptarshi Mukherjee is an associate professor of economics at IIT Delhi. Dr Mukherjee completed his post-doc from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain and his PhD in Quantitative Economics from the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), New Delhi.  His research interests include mechanism design, social choice, game theory, and bounded rationality; he teaches microeconomics, game theory and mathematical economics. 

Image Source: https://www.kdnuggets.com/2020/03/crash-course-game-theory-machine-learning.html 

Interviewer: Ishani Sharma

In this episode of Interlinked, Mr Sanchit sheds light on the wide-ranging impact of the Russia-Ukraine crisis on the international food supply. Beginning with the important role played by both countries in sustaining the global food trade to discussing the implications of port closures, military attacks and western sanctions on the wider global arena. Lastly, the discussion ended with Mr Gupta recommending the way forward and suggestive steps that vulnerable countries should adopt in order to avoid a similar situation in the future.

Sanchit Gupta is currently working as a research assistant at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, New Delhi. He also holds a postgraduate degree in agribusiness economics from the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics. 

Image source: https://swarajyamag.com/economy/russia-ukraine-conflict-global-crisis-of-wheat-shortage-poses-an-opportunity-for-india 

Interviewer: Khushi Anupriya Dudi

The podcast "Health and Nutrition" is a part of the series "Eroding the Vulnerabilities". The podcast aimed to discuss the issue of women's nutrition and health care. For this, our guest is Ms Shailaja Chandra, the chairman of the Governing Council of the NGO, CHETNA, which has worked for more than 40 years for the cause. Ms Chandra talked about the issues in the field, ground implementation of the same by their NGO and the new strategy of response in the pandemic period. She also talked about the status of women with respect to health and nutrition and how CHETNA's advocacy and research approach could contribute to abating the issue.

Image: https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/business-news-govt-allocating-rs-35600-crore-for-nutrition-related-programmes-in-budget-2020-a-welcome-move/346615 

Interviewer: Khushi Anupriya Dudi

The podcast dealt with the issue of domestic violence and the NGO working in the field, My Choice Foundation. Ms Farzana Khan, Operations Head of the project for ending domestic violence. The discussions revolved around the understanding of domestic violence, the actions taken by the NGO and the ways of tackling it in the light of the pandemic.

Image: https://www.fairobserver.com/region/central_south_asia/urja-ngo-anjali-pathak-womens-rights-domestic-violence-india-news-15241/ 

Interviewer: Sriniket Bandaru

This conversation revolves around agriculture. We discuss new methodologies, processes and alternative ways of thinking in this field. The main topics addressed are regenerative farming, activism in agriculture, soil building, permaculture and sustainable agriculture. The entire conversation is around the guest’s work, experiences in all of the topics mentioned above and how his work can reform agriculture.

Our guest is Ajay Vallabhaneni. Ajay is an agricultural graduate from Suresh Gyan Vihar University. And for the past two years, he has worked on several projects such as Rural Agriculture, permaculture design and organic farming. He has extensive knowledge of farming techniques and cultivation practices along with on-field experience. He is also a teacher at Living Vikasa Vidya Vanam as in charge of farming, a special interests course.

Image - https://www.wbcsd.org/Overview/Panorama/Articles/COVID-19-brings-opportunity-for-agricultural-reforms-in-India 

Interviewer: Ishani Sharma

In this episode of Interlinked, we discuss the trajectory of India’s role in the Indo-Pacific region. Dr Malhotra sheds light on the evolving perceptions of India’s own role in the region and the multiple factors affecting it. In the conversation, Ishani and Dr Malhotra discuss the impact of China, the United States and other countries like Japan on the role India aspires to play in the Indo-Pacific.

Dr Aditi Malhotra is Editor-in-chief of the Canadian Army Journal. She has worked as a research fellow in multiple think tanks and research institutes including the Centre for Land Warfare Studies and the International Strategic and Security Studies Programme. She has recently published a book on understanding India’s Security Orientation towards Southeast and East Asia. By sharing her expertise on the subject, she truly enriched the conversation.

#indopacific #southasia #india #china #unitedstates #japan #geopoloitics #contemporarysouthasia

Image - The Diplomatist