Grand Tamasha

Over the past several decades, the story of Silicon Valley has been deeply intertwined with the story of Indian immigrants—engineers, entrepreneurs, and investors who helped shape the technology revolution while building new bridges between the United States and India. 

Few individuals embody that journey as vividly Kanwal Rekhi. Rekhi was the first Indian-American founder & CEO to take a venture-backed company public on the NASDAQ. He also co-founded and built The Indus Entrepreneurs—or TiE—into the largest global network of Indian entrepreneurs, and cofounded Inventus—where he is building the venture franchise into a catalyst for India’s tech revolution. 

He writes about his life in his new memoir, The Groundbreaker: Entrepreneurship, the American Dream, and the Rise of Modern India, which traces his remarkable journey from a modest upbringing in India to becoming one of the most influential figures in the Indian diaspora in the United States.

To talk more about his book, Kanwal joins Milan on the podcast this week. They discuss his lifelong passion for entrepreneurship, his modest upbringing and challenging early family life, and his role in building the modern Internet. Plus, the two discuss Kanwal’s role in India’s landmark telecommunications reforms and his recent efforts to boost entrepreneurs in India.

Episode notes:

For decades, India’s growth story has rested on the spectacular rise of its middle class. But a new book argues that this very group—roughly 40 million income-tax–paying households—is now under acute strain. 

Facing a convergence of job disruption, wage stagnation, and rising debt, the middle class may no longer be the engine of growth it once was. This is the argument made in a new book titled, Breakpoint: The Crisis of the Middle Class and the Future of Work. It is authored by Saurabh Mukherjea, along with Nandita Rajhansa and Sapana Bhavsar

Saurabh is the founder of Marcellus Investment Managers and the author of six previous books. Prior to setting up Marcellus, Saurabh was the CEO of Ambit Capital. He is also a Founding Director of the Association of Portfolio Managers in India

Nandita is an economist and a small and midcap analyst at Marcellus. She’s the co-author of a national bestseller, Behold the Leviathan: The Unusual Rise of Modern India, which was published in 2024.

Milan speaks with Saurabh and Nandita about the Indian middle class’s most vulnerable moment since 1991, the hollowing out of middle-skill jobs, the structural challenges with India’s education system, the worrying trend in declining placement rates and salaries, and the explosion in household debt. Plus, the trio discuss how AI and automation are remaking the Indian economy—both for good and for ill.

Episode notes:

For decades, Bangladesh has long oscillated between competitive democracy and dominant-party rule. In 2024, mass protests brought an abrupt end to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s long tenure in power, opening the door to Bangladesh’s most consequential election in more than a decade—one that returned the Bangladesh Nationalist Party to power and reshaped the country’s political landscape.

With Hasina’s fall and a new government in office, the country once again stands at a crossroads—testing whether institutional reform and electoral competition can deliver lasting democratic stability.

To talk about the new political era in Bangladesh, Milan is joined on the show this week by Naomi Hossain. Naomi is Global Research Professor with the Department of Development Studies at SOAS University of London. She has researched extensively across Bangladesh and has managed large international studies spanning 20 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe. Naomi is the author of the acclaimed 2017 book, The Aid Lab: Understanding Bangladesh's Unexpected Success.

Naomi and Milan discuss the abrupt end to Hasina’s fifteen-year rule, the performance of the interim government under Muhammad Yunus, and the prospects for new prime minister Tarique Rahman. Plus, the two discuss the country’s immense economic challenges and the role of the military.

Episode notes:

Just weeks ago, India hosted the 2026 AI Impact Summit, the latest chapter in a global process that began in 2023 in the UK. For India, the stakes could not be higher: it’s a country with immense technical talent and a data-rich digital ecosystem, but also a services-led growth model that AI could either boost or seriously disrupt. 

For the Modi government, the summit was part diplomatic showcase, part investment pitch, and part declaration of ambition. To talk more about the summit and its key takeaways, Milan is joined on the show this week by Anirudh Suri. 

Anirudh is a nonresident scholar with Carnegie India. His interests lie at the intersection of technology and geopolitics, climate, and strategic affairs. He is also a managing partner at India Internet Fund, a technology-focused venture capital fund based in India and the United States. He’s the author of The Great Tech Game: Shaping Geopolitics and the Destinies of Nations, published in 2022. And he’s also the host of a podcast by the same name, “The Great Tech Game,” which focuses on technology, business and geopolitics.

Milan and Anirudh discuss the evolution of global AI summitry, the debate over India’s elusive “DeepSeek moment,” and the country’s indigenous large language models (LLMs). Plus, the two discuss the effects of AI on India’s services industry and India’s quest to marshal its domestic scientific talent.

Episode notes:

1.     Anirudh Suri, “Learning from DeepSeek, honing India’s AI strategy,” Hindustan Times, March 2, 2025.

2.     Anirudh Suri, “The Missing Pieces in India’s AI Puzzle: Talent, Data, and R&D,” Carnegie India, February 24, 2025.

3.     Anirudh Suri, “Winning the AI race with research talent,” Hindustan Times, November 3, 2024.

4.     “Governing India's Digital Revolution (with Rahul Matthan),” Grand Tamasha, January 23, 2024.

We tend to think of populist leaders around the world as disruptive—skeptical of international institutions, impatient for change, and prone to upending foreign policy norms.

But a new book by scholars Sandra Destradi and Johannes Plagemann argues that—while populists can have dramatic impacts on foreign policy—the extent of change depends on two key factors: the personalization of foreign policy and leaders’ ability to use foreign policy as a tool of domestic political mobilization.

The book is called Populism and Foreign Policy, and it looks at transitions from non-populist to populist governments in Bolivia, the Philippines, Turkey, and India. 

To talk more about the book’s findings—especially as they relate to Indian foreign policy—Sandra Destradi joins Milan on the show this week. Sandra holds the Chair of International Relations at the University of Freiburg, Germany, and she is currently serving as a DAAD long- term Guest Professor at Reichman University in Herzliya, Israel. She is the author of several articles and books on India, including the 2012 book, Indian Foreign and Security Policy in South Asia: Regional Power Strategies.

Milan and Sandra discuss the definitional debates around populism, the conditional effects of populism on foreign policy, and the reasons for the Modi government’s differential approach to Pakistan and China. Plus, the two discuss why populists might express an enhanced willingness to contribute to global public goods, the limited opportunities for mobilization against multilateral institutions, and the differences between populists in the Global North versus the Global South.

Episode notes:

1.     “Populism, South Asian Style (with Adnan Naseemullah and Pradeep Chhibber),” Grand Tamasha, December 18, 2024.

2.     Johannes Plagemann and Sandra Destradi, “Populism and Foreign Policy: The Case of India,” Foreign Policy Analysis 15, no. 2 (April 2019): 283–301. 

3.     Sandra Destradi, “Domestic Politics and Regional Hegemony: India’s Approach to Sri Lanka,” E-International Relations, January 14, 2014.

Over the past year, Europe–India relations have entered a markedly upbeat phase. What was once a diffuse partnership—long on rhetoric, short on strategy—now looks far more purposeful. 

From the announcement on a long-delayed EU-India Free Trade Agreement to expanding cooperation on security, technology, and migration, Europe and India appear to be—finally—converging around a shared strategic logic.

To unpack what’s driving this convergence—and where its limits lie—Milan is joined on the show this week by Garima Mohan. Garima is a senior fellow in the Indo-Pacific program at the German Marshall Fund based in Brussels. In this capacity, she leads GMF’s work on India and serves as convenor of the India Trilateral Forum. 

Her research focuses on Europe-India ties, EU foreign policy in Asia, and security in the Indo-Pacific. She’s also the author of a new GMF report titled, “A Long Time Coming: Europe and India have discovered a strategic partnership,” published in January 2026.

Milan and Garima discuss the geopolitical drivers that are bringing the EU and India closer together, Europe’s views on the limits to India’s potential, and the key takeaways from the EU-India FTA. Plus, the two discuss how Russia might derail Indo-European security cooperation and the urgent need for Europe to invest in India expertise.

Episode notes:

1.     “Europe’s long-awaited free-trade deal with India,” The Economist, January 25, 2026.

2.     Garima Mohan, “As Trump takes Office, Planets Align for the EU and India,” India’s World, March 6, 2025.

3.     “Can Europe be India's Plan B? (with James Crabtree),” Grand Tamasha, September 17, 2025.

4.     “India and the Reordering of Transatlantic Relations (with Tara Varma),” Grand Tamasha, March 11, 2025.

5.     “Mr. Modi Goes to Europe (with Garima Mohan),” Grand Tamasha, May 11, 2022.

After years of trade skepticism, India appears to be back in the deal-making business—signing new agreements, reviving stalled talks, and announcing ambitious frameworks with key bilateral partners. 

A few weeks ago, the European Union and India announced a mega-trade deal that was more than two decades in the works. And just days after this news broke, the White House announced that the United States had also reached an understanding with India on trade, an issue which had sapped relations between the two erstwhile partners over the past year.

To help make sense of what’s changed—and what hasn’t—Milan is joined on this show this week by Mark Linscott. Mark is a nonresident senior fellow on India at the Atlantic Council and a Senior Advisor with The Asia Group. He previously served as the assistant US trade representative for South and Central Asian Affairs from 2016 to 2018. 

He has more than 30 years of experience working on trade and economic issues at the Commerce Department and USTR. It is my pleasure to welcome him to the show for the very first time.

Milan and Mark discuss India’s new external trade posture, the geopolitics and economics of the EU-India FTA, and the timing and substance of India’s trade deal with the United States. Plus, the two discuss India’s relative positioning vis-à-vis other Asian competitors and the possible roadblocks in the way of a larger U.S.-India accord.

Episode notes:

1. Ravi Dutta Mishra, “How India’s US deal tariff advantage over Bangladesh vanished overnight,” Indian Express, February 10, 2026.
2. Arvind Subramanian, “India may be about to become one of the world’s most open economies,” The Economist, February 5, 2026.
3. Michael Kugelman and Mark Linscott, “What to know about the US-India trade deal,” Atlantic Council “Dispatches” blog, February 2, 2026. 
4. “Can the U.S. Salvage Its Relationship with India? (with Lisa Curtis),” Grand Tamasha, February 4, 2026.
5. Michael Kugelman and Mark Linscott, “The India–EU trade deal is worth watching, but not overhyping,” Atlantic Council “Dispatches” blog, January 27, 2026.