Today my guests are legal scholars Chitrakshi Jain and Prashant Reddy T, the authors of the recent book Tareekh pe Justice, Reforms for India’s District Courts. 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.

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Today my guest is M.R. Sharan, 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 Last Among Equals: Power, Caste, & Politics in Bihar’s Villages.

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.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:01:07) - Local Political Actors

(00:16:16) - Portability

(00:20:36) - Village Government in India

(00:53:42) - Separation of Powers

(01:03:51) - Inclusion

(01:21:20) - Outro

Today my guest is Rakesh Mohan. He is the President Emeritus and Distinguished Fellow at Center for Social and Economic Progress 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.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:01:13) - Labyrinth of Control

(00:23:55) - Dismantling the Licensing System

(00:48:27) - Regrets

(01:07:31) - The Infrastructure Report

(01:28:05) - Structural Transformation

(01:46:23) - Outro

Today my guest is environmental scholar, historian and biographer Ramachandra Guha. He is the author of a number of books, including a two-volume biography of Gandhi and the award-winning book “India After Gandhi.”

We talked about his latest book, "Speaking with Nature: The Origins of Indian Environmentalism.” 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.

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Timestamps

00:00:00 - Intro

00:01:08 - Speaking with Nature

00:08:42 - Unquiet Woods

00:38:29 - Science and Progress of Environmentalism 

00:47:33 - Radhakamal Mukerjee

00:55:06 - K. M. Munshi

01:03:38 - Technological Progress and Tradeoffs

01:11:22 - Jayaprakash Narayan

01:19:39 - Outro

Today’s episode is the second part of my conversation with 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 he 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 communal violence between Hindus and Muslims, revenge and reconciliation in South Asia, Sikhs and Buddhists, differences between north and south India, constitutional values, and much more. 

Recorded April 17th, 2025.

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Today 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.

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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

Today my guest is Prachi Mishra, who is a Professor in the Department of Economics, and Director and Head of Isaac Center for Public Policy at Ashoka University. Prior to joining Ashoka, Prachi was Chief of the Systemic Issues Division and Advisor in the Research Department at the International Monetary Fund. 

We spoke about the current state of the Indian economy, India’s growth trajectory, if the rupee is overvalued, India’s fiscal consolidation, and much more. We also spoke about Trade, but this episode was recorded before the big tariff announcements on April 2.  

Recorded March 31st, 2025.

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Today my guest is Sajith Pai, who is a Partner at Blume Ventures, an early stage Indian venture fund. He is also a well known writer, and the author of the annual Indus Valley Report. We spoke about the trends in the latest Indus Valley Report, the stratifications in Indian consumer markets, investor sentiment, policies and infrastructure to foster the AI boom in India, the AI start-up scene and much more.   

Recorded March 6th, 2025.

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Timestamps

00:00:00 - Intro

00:04:32 - 2025 Trends

00:24:30 - Last Year vs. This Year

00:32:25 - The Role of Artificial Intelligence

00:45:59 - Artificial Intelligence Startup Scene

01:16:40 - Sajith’s Reading Habits

01:22:20 - Outro

Today my guest is Justice Jasti Chelameswar, who is a former justice of the Supreme Court of India. Prior to his elevation, he served as chief justice in High Courts in Gauhati and Kerala and as a justice in the Andhra Pradesh High Court. 

We spoke about his judgments on electoral qualifications, judicial conduct, transparency in judicial appointments, the constitutional right to privacy, separation of powers, and how dissent shapes constitutional interpretation, and much more.

Recorded February 25th, 2025.

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Timestamps

00:00:00 - Intro

00:01:27 - Election Law Cases

00:17:15 - Process of Writing Opinions

00:25:38 - Misconduct of Judicial Officers

00:31:34 - NJAC Opinion

00:44:47 - Fundamental Right to Privacy

01:06:29 - Death Penalty Matters

01:15:36 - Outro

Today my guest is Akshay Jaitly, one of the founders of Trilegal, one of India’s leading law firms. He specializes in advising on energy and infrastructure projects. His research interests include power sector reform, the energy transition and public-private contracting.

We talked about the top-down nature of electricity regulation and pricing in India, the dysfunctional DISCOMS, the reforms required for an energy transition towards renewables and nuclear energy, and much more. 

Recorded February 11th, 2025.

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Timestamps

00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:06 - Electricity in India 00:15:31 - DISCOMs 00:41:26 - Open Access 00:44:31 - Expanding Capacity 00:46:52 - Renewable Energy 00:50:04 - Technology Diffusion 00:59:11 - Nuclear Power 01:17:18 - Outro