Ideas of India

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I spoke with Kushagr Bakshi is a Michigan International and Comparative Law Scholar and an SJD candidate at the University of Michigan Law School, where he also received his LLM. He received his first law degree from NUJS in West Bengal. We discussed a chapter of his dissertation called “The Country Without a Post Office: Jammu and Kashmir and the Imaginations of Freedom Within a Federation. We talked about assymetrical federalism versus hetererarchy, constitutional values and imagination for federalism in India, and much more. 

Recorded October 24th, 2024.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:01:06) - Grand Tamasha

(00:04:12) - Asymmetric Versus Heterarchical Federalism

(00:19:37) - Isn’t this Asymmetric Federalism?

(00:31:39) - Democracy in Local Governments

(00:43:27) - Rethinking the Rajya Sabha

(00:53:30) - Outro

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I spoke with Aarushi Kalra Ph.D. candidate in Economics at Brown University. We discussed her job market paper, “Hate in the Time of Algorithms: Evidence from a Large-Scale Experiment on Online Behavior.” We talked about the demand and supply of toxicity against minorities on social media platforms, user behavior, platform behavior, real world segregation due to ethnic violence, and much more. 

Recorded October 24th, 2024.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:00:58) - Grand Tamasha

(00:02:31) - Exploring How Social Media Users Engage with Toxic Content

(00:06:06) - Understanding the Drivers of Toxic Speech on the Internet

(00:08:50) - Definitions of Toxic Content

(00:11:05) - Scale of Data and Choice of Language

(00:12:23) - Impact of Recommendation Algorithms on User Engagement

(00:16:27) - Key Findings on Toxic Content Exposure and Sharing

(00:22:08) - Interpreting How Personalization Shapes Engagement in Toxic Social Media Content

(00:25:31) - How Recognizing the Agency and Sophistication of Users Shapes Interpretive Models

(00:31:45) - The Challenges of Platform Regulation

(00:34:04) - The Challenges of Creating Interventions to Address Toxic Content

(00:35:46) - Social Media as Normalizing Toxic Speech

(00:38:09) - The Route of the Ram Rath Yatra As Lens on Segregation

(00:48:58) - Outro

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I spoke with Abishek Choutagunta, who received his PhD in economics from the Institute of Law and Economics, University of Hamburg.  He is also an EV India fellow at the Mercatus Center. We discussed his paper “President’s Rule in India: State Emergency or Political Capture?” with Christian Bjørnskov, Stefan Voigt, and myself, yes you heard that right. We talked about the Centripetal Federalism in India, state and local government finances, emergency powers, SR Bommai, constitutional design, and much more.

Recorded September 6th, 2024.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:01:01) - Grand Tamasha

(00:02:58) - Article 356 and President’s Rule

(00:26:47) - Why are local governments broken in India?

(00:46:33) - India is Centripetal in its Federalism

(00:53:08) - Outro

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I spoke with  Atanu Chatterjee, a PhD candidate in geography at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, and a lecturer at the School of Human Settlements, XIM University Bhubaneswar. We discussed his dissertation examining the in situ slum rehabilitation scheme through a state-led intervention in low income housing in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. We talked about the reasons for the emergence of urban slums in Ahmedabad, the successes and failures of the in situ slum rehabilitation scheme, the differences across four recent slum redevelopments, the types of problems residents face post rehabilitation, and much more. 

Recorded September 12th, 2024.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:01:10) - Grand Tamasha

(00:02:54) - The Aims of In Situ Slum Redevelopment

(00:05:58) - Frameworks for Understanding Slums

(00:10:06) - The Economic Context of Slums in Relation to Governance

(00:12:26) - Communal Violence and Segregation and the Formation of Slums

(00:15:46) - Approaches to Slum Redevelopment

(00:17:05) - Slum Redevelopment in Ahmedabad

(00:19:37) - Ahmedabad As a Success Story?

(00:21:35) - Consent and Coercion in the Redevelopment of Slums

(00:26:07) - Public–Private Partnerships and Participation in Redevelopment Schemes

(00:27:21) - Challenges in Adjusting to In Situ Redevelopment

(00:30:19) - Expectations of Living in a Post-Redevelopment Colony

(00:32:03) - Basis for Evaluating the Success of Rehabilitation

(00:34:01) - Allotment of Homes and Ownership Restrictions

(00:36:15) - Questions Regarding the Resale of Allotted Homes

(00:40:04) - Issues that Impede Residents’ Adjustment to Communal Living

(00:42:51) - The Role of the State in Facilitating Transitions to Redeveloped Housing

(00:44:14) - Mechanisms for Creating Successful Redevelopments

(00:46:27) - A Participatory Approach Versus a Top-Down Approach to Redevelopment

(00:49:03) - Building the Capacity of Community Associations

(00:51:36) - Grounds for Optimism

(00:53:09) - Improvements of the Institutional Framework Through Community Empowerment

(00:54:45) - The Potentially Supportive Role of NGOs

(00:56:390 - No Quick Fixes but Revised Platforms

(00:57:33) - Outro

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I spoke with Steven Brownstone, a PhD candidate in economics at the University of California, San Diego. His research focus is on the fields of development economics, agricultural economics, and political economy. We discussed his job market paper, Labor Market Effects of Agricultural Mechanization: Experimental Evidence from India. We talked about the reason there isn't a natural mechanization in rice plantation in Telangana, the role of the state in the uptake of mechanization, the labor market in a developing country that is undergoing a structural transformation and much more.

Recorded September 11th, 2024.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:01:04) - Grand Tamasha

(00:02:36) - The Wage and Labor Effects of Mechanized Drum Seeders in Telangana

(00:07:43) - Wages Failing to Rise: NREGA and a Profitability Ceiling

(00:09:41) - Women’s Changing Role in the Farming Labor Market

(00:11:07) - The Puzzle of Mechanization: Is Government Intervention Necessary?

(00:15:41) - Mechanization or Migrant Labor

(00:19:27) - The Role of Government in Mechanization Adoption

(00:23:46) - Should Telangana farmers grow rice?

(00:26:08) - Market Distortions and Maximizing Food Production

(00:29:31) - Larger Economic Questions About Agricultural Subsidies

(00:34:18) - Future of Mechanization and Agricultural Policy in Telangana

(00:36:45) - The Long Shadow of Feudalism: Concentration of Land and Labor Market Power in India

(00:39:00) - How the Feudal Structure Shaped Current Farm Ownership and Women’s Labor

(00:41:54) - New Research in Relation to Existing Stories of State Capacity

(00:46:05) - Outro

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I spoke with Deepika Padmanabhan, who's a PhD candidate in political science at Yale University. Her research focuses on nationalism, language and self-determination with a regional focus in South Asia. We discussed her job market paper, everyday imposition language promotion as a nation building strategy in Southern India. We talked about how the exposure to dominant national languages like English and Hindi impacts the identity of subnational regional speakers in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, the politics of language in South Asia, the instrumental versus symbolic characteristics of regional languages and much more. 

Recorded September 11th, 2024.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:01:08) - Grand Tamasha

(00:02:47) - Linguistic Diversity and National Identity

(00:03:55) - History and Politics of Multilingualism in India

(00:06:20) - Language as a Nation-Building Tool with Putative Effects

(00:08:53) - Experiencing the Hierarchy of National and Subnational Identities Through Language

(00:11:51) - Observing the Discriminatory Effects of Linguistic Imposition

(00:15:37) - Bilingualism or Diglossia

(00:18:03) - Differences in the Political and Economic Valences of Hindi and English

(00:21:18) - Migration and Language Politics

(00:22:35) - Linguistic Pluralism in Relation to National Identity and Growing Nativism

(00:25:39) - Hindi as the Site of Political and Economic Tensions

(00:30:45) - Dialects of Local Languages Provoking a Subnational Identity

(00:34:26) - A Linguistic Origin Story

(00:38:33) - Politics in Tamil Film

(00:43:20) - The Future of Linguistic Diversity with Advancements in Technology

(00:45:15) - Outro

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This is the 2024 job market series where I speak with young scholars entering the academic job market about the latest research in India. 

I spoke with Sukrit Puri, who is a PhD candidate in political science at MIT and an Elinor Ostrom fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. His research focus is on the entanglement between business and politics in emerging economies, and his dissertation focuses on family firms in India. We discussed his job market paper, Corporate Kinship: Political Attachments of the Family Firm, we talked about how family firms differ from management and expert run businesses in India, whether it is in their firm structure or their political giving, whether family firms are most strategic or expressive in politics, the differences in the nature of the quid pro quo for a family firm versus a management run firm, the latest electoral bond scheme, and much more.

Recorded September 11th, 2024.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:01:16) - Grand Tamasha

(00:03:05) - Analyzing Family-Run Firms and Campaign Donations   

(00:07:06) - How Family Businesses Donate Politically in Relation to Corporations and Individuals

(00:10:17) - Distinctions Between Family-Run and Non-Family-Run Firms

(00:14:48) - Political Donations and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Overlap or Distinct Strategies?

(00:19:35) - The Hidden Side of Campaign Contributions

(00:25:56) - Ethnic Identity in Relation to Expressive Giving

(00:28:59) - Challenges in Measuring Quid Pro Quo Arrangements

(00:35:55) - The Impact of Demonetization on Political Donations

(00:37:06) - Assessing the Reaction to the Information Shock from Mandated Disclosures

(00:45:22) - Understanding the Reputational Impact of Political Donations

(00:51:15) - Is Uncertainty a Factor?

(00:57:11) - Outro

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We are kicking off the 2024 job market series, where I speak with young scholars entering the academic job market about their latest research on India. 

Our first scholar in the series is Rolly Kapoor, who is a PhD candidate at the Department of Economics at University of California, Santa Cruz. Before this, she received a BA in Economics from Delhi University and an MSE in Economics from University College London.

Her research focuses on issues related to gender, access and urban mobility in developing countries. We spoke about her job market paper titled, Together to Work? The Effect of Travel Buddies on Women’s Employment and Mobility in India, co-authored with Smit Gade. We talked about the difficulties women have in navigating urban areas, its effect on female labor force participation, the impact of safe travel on job market decisions, and much more.

Recorded September 6th, 2024.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:01:14) - Grand Tamasha

(00:05:07) - Mobility Constraints for Women in India

(00:07:37) - The Study: How Do Women Travel Together?

(00:10:04) - Background on Women’s Travel in India

(00:13:00) - Social Norms and the Cognitive Load: Benefits of Women Traveling Together

(00:16:42) - Findings on Travel Buddies and Job Interview Attendance and Additional Positive Impacts

(00:21:14) - Implications for Further Research on Women’s Mobility Patterns

(00:26:40) - Diverse Reactions to Travel Interventions

(00:28:32) - Policy Implications for Supporting Women’s Travel

(00:33:43) - Other Research Projects on Women and Labor

(00:39:29) - Outro

Today my guest is Ruchir Sharma, who is the Chairman of Rockefeller International, a columnist with the Financial Times, and the author of the recent book, What Went Wrong with Capitalism.

We talked about American debt levels, US monetary policy, regulation and cronyism, industrial policy, the Indian economy under Modi, and much more.

Recorded July 31st, 2024.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro (00:00:59) - Capitalism in America (00:07:48) - Problems in Monetary Policy (00:17:07) - Elite Consensus and Capitalism (00:21:13) - Crisis and Course Correction (00:27:14) - Credit and Bond Markets in the US (00:33:07) - Industrial Policy in the US (00:38:46) - Misunderstanding Systemic Risk (00:48:18) - Declining Birth Rates and Economic Growth (00:51:00) - Technology versus Regulation (00:58:12) - India’s Economic Future (01:00:30) - Modi Government’s Economic Policies (01:16:25) - Alternative Ways out of Fiscal Crisis? (01:18:04) - Outro

Today my guest is Amol Agrawal, who is the author of History of Private Banking in South Canara District (1906-69). He teaches economics at Ahmedabad University and blogs at the excellent blog Mostly Economics. 

We spoke about the colonial and post-colonial history of banking in India, the unique features of the South Canara district, and its bankers, inclusive banking by state and private banks, bank nationalization, and much more. 

Recorded July 26th, 2024.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:01:21) - History of Private Banking in India

(00:12:06) - Lending and Deposits

(00:16:17) - Industrial Development and Banking

(00:21:24) - Bank Runs in India

(00:25:54) - Success of South Canara Banks

(00:28:38) - Systemic Risk in South Canara

(00:36:16) - Banking Castes?

(00:40:29) - What was the RBI so wrong about with South Canara banking?

(00:47:50) - Pigmy Deposit Scheme

(01:05:28) - Why Were India’s Banks Nationalized?

(01:23:35) - Outro