Episodes
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Subscribe to Grand Tamasha on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, or your favorite podcast app.
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.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.
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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.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.
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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.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.
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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.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.
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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.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.
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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.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.
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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.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.
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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
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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.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.
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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
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Today my guests are Amartya Lahiri and Devashish Mitra who are joining me to discuss their latest paper for the 1991 project titled India’s Development Policy Challenge. Amartya Lahiri is the Royal Bank Research Professor in the Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Devashish Mitra the Gerald B. and Daphna Cramer Professor of Global Affairs at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University. We spoke about structural transformation and increasing total factor productivity, manufacturing versus services led growth, industrial policy, export led growth, how to employ India’s youth in more productive sectors, and much more.
Recorded July 29th, 2024.
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Timestamps
(00:00:00) - Intro
(00:01:27) - State of India’s Structural Transformation
(00:08:28) - Has India’s Growth Peaked?
(00:15:39) - Trade-, Export-, and Manufacturing-Led Growth
(00:27:50) - Manufacturing-Led or Services-Led Growth Model?
(00:47:16) - Scaling Manufacturing
(00:59:38) - Labor Productivity in India
(01:06:41) - Rising Protectionism
(01:19:44) - Monetary Policy and Trade Policy
(01:35:26) - Outro
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Today my guest is Anirudh Burman. He is an associate research director and fellow at Carnegie Endowment India, and prior to that, he worked at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy and the Centre for Policy Research, both in New Delhi. He has his master’s in law from Harvard Law School. We spoke about the dysfunctional land markets and the kinds of reforms required in land use policy, land sale and land transfers. We also talked about the various experiments with land pooling and leasing in India, how to think about eminent domain law, land titling, land title insurance and much more.
Recorded July 15th, 2024.
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Timestamps
(00:00:00) - Intro
(00:02:46) - How does India’s Land Market work?
(00:15:23) - Why do we have such bad regulation?
(00:23:519) - Land Transfer and Consolidation
(00:40:35) - Transitioning to an efficient land regulation system
(00:45:25) - Eminent Domain
(01:05:35) - Land Leasing(01:11:01) - Land Pooling
(01:28:37) - Outro -
Today my guests are Shreyas Narla and Kadambari Shah, who are my colleagues at the Mercatus Center and research scholars working with me on the 1991 Project.
We spoke about the kinds of policy change we would like to see in the coalition government led by Modi’s in his third term. We talked about the research Shreyas, Kadambari and I have been working on in the areas of competition policy, regulating India’s digital marketplace, labor law reforms, scaling India’s manufacturing, streamlining GST, and much more.
Recorded July 1st, 2024.
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Timestamps
(00:00:00) - Intro
(00:01:31) - Past Budgets Announcements and Upcoming Budget
(00:09:38) - Restarting reforms
(00:22:56) - The Tinkering of Government
(00:27:08) - Regulation of Big Tech Companies
(00:51:35) - India’s Labor Regulations
(01:10:33) - Solutions to India’s Regulatory Environment
(01:20:27) - Outro -
Today my guest is Sajith Pai, who is a partner at Blume Ventures and he is a long-time media executive turned VC. At Blume, Sajith supports investments in media, ed tech and e-commerce, while simultaneously helping Blume building a research and knowledge platform.
We spoke about the 2024 Indus Valley Annual Report. written by Sajith and his co-authors, Anurag Pagaria, Nachammai Savithiri both at Blume Ventures; the many countries that make up the country of India; bifurcated between India1, 2, and 3; gross fixed capital formation, fintechs, the consumption led boom that India is experiencing, the space industry, and much more.
Recorded June 25th, 2024.
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Timestamps
(00:00:00) - Intro
(00:09:16) - Private Consumption and Fixed Capital Formation(00:14:15) - Gross Fixed Capital Formation
(00:22:39) - Regime Uncertainty
(00:26:51) - The Indian Consumer
(00:35:10) - Bottlenecks and Reforms
(00:42:18) - Mutual Funds Savings Model
(00:47:33) - Path from Seed to IPO
(00:55:40) - India's Foreign Investors(01:00:57) - India's Fintechs
(01:11:09) - Space Tech in India
(01:17:36) - What's on Pai's Bookshelf?
(01:23:39) - Outro
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Today my guest is Anne O Krueger. She is a Senior Fellow at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, and the Herald L. and Caroline Ritch Emeritus Professor of Sciences and Humanities in the Economics Department at Stanford University. She served World Bank’s Chief Economist from 1982 to 1986, and the first deputy managing director at the IMF from 2001 to 2006. We talked about her famous 1974 paper “The Political Economy of a Rent Seeking Society” on its 50th anniversary, her experience understanding the license permit raj system in India, the 1991 trade liberalization, the Washington consensus, decline of the WTO, the new protectionism in the US, reforming Argentina and much more.
Recorded May 17th, 2024.
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Timestamps
(00:00:00) - Intro
(00:01:24) - Rent-Seeking in Turkey and India(00:10:49) - Professional Influences
(00:15:35) - South Korean Miracle
(00:18:53) - Korea vs. India
(00:26:19) - Import Substitution and Rent
(00:29:15) - Turning Around the World Bank
(00:38:59) - The Krueger Consensus
(00:42:18) - Africa(00:45:39) - India's 1991 Reforms
(00:50:52) - World Trade Organization
(00:53:53) - United States and Free Trade
(01:02:14) - License Permit Raj in the US
(01:04:36) - International Monetary Fund
(01:06:47) - Hope for Milei and Argentina
(01:11:30) - Looking Back on Success
(01:13:31) - Outro
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Today my guest is Karthik Muralidharan. He is the Tata Chancellor's Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of the recent book Accelerating India’s Development: A State-Led Roadmap for Effective Governance.” We talked about the lacking state capacity in India, about improving the quality of public expenditure, fiscal federalism, methods to improve the hiring process for government, better ways of staffing and using the Indian bureaucracy, randomized control trials and development and much more.
Recorded May 15th, 2024.
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Timestamps
(00:00:00) - Intro
(00:07:46) - Quality of Public Education
(00:17:59) - Decentralization vs. Federalism
(00:31:58) - Welfare Expenditure
(00:41:30) - Personnel for the Indian State
(01:09:08) - Better Approach for Skilling
(01:17:26) - Empanelment
(01:34:32) - The Backdrop of the Field of Economics
(01:56:52) - Outro
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Today my guests are Tom Easton and Arjun Ramani from The Economist. Tom Easton is Mumbai bureau chief. He joined The Economist in 2000 at the New York bureau and was appointed the Asian business editor in 2007. Arjun Ramani is on an extended stint in Mumbai and Delhi bureaus covering the Indian economy. Before this, he was the global business and economics correspondent in the London office. We spoke about various aspects of covered in a recent six-part special report on India’s economy written by Arjun and Tom.
Recorded May 2nd, 2024.
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Timestamps
(00:00:00) - Intro
(00:01:03) - The India Express and its Future
(00:01:57) - Reasons for Optimism and Pessimism Over India’s Future
(00:14:45) - Long-Run Economic Growth
(00:18:51) - Is India Prepared to be a Capitalist Country?
(00:29:37) - Unemployment vs. Informal Labor Market in India
(00:47:17) - India and Education
(00:51:21) - State Capacity Problems
(01:02:11) - Concrete Ceilings for Indian Businesses
(01:08:24) - The Binding Constraint
(01:13:30) - Industrial Policy
(01:31:53) - Future of Economic Journalism
(01:44:50) - Outro -
Today my guest is Rohit Lamba, an assistant professor of economics at Pennsylvania State University and a visiting assistant professor of economics at New York University Abu Dhabi. We spoke about his recent book Breaking the Mould: Reimagining India’s Economic Future which he has coauthored with Raghuram Rajan.
We spoke about their argument to shift the focus from industrial and trade policy towards a services and education policy, how India can and should decentralize, if India can scale education and health, India’s growth rate numbers, and much more.
Recorded April 19th, 2024.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.
Timestamps
(00:00:00) - Intro
(00:05:21) - Zooming into Indian States
(00:20:25) - Why not Decentralization?
(00:26:28) - Scaling Education
(00:51:14) - Educating the Global South
(00:53:22) - Picking Winners and Losers
(01:10:22) - India's Growth Rate
(01:18:44) - Outro
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Today my guest is Rasheed Griffith, who is the CEO of the Caribbean Progress Studies Institute, the host of the podcast the Rasheed Griffith Show, and one of my favorite writers on Substack. He also directs the Emergent Ventures Africa-Caribbean grants program at the Mercatus Center.
We spoke about whether the former colonizers owe reparations to the Caribbean people, economic divergence in post-colonial Caribbean countries, Caribbean music, homophobia, VS Naipaul, West Indian cricket team, and much more.
Recorded April 4th, 2024.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.
Timestamps
(00:00:00) - Intro
(00:09:37) - Do Former Colonizers Owe Reparations to the Caribbean People?
(00:22:29) - The Counterfactual for Caribbean Colonies
(00:35:48) - India, Caribbean and Scale
(00:40:52) - Is Saint Lucia the Best at Spotting Talent?
(00:49:37) - Caribbean Civil Rights Movement
(00:58:01) - Innovation in Caribbean Music
(01:03:59) - Homophobia
(01:13:10) - Most Underrated Caribbean Island?
(01:19:05) - V.S. Naipual
(01:30:57) - Outro
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Today my guest is Pranay Kotasthane who is the deputy director of the Takshashila Institution and chairs the High Tech Geopolitics Programme.
Pranay co-writes Anticipating the Unintended, a newsletter on public policy ideas and frameworks, and co-hosts Puliyabaazi, a popular Hindi-Urdu podcast on politics, policy, and technology. He is the co-author of - Missing in Action: Why Should You Care About Public Policy, and the graphic nonfiction narrative We, the Citizens. He has co-edited India’s Marathon: Reshaping the Post-Pandemic World Order.
Today we are discussing his most recent book, When the Chips Are Down, coauthored with Abhiram Manchi. We spoke the evolution of the semiconductor industry, industrial targeting, Moore’s law, Rock’s law, Taiwan’s Comparative advantage, whether India can lead in semiconductor chips and more.
Recorded March 12th, 2024.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.
Timestamps
(00:00:00) - Intro
(00:08:35) - Moore's Law
(00:14:08) - Rock's Law
(00:21:41) - Geopolitics of the Semiconducter Industry
(00:27:46) - Metacritical Technologies
(00:38:49) - Geographical Concentration
(00:48:34) - Zelenograd
(00:59:44) - Unease of doing Business in India
(01:09:45) - Industrial Targeting in Taiwan
(01:30:57) - Outro
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Today my guests are M. Krishnan and Badri Narayanan Gopalakrishnan. M. Krishnan is an economist based in Chennai and Singapore, and specializes in agriculture education systems, fisheries, and aquaculture research. He is currently an advisor at Infinite-Sum Modeling Inc and was a distinguished scientist of the Agricultural Research Service of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. Badri Narayanan Gopalakrishnan is an economist specializing in trade and international policy. He is a Fellow at the (NITI) Aayog, Government of India, where he formerly led the institution’s sections on Trade and Commerce, Strategic Economic Dialogue, International Cooperation, and Vision India@2047.
Today we are discussing their recent coauthored paper titled Indian Fisheries in the Context of WTO Regulations, published by the Mercatus Center in collaboration with Center for Governance and Markets at the University of Pittsburgh. We spoke about the big issues concerning fisheres, in particular, India’s interests in at the 13th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) recently held in Abu Dhabi.
Recorded March 13th, 2024.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.
Timestamps
(00:00:00) - Intro
(00:01:50) - Fisheries in India
(00:13:46) - Overfishing and Illegal Fishing in India
(00:19:59) - Overfishing Negotiations
(00:22:01) - Subsidies
(00:26:27) - At the Negotiating Table
(00:28:24) - IUUs
(00:33:01) - Seasonal Fishing Ban
(00:37:33) - Leading the Global South
(00:45:17) - Measurement
(00:48:47) - Domestic Politics
(00:53:35) - The Future
(00:59:38) - Outro
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