Episodes
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India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently suffered a major electoral setback, with his party falling well short of a simple majority in Parliament at a time when they had set their sights on a two-thirds majority.
One of the major reasons for this sobering outcome has been the underperforming Indian economy under Modi’s leadership. Post-poll surveys show that voters were particularly dissatisfied with issues of unemployment and inflation.
I spoke with Anuj Srivas, a business journalist from India, about how the government has attempted to address the various challenges facing India’s economy and how successful these efforts have been.
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A new book details how successive Indian Prime Ministers have betrayed the people of India and failed to deliver on the basics like health and education. In “India is Broken”, Ashoka Mody argues that deep structural problems with no easy fixes mean India may be on the cusp of throwing away its demographic advantage.
In this conversation, I spoke to Ashoka Mody, who is a former IMF and World Bank Economist and now a visiting professor of Economics at Princeton University, about India’s employment challenge, its broken education and health systems, the apathy of the elites, Nehruvian socialism, what welfarism actually means and also (importantly) how Bollywood may be becoming irrelevant.
India is Broken is an extremely readable and important book about India’s political economy landscape since 1947.
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Missing episodes?
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Until very recently, Gautam Adani was the wealthiest man in Asia. At one point in 2022, he was the second richest man in the world, ahead of Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. Adani’s rise came on the back of staggering growth in the value of the stocks of his conglomerate, the Adani group.
All that has changed dramatically in the last few weeks since Hinderburg Research, a US-based short seller, released a report that alleged fraud and stock price manipulation. The Adani Group’s stocks have witnessed a massive sell-off that has wiped USD 100 billion from the market capitalisation of the companies.
To examine some of the allegations, I spoke to M. Rajshekhar, a senior journalist and author of a fabulous book about India’s political economy, Despite The State. We also talked about the structure of the Adani Group, its various business interests, and what this might mean for India’s economy.
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The release of the global hunger index report has once again turned the spotlight on food insecurity in India.
While overall levels of undernourishment in the population remain unacceptably high, the figures for chronic undernourishment among children are particularly alarming.
I spoke to Dipa Sinha, who is an associate professor of Economics at the Dr BR Ambedkar university in Delhi and is one of India’s leading experts on the issue of malnutrition.
It was a wide-ranging conversation where we spoke about the Indian government’s criticism of the global hunger index; the reasons for malnutrition in India; the role of the Indian diet and the green revolution; the incredible importance of the public distribution system, and more.
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The floods in Pakistan have been devastating. They have been described as "Biblical". The outcome of a "monsoon on steroids."
They have caused damage to almost half of the country. The total economic losses are estimated to be in the region of USD 10 billion, or about 4 percent of Pakistan's annual GDP.
Pakistan's minister for climate change Sherry Rehman has called for developed countries to pay "reparations" to developing countries that are suffering some of the worst outcomes of climate change. In more complicated terms (also known as United Nations speak) she has called for more loss and damage financing.
In this episode, we speak to one of the world's foremost experts on the topic of loss and damage, Harjeet Singh. Harjeet is now the head of global political strategy at the Climate Action Network International (CAN).
He spoke about the extent of damage in Pakistan and the kind of support that is needed. Harjeet explained the need for loss and damage financing, why developed nations have remained averse to the idea and what one can expect at the next climate change conference in Egypt later this year
I also asked him how individuals can contribute to the movement that focuses on better support for poorer countries suffering due to extreme weather events.
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Making sense of India’s wheat export ban
Late on Friday, the Indian government announced that it is banning the export of wheat citing food security risks within the country due to soaring prices of wheat. Just a day prior, India had said that it will be sending trade delegations to nine countries with the idea of attempting to boost wheat exports.
The dramatic u-turn after about a month of “we will feed the world” rhetoric has attracted some severe global criticism, particularly from the west. “If everyone starts to impose export restrictions or to close markets, that would worsen the crisis,” said the German agriculture minister Cem Ozdemir.
We speak to Siraj Hussain, former secretary of India’s agriculture ministry, to make sense of the situation. Hussain had been advising since last month that India should not get carried away and ensure domestic supplies first.
In this interview, Hussain argues that the export miscalculation has already meant that India cannot extend the provision of free grains to its population– a scheme in operation since the beginning of the pandemic and that had provided some relief – beyond September this year.
He also contends that the criticism that India has attracted because of the ban is primarily due to the rhetoric employed by ministers that “India will feed the world.”
We also speak about the damage to the wheat crop in India this year because of the severe early summer heatwave and the dangers that climate change poses to global food security.
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In January this year, Alex wrote a prescient piece warning that a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine could have severe food security implications around the world.
We spoke to him about his analysis of the situation now that the invasion has happened and what scenarious the world should be preparing for.
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