Through conversations with top thinkers in the social sciences and beyond, economist Shruti Rajagopalan explores the ideas that will propel India forward.
Latest episodes
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46 min
Vaibhav Rathi on Political Influence on Bureaucratic Priorities & its Impact on Investment in India
This is the 2026 job market series, where I speak with young scholars entering the academic job market about their latest research on India. I spoke with Vaibhav Rathi who is a doc…
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53 min
Kishen Shastry on the Political Economy of Hindu Monastic Institutions (Mutts) in Karnataka
This is the 2026 job market series, where I speak with young scholars entering the academic job market about their latest research on India. On this episode, I spoke with Kishen Sh…
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46 min
Nisha Vernekar on Night-shift Reforms and Women's Work in India
This is the 2026 job market series, where I speak with young scholars entering the academic job market about their latest research on India. On this episode, I spoke with Nisha Ver…
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57 min
Aishwarya Kekre on Land Fragmentation and Its Impact on Structural Transformation
This is the 2026 job market series, where I speak with young scholars entering the academic job market about their latest research on India. We are launching our series with Aishwa…
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1 h 13
Rana Hasan on Harnessing the Economic Potential of Indian Cities
Today my guest is Rana Hasan who is the Director, Centre for Economic Growth at NCAER and Senior Affiliate Scholar at the Mercatus Center. Prior to this he was the Regional Lead Ec…
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1 h 31
Gaurav Chiplunkar on the Frictions in India's Labor Market
Today my guest is Gaurav Chiplunkar, who is an Assistant Professor in the Global Economies and Markets group at the Darden School of Business, University of Virginia. We talked abo…
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1 h 53
Shreyas Narla and Kadambari Shah on the 'The 1991 Project'
Today my guests are my colleagues Shreyas Narla and Kadambari Shah. Shreyas is a research scholar and Kadambari is a research associate at the Mercatus Center with the India progra…
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1 h 35
M.R. Madhavan on Party Power and the Decline of India's Legislatures
Today my guest is M.R. Madhavan, co-founder and president of PRS Legislative Research. We talked about the role and purpose of the Rajya Sabha, treatment of money bills in a Westmi…
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1 h 03
Rahul Sagar on the Birth of Indian Nationalism
Today my guest is once again Rahul Sagar, who is a Global Network Associate Professor of Political Science at New York University Abu Dhabi. We talked about his new book The Birth…
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1 h 19
Sajjid Chinoy on Whether India Faces Another 1991 Moment
Today my guest is Sajjid Chinoy, managing director and chief India economist at J.P. Morgan. He is also currently serving as a part-time member of the Economic Advisory Council to…
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1 h 30
Ritam Chaurey on Placing the Firm at the Center of India's Structural Transformation
Today my guest is Ritam Chaurey, who is an Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. We talked about structural transformation in…
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1 h 46
Pratap Bhanu Mehta on Liberalism, Nihilism, and the Collapse of Sincerity
Today my guest is Dr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, who is the Laurance Rockefeller Professor for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton and former president and chief executive of the Center f…
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1 h 31
Shruti Rajagopalan and Milan Vaishnav on India's Delimitation Dilemma
Today we are releasing a webinar recording from April 24th where Milan Vaishnav and I had a conversation on delimitation in India. Milan is a senior fellow and the director of the…
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1 h 13
Samanth Subramanian on the Fragile and Resilient Technologies that Bind Us
Today my guest is Samanth Subramanian, who is a journalist and writer and the author of the recent books The Web Beneath the Waves and A Dominant Character: The Radical Science and…
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1 h 47
Arvind Subramanian and Devesh Kapur on India's Precocious Development Odyssey
Today my guests are Arvind Subramanian and Devesh Kapur. Arvind is a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a former Chief Economic Advisor to the…
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1 h 07
V. Anantha Nageswaran on Surveying the Growth and Financialization of the Indian Economy
Today my guest is Dr. V Anantha Nageswaran, who is currently serving as the Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India. He is also the co-author of the books Economics of De…
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1 h 34
Ornit Shani and Rohit De on Assembling India's Constitution
Today my guests are Ornit Shani and Rohit De, historians and the authors of the latest book Assembling India's Constitution. Ornit Shani is an associate professor of history at the…
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1 h 47
Pranay Kotasthane on the Political Economy of Rare Earths and Critical Minerals
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 Unin…
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1 h 41
Nachiket Mor on Rethinking India's Healthcare System
Today my guest is Nachiket Mor, a health economist whose work focuses on the design of national and regional health systems. He is a visiting scientist at the Banyan Academy of Lea…
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1 h 19
Akshay Jaitly on the Making of a Modern Indian Law Firm
Today my guest is Akshay Jaitly, the author of the recent book, Trilegal: The Making of a Modern Indian Law Firm. He is one of the founders of Trilegal and specializes in advising…