Ideas of India

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 program. We talked about completing five years of the 1991 Project, how it started, it's scope, the oral histories of the reformers in 1991, papers, essays, fellowships and much more. 
Recorded July 10th, 2026.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.
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Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:44 - The Origin Story
00:11:07 - Launching the Oral Histories Initiative
00:20:47 -Documentation and Memory
00:37:47 - Building the Repository
00:46:18 - The 1991 Project Website
00:58:11 - Walking with Giants
01:06:45 - Where are all the Women?
01:11:27 - Making Economic Reforms 'Sexy' Again
01:22:43 - The Importance of Intergenerational Interaction
01:34:33 - Incubating New Talent
01:41:39 - Gratitude and Acknowledgments
01:53:19 - Outro

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 Westminster system, how the anti-defection law and party whips have hollowed out parliamentary function, parliamentary procedure, the role of the governor, and much more.
Recorded June 24th, 2026.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.
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Timestamps
(00:00:00) - Intro
(00:01:33) - The Role and Purpose of the Rajya Sabha
(00:14:46) - Money Bills, No-Confidence Motions, and Design Flaws
(00:22:47) - GST and Constitutional Design
(00:30:33) - One Country, One Tax System?
(00:35:31) - The Problem with Anti-Defection Laws and Whips
(00:43:55) - Who Will Bell the Cat?
(00:50:53) - Parliamentary Pressures: Constitutional vs. Constituent Expectations
(01:02:04) - Challenges Faced by State Legislatures
(01:15:37) - Reforming the Office of Governor
(01:27:18) - The Role of PRS in Parliamentary Functioning
(01:35:13) - Outro

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 of Indian Liberalism, the recovery of the forgotten nineteenth-century thinker Mama Parmanand, why his Letters to an Indian Raja counts as the first work of Indian political theory, how Indian liberals had to justify building a state out of chaos rather than restraining one that already existed, their fight against the social tyranny of caste, clergy, and family, the case for binding the ruler and educating the citizenry before extending the vote, the divergence between British India and the princely states, religion as a moral resource, the roots of Hindu nationalism, and much more.
Recorded June 9th, 2026.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.
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Timestamps
(00:00:00) - Intro
(00:02:37) - A Complete Unknown
(00:08:53) - The Historical Context of Emerging Indian Liberalism
(00:15:47) - Features of Parmanand's Liberal Project
(00:21:36) - The Princely States vs. British India
(00:27:47) - Religion and the Development of Indian Liberalism
(00:37:05) - Neither Scientific Nor Divine
(00:46:33) - What Constitutes a Work of Political Theory?
(00:51:27) - The Ethics of Parmanand's Anonymity
(01:02:50) - Outro

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 the Prime Minister of India. Sajjid previously served on the Advisory Council to India's 15th Finance Commission and has served on a number of expert committees of the Reserve Bank of India.
We talked about India's current balance of payments and capital account challenges, the constraints holding back private investment, why employment and exports have become first-order policy priorities, rupee depreciation, shrinking FDI, and much more.
Recorded May 21st, 2026.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.
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Timestamps
(00:00:00) - Intro
(00:01:18) - Taking Stock of the Indian Economy
(00:11:26) - Factors Dragging on Aggregate Demand
(00:15:46) - Changing Policy Priorities for Indian Economic Growth
(00:22:13) - Rethinking Fiscal Architecture in a Shock-Prone World
(00:33:44) - Let the Rupee Depreciate
(00:42:46) - Coping with Shrinking Capital Flows
(00:50:00) - Improving India's Pull Factors
(00:54:12) - Export-Led Growth and Improved Resilience
(01:00:53) - Navigating Choke Points While Avoiding Autarky
(01:07:33) - India's Trilemma
(01:14:55) - Positive Signs of Resilience in the Indian Economy
(01:18:41) - Outro

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 India over the last three decades, how firm level behavior responds to regulatory and fiscal changes, how firms choose between capital and labor, or permanent versus contractual labor, land use and factory location, and much more.
Recorded April 29th, 2026.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.
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Timestamps
(00:00:00) - Intro
(00:01:07) - The Industrial Disputes Act, Permanent Workers, and Contractors
(00:10:14) - Impacts of Reliance on Contract Labor
(00:16:02) - Labor Protections and Their Impact on Firm Behavior
(00:22:35) - Binding Constraints and the Rise of 'Invisible Workers'
(00:27:46) - Labor Supply Preferences in Structural Transformation
(00:34:07) - A 'Bad Law,' Musclemen, and the Evolution of Debt Law in India
(00:40:21) - SARFAESI's Unintended Consequences
(00:46:28) - The Drop in Fixed-Capital Assets
(00:48:57) - The Impact of Judicial Delays on Labor-Capital Substitution
(00:52:41) - The Bankruptcy Code and Marginal Improvements
(00:55:54) - Spillover Benefits of Relaxing Land Use Regulation
(01:04:18) - Location-Specific Subsidies and Barrier Relaxation
(01:06:36) - A Case Study: Uttarakhand and Himachal
(01:13:32) - The Impact of New Bank Branches in Underbanked Communities
(01:23:24) - The Demonetization Shock
(01:29:48) - Outro