Yamini Aiyar Schools Us on Education Policy in India
Today my guest is Yamini Aiyar, who is currently a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Saxena Center for Contemporary South Asia at Brown University and the author of the recent book Lessons in State Capacity from Delhi’s Schools. Her main research interests are contemporary politics, state capacity, welfare policy, and federalism. We talked about the challenges of education policy and welfare in India, the lack of agency experienced by school administrators and teachers, the role of local governments in education, Delhi’s experiment with education reforms, portable benefits and school vouchers, and much more. Recorded July 16th, 2025. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Yamini on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:27) - Delhi School Experiment (00:12:45) - Education in a Welfare State (00:28:34) - Incompetent Petty Tyrants (00:38:17) - Federalism and Education (00:50:18) - How to Build Empowerment (01:05:39) - Is the Delhi Experiment Generalizable? (01:18:52) - Portability and Education (01:28:15) - Outro
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1:29:25
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1:29:25
Rathin Roy on How India Slices the Fiscal Pie
Today my guest is Rathin Roy, who's a Distinguished Fellow at the Kautilya School of Public Policy and a Visiting Senior Fellow at ODI Global. His main research interests are political economy, public finance, and development economics, and he also served on the 13th Finance Commission. We talked about India's fiscal resources are distributed across states and between the union and state governments, the divergence between rich and poor states, compensatory welfare and its consequences and much more. Recorded July 8th, 2025. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Rathin on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:38) - India’s Fiscal Federalism System (00:22:46) - India’s Welfare State (00:34:19) - Unequal Growth (00:45:58) - Consumption Taxes (01:02:30) - Public Finance in India (01:27:06) - Outro
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1:28:44
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1:28:44
Chitrakshi Jain and Prashant Reddy T. on the Dysfunction in India's District Courts
Today my guests are legal scholars Chitrakshi Jain and Prashant Reddy T, the authors of the recent book Tareekh pe Justice, Reforms for India’s District Courts. We talked about the dysfunction in India’s lower courts, opacity in the evaluation of district court judges, the problems with judicial data, and much more. Recorded July 1st, 2025. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Chitrakshi on X Follow Prashant on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.
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1:37:48
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1:37:48
M.R. Sharan Examines Decentralization and Local Representation in India
Today my guest is M.R. Sharan, an assistant professor in the department of agricultural and resource economics at the University of Maryland College Park. He is the author of numerous papers and the book Last Among Equals: Power, Caste, & Politics in Bihar’s Villages. His main research interests are development economics and political economy. We talked about his research on local government in India, incentives of various political actors and the power structures they inhibit, fiscal federalism, and much more. Recorded May 21st, 2025. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Sharan on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:07) - Local Political Actors (00:16:16) - Portability (00:20:36) - Village Government in India (00:53:42) - Separation of Powers (01:03:51) - Inclusion (01:21:20) - Outro
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1:22:00
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1:22:00
Rakesh Mohan Reflects on Dismantling the License Permit Raj
Today my guest is Rakesh Mohan. He is the President Emeritus and Distinguished Fellow at Center for Social and Economic Progress in New Delhi. He has previously served as Executive Director on the Board of the International Monetary Fund and as Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. We talked about his work with the Government of India since the 1980s, especially dismantling the infamous License Permit Raj during the 1991 reforms, his work on urbanization and infrastructure, the kinds of structural reforms India still needs to undertake, and much more. Recorded April 25th, 2025. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:13) - Labyrinth of Control (00:23:55) - Dismantling the Licensing System (00:48:27) - Regrets (01:07:31) - The Infrastructure Report (01:28:05) - Structural Transformation (01:46:23) - Outro
Through conversations with top thinkers in the social sciences and beyond, economist Shruti Rajagopalan explores the ideas that will propel India forward.
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