Ideas of India

Milan Vaishnav, director of the South Asia Program at Carnegie and host of Grand Tamasha, unpacks India’s delimitation dilemmas. They explain how seat apportionment and the 1971 freeze work. Conversations cover proposed reforms, who would gain or lose seats, the fiscal bargain behind the politics, and options like expansion, reapportionment, and Rajya Sabha reform.

Samanth Subramanian, journalist and author known for deep reporting on technology and geopolitics. He unpacks the fragility of undersea fiber cables and how tech giants shape that landscape. He explores geopolitical choke points, AI’s infrastructure risks, semiconductor bottlenecks, and the interplay of science and public life in Haldane’s story.

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 Government of India. Devesh is the Starr Foundation Professor of South Asian Studies and Director of the Asia Programs at the Johns Hopkins. They are co-authors of the recent book, A Sixth of Humanity: Independent India's Development Odyssey. We talked about India's redistributive democracy, why Indian states have taken such different development paths, India's socialism and consequent scarcity, manufacturing challenges, and much more. Recorded February 13th, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Follow Arvind on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:18) - A Sixth of Humanity (00:06:51) - The Effect of Education on State Development (00:13:39) - Redistributive Democracy in India (00:21:54) - One Democracy, Multiple Outcomes at the State Level (00:36:52) - Tamil Nadu (00:38:01) - The Collapse of Punjab (00:42:12) - Shades of Socialism in India (01:08:00) - Upside-Down State (01:26:36) - Manufacturing (01:46:23) - Outro

V. Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Economic Advisor and economist known for work on finance and derivatives, walks through import substitution as strategic resilience and how it can coexist with exports. He explores rising financialization, why private investment lags, the quirks of India’s futures and options markets, STT design, crypto regulation, and trade-offs in digital public infrastructure.

Rohit De, Yale historian of legal life, and Ornit Shani, historian of citizenship and democratic franchise, explore Assembling India’s Constitution. They trace mass mobilization, the constitution as practice beyond text, provincial legislatures and princely states, public petitions, radio and theater, and how popular ownership shaped legitimacy and ongoing constitutional contestation.

Pranay Kotasthane, deputy director at the Takshashila Institution and chair of the High Tech Geopolitics Programme, researches critical minerals and tech policy. He unpacks why rare earths matter now. He traces China’s processing advantage and geopolitical leverage. He discusses India’s constraints, recycling as a smart alternative, and where targeted industrial policy can help.

Nachiket Mor, a health economist working on system design and reform, discusses India’s layered public and fragmented private healthcare. He talks about policy design failures, upgrading community health workers, why patients move to private care, purchaser–provider splits, insurance design, and using pharmacies and telemedicine to expand access.

Akshay Jaitly, co-founder of Trilegal and author on building a modern Indian law firm, reflects on founding amid 1990s liberalization. He discusses specialization, delegated legislation and regulatory capture. He explains partnership models, lockstep growth, scaling challenges and how Indian legal practices adapted to new markets and cross-border opportunities.

Renuka Sane, Managing Director of TrustBridge and an esteemed economist, dives deep into India's pension landscape and regulatory frameworks. She explains the strengths and weaknesses of defined benefit versus defined contribution systems, critiques the Unified Pension Scheme, and highlights the challenges of expanding pensions to informal workers. The conversation also touches on the importance of regulatory transparency, especially with the Reserve Bank of India, and how well-structured rules can enhance market function and consumer protection.

Snigdha Poonam, a journalist and the author of Scamlands, delves into the intriguing world of scams. She explores how scams have evolved into an organized economy intertwined with formal systems in India, highlighting regions like Jharkhand and Assam. The discussion includes the normalization of scamming within communities, state complicity, and how women are disproportionately affected. Snigdha also uncovers transnational scams, including cybercrime networks and the grim reality of scam slavery in Southeast Asia, linking youthful aspirations to these darker narratives.