On Monday, the Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented one of the most highly anticipated Indian budgets in recent memory. Facing a global health pandemic, a severe ec ... Read more
On Monday, the Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented one of the most highly anticipated Indian budgets in recent memory. Facing a global health pandemic, a severe economic slowdown, and continued anxieties over inflation, some commentators argued that this budget was not simply the most important of the Modi government’s tenure, it was one of the most important in three decades. To breakdown this year’s budget and to kick off the fifth season of Grand Tamasha, Milan was joined by Sukumar Ranganathan, editor in chief of the Hindustan Times. Sukumar and Milan break down the nuts and bolts of the budget—from spending priorities to the fiscal deficit and the government’s ambitious plans for disinvestment. The two also discuss the government’s broader economy strategy, including India’s continued inward turn on trade. Episode notes: Editorial, “What Union Budget 2021-2011 Gets Right (https://t.co/SVL8gyXmsj) ,” Hindustan Times. Roshan Kishore, “Where the Budget Gets India’s Economy Wrong (https://www.hindustantimes.com/opinion/where-the-budget-gets-india-s-economy-wrong-101612195469387.html) ,” Hindustan Times. Yamini Aiyar, “Decoding the Budget and the Economics of Welfare (https://www.hindustantimes.com/opinion/decoding-the-budget-and-the-economics-of-welfare-101612199430638.html) ,” Hindustan Times. Shoumitro Chatterjee and Arvind Subramanian, “India’s Inward (Re)Turn: Is it Warranted? Will it Work? (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3713253) ” Read more
This week on the show, Milan sits down with Vinay Sitapati (https://twitter.com/vinay_sitapati?lang=en) , political scientist and author of the blockbuster new book, Jugalbandi: Th ... Read more
This week on the show, Milan sits down with Vinay Sitapati (https://twitter.com/vinay_sitapati?lang=en) , political scientist and author of the blockbuster new book, Jugalbandi: The BJP Before Modi (https://www.vinaysitapati.in/bjpbeforemodi) . Vinay’s new book gives readers the crucial backstory to understanding India’s current political moment and it is full of historical insights, colourful anecdotes, and a decent dash of insider gossip. Vinay and Milan discuss the unusual duo of Atal Behari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani, Hindu nationalism’s obsession with elections, the BJP’s “schizophrenic” approach to economics, and how the Hindu nationalist movement manages to balance the twin impulses of inclusion and exclusion. Plus, Vinay explains how a better understanding of the BJP of yesteryear can inform our thinking about Narendra Modi and Amit Shah today. Read more
Ravinder, a professor of Modern South Asia Studies at the University of Copenhagen (https://ravinderkaur.net/) , joins Milan on the show this week to talk about her new book. The t ... Read more
Ravinder, a professor of Modern South Asia Studies at the University of Copenhagen (https://ravinderkaur.net/) , joins Milan on the show this week to talk about her new book. The two discuss how brand-building is displacing nation-building in the 21st century and who the makers of India’s “new brand” actually are. Plus, Milan and Ravinder discuss the untold backstory of the “India Shining” campaign and why Prime Minister Modi’s notion of a “New India” is not all that new after all. Read more
This week on the show, Chinmay speaks with Milan about India’s “Age of Pandemics” and why this dark chapter in Indian history has been glossed over. Chinmay and Milan also discuss ... Read more
This week on the show, Chinmay speaks with Milan about India’s “Age of Pandemics” and why this dark chapter in Indian history has been glossed over. Chinmay and Milan also discuss the parallels between pandemics past and present, how pandemics have shaped politics, and why the flight of internal migrants is one of the most stylized facts of pandemics in history. Read more
On the podcast this week, Milan sits down with Evan Feigenbaum (https://twitter.com/EvanFeigenbaum/) , Vice President of Studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace ( ... Read more
On the podcast this week, Milan sits down with Evan Feigenbaum (https://twitter.com/EvanFeigenbaum/) , Vice President of Studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (https://carnegieendowment.org/experts/719) and an expert on the Asia region—from China to Kazakhstan to India and Sri Lanka. Evan talks to Milan about the Trump administration’s Asia legacy, India’s inward turn, and the strategic relevance of the Quad. Evan also has some useful, pithy advice for how the incoming Biden administration might position itself in the Asia-Pacific. Read more
Joining Milan to talk all things elections are Grand Tamasha news-round up regulars Sadanand Dhume of the American Enterprise Institute and the Wall Street Journal and Tanvi Madan ... Read more
Joining Milan to talk all things elections are Grand Tamasha news-round up regulars Sadanand Dhume of the American Enterprise Institute and the Wall Street Journal and Tanvi Madan of the Brookings Institution. The trio discuss the key lessons of the U.S. 2020 election, the implications for India, and what the election tells us about the configuration of power in the United States come January 2021. Milan, Sadanand, and Tanvi also discuss the Bihar elections, what they say about Modi’s popularity and the trials and tribulations of the political opposition. Read more
This week, Milan sits down with Viral Acharya, former Deputy Governor at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) from 2017-2019, and author of the recent book, Quest for Restoring Financia ... Read more
This week, Milan sits down with Viral Acharya, former Deputy Governor at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) from 2017-2019, and author of the recent book, Quest for Restoring Financial Stability in India. Milan and Viral discuss the health of India’s economy, the “silent crisis” afflicting India’s financial sector, the future of central bank independence in India, and the role that Indian economists based overseas can play back home. Read more
Since the onset of the novel Coronavirus, award-winning data journalist Rukmini (https://twitter.com/rukmini?lang=en) has investigated the virus’ spread in India like very few peop ... Read more
Since the onset of the novel Coronavirus, award-winning data journalist Rukmini (https://twitter.com/rukmini?lang=en) has investigated the virus’ spread in India like very few people have. Twice a week since March, she’s been recording her thoughts on the pandemic in a short “mini-podcast” called The Moving Curve (https://rukminiwrites.medium.com/) . In 100 bite-sized episodes, Rukmini has helped educate Indians--and their political leaders--about this unprecedented public health crisis straight from her home studio. This week, Rukmini joins Milan to talk about the state of COVID-19 in India, the country’s surprisingly low fatality rate, and what large-scale seroprevalence studies tell us about where the virus is heading. Plus, Rukmini evaluates the impact of India’s lockdown and how the media has reported on the pandemic. Read more
In this week's episode, Pankaj Mishra and Milan Vaishnav discuss the state of Indian democracy, the (absent) standard-bearers of Indian liberalism, and how the Cold War-era concept ... Read more
In this week's episode, Pankaj Mishra and Milan Vaishnav discuss the state of Indian democracy, the (absent) standard-bearers of Indian liberalism, and how the Cold War-era conception of democracy helped India geopolitically. They also discuss what the British Raj can tell us about Brexit and the future of big government, for good and for ill. Read more
Today, Milan speaks with Sumitra Badrinathan (https://twitter.com/kharibiskut?lang=en) (University of Pennsylvania) and Devesh Kapur (https://sais.jhu.edu/users/dkapur1) (Johns Hop ... Read more
Today, Milan speaks with Sumitra Badrinathan (https://twitter.com/kharibiskut?lang=en) (University of Pennsylvania) and Devesh Kapur (https://sais.jhu.edu/users/dkapur1) (Johns Hopkins-SAIS) about the findings of a brand new survey--the Indian American Attitudes Survey (IAAS)-- that sheds light on the political attitudes of Indian Americans (full disclosure: Milan is a co-author of the new study). Milan, Devesh and Sumitra discuss why Indian Americans, contrary to media reports, remain solidly with the Democratic Party and why they are overwhelmingly concerned with kitchen table issues, rather than foreign policy concerns such as U.S.-India relations. They also talk about the impact of Kamala Harris, partisan polarization among Indians in America, and why Republicans face an uphill climb to win over Indian American voters. Read more
