Today, semiconductors are ubiquitous—whether it’s the device on which you’re streaming this episode, the drive assist or safety features of a car, or aerospace and defense equipment. In the last couple of years there has been a dearth of semiconductor supply. The semiconductor shortage today can be attributed to supply chain disruptions and several geopolitical factors that have their origins in the early days of COVID-19. Realizing the importance and potential of semiconductors, countries aroun...
Aug 11, 2022•43 min
Over the last few months, the Indo-Pacific has seen a flurry of activity. China launched the Global Security Initiative and its foreign minister Wang Yi embarked on a tour of the Pacific Islands. More significantly, Beijing inked a security agreement with the Solomon Islands that sent shockwaves across the region. Around the same time, the Quad held its second in-person summit in Tokyo, and the United States ushered in a series of regional partnerships including the Indo-Pacific Economic Forum a...
Jul 28, 2022•40 min
In this episode of Interpreting India, Radhika Pandey joins Suyash Rai to analyze why India and other major economies are experiencing high inflation, the measures that have been taken to control inflation, the expected impact of these measures on economic growth, and the future course of action. Episode Contributors Radhika Pandey is a Senior Fellow at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy and has twenty years of teaching and research experience in macroeconomics and financial pol...
Jul 14, 2022•42 min
The Group of Seven or G7, an informal forum of leading industrial nations, comprising of the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and Canada, hosted its 48th Summit on June 26-28 in Germany. The Summit, which aims to coordinate global policy, has come at a time when countries across the globe are still coping with the economic and political disruptions caused by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. The G7 is thus expected to lead a global recovery from the pandemic t...
Jul 01, 2022•34 min
In December 2021, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, which also regulates commodity markets, issued directions banning new derivative contracts in seven agricultural commodities. This ban covered more than 70 percent of the traded volumes in the Indian agricultural commodity futures market. What were the reasons for this sudden move, and what repercussions did this have for the spot markets in these commodities? What signals do such sudden moves by regulators send to markets, and how do...
Jun 23, 2022•39 min
Meera Srinivasan, talking about the Sri Lankan government’s lack of planning to deal with an impending economic disaster, reported, “Hospitals are putting off surgeries without enough medical supplies, ink and newsprint shortages have forced newspapers to suspend editions, and schools have postponed term exams because there is no paper to print the questions.” Moreover, Sri Lanka’s foreign currency reserve has virtually dried up and shortages of food and fuel have caused prices to soar. In early...
Jun 16, 2022•41 min
In this episode, Narayan Prasad Nagendra joins Konark Bhandari to discuss the key developments in India’s space sector. India's space program has been widely recognized for its ability to produce cost effective space technology. This has slowly driven down the costs of missions, including orbital missions, lunar missions, and even Martian missions. However, these endeavors have largely been driven by ISRO, India’s national space agency. Realizing the need for an increased integration of the priv...
May 20, 2022•46 min
Formal decolonization of India came two years after the terrific demonstration of the power of the atom in a volatile international order. The arrival of the nuclear age, with the departure of the British presented Indian physicists a unique opportunity to take a capable decision on the nuclear question in a new country. In this episode of Interpreting India, Jahnavi Phalkey joins Shibani Mehta to take a look at the relationship between science, state and nationhood in India. What does the histo...
Apr 28, 2022•38 min
In this episode, Tanvi Madan and P.S. Raghavan join Deep Pal to discuss the evolving dynamic between Russia, India, and China, against the background of the war in Ukraine. The concept of a tripartite alliance between Russia, China, and India was first proposed by then-Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov in 1998, and Moscow has been working to promote it ever since. After a gap of 12 years, Russia organized the RIC summit on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Argentina in November 2018. It w...
Apr 14, 2022•59 min
In this episode, Naushad Forbes joins Suyash Rai to discuss his recently published book, ' The Struggle and the Promise: Restoring India’s Potential ' . The book, written by Naushad Forbes, is a wide-ranging exploration of India’s developmental potential, and the challenges that could impede the realization of that potential. Naushad Forbes is the co-chairman of Forbes Marshall, India's leading Steam Engineering and Control Instrumentation firm. He chairs the Steam Engineering Companies within t...
Apr 08, 2022•50 min
In this episode, Vijay Gokhale joins Rudra Chaudhuri to take stock of the recent meet between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and the External Affairs Minister of India, Dr. S. Jaishankar. Together, they discuss the significance of Wang Yi’s visit to India, particularly against the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine crisis. How does the Ukraine crisis shape the Sino-Indian relationship? Separately, what are some of the mechanisms needed to stabilize the relationship between India and China? -- Epis...
Mar 28, 2022•37 min
In this episode of Interpreting India, Jayita Sarkar joins Shibani Mehta to take a step back and understand the history of the Rohingya Crisis. Who are the Rohingya people? What does their story tell us about Myanmar’s political history? When did the polarization between the communities begin? In Myanmar, the Rohingya people have been subjected to decades of brutality, prejudice, and persecution. After a tremendous wave of violence erupted in August 2017, more than 7,00,000 people, half of them ...
Mar 24, 2022•32 min
In this episode of Interpreting India, Robert Greene joins Priyadarshini D. to explore the use and impact of China’s digital yuan. What's China's motivation behind its e-CNY? How does it work? What are some of the domestic and international implications of its rollout? The digital yuan is a centralized, cash-like digital currency. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC)--the Chinese central bank--and digital yuan operating institutions, which includes some of the largest state owned banks and tech gia...
Mar 10, 2022•52 min
In this episode of Interpreting India, Sanjay Gupta joins Konark Bhandari to shed an industry perspective at semiconductor supply chains and India’s potential in the space. Today, semiconductors are used everywhere. Whether it’s the device on which you’re streaming this episode, the drive assist or safety features of a car, or aerospace and defense equipment—semiconductors are ubiquitous. However, in the last couple of years there has been a dearth of supply of semiconductors. The semiconductor ...
Feb 24, 2022•36 min
In this episode, Dmitri Trenin joins Rudra Chaudhuri to discuss the tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Together, they take a closer look at the current impasse and the geopolitics shaping it. With more than 100,000 Russian troops stationed near Ukraine's northern and eastern borders, the situation between Russia and Ukraine is getting more tense. The United States has deployed nearly 2000 additional troops to Poland. 1000 more troops have been moved from Germany to Romania, along Ukraine’s wes...
Feb 10, 2022•55 min
In this episode, Arvind Subramanian joins Suyash Rai to discuss the rise and fall of India's economic growth. The pandemic has been costly for the Indian economy, delaying India's journey to prosperity by at least two years. But even before the pandemic, India's economy wasn't necessarily in the best shape. The official GDP estimates show a sharp slowdown since 2017, and investments and exports--the major drivers of growth--have been sluggish through much of the decade preceding the pandemic. Ho...
Jan 27, 2022•57 min
In this episode, Tanvi Ratna , CEO of Policy 4.0, joins Priyadarshini , Associate Fellow, Carnegie India, to discuss the cryptocurrency space in India. World over, cryptocurrencies have reached a market capitalization of more than 2.5 trillion dollars in a little over a decade, since Satoshi Nakamoto--the person(s) who remain anonymous to this day--released the white paper on Bitcoin and set off this wild ride. In early 2020, the Supreme Court overturned the Reserve Bank of India’s ban on crypto...
Dec 02, 2021•48 min
In this episode, Deep Pal joins Shibani Mehta to delve deep into China’s influence in South Asia. In recent years, China’s engagement in South Asia has expanded significantly beyond commercial and development projects to encompass political and security interests. While this interaction often targets the needs of specific countries, even states with relatively robust state institutions and civil society struggle to grapple with the implications of China’s expanded footprint. Those without strong...
Nov 11, 2021•42 min
In this episode, Matthew D. Green joins Udbhav Tiwari to delve into the debate surrounding end-to-end encryption. In February, the Indian government issued new rules requiring companies like WhatsApp to implement traceability in their end-to-end encrypted communications platforms. The decision originated from the government’s concerns about the proliferation of illegal activities on these services, including terrorism, child-abuse, and the spread of fake news. India’s actions come amidst a growi...
Oct 28, 2021•47 min
In this episode, Shanthie Mariet D'Souza joins Shibani Mehta to analyze the question of aid and development in a Taliban led Afghanistan. The Western withdrawal from Afghanistan and the ensuing ascent of the Taliban has led to the collapse of the Afghan economy. The foreign aid, crucial towards sustaining the economy, has mostly stopped, resulting in food shortages, a decline in the value of local currency and a collapsing health system. While $1.2 billion has been pledged by international donor...
Oct 20, 2021•34 min
With the conclusion of the first in-person QUAD leaders’ summit, the 76th Session of the UNGA, the SCO summit, and the AUKUS alliance, the last two weeks have been momentous for world politics. In this episode of Interpreting India, Gautam Bambawale joins Deep Pal to discuss the major foreign policy events of the last two weeks and India’s contribution to them. How will the AUKUS alliance impact the QUAD and India in specific? How will the events of last week determine the international communit...
Sep 30, 2021•40 min
In this episode, Rumi Aijaz joins Anirudh Burman to discuss Delhi’s new Draft Master Plan, 2041. How has it improved upon the shortcomings of the preceding master plans? How does it compare with the planning process across other cities in India? In July, the Delhi Development Authority released the draft Master Plan 2041, making it the fourth master plan released for the city since the start of this process in 1957. It follows the city’s Master Plan 2021, which aimed to make Delhi a global metro...
Aug 05, 2021•1 hr 3 min
In this episode of Interpreting India, Avinash Paliwal and Thomas Ruttig join Deep Pal to analyze the present situation in Afghanistan, what the implications of the U.S. withdrawal might be, and what this might mean for India and other countries involved. -- Episode Background: The withdrawal of the United States and its NATO allies from Afghanistan has led to concerns over the Kabul government’s ability to survive in the face of an aggressive Taliban onslaught. The peace process, which the U.S....
Jul 15, 2021•1 hr 7 min
In this episode, Rajeswari Sengupta joins Suyash Rai to evaluate the health of India’s financial sector. Together, they assess the impact of the second wave on India's financial sector. What measures can be taken to address some of its main issues? And finally, what does the health of the financial sector mean for the broader economy? -- EPISODE CONTRIBUTORS Rajeswari Sengupta is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR) in Mumbai, India. ...
Jun 24, 2021•44 min
Zaha Hassan and Nicolas Blarel join Carnegie India's Shibani Mehta to discuss the Israel-Palestine conflict. On May 10th, a raid on the Al Aqsa mosque by the Israeli police left hundreds of Palestinians injured. This cascaded into a war between Israel and Hamas. The ensuing violence has led to hundreds of casualties. A tenuous ceasefire has for now halted the violence, but it is likely that it will significantly change the dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Already, several analysts h...
Jun 09, 2021•1 hr 2 min
Alex Tabarrok joins Anirudh Burman to discuss if the existing law on patents is affecting India’s ability to vaccinate its citizens. As India battles a devastating second wave of Covid-19, many advocate for a waiver of intellectual property rights on coronavirus vaccines. However, some argue that this might be an incomplete solution; on its own, a TRIPS waiver would do little to alleviate the problem. In this episode, we understand the logic behind the proposal for the TRIPS waiver, and what mus...
May 27, 2021•35 min
In this episode, Srikanth Viswanathan joins Anirudh Burman to assess India's urban governance structures in the face of the second wave of the covid-19 pandemic. In the second wave, states have been given more leeway in handling the pandemic within their borders. How are states and local authorities equipped to manage the situation? -- EPISODE CONTRIBUTORS Srikanth Viswanathan is the Chief Executive Officer of Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy. Srikanth’s focus area in the urban se...
May 17, 2021•41 min
In this episode, Yogendra Kumar joins Deep Pal to analyze the state of the international order. The conclusion of the Cold War in 1991 heralded a new age of peace and prosperity under the leadership of Western powers. Yet, there remain several problems that plague the international system. What can be done to stem the decay of the international order and its constituent multilateral organizations? -- EPISODE CONTRIBUTORS Yogendra Kumar is a former Indian ambassador to the Tajikistan (also handle...
Apr 29, 2021•47 min
Pinaki Chakraborty , Director NIPFP, joins Carnegie India's Suyash Rai to analyze India’s fiscal responses to the pandemic. Together, they assess how India’s fiscal policy to tackle the pandemic has fared so far. What fiscal measures may be taken to boost economic output? What are some of the prominent obstacles likely to hinder these efforts? -- EPISODE CONTRIBUTORS Pinaki Chakraborty is the Director, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy New Delhi. Prior to this, he was the Chief-Soc...
Apr 16, 2021•45 min
What would a cashless India and world look like? Jonathan Dharmapalan joins Carnegie India's Rajesh Bansal to shed light on Central Bank Digital Currencies, which are meant to act as a replacement for cash. Together, they unpack what digital currencies are, and how they could affect the way we transact. -- EPISODE CONTRIBUTORS As founder and CEO of eCurrency, Jonathan Dharmapalan provides technology solutions to central banks to issue digital currencies. He was most recently Head of Ernst & ...
Mar 25, 2021•47 min
