भारत वर्तमान मामलों पॉडकास्टस

एक पेंशन का हमारे पॉपुलर कल्चर में बड़ा महत्व है। बुढ़ापे में पेंशन का आश्वासन एक बड़ा कारण है जिसकी वजह से हर सरकारी नौकरी के लिए आवेदकों की भीड़ उमड़ पड़ती है। तो पेन्शन - ये संकल्पना आख़िर शुरू कब से हुई? सरकार कम्पनियों पर पेन्शन देना बाध्य क्यों करती है? भारत में कितने प्रकार के पेन्शन है? आगे जाकर ये पेन्शन क्या रूप धारण कर सकते हैं? ये One Rank One…

आये दिन ऐसा लगता है सांप्रदायिक मन-मुटाव बढ़ता जा रहा है। हिन्दू-मुसलमान पुलियाबाज़ी सिर्फ बयानबाज़ी रह गयी है। तो इस बार हमने बात की लेखक और सम्पादक ग़ज़ाला वहाब (@ghazalawahab) से जिनकी नयी किताब Born a Muslim भारतीय इस्लाम पर रौशनी डालती है और कई मनघडंत धारणाओं को ख़ारिज करती है। Tolerance between religions has been a defining value of Indianness. And…

१९९१ में भारत में एक सामाजिक और आर्थिक क्रांति आई। आर्थिक सुधारों ने 25 करोड़ भारतियों को गरीबी से निकाला और भारत को विश्व भर में एक नयी पहचान दी। इस क्रांति को आए पिछले महीने ३० साल हो गए। तो इसी विषय पर पुलियाबाज़ी करने लौट रही है अर्थशास्त्री श्रुति राजगोपालन (@srajagopalan)। This July marked thirty years of India’s economic liberalization reforms…

और सुनते-सुनाते, पुलियाबाज़ी का शतक पूरा हो गया। तो ये वाली पुलियाबाज़ी पुलियाबाज़ी पर ही है। इस सेंचुरी एपिसोड के स्पेशल होस्ट है विनीत देवैया (@VineetDevaiah) और हॉट सीट पर है सौरभ और प्रणय। हमने बात की पुलियाबाज़ी के सफर, उद्देश्य और भविष्य की। सभी श्रोताओं को बहुत बहुत धन्यवाद - सुनते रहियेगा! Puliyabaazi reaches three figures with this episode. Ov…

ये एपिसोड है पुरातत्वशास्त्र पर। सिंधु घाटी सभ्यता के बारे में आये दिन कई धारणाएं सुनने मिलती है। लेकिन हम दावे के साथ आखिर क्या कह सकते है? इसी सवाल पर एक दिलचस्प पुलियाबाज़ी पुरातत्वशास्त्री दिशा अहलूवालिया के साथ। The Indus Valley Civilisation is a celebrity of sorts within India’s rich cultural heritage. In this puliyabaazi we speak to archaeolo…

In this #By2 episode, Saurabh and Pranay discuss three questions: What explains the rising petrol and diesel prices? Why is the Chinese government reversing its one-child policy? What are the implications of the economic and social disparities between India’s southern and northern states? अगली #By2 पुलियाबाज़ी में सौरभ और प्रणय तीन मुद्दों पर चर्चा …

Why are Indian cities the way they are? How do we define a good city? And what should the future of urbanized India be like? In the next Puliyabaazi, we discuss these questions and a lot more, with Dr Anjali Karol Mohan, an urban and regional planner. हमारे समाज की समृद्धि के लिए शहरीकरण ज़रूरी है। इसके बावजूद हमारे शहरों की अवस्था को देखकर अक्सर खी…

Gender discrimination is all around us — at homes, workplaces, and in relationships. It starts before a child’s birth and doesn’t go away even in death rituals. And this holds true even in elite India. So, in this episode, we speak to Mahima Vashisht (@mahimavashisht), who is showing Indians the mirror, one story, and one meme at a time, on Womanin…

Our governments roll out many laws and regulations. When these laws fail to have the desired effect, we either blame the implementation deficit or the citizens. But what if the problem was in the design of the law itself? Is there a way to design better laws? In the Puliyabaazi, we are joined by the Centre of Civil Society’s Prashant Narang (@law_e…

Most Indian languages share the same phonetic structure and yet have vastly different scripts, making communication across languages difficult. Moreover, each script has its own peculiarities steepening the learning curve for adults and children alike. To tackle this challenge, a team at IIT Madras designed a novel and technology-friendly Indic scr…

India’s connection with groundwater is recorded as far back as the Indus Valley Civilisation. What are the consequences of relying on groundwater? How can over-extraction of groundwater resources be contained? What role can you play in water conservation? We discuss all these questions and more in this episode with S Vishwanath (@zenrainman), the u…

The horse has been so central to human civilisation that the history of this majestic animal alone reveals a lot about our own past. So in this episode, Yashaswini Chandra, author of the new book The Tale of the Horse: A History of India on Horseback gives a masterclass on the history of horses in India. घोडा - इस जानवर का भारतीय संस्कृति से गहरा न…

In this #By2, Saurabh and Pranay discuss the ongoing case in the Supreme Court on increasing the reservation cap beyond 50% and the role of universities in society. In the #KBP section, they discuss listener questions. इस #By2 में पुलियाबाज़ी आरक्षण पर चल रहे सुप्रीम कोर्ट केस पर, और एक समाज में विश्वविद्यालय के मक़सद पर। इसके अलावा चर्चा श्रोताओं के…

How has the retail sector sector evolved in India? Why does India have so many small shops? How is technology impacting retail trade? How did the concept of “Sachetisation” come about? We discuss these questions and more in this deepdive on Indian retail with go-to market strategy consultant, Amit Mittal, who is also an ardent Puliyabaazi listener.…

Deborah Stone in her textbook Policy Paradox, describes the paradox of distribution thus: “equality often means inequality, and equal treatment often means unequal treatment. The same distribution may look equal or unequal, depending on where you focus.” So in this #By2 episode, Saurabh and Pranay discuss affirmative action and the paradox of distr…

In the past, India has played a significant role in mediating peace in conflicts involving major powers. However, this zeal has waned over the last few decades. In this episode, Raja Karthikeya, who has worked on several peace issues in West Asia, argues that India must revive the peace mediation agenda for its own national interest. He dispels com…

In the next #By2 series, Saurabh and Pranay discuss three things. One, a solution for changing incentives of government companies without an outright sale of all assets. Two, the absolute joy of seeing and hearing Mars courtesy NASA’s Perseverance. And three, why mandatory corporate social responsibility provisions are counterproductive. इस एपिसोड …

Well-known journalist, author, and entrepreneur Chandran Bhan Prasad (@cbhanp) is on Puliyabaazi to discuss his latest book What is Ambedkarism?. Mr Prasad makes a case for capitalism as a way for achieving Dalit empowerment. In this episode, we also discuss Ambedkar’s ideas on dalit politics and economics. इस एपिसोड में हमने चर्चा की प्रसिद्ध पत्र…

Last few days witnessed two significant moves by radically networked societies. Retail investors rallied around a stock to take on a hedge fund management company in the US. Meanwhile, tweets by US celebrities on the ongoing farmer protests in northern India put the government on the defensive. So in the #By2, Pranay and Saurabh discuss how radical…

Economist Ronald Coase said that “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess.” With data being used in narratives all around us, this quote has never been more salient. So in this episode, Karthik Shashidhar (@karthiks) returns to Puliyabaazi to discuss some common pitfalls of data analysis and how to avoid them. आंकड़ों का सहारा लेकर कई स…

WhatsApp’s change in privacy policy attracted a lot of attention over the last couple of weeks. While some people migrated to Signal, most others ended up with all three -- WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal -- on their phones. So in this #By2 episode, we discuss the narratives surrounding privacy in India. We also discuss if mandating interoperability…

Contrary to some notions that the Indian Constitution is as an elitist document far removed from the Indian populace, the document in fact profoundly transformed everyday life of ordinary Indians, in mostly desirable and sometimes unintended ways. In this episode, Pranay and Saurabh speak to Rohit De (@itihaasnaama) — author of A People’s Constitut…

In the first Puliyabaazi #By2 episode, Saurabh and Pranay take stock of the state of agriculture in India. Saurabh talks about his encounters with agricultural markets and horticulture farming in Karnataka. In the second section of the podcast, the hosts respond to listener questions. पुलियाबाज़ी #By2 श्रृंखला के पहले अंक में सौरभ और प्रणय एक बार फि…

After years of dilly-dallying, 2020 was the year when many states started working together to take on a common challenge: China. One such formation is the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad). Though established in 2008, it’s only over the last couple of years that the grouping has started engaging more fruitfully. In this puliyabaazi, Indrani Ba…

Narratives are all around us. Whether it's policy, politics, or the economy, the stories we tell and listen matter. In this Puliyabaazi, we discuss why narratives have the power to make the unreal real with economic historian and assistant professor at IIM Bangalore, Prateek Raj (@PrateekRaj_). आजकल “नैरेटिव” का बोलबाला है. हर कोई नए तरीकों से कहान…

What do the recent changes in agricultural laws mean for farmers? Will these changes unshackle the agricultural sector or do the problems lie elsewhere? We discuss these questions and more with Gunwant Patil, leader of the Shetkari Sangathana Movement and a farmer himself. आजकल चल रहे कृषि आंदोलन के क्या कारण है? क्या यह कानून कृषि क्षेत्र में समृद…

In this second and final episode on India’s banking system, we pick up some more interesting strands of India’s monetary history. We are joined again by Amol Agrawal (@mostlyeconomics), Assistant Professor at Amrut Mody School of Management, Ahmedabad University. In episode #75, Amol began with the Hundi system in India and ended at the nationalisa…

In this episode, political scientist and economic historian Rohit Chandra (@rohitreads) gives an account of business-state relations in India over the last two decades. In this wide-ranging conversation, we discuss trends of market concentration since 2014, the state of public sector units, small businesses, and the state of banking among other thi…

What’s the history of banking in India? Do bank deposits lead to bank loans or is it the other way around? Why did coastal Karnataka spring up so many private banks? In this episode, Amol Agrawal (@mostlyeconomics), Assistant Professor at Amrut Mody School of Management, Ahmedabad University, gives us a tour de force of the history of banking in In…

Even today, India’s armed forces largely conduct their operations in silos. It is for this reason that the Chief of Defence Staff position was created and specifically mandated to create integrated theatre commands that would allow systematic cooperation of all three forces in large numbers during war. So in this Puliyabaazi, we are joined by Lt Ge…

It’s rare to find a narration of earthshaking political events by a commoner of those times. That’s precisely why Vishnu Bhat Godse Varsaikar’s Maazaa Pravaas is special. This book provides an eyewitness account of the 1857 mutiny. In this puliyabaazi, we discuss a few counter-intuitive and lesser-known facts from that era based on Varsaikar’s acco…

Indian governments run hundreds of policies in the name of social protection. Given the adverse economic impact of COVID-19, the focus is back on these policies to provide some relief to the worst-affected. So this episode is all about understanding social protection policies better. Joining us is Saksham Khosla (@khoslasaksham), Associate Consulta…

This Puliyabaazi is a deep dive on the Hindi language - the origins, relationship with Urdu and Sanskrit, and about concerns over its imposition. We are joined by Abhishek Avtans (@avtansa), a linguist and lecturer of Hindi at Leiden University. Abhishek also gives a fascinating account of the politics of language in India. यह है पुलियाबासी पुलियाब…

Why is India’s foreign policy the way it is? What are the principles and interests underlying India’s relationship with the world? What influence has the colonial rule had over India’s foreign policy conduct? Listen in to this puliyabaazi on foreign policy with Dr Aparna Pande (@Aparna_Pande) to find out. Aparna is Director, Initiative on the Futur…

Between 1915 and 1941, Gandhi and Tagore wrote many letters to each other freely expressing viewpoints and often disagreeing with each other on core issues such as nationalism, charkha, reason, and swaraj. Eight decades later, these discussions are still relevant in understanding India better. Not only are the debates engaging, they are also a less…

Chinese Taipei. Republic of China. Taiwan. All refer to the same country that has stood up to the People’s Republic of China’s arrogance in recent years. So in this episode, we discuss all things Taiwan with Sana Hashmi (@sanahashmi1), Taiwan Fellow at the National Chengchi University and a scholar of Chinese Foreign Policy. In this conversation, w…

षि जिनपिंग-संचालित चीन के अहंकार को तोड़ने के लिए भारत के पास क्या विकल्प है? चीनी कम्पनी के ऐप्प बैन करने के कदम के क्या फ़ायदे-नुक़सान है? आर्थिक क्षेत्र में चीन से लड़ाई में कितनी समझदारी है? इन्हीं सवालों पर सुनिए पुलियाबाज़ी सौरभ और प्रणय के साथ| What are India’s options against the People’s Republic of China’s arrogance? What are the costs and ben…

In this episode, we spoke to Manoj Chandran (@manoj1chandran), CEO of White Swan Foundation — a not-for-profit organisation that offers knowledge services in the area of mental health. Manoj busts many myths about mental health, and illness. Going beyond the clinical aspects, Manoj talks about the role of individuals, society, and the state, in imp…

In this episode, we discuss India’s economic trajectory before, during, and after COVID-19 with Ajit Ranade, Senior Fellow at the Takshashila Institution. Ajit talks about the factors that derailed the Indian economy and suggests concrete actions that Indian governments can take to bounce back from the economic crisis. Listen in! इस एपिसोड में चर्च…

In this episode, we discuss how COVID-19 is likely to affect geopolitical and geoeconomic trends. Pranay and Saurabh discuss how the world might change due to the COVID-19 pandemic, how this new world order will affect India, the domestic policy reforms needed to prosper in this world, and India’s foreign policy outlook for a changed world. कोविड-1…