The Takshashila Podcast

Ever since the 20th Party Congress, the tone of Chinese diplomacy appears to have undergone a change. Is this a tactical shift or is something substantive in the offing? Manoj Kewalramani discusses with Anushka Saxena and Amit Kumar.

In this episode, Carl Jaison is joined by Pranav Gupta, Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley. He discusses his field research where he spoke with sarpanches and local bureaucrats to assess the extent of decentralisation of powers to panchayats.

What does the 2023 budget do for jobs in India? What would the experts like to have seen? Will India's bets on skilling, infra, and green jobs pay off? Join Anupriya Mohta, Sridhar Krishna, and Sudisha Mishra to discuss the budget and its potential to impact job creation.

In this episode of All Things Policy, Anushka Saxena and Amit Kumar explore the trends and developments taking place in the Chinese Economy in the past decade since Xi Jinping's ascendance to power in 2012-13, and what they indicate for the trajectory of the country's economic policy in the months to come.

Kingshuk Saha and Manoj Kewalramani discuss Japan's Security Strategy, background, and its impact.

This episode of All Things Policy features IIC fellows (University of Chicago Trust), Ritul Gaur and Arjun Gargeyas, who are joined by Liv Nordhaug (Co-Lead at Digital Public Goods Alliance) to discuss the concept of digital public goods, the challenges and opportunities they present, and how they can be used to benefit society at scale.

In the thousandth episode, Nitin Pai and Pranay Kotasthane discuss the macro-changes in the world order over the last three years. They also discuss the frames of references useful to analyse the current world disorder. In the second half, they respond to listener questions.

We at Takshashila Institution have released our findings of our survey on Heritable Gene Editing. In this episode of All Things Policy, Shambhavi Naik and Harshit Kukreja discuss gene editing, India’s viewpoint, our survey’s results and much more.

Global temperatures are expected to rise by 1.5℃ by 2050 and 3℃ to 4℃ by 2100. This will have disastrous consequences for us. In this episode of All Things Policy, Harshit Kukreja and Carl Jaison discuss climate change, global cooperation, biological reasoning and much more.

Jency Jacob, Managing Editor of Boom Live, India's first and largest fact-checking newsroom, dissects the new draft rule that makes the Press Information Bureau the final arbiter of the truth when it comes to journalism related to Central government decisions.

Indian research and scholarship are significantly impacted by the lack of a proper declassification policy for government documents. This prevents a holistic assessment of crucial issues, especially in foreign policy, military history, public policy, and modern history. In this episode, Aditya Ramanathan, Manoj Kewalramani, and Saurabh Todi discuss the impact of this lacuna and the need to improve access to national archives.

Recently the University Grants Commission came up with draft regulations to facilitate foreign higher educational institutions to set up their campuses in India. Suman Joshi and Sarthak Pradhan assess the possible impact of these regulations.

2023 promises to have many important developments in the tech policy space. Shailesh Chitnis and Bharath Reddy look at what we can expect this year in upcoming legislation, anti-trust judgments and digital public infrastructure.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol recently floated the possibility of his country acquiring nuclear weapons to deter North Korean aggression. This possibility could lead to an arms race and endanger the global nuclear nonproliferation order. In this episode, Saurabh Todi and Pranav Satyanath discuss the consequences of this hypothetical and its implications for East Asian geopolitics.

Should India build new cities for growth and job creation? Why are we falling behind in improving our current cities? How can be incentivize people to migrate to cities? Sudisha Mishra and Sudeep Surendra comment on these questions and talk more about building sustainable cities.

Last week, India held a Voice of the Global South Summit, engaging with 125 countries. The Indian government said that the aim of the two-day summit was to understand the priorities of countries in the Global South and to amplify their voices in the G20. In this episode, Saurabh Todi and Manoj Kewalramani discuss the outcomes of the summit and the India-China competition in the Global South.

It's been three years since the US Space Force came into exitance. Its purpose and missions are shrouded in comical and mundane mystery. But what does the Space Force actually do? In this episode, Brian Weeden, Director of Program Planning for the Secure World Foundation, joins Aditya Ramanathan and Pranav Satyanath to demystify the role of the Space Force and talk about the many fascinating aspects of its functions.

Technology and innovation in the health sector have the potential to provide long-term answers to our population's evolving healthcare demands. In this episode, Mahek Nankani and Rohan Pai discuss how telemedicine provides a valuable opportunity to redesign health service models in India.

Unemployment in India hit an all-time high of 8.85% in December 2022 according to CMIE data. Anupriya Mohta, Sridhar Krishna, and Sudisha Mishra discuss the state of unemployment and how demand for jobs will play a pivotal role in the 2024 general elections.

The year 2022 was perhaps the best year for space. The success of the James Web Space Telescope, the completion of China's Tiangong space station and the launch of the SLS rocket were among the major highlights of the year. What exciting space news can we expect in 2023?