All Things Policy
Episodes
The Accessibility Puzzle
02 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Sowmya Prabhakar, COO of Takshashila Institution, is in conversation with Bhumika Modh from The Association of People with Disabilit...
One Nation One Subscription: Yet another stratagem?
31 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It is a season for one nation, one ‘fill in the blank’. The Government of India, on 25 November 2024, approved One Nation One Subscription — or ...
Bridging Borders: India's Drive for Regional Connectivity and the Data Behind It
30 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of All Things Policy, Vanshika Saraf discusses India’s regional connectivity efforts with Riya Sinha, who has extensively worked on ...
Examining the Political Apology
27 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
While it may feel strategic, could a political apology be a necessary feature of a healthy democracy? You've seen many a political leader take to a pu...
What is brewing at the Bioweapons Convention?
26 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Aditya R and Shambhavi Naik discuss the ongoing plans for updating the biological weapons convention, a key UN treaty that prevents the development an...
Climate Resilience in UN Peacekeeping
24 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Join Dr. Y. Nithiyanandam in a thought-provoking conversation with Ms Ingvild Brodtkorb, guest speaker at the United Service Institution (USI) recent ...
The Teesta River dispute
23 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
India and Bangladesh have had cordial relations in various geopolitical frontiers. While a successful Ganges water treaty came into existence in 1996,...
India and the Forgotten Planet
20 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After years of delays, India's ambitious Venus Orbiter Mission is set to launch in 2028. Space writer Jatan Mehta joins Ashwin Prasad and Aditya Raman...
A lot hinges on India's Next Generation Launch Vehicle
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In a follow-up to a previous discussion on the Starship, Ashwin and Swathi delve into the Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV), a cutting-edge rocket...
Accelerating private sector R&D in India
18 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Private players in India do not spend enough on Research and Development. India’s in-house industry R&D spending is a mere 36.4 per cent of Indi...
Engaging with Sino-India Disengagement
17 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
India's Minister of External Affairs, S Jaishankar, recently briefed the Parliament on the disengagement deal between India and China in Depsang and D...
LLMs in Indian languages: An insurmountable challenge?
16 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Large language models (LLMs) generally do not work that well with non-English languages. But why is that the case? What does this mean for India, whic...
X Marks the Spot: Analysing Deepfake Regulation in the Musk Era
13 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Join Rohan Pai and Leah Govias in today's exciting episode of All Things Policy as they dive into the world of deepfakes! Following close on the heels...
India's Mineral Dependency On China
12 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
To strengthen India’s stance on critical mineral security, the Ministry of Mines in 2023 identified 30 critical minerals deemed essential for the na...
An entrepreneur's journey | Building a sports platform
11 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It all started with a dream, a vision; to bridge gaps and improve the status quo. Sports entrepreneur and alumna of the #OpenTakshashila "Building a s...
India's state capacity challenges
10 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of All Things Policy, Miheer and Anisree delve into India's state capacity challenges. They examine the Takshashila Institution's rese...
DeepTech Software Startups: Beyond Intellectual Property
09 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of All Things Policy, Shobhankita and Avinash discuss deep tech software startups. They ponder how we can measure its impact without s...
The Role of Startups in India's Urban Housing Challenges
06 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
India faces a significant urban housing crisis, particularly affecting low-income households. Indian cities are overcrowded, lack sufficient infrastru...
India’s Ageing Crisis
05 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
India is on the brink of a demographic transformation. With a rapidly growing elderly population, the nation faces an ageing crisis with far-reaching ...
Did the COP 29 deliver?
04 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this discussion, Rakshith and Anika explore Azerbaijan's presidency during COP 29, examining how it was organised and assessing the outcomes relate...
Choking Point: Delhi's Smog & Public Policy
03 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Join Srinivasan Iyengar and Arindam Goswami in this episode of All Things Policy, where we have an absolutely fascinating and insightful discussion ab...
AI Adoption: Think tasks not jobs
02 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
AI has risen to prominence over the last few years, and fears that it will take over jobs has driven narratives around it. In this episode, MIheer Kar...
Indian Women's Participation in Leisure
29 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
At a time when the labor force participation of women in India continues to lag significantly behind that of men, is a woman’s participation in leis...
Gender Equity: A Fundamental Right
28 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The significance and continuous necessity of discussing gender equity have numerous benefits. As we enable all genders to participate in the nation-bu...
India’s Role in UN Peacekeeping
27 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Y. Nithiyanandam, Professor & Head of Geospatial Research at the Takshashila Institution, Interacts with Col KK Sharma (Retd.), a decorated vet...
China Makes Moves at the G20 Summit
26 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The 19th G20 Summit recently concluded on November 19, 2024 in Rio, and given that the overarching themes of the summit were quite relevant to the dev...
Balancing competition and cooperation in Space
25 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Join Ashwin and Rijesh in this episode of All Things Policy as they explore the potential for international cooperation in an arena as heavily contes...
Resisting Resistance: All things to know about AMR
22 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Vanshika and Shambhavi discuss the origin of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), mitigation strategies and possible ways forward for tackling AMR. All Thi...
Veteran Healthcare in India
21 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What are the components of a veteran healthcare system? How does India's veteran healthcare system look, and how does it compare with other countries?...
Interplay between society and theatre
20 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the episode, Sowmya Prabhakar COO of Takshashila Institution is in conversation with Preethi Nagaraj. They go over the nuts and bolts of what goes ...
Powering India's Future: Three stage Nuclear Plan
19 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Join us to explore India's ambitious three-stage nuclear power programme. From harnessing the power of uranium to unlocking the potential of thorium, ...
Why should we care about the AI chips hardware ecosystem?
18 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As AI becomes pervasive in our lives, the demand for AI chips, especially Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) have gone up exponentially to process data o...
What's Goa-n On with Indian Tourism?
15 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's been an eventful week in Goa after the State's Tourism Department filed a police complaint against a social media user who supposedly disseminate...
What Does Trump 2.0 Mean for the World?
14 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Against all odds, Donald Trump has clinched a victory in the recently concluded US presidential election. Not just the White House, the Republican Par...
India-Taiwan Relations
13 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of All Things Policy, Anushka Saxena and Arindam Goswami talk about India-Taiwan relations. They take a look at the historical perspec...
Beyond Cricket: The Rise of India-Australia Strategic Ties
12 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of All Things Policy, Anisree Suresh converses with Professor Ian Hall from Griffith University, Australia, about the evolving India-A...
Taxes, tariffs and Green Tech
11 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sarthak Pradhan and Sridhar Krishna discuss how the EU, the US, and other countries use taxes and tariffs to promote the development and deployment of...
Decoding Shigatse in Tibet - China’s firing range.
08 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
China is expanding its military infrastructure in Shigatse in Tibet. In the first of our podcast, Nithiya and Yusuf talk about the firing range- why i...
Voter Sentiments in the Kashmir Valley
07 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of All Things Policy, Carl Jaison speaks to Karishma Mehrotra, South Asia correspondent for The Washington Post regarding her report o...
How to survive and thrive in the AI economy
06 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sridhar Krishna and Anupriya Mohta discuss how to survive and thrive in an AI economy and the skills required to make this happen. They refer to recen...
The AI Agents have Arrived
05 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Anthropic has just announced that its frontier Claude model can use computers the way people do—by looking at a screen, moving a cursor, clicking bu...
Mind Matters
04 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of All Things Policy, Mariam Azeemuddin and Srividya, a Research Scientist at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, explore a critica...
How Chinese Analysts View India's Climate Diplomacy
30 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the All Things Policy podcast, Rakshith Shetty and Amit Kumar talk about Rakshith's latest issue brief on the opinions of Chinese a...
Why is SpaceX's Starship such a big deal ?
29 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
SpaceX's Starship made headlines with its dramatic descent and catch of the Starship rocket 7 minutes after its launch. Join Ashwin and Avinash in thi...
Anusandhan National Research Foundation-Old wine in a new bottle?
28 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Satya, Saurabh and Shambhavi analyse the latest initiatives under the Anusandhan National Research Foundation and discuss a potential roadmap for the ...
The Clock Is Tikking: Analysing TikTok's Addictive Algorithm
25 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of All Things Policy, Rohan Pai and Mariam Azeemuddin analyse the latest lawsuits filed against TikTok in the US for harming the menta...
Value of Third Spaces
24 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1980s, sociologist Ray Oldenburg coined the notion of a "third place": a space dedicated to informal gatherings to facilitate conversation and ...
Deliberating a New Modus Vivendi with China
23 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
India-China relations are dynamic, featuring periods of marked conflict, competition, and some cooperation. Structurally, however, the relations face ...
All Things Digital Policy
22 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Why do governments, including India’s, struggle in the cybersecurity domain? In the context of global AI governance wherein the US and EU are pushin...
Minimum Export Price Impact on Essential Goods Trade
21 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Avinash Shet and Anisree Suresh explore how policies like Minimum Export Price (MEP) affect global trade, particularly for essential ...
How the Samaaj and Bazaar can promote a sporting culture in India
18 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
While the Government has been the primary driver of sports since independence, it is time the other 2 pillars the society and markets, who have equal ...
Beyond the Middle East’s Wars
17 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In mid-2023, some imagined the Middle East and North Africa would move on from internecine conflicts to an age of economic connectivity. The war that ...
Chess in India: making the right moves
16 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
India won the gold medals in both the open and women's categories in the recently concluded 2024 Chess Olympiad. Regarding this massive success, Mihee...
Carbon Pricing in India
15 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of All Things Policy, Rakshith Shetty and Anisree Suresh discuss carbon pricing in India, its significance as an economic tool, policy...
Asian NATO: India's stance?
14 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Join Yusuf Unjhawala and Arindam Goswami in this episode of All Things Policy, where they talk about the new Japanese Prime Minister's rather provocat...
Long-term lessons from global tech outage
10 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In July 2024, what is being called the biggest global tech outage was caused not by a malicious actor but a cybersecurity company. A mere 40 KB faulty...
Life and times of Syeda X
09 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Neha Dixit's The Many lives of Syeda X weaves a compelling tale around the intersectionality of poverty, gender and religion. In this episode, Miheer ...
Navigating Bengaluru’s Water Challenges
08 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What are the major sources of water for Bengaluru? Why did the city face a water crisis earlier this year? What steps can be taken to prevent similar ...
Decoding India’s unemployment crisis
07 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of All Things Policy, Adya Madhavan speaks to entrepreneur and investor Mohit Satyanand. As a long-time investor. Mohit speaks about t...
Will synthetic biology produce the next pandemic?
04 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Aditya and Shambhavi discuss the new developments in biotechnology how they can help create bioweapons and the likelihood of their us...
Looking Beyond the AI Hype
03 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The past two years have given us a glimpse of what is possible with artificial intelligence. Some say that AI will have a transformative impact to riv...
Expanding Horizons: Quad and India-Australia dynamics
01 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Vanshika Saraf discusses the outcomes of the recent Quad Leaders' Summit with Professor Pradeep Taneja from the University of Melbour...
Food: The Universal Language We All Understand
30 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Lakshmi Shashidhar and Sowmya Prabhakar join Smita Murthy in an engaging conversation about food—an essential part of everyone's life. Together, the...
The Fall of Homo Economicus?
27 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The entire edifice of economics is predicated on the assumption that human beings are rational creatures, who are capable of maximising their self-int...
A Quad for All Seasons
26 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
U.S. President Joe Biden hosted an unusual Quad Summit at his residence in his hometown of Wilmington. Despite the intimate setting, the summit result...
From Arrest of Telegram CEO to Banning of X: Decoding the Churn in Global Social Media Landscape
25 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
August 2024 was an eventful month for the global social media landscape. Pavel Durov, CEO of the popular Telegram platform was arrested in France. In ...
Donating Data: An Approach
24 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of All Things Policy, Carl Jaison speaks to Pranav Gupta, PhD candidate in Political Science at UC Berkeley on the idea of ‘Data Daa...
Aiming Better for India's Guns
23 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
India has had an uneven history with military firearms. Satya Sahu walks us through how the country has variously designed, reverse-engineered, and im...
Pagers, Walkie-Talkies, and Supply Chain Security
20 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
KPM Das and Pranay Kotasthane discuss recent wireless device explosions in Lebanon. They assess what these developments mean for India's supply ch...
India’s fiscal allocations imbalance
19 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Join Sarthak Pradhan and Arindam Goswami in this episode of All Things Policy, where we'll dive deep into a very important problem in public finan...
Skilling India's Future: Adapting Economic and Geopolitical Shifts
18 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of All things policy, Avinash Shet is in conversation with Arindam Goswami. They discuss India’s talent landscape, the talent gap an...
Is India emerging as an advanced energy superpower?
17 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we have Mr. Debmalya Sen, who currently leads the World Economic Forum’s global initiatives on Advanced Energy Solutions and is lea...
Why is AI Hardware a Policy Concern?
16 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Join Ashwin and Satya as they engage in a brief conversation on the reasons why AI hardware has become a critical public policy question, and why poli...
Untapped job opportunities for women in mobility business
13 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Here’s a good use case to increase the Women Labour Force Participation Rates. This is an opportunity for women to ensure fellow women get to workpl...
Lay of the Land: Surveying Ideas, Choices and People
12 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of 'All Things Policy', Takshashila Institution Analysts Anushka Saxena and Vanshika Saraf quiz the Associate Director at Pew ...
Big challenges and ambitious missions
11 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In July 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to land on the moon. In May 2020, in response to Covid-19, the US Federal Governm...
Building greenfield industrial cities in India
10 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Recently, the Union Cabinet approved a programme to develop 12 new industrial cities with an investment of ₹28,602 crore. The goal is to boost manuf...
AI and Trade: India's New Frontier
09 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of All Things Policy, Anisree Suresh and Mariam Azeemuddin discuss AI’s impact on international trade and India’s prospects. AI...
Growing PLA's High-Altitude Helicopter Infrastructure in Tibet
06 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of All Things Policy, Ashwin Prasad quizzes Dr. Y. Nithiyanandam on the strategic significance of PLA heliports and helipads in Tibet,...
Showing Up for Taiwan, In Taiwan
05 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On 21 August, 2024, the Lai Ching-te dispensation in Taiwan organised its first edition of the Ketagalan Forum, which was overall the 8th edition of t...
Challenges to Sports Broadcasting Rights in India
04 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Sports Broadcasting Signals (Mandatory Sharing with Prasar Bharati Act) Act requires private broadcasters in India to share live feeds of sports d...
What Should India Do About Strategic Electronics?
03 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Join Anushka Saxena and Satya Sahu as they discuss the reasons why policymakers should prioritise the Indigenisation of strategic electronics over aim...
Obesity - Why Should We Care
02 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A health epidemic that is creeping up silently on a global scale is Obesity. Is this really a problem? Should governments intervene? If yes, in what w...
Chinese Industrial Overcapacity: Debate or Reality?
30 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the past few months, the issue of surplus supply or 'overcapacity' in the Chinese production ecosystem has led to a ringing of alarm bells ...
Competition in the Cloud
29 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Competition in cloud services is increasingly important as digital services are moving to the cloud. Satya Sahu and Bharath Reddy speak with Payal Mal...
Ethical concerns with synthetic biology
28 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It is estimated that over the next 30 years, synthetic biology will affect more than $30 billion of economic activity. Saurabh Todi and Shambhavi Naik...
Is an Inter-State Migration Council the Need of the Hour?
27 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
According to estimates, 2024 marks the point when the absolute size of the working age (20-64) population of OECD, or Organisation for Economic Co-ope...
How should the government support the Indian space industry?
26 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The recent budget announced the creation of a ₹1000 Crore Venture Capital fund for space startups in the country. Join Ashwin and Vanshika in this e...
Inside India's indigenous jet engine Aspirations
23 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On India's way towards Atmanirbharta, one of the critical technologies, the Jet Engine, is still on the checklist. The path to this has been long ...
Reimagining Social Security for 21st Century India
22 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Our social security system suffers from inadequate coverage and financing. In this episode, Arindam and Ashwin discuss a new approach that could effec...
The Bangladesh Crisis and India
21 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There is no doubt that the fall of Shaikh Hasina’s democratically elected government in Bangladesh poses both a strategic as well as a diplomatic ch...
GM Mustard and Natural Farming- Story so far and the way ahead
20 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There were 2 important developments in the biotech/science field. One, The SC gave a split verdict on the GM mustard issue. Two, the government announ...
The second order effect of sports
19 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sports is a universal language, it transcends borders, cultures and ideologies. We witnessed how at the recent Olympics, humanity, grace and the spiri...
Language in Education: Multilingualism in Indian Classrooms
16 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With 22 scheduled languages and 19,500 languages and/or dialects in India, multilingualism is a reality in all aspects of life. India's classroom...
Indo-Pak History and Civil-Military Relations
14 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of All Things Policy, Adya Madhavan is in conversation with Dr Srinath Raghavan on the legacy of partition. Dr Raghavan sheds light on...
Student bus concession in Kerala
13 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Kerala had a policy intervention to incentivise education in the state way back in 1963, with over 75% subsidy in ticket pricing for students travelli...
From IPC & CrPC to BNS & BNSS: Navigating India’s New Criminal Justice Landscape
12 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of All Things Policy, Mariam Azeemuddin and Rohan Pai discuss the transition from the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Code of Criminal...
The Much-Anticipated 'Third Plenum' Leaves Questions Unanswered
09 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Between 15 and 18 July, 2024, the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China conducted its much-anticipated Third Plenum meeting, and prod...
Public Transport in Indian Cities - To Monopolise or not to Monopolise?
08 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Should the state have a monopoly on the transport system, or should we have private players? And how does one regulate such private players? Should st...
India's Whey Protein Market: Demand and Supply Conundrum
07 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of All Things Policy, Anisree Suresh and Rohan Pai delve into the imbalances between demand and supply in India's whey protein mar...