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A major puzzle for the Indian economy in the last one decade has been the weak performance in the textiles and apparel sectors. In real terms, the apparels sector has grown marginally and the textiles sector has witnessed a decline. India’s share in world trade in textiles and apparels has also declined considerably. Between the late-1990s and early 2010s, India’s share in the textiles trade has doubled, as the Indian economy revealed its comparative advantage in a variety of products in this category. But since then, India’s share in textiles trade has declined, even as many other countries have increased their share. The causes for this sudden reversal in a crucial sector is worth understanding.  In this episode of Interpreting India, Abhishek Anand and Naveen Joseph Thomas join Suyash Rai to discuss how India can  reignite its manmade clothing sector.  -- Episode Contributors Abhishek Anand is a consultant with PwC Middle East. Earlier, he has worked at the World Bank as a Robert S. McNamara Fellow and prior to that as a career civil servant with the Government of India. His research interest lies at the intersection of macroeconomics and economic development.  Naveen Joseph Thomas completed his Ph.D. in Economics at the Department of Economics, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi. He received his M.Sc. in Economics from the TERI School of Advanced Studies and his B.Sc.(H) in Physics from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi. His research interest lies in the areas of Household Economics, Growth Theory, Labour Economics and issues of the MSME sector. His current research focusses on the role of intra-household conflict in explaining low labour force participation of women in patriarchal societies, the scope of Mutual Credit Guarantee Schemes for the development of the MSME sector in India, and the analysis of education choice of parents under constrained supply of public-funded education in rural India using the ASER dataset. Suyash Rai is a deputy director and fellow at Carnegie India. His research focuses on the political economy of economic reforms, and the performance of public institutions in India.  -- Additional Reading Reigniting the Manmade Clothing Sector in India by Abhishek Anand and Naveen Joseph Thomas  -- 🎙️ Check out our podcast, Interpreting India available now on YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes! Home: https://interpreting-india.simplecast.com/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/51yeOb8SimMIPe2KgIUQ8g Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/interpreting-india/id1476357131 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeXQMWQXRkJXF71nDiX9LhlXiSkhR8JJT -- Carnegie India Socials: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnegieindia/ (@CarnegieIndia) Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarnegieIndia Website: https://carnegieindia.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CarnegieIndia/

In accordance with the G20 presidency conversations, one of the key conversations that has been missing from the main discourse has been the relationship between Brazil and India. Brazil will be taking over the G20 presidency from India. Therefore, it is imperative that these two countries think about some of the issues around climate finance, energy, technological innovation, global governance, and the SDGs.  In this episode of Interpreting India, André Aranha Corrêa do Lago joins Anirudh Suri to discuss issues around climate finance, energy, technological innovation, global governance, and the SDGs.  -- Episode Contributors André Aranha Corrêa do Lago is the former ambassador of Brazil to India. A recognised architecture critic and writer, has has been a member of the prestigious Pritzker Prize jury, and has served as the curator of the Brazilian Pavilion in the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale. Between 2011 and 2013, he was also Brazil's Chief Negotiator for Climate Change and Sustainable Development, including for the Rio+20 UN Conference, which launched the Sustainable Development Goals. Between 2005 to 2016, André served as a member of the Architecture and Design Committee of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, and is currently a member of the International Council of MoMA. Anirudh Suri is a nonresident scholar with Carnegie India. His interests lie at the intersection of technology and geopolitics, climate, and strategic affairs. -- Additional Reading Brazil, India can steer global transportation towards biofuels by André Aranha Corrêa do Lago Brazilian ambassador offers green growth solution to stubble burning in India by André Aranha Corrêa do Lago The case for a comprehensive Indian climate bill by Anirudh Suri  -- 🎙️ Check out our podcast, Interpreting India available now on YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes! Home: https://interpreting-india.simplecast.com/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/51yeOb8SimMIPe2KgIUQ8g Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/interpreting-india/id1476357131 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeXQMWQXRkJXF71nDiX9LhlXiSkhR8JJT -- Carnegie India Socials: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnegieindia/ (@CarnegieIndia) Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarnegieIndia Website: https://carnegieindia.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CarnegieIndia/

Since their independence from the Soviet Union, the Central Asian countries, namely Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, have maintained close ties with Moscow. However, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has complicated the relationship. None of the Central Asian countries have expressed support for Russia’s war and are all abiding by the western sanctions imposed on Moscow. While economic ties between the region and Russia remain strong as of now, Central Asian countries are looking to diversify their economic relations, thereby opening up avenues for other powers. In this episode of Interpreting India, Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili joins Rahul Bhatia to discuss Central Asia and the Russia-Ukraine war. How are the Central Asian countries responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? What could Russia’s preoccupation with the war in Ukraine mean for China’s role in the region? And, what are the implications of this on India and South Asia?  -- Episode Contributors Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili is a nonresident scholar in the Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She is the founding director of the Center for Governance and Markets and a professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research focuses on issues of self-governance, security, political economy, and public sector reform in the developing world. Her book Informal Order and the State in Afghanistan was published by Cambridge University Press in 2016. Rahul Bhatia is a research analyst with the Security Studies Program at Carnegie India. His research focuses on India’s borders and India’s foreign and defense policies. -- Additional Reading Kazakhstan’s Tokayev Is Playing With Fire at Home—and With Russia by Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili The Source of Ukraine’s Resilience by Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili -- 🎙️ Check out our podcast, Interpreting India available now on YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes! Home: https://interpreting-india.simplecast.com/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/51yeOb8SimMIPe2KgIUQ8g Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/interpreting-india/id1476357131 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeXQMWQXRkJXF71nDiX9LhlXiSkhR8JJT -- Carnegie India Socials: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnegieindia/ (@CarnegieIndia) Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarnegieIndia Website: https://carnegieindia.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CarnegieIndia/

Over the last three decades, cross-border violence between India and Pakistan has been interspersed with periods of relative peace. Until 2003, ceasefires along the Line of Control and International Border in Jammu and Kashmir (in 1949, 1965, and 1971) were preceded by war between India and Pakistan. On the night of November 23, 2003, an announcement of a unilateral ceasefire, starting on Eid-ul-Fitr, was made by then prime minister of Pakistan Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali. Following this, during their weekly call, the Director Generals of Military Operations or DGMOs from the two countries agreed on a ceasefire along the Line of Control, International Border, and Actual Ground Position Line. And so, the ceasefire came into effect from 25 November 2003. Given the violence of the previous 14 years, the ceasefire was a welcome move. The years between 1989 and 2003 saw cross-border violence touch record levels. 2001 and 2002 saw 4,134 and 5,767 ceasefire violations respectively by Pakistan, as reported by India. Thus, the ceasefire resulted in a stable border and immediate relief for civilians. According to some reports, there was not a single ceasefire violation between India and Pakistan between 2004 and 2006, while others report that the number was negligible. The larger change in India-Pakistan relations following the institution of the composite dialogue process also enabled different confidence-building measures on the LoC, such as the opening of passenger routes on the Poonch-Rawalakot and Srinagar-Muzaffarabad axes, enabling bus traffic and eventually cross-border trade. The period also saw the completion of border fencing on the LoC as a measure to prevent infiltration.  From 2007 onwards, ceasefire violations began to rise, intensifying after 2013. The larger relationship too started to see tensions due to terror attacks in India, civil-military dynamics in Pakistan, cross-border retaliatory actions such as the surgical strikes in 2016, and the Balakot airstrikes in 2019. In 2020, India reported 5,133 CFVs on the border. A reaffirmation of the ceasefire through a DGMO conversation and a subsequent joint statement by India and Pakistan in February 2021 was a major effort to arrest this trend. -- Episode Contributors Arun K. Singh is a nonresident senior fellow at Carnegie India. He has extensive experience across the globe, including as India’s ambassador to the United States, Israel, and France. Throughout his distinguished career in the Indian Foreign Service spanning thirty-seven years, he has served during pivotal periods in key global capitals and was instrumental in shaping India’s policies, notably the continued progress in the U.S.-India relationship, India’s closer ties to Israel, and the formulation and implementation of India’s policies related to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran, including in the period following 9/11. Surya Valliappan Krishna is the associate director of projects and operations at Carnegie India. His research interests are India-Pakistan relations, border security, and cross-border violence. In particular, he works on the nature and dynamics of cross-border violence and its impact on civilian communities. -- Additional Reading Bordering on Peace: Evaluating the impact of the India-Pakistan Ceasefire by Surya Valliappan Krishna Caught in the Crossfire: Tension and Trade Along the Line of Control by Surya Valliappan Krishna Sending the Right Signal: Telecom Connectivity along the Line of Control by Surya Valliappan Krishna Mental Health on the Line (of Control) by Surya Valliappan Krishna --🎙️ Check out our podcast, Interpreting India available now on YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes! Home: https://interpreting-india.simplecast.com/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/51yeOb8SimMIPe2KgIUQ8g Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/interpreting-india/id1476357131 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeXQMWQXRkJXF71nDiX9LhlXiSkhR8JJT -- Carnegie India Socials: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnegieindia/ (@CarnegieIndia) Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarnegieIndia Website: https://carnegieindia.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CarnegieIndia/

India’s patterns of urban growth came under sharp focus during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many highlighted the poor quality of urban services as contributors to the spread of the same. The pandemic laid bare many pre-existing deficiencies in urban governance that have continued to plague India’s urban areas. As India continues to grow and urbanize, the municipal bodies that govern our cities are increasing in relevance. There is a huge diversity of municipal bodies in India—from nagar panchayats or town panchayats at the lowest level to municipalities and municipal corporations. In addition, we have specialised bodies like the DDA in Delhi and the MMRDA in Mumbai responsible for urban planning and development. Cities also have specialized bodies for water and sewerage, transport, and electricity services. The composition, lines of responsibility and accountability, and the manner of appointment and selection varies for each type of body. In most cases, both the state and the local governments have complementary or overlapping powers with respect to such services. And, few municipal bodies are completely financially autonomous of state governments and completely responsible to the residents of the municipality. Given this institutional structure for urban governance, how do we achieve better outcomes in terms of service delivery? Do we need to change how these institutions are designed and their composition and powers? Or are there other solutions that we should explore? In this episode of Interpreting India, Matthew Glasser joins Anirudh Burman to answer these questions. -- Episode Contributors Matthew Glasser is currently the director for municipal law and finance at the Centre for Urban Law and Finance in Africa. Prior to this, he has been the lead urban specialist for the World Bank and has also worked extensively in India and the United States. He has authored a World Bank report titled “Institutional Models for Governance of Urban Services”. Anirudh Burman is an associate research director and fellow at Carnegie India. He works on key issues relating to public institutions, public administration, the administrative and regulatory state, and state capacity. -- Additional Reading Institutional Models for Governance of Urban Services: Volume 1—Synthesis Report December 2021 by Matthew Glasser Understanding Institutions and Accountability Mechanisms in Urban Governance by Anirudh Burman --🎙️ Check out our podcast, Interpreting India available now on YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes! Home: https://interpreting-india.simplecast.com/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/51yeOb8SimMIPe2KgIUQ8g Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/interpreting-india/id1476357131 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeXQMWQXRkJXF71nDiX9LhlXiSkhR8JJT -- Carnegie India Socials: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnegieindia/ (@CarnegieIndia) Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarnegieIndia Website: https://carnegieindia.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CarnegieIndia/  

Welcome to a new season of Interpreting India! Last year, amid the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, precarious geopolitical relations, and a rapidly evolving technological landscape, the second season of Interpreting India explored the many challenges and opportunities that India will confront in the coming decade. This year as well, we at Carnegie India will continue to bring voices from India and around the world to examine the role of technology, the economy, and international security in shaping India’s future as geopolitical realignments, sustainable growth, healthcare financing, inclusive digital transformations, climate change, urbanization, supply chain disruptions, and several other critical global matters envelope the world in light of India’s G20 presidency. -- 🎙️ Check out our podcast, Interpreting India available now on YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes! Home: https://interpreting-india.simplecast.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeXQMWQXRkJXF71nDiX9LhlXiSkhR8JJT Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/51yeOb8SimMIPe2KgIUQ8g Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/interpreting-india/id1476357131 -- Carnegie India Socials: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnegieindia/ (@CarnegieIndia) Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarnegieIndia Website: https://carnegieindia.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CarnegieIndia/

2022 has been a year of geopolitical conflict and tensions. If we were expecting a quieter end to the year, then we were apparently mistaken. On December 9, Chinese and Indian troops had a face-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh. While we don’t have many details yet, it appears that a few hundred soldiers were involved in a physical scuffle, and some thirty to forty, on both sides, sustained injuries. The Indian defence minister, Rajnath Singh, told the Parliament that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army troops had tried to transgress the LAC in this area and were prevented from doing so. Two days after this incident, the local commanders of the Indian Army and the People’s Liberation Army met to discuss the issue. Though it is unclear what, if anything, has been agreed upon to restore tranquility.  The relations between India and China have been in deep freeze since May 2020, when troops of the two sides had clashed along the LAC in Ladakh. Both sides have since enhanced their military deployment and upgraded their logistical infrastructure along the LAC. Arunachal Pradesh has several points where the two sides have different perceptions of where the LAC runs, and both sides patrol up to the line they claim. Apropos the recent standoff, the Indian Ministry of Defence has noted that this has been the case in the Tawang sector since 2006. How do we understand China’s posture and actions along the LAC in recent years? Is a purely bilateral framework adequate to grasp Beijing’s motivations, or are larger considerations at work? And, what are India’s options in dealing with Chinese activism along the LAC?  In an interesting coincidence, just as the news of the recent face-off hit the headlines a couple of days ago, Carnegie India published an important paper by Mr. Vijay Gokhale titled “A Historical Evolution of China’s India Policy: Lessons for India-China Relations”. While much has been written about India-China relations, most of it tends to be from the Indian perspective. We have few assessments of how Beijing has seen India and sought to deal with it. You can access Mr. Gokhale's excellent paper here, in which he traces and analyzes the arc of Chinese policy towards India from 1949 to the present day. In this special episode of Interpreting India, Vijay Gokhale joins Srinath Raghavan to discuss Mr. Gokhale's paper and the increasingly fraught relationship between India and China, in light of the recent clash between Indian and Chinese troops along the Line of Actual Control in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh.  -- Episode Contributors Vijay Gokhale is a nonresident senior fellow at Carnegie India. He retired from the Indian Foreign Service in January 2020 after a diplomatic career that spanned thirty-nine years. He has served as both the foreign secretary of India (from January 2018 to January 2020) and as India’s ambassador to China (from January 2016 to October 2017). He has worked extensively on matters relating to the Indo-Pacific region with a special emphasis on Chinese politics and diplomacy. Mr. Gokhale is the author of three books: Tiananmen Square: The Making of a Protest, The Long Game: How the Chinese Negotiate with India, and most recently After Tiananmen: The Rise of China.  Srinath Raghavan is a nonresident senior fellow at Carnegie India. He is also a professor of International Relations and History at Ashoka University. His primary research focus is on the contemporary and historical aspects of India’s foreign and security policies. He is the author of War and Peace in Modern India: A Strategic History of the Nehru Years (2010), and 1971: A Global History of the Creation of Bangladesh (2013), and co-authored Non-Alignment 2.0: A Foreign and Strategic Policy for India in the 21st Century (2013), India’s War: The Making of Modern South Asia, 1939 – 45 (2016), and, most recently, The Most Dangerous Place: A History of the United States in South Asia (2018). -- 🎙️ Check out our podcast, Interpreting India available now on YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes! Home: https://interpreting-india.simplecast.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeXQMWQXRkJXF71nDiX9LhlXiSkhR8JJT Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/51yeOb8SimMIPe2KgIUQ8g Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/interpreting-india/id1476357131 -- Carnegie India Socials: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnegieindia/ (@CarnegieIndia) Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarnegieIndia Website: https://carnegieindia.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CarnegieIndia/

How far has India come since independence, and where is it going? What are the opportunities and challenges it has witnessed in the past, and what all awaits it in the near future? In this episode, Suyash Rai invites his colleagues who have previously hosted episodes of Interpreting India to share insights from their work. Anirudh Burman talks about land markets and policy framework for India’s new technology sectors. Konark Bhandari explicates India’s role in semiconductor supply chains and commercialization of space. Rahul Bhatia sheds light on the indigenization of defense manufacturing. Shibani Mehta and Deep Pal discuss India’s relationship with China, and Priyadarshini D. elucidates the future of digital currencies. Rudra Chaudhuri gives a broader perspective of key transitions in India’s foreign policy regime and the role of think tanks in the modern times. Finally, Suyash Rai gives an overview of India’s growth experience and how he sees the present moment. -- Episode Contributors Suyash Rai is a deputy director and fellow at Carnegie India. His research focuses on the political economy of economic reforms, and the performance of public institutions in India. Anirudh Burman is an associate research director and fellow at Carnegie India. He works on key issues relating to public institutions, public administration, the administrative and regulatory state, and state capacity. Konark Bhandari is an associate fellow with Carnegie India's Technology and Society Program. He has published papers in the areas of antitrust, intellectual property, and corporate law.  Rahul Bhatia is a research analyst with the Security Studies Program at Carnegie India. His research focuses on India’s borders and India’s foreign and defense policies. Shibani Mehta is a senior research analyst with the Security Studies Program at Carnegie India. Her research focuses on India’s security and foreign policies. Deep Pal is a visiting scholar in the Asia program at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His research focuses on the Indo-Pacific, Indian foreign policy in its immediate and greater neighborhood, and regional security of South Asia, with particular emphasis on China. Priyadarshini D. is an associate fellow with the Technology and Society Program at Carnegie India. She is interested in researching emerging issues at the intersection of law, technology, and finance. Rudra Chaudhuri is the director of Carnegie India. His primary research interests include the diplomatic history of South Asia and contemporary security issues. -- Additional Reading The Gloss in the Gross Domestic Product Estimate by Suyash Rai The Changing Imperatives of India’s Land Markets by Anirudh Burman Indian Space Tech Should Now Build Small Satellites, Forge Big Global Partnerships by Konark Bhandari and Tejas Bharadwaj Why the Indian Air Force’s Modernization Process Has Stumbled by Rahul Bhatia High Peaks, High Stakes by Shibani Mehta How South Asian States Are Managing Chinese Influence by Deep Pal UPI Powers India’s Digital Transactions. RBI’s eRupee is Compelling But Must Argue Retail Use by Priyadarshini D. Navigating a Curious Chapter in Indo-US Ties by Rudra Chaudhuri -- 🎙️ Check out our podcast, Interpreting India available now on YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes! Home: https://interpreting-india.simplecast.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeXQMWQXRkJXF71nDiX9LhlXiSkhR8JJT Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/51yeOb8SimMIPe2KgIUQ8g Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/interpreting-india/id1476357131 -- Carnegie India Socials: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnegieindia/ (@CarnegieIndia) Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarnegieIndia Website: https://carnegieindia.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CarnegieIndia/

Collaborative technologies like blockchain promise the ability to improve business processes between entities in any domain, radically lowering the "cost of trust." Sarang Bhoyar joins Priyadarshini D. to discuss the adoption and limitations of blockchain in the Indian context. -- Episode Contributors Sarang Bhoyar is currently the head of blockchain (Centre of Excellence) at the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). He has more than two decades of rich IT experience across technologies, roles, and geographies. Previously, he has worked with Infosys, with his last appointment at Infosys being that of the blockchain programme manager. His past experience of setting up Offshore Development Centers in India for global clients enabled him to set up Blockchain Centres of Excellence (COEs) from the ground up. He is now on a mission to make blockchain technology mainstream. Priyadarshini D. is an associate fellow with the Technology and Society Program at Carnegie India. She is interested in researching emerging issues at the intersection of law, technology, and finance. -- 🎙️ Check out our podcast, Interpreting India available now on YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes! Home: https://interpreting-india.simplecast.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeXQMWQXRkJXF71nDiX9LhlXiSkhR8JJT Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/51yeOb8SimMIPe2KgIUQ8g Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/interpreting-india/id1476357131 -- Carnegie India Socials: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnegieindia/ (@CarnegieIndia) Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarnegieIndia Website: https://carnegieindia.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CarnegieIndia/  

The Indo-Pacific has emerged as a region of great significance. China is cementing its strategic presence in the region with a push toward financing infrastructure, announcements of alternative security and development mechanisms, and security pacts, most recently, with the Solomon Islands. Meanwhile, the United States remains preoccupied with its various priorities including the war in Ukraine and a broader engagement with European security. As regional dynamics continue to evolve, actors like India and Australia find themselves facing common concerns, as well as opportunities that continue to converge.  In this episode of Interpreting India, Ashley Townshend joins Deep Pal to discuss the recent developments in the Indo-Pacific. What would be the contours of an Indo-Pacific strategy that counteracts Chinese adventurism and influence in the region? How can India and Australia strengthen their bilateral relationship by harnessing their national defense industrial bases? And, how can the QUAD countries become significant contributors to public security in the region? -- Episode Contributors Ashley Townshend is a senior fellow for Indo-Pacific security at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is also the founding co-chair of the annual U.S.-Australia Indo-Pacific Deterrence Dialogue and a nonresident senior fellow at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. A leading Australian expert on Indo-Pacific strategic affairs, Ashley has written extensively on U.S. strategy in Asia, regional strategic competition with China, the U.S.-Australia alliance, and Australian foreign and defense policy. He is also the co-author of the monograph Averting Crisis: American Strategy, Military Spending and Collective Defence in the Indo-Pacific.   Deep Pal is a visiting scholar in the Asia program at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His research and publications focus on the Indo-Pacific, Indian foreign policy in its immediate and greater neighborhood, and regional security of South Asia, with particular emphasis on China. -- Additional Reading The U.S. Is Losing Its Military Edge in Asia, and China Knows It by Ashley Townshend US Indo-Pacific Strategy, Alliances and Security Partnerships by Ashley Townshend -- 🎙️ Check out our podcast, Interpreting India available now on YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes! Home: https://interpreting-india.simplecast.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeXQMWQXRkJXF71nDiX9LhlXiSkhR8JJT Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/51yeOb8SimMIPe2KgIUQ8g Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/interpreting-india/id1476357131 -- Carnegie India Socials: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnegieindia/ (@CarnegieIndia) Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarnegieIndia Website: https://carnegieindia.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CarnegieIndia/  

Ever since its adoption in October 2000, the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda has emerged as the landmark global framework promoting women’s participation in conflict resolution and achieving sustainable peace. Through its four pillars, participation, conflict prevention, protection, and relief and recovery, the WPS agenda aims to provide a holistic approach to international security. Since the adoption of the agenda, 103 countries have adopted National Action Plans (NAPs) to enhance women’s participation in the security domain at a domestic level. Regional Action Plans (RAPs) have also emerged as an effort to collaboratively implement the WPS agenda. However, despite the domestic and regional efforts to implement the WPS agenda, there are normative and institutional constraints that impede the full realisation of the agenda.  In this episode of Interpreting India, Soumita Basu joins Shibani Mehta to discuss how the WPS agenda has evolved since its adoption in 2000. What is its significance, and how does it operate to achieve its goal of ensuring equitable gender participation in peace-building? How is the agenda being interpreted by countries with different contextual and political settings? And finally, what steps should India undertake to advance its approach toward the WPS agenda?   -- Episode Contributors Soumita Basu is an associate professor at the Department of International Relations at the South Asian University. She holds a PhD in International Politics from University of Wales, Aberystwyth. She has worked extensively on feminist international relations and the UN Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security. Her recent publications include New Directions in Women, Peace and Security. She has also contributed to Gendered Dimensions of the United Nations Security Council: Some Notes in View of India's Eighth Term (2021-22)’and Routledge Handbook of Feminist Peace Research. Shibani Mehta is a research analyst with the Security Studies Program at Carnegie India. Her research focuses on India’s security and foreign policies. -- 🎙️ Check out our podcast, Interpreting India available now on YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes! Home: https://interpreting-india.simplecast.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeXQMWQXRkJXF71nDiX9LhlXiSkhR8JJT Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/51yeOb8SimMIPe2KgIUQ8g iTunes: https://pcr.apple.com/id1476357131 -- Carnegie India Socials: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnegieindia/ (@CarnegieIndia) Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarnegieIndia Website: https://carnegieindia.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CarnegieIndia/

Lately, Turkey’s actions have come into the limelight. It notably delayed Sweden's and Finland’s memberships in NATO in exchange for fulfilling its own security demands. Meanwhile, it continues to supply drones and other weapons to Ukraine to resist Russian aggression while maintaining its relationship with Moscow at the same time. Turkey has further been involved in the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia as well as in civil wars in Syria and Libya. It has also sought to expand its influence in South Asia by deepening its multifaceted cooperation with Pakistan.  In this episode of Interpreting India, Soner Cagaptay joins Rahul Bhatia to discuss Turkey’s role in shaping the Russia-Ukraine war, the rationale behind its actions, and how President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s electoral priorities impact Turkish foreign policy during the conflict. It further looks into Turkey’s diplomatic efforts in the Middle East and North Africa through the lens of its involvement in regional conflicts, how Turkey’s drones are influencing its foreign policy, and finally, the implications of Turkey’s engagement with South Asia on India. -- Episode Contributors Soner Cagaptay is the Beyer Family fellow and director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute. He has written extensively on U.S.-Turkish relations, Turkish domestic politics, and Turkish nationalism, publishing in scholarly journals and major international print media, including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, Foreign Affairs, and The Atlantic. He has been a regular columnist for Hürriyet Daily News, Turkey's oldest and most influential English-language paper, and a contributor to CNN's Global Public Square blog. He appears regularly on Fox News, CNN, NPR, BBC, and CNN-Turk. Rahul Bhatia is a research analyst with the Security Studies Program at Carnegie India. His research focuses on India’s borders and India’s foreign and defense policies. -- Additional Reading Erdogan's End Game by Soner Cagaptay Turkey's Lethal Weapon by Soner Cagaptay and Rich Outzen -- 🎙️ Check out our podcast, Interpreting India available now on YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes! Home: https://interpreting-india.simplecast.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeXQMWQXRkJXF71nDiX9LhlXiSkhR8JJT Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/51yeOb8SimMIPe2KgIUQ8g iTunes: https://pcr.apple.com/id1476357131 -- Carnegie India Socials: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnegieindia/ (@CarnegieIndia) Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarnegieIndia Website: https://carnegieindia.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CarnegieIndia/

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 around the world, including India, have been investing in the semiconductor capabilities. In December 2021, the Indian government unveiled a Rs 76,000 crore scheme to boost semiconductor manufacturing, chip design and assembly, and testing and packaging (ATP) of chips. In this episode of Interpreting India, G S Madhusudan joins Konark Bhandari to take a closer look at the Indian government’s semiconductor policy and the country’s potential in the space. What have governments across the world been doing to strengthen production capability? How do they compare with India’s semiconductor policy of December 2021?  What does this ramping up of semiconductor capabilities mean for the world?      Episode Contributors G S Madhusudan is the CEO and Co-Founder of InCore Semiconductors, India’s first Processor IP company. A technology entrepreneur with more than 30 years of experience in creating start-ups, G S Madhusudan is also committed towards engineering diverse software and hardware products, managing R&D labs and is intricately involved in technology/product strategy development.  Konark Bhandari is an associate fellow with Carnegie India. He is a lawyer who has researched on certain areas in the digital economy, focusing primarily on approaches to antitrust regulation of companies in the digital realm.  -- Additional Reading We Will Be Competitive With Equivalent ARM Cores, Better In Some Respects Perhaps Lagging In One Or Two Areas by G S Madhusudan IIT-Madras Powers Up a Desi Chip by G S Madhusudan Takeaways from the 2021 Global Technology Summit by Konark Bhandari -- 🎙️ Check out our podcast, Interpreting India available now on YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes! Home: https://interpreting-india.simplecast.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeXQMWQXRkJXF71nDiX9LhlXiSkhR8JJT Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/51yeOb8SimMIPe2KgIUQ8g iTunes: https://pcr.apple.com/id1476357131 -- Carnegie India Socials: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnegieindia/ (@CarnegieIndia) Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarnegieIndia Website: https://carnegieindia.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CarnegieIndia/ 

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 and I2U2. All the while, the war in Ukraine has continued to cast its shadow on the region. In this episode of Interpreting India, Vijay Gokhale joins Srinath Raghavan to discuss the recent developments in the Indo-Pacific. What is the significance of China’s actions, and how are they being perceived by other countries in the region? What are the implications of the growing U.S.-China competition in the Indo-Pacific? And finally, how are India-China relations being impacted by a deepening partnership between Russia and China?  Episode Contributors Vijay Gokhale is a non-resident senior fellow at Carnegie India. He retired from the Indian Foreign Service in January 2020 after a diplomatic career that spanned thirty-nine years. He has served as both the foreign secretary of India (from January 2018 to January 2020) and as India’s ambassador to China (from January 2016 to October 2017). He has worked extensively on matters relating to the Indo-Pacific region with a special emphasis on Chinese politics and diplomacy. He is the author of Tiananmen Square: The Making of a Protest and The Long Game: How the Chinese Negotiate with India. Srinath Raghavan is a nonresident senior fellow at Carnegie India. His primary research focus is on the contemporary and historical aspects of India’s foreign and security policies. -- 🎙️ Check out our podcast, Interpreting India available now on YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes! Home: https://interpreting-india.simplecast.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeXQMWQXRkJXF71nDiX9LhlXiSkhR8JJT Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/51yeOb8SimMIPe2KgIUQ8g iTunes: https://pcr.apple.com/id1476357131 -- Carnegie India Socials: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnegieindia/ (@CarnegieIndia) Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarnegieIndia Website: https://carnegieindia.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CarnegieIndia/ 

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 policy. Her academic work focuses on macroeconomics, business cycles, financial policy, and regulation. She has been part of a number of Ministry of Finance instituted committees and writes regularly on contemporary economic issues. Suyash Rai is a deputy director and fellow at Carnegie India. His research focuses on the political economy of economic reforms, and the performance of public institutions in India. -- 🎙️ Check out our podcast, Interpreting India available now on  YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes!  Home: https://interpreting-india.simplecast... YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/51yeOb8... iTunes: https://pcr.apple.com/id1476357131 -- Carnegie India Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnegieindia/ (@CarnegieIndia)  Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarnegieIndia Website: https://carnegieindia.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CarnegieIndia/

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 through initiatives like Build Back Better World (B3W) and take further action against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. India, which is caught between its desire to build stronger ties with G7 countries, and its old friend, Russia accepted Germany’s invitation and attended the summit. In this episode of Interpreting India, Sachin Chaturvedi joins Deep Pal to analyze what India’s G7 invite signifies amid a contentious geopolitical environment. How do the G7 countries perceive India? How can India partner with the G7 in achieving climate neutrality and green transition? What are the key takeaways of India’s participation in the Summit, and what relevance does this hold for India’s G20 presidency in 2023? Episode Contributors Sachin Chaturvedi is Director General at the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), a New Delhi-based policy research institute. He is also Member, Board of Governors, Reserve Bank of India. He was a Global Justice Fellow at the MacMillan Center for International Affairs at Yale University. He works on issues related to development economics, involving development finance, Sustainable Development Goals and South-South Cooperation.  Deep Pal is a visiting scholar in the Asia program at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His research and publications focus on the Indo-Pacific, Indian foreign policy in its immediate and greater neighborhood, and regional security of South Asia, with particular emphasis on China. -- 🎙️ Check out our podcast, Interpreting India available now on  YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes!  Home: https://interpreting-india.simplecast... YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/51yeOb8... iTunes: https://pcr.apple.com/id1476357131 -- Carnegie India Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnegieindia/ (@CarnegieIndia)  Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarnegieIndia Website: https://carnegieindia.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CarnegieIndia/  

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 agricultural markets and commodity derivative markets tend to react to such moves? In this episode of Interpreting India, Harsh Vardhan joins Anirudh Burman to help unpack these issues pertaining to India's commodity markets. Episode Contributors Harsh Vardhan is a Senior Advisor with leading international management consulting firm Bain & Company. He has over 30 years of experience in the financial services sector and is actively involved in policymaking related to financial sector in India. He chaired the Committee on the Development of Securitisation for Housing Finance appointed by the RBI in2019. Recently he was a member of the Cross Border Insolvency Rules of Regulations Committee (CBIRC) of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. He is an Independent Director on the board of Karur Vysya Bank and National Commodities Clearing Ltd and chairs the Risk Management Committees of the board for both. Anirudh Burman is an associate research director and fellow at Carnegie India. He works on key issues relating to public institutions, public administration, the administrative and regulatory state, and state capacity. -- Additional Reading Did SEBI's Ban on Agri-Futures Work? by Harsh Vardhan and Bhargavi Zaveri-Shah The Ban on Agri Commodities Future is Weak in Law and Economics by Bhargavi Zaveri-Shah and Harsh Vardhan -- 🎙️ Check out our podcast, Interpreting India available now on  YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes!  Home: https://interpreting-india.simplecast... YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/51yeOb8... iTunes: https://pcr.apple.com/id1476357131 -- Carnegie India Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnegieindia/ (@CarnegieIndia)  Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarnegieIndia Website: https://carnegieindia.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CarnegieIndia/

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 April, people took to the streets of Colombo in protest. Much of the popular anger for the economic crisis has been directed at the country’s president.  Why did Sri Lanka default on its debt? Were the signs of misgovernance visible long before the crisis struck? What political cost does it impose on the people?  In this episode of Interpreting India, Meera Srinivasan joins Shibani Mehta to look at this crisis, Sri Lanka’s worst since it gained independence in 1948.  -- Episode Contributors Meera Srinivasan is the Sri Lanka correspondent of The Hindu and she also covers the Maldives. She has written extensively on the post-war challenges of Sri Lanka. As a resident correspondent for The Hindu, she covered key elections in 2015, 2019 and 2020 along with the Easter Terror Bombings of 2019.   Shibani Mehta is a research analyst with the Security Studies Program at Carnegie India. Her research focuses on India’s security and foreign policies. She has a keen interest in understanding foreign policy decision-making and the role of institutions and personalities in diplomacy. -- Additional Reading Sri Lanka's Aggravating Economic Crisis by Meera Srinivasan Polarization, Civil War, and Persistent Majoritarianism in Sri Lanka by Ahilan Kadirgamar -- 🎙️ Check out our podcast, Interpreting India available now on  YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes!  Home: https://interpreting-india.simplecast... YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/51yeOb8... iTunes: https://pcr.apple.com/id1476357131 -- Carnegie India Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnegieindia/ (@CarnegieIndia)  Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarnegieIndia Website: https://carnegieindia.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CarnegieIndia/

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 private sector into the Indian Space story, over the last few years, the Indian government has introduced a wide range of reforms in the Indian Space sector. In this episode of Interpreting India, we will take a closer look at India’s space sector and its key developments. What are these space reforms everyone speaks of? How close are we to seeing the next SpaceX of Indian origin? What is on the wish list for private space companies in India? -- Episode Contributors Narayan Prasad Nagendra is a co-founder at satsearch.co, a global marketplace for space with a mission to consolidate the global space industry supply chain. He also serves as a partner to the  SpacePark Kerala, a Government of Kerala initiative to develop a space-economic hub in India. He founded his first company Dhruva Space in 2012, a NewSpace company based out of Bengaluru, India with a vision to lead the privatization of the spacecraft industry in India. Konark Bhandari is an associate fellow with Carnegie India. He is a lawyer who has researched on certain areas in the digital economy, focusing primarily on approaches to antitrust regulation of companies in the digital realm.  -- Additional Reading Space India 2.0: Commerce, Policy, Security, and Governance Perspectives by Rajeshwari Pillai Rajagoplan and Narayan Prasad Nagendra Small Satellites for India’s Security: A Techno-Entrepreneurial View by Narayan Prasad Nagendra  What India’s Budget Needs to Do to Move Its Space Program Forward by Konark Bhandari The War in Ukraine and its Implications on India’s Space Program by Konark Bhandari -- 🎙️ Check out our podcast, Interpreting India available now on  YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes!  Home: https://interpreting-india.simplecast... YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/51yeOb8... iTunes: https://pcr.apple.com/id1476357131 -- Carnegie India Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnegieindia/ (@CarnegieIndia)  Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarnegieIndia Website: https://carnegieindia.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CarnegieIndia/

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 history of the beginnings of nuclear research and education tell us about India’s political ambitions? How did collaborations take place between philanthropists and scientists in early and mid-20th century India? Does popular media and culture influence the relationship between the scholar and the public? --  Episode Contributors  Jahnavi Phalkey is a historian of science and technology. She is the author of ‘Atomic State: Big Science in Twentieth Century India’ (2013) and is the Founding Director, Science Gallery Bengaluru. In 2020, she produced and directed the documentary film Cyclotron. Twitter: @JahnaviPhalkey Shibani Mehta  is a research analyst with the Security Studies Program at Carnegie India. Her research focuses on India’s security and foreign policies. Twitter: @mehtasaurus -- 🎙️ Check out our podcast, Interpreting India available now on  YouTube, Spotify, and iTunes!  Home: https://interpreting-india.simplecast... YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/51yeOb8... iTunes: https://pcr.apple.com/id1476357131 -- Carnegie India Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnegieindia/ (@CarnegieIndia)  Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarnegieIndia Website: https://carnegieindia.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CarnegieIndia/