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 distribution in India. They discuss the dominant modes...
PuliyaBaazi
Fortnightly podcast hosted by Pranay Kotasthane & Saurabh Chandra. Out every alternate Tuesday.
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 commonly held notions that have constrained India’s...
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 में तीन मुख़्तलिफ़ मुद्दों पर #By2 पुलियाबाज़ी। एक...
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 पत्रकार, लेखक, और विचारक चंद्रभान प्रसाद (@cbhanp) से...
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 radically networked societies are challenging the State...
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 सच्ची झूठी कहानियाँ बनाई जा सकती हैं। इसीलिए डेटा...
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 of messaging platforms is a way out of...
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 Constitution: The Everyday Life of Law in the Indian...
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 फिर कृषि क्षेत्र और लगातार चल रहे कृषि आंदोलन पर...
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 Bagchi, Diplomatic Editor at Times of India, takes...
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 कहानियाँ बुन रहा है – भले ही उसका तथ्य से...
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 समृद्धि लाने में सक्षम है? इसी विषय पर ये पुलियाबाज़ी...
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 nationalisation phase of 1969. In this episode, we find out...
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 things. Rohit, together with Rahul Verma...
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 India. Amol also runs Mostly Economics, one of...
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 Gen (Dr) Prakash Menon to discuss jointness in...
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 account. १८५७ की लड़ाई से हर भारतीय कुछ हद तक...
[iframe src=’; width=’100%’ height=’304′ frameborder=’0′ scrolling=’no’ allow=’autoplay’] 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...
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 पुलियाबाज़ी की जुबां पर | अभिषेक अवतंस (@avtansa)...
[iframe src=’; width=’100%’ height=’304′ frameborder=’0′ scrolling=’no’ allow=’autoplay’] 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...