This week we dive into the history of how India’s ties with Israel have evolved over time. What has been India’s stance on the Israel-Palestine issue? How has diplomatic ties with Israel strengthened over time? And some observations from Pranay’s Israel visit.

How too much government is curtailing the rights of Indians? Is there enough transparency and oversight over the functioning of India’s institutions? This week on Puliyabaazi, join us over an insightful conversation with author Subhashish Bhadra on his book Caged Tiger.

This week, a delightful conversation with writer-illustrator Nikhil Gulati aka Oddball Comics, who takes us through the many fascinating aspects of the Indus Valley Civilization through his graphic novel ‘The People of the Indus’.

This week’s Puliyabaazi on a much requested topic-Bhakti movement with Amit Basole. Amit is a faculty of Economics with Azim Premji University. He is also keenly interested in poetry and has been analysing the works of Bhakti poets in his podcast series Bhakti Republic. Listen in as he shares insights from the life and works of bhakti poets.

This week on Puliyabaazi, we discuss some radical ideas that try to solve some of the weaknesses of current market models. What are these radical market models? What is the problem they are trying to solve? Are they feasible? Join us on this thought exercise.

Despite the Supreme Court verdict in 2018, the Kaveri water sharing dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu has remained unresolved. As India continues to grow and its water needs increase, we need a new approach that can enable efficient use of water and also incentivize water conservation. This week on Puliyabaazi, we discuss one such novel approach. Listen in.

This week we try to decode India-China relations with Vijay Gokhale, who has served as India’s Foreign Secretary and also as India’s Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China. He has closely studied Chinese politics over the course of his long career as a diplomat, and has authored three books on China. In this conversation, we discuss China’s outlook towards India, how their politics is fundamentally different from ours, and how India should negotiate with China. Join us.

Can the success of government backed space programmers be replicated in other technology sectors like AI or semiconductor manufacturing?

This week on Puliyabaazi we discuss the viability of the new India-Middle East-Europe corridor. What are the benefits of this route? What are the risks? We discuss this and more  with Aditya Ramanathan, a Research Fellow heading the Advanced Military Technologies Programme at the Takshashila Institution.

The 16th Finance Commission is expected to be set up by November. So, this week on Puliyabaazi we discuss how vertical and horizontal devolution is decided based on the formula set by the Finance Commission, why some redistribution is inevitable, and Pranay’s three ideas to incentivize better fiscal performance in the states.

This week on Puliyabaazi, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, former Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of India, shares an insider account of the 1991 economic reforms. We discuss the policies in the 80s, the political and economic thinking in those days, and the famous M Document. Listen to this insightful conversation with one of India's top economic policymakers for three decades.

For the 200th episode of Puliyabaazi, we discuss the state of India’s democracy with one of the most prominent public intellectuals of our times, Pratap Bhanu Mehta. Is India truly an outlier? What are the root causes of the political and social changes we are witnessing today? How do we look at the issue of the Uniform Civil Code? We discussed many such questions that puzzle us with Dr. Mehta in this thought-provoking Puliyabaazi. Do listen in and share your thoughts and comments with us.

From the fall of Tipu to the times of Krishnaraja Wodeyar to independence in 1947, what was the state of the princely state of Mysore? We hear the fascinating history of one of the well administered princely states in colonial India from Siddharth Raja, a lawyer and a historian, who narrates it with ease. Listen in.

In the week of India’s 77th Independence Day, we revisit the Azaadi ki Raah series where we explore ideas to understand how India was shaping up from the 1800 to the times leading to our independence. In this episode, we discuss the unfair trade policies in the 19th century that led to the Swadeshi movement, an idea that remains entrenched in India’s trade policy even today.

Is dependence on other countries for natural resources always a sign of vulnerability? Is self-reliance for natural resources or goods a fair justification for introducing licences? What lessons can we learn from the EU successfully navigating the threat of fuel shortage from Russia?

This week, we have a technical Puliyabaazi on the topic of Applied Photonics with our guest Sonali Dasgupta who is a career research scientist and a science communicator. We discuss what’s new and upcoming in the field of photonics, the state of the research ecosystem in India and how to create more opportunities in fundamental research in India. We learnt a lot of new things from this conversation and we hope that you will also find it enriching. Do listen in and share your thoughts with us.

This week, we go beyond isomorphic mimicry and try to understand the “Why” behind the copycat policymaking. We try to understand how complex systems work and why we should approach policymaking with a lot of humility. Do listen in.

On Puliyabaazi, we have hosted many conversations with economists, but this week we talked to an economist about economics itself. Join in to this puliyabaazi with a wonderful teacher of economics and blogger Ashish Kulkarni on why we should study economics, what are its limitations, what tools can be used to bring alive economics for students, and much more.

This week on Puliyabaazi, we share our notes and observations from our travels from the US to Thailand to Kenya.

China has recently launched the Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative and Global Civilization Initiative. What are China’s objectives with these programmes and how should they be interpreted by the world? To understand this, we speak to Manoj Kewalramani, who is Fellow-China Studies and the Chairperson of the Indo-Pacific Studies Programme at the Takshashila Institution.

The women in India’s Constituent Assembly had played an important role in shaping our Constitution. However, their contribution has often been ignored or forgotten over the years. This Puliyabaazi is our attempt to remember them and understand the role that they had played in framing our Constitution. On this week’s Puliyabaazi, we talk to Prof. Achyut Chetan who has extensively researched this topic for his book ‘Founding Mothers of the Indian Republic’. Do listen to this very important...

In this episode, we talk about the story of how the Himalayan task of taking accurate measurements of India across its length and breadth was conducted by the Survey of India. The project, which was of great scientific importance in its times, attempted to study the shape of the earth and made it possible to accurately calculate the heights of the Himalayan giants.

Maintaining internal security and law & order is the core responsibility of the state. How has the Indian state approached this objective? How has India’s state capacity matured in tackling internal security challenges? This week on Puliyabaazi, two brilliant political scientists Devesh Kapur and Amit Ahuja join us to discuss their book ‘Internal Security in India - Violence, Order and the State’. We found this to be a very insightful conversation. Do listen in.

We often hear complaints that the Indian Constitution was written by a few elite politicians who were disconnected from the realities of Indian society. Was the Indian Constitution written by the elite? Is it an elitist document? Listen to our Puliyabaazi on this topic.

इस हफ़्ते नयी संसद बिल्डिंग के उद्धघाटन के अवसर पर हम बात करते है कि हमारी संसद की कार्यप्रणाली को बेहतर कैसे किया जाए? इस विषय पर पुलियाबाज़ी पर हमारे साथ जुड़े PRS लेजिस्लेटिव रिसर्च के को -फाउंडर M R Madhavan