Podcast
All Things Policy
Hosted by Takshashila Institution · EN
Ever wondered how automation will change the world? Maybe you puzzle over what India could do to ease traffic congestion, or how China's aircraft carriers will transform Indian Ocean geopolitics? All Things Policy, a daily podcast brought to you by the Takshashila Institution, brings you all the answers. Every weekday, our researchers break down complex economic and geopolitical ideas through the lens of current events. For everyone from the busy executive to the curious student, All Things Policy is all you'll need to understand the world (and appreciate your breakfast) better.
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Episodes
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Geospatial Intelligence for Disaster Resilience
3d ago00:32:24Tap to summarizeIndia experiences a cycle of disasters throughout the year—from scorching heatwaves and droughts to floods, landslides, cyclones, and glacial hazards. Can technology help us anticipate these risks before they become catastrophes? In this episode of All Things Policy, Kavya Rai speaks with Prof. Y. Nithiyanandam about how satellites, GIS, remote sensing, and geospatial intelligence are reshaping disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. The discussion explores why disasters are fundamentally spatial challenges and how India can build a more proactive, data-driven disaster management system for a changing climate.All Things Policy is a daily podcast on public policy brought to you by the Takshashila Institution, Bengaluru.Find out more on our research and other work here: https://takshashila.org.in/research-areasCheck out our public policy courses here: https://school.takshashila.org.in
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The Indian Radius: Endurance of the Indo-Pacific
4d ago00:36:27Tap to summarizeJuly has been an exceptionally busy month for Indian diplomacy. PM Modi embarked on a three-nation tour of Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, NATO leaders gathered for their annual summit. Join Vanshika Saraf and Amit Kumar as they assess each of these meetings and their importance. They also explore the growing—yet often incomplete—alignment between India’s economic and foreign policies.Check out the China Coercion Tracker (amitkumar-ak.com/china-coercion-tracker/mindmap.html). It offers a risk-exposure assessment and a comprehensive mindmap of China’s economic statecraft. Also, read the latest issue brief (takshashila.org.in/content/publications/20260709-China-Japan-Escalation.html) on the drivers, responses and implications of the recent escalatory spiral between China and Japan.All Things Policy is a daily podcast on public policy brought to you by the Takshashila Institution, Bengaluru.Find out more on our research and other work here: https://takshashila.org.in/research-areasCheck out our public policy courses here: https://school.takshashila.org.in
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Disruption in the Global Economic Order — Bretton Woods No More
1w ago01:29:54Tap to summarizeFor eighty years, a single architecture has run the global economy with important institutions at the helm, including the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO, and the US dollar at the centre of it all. Today, that architecture is under more strain than at any point in living memory: tariff walls are rising, finance is being turned into a weapon, and supply chains are being torn up and re-stitched along the lines of who trusts whom. The fashionable verdict is that the post-war order is rupturing. Is it? In this opening episode of Turbulence, Anupam Manur is joined by Narayan Ramachandran, who isn't entirely convinced by this framing. The order isn't rupturing, he argues; it's being impeded, selectively slowed and re-routed rather than dismantled, and renegotiated into something more multipolar and higher-friction. The conversation separates what's genuinely eroding from what's merely noise, asks what the next world order will look like, and weighs where India stands in the great churn.
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Beyond Talks or No Talks: Rethinking India-Pakistan Engagement
1w ago00:24:26Tap to summarizeKavya Rai sits down with Aishwaria Sonavane (Pakistan Studies) and Raja Karthikeya (West Asia Studies, UN peace mediation veteran) to unpack why India's Pakistan policy has stayed more consistent than it gets credit for, why the current diplomatic freeze runs deeper than past standoffs, and why grand gestures keep failing while quiet back-channels persist. All Things Policy is a daily podcast on public policy brought to you by the Takshashila Institution, Bengaluru.Find out more on our research and other work here: https://takshashila.org.in/research-areasCheck out our public policy courses here: https://school.takshashila.org.in
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The Trap of Unenforceable Rights
1w ago00:37:27Tap to summarizeThe Supreme Court's recent recognition of the right to walk as a fundamental right has been celebrated as a landmark victory for pedestrians in India. In this episode of All Things Policy, Sowmya Prabhakar and Shreya Ramakrishnan examine the current state of India's footpaths, the competing interests and governance challenges that shape them, and the gap between constitutional ideals and administrative reality. They argue that creating new fundamental rights without building the institutional capacity to enforce them can unintentionally expand the discretionary power of local-level bureaucrats, leading to harassment of vendors, rent-seeking, and inter-agency gridlock rather than safer, more walkable cities. The conversation explores why the real solution lies not in judicial declarations alone, but in strengthening municipal institutions, realigning incentives, and designing infrastructure that makes good outcomes easier to achieve.All Things Policy is a daily podcast on public policy brought to you by the Takshashila Institution, Bengaluru.Find out more on our research and other work here: https://takshashila.org.in/research-areasCheck out our public policy courses here: https://school.takshashila.org.in
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When Companies Go to War
1w ago00:27:53Tap to summarizeWars were once fought with hardware that governments owned. Today, some of the most vital assets in warfighting belong to private companies. Ashwin Prasad Rao and Abhishek Kadiyala discuss how militaries are drafting commerce into war and what that means for the companies, the battlefield, and India.Explore the strategic side of space with Takshashila's Expert Capsule Course on Space Power: https://takshashila.org.in/pages/policy-school/ecc-space-power.htmlAll Things Policy is a daily podcast on public policy brought to you by the Takshashila Institution, Bengaluru.Find out more on our research and other work here: https://takshashila.org.in/research-areasCheck out our public policy courses here: https://school.takshashila.org.in
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The Indian Radius: Flowers are Blooming
2w ago00:28:25Tap to summarizeIn this episode of All Things Policy, titled "Flowers are Blooming" - a phrase dating back to a discreet, bloodless Indian naval operation in the Seychelles that marked an early milestone in India’s role as a regional security provider - Vanshika Saraf and Anisree Suresh delve deep into India’s strategic relationships blossoming across the globe. Together, they critically analyse the latest highlights of New Delhi’s foreign policy and unpack major diplomatic manoeuvres in the neighbourhood and beyond. To read more about this, visit - https://theindianradius.substack.com/p/flowers-are-bloomingAll Things Policy is a daily podcast on public policy brought to you by the Takshashila Institution, Bengaluru.Find out more on our research and other work here: https://takshashila.org.in/research-areasCheck out our public policy courses here: https://school.takshashila.org.in
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The On/Off Switch for Frontier AI
2w ago00:32:39Tap to summarizeIn June 2026, two of the world's most powerful AI models were pulled off the shelf by government directive and then switched back on two weeks later, just as abruptly. In this episode, Shobhankita Reddy and Bharath Reddy discuss what the Fable 5 saga reveals about how Washington and Beijing actually think about artificial intelligence. Recommended readings:https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/on-ai-the-us-and-china-have-an-outdated-arms-race-mindset-10750886/https://hightechir.substack.com/p/163-a-voluntary-licensing-frameworkAll Things Policy is a daily podcast on public policy brought to you by the Takshashila Institution, Bengaluru.Find out more on our research and other work here: https://takshashila.org.in/research-areasCheck out our public policy courses here: https://school.takshashila.org.in
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The Advance of China's Arms
2w ago00:44:06Tap to summarizeBeijing’s rise as a major arms exporter and the internal and external deficiencies in its arms trade engagements present the paradox at the heart of China's military-industrial statecraft. In this episode of 'All Things Policy', Bhumika Sevkani quizzes Anushka Saxena on how China got catapulted to the position of the 5th largest arms exporter in the world, how well its weapons have worked across conflict and training theatres, and what the future trajectory of its military-industrial ties with Pakistan, as well as the rest of its clients, looks like.Read Anushka's latest paper, 'Weapons "Made in China": Foolproof or in Muddy Waters?', here: https://takshashila.org.in/content/publications/ChinaArms-20062026.html.All Things Policy is a daily podcast on public policy brought to you by the Takshashila Institution, Bengaluru.Find out more on our research and other work here: https://takshashila.org.in/research-areasCheck out our public policy courses here: https://school.takshashila.org.in
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Energy Realism for India
2w ago00:27:29Tap to summarizeAmidst the escalating conflict in West Asia and the resulting constriction of oil and gas supply, the urgency to deploy renewable energy for enhanced energy security has grown. However, emerging economies like India must adopt a pragmatic approach to reconcile their increasing energy demands with their decarbonisation commitments.Join Bhumika Sevkani, Research Analyst with the Geostrategy Programme, and Shambhavi Naik, Chairperson of the Advanced Biology Programme at Takshashila, as they discuss the potential of renewables to offer economies resilience against energy supply shocks.All Things Policy is a daily podcast on public policy brought to you by the Takshashila Institution, Bengaluru.Find out more on our research and other work here: https://takshashila.org.in/research-areasCheck out our public policy courses here: https://school.takshashila.org.in
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