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.
53episodes
Episodes
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The Iran Brief: Beyond the Ayatollahs
5d ago00:37:04Tap to summarizeHow much do we really understand about one of the world's most scrutinised, and possibly the most misread political systems? In this episode, Aishwaria Sonavane, Research Analyst, Geostrategy Programme, sits down with Raja Karthikeya, former Political Affairs Officer at the UN Secretariat and drafter of the Security Council's official historical record on the nuclear programme debates, to understand the internal dynamics of this regime. From the layered realities of public sentiment and factional elite competition, to the IRGC's sprawling economic empire and the unintended consequences of decades of sanctions, Raja helps us understand how power actually works in Tehran, and why the "regime on the brink" narrative keeps getting the story wrong.Are you passionate about shaping India's future? Keen to find solutions for India's most pressing challenges? Look no further than Takshashila's Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy. This 48-weekend programme will equip you with the knowledge, skills, and network needed to pivot to a meaningful career in public policy. Apply at school.takshashila.org.in/pgp by June 1st. The programme begins by June 20th. Hope to see you there!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 Iran Brief: Drone Warfare and The Shahed
1w ago00:36:25Tap to summarizeToday, drones have become front and centre in modern warfare. Despite having lost much of its military infrastructure to the war in West Asia, Iran has managed to utilise missiles and cost-effective drones such as the Shahed to carry out its own air campaign in retaliation for American and Israeli strikes. Anushka Saxena explains how Iran managed to produce and utilise low-cost drones such as the Shahed amid global sanctions, in this conversation with Adya Madhavan.Are you passionate about shaping India's future? Keen to find solutions for India's most pressing challenges? Look no further than Takshashila's Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy. This 48-weekend programme will equip you with the knowledge, skills, and network needed to pivot to a meaningful career in public policy. Apply at school.takshashila.org.in/pgp by June 1st. The programme begins by June 20th. Hope to see you there!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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Why India's DISCOMs Are Trapped in a Doom Spiral
1w ago00:26:40Tap to summarizePower cuts have become so routine that we've stopped noticing them. But this normalisation of unreliability has a cost — and it's a cost that shows up not on your electricity bill, but in your diesel expenses, your inverter battery, and your lost productive hours. But why is our electricity so unreliable?In this episode of All Things Policy, Anwesha Sen speaks to Sarthak Pradhan, Assistant Professor at the Takshashila Institution, about the reasons for this unreliability and what it would take to fix it. Sarthak has recently written about this in The Print as well, do check it out! - https://theprint.in/opinion/power-distribution-indias-energy-vulnerability-discoms/2910774/Are you passionate about shaping India's future? Keen to find solutions for India's most pressing challenges? Look no further than Takshashila's Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy. This 48-weekend programme will equip you with the knowledge, skills, and network needed to pivot to a meaningful career in public policy. Apply at school.takshashila.org.in/pgp by June 1st. The programme begins by June 20th. Hope to see you there!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 Iran Brief: US Blockade as a Leverage
1w ago00:23:22Tap to summarizeSix weeks of US-Israel strikes on Iran destroyed infrastructure, eliminated leadership, and degraded Iran's missile arsenal. Yet when peace talks in Islamabad collapsed in April, the US still lacked the leverage to bring Iran to the table on its terms. Enter the naval blockade of Iranian ports. In this episode, host Kavya Rai speaks with Abhishek Kadiyala, Research Analyst at the Takshashila Institution's Geostrategy Programme, about why the Strait of Hormuz has become Trump's most powerful card against Iran, how the blockade is reshaping the economics of the conflict, and whether maximum pressure can actually deliver a deal.Are you passionate about shaping India's future? Keen to find solutions for India's most pressing challenges? Look no further than Takshashila's Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy. This 48-weekend programme will equip you with the knowledge, skills, and network needed to pivot to a meaningful career in public policy. Apply at school.takshashila.org.in/pgp by June 1st. The programme begins by June 20th. Hope to see you there!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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Across the Strait: KMT-CPC Ties and the Future of Taiwan
2w ago00:34:11Tap to summarizeThe recent meeting between Taiwanese Kuomintang party Chairwoman Cheng Li-Wun and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing marked a new effort between the two sides to renew ties and talk about the future of Taiwan. But what were the signals from the meeting speaking to China’s view of KMT’s role? How is KMT placed politically within Taiwan to be able to effect change? Finally, how does the Taiwanese public view the KMT and the DPP’s China policies?In this episode of All Things Policy, Anushka Saxena quizzes Dr. Roger Liu of the National Sun Yat Sen University to find answers to these crucial questions. Dr. Liu highlights how the failure of the Great Recall in 2025 displayed the stabilising nature of the Taiwanese voter base, and suggested that for any meaningful cross-Strait reconciliation to happen, China’s trajectory may have to change towards democracy.Are you passionate about shaping India's future? Keen to find solutions for India's most pressing challenges? Look no further than Takshashila's Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy. This 48-weekend programme will equip you with the knowledge, skills, and network needed to pivot to a meaningful career in public policy. Apply at school.takshashila.org.in/pgp by June 1st. The programme begins by June 20th. Hope to see you there!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 Iran Brief: Impact on the Indian Economy
2w ago00:27:12Tap to summarizeIn this episode of All Things Policy, Bhumika Sevkani and Anisree Suresh examine the impact of the war in Iran on the Indian economy, tracing how the conflict is transmitting through India's energy, currency, fiscal, and labour markets, and what the cost of a prolonged conflict in the region would be.Are you passionate about shaping India's future? Keen to find solutions for India's most pressing challenges? Look no further than Takshashila's Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy. This 48-weekend programme will equip you with the knowledge, skills, and network needed to pivot to a meaningful career in public policy. Apply at school.takshashila.org.in/pgp by June 1st. The programme begins by June 20th. Hope to see you there!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 Iran Brief: Airpower Paradox
2w ago00:52:10Tap to summarizeIn this episode of All Things Policy, Brigadier Anil Raman and Air Marshal T.D. Joseph are joined by Dr. Kelly Grieco, Senior Fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington D.C., to assess whether U.S. air operations in the Iran conflict constitute a coherent theory of limited war. Drawing on Thomas Schelling's coercion framework, the episode asks whether air power alone can compel a regime fighting for survival to yield. Dr. Grieco argues that the initial U.S. aim of regime change through aerial decapitation collapsed within 72 hours, giving way to intermediate military objectives targeting Iran's Navy, ballistic missiles, and drones with no defined political end state. Iran's war of disruption -- Strait of Hormuz closures and drone attacks on Gulf states hosting U.S. forces -- has proven more strategically decisive than the American-Israeli war of destruction. Air Marshal Joseph identifies U.S. casualty aversion and the sidelining of joint operations as structural limits that Iran, fighting for regime survival, has fully exploited. The episode surfaces a pattern repeated from Vietnam to Iraq: tactical air dominance that cannot convert into strategic leverage. As China draws lessons from U.S. base vulnerabilities and low-altitude air denial over the Strait, the episode asks whether American over-reliance on air primacy now actively undermines deterrence in the Indo-Pacific.Are you passionate about shaping India's future? Keen to find solutions for India's most pressing challenges? Look no further than Takshashila's Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy. This 48-weekend programme will equip you with the knowledge, skills, and network needed to pivot to a meaningful career in public policy. Apply at school.takshashila.org.in/pgp by June 1st. The programme begins by June 20th. Hope to see you there!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 Iran Brief: US Congress and Trump
3w ago00:47:02Tap to summarizeIn this episode of the All Things Policy podcast, Abhishek Kadiyala and Brigadier Anil Raman speak with Soren Dayton about why the U.S. Congress has repeatedly failed to restrain President Donald Trump's military operations against Iran, even as the 60-day clock under the War Powers Resolution of 1973 continues to tick. The conversation examines the structural weaknesses of the War Powers Resolution and how it has failed to keep pace with shifts in military technology, constitutional interpretation, and geopolitical reality. Tracing legislative precedents from President Harry Truman's Korea to President Barack Obama's Libya intervention in 2011, the episode maps how successive administrations have exploited legal grey zones, with the Trump administration going further by filing only classified War Powers reports. Despite warnings from Republican Senators John Curtis and Mike Rounds about the 60-day limit, the episode argues that the real obstacle is political will, not legal ambiguity. The episode ultimately asks whether the War Powers Resolution has become less a constraint on executive power and more a permission slip for it, and what a genuinely reformed version of the law would need to look like.Are you passionate about shaping India's future? Keen to find solutions for India's most pressing challenges? Look no further than Takshashila's Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy. This 48-weekend programme will equip you with the knowledge, skills, and network needed to pivot to a meaningful career in public policy. Apply at school.takshashila.org.in/pgp by June 1st. The programme begins by June 20th. Hope to see you there!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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India’s Critical Minerals Challenge
3w ago00:36:16Tap to summarizeThe global conversation on power is evolving, from energy security to supply chain resilience, and now to the minerals that underpin modern technology.Despite significant geological potential, India remains a marginal player in global rare earth production. The gap between what exists and what is extracted raises deeper questions.In this episode, Shobhankita Reddy and Shreya Ramakrishnan of the Takshashila Institution examine the biggest barriers in India’s rare earth and critical minerals ecosystem, and trace the historical forces that have shaped the policies, incentives, and mining systems we see today.Read more: https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2026/Feb/04/why-indias-vast-monazite-resources-should-be-opened-to-private-sector-mininghttps://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/critical-minerals-pax-silica-donald-trump-10482197/Are you passionate about shaping India's future? Keen to find solutions for India's most pressing challenges? Look no further than Takshashila's Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy. This 48-weekend programme will equip you with the knowledge, skills, and network needed to pivot to a meaningful career in public policy. Apply at school.takshashila.org.in/pgp by June 1st. The programme begins by June 20th. Hope to see you there!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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Inside China’s Energy Fortress
3w ago00:21:25Tap to summarizeChina's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030), formalised, inter alia, its "dual-track" energy strategy investing in coal and renewable energy in tandem. How does this approach sit within the country's current energy security landscape? How has the diversification of supply played into China's energy needs and how prepared is China to manage the energy implications of the war in West Asia? To unpack all this and more, join Kripa Koshy (Staff Programme Manager) in conversation with Bhumika Sevkani (Research Analyst, Geostrategy Team).Are you passionate about shaping India's future? Keen to find solutions for India's most pressing challenges? Look no further than Takshashila's Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy. This 48-weekend programme will equip you with the knowledge, skills, and network needed to pivot to a meaningful career in public policy. Apply at school.takshashila.org.in/pgp by June 1st. The programme begins by June 20th. Hope to see you there!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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