Podcasts about Doklam

India's leadership story is a fascinating journey full of lessons for anyone looking to make an impact.In just two years, opening up the space economy has led to over 100 new startups in aerospace, sparking innovation and fueling the dreams of a new generation of changemakers.And it doesn't stop there—India is heavily investing in future-focused areas like green hydrogen, quantum computing, and the blue economy, showing a clear vision for industries that will define tomorrow.Drawing from its rich heritage, India blends ancient wisdom with modern governance.Texts like the Arthashastra guide policies that empower people and prioritize collective welfare.Initiatives like Aadhaar and participatory governance models reflect these principles in action, bringing millions into the financial mainstream and fostering inclusive growth.Experts believe India's leadership also addresses the need for decolonization—not just in reclaiming cultural pride, but in rediscovering its intellectual confidence.This leadership model, rooted in inclusivity, resilience, and innovation, is steering India into a brighter future. In this episode of The NEON Show, Dr R. Balasubramaniam, author, member of the Capacity Building Commission (Government of Bharat), and Chairperson of the Social Stock Exchange Advisory Committee at SEBI, shares the essence of Indic leadership as explored in his book Power Within.Time stamp00:00 Intro00:12 Dr. Balu's contributions to rural service00:41 Current roles: Capacity Building Commission member & Rhodes Professor00:55 Overview of "Power Within"01:13 Journey: From physician to policymaker02:16 India's traditional wisdom in governance03:08 PM Modi's leadership focus in Balu's analysis05:24 Modi's ethos of service (Seva Bhaav)08:09 Modi's leadership during Morbi tragedy10:06 RSS philosophy: Cultural nationalism & service13:15 Overcoming colonial mindsets to restore pride17:09 Participatory governance: Janbhagidari & Mission Karmayogi23:57 Revamping civil services training26:08 Influence of Ramakrishna Mission's seva philosophy28:01 Panch Pran: Vision for a self-reliant India29:51 Chanakya Niti: Ancient leadership principles34:38 Decisive actions: Doklam, surgical strikes, Pulwama38:14 Challenges in implementing farm laws45:51 Repeal of Article 370: J&K integration50:05 India's balanced foreign policy (Russia-Ukraine, Qatar)52:03 Comparing Modi's leadership to global icons-----Hi, I am your host Siddhartha! I have been an entrepreneur from 2012-2017 building two products AddoDoc and Babygogo. After selling my company to SHEROES, I and my partner Nansi decided to start up again. But we felt unequipped in our skillset in 2018 to build a large company. We had known 0-1 journeys from our startups but lacked the experience of building 1-10 journeys. Hence was born The Neon Show (Earlier 100x Entrepreneur) to learn from founders and investors, the mindset to scale yourself and your company. This quest still keeps us excited even after 5 years and doing 200+ episodes.We welcome you to our journey to understand what goes behind building a super successful company. Every episode is done with a very selfish motive, that I and Nansi should come out as a better entrepreneur and professional after absorbing the learnings.-----Check us out on:Website: https://neon.fund/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneonshoww/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beneon/Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShowwConnect with Siddhartha on:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthaahluwalia/Twitter: https://x.com/siddharthaa7-----This videoSend us a text

In this episode, Kingshuk and Dr. Nithyanandam delve deeply into the most recent events in the Doklam region, as reported in the most recent news article from Takshashila Geospatial Bulletin. Join them as they unravel the complexities surrounding the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and their strategic moves in this critical border area. Do check out Takshashila's public policy courses: https://school.takshashila.org.in/courses We are @‌IVMPodcasts on Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram. https://twitter.com/IVMPodcasts https://www.instagram.com/ivmpodcasts/?hl=en https://www.facebook.com/ivmpodcasts/ You can check out our website at https://shows.ivmpodcasts.com/featured Follow the show across platforms: Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, JioSaavn, Gaana, Amazon Music Do share the word with your folksSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Southasiasphere is our roundup of news events and analysis of regional affairs, now out every two weeks. If you are a member, you will automatically receive links to new episodes in your inbox. If you are not yet a member, you can still get episode links for free by signing up here. In this episode, we talk about the blocking of The Kashmir Walla and the state of media freedom in Kashmir, and the pushback against China's controversial new map plus Bhutan–China boundary talks.  In “Around Southasia in 5 minutes” we talk about caste atrocities in Uttar Pradesh, India's path-breaking lunar and solar missions, the Taliban's ban on women visiting national parks in Afghanistan and the death of the Afghan female YouTuber Hora Sadat, pushback from the Editor's Guild of India against a proposed official fact-checking unit in Karnataka, an increase in HIV/AIDs cases in Sri Lanka, the deletion of acting BNP chairman Tarique Rahman's speeches from social media ahead of Bangladesh's elections, and a controversial Supreme Court judgment on child marriage in Nepal.  For “Bookmarked”, we discuss Don't expect anything, a short film directed by Didier Nusbaumer that led to Myanmar's junta arresting the cast and director for insulting Buddhist monks. Episode notes: The Bajaur bombing, India's ban on rice exports, violence in Haryana and Gurugram and more: https://www.himalmag.com/bajaur-bombing-india-ban-rice-exports-communal-violence-haryana-gurugram-nuh-2023-rahul-gandhi-defamation/ Memories of Galwan Valley: https://www.himalmag.com/memories-of-galwan-valley-2020/ The Doklam dispute, Rahul Gandhi's conviction, repression of journalists in Bangladesh and beyond, and much more: https://www.himalmag.com/doklam-dispute-rahul-gandhi-conviction-repression-of-journalists-bangladesh/ Don't expect anything!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpRm4wZ5i2g

Southasiasphere is our roundup of news events and analysis of regional affairs, now out every two weeks. If you are a member, you will automatically receive links to new episodes in your inbox. If you are not yet a member, you can still get episode links for free by signing up here. In this episode, we talk about the recent suicide bomb attack on a political rally in the Bajaur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and crossborder terrorism between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the impact of India's rice export ban in Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh, and communal violence in Haryana and Gurugram. In “Around Southasia in Five Minutes”, we talk about the suspension of the Indian National Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's defamation conviction, Sri Lanka's ongoing healthcare crisis, the official secrets amendment bill introduced in Pakistan, the burning of musical instruments in Afghanistan, the suspension of Kashmiri journalists' and activists' passports, and the sentencing of the Bangladesh National Party leader Tarique Rahman and his wife Zubaida. For “Bookmarked” we discuss Sarmad Khoosat's Zindagi Tamasha, a Pakistani drama film that was recently released on YouTube due to the director being unable to screen it in Pakistan theatres. Episode notes: Taliban regime under siege, within and without: https://www.himalmag.com/himal-briefs-taliban-regime-under-siege-afghanistan-2022/ The Doklam dispute, Rahul Gandhi's conviction, repression of journalists in Bangladesh and beyond, and much more: https://www.himalmag.com/doklam-dispute-rahul-gandhi-conviction-repression-of-journalists-bangladesh/ Sexual violence in Manipur, protests and repression in Bangladesh, Modi's Paris visit and more: https://www.himalmag.com/sexual-violence-manipur-protests-bangladesh-dhaka-bnp-bypoll-modi-paris-visit-rafale-rohingya-refugees/ Sri Lanka's exodus of healthcare workers: https://www.himalmag.com/sri-lanka-healthcare-governance-workers-migration-economic-crisis/ Bangladesh's BNP fights to make a political comeback: https://www.himalmag.com/bangladesh-nationalist-party-bnp-political-rallies-election/ Zindagi Tamasha: https://youtu.be/xUkJEnHCaos

In this episode, we talk about recent events in the Doklam border dispute in Bhutan, with India and China both involved; an escalation in attacks on journalists in Bangladesh, Kashmir and the Maldives, and the tragic drowning of an Afghan journalist; and the Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi's disqualification as an MP in India, following a recent court conviction for defamation. For “Around Southasia in 5 minutes”, we're talking about the search for the Sikh radical Amritpal Singh in India, a High Court case on sedition law and legislative amendments curbing the Chief Justice's powers in Pakistan, attempts to criminalise predatory lending in Nepal, Sri Lanka receiving the Extended Fund Facility from the IMF and developments in the 2019 Jamia violence case in India. For “Bookmarked”, we talk about Hami kunako manche, a classic Nepali documentary, featured in the first edition of Screen Southasia, our monthly documentary screening in collaboration with Film Southasia. To catch future screenings, please register here. Episode Notes: Yameen's conviction, the Taliban ban on women's education, Kite Tales and more: https://www.himalmag.com/southasiasphere-yameen-conviction-taliban-womens-education-rohingya-crisis-2023/ Embers of a Sikh fire: https://www.himalmag.com/embers-of-a-sikh-fire/ Tamil Sikh: https://www.himalmag.com/tamil-sikh-fragments-of-memory-2022/ Southasia's déjà vu: https://www.himalmag.com/southasias-deja-vu/ Delayed elections in Sri Lanka, tax raids on BBC in India, PTM leader Ali Wazir's release and more: https://www.himalmag.com/tax-raid-bbc-india-delayed-local-government-elections-sri-lanka-ptm-ali-wazir-release/ Sri Lanka's great IMF lie: https://www.himalmag.com/sri-lanka-imf-development-food-insecurity-debt-economic-crisis/ How the IMF bailout is changing Sri Lanka's foreign policy: https://www.himalmag.com/imf-bailout-sri-lanka-china-india-us-foreign-policy/ Hami kunako manche: https://www.shunyatafilm.com/we-corner-people-hami-kunako-manche/ Listen to this episode on Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/WcQQm Spotify: https://spoti.fi/4353shB Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3nPysBW Or Youtube: https://youtu.be/XhCmF-ox3zE

In an interview, Bhutan PM Lotay Tshering has denied  reports over two years of China building villages on their territory. The claim looks benign, but throw in some context — a bilateral meeting this year, an opinion piece in Beijing state media — and a worrying puzzle takes shape. Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta explains in episode 1200 of #CutTheClutter

In this episode, we speak to Air Mshl Anil Khosla, who recently retired as Vice Chief of Air Staff. Besides his experiences as a young officer, we focus on the role he played in the Doklam stand-off (when he was C-in-C Eastern Air Command) and the strike at Balakot (when he was Vice Chief). We also discuss the pros and cons of indigenous vs imported weapons platforms, the future of air war, and the Air Force's talent strategy, among other things.Air Mshl Khosla's profile is here: http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Database/15871His blog can be found here: https://55nda.com/blogs/anil-khosla/00:00:00 Introduction00:01:00 Initial journey into IAF00:13:14 Doklam incident00:16:01 How to deal with China00:19:09 Balakot00:28:46 Maintain a tech edge00:43:46 Future of air war00:53:30 Finding talent for the IAF

Happy Independence Day!- Pranay Kotasthane and RSJThis newsletter can often seem pessimistic about India. That isn’t true, though. Every year, on Independence Day, we remind ourselves and our readers why we write this newsletter. This is how we ended the Independence Day edition of 2020:“What we have achieved so far is precious. That’s worth reminding ourselves today. We will go back to writing future editions lamenting our state of affairs.We will do so because we know it’s worth it.”  This year we thought it would be fun (?) to run through every year since 1947 and ask ourselves what happened in the year that had long-term repercussions for our nation. This kind of thing runs a serious risk. It can get tedious and all too familiar. Most of us know the landmark events of recent history and what they meant for the nation. Maybe. Maybe not. We’ve given an honest try (of over 8000 words) to see if there’s a different way of looking at these familiar events and their impact on us. Here we go.1947 - 1960: Sense Of A Beginning 1947Perhaps the most significant “What, if?” question for independent India surfaced on 17th August 1947 when the Radcliffe Line was announced. The partition of the Indian subcontinent has cast a long shadow. What if it had never happened? What if Nehru-Jinnah-Gandhi were able to strike a modus vivendi within a one-federation framework? These questions surface every year around independence.The indelible human tragedy of the partition aside, would an Akhand Bharat have served its citizens better? We don’t think so. We agree with Ambedkar’s assessment of this question. In Pakistan or the Partition of India, he approaches the question with detachment and realism, concluding that the forces of “communal malaise” had progressed to such an extent that resisting a political division would have led to a civil war, making everyone worse off. The partition must have been handled better without the accompanying humanitarian disaster. But on the whole, the partition was inevitable by 1947.“That the Muslim case for Pakistan is founded on sentiment is far from being a matter of weakness; it is really its strong point. It does not need deep understanding of politics to know that the workability of a constitution is not a matter of theory. It is a matter of sentiment. A constitution, like clothes, must suit as well as please. If a constitution does not please, then however perfect it may be, it will not work. To have a constitution which runs counter to the strong sentiments of a determined section is to court disaster if not to invite rebellion.” [Read the entire book here]1948What if Mahatma Gandhi wasn’t killed that year? How would the course of our history change? Gandhi spoke like an idealist and worked like a realist. He was possibly the most aware of the gap between the lofty ideals of our constitution and the reality of the Indian minds then. He knew the adoption of the constitution was only half the work done. He’d likely have devoted the rest of his life to building a liberal India at the grassroots level. His death pushed a particular stream of right-wing Hindu consciousness underground. We still carry the burden of that unfinished work.1949The Constituent Assembly met for the first time in December 1946. By November 26th 1949, this assembly adopted a constitution for India. Even a half-constructed flyover in Koramangala has taken us five years. For more context, Pakistan’s Constituent Assembly began work on 10th August 1947, and their first constitution came into force in March 1956, only to be abrogated two years later. India’s founding fathers and mothers were acutely aware that they were elite, unelected, and unrepresentative of the median Indian. They dared to imagine a new nation-state while grappling with that period's harsh economic, social, and political realities. Their work should inspire us to strengthen, improve, and rebuild—but never to give up on—the Republic of India.For more, check out the miracle that is India’s Constitution in our Republic Day 2021 special edition.1950We have written about our Constitution a number of times. It is an inspiring and audacious document in its ambition to shape a modern nation. It has its flaws. Some consider it too liberal; others think it makes the State overbearing. Some find it too long; others feel it comes up short. This may all be true. However, there is no doubt our constitution has strengthened our democracy, protected the weak and continues to act as a tool for social change. It is our North Star. And a damn good one at that. 1951Few post-independence institutions have stood the test of time as the Finance Commission (FC), first established in 1951. In federal systems, horizontal and vertical imbalances in revenue generation and expenditure functions are commonplace. Closing the gap requires an impartial institution that is well-regarded by various levels of government and the people. The Finance Commission is that institution.It’s not as if it didn’t face any challenges. As a constitutional body established under article 280 of the Constitution, it was sidelined by an extra-constitutional and powerful Planning Commission until 2014. But we have had 15 FCs in total, and each key tax revenue-sharing recommendation has become government policy.1952Our Constitution adopted a universal adult franchise as the basis for elections. Every citizen was to be part of the democratic project. There was to be no bar on age, sex, caste or education. And this was to be done in one of the most unequal societies in the world. The ambition was breathtaking. To put this in context, women were allowed to vote in Switzerland only in 1971. Not only did we aim for this, but we also moved heaven and earth to achieve it in 1952. In his book India After Gandhi, Ram Guha describes the efforts of the government officials led by the first Election Commissioner, Sukumar Sen, to reach the last man or woman for their ballot. The elites may lament vote bank politics or cash for votes scams and question the wisdom of universal franchise. But we shouldn’t have had it any other way. And, for the record, our people have voted with remarkable sophistication in our short independent history. 1953 For a new nation-state, the Republic of India punched above its weight in bringing hostilities on the Korean peninsula to an end. Not only did the Indian government’s work shape the Armistice Agreement, but it also chaired a Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission (NNRC) that was set up to decide the future of nearly 20,000 prisoners of war from both sides. This experience during the Cold War strengthened India’s advocacy of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).  1954Article 25 guaranteed the freedom of conscience and the freedom to profess, practice, and propagate religion to all citizens. But how does one define a religious practice? And can a practice under the garb of religion breach the boundary of individual rights or public morality? This is a familiar conflict zone in secular States and would inevitably show up in India because everything in India can be construed as a religious practice. Like Ambedkar said during the constituent assembly debates:“The religious conceptions in this country are so vast that they cover every aspect of life from birth to death…there is nothing extraordinary in saying that we ought to strive hereafter to limit the definition of religion in such a manner that we shall not extend it beyond beliefs and such rituals as may be connected with ceremonials which are essentially religious..."In 1954, the Supreme Court gave a landmark judgment on what constitutes a religious practice in what’s known as the Shirur Math case. It held that the term religion would cover all practices integral to that religion. Further, the Court will determine what practice will be deemed essential with reference to doctrines within that religion itself.This test of ‘essentiality’ in religion has kept the public, the legislature and the courts busy since (entry of women in Sabarimala, headscarf in Islam, to name two). The outcome has bent towards individual liberty in most contexts, but the ambiguity in the definition of essential means it could go the other way too.1955Another wild "What, if” moment that we like to recall relates to Milton Friedman’s visit to the Indian finance ministry in 1955. What shape would India’s economy have taken had his seminal document “A Memorandum to the Government of India 1955” been heeded?In this note, Friedman gets to the root of India’s macroeconomic problems—an overburdened investment policy, restrictive policies towards the private sector, erratic monetary policy, and a counterproductive exchange control regime. Being bullish about India’s prospects was courageous when most observers wrote epitaphs about the grand Indian experiment. But Friedman was hopeful and critical both.The Indian government, for its part, was humble enough to seek the advice of foreigners from opposing schools of thought. At the same time, it was too enamoured by the Soviet command and control model. In fact, many items from Friedman’s note can be repurposed as economic reforms even today.Here’re our points from Friedman’s note.1956The idea of One Nation, One ‘X’ (language, election, song, tax, choose any other) is both powerful and seductive. It is not new, however. Back in the 50s, there was a view that we must not strengthen any identity that divides us. So when the question of reorganisation of the colonial provinces into new states came up, an argument was made that it must be done on factors other than language. Nehru, ever the modernist, thought the creation of language-based states would lead us down the path of ethnic strife. The example of nation-states in Europe built on language in the 19th century and the two devastating world wars thereafter were too recent then. So, he demurred.Agitation, hunger strikes and deaths followed before we chose language as the primary basis for reorganising the states. It was perhaps the best decision taken by us in the 50s. As the years since have shown, only a polity assured of its heritage and identity will voluntarily accept diversity. The melding of our diversity into a single identity cannot be a top-down imposition. We should never forget this.1957India’s economic strategy of state-led industrialisation through deficit financing in pursuit of import substitution took off with the Second Five-Year Plan. Heavy industries needed imported machinery, inflating India’s import bill. Since the exchange rate was pegged to the British pound, it meant that Indian exports became pricier. This imbalance between rising imports and flagging exports was financed by running down the foreign exchange reserves. By 1957, India witnessed its first foreign exchange crisis. This event had a significant effect on India’s economy. Instead of devaluing the rupee, the government opted for foreign exchange budgeting - every investment in a project needed government approval for the foreign exchange required to buy foreign inputs. The immediate crisis in 1957 led to controls that worsened India’s economic prospects over the next 35 years.1958The government nationalised all insurance companies a couple of years earlier. India hadn’t gotten into a socialist hell yet, so this was a bit of a surprise. The proximate cause was a fraud that few private life insurers had committed by misusing the policyholders’ funds to help their industrialist friends. A run-of-the-mill white-collar crime that should have been dealt with by the criminal justice system. But the government viewed it as a market failure and moved to nationalise the entire industry. It would take another 45 years for private players to come back to insurance. Insurance penetration in India meanwhile remained among the lowest in the world.  Also, in 1958, Feroze Gandhi took to the floor of Lok Sabha to expose how LIC, the state insurer, had diverted its funds to help Haridas Mundhra, a Calcutta-based businessman. The same crime that private insurers had done.The government would repeat this pattern of getting involved where there was no market failure. The outcomes would inevitably turn out to be worse. Seven decades later, we remain instinctively socialist and wary of capital. Our first reaction to something as trifling as a surge price by Ola or a service charge levied by restaurants is to ask the State to interfere.1959“The longest guest of the Indian government”, the 14th Dalai Lama pre-empted the Chinese government’s plans for his arrest and escaped to India. Not only did India provide asylum, but it also became home to more than a hundred thousand Tibetans. Because of the bold move by the Indian government in 1959, the Central Tibetan Administration continues its struggle as a Nation and a State in search of regaining control over their Country to this day. This event also changed India-China relations for the decades to come.1960Search as hard as we might; we hardly got anything worth discussing for this year. Maybe we were all sitting smugly waiting for an avalanche of crisis to come our way. Steel plants, dams and other heavy industries were being opened. The budget outlay for agriculture was reduced. We were talking big on the international stage about peace and non-alignment. But if you had looked closer, things were turning pear-shaped. The many dreams of our independence were turning sour.The 60s: Souring Of The Dream1961The Indian Army marched into Goa in December 1961. The 450-year Portuguese colonial rule ended, and the last colonial vestige in India was eliminated. It took this long because Portugal’s dictator Antonio Salazar stuck to his guns on controlling Portuguese colonies in the subcontinent, unlike the British and the French. Portugal’s membership in NATO further made it difficult for the Indian government to repeat the operations in Hyderabad and Junagadh. Nevertheless, that moment eventually arrived in 1961. This was also the year when India’s first indigenous aircraft, the HAL HF-24 Marut, took its first flight. Made in Bengaluru by German designer Kurt Tank, the aircraft was one of the first fighter jets made outside the developed world. The aircraft served well in the war that came a decade later. It never lived up to its promises, but it became a matter of immense pride and confidence for a young nation-state.1962Among the lowest points in the history of independent India. We’ve written about our relationship with China many times in the past editions. The 1962 war left a deep impact on our psyche. We didn’t recover for the rest of the decade. The only good thing out of it was the tempering of idealism in our approach to international relations. That we take a more realist stance these days owes its origins to the ‘betrayal’ of 1962.1963ISRO launched the first sounding rocket in November 1963. Over the years, this modest beginning blossomed into a programme with multiple launch vehicles. The satellite programmes also took off a few years later, making India a mighty player in the space sector. 1964If you told anyone alive in 1964 that less than 60 years later, Nehru would be blamed for all that was wrong with India by a substantial segment of its population, they would have laughed you out of the room. But here we are in 2022, and there’s never a day that passes without a WhatsApp forward that talks about Nehru’s faults. It seems inevitable that by the time we celebrate the centenary of our independence, he would be a borderline reviled figure in our history. But that would be an aberration. In the long arc of history, he will find his due as a flawed idealist who laid the foundation of modern India. 1964 was the end of an era.1965As the day when Hindi would become the sole official language of the Indian Union approached, the anti-Hindi agitation in the Madras presidency morphed into riots. Many people died in the protests, and it led to the current equilibrium on language policy. The “one State, one language” project moved to the back burner, even as Hindi became an important link language across the country. The lesson was the same as in the case of the 1956 states reorganisation: melding our diversity into a single identity cannot be a top-down imposition.1966The two wars in the decade's first half, the inefficient allocation of capital driven by the second and third five-year plans, and the consecutive monsoon failure meant India was on the brink in 1966. The overnight devaluation of the Rupee by over 50 per cent, the timely help with food grains from the US and some providence pulled us back from it. The green revolution followed, and we have remained self-sufficient in food since.The experience of being on the brink taught us nothing. We still believe in the Pigouvian theory of market failure, where government policies are expected to deliver optimality.  Strangely, the idea that we reform only in crisis has only strengthened. There cannot be worse ways to change oneself than under the shadow of a crisis. But we have made a virtue out of it.1967This was the year when the Green Revolution took baby steps, and the Ehlrichian prediction about India’s impending doom was put to rest. But it was also the year when the Indian government made a self-goal by adopting a policy called items reserved for manufacture exclusively by the small-scale sector. By reserving whole product lines for manufacturing by small industries, this policy kept Indian firms small and uncompetitive. And like all bad ideas, it had a long life. The last 20 items on this list were removed only in April 2015. We wrote about this policy here. 1968In the past 75 years, we have reserved some of our worst public policies for the education sector. We have an inverted pyramid. A handful of tertiary educational institutions produce world-class graduates at the top. On the other end, we have a total failure to provide quality primary education to the masses. It is not because of a lack of intent. The National Education Policy (NEP) that first came up in 1968 is full of ideas, philosophy and a desire to take a long-term view about education in India. But it was unmoored from the economic or social reality of the nation. We often say here that we shouldn’t judge a policy based on its intentions. That there’s no such thing as a good policy but bad implementation because thinking about what can work is part of policy itself. NEP is Exhibit A in favour of this argument.1969 The nationalisation of 14 private-sector banks was a terrible assault on economic freedom under the garb of serving the public interest. The sudden announcement of a change in ownership of these banks was challenged in the courts, but the government managed to thwart it with an ordinance. Fifty years later, we still have low credit uptake even as governments continue to recapitalise loss-making banks with taxpayer money.1970The dominant economic thinking at the beginning of the 70s in India placed the State at the centre of everything. But that wasn’t how the world was moving. There was a serious re-examination of the relationship between the State and the market happening elsewhere. The eventual shift to a deregulated, small government economic model would happen by the decade's end. This shift mostly passed India by. But there were a few voices who questioned the state orthodoxy and, in some ways, sowed the intellectual seeds for liberalisation in future. In 1970, Jagdish Bhagwati and Padma Desai published their monograph, India: Planning for Industrialisation, which argued that our economic policies since independence had crippled us. It showed with data how central planning, import substitution, public sector-led industrial policy and license raj have failed. But it found no takers. In fact, we doubled down on these failed policies for the rest of the decade. It was a tragedy foretold. What if someone had gone against the consensus and paid attention to that paper? That dissent could perhaps have been the greatest service to the nation. It is useful to remember this today when any scepticism about government policies is met with scorn. Dissent is good. The feeblest of the voice might just be right.The 70s: Losing The Plot1971Kissinger visited China in July 1971 via Pakistan. Responding to the changing world order, India and the USSR signed an Indo–Soviet Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation in August of that year. India had become an ally of the USSR. Four months later, the India-Pakistan war pitted India and the USSR against Pakistan, China, and the US. The Indian strategic community came to internalise USSR as a super-reliable partner and the West as a supporter of India’s foes. It took another three decades, and the collapse of the USSR, for a change in this thinking. Even today, Russia finds massive support in the Indian strategic establishment. We had problematised this love for Russia here. 1972India won the 1972 war with Pakistan and liberated Bangladesh. India’s unilateral action stopped a humanitarian disaster. The victory was decisive, and the two parties met in Simla to agree on the way forward. This should have been a slam dunk for India in resolving festering issues on the international boundary, Kashmir and the role of the third parties. But international diplomacy is a two-level game, and Bhutto played that to his advantage. We explained this in edition 30. We paid a high price for giving away that win to Bhutto.1973The Kesavananda Bharti verdict of the Supreme Court rescued the Republic of India from a rampaging authoritarian. The basic structure doctrine found a nice balance to resolve the tension between constitutional immutability and legislative authority to amend the constitution. Bibhu Pani discussed this case in more detail here. 1974You are the State. Here are your crimes. You force import substitution, you regulate the currency, you misallocate capital, you let the public sector and a handful of licensed private players produce inferior quality products at a high cost, you raise the marginal tax rate at the highest level to 97 per cent, you run a large current account deficit, and you cannot control Rupee depreciation.Result?People find illegal ways to bring in foreign goods, currency and gold. And so was born the villain of every urban Bollywood film of the 70s. And a career option for a capitalist-minded kid like me. The Smuggler.But the State isn’t the criminal here. The smuggler is. And the State responded with a draconian law to beat all others. An act the knowledge of whose expanded form would serve kids well in those school quizzes of the 80s. COFEPOSA — The Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Act. A predatory state's defining feature is how it forces ordinary citizens to do unlawful activities. COFEPOSA was the mother of such laws. It has spawned many children. 1975This blank editorial by the Indian Express says it all. 1976We view our population as a core problem. The politicians, the public servants and the ordinary citizens share this view. We don’t want to acknowledge our governance deficit. Calling population a problem allows us to shirk the responsibility of running a functioning State. We have written about the flaw in thinking about the population as a problem on many occasions.How far could we go to control the population? Well, in 1976, during the peak of the Emergency, the State decided to sterilise male citizens against their wishes. This madness ended when the Emergency was lifted. But even today calls for population control keep coming back. 1977The first non-Congress union government was an important milestone for the Indian Republic. While Morarji Desai’s government did reverse the worst excesses of the Emergency rule, its economic policies were less successful. This period went on to witness a demonetisation in search of black money (2016 from the future says Hi!), and the same old counter-productive policies in search of self-reliance.1978Despite all available evidence that statist socialism was an abject failure, the Janata government that came to power decided to double down on it. One of the great ideas of the time was to force MNCs to reduce their stake in their Indian subsidiaries to below 40 per cent. A handful agreed, but the large corporations quit India. One of those who left was IBM in 1978. The many existing installations of IBM computers needed services and maintenance. In a delightful case of unintended consequences, this led to the nationalisation of IBM’s services division (later called CMC). Domestic companies started to serve this niche. Soon there were the likes of Infosys, Wipro and HCL building a business on this. CMC provided a good training ground for young engineers. And so, the Indian IT services industry got underway. It would change the lives of educated Indians forever.1979In a classic case of violating the Tinbergen rule, the Mandal Commission recommended that the reservation policy should be used to address relative deprivation. While the earlier reservations for oppressed castes stood on firm ground as a means for addressing unconscionable historical wrongs, the Mandal Commission stretched the logic too far. Its recommendation would eventually make reservation policy the go-to solution for any group that could flex its political muscles. We wrote about it here. 1980After ditching the Janata experiment and running out of ideas to keep Jan Sangh going, the BJP was formed. It wasn’t a momentous political occasion of any sort then. A party constitution that aimed for Gandhian socialism and offered vague promises of a uniform civil code and nationalism didn’t excite many. Everything else that would propel the party in later years was to be opportunistic add-ons to the ideology. The founding leaders, Advani and Vajpayee, would have been shocked if you told them what the party would be like, four decades later.The 80s: A Million Mutinies Now1981This year witnessed a gradual shift away from doctrinaire socialism in economic policymaking. “The Indira Gandhi government lifted restrictions on the expansion of production, permitted new private borrowing abroad, and continued the liberalisation of import controls,” wrote Walter Anderson. The government also “allowed” some price rises, leading to increased production of key input materials. The government also permitted foreign companies to compete in drilling rights in India. All in all, a year that witnessed changes for the better. 1982The great textile strike of Bombay in 1982 was inevitable. The trade unions had gotten so powerful that there was a competitive race to the bottom on who could be more militant. Datta Samant emerged intent on breaking the monopoly of RMMS on the city's workers. And he did this with ever spiralling demands from mill owners in a sector that was already bloated with overheads and facing competition from far eastern economies. There was no way to meet these demands. The owners locked the mills and left. Never to come back. The old, abandoned mills remained. The workers remained. Without jobs, without prospects and with kids who grew up angry and unemployed. The rise of Shiv Sena, political goondaism and a malevolent form of underworld followed. Bombay changed forever. It was all inevitable.1983The Nellie massacre in Assam and the Dhilwan bus massacre in Punjab represent the year 1983. Things seemed really dark back then. It seemed that the doomsayers would be proved right about India. Eventually, though, the Indian Republic prevailed. 1984Her Sikh bodyguards assassinated India Gandhi. The botched Punjab policy of the previous five years came a full circle with it. An unforgivable backlash against innocent Sikhs followed. A month later, deadly gas leaked out of a Union Carbide factory in Bhopal, killing and paralysing thousands. 1984 will rank among the worst years of our republic. There were two silver linings in retrospect. One, we would learn to manage secessionist movements better from the harrowing Punjab experience. Two, had Indira continued, would we have had 1991? Our guess is no.1985This was an eventful year in retrospect. Texas Instruments set up shop in Bangalore. It was to begin one of modern India’s true success stories on the world stage. This was also the year when the Anti-defection law transformed the relationship between the voter and her representative. Political parties became all-powerful, and people’s representatives were reduced to political party agents. We have written about this changing dynamic here. This was also the year when the then commerce minister, VP Singh, visited Malaysia. The visit was significant for India because it served as a reference point for Singh when he visited that country again in 1990, now as the Prime minister. Surprised by Malaysia’s transformation in five years, he asked his team to prepare a strategy paper for economic reforms. This culminated in the “M” document, which became a blueprint for reforms when the time for the idea eventually came in 1991.1986Who is a citizen of India?  This vexing question roiled Assam in the early 80s. The student union protests against the widespread immigration of Bangladeshis turned violent, and things had turned ugly by 1985. The Assam accord of 1985 sought to settle the state's outstanding issues,, including deporting those who arrived after 1971 and a promise to amend the Citizenship Act. The amended Citizenship Act of 1986 restricted the citizenship of India to those born before 1987 only if either of their parents were born in India. That meant children of couples who were illegal immigrants couldn’t be citizens of India simply by virtue of their birth in India. That was that, or so we thought.But once you’ve amended the definition of who can be a citizen of India, you have let the genie out. The events of 2019 will attest to that.1987Rajiv Gandhi’s ill-fated attempt to replicate Indira Gandhi’s success through military intervention in another country began in 1987. In contrast to the 1971 involvement, where Indian forces had the mass support of the local populace, the Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF) got itself embroiled in a bitter Sri Lankan civil war. Not only did this involvement end in a failure, it eventually led to Rajiv Gandhi’s brutal murder in a terrorist attack. The policy lesson internalised by the strategic community was that India must stay far away from developing and deploying forces overseas.1988Most government communication is propaganda in disguise. However, there are those rare occasions when government messaging transcends the ordinary. In 1988, we saw that rare bird during the peak era of a single government channel running on millions of black and white TV sets across India. A government ad that meant something to all of us and that would remain with us forever. Mile Sur Mera Tumhara got everything right - the song, the singers, the storyline and that ineffable thing called the idea of India. No jingoism, no chest beating about being the best country in the world and no soppy sentimentalism. Just a simple message - we might all sing our own tunes, but we are better together. This is a timeless truth. No nation in history has become better by muting the voice of a section of their own people. Mile Sur Mera Tumhara, Toh Sur Bane Hamara, indeed.  19891989 will be remembered as the year when the Indian government capitulated to the demands of Kashmiri terrorists in the Rubaiya Sayeed abduction case. It would spark off a series of kidnappings and act as a shot in the arm of radicals. 1990VP Singh dusted off the decade-long copy of the Mandal Commission report and decided to implement it. This wasn’t an ideological revolution. It was naked political opportunism. However, three decades later, the dual impact of economic reforms and social engineering has increased social mobility than ever before. Merit is still a matter of debate in India. But two generations of affirmative action in many of the progressive states have shown the fears of merit being compromised were overblown. The task is far from finished, but Mandal showed that sometimes you need a big bang to get things going, even if your intentions were flawed.1990 also saw the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits (KPs) from the valley. A tragedy that would bookend a decade of strife and violence in India. The only lesson one should draw from the sad plight of KPs is that the State and the people must protect minority rights. We’re not sure that’s what we have taken away from it. And that’s sad.The 90s: Correcting The Course1991With the benefit of hindsight, the 1991 economic reforms seem inevitable. But things could well have been different. In the minority government, powerful voices advocated in favour of debt restructuring instead of wholesale reforms. In the end, the narrative that these changes were merely a continuation—and not abandonment—of Nehru and Indira Gandhi’s vision for India carried the day. This political chicanery deserves some credit for transforming the life of a billion Indians. 1992Harshad Mehta scammed the stock markets. It wasn’t a huge scam. Nor did it hurt the ordinary Indians. Fewer than 1% invested in markets back then. Yet, the scam did something important. It set in motion a series of reforms that made our capital markets stronger and safer for ordinary investors. Notably, over the years, Mehta came to be seen as some kind of robber baron figure. Capitalism needed an anti-hero to catch the imagination of people. Someone who could reprise in the 90s the Bachchan-esque angry young man roles of the 70s. Mehta might not have been that figure exactly, but he helped a generation transition to the idea that greed could indeed be good.Also, Babri Masjid was brought down by a mob of kar sevaks in 1992. It will remain a watershed moment in our history. The Supreme Court judgement of 2019 might be the final judicial word on it. But we will carry the scars for a long time.1993The tremors of the demolition of the Babri Masjid were felt in 1993. Twelve bombs went off in Bombay on one fateful day. The involvement of the city’s mafia groups was established. The tragic event finally led to the government rescuing the city from the underworld. Not to forget, the Bombay underworld directly resulted from government policies such as prohibition and gold controls. 1994One of the great acts of perversion in our democracy was the blatant abuse of Section 356 of the constitution that allowed the union to dismiss a state government at the slightest pretext. Indira Gandhi turned this into an art form. S. R. Bommai, whose government in Karnataka was dismissed in this manner in 1988, took his case up to the Supreme Court. In 1994, the court delivered a verdict that laid out the guidelines to prevent the abuse of Section 356. It is one of the landmark judgments of the court and restored some parity in Union and state relationship.Article 356 has been used sparingly since. We are a better democracy because of it.1995India joined the WTO, and the first-ever mobile phone call was made this year. But 1995 will forever be remembered as the year when Ganesha idols started drinking milk. This event was a precursor to the many memes, information cascades, and social proofs that have become routine in the information age. 1996Union budgets in India are occasions for dramatic policy announcements. It is a mystery why a regular exercise of presenting the government's accounts should become a policy event. But that’s the way we roll. In 1996 and 1997, P. Chidambaram presented them as the FM of a weak ragtag coalition called the United Front. But he presented two budgets for the ages. The rationalisation of income tax slabs and the deregulation of interest rates created a credit culture that led to the eventual consumption boom in the next decade. We still carry that consumption momentum.1997The creation of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is an important public policy milestone for India. By no means perfect, the setting up of TRAI helped overturn a norm where government departments were both players and umpires. TRAI made the separation of “steering” and “rowing” functions a new normal. That template has been copied in several sectors thereafter, most recently in the liberalisation of the space sector. 1998India did Pokhran 2, which gave it the capability to build thermonuclear weapons. We faced sanctions and global condemnation. But the growing economy and a sizeable middle class meant those were soon forgotten. Economic might can let you get away with a lot. We have seen it happen to us, but it is a lesson we don’t understand fully.Also, in 1998, Sonia Gandhi jumped into active politics. The Congress that was ambling towards some sort of internal democracy decided to jettison it all and threw its weight behind the dynasty. It worked out for them for a decade or so. But where are they now? Here’s a question. What if Sonia didn’t join politics then? Congress might have split. But who knows, maybe those splinters might have coalesced in the future with a leader chosen by the workers. And we would have had a proper opposition today with a credible leader.1999This was a landmark year for public policy. For the first time, a union government-run company was privatised wholly. We wrote about the three narratives of disinvestment here. 2000We have a weak, extended and over-centralised state. And to go with it, we have large, unwieldy states and districts that make the devolution of power difficult. In 2000, we created three new states to facilitate administrative convenience. On balance, it has worked well. Despite the evidence, we have managed to create only one more state since. The formation of Telangana was such a political disaster that it will take a long time before we make the right policy move of having smaller states. It is a pity.The 2000s: The Best Of Times2001Not only was the Agra Summit between Musharraf and Vajpayee a dud, but it was followed by a terrorist attack on the Indian parliament. It confirmed a pattern: PM-level bilateral meetings made the Pakistani military-jihadi complex jittery, and it invariably managed to spike such moves with terrorist attacks. 2002There was Godhra and the riots that followed. What else is there to say?2003The Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act and the Civil Services Pension Reform are two policy successes with many lessons for future policymakers. We have discussed these on many occasions. 2004The NDA government called for an early election, confident about its prospects. India Shining, its campaign about how good things were, wasn’t too far from the truth. It is how many of us felt during that time. The NDA government had sustained the reform momentum of the 90s with some of the best minds running the key departments. Its loss was unexpected. Chandrababu Naidu, a politician who fashioned himself like a CEO, was taken to the cleaners in Andhra Pradesh. Apparently, economic reforms didn’t get you votes. The real India living in villages was angry at being left out. That was the lesson for politicians from 2004. Or, so we were told.Such broad narratives with minimal factual analysis backing them have flourished in the public policy space. There is no basis for them. The loss of NDA in 2004 came down to two states. Anti-incumbency in Andhra Pradesh where a resurgent Congress under YS Reddy beat TDP, a constituent of NDA. TDP lost by similar margins (in vote share %) across the state in all demographics in both rural and urban areas. There was no rural uprising against Naidu because of his tech-savvy, urban reformist image. Naidu lost because the other party ran a better campaign. Nothing else. The other mistake of the NDA was in choosing to partner with the ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu (TN) over DMK. TN was famous for not giving split verdicts. It swung to extremes between these two parties in every election. And that’s what happened as AIADMK drew a blank.Yet, the false lesson of 2004 has played on the minds of politicians since. We haven’t gotten back on track on reforms in the true sense. 2005The Right to Information Act and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act came into force in 2005. The “right to X” model of governance took root.2006In March 2006, George W Bush visited India and signed the Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement with Manmohan Singh. From facing sanctions in 1998 for Pokhran 2 to the 123 Agreement, this was a victory for Indian diplomacy and its rising status in the world. You would think this would have had bipartisan support among the political class in India. Well, the Left that was part of UPA and the BJP that worked on the deal when it was in power, opposed it. Many shenanigans later, the deal was passed in the parliament in 2008. It is often said there’s no real ideological divide among parties in India. This view can be contested on various grounds. But events like the opposition to the nuclear deal make you wonder if there are genuine ideological positions on key policy issues in India. Many sound policy decisions are opposed merely for the sake of it. Ideology doesn’t figure anywhere. 2007It was the year when the Left parties were out-lefted. In Singur and Nandigram, protests erupted over land acquisition for industrial projects. The crucible of the resulting violence created a new political force. As for the investment, the capital took a flight to other places. The tax on capital ended up being a tax on labour. Businesses stayed away from West Bengal. The citadel of Left turned into its mausoleum.2008Puja Mehra in her book The Lost Decade traces the origin of India losing its way following the global financial crisis to the Mumbai terror attack of 2008. Shivraj Patil, the home minister, quit following the attack and Chidambaram was shifted from finance to fill in. For reasons unknown, Pranab Mukherjee, a politician steeped in the 70s-style-Indira-Gandhi socialism, was made the FM. Mehra makes a compelling case of how that one decision stalled reforms, increased deficit and led to runaway inflation over the next three years. Till Chidambaram was brought back to get the house in order, it was too late, and we were halfway into a lost decade. It is remarkable how bad policies always seem easy to implement while good policies take ages to get off the blocks.2009The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) was established in January 2009 to architect a unique digital identity for persons in a country where low rates of death and birth registrations made fake and duplicate identities a means for corruption and denial of service. Under the Modi government, the digital identity — Aadhaar — became the fulcrum of several government services. This project also set the stage for later projects such as the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Abha (Health ID).2010There’s petty corruption everywhere in India. It is pervasive. Not surprisingly, it is one political issue leading to mass movements in India. The anti-corruption mood gripped India in 2010 on the back of the 2G spectrum scam, where the chief accountant of the government claimed a notional loss of about Rs. 1.8 trillion to the exchequer. Auctioning of natural resources wasn’t exactly a transparent process then. It was evident there was a scam in the allotment of the 2G spectrum. But the 1.8 trillion number was a wild exaggeration that anyone with a semblance of business understanding could see through. It didn’t matter. That number caught the imagination. UPA 2 never recovered from it. More importantly, the auction policy for resources was distorted forever. We still suffer the consequences.The 2010s: Missed Opportunity2011India’s last case of wild poliovirus was detected in 2011. Until about the early 1990s, an average of 500 to 1000 children got paralysed daily in India. The original target for eradication was the year 2000. Nevertheless, we got there eleven years later. India’s pulse polio campaign has since become a source of confidence for public policy execution in India. We internalised the lesson that the Indian government can sometimes deliver through mission mode projects. 2012If you cannot solve a vexing public policy issue, turn it into a Right. It won’t work, but it will seem like you’ve done everything. After years of trying to get the national education policy right, the government decided it was best to make education a fundamental right in the Constitution. Maybe that will make the problem go away. A decade later, nothing has changed, but we have an additional right to feel good about.2013This year saw the emergence of AAP as a political force via the anti-corruption movement. AAP combines the classic elements of what makes a political party successful in India - statist instincts, focus on aam aadmi issues, populism and ideological flexibility. Importantly, it is good at telling its own version of some future utopia rather than questioning the utopia of others. 2014The BJP came to power with many promises; the most alluring of them was ‘minimum government, maximum governance’. Over the past eight years it has claimed success in meeting many of its promises, but even its ardent supporters won’t claim any success on minimum government. In fact, it has gone the other way. That a party with an immensely popular PM, election machinery that rivals the best in the world, and virtually no opposition cannot shake us off our instinctive belief in the State's power never ceases to surprise us.2015The murder of a person by a mob on the charges of eating beef was the first clear indication of the upsurge of a new violent, majoritarian polity. It was also one of the early incidents in India of radically networked communities using social media for self-organisation. Meanwhile, 2015 also witnessed the signing of a landmark boundary agreement between India and Bangladesh, which ended the abomination called the third-order enclave. The two States exchanged land peacefully, upholding the principle that citizen well-being trumps hardline interpretations of territorial integrity. 2016There will be many case studies written in future about demonetisation. Each one of them will end with a single conclusion. Public policy requires discussion and consensus, not stealth and surprise. We hope we have learnt our lesson from it.2017Until 2017, many in India still held the hope of a modus vivendi with China. Some others were enamoured by the Chinese model of governance. However, the Doklam crisis in 2017, and the Galwan clashes in 2020, changed all that. Through this miscalculation, China alienated a full generation of Indians, led to better India-US relations, and energised India to shift focus away from merely managing a weak Pakistan, and toward raising its game for competing with a stronger adversary. For this reason, we wrote a thank you note to Xi Jinping here. 2018It took years of efforts by the LGBTQ community to get Section 377 scrapped. In 2018, they partially won when the Supreme Court diluted Section 377 to exclude all kinds of adult consensual sexual behaviour. The community could now claim equal constitutional status as others. There’s still some distance to go for the State to acknowledge non-heterosexual unions and provide for other civil rights to the community. But the gradual acceptance of the community because of decriminalisation is a sign that our society doesn’t need moral policing or lectures to judge what’s good for it.2019The J&K Reorganisation Act changed the long-standing political status quo in Kashmir. Three years on, the return to political normalcy and full statehood still awaits. While a response by Pakistan was expected, it was China that fomented trouble in Ladakh, leading to the border clashes in 2020. 2020We have written multiple pieces on farm laws in the past year. The repeal of these laws, which were fundamentally sound because of a vocal minority, is the story of public policy in India. Good policies are scuttled because of the absence of consultation, an unclear narrative, opportunistic politicking or plain old hubris. We write this newsletter in the hope of changing this. 2021The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic left behind many bereaved families. People are still trying to pick up the pieces. The sadness was also interrupted by frustration because of the delays in getting the vaccination programme going. India benefited immensely from domestic vaccine manufacturing capability in the private sector. Despite many twists and turns in vaccine pricing and procurements, the year ended with over 1 billion administered doses. In challenging times, the Indian State, markets, and society did come together to fight the pandemic. So, here we are. In the 75th independent year of this beautiful, fascinating and often exasperating nation. We are a work in progress. We might walk slowly, but we must not walk backwards. May we all live in a happy, prosperous and equal society. Thanks for reading Anticipating the Unintended! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit publicpolicy.substack.com

In the third episode of our series, hosted by Sushant Singh (Senior Fellow, CPR), featuring leading experts on the various facets of Sino-India relations, we are joined by Taylor Fravel (Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science & Director, Security Studies Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) to discuss the strategic aspects of Sino-India relations. Singh and Fravel unpack the relevance of the Chinese strategic guidelines for India and the significance of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) ground forces in a challenge against India. They also discuss the concept of active defence and the current PLA deployment at the Indian border, what could prompt Chinese aggression and its definition of a red line. Fravel also sheds light on China's domestic affairs, the Galwan incident and increase of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sponsored nationalism. Finally, Singh and Fravel unpack the breakdown of the India-China SOPs that had been held for over three decades, the events in Doklam, China's intentions for the border crisis and what we can expect in the future.

In the third episode of our series, hosted by Sushant Singh (Senior Fellow, CPR), featuring leading experts on the various facets of Sino-India relations, we are joined by Taylor Fravel (Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science & Director, Security Studies Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) to discuss the strategic aspects of Sino-India relations. Singh and Fravel unpack the relevance of the Chinese strategic guidelines for India and the significance of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) ground forces in a challenge against India. They also discuss the concept of active defence and the current PLA deployment at the Indian border, what could prompt Chinese aggression and its definition of a red line. Fravel also sheds light on China's domestic affairs, the Galwan incident and increase of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sponsored nationalism. Finally, Singh and Fravel unpack the breakdown of the India-China SOPs that had been held for over three decades, the events in Doklam, China's intentions for the border crisis and what we can expect in the future.

Now that COP26 has concluded, ASPI's Dr Robert Glasser and Anastasia Kapetas break down the commitments made at the summit, where they fell short, and what needs to be done to limit warming to 1.5 degrees. As society's reliance on technology continues to grow, regulating and securing technology becomes increasingly important. ASPI's Dr Teagan Westendorf speaks to Professor Jeannie Paterson from the University of Melbourne about the need to regulate digital technology in a way that aligns with democratic values. ASPI's Nathan Ruser and Baani Grewal recently released a multimedia project looking at the increasing border tensions between China and India in the Doklam region. Their ground-breaking work uses open-source satellite imagery to develop a unique 3D view of the mountainous region which helps viewers understand the strategic importance of the roads and military infrastructure being established by both sides. Mentioned in this episode: ‘A 3D deep dive into the India-China border': https://pageflow.aspi.org.au/mappingdoklam#313455 Guests (in order of appearance): Anastasia Kapetas: https://www.aspi.org.au/bio/anastasia-kapetas Dr Robert Glasser: https://www.aspi.org.au/bio/robert-glasser Dr Teagan Westendorf: https://www.aspi.org.au/bio/teagan-westendorf Professor Jeannie Paterson: https://law.unimelb.edu.au/about/staff/jeannie-paterson Baani Grewal: https://www.aspi.org.au/bio/baani-grewal Nathan Ruser: https://www.aspi.org.au/bio/nathan-ruser Header image: "COP26 Global Day of Action" via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:COP26_Global_Day_of_Action_(51662172113).jpg Background music: "Mallet Play" by Maarten Schellekens via Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/maarten-schellekens/neo-classical-works/mallet-play

In this latest news from India in Hindi: India's main opposition party Congress alleges China built villages near Bhutanese territory in Doklam and occupied 100 sq km of land; India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition Congress party clash on the Hinduism vs Hindutva issue; Magisterial inquiry ordered into the encounter in Hyderpora (located in Srinagar, the capital city of the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir) by the state administration. 

Gautam Bambawale is a retired Indian diplomat with a distinguished career in key foreign missions like the USA, China, Pakistan and Germany. Mr Bambawale retired in 2018 from the Indian Foreign Service and is now settled in Pune. His last posting was India's Ambassador to China, Mr Bambawale has had several difficult situations in his career to deal with. He was in Beijing during India's nuclear tests in 1998. He was again in Beijing when the Doklam crisis unfolded in 2017. He was in the USA around the time Indian nuclear deal was signed. Mr Bambawale has had an exemplary career guiding Indian diplomacy through choppy waters. In this episode, Mr Bambawale spoke about these experiences but also more broadly about India's foreign policy imperatives especially with China and Pakistan. He explained the border situation on both the fronts in detail. Mr Bambawale also spoke about how India can engage the Biden administration further. The discussion was conducted by Amit Paranjape, who you have heard on several Bharatvaarta podcasts earlier, and Aashish Chandorkar, who is part of the Bharatvaarta team. Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfBfBd-1kvCOPxVll8tBJ9Q/join

Gautam Bambawale is a retired Indian diplomat with a distinguished career in key foreign missions like the USA, China, Pakistan and Germany. Mr Bambawale retired in 2018 from the Indian Foreign Service and is now settled in Pune. His last posting was India's Ambassador to China, Mr Bambawale has had several difficult situations in his career to deal with. He was in Beijing during India's nuclear tests in 1998. He was again in Beijing when the Doklam crisis unfolded in 2017. He was in the USA around the time Indian nuclear deal was signed. Mr Bambawale has had an exemplary career guiding Indian diplomacy through choppy waters. In this episode, Mr Bambawale spoke about these experiences but also more broadly about India's foreign policy imperatives especially with China and Pakistan. He explained the border situation on both the fronts in detail. Mr Bambawale also spoke about how India can engage the Biden administration further. The discussion was conducted by Amit Paranjape, who you have heard on several Bharatvaarta podcasts earlier, and Aashish Chandorkar, who is part of the Bharatvaarta team. Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfBfBd-1kvCOPxVll8tBJ9Q/join

This episode delves into the build up to the Indo-China war of 1962 and the consequences of the war. There is also a discussion on the Sikkim dispute and the recent Doklam standoff.

Podcast: Left, Right & Centre (LS 38 · TOP 2.5% what is this?)Episode: Chinese Ammunition Bunkers SpottedPub date: 2020-11-23Satellite imagery accessed by NDTV shows the construction of what appears to be military-grade, hardened ammunition bunkers, just 2.5 kilometres from Sinche-La pass on the eastern periphery of the contested Doklam plateau.The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NDTV, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.

The 2017 India-China standoff in Doklam, at a crucial trijunction between India, China, and Bhutan, was widely hailed as a victory for India. But was it? In the light of new satellite imagery, Anirudh Kanisetti speaks to Lt General Prakash Menon about India and China's takeaways from the standoff, and how they continue to influence the strategies of both countries today.Read our Discussion Document here: https://takshashila.org.in/takshashila-discussion-document-the-doklam-imbroglio/You can follow Anirudh on twitter: @AKanisetti(https://twitter.com/AKanisetti)You can follow Lt Gen Prakash on twitter: @prakashmenon51(https://twitter.com/prakashmenon51)You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.

*Correction in the opening message: It is 15th June and not 18th June.*Correction 2: The letter was from A. B. Vajpayee and not George FernandesLink to the letter: https://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/13/world/nuclear-anxiety-indian-s-letter-to-clinton-on-the-nuclear-testing.htmlDr. Avinash Godbole is an Assitant Professor of International Relations and China Studies at JSLH, JGU. He focuses on China's Foreign Policy and Asia Strategy, the Party Studies, China's Minority Policies, and Energy and Environment policies. He has written extensively on these issues in Academic and Media publications. Previously he worked with ICWA and before that with IDSA. He is also a Visiting Faculty at the Naval War College, Goa. 1.India China Relationship 2.Rajiv Gandhi's 1988 visit to China and the aftermath of the same 3.When did China became Nationalistic? 4.The century of Humiliation 5.Why Nationalism matters in China? 6.What is the narrative they give about the great leap forward? 7.Is there a pattern you see in the last 100 years? 8.What is the next big thing for them? 9.Why is China expansionist? 10.India China Neighbours and Strangers 11.Do we really understand them? 12.What is the single biggest misunderstanding we have about them? 13.Membership of the Chinese Communist Party 14.How is dissent in China? 15.How CCP sees India? 16.How has India's relationship with China evolved over 20 years? 17.Manmohan Singh Speech in China 18.Was India's policy towards China was of appeasement? 19.Why Galwan happened? 20.Was it an intelligence failure? 21.Modi and Xi's Mahabalipuram visit 22.Is this the same as previous stand-offs? 23.Next is what for India? 24.Why China took the risk it did? 25.How many soldiers did China lose? 1. भारत चीन संबंध 2. राजीव गांधी की 1988 की चीन यात्रा और उसके बाद की यात्रा 3. चीन राष्ट्रवादी कब बना? 4. अपमान की सदी 5. चीन में राष्ट्रवाद क्यों मायने रखता है? 6. वे महान छलांग के बारे में क्या बयान देते हैं? 7. क्या कोई पैटर्न है जो आप पिछले 100 वर्षों में देख रहे हैं? 8. उनके लिए अगली बड़ी बात क्या है? 9. चीन का विस्तारवादी क्यों है? 10. भारत चीन पड़ोसी और अजनबी 11. क्या हम वास्तव में उन्हें समझते हैं? 12. हम उनके बारे में सबसे बड़ी गलतफहमी क्या है? 13. चीनी कम्युनिस्ट पार्टी की सदस्यता 14. चीन में असंतोष कैसे है? 15. CCP भारत को कैसे देखता है? 16. चीन के साथ भारत के संबंध 20 वर्षों में कैसे विकसित हुए हैं? 17. चीन में मनमोहन सिंह भाषण 18. क्या चीन के प्रति भारत की नीति तुष्टिकरण की थी? 19. गालवान क्यों हुआ? 20. क्या यह एक खुफिया विफलता थी? 21. मोदी और शी की महाबलीपुरम यात्रा 22. क्या यह पिछले स्टैंड-अप के समान है? 23. अगला भारत के लिए क्या है? 24. चीन ने यह जोखिम क्यों उठाया? 25. चीन ने कितने सैनिक खोए?

Much of the coverage of the Galwan valley confrontation between Chinese and Indian troops, and the months-long border standoff preceding it, has been reported in Indian media as a belligerent action by China. It's interesting to note, however, that top Chinese strategic affairs commentators see it as quite the opposite — a steady build-up of hostile action by India since the 2017 Doklam standoff. How did that event change Chinese thought on India and how is it reflected now? In conversation with The Hindu's National and Diplomatic Affairs Editor, Suhasini Haidar, Professor Hemant Adlakha, a professor at JNU's Centre for Chinese and South Asian studies who closely follows commentaries in the Mandarin language, decodes the messaging coming out of China. Find the In Focus podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Stitcher. Search for In Focus by The Hindu. Write to us with comments and feedback at socmed4@thehindu.co.in

As a Lt-Col and two Indian soldiers were killed Monday night — 45 years after the last incident of violence on the Line of Actual Control — by Chinese soldiers as they “deescalated” from the Galwan Valley after six months of intruding into Indian territory, former Ambassador to China Ashoka Kantha tells ThePrint’s Strategic Affairs editor Jyoti Malhotra that the situation is more serious than what happened in Doklam in 2017 and that the Chinese must be told to return to status quo ante

"Il dragone cinese e l'elefante indiano non combatteranno più tra di loro, ma danzeranno". Era il 2018 quando Wang Yi, il ministro degli Esteri di Pechino, dichiarava chiusa la crisi del Doklam e proiettava i rapporti con Nuova Delhi su una nuova dimensione. Oggi però si è riaccesa la tensione tra le due potenze. Ne parliamo con Beniamino Natale, per anni corrispondente Ansa, e Marzia Casolari, docente di Storia e Istituzioni dell'Asia all'Università di Torino. Poco più di due anni fa la Corea del Nord e la Corea del Sud firmavano la Dichiarazione di Pan Mun Jom con la quale si impeganvano nella cessazione di tutti gli atti ostili. E' passato poco tempo eppure oggi la situazione è radicalmente cambiata. Ne parliamo con Giulia Pompili, giornalista di Il Foglio.

Chinese army replaying the Doklam standoff in the current border tension with India, India's tally of the coronavirus cases surged to 236,657 on Saturday, Basketball legend Michael Jordan is giving $100 million for racial equality & other top stories making news throughout the day.

SInce May 05, 2020 tension between India and China in its border region is high. The present standoff after Doklam is marking a significant effect in India China relations. Situation is getting worse day by day and both nations army is camping in the borders beyond several rounds of talks taking place between two nations. what will happen? --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/vithiyapathy-purushothama/message

After 7 long years of wait, India on Friday executed all four convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case in Tihar Jail at 5: 30 am in the morning. The hanging came after President Ram Nath Kovind rejected their mercy pleas, presented after they were dismissed by the apex court. Here's the latest on the Nirbhaya case, which finally came to an end with the execution of the four convicts. But before we begin, here’s what happened on 16th December, 2012 and days after. A 23-year-old physiotherapy student, who was accompanied by her friend, was brutally raped and then murdered by six people, including a juvenile, inside a moving bus. Within a few days, all the convicts were arrested and were put on trial by a fast-track court set up by the Delhi High Court especially for the case. However, on March 11, 2013, Ram Singh,  one of the accused was found hanging in his Tihar jail cell. Meanwhile, the victim was transferred to Singapore for better health care, where despite all efforts and weeks after battling for life, she finally succumbed to her injuries. This led to large public protests against the state and central governments, who were accused of failing to keep women safe. A juvenile, who was among the accused, was convicted by a Juvenile Justice Board and was released from a reformation home after serving a three-year term, while the remaining four were sentenced to death by a Delhi fast-track court on Sep 13, 2013. Meanwhile, days after the shameful event, on December 24, the government announced the setting up of a committee to suggest amendments in law for speedy trials and enhanced punishment for criminals in rape cases. A change to hasten the otherwise slow process of justice. Since Indian laws do not allow publishing a rape victim's name, the victim was given the name 'Nirbhaya' which means "fearless", and her struggle became a symbol of women's resistance to rape around the world. Çoming back to the recent events that finally brought justice to Nirbhaya. In the past few months, the four convicts had filed multiple petitions, managing to stall their execution thrice. In fact, one of the convicts’ lawyer pleaded, "Send them to the India-Pakistan border, send them to Doklam, but don't hang them." A Supreme Court bench had also asked the Centre to consider the fervent request of the convicts' lawyer that family members of Pawan Gupta and Akshay Singh be allowed to meet them for 5-10 minutes before the hanging. The request was, however, denied with Solicitor General Tushar Mehta saying that while painful, the jail manual did not allow convicts to meet family members just before the hanging. Hours before their execution, the Supreme Court dismissed their final petition in a hearing, held after midnight, bringing the curtains down on a 7-year-old case that had left the nation in shock. In a bid to stave off the final fate, the convicts had petitioned the Delhi High Court, where their lawyer cited coronavirus, among other things, for the lack of proper documents and hurriedly filed appeal. In an indication of public outrage over the case that shook the conscience of an entire nation, several posters were seen outside the Tihar premises in the wee hours on Friday with placards and posters reading "thanks to judiciary" and "the morning of justice". Ahead of the execution, Asha Devi, Nirbhaya's mother, who had been fighting tooth and nail for justice, said... To know more, listen to this podcast

The informal summit in Mamallapuram between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping may have generated photo ops, but does it provide a way forward for ties between Asia's two giants? Nitin Pai sparks debate between Lt General Prakash Menon and Ambassador Nirupama Menon Rao. You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app. You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.com/

In May 2018, President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi met in Wuhan for an informal summit that many said helped reset the relationship following the Doklam crisis. In this episode, Paul Haenle spoke with Rudra Chaudhuri, director of Carnegie India, and Srinath Raghavan, senior fellow at Carnegie India, about the state of China-India relations one year after Wuhan, as well as the implications of Trump’s “America First” policies on New Delhi-Beijing relations.

This episode explores the latest developments in China’s relationship with India, especially how the relationship has evolved since the Doklam border standoff in 2017. Our guest, Dr. Jagannath Panda, explains the lessons each side learned from the Doklam incident and evaluates Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s China policy. He also analyzes how India has attempted to avoid conflict with China, even as contentious issues persist such as border disputes, the Dalai Lama, and China’s expanding presence in the Indian Ocean.   Dr. Jagannath Panda is a Research Fellow and Coordinator of the East Asia Centre at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses in New Delhi, India. He has written extensively on East and South Asia as well as India-China relations. Dr. Panda has held fellowships at the Ministry of Unification (Republic of Korea), the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the Shanghai Institute of International Studies.

On November 16, Hudson Institute�s South and Central Asia Program hosted a discussion on India-China relations with Dr. Manoj Joshi.

On November 16, Hudson Institute�s South and Central Asia Program hosted a discussion on India-China relations with Dr. Manoj Joshi.

With the impeachment of Pakistani President Nawaz Sharif and India's preoccupation with the Doklam standoff, little of the national mindspace is being occupied by Pakistan. To weigh in on current relations with our western neighbour, Ambassador TCA Raghavan joins Hamsini Hariharan. Ambassador Raghavan is the former High Commissioner of India to Singapore and Pakistan. His second book, The People Next Door is an anecdotal chronicle of India s strange and often obsessive relationship with its neighbour. Have any follow up questions or comments? Tweet them to us at @HamsiniH or @zeusisdead. You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcast App on Android: https://goo.gl/tGYdU1 or iOS: https://goo.gl/sZSTU5 You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.com/

China and India share many historical similarities, as well as a complicated relationship shaped by political differences, growing economic ties, ongoing border disputes, and regional competition more generally. In this episode, Georgetown University Professor Oriana Skylar Mastro discusses the Sino-Indian relationship with CSCC Research Scholar Neysun Mahboubi, with particular attention to the recent Doklam standoff that was resolved in August 2017, as well as implications for U.S. security policy. The interview was recorded on September 27, 2017, in advance of Prof. Mastro's lecture at the Center for the Study of Contemporary China, on "Autocratic Underbalancing, Regime Legitimacy, and China’s Responses to India’s Rise." Oriana Skylar Mastro is an assistant professor of security studies at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where her research focuses on Chinese military and security policy, Asia-Pacific security issues, war termination, and coercive diplomacy. This year, she is a Jeanne Kirpatrick Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where she is working on a book about China's approach to global leadership. Prof. Mastro also continues to serve as an officer in the United States Air Force Reserve, for which she works as a Political Military Affairs Strategist at PACAF. You can read more about her work at https://www.orianaskylarmastro.com Music credit: "Salt" by Poppy Ackroyd, follow her at http://poppyackroyd.com  Special thanks to Itai Barsade, Kaiser Kuo, and Nick Marziani

On the 7th of October – Kazuo Ishiguro wins the 2017 Nobel Prize for literature, Chinese troops still in Doklam, Tropical storm Nate hits Mexico, Netflix hiked its prices to pay for more original content and the Mexico wall is actually going to be built!! Follow us on: FB: www.facebook.com/newspodcast/ TW: twitter.com/newsonthegoo SC: @ashwin-chhabria-764883296

Special guest Bhushan Shah returns to the show to talk nuclear power in energy, why we're faltering on our targets set in 1950 and the mysterious deaths of nuclear scientists. We also follow up on the end of the Doklam standoff with China. Recorded: 5 September 2017 **Follow up** * [India and China agree to disengage at Doklam](https://ekdrishti.in/india-china-agree-to-disengage-at-doklam-f430b2c211fa) * [106: India v China](http://talk.ekdrishti.in/e/355e634c9414beL/) * [DDNews India First: Doklam & after, BRICS](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V4CPflLFLpA) (aired 04 Sep 2017) **Nuclear Scenario in India** * [Niti Aayog Draft Policy on Nuclear Power](http://niti.gov.in/writereaddata/files/new_initiatives/NEP-ID_27.06.2017.pdf#page54) (completed public comment phase) * Kushal Mehra's Podcast: ‘[My conversation with Jaideep Prabhu](https://soundcloud.com/kushal-mehra-99891819/my-conversation-with-jaideep-prabhu)' * [List of nuclear scientists who died mysterious deaths](http://indiafacts.org/list-of-indian-nuclear-scientists-who-died-mysterious-deaths/) * GoI: [71 suicides 1995-2015 & 2 murders only](http://dae.nic.in/writereaddata/parl/budget2017/lsus5215.pdf) * [Who is killing India's nuclear scientists?](http://www.rediff.com/news/report/who-is-killing-indias-nuclear-scientists/20150106.htm)

Special guest Bhushan Shah returns to the show to talk nuclear power in energy, why we’re faltering on our targets set in 1950 and the mysterious deaths of nuclear scientists. We also follow up on the end of the Doklam standoff with China.

How do we stop urban flooding year after year? What is this mysteriously named pyjama-laadi scheme? Why should more Indians learn Mandarin? You'll find all this and more in episode 13 of the Pragati Podcast, where Pavan Srinath and Hamsini Hariharan sit down for a fortnightly catch-up. The episode also features a new segment called Cheat Sheet, which looks at innovative attempts to squander public money. In the second half, Hamsini talks to Dr Alka Acharya, one of the foremost Indian experts on China, and Pranay Kotasthane, the Head of Geostrategy at The Takshashila Institution, on why we need an overhaul in our approach towards China. You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcast App on Android: https://goo.gl/tGYdU1 or iOS: https://goo.gl/sZSTU5 You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.com/

AMTI director Gregory Poling speaks with CSIS experts Sarah Watson and Zack Cooper about the months-long standoff between India and China over the Doklam plateau. The conversation covers the origins of the conflict, the resolution of the current crisis, and how the lessons learned can be applied by other states facing Chinese coercion.

Special guest Bhushan Shah returns to the show to talk about everything China: the Doklam standoff and the larger implications of the Belt & Road Initiative.

On the 4th of August- War is not a solution to any problem: Sushma on Doklam row, Qatar passes landmark law to grant permanent residency, Auto industry is in difficult situation, says BMW CEO, Cisco boss would give India an 'A' for progress in last 3 yrs and Haryana bans govt teachers from taking mobiles to classes Follow us on: FB: www.facebook.com/newspodcast/ TW: twitter.com/newsonthegoo SC: @ashwin-chhabria-764883296