All Things Policy
A daily podcast from the Takshashila Institution that breaks down complex economic and geopolitical ideas through the lens of current events. Each weekday, researchers explore topics such as automation, urban congestion, and shifting regional geopolitics. Designed for busy professionals and curious students alike, it offers accessible insights into global affairs.
Episodes
What If Your Biggest Launch Customer Is Yourself? | Space Launch 4
Rockets need things to launch. Increasingly, that demand comes from large satellite constellations whose spectrum and orbital filings are mediated by states. Lokendra Sharma and Ashwin Prasad Rao discuss how Starlink and China’s megaconstellations are reshaping launch demand, why orbital rights matter to launch capacity, and whether India can use its own emerging constellation plans to strengthen
Brahmaputra: The Risk of a River Changing Slowly
China’s mega-dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo has raised concerns about downstream risks for India. Beyond the prospect of sudden floods, how could gradual changes in river flows and sediment reshape the Brahmaputra and the lives that depend on it? In this episode of All Things Policy, Kavya Rai speaks with Dr Y. Nithiyanandam about Himalayan hazards, climate change and the implications of upstream deve
What Happens After a Rocket Fails? | Space Launch 3
Failure is an unavoidable part of developing launch vehicles, but not every launch company survives it. Lokendra Sharma and Ashwin Prasad Rao discuss why states sometimes continue supporting launch firms after expensive failures and sometimes allow them to disappear. Drawing on cases from the United States, China and elsewhere, they ask what India’s first serious private-launch failure will reveal
Laughs and SCO-ffs At Bishkek
In this episode of All Things Policy, Anisree Suresh sits with Manoj Kewalramani and Anushka Saxena to unpack the 26th SCO Summit. They analyse the key takeaways from the Summit and its Bishkek Declaration, the utility of the Organisation itself from an Indian perspective, and its wider impact on regional security and cooperation.All Things Policy is a daily podcast on public policy brought to you
What India Gains from BRICS and the SCO
India’s participation in BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation often appears contradictory. New Delhi shares the table with China, Russia, Iran and Pakistan even as it deepens ties with the United States, Europe and other Indo-Pacific partners. In this episode, Vanshika Saraf and Bhumika Sevkani examine what India actually gains from being on the table, where these groupings fall short,
NPC Watch: China's Defence in Jeopardy?
In this episode of 'All Things Policy', Aditi Palo quizzes Anushka Saxena on her takeaways from the recently concluded session of the 14th Standing Committee of the Chinese National People's Congress. They discuss the revisions to China's National Defence Mobilisation Law, removals of key members from the Central Military Commission, and the budget report introduced at the NPC sess
Reading the Himalayan Warning Signs
The devastating floods in Nepal are a reminder of how hazards in one part of the Himalayas can cascade into disasters hundreds of kilometres downstream. In this episode, Nithiyanandam Y, Head of Takshashila’s Geospatial Programme, speaks with Shreya Ramakrishnan about what triggered the recent disaster, what geospatial intelligence can tell us before such events occur, and how better observation,
Navigating the Ice Silk Road
A Chinese shipping company – Sea Legend- announced that it will be starting container shipping services between China’s east coast and the UK through the 'Ice Silk Road'. In this episode, Bhumika Sevkani and Anushka Saxena talk about the potential of the alternative route, the China-Russia partnership in the Arctic and the leverage that the Ice Silk Road could provide going ahead.Tune in t
What Does The Mecca Pact Actually Change?
What does the emerging Mecca Pact mean for regional security and, more crucially, for India? In this episode of All Things Policy, Research Analysts Aishwaria Sonavane and Adya Madhavan deliberate on the trilateral defence arrangement between Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Pakistan, analysing its capabilities, strategic asymmetries, and the gap between collective-defence commitments on paper and immedi
Semicon 2.0 Focuses on Getting India's Chip Design Game Right
On 31 August 2026, the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) notified Semicon 2.0 – Scheme for the development of Semiconductor Design and Manufacturing Ecosystem in India. To discuss the hits and misses of this new architecture, Pranay Kotasthane speaks to Sunil Acharya, Management Director of the Semiconductor Future Accelerator Lab Foundation (SFAL). Sunil breaks down the
You Can Have a Rocket and Still Lose Access to Space | Space Launch 2
A rocket is only useful if it has somewhere reliable to launch from. Lokendra Sharma and Ashwin Prasad Rao discuss how geography, launch ranges, sea launch and access to foreign spaceports shape national launch capacity. They also examine India’s dependence on Sriharikota, the role of Kulasekarapattinam, and whether Technology Safeguards Agreements and overseas launch sites could give India more r
Who Pays for Private Rockets? | Space Launch 1
Private rockets may be built by companies, but who gives them enough demand to survive and scale? Lokendra Sharma and Ashwin Prasad Rao discuss how government procurement has shaped launch capacity in the United States and China, why India has largely supported the supply of rockets rather than buying launches, and how anchor contracts could help build a stronger domestic launch industry.The discu
Should India Aspire to Have 15-Minute Cities?
A 15-minute city is an urban planning concept where all daily essential services are accessible within a 15-minute walk or bike ride from any resident's front door. Developed by Franco-Colombian scholar Carlos Moreno and popularised in Paris, the model aims to reduce car dependency, lower carbon emissions, and boost local quality of life. But would this concept play out well in the average Indian
How Is The Iran War Impacting US Midterms?
In this episode of All Things Policy, Vanshika Saraf and Abhishek Kadiyala examine what the war on Iran means for the November 2026 midterm elections in the U.S. The joint U.S. and Israeli strikes that began on 28 February 2026 have not become a campaign issue in their own right, with only 4 per cent of Americans naming foreign policy as their top concern by July. The conversation applies a test d
Where Will Future Growth Come From?
Since 1950, only a handful of countries have made the jump from poor to rich, and nearly all of them did it in a similar way. Put a lot of people in factories, sell cheap goods into open Western markets, and climb, one rung at a time, for forty years. Today, the tariff walls are going back up, the trade rulebook is fraying, and China sits on every rung of that ladder. The fashionable verdict is th
The Great Indian Tournament
In this episode, 'The Great Indian Tournament' — Only a few "win" India's white-collar job market while millions compete for a shrinking number of prizes. Sowmya Prabhakar & Shobhankita Reddy use tournament theory to figure out why India's middle class is hitting a breaking point. It points to real openings in the semiconductor design and entrepreneurship sectors whe
The State of Fiscal Decentralisation in Karnataka
Karnataka has long been seen as a leader in fiscal decentralisation, giving local governments both responsibilities and resources to deliver public services. But as the state urbanises rapidly, is this changing?In this episode of All Things Policy, Sarthak Pradhan speaks with Manisha Marulasiddappa from Janaagraha, co-author of the report A Slow Reversal of Karnataka’s Fiscal Decentralisation, to
Pakistan in the Middle: Mediating West Asia
Pakistan has emerged as an unlikely mediator in the conflict in West Asia, balancing its relationships with Iran, Saudi Arabia, the US and China. In this episode of All Things Policy, Suman Joshi speaks with Aishwaria Sonavane about what has enabled Pakistan to play this role, the limits of its diplomatic leverage, and what its growing relevance could mean for India. This is based on Aishwaria'
State Equity In AI Companies
In August, Sam Altman floated the idea of handing the US government about five per cent of OpenAI, dressed up as a sovereign wealth fund for ordinary Americans. Around the same time, and with far less noise, the Indian government moved towards taking a one to two per cent share in Sarvam, the Bengaluru startup building foundation models, in exchange for a compute subsidy under the IndiaAI mission.
Risk and Resilience: Built in Peacetime
Sooner or later, every country gets hit — a pandemic, a war, a shipping lane that closes, a bank that fails. And there is a comfortable belief in Indian public life that crisis is when things finally get fixed. 1991 is the proof, we tell ourselves. The fashionable verdict is that a crisis is an opportunity, and a terrible thing to waste. Is it?In this episode of Turbulence, Anupam Manur is joined
Why Swimming Is A Policy Issue
India recorded 38,503 drowning deaths in 2022, 9.1% of all accidental deaths in the country (source: NCRB). Yet swimming is still treated as a summer hobby for the urban few, not the public-health and sporting priority the numbers demand.On this episode of All Things Policy, Malathi Renati is in conversation with Hakimuddin Habibulla OLY, 2000 Sydney Olympian and founder of Swimming Matters, about
India’s Sovereign AI Stack: Beyond the GPU Race
India’s AI ambitions are often framed around chips, GPUs, and the race for cutting-edge models. But AI is much more than hardware. In this episode, Gopal Tomar and Dr Dheeraj Dwarakanath examine India’s AI stack from the ground up — from electricity, data centres, and semiconductor manufacturing to models, applications, languages, and digital public infrastructure.The discussion explores what “sov
Navigating India's Subsea Cable Governance
Subsea cables are the fibre-optic networks laid across the ocean floor that carry approximately 95% of all intercontinental digital communications, serving as the essential, yet often invisible, backbone of the modern global internet. In India, the subsea cable ecosystem is constrained by regulatory gaps, procurement hurdles, and structural commercial barriers, resulting in significant vulnerabili
FCRA: A Potential US-India Irritant?
In this episode of the All Things Policy podcast, Kavya Rai and Abhishek Kadiyala examine India's 2026 amendments to the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act and why a domestic funding law has drawn attention in Washington. The conversation frames the issue as a collision between Indian regulatory sovereignty and the rising force of religious-freedom politics in the United States. It traces the
China: Weaker at Home, Stronger Abroad?
China's population is shrinking. Its property sector has collapsed, and taken local government finances down with it. Prices at the factory gate have been falling for years. By most conventional measures, the Chinese economy is in real trouble. And yet, last October, China made a change to its rare-earth export licensing, which sent countries scampering to think about economic statecraft. How
"We Feel Free" — India's Geospatial Sector Since the 2022 Policy
Companies now tell Srikant Sastri that their chains have been removed. Dr Y. Nithiyanandam speaks with the GDPDC Chairman about whether that feeling amounts to an inflection point, what Operation Dronagiri proved in its pilot districts, where geospatial data pays off in agriculture, logistics and infrastructure; whether India can build sovereign capability in GeoAI and hardware; what students shou
Geospatial Technology and India's Monsoon Crisis
Geospatial data can predict where a flood will happen. Satellite imagery can identify vulnerable settlements before disaster strikes. Real-time mapping can guide evacuation decisions. India has all these tools. Yet our early warning systems remain fragmented, slow, and disconnected. In this episode of All Things Policy, host Kavya Rai sits with Dr Y. Nithiyanandam as he explains what needs to chan
Pakistan and the Taliban: From Allies to Adversaries
Five years since the Taliban's returned to power in Kabul, ties between Pakistan-Afghanistan have steadily deteriorated reaching a new low. In this episode of All Things Policy, Aishwaria Sonavane speaks to Islamabad-based scholar and investigative journalist Natasha Matloob about what went wrong between the traditional allies. They look beyond the capitals to understand how communities along
Indian Radius | Europe’s New Place in Indian Foreign Policy
In this episode of The Indian Radius series, Vanshika Saraf joins Shobhankita Reddy to examine the progress of the India–EU Trade and Technology Council. The discussion looks at cooperation on open source technologies, start-up ecosystems, critical minerals, and a prospective association with Horizon Europe. They also briefly discuss the Indian President’s visits to Moldova, North Macedonia and Ro
Sanctions and Economic Statecraft
More than a quarter of the world's countries now live under sanctions. They have become the West's instrument of choice—the thing governments reach for when war is unthinkable and doing nothing is unacceptable. Freeze the reserves, cut off the banks, choke the exports, and force a government to change course without firing a shot. The fashionable verdict, after Russia's economy failed
China Gives India "Strategic Breadcrumbs"
As India and China navigate the paradoxes of their post-Galwan ties, stressors ranging from Delhi-Washington ties to a competition over influence in the Indo-Pacific continue to plague a strategic "reset." In this episode of 'All Things Policy', Anushka Saxena quizzes Saheb Singh Chadha on his latest research paper explaining China's India policy of "Strategic breadcrumb
Aboard Starship, The Largest Rocket Ever
SpaceX, which has built the largest satellite internet constellation and has also made history with the largest IPO in the world is now testing the largest rocket ever developed. Recently, the Starship, as the rocket is being called, completed its 13th test flight. But what is Starship? What does its success mean for the space sector in the US and beyond? And, what does it mean for the space race?
Thorny Security Relations Between India and the US?
U.S. Under Secretary of War for Policy, Elbridge Colby, recently critiqued what he called a "collective “middle powers” strategy". In this episode, Kripa Koshy (Staff Programme Manager) sits down with Brigadier Anil Raman (Retd) (Head, Defence Fellowship Programme) to analyse the U.S.' shift toward a more transactional, burden-sharing approach to global security and examine how India can navigate
Can China's Open-Weight Models Help India's AI Sovereignty?
Last month, China hosted the ninth iteration of its World AI Conference in Shanghai. Chinese President Xi Jinping addressed the event for the first time in nine years, and teasing out his speech beyond the rhetoric leaves some important takeaways. Meanwhile, companies around the world are turning to open-weight models from China that increasingly deliver near-frontier capability at a fraction of t
Technology & Geo-Economic Disruption — The AI Shock
Artificial intelligence is being sold as the biggest economic shock in a generation, a productivity revolution that will decide which countries grow rich and which fall behind. The machinery of it has already become a contest of power: chips have become chokepoints, compute is rationed by export controls, and the routine coding and back-office work that lifted millions across the developing world
Whose Forest Is It Anyway?
The science of population biology and the coexistence debate with predators, how protected areas actually get expanded and monitored on the ground, and whose voices are heard in that process. This episode walks us through the science, the governance mechanics, and the on-the-ground reality of making any of this actually work.All Things Policy is a daily podcast on public policy brought to you by t
The Hidden Government Debt
Governments can make debt less visible, but they can't make it disappear. In this episode of All Things Policy, Kripa Koshy speaks with Sarthak Pradhan about off-budget borrowing - the incentives that drive it, its implications for public finances and democratic accountability. Drawing on examples from across India, they explore why these liabilities matter and discuss reforms that could bring
India-UK Trade Deal
India and the UK have signed a landmark trade agreement—but what does it really mean? In this episode, Anisree Suresh and Suman Joshi discuss the contours of the recently signed India-UK CETA. In addition to unpacking the key provisions of the India–UK CETA, who stands to gain, what was left out, we also try to understand the changing nature of FTAs and why issues like carbon border taxes and indu
The New Phase of Conflict in West Asia
In this episode of All Things Policy, Aishwaria Sonavane speaks with Raja Karthikeya about the second phase of the US–Iran military conflict and its wider implications. The conversation examines India’s role, the opening of a new front involving the Houthis and Saudi Arabia, and the future of the US military presence in the Gulf.All Things Policy is a daily podcast on public policy brought to you
The Future of Money
The US dollar sits at the centre of almost everything from the reserves of central banks, the pricing of oil to the settlement of cross-border debt. Lately that centre looks less solid: central banks are stockpiling gold, countries are settling trade in their own currencies, digital money is spreading, and there's open talk of payment systems built to bypass the dollar altogether. Is the dolla
Win-Win Energy Policy
Public conversation about energy and climate tends to default to a sense of unavoidable trade-offs, where every gain is assumed to carry an equal and offsetting loss. India's own record complicates that pessimism. Fly ash, once a disposal problem piling up in ash ponds beside thermal plants, now moves into cement, bricks, and roads. Clean cooking gas has reached households that had never had a
MilTech and the Governance of Future Wars
As the wars in Ukraine and Iran have evolved, military technologies ranging from drones and lethal autonomous weapons are becoming a matter of great debate across global platforms. In this episode of 'All Things Policy', Manoj Harjani from RSIS, Singapore, sheds light on how military technologies are shaping procurement policies and how global governance debates on LAWS and military AI are attempt
Tech Sovereignty, Geopolitics, and Open Source
In this episode, Shobhankita Reddy, research analyst at the Takshashila Institution, and Sai Rahul Poruri, CEO of the FOSS United Foundation, sit down to unpack the nuances of tech sovereignty, arguing that it is not about absolute self-sufficiency, but rather about having the freedom to choose and avoiding proprietary vendor lock-in. They discuss ways in which the open source ecosystem can help s
NGO Service Delivery And Civic Society Partnerships
Host Malathi Renati sits down with Ankita J Chakkraborty (Trustee & Treasurer, Avant Welfare Foundation) to unpack how NGOs actually deliver services on the ground and what real partnership with government looks like, beyond the funding buzzwords.We cover the fragmented NGO landscape (3M+ registered NGOs, one of the largest non-profit ecosystems globally), the compliance runway for young NGOs
Tariffs and Trade Disruption — Trump and Beyond
Tariffs are back, industrial policy is fashionable again, and over the past year the United States, the country that helped build and maintain the open trading system, has spent its energy tearing holes in it, taxing allies and rivals alike. The popular verdict in India is grim: a global trade war is on, the rules-based order is finished, and we are caught in the crossfire. But is that really what
India's Water Troubles
From the Indus Waters Treaty to the Brahmaputra's origins on the Tibetan Plateau, India's water security sits at the intersection of climate stress, outdated irrigation infrastructure, and some of the most contested river systems in the world. In this episode of All Things Policy, Adya Madhavan sits down with Maj Gen Akash Kaushik, author of India's Water Security: Threats, Strategies
Fuel For Thought
In this episode of All Things Policy, Anisree Suresh and Bhumika Sevkani critically examine the Ethanol Blending Programme as India’s long-term strategy. They unpack the complexities of the entire supply chain, from the impact of Fair and Remunerative Prices (FRP) to stifled innovation in agriculture on the ethanol supply chain. To read more about this, please visit and subscribe https://thebiolog
Geospatial Intelligence for Disaster Resilience
India experiences a cycle of disasters throughout the year—from scorching heatwaves and droughts to floods, landslides, cyclones, and glacial hazards. Can technology help us anticipate these risks before they become catastrophes? In this episode of All Things Policy, Kavya Rai speaks with Prof. Y. Nithiyanandam about how satellites, GIS, remote sensing, and geospatial intelligence are reshaping di
The Indian Radius: Endurance of the Indo-Pacific
July has been an exceptionally busy month for Indian diplomacy. PM Modi embarked on a three-nation tour of Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, NATO leaders gathered for their annual summit. Join Vanshika Saraf and Amit Kumar as they assess each of these meetings and their importance. They also explore the growing—yet often incomplete—alignment between I
Disruption in the Global Economic Order — Bretton Woods No More
For eighty years, a single architecture has run the global economy with important institutions at the helm, including the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO, and the US dollar at the centre of it all. Today, that architecture is under more strain than at any point in living memory: tariff walls are rising, finance is being turned into a weapon, and supply chains are being torn up and re-stitched along t
Beyond Talks or No Talks: Rethinking India-Pakistan Engagement
Kavya Rai sits down with Aishwaria Sonavane (Pakistan Studies) and Raja Karthikeya (West Asia Studies, UN peace mediation veteran) to unpack why India's Pakistan policy has stayed more consistent than it gets credit for, why the current diplomatic freeze runs deeper than past standoffs, and why grand gestures keep failing while quiet back-channels persist. All Things Policy is a daily podcast
The Trap of Unenforceable Rights
The Supreme Court's recent recognition of the right to walk as a fundamental right has been celebrated as a landmark victory for pedestrians in India. In this episode of All Things Policy, Sowmya Prabhakar and Shreya Ramakrishnan examine the current state of India's footpaths, the competing interests and governance challenges that shape them, and the gap between constitutional ideals and a
When Companies Go to War
Wars were once fought with hardware that governments owned. Today, some of the most vital assets in warfighting belong to private companies. Ashwin Prasad Rao and Abhishek Kadiyala discuss how militaries are drafting commerce into war and what that means for the companies, the battlefield, and India.Explore the strategic side of space with Takshashila's Expert Capsule Course on Space Power: ht
The Indian Radius: Flowers are Blooming
In this episode of All Things Policy, titled "Flowers are Blooming" - a phrase dating back to a discreet, bloodless Indian naval operation in the Seychelles that marked an early milestone in India’s role as a regional security provider - Vanshika Saraf and Anisree Suresh delve deep into India’s strategic relationships blossoming across the globe. Together, they critically analyse the lat
The On/Off Switch for Frontier AI
In June 2026, two of the world's most powerful AI models were pulled off the shelf by government directive and then switched back on two weeks later, just as abruptly. In this episode, Shobhankita Reddy and Bharath Reddy discuss what the Fable 5 saga reveals about how Washington and Beijing actually think about artificial intelligence. Recommended readings:https://indianexpress.com/article/op
The Advance of China's Arms
Beijing’s rise as a major arms exporter and the internal and external deficiencies in its arms trade engagements present the paradox at the heart of China's military-industrial statecraft. In this episode of 'All Things Policy', Bhumika Sevkani quizzes Anushka Saxena on how China got catapulted to the position of the 5th largest arms exporter in the world, how well its weapons have wor
Energy Realism for India
Amidst the escalating conflict in West Asia and the resulting constriction of oil and gas supply, the urgency to deploy renewable energy for enhanced energy security has grown. However, emerging economies like India must adopt a pragmatic approach to reconcile their increasing energy demands with their decarbonisation commitments.Join Bhumika Sevkani, Research Analyst with the Geostrategy Programm
Two Tigers, One Mountain: Understanding China and Japan's Rivalry
How should we understand the growing rivalry between two 'tigers', Japan and China? The tension between both countries reached a critical point following Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae’s November 2025 declaration that a Chinese attack on Taiwan constitutes a "survival-threatening situation". Such developments, inter alia, demonstrate how Japan's military and diplomatic engage
4 I's of 2026 US Mid-terms
With the U.S. midterm elections on 3 November 2026 fast approaching, voter sentiment has crystallised around four overlapping national fault lines: inflation, institutional trust, the Iran war, and immigration. In this episode of All Things Policy, Bhumika Sevkani is joined by Abhishek Kadiyala to examine how each of these pressures is reshaping the congressional battleground and what they collect
Are All Minerals Critical In The Same Way?
India lists 51 minerals in its critical mineral list. This is 67% of all commercially mined minerals. And globally too, critical mineral lists are swelling.But not all critical minerals are critical in the same way. In any case, if 2/3rds of the periodic table is deemed critical, this strips any nuance for informed policy action and mineral prioritisation.In this episode of All Things Policy, Tann
Rich Capitals, Richer Commitments?
The G7 summit recently unfolded in France, bringing together rich democracies across the either sides of the Atlantic that also included Japan (the only G7 member from Asia) and invitees like India. But what did the summit achieve in the current turbulent geopolitical context? In this episode of All Things Policy, tech geopolitics researcher Lokendra Sharma is joined by Anushka Saxena, Takshashila
Critical Minerals Partnerships
On May 26th, India and the US signed a bilateral critical minerals framework; the same day, the QUAD unveiled a $20 billion initiative spanning mining, processing and recycling of critical minerals. These join a growing list of critical mineral partnerships like the FORGE, Pax Silica, the bilateral TRUST and the Strategic Mineral Recovery Initiative.Shobhankita Reddy and Tannmay Baid, researchers
China's Legal Architecture of Economic Statecraft
What are the complex web of regulations driving China's economic statecraft? Set against the backdrop of intensifying US-China technological competition and the race for frontier AI models, Kripa Koshy (Staff Programme Manager) and Amit Kumar (Staff Research Analyst, Geostrategy Programme) explore how Beijing is systematically codifying its ability to use its economy for geopolitical leverage.
The Paradox of Pakistan’s Kashmir Narrative
As Pakistan gains diplomatic attention in West Asia, unrest has intensified in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, exposing the deeper questions about the region's governance, representation, and political marginalisation. In this episode, Aishwaria Sonavane is joined by Malik Moin Abbas to understand the roots of the protests, the controversy over reserved seats, and the gap between Pakistan’s interna
The Indian Radius: New Actors, Old Neighbourhood
The past couple of weeks have been interesting and eventful in terms of India’s foreign policy visits. From Myanmar, Nepal, Venezuela to the UK, France, Slovakia and the G7, Indian diplomats have been busy hosting and traversing the world.Join Vanshika Saraf and Anisree Suresh as they assess the various agendas behind each meeting, outcomes achieved, and the different approaches used to advance In
How Can Biotechnology Strengthen Military Resilience?
Biotechnology is more likely to shape warfare through improvements in health protection, sensing, and distributed manufacturing than through exotic ‘super soldier’ technologies. In this episode, Shambhavi Naik discusses with Sarthak Pradhan how biotechnology can make a difference at the individual soldier, operational unit, and theatre levels. The episode is based on Shambhavi's recent paper
Japan’s Defence Transformation
Japan spent most of the last eighty years as the textbook case of a pacifist state. A constitution that renounces war, a one percent cap on defence spending, a ban on selling weapons abroad. That picture is now changing fast. Tokyo has built counterstrike missiles, started exporting lethal equipment, and set out to double its defence budget. Join Arindam Goswami and Vanshika Saraf in this episode
India's Orbit Problem Isn't Pakistan
A recent investigation argues that Pakistan, with Chinese support, has rapidly expanded its Earth-observation satellite network, creating the ability to monitor Indian territory with increasing frequency. At the same time, India is building its own ambitious space-based surveillance architecture. So what should we really be worried about? Is this a story about satellites? About data? About militar
How Securitised is the Quad?
How relevant or securitised is the Quad? Is the Quad doing enough? These are recurrent questions that dominate the narrative around the grouping. When the foreign ministers of the four countries gathered recently for their 11th meeting in New Delhi, these questions again made headlines. And the criticism isn’t without substance.Tune in to this episode of ATP, where Bhumika Sevakani is joined by Am
India’s Push for Drone Procurement
After Operation Sindoor, there was a significant push to increase the use of drones in India’s military operations. Since then, drones have been used extensively in conflicts globally, giving us a chance to see how they can be deployed and a front-row seat to the rapid evolution of drone technology. In light of the pace of these developments, Adya Madhavan and Ashwin Prasad Rao unpack the unique c
Why India Hit Pause on Starlink
Days before SpaceX's record-breaking IPO, India froze Starlink's launch in the country. In this episode, hosted by Adya Madhavan, Ashwin Prasad Rao, co-author of the Takshashila Institution's April paper "Starlink and Risks for India", explains what satellite internet actually is, and why the world's most impressive constellation comes with a problem no regulation can fix
Street Dogs: Public Safety or State Failure?
India has 3.7 million dog bites a year. It accounts for 36% of global rabies deaths. In May 2026, the Supreme Court ruled that civic authorities may euthanise rabid or demonstrably aggressive stray dogs, calling the right to walk public spaces without fear a fundamental right under Article 21. Is this a landmark ruling or a shortcut that papers over 65 years of governance failure?Malathi Renati (T
Heat: An Invisible Threat to National Security
In this episode, host Devyani Rao interviews Dr Y. Nithyanandam, professor and head of the Geospatial Research Program at the Takshashila Institution, about one of India's most underestimated policy challenges: extreme heat.They explore why heat is a spatial problem, the gaps in India's heat action plans, and how geospatial intelligence can better protect vulnerable communities, making the
India’s West Asian War Tightrope
When the US and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran in late February 2026, India's abstract strategic interests in West Asia transformed into an immediate, high-stakes emergency. With nine million nationals in the Gulf, forty billion dollars in annual remittances on the line, and oil prices surging past a hundred and twenty dollars a barrel, New Delhi found itself walking a razor-thin
India-China Cooperation on Climate Adaptation
Can India and China cooperate on climate change despite ongoing geopolitical tensions? In this episode of All Things Policy, Bhumika Sevkani, Research Analyst at the Takshashila Institution, is joined by Pooja Ramamurthi and Shruti Jargad from the Centre for Social and Economic Progress, to explore the prospects for climate and clean energy cooperation between the world’s two largest developing ec
The Strait and Narrow
The Strait of Hormuz has become central to global conversations with the War in West Asia and Iran’s closure of the Strait. Global supplies of oil and other commodities such as Urea and petrochemicals hang in the balance. Iran continues to control the flow of tankers and ships despite an American counter-blockade. Why is the Strait so hard to navigate and control? In this episode of All Things Pol
Industrialising Sugarcane
In this episode of All Things Policy, Anwesha Sen and Anisree Suresh examine the draft sugarcane (control) order 2026 released by the Department of Food and Public Distribution against India’s US$ 300 billion bioeconomy aspirations. They discuss the definitional changes in the draft and the impact of price controls and spatial monopolies on the bioeconomy sector. To read more about this, subscribe
Reading the Quad Between the Lines
In this episode, Brigadier Anil Raman (Retd), Lokendra Sharma and Ashwin Prasad Rao sit down to make sense of the Quad partnership that's sending confusing signals. The Quad foreign ministers met in New Delhi on 26 May, but the optics were hard to read: no leaders' summit, Trump fresh off calling Xi a "great leader" in Beijing, and a year of tariffs on America's own partners.
The Indian interest in US-China AI Chips Tango
Should the US sell advanced AI chips to China? This is a question that has animated US technological and political circles for years now. But looking beyond the US-China tango, what is the Indian interest in all of this? Given India’s strengths in the applications layer, which shape and form of the global AI landscape would maximise New Delhi’s options? To unpack answers to these questions, tech g
Governing AI Distillation
Chinese AI labs stand accused of distilling frontier models from American AI companies. The concern has escalated fast, with a new executive order calling for action against adversarial distillation. Anwesha and Bharath are joined by Anthropic's Claude to make the case for and against the crackdown.If questions around AI geopolitics and governance interest you as well, join our 5-week Politics
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