Today my guest is Gaurav Chiplunkar, who is an Assistant Professor in the Global Economies and Markets group at the Darden School of Business, University of Virginia.

We talked about labor market frictions in India, understanding the reasons for low female labor force participation in India, the importance of information flows and networks, the role of middlemen, and much more.

Recorded July 8th, 2026.

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Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:15 - Examining Female Labor Force Participation in India
00:08:38 - Broad Patterns in Female Employment
00:14:15 - Barriers to Entrepreneurship for Indian Women
00:21:50 - Well-Intended Labor Policy and Unintended Consequences
00:29:20 - Female Employment After Career Breaks
00:35:52 - Female Labor Force Participation and Economic Growth
00:46:02 - The Trouble with Piecemeal Reforms
00:50:40 - Frictions in the Job Market
00:57:04 - Rivalry, Information Flow, and the Nerd Effect
01:05:11 - Challenges to Placement and Retention
01:18:31 - On the Potential of Job Portals and Leapfrogging
01:27:08 - Defining the Goalposts
01:30:38 - Outro

Today my guests are my colleagues Shreyas Narla and Kadambari Shah. Shreyas is a research scholar and Kadambari is a research associate at the Mercatus Center with the India program. We talked about completing five years of the 1991 Project, how it started, it's scope, the oral histories of the reformers in 1991, papers, essays, fellowships and much more.

Recorded July 10th, 2026.

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Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:01:44 - The Origin Story

00:11:07 - Launching the Oral Histories Initiative

00:20:47 -Documentation and Memory

00:37:47 - Building the Repository

00:46:18 - The 1991 Project Website

00:58:11 - Walking with Giants

01:06:45 - Where are all the Women?

01:11:27 - Making Economic Reforms 'Sexy' Again

01:22:43 - The Importance of Intergenerational Interaction

01:34:33 - Incubating New Talent

01:41:39 - Gratitude and Acknowledgments

01:53:19 - Outro

Today my guest is M.R. Madhavan, co-founder and president of PRS Legislative Research.

We talked about the role and purpose of the Rajya Sabha, treatment of money bills in a Westminster system, how the anti-defection law and party whips have hollowed out parliamentary function, parliamentary procedure, the role of the governor, and much more.

Recorded June 24th, 2026.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro
(00:01:33) - The Role and Purpose of the Rajya Sabha
(00:14:46) - Money Bills, No-Confidence Motions, and Design Flaws
(00:22:47) - GST and Constitutional Design
(00:30:33) - One Country, One Tax System?
(00:35:31) - The Problem with Anti-Defection Laws and Whips
(00:43:55) - Who Will Bell the Cat?
(00:50:53) - Parliamentary Pressures: Constitutional vs. Constituent Expectations
(01:02:04) - Challenges Faced by State Legislatures
(01:15:37) - Reforming the Office of Governor
(01:27:18) - The Role of PRS in Parliamentary Functioning
(01:35:13) - Outro