Indian Political Economy
In 1950, Indians embraced the political freedoms guaranteed by their Constitution. In 1991, Indians took a giant leap toward economic freedom by liberalizing large parts of India’s controlled economy. Preserving and enhancing these freedoms is today’s challenge.
This program engages with the ideas and importance of these economic and political freedoms, through academic research, policy outreach and advocacy, mentoring, public engagement and communication, and by building a network of academic scholars, technocrats, policymakers, entrepreneurs, and students.
India experienced tremendous economic growth in the last three decades, lifting over a quarter of a billion people out of extreme poverty. However, substantial challenges remain as Indians face flagging economic growth, inadequate access to education and healthcare, environmental degradation, social and economic disenfranchisement of various groups, corruption, stifled entrepreneurship, and lack of state capacity. Our mission is to foster a deeper understanding of the structural issues in India’s democratic politics, constitutional constraints, and markets, that stand in the way of a freer and more prosperous India.
Ideas of India Podcast is a fortnightly podcast hosted by Dr Shruti Rajagopalan. She engages top thinkers working on Indian political economy, history, culture, and beyond to examine the ideas that can propel India forward.
The podcast also provides, for doctoral and postdoctoral candidates working on the most pressing questions facing India, a platform to present their research to a wider audience.
The 1991 Project is an effort to revive the discourse on economic growth-centered reforms in India by focusing on economic ideas. Our team will publish essays, data visualizations, lecture series, podcasts, and policy papers demystifying the Indian economy in the coming months. It will also create a public history repository comprising policy documents, event timelines, and biographical accounts of the reformers who made these changes possible.
Oral Histories Initiative: An important part of The 1991 Project is to understand the political economy of policy reforms. It is essential to preserve the institutional memory of the active participants in the process to understand and learn how India might continue to address its structural problems. Our goal is to speak with the technocrats, bureaucrats, politicians, and economists, who worked on India’s liberalization and record their experiences in the form of oral histories.
Latest work in Indian Political Economy
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
Padma Desai, Economist, 1931-2023 | The Financial Times
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
Sajith Pai on Startups and Venture Capital
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
Chakravarthi Rangarajan on Monetary Policy After Liberalization
- | Podcast Appearance Podcast Appearance
Ideas of India: Monetary Policy After Liberalization | Ideas of India
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu S. Jaitley on Individuals and the Indian State
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
Ideas of India: Individuals and the Indian State
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
Nitin Pai on Educating Citizens
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
Alain Bertaud on Order Without Design
- | Housing Housing
- | Podcast Appearance Podcast Appearance
Ideas of India: Order Without Design
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
Poornima Dore on Regional Economic Diversity
- | Podcast Appearance Podcast Appearance
Ideas of India: Regional Economic Diversity
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
Nikhil Menon on Planning Democracy
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
Nirupama Menon Rao on South Asian Identity
Latest work in Indian Political Economy
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
Padma Desai, Economist, 1931-2023 | The Financial Times
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
Sajith Pai on Startups and Venture Capital
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
Chakravarthi Rangarajan on Monetary Policy After Liberalization
- | Podcast Appearance Podcast Appearance
Ideas of India: Monetary Policy After Liberalization | Ideas of India
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
Pranay Kotasthane and Raghu S. Jaitley on Individuals and the Indian State
- | Expert Commentary Expert Commentary
Ideas of India: Individuals and the Indian State
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
Nitin Pai on Educating Citizens
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
Alain Bertaud on Order Without Design
- | Housing Housing
- | Podcast Appearance Podcast Appearance
Ideas of India: Order Without Design
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
Poornima Dore on Regional Economic Diversity
- | Podcast Appearance Podcast Appearance
Ideas of India: Regional Economic Diversity
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
Nikhil Menon on Planning Democracy
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
Nirupama Menon Rao on South Asian Identity
Latest work in Indian Political Economy
- | Housing Housing
- | Podcast Appearance Podcast Appearance
Ideas of India: Order Without Design
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
Poornima Dore on Regional Economic Diversity
- | Podcast Appearance Podcast Appearance
Ideas of India: Regional Economic Diversity
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
Nikhil Menon on Planning Democracy
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
Nirupama Menon Rao on South Asian Identity
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
Janhavi Nilekani on Maternal Healthcare and Evidence-Based Decision-Making
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
2022 in Review
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
Shweta Banerjee on Decentralized Currency and the East India Company
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
Mahima Vasishth on the Role of Media in Judicial Outcomes of Sexual Harassment Cases
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
Khusdeep Malhotra on Sikh Identity in Kashmir
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
Anoop Jain on Sanitation and Infrastructure in India
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
Aliz Tóth on State-Society Bargaining over Land Acquisition in India
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
Raahil Madhok on the Development-Biodiversity Tradeoff in India
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
Nishant Vats on The Impact of Income Guarantee on Farm Incomes in India
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
A Conversation on Talent
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
Mark Koyama and Jared Rubin on How the World Became Rich
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India
Jennifer Murtazashvili on The Future of Afghanistan
- | Podcast Appearance Podcast Appearance
Ashwini Deshpande on Gender and Caste Discrimination and Affirmative Action in India | Ideas of India
- | Mercatus Original Podcasts Mercatus Original Podcasts
- | Ideas of India Ideas of India