Shows
In Focus by The HinduWhat does Kerala’s Zero Extreme Poverty announcement really meanKerala has declared that it has “eradicated extreme poverty,” identifying over one lakh people as the final few remaining in this category in the State. But what does “extreme poverty” actually mean, and is it possible for a State to eradicate it?
This episode unpacks the definitions, the methodology used by the State, the gap between Kerala’s estimates and the Central government’s Antyodaya Anna Yojana’s numbers, and the wider questions this raises about poverty measurement and verification. The conversation also looks at whether States should set their own criteria, what an ideal poverty...
2025-11-2528 min
Class UnityVijay Prashad on Imperialism and the Contemporary Left | Q&A w/ Class Unity on “Washington Bullets”Vijay Prashad talks with Class Unity about the politics and economics of imperialism as well as issues with the contemporary left. He is the author of many books, including: (2011) Marx’s Capital: An Introductory Reader. Contributed by Vijay Prashad, Venkatesh Athreya, Prasenjit Bose, Prabhat Patnaik, Jayati Ghosh, T. Jayaraman, R. Ramakumar. LeftWord.(2015) Letters to Palestine. […]
2025-09-291h 29
Class UnityVijay Prashad on Imperialism and the Contemporary Left | Q&A w/ Class Unity on “Washington Bullets”Vijay Prashad talks with Class Unity about the politics and economics of imperialism as well as issues with the contemporary left.
He is the author of many books, including:
(2011) Marx’s Capital: An Introductory Reader. Contributed by Vijay Prashad, Venkatesh Athreya, Prasenjit Bose, Prabhat Patnaik, Jayati Ghosh, T. Jayaraman, R. Ramakumar. LeftWord.(2015) Letters to Palestine. Verso Books.(2017) Will the Flower Slip Through the Asphalt: Writers Respond to Climate Change. New Delhi: LeftWord Books.(2019) Red Star Over the Third World. Pluto Press.(2020) Washington Bullets. New Delhi: LeftWord Books.(2022) Struggle Makes Us Hu...
2025-09-291h 29
More Than: A PodcastEpisode 6 - Builders: BeaversEpisode 6 Synopsis- In this episode, Emily tells a terrific story about parachuting beavers and asks us to think about all the ways these animals have helped to build (literally and figuratively) the Mountain West. She and Michelle are then joined by animal rights lawyer Asha Ramakumar and New York Times bestselling author of Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America, Leila Philip. This episode is a little longer because we were having just too much fun conversing with Asha and Leila. And we have fewer sources to list below because most of the episode...
2025-04-0258 min
Parley by The HinduIs the Centre being iniquitous in State transfers?Opposition leaders have termed the 2024-25 Budget as the “Kursi Bachao Budget.” Chief Ministers have boycotted and walked out the NITI Aayog meeting chaired by the Prime Minister.There are allegations that Centre is discriminating against non-NDA States. This has renewed the interest in the debate about how resources are distributed amongst States.Here we discuss whether the Centre is being iniquitous in State transfers.Guests: Pinaki Chakraborty is visiting distinguished professor, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi; R Ramakumar teaches at the School of Development Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumba...
2024-08-011h 09
Frontline on AirInheritance taxes: A key step towards reducing economic inequalityGain insights into wealth inequality in India, the role of inheritance tax, and its impact on resources and entrepreneurship through R. Ramakumar's analysis in this thought-provoking article. Ramakumar navigates through the complexities of economic disparity and policy considerations, offering valuable perspectives on wealth redistribution and economic opportunities. This story provides nuanced insights into addressing wealth inequality and fostering a more equitable economic landscape.
2024-05-1815 min
Vitral Tamil PodcastThe Art of Ad Filmmaking: A Conversation with Krishnakumar RamakumarIn this episode of the Vitral Tamil Podcast, host Sharavana Raghavan engages in an enlightening conversation with Krishna, an accomplished actor, writer, and ad-film director. Krishna, the visionary behind Black Box Films, unravels his journey into the realm of ad filmmaking and the inspiration behind his creative venture.
This episode is a goldmine for young marketers and advertising enthusiasts keen to understand the intricacies of ad film production. Sharavana skillfully guides the discussion through Krishna's multi-faceted career, exploring the delicate art of balancing brand messages with engaging and original content.
2024-01-311h 10
Leaving ToxicS1 Ep21 - When Your Culture Is Toxic w/Shweta RamkumarIn a world where we're constantly celebrating cultural diversity, it's high time we address the not-so-great aspects that sometimes come along for the ride.
Shweta Ramakumar joins me as the guest of this episode to discuss how she dealt with this in her own Southern Asian culture. Shweta is a proud childfree millennial business owner who embraces her individuality in this world and speaks out loudly against oppressive traditions of all kinds.
We dive into the expectations of gender, the preference for fair skin, and alienation from one's own community. We'll also explore how to...
2023-10-031h 08
INSPIRE-ing Energy TalksINSPIRE-ing Energy Talks: Ep. 4 - Ethanol blending in gasoline and beyond: the case of India
In this episode on ethanol blending in gasoline, focusing on the case of India, SGS INSPIRE senior market analyst, interviews Dr. Ramakumar, former R&D Director and Board member of Indian Oil.
Together, they explore the reasons for India’s decision to start blending ethanol in gasoline in 2003, following Brazil’s path.
They discuss the current level of ethanol in India’s gasoline and the feasibility of India’s target for an average of 20% of ethanol penetration by April 1, 2025.They also look into the various ethanol feedstocks available to India, the domestic ethanol production and other ty...
2023-09-1141 min
NL HaftaChota Hafta 374This week on NL Hafta, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal, Manisha Pande and Jayashree Arunachalam are joined by professor, writer and economist R Ramakumar and journalist Puja Mehra.To listen to the full episode, subscribe to Newslaundry. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
2022-04-0228 min
The Times Of India PodcastLong queues and rage in Sri LankaJournalist Aisha Nazim explains what it's like living through Sri Lanka's rolling power cuts and fuel shortages, while TISS's R Ramakumar explains the economic policies that have brought the island to this point
2022-03-3128 min
F+L WebcastConversation with IndianOil’s R&D Director Dr. SSV RamakumarIndian Oil Corp. (IndianOil), a Fortune 500 company, remains a clear lubricants market leader in India, three decades after India deregulated its lubricants market. In this interview, Dr. SSV Ramakumar describes his journey from a young chemist fresh from obtaining his doctorate in chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology-Roorkee to becoming the esteemed director of R&D, as well as Planning & Business Development, at IndianOil.
In 1992, IndianOil had to protect its market share from private players and multinational oil companies who re-entered the Indian lubricants market following deregulation. “Everybody’s gain was our loss. They were eating from o...
2022-03-0140 min
Cultured, or Nah?S3 E3: Perceptions of DivorceIn this episode Shabnum talks to Sabrina Lakhani and Malini Ramakumar Bartels. Sabrina is a behavioral scientist who specializes in helping people learn how best to navigate their own attachment styles in relationships. Having gone through a divorce herself, Sabrina shares the common pitfalls that South Asians may fall into due to cultural expectations and the marriages they would have observed of their own parents growing up. Malini is a 46 year old mother of two who shares more about her own journey growing up as a Gen X South Asian in the 80s and the experiences she's had with...
2021-06-1459 min
The Conversation WeeklyWhy India's COVID-19 vaccine rollout is falteringAs India’s COVID-19 crisis continues, we look at what’s holding back the country's vaccination rollout and how a shift in distribution and pricing strategy is causing concern. And we speak to a researcher who went hunting for fungi in the world's largest seed bank. Listen to episode 15 of The Conversation Weekly podcast.The Conversation is a non-profit organisation. If you're able to support what we do, please consider donating here. Thank you.India's catastrophic COVID-19 crisis shows little sign of improving. By early May, just over 2% of India's population had been fully vaccinated agains...
2021-05-1337 min
Chayakkada ChatsWhy should Covid19 vaccines be exempted from IPRs? with Dr Arjun JayadevThere is a major debate over intellectual property rights and life-saving medicines, particularly Covid19 vaccines. One year has passed since the pandemic broke out. On the one hand, we have only a handful of vaccines. On the other hand, more than 80% of the world’s vaccines have gone to people in high-income countries, and just 0.3% to people in low-income countries. A major campaign for a "people's vaccine" is now ongoing, which asks for exemption of COVID-19 vaccines from IP protections. They say that removing IPRs would incentivise new producers and help address disparities in vaccine access. But proponents of IPRs ar...
2021-04-3037 minChayakkada ChatsS1:E9: "On the Second Wave of Covid-19 Infections in India", with Dr T. SundararamanWelcome to Episode number 9 at Chayakkada Chats. Just as everyone thought that the Covid crisis was on the ebb, a second wave of infections has spread across large parts of the world. India has been no exception. As of today, we record more than 200,000 infections every day with the total number of active cases at 1.6 million. About 175,000 people have died till now. As we stare at the grim prospect of another lockdown, it is important to ask a few basic questions. How is the second wave different from the first wave?
Has India learnt anything from the first wave?
What...
2021-04-1751 min
It's Kritikal! by Kritika SinghS01E12 Farms Bill 2020 - India x Dr. R. Ramakumar and Kritika SinghOn the 26th of November 2020, a coalition of farmers and workers marched to New Delhi for voicing their demands. These farmers were and still are protesting against the Farms Bill passed by the government of India in 2020. But why were these farmers protesting against these bills? What are these 3 bills? In this episode of It’s Kritikal! Agriculture Economist Dr. R. Ramakumar is here to shed light on the three bills and what these bills mean for our farmers, citizens and the nation.
Follow Dr. R. Ramakumar on Twitter here: @ramakumarr
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on Instagram here: @itskritikalpodcast
on Twitter he...
2021-03-2947 min
DailypodWhat are the farmers’ groups big concerns over the new reforms, and how can the government negotiate? | The Hindu In Focus podcast Podcast: In Focus by The Hindu (LS 48 · TOP 1% what is this?)Episode: What are the farmers’ groups big concerns over the new reforms, and how can the government negotiate? | The Hindu In Focus podcastPub date: 2020-12-03Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationThis podcast was recorded on December 3, amid the continuing standoff between farmers’ groups and the Central government in Delhi and its fourth round of talks with not just Punjabi and Haryanvi farmers, but representatives from other parts of the country too. The far...
2020-12-0428 minChayakkada ChatsThe Political Message from the Bolivian Elections of 2020, with Sonya Surabhi GuptaLast week, in a historic event, the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), the party of Evo Morales, was returned to power by the people of Bolivia. Evo Morales was the President of Bolivia from 2006 till 2019. In October 2019, though he had conclusively won the elections, he was forced to flee the country by the military and forces aligned to the CIA and the OAS. They argued that the elections were rigged. But it was nothing but a coup. Morales has been living in Mexico and Argentina since 2019. But the October 2020 elections have shown that the verdict of 2019 was not rigged. Loius Arce...
2020-10-2739 minChayakkada ChatsTalking about Hathras, rape and caste: With Subhashini AliOn 14 September 2020, a 19-year-old Dalit woman was gang-raped in the Hathras district of the Uttar Pradesh State in India, allegedly by four upper caste men. After fighting for her life for two weeks, she died in a hospital in Delhi. No arrests were made in the first 10 days after the incident took place. After her death, the victim was forcibly cremated by the police without the consent of her family. The case and its subsequent handling has received widespread media attention and condemnation from across India. To speak about the incident, we are joined by Subhashini Ali. Subhashini Ali is...
2020-10-0738 minChayakkada ChatsRandomised Control Trials in Economics: Credibility Revolution or Crisis? With Sanjay ReddyWelcome to Episode 6 at Chayakkada Chats. Today, we will speak about the use of randomised control trials or RCTs in economics. In 2019, the Nobel Committee awarded the “Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2019” to three economists – Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer – for their contributions to the experimental approach to alleviating global poverty. For a while prior to this award, and most certainly afterwards, there have been many debates on whether the RCTs have made a deserving contribution to the field of development economics, and specifically poverty alleviation. While its proponents celebrate the award, serious...
2020-09-041h 24Chayakkada ChatsEconomics and it's Foundational Dilemmas: with J. Mohan Rao, EconomistToday, we speak about the future of economics as a subject in a post-Covid world with Dr J. Mohan Rao, a renowned economist. In this conversation, Mohan talks to me about his long journey in economics as a researcher and teacher, and the way he has seen the subject of economics evolving. He speaks about the evolution of the subject of economics, how the class struggle in the society has influenced the way the subject of economics shifted grounds by the late-19th and early-20th centuries, the split between political economy and economics, why he remains underwhelmed by the...
2020-08-151h 25Chayakkada ChatsKerala and the "Room for the River" Project in the Netherlands: with Paul van MeelWe all remember the
heavy floods that the state of Kerala in India experienced in 2018
and another relatively milder one in 2019. This year too, Kerala has
witnessed heavy rainfall and some extreme rainfall
events. One of the regions in Kerala acutely affected by the floods is
the Kuttanad region in the Alappuzha district, which is
globally well known for its scenic backwaters and traditional
houseboats. Kuttanad lies 2 to 3 m below the mean sea level, which is
what makes it extremely susceptible to floods.
For the same reason, historically, Kerala has always looked up to
another part of the world with s...
2020-08-1144 minChayakkada ChatsLandslides in Kerala: The Scientific View, with Dr K. P. Sudheer, Principal Secretary for S&T, GoKThe last week saw a number of landslides being reported
from the Western Ghat region of Kerala, the most significant of them
from the Pettimudi region of the Idukki district. Pettimudi is not far from the tourist hotspot of Munnar. The
death toll in Pettimudi itself is likely to cross 50. In the last year
as well, a number of landslides had taken place in the northern districts of Kerala,
particularly in the districts of Wayanad and Kozhikode.
To speak about the increasing incidence of landslides in Kerala, we are
joined today by Dr KP Sudheer, who is the Principal Secretary...
2020-08-1033 minChayakkada ChatsKerala's response to the Covid-19 pandemic: with Dr B. Ekbal, Member, Kerala State Planning BoardThe situation related to the covid-19 pandemic continuous to be worrisome across India. But one Indian State, Kerala, appears to have attracted considerable media attention for its response to the pandemic. It had an quick response strategy; it introduced mass testing early enough; it had very effective systems of home quarantine, room quarantine and reverse quarantine; it's response strategy was genuinely decentralized; and it introduced an innovative public campaign by name "Break the Chain". Today, to speak about Kerala response strategy, we have with us Dr B Ekbal, who is the member of the Kerala State Planning Board in charge...
2020-08-0941 min
Chayakkada ChatsSTRUGGLES OF DAIRY FARMERS: Podcast with Dr Ajit Navale, All India Kisan Sabha, Maharashtra, IndiaI am an economist based in Mumbai, India. In this podcast series, I intend to have freewheeling conversations with friends and experts in multiple fields. In this episode, we speak to Dr Ajit Navale, the Secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha, India's largest farmer's organisation, on the struggles of milk farmers in Maharashtra. This conversation proceeds in Hindi, and was recorded on the 3rd of August 2020.
2020-08-0528 min
BodhiCommonsStimulus for Whom? Demystifying the Economic Package of the Government of IndiaR. Ramakumar (Professor, Tata Institute of Social Sciences) and V. Sridhar (Associate Editor, Frontline) discusses the special package announced by the Government of India to fight against the economic downturn due to Covid-19 lockdown. They unpack the schemes devoted for agriculture, industry, and other sectors in the wake of ongoing crisis, exacerbated by the lockdown.
2020-05-261h 14
CEA Global Voices: The Critical Knowledge PodcastCEA Global Voices Ep. 3: The Socioeconomic Implications of the Lockdown with R. Ramakumar and J. Mohan RaoJoined by two experts on economics, R. Ramakumar, Professor at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, and J. Mohan Rao, Professor Emeritus at University of Massachusetts, we discussed the socioeconomic implications of the lockdown on the regional and global level. COVID-19 is causing severe economic problems around the world. Global food supply chains are affected by lockdown measures and other problems caused by the outbreak. It becomes clear that many of the goods that we take for granted are in fact dependent on many factors that are vulnerable to the impacts of a state of unexpected crisis. Departing from the...
2020-05-131h 38BodhiCommonsThe Economic Impacts of of COVID-19 Pandemic - Prof. R. RamakumarIn this lecture, Prof R. Ramakumar talks about the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic and highlights the uniqueness of the crisis as it induces both demand and supply side shocks. The lecture shatters some misconceptions about the pandemic’s links to global agriculture and goes on to highlight the inadequacy of India’s economic package at a time when governments around the world are abandoning the orthodoxy of neoliberal economics.
2020-04-181h 37
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