Horn OK Policy Adarsh Kumar

Dr. Mekhala Krishnamurthy, Professor of Sociology at Ashoka University, discusses the Farm Bills passed by the Central Government in mid-2020. Protests against these central reforms have been relentless, especially from the farming communities of Punjab and Haryana. The 3 bills aim to de-regulate the agricultural marketing system by allowing farmers to sell directly to private players (and bypass State-controlled agri markets or mandis), enable contract farming, and reduce restrictions on pur...

Prof. Marianne Bertrand of Chicago Booth and Dr. Kaushik Krishnan, Chief Economist at CMIE, discuss to what extent India is showing a V-shaped recovery. "V-shaped recovery" and "green shoots" are being flung around in newspapers and discussions everywhere. But how were India's households affected economically during the lockdown? And to what extent have their employment, income, and consumption levels recovered since then?To better answer these questions, Marianne Kaushik join me in disc...

Dr. K.P. Krishnan, Prof. at NCAER and former Secretary of Land Resources, introduces great clarity to the black box that is land reforms in India. Land laws and legislation are a labyrinth in India. They have historically posed nightmares for landholders and farmers who have been the victims of land-grab by the government using its eminent domain powers. Protests and agitation sparked by such incidents (such as the one against the Tata Nano factory in West Bengal) led to the 2013 Land Ac...

Prof. Santosh Mehrotra, head of the Center for Informal Sector and Labour Studies at JNU and a former Planning Commission member, joins us today to analyze the labour crises during and before COVID19 and how policymakers should resolve them. More than 100 million Indians have lost their jobs since the national lockdown was enforced in March. However, even before the pandemic, there were fault lines in India's labour force: unemployment was at a 45-year high, youth were unable to find qua...

In Episode Zero of Horn OK Policy, host Adarsh Kumar gives a preface to the podcast, which aims to address economic and policy-related issues that affect India. Music by Zubin Kirpalani (aka Sonto) & Village Polka!