Beyond the Indus

Ayesha Siddiqa on the Pakistan Army's Police State

Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa, senior fellow in the Department of War Studies at King's College London and author of “Military Inc.,” joins host Tushar Shetty to examine the Pakistan Army's role in the country's governance. They discuss the origins of the military's dominance in the years after 1947, its influence over domestic politics and the economy, its conduct of foreign policy from Ayub Khan to Asim Munir, and its handling of the insurgencies in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Siddiqa argues that Pakistan is not a hybrid regime but a case of constitutional militarism, sanctioned by a parliament that has legislated away its own relevance.

Dhaka’s Balancing Act: Post-election Bangladesh Between India, China, and the US

Dr. Smruti S. Pattanaik, a research fellow at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses, joins host Tushar Shetty to examine Bangladesh six months after its first election since the 2024 uprising. They discuss the BNP’s record on converting the July Charter mandate into actual reform, the legalization of the ban on the Awami League, the National Citizens Party’s collapse, Sheikh Hasina’s plan to return to Bangladesh in December, and whether culpability attaches to the party or to the person. They also cover India’s reset with Dhaka, and Bangladesh’s positioning between Beijing, New Delhi, and Washington D.C.

The Cockroach Uprising: How the CJP Protest Exposed India's Broken Institutions

Independent journalist and author Snigdhendu Bhattacharya joins host Tushar Shetty to examine what the Cockroach Janata Party protests reveal about the erosion of India's democratic institutions. They discuss the satirical origins of the movement and the exam-leak grievances that fueled it, Sonam Wangchuk’s hunger strike and the government’s effort to brand the protesters as foreign funded, and the forcible removal of Wangchuk and the police crackdown of July 20. They also cover the sidelining of Parliament and the collapse of the opposition as a channel for dissent, the Election Commission’s loss of credibility after the disputed electoral roll revision in West Bengal, and the retreat of the judiciary and the mainstream press as independent checks on power. Bhattacharya argues that the movement grew as fast as it did precisely because every institutional avenue for grievance had already been hollowed out, leaving a frustrated generation with nowhere left to turn. This conversation was recorded on July 24, 2026, the day before Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned.

Afghanistan’s Former Spy Chief on Russia, China, and the Taliban’s Legitimization Strategy

Masoud Andarabi, former interior minister of Afghanistan and former acting director of the National Directorate of Security, joins host Tushar Shetty to examine the international re-engagement of the Taliban regime and what it means for the regional order. They discuss the distinction between the Taliban’s consolidated control and its absent legitimacy, the geopolitical logic behind Russia’s recognition, China’s Digital Silk Road and the surveillance infrastructure embedded in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s transformation from the movement’s patron into its adversary and the TTP question at the center of it, and his assessment of India’s intelligence-led engagement with individual Taliban factions. The views expressed here are personal.

The Future of BRICS After the Iran War

In this episode of Beyond the Indus, Carlos Frederico Pereira da Silva Gama, founder of Brazil's BRICS Policy Center and an international relations scholar at the Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence, joins host Tushar Shetty to examine the future of BRICS as the postwar order fractures in the wake of the Iran war. They discuss the priorities and divergences of India’s BRICS presidency ahead of the September leaders’ summit in Delhi, the expansion to BRICS Plus and its toll on the group’s cohesion, why BRICS functions as one club in a wider Global South portfolio rather than a unified bloc, the New Development Bank and BRICS Pay as a challenge to the Bretton Woods system, the effect of Trump’s tariffs and rhetoric on close US partners like Brazil and India, and the best- and worst-case scenarios for the group in a fracturing world order.

Democratizing Technology: India Stack 3.0 and the Future of Digital Public Infrastructure

Dr. Pramod Varma, chief architect of Aadhaar, UPI, and the India Stack, and co-founder of Networks for Humanity, joins host Tushar Shetty to discuss the design philosophy and the next stages of India's Digital Public Infrastructure. We discuss the core principles that distinguish the India Stack from platform models like Alipay and PayPal, the Account Aggregator framework's consent architecture and its relationship to data protection regimes like the GDPR, the extension of DPI logic to business identity and flow-based lending through the Unified Lending Interface, the role of AI as both a driver of demand for DPI foundations and an opportunity for, the case for DPI as a replicable global model for the democratization of technology. For more in-depth analysis on South Asia, subscribe to the Beyond the Indus podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, or follow us on YouTube for video episodes.

Pakistan and the Economics of Diplomacy

Khurram Husain, one of Pakistan’s most widely read business and economy journalists and a columnist at Dawn, joins host Tushar Shetty to examine whether Pakistan’s recent diplomatic gains are translating into meaningful economic progress. They discuss the tangible but limited economic benefits of Pakistan's geopolitical revival, the impact of the Iran conflict and Hormuz blockade on Pakistan's fuel supply chain and inflation, the emergence of a new regional grouping around Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Pakistan and the trade complementarities unlocked by Iran's reintegration, the mixed legacy of CPEC and China's retreat from large-scale economic engagement with Pakistan, the structural roots of Pakistan's IMF dependency in successive cycles of military rule, the prospects for India-Pakistan stabilization and a peace dividend, the drivers behind Pakistan’s rapid solar adoption, and the limits of geoeconomics as a substitute for domestic fiscal and structural reform.

The Thorium Gamble: India’s Nuclear Breakthrough

In this episode of Beyond the Indus, Dr. Anil Kakodkar, former chairman of India's Atomic Energy Commission and one of the principal architects of India’s civilian nuclear program, joins us to discuss the history and future of India’s three-stage nuclear program in the wake of this year’s landmark breakthrough at Kalpakkam. We discuss the strategic logic behind Homi Bhabha’s 1950s vision for a thorium-based path to energy independence, the science and engineering challenges of fast breeder reactor technology, India’s decades of nuclear isolation, the safety record of nuclear power and how public perceptions have been shaped by Chernobyl and Fukushima, and the role of nuclear energy as a complement to renewables in the global push for net zero. Dr. Kakodkar also makes the case that India’s thorium fuel cycle represents a proliferation-resistant model for meeting the world's long-term energy needs.

Is the Indian Army Ready for the Next War?

In this episode of Beyond the Indus, host Tushar Shetty sits down with Colonel Ajai Shukla – a former Indian Army officer, war correspondent, and strategic affairs editor at Business Standard – to examine the structural challenges facing India's military and what it will take to prepare for the wars ahead. Drawing on decades of experience in both uniform and journalism, Col. Shukla assesses Operation Sindoor and the lessons India should be drawing from Ukraine on the evolving role of armor, drones, and counter-drone technology on the modern battlefield. They discuss the manpower-versus-modernization dilemma at the heart of India’s defense budget, the Agnipath scheme’s merits and limits as a response to it, and why India remains one of the few major powers without a published national security strategy or integrated joint theater commands. Shukla also examines India’s dependency on Russian arms in the wake of the Ukraine conflict, the credibility of the Atmanirbhar Bharat indigenization agenda, and how India must rebalance its force posture along the Line of Actual Control to meet the growing challenge from China’s rapidly modernizing military.

India on the High Seas: Hormuz and the Future of Maritime Security

In this episode of Beyond the Indus, host Tushar Shetty sits down with Vice Admiral R.B. Pandit, former Commander-in-Chief of India's Strategic Forces Command and a veteran flag officer of the Indian Navy, to assess the maritime consequences of the Iran conflict and the long-term shifts reshaping the Indian Ocean's strategic order. Drawing on four decades of operational and strategic experience, Vice Admiral Pandit examines why the Hormuz crisis represents a watershed moment for global naval doctrine. They discuss the legal and strategic implications of the sinking of IRIS Dena and why the horizontal escalation of the conflict into the Indian Ocean sets a dangerous precedent for the rules-based maritime order. Pandit also examines India's evolution as a resident security guarantor of the Indian Ocean, the challenge of underwater domain awareness in an era of covert infrastructure attacks, and how India's MAHASAGAR initiative positions itself as a cooperative alternative to China's Belt and Road strategy across the Indian Ocean littoral.

The War on Oil: Iran Conflict and the Global Energy Crisis

In this episode of Beyond the Indus, host Tushar Shetty sits down with Adi Imsirovic, a veteran oil trader with over 35 years of experience in global energy markets and former Global Head of Oil at Gazprom Marketing and Trading, to assess the impact of the Iran war’s impact on global oil and gas markets. Drawing on decades of front-line trading experience, Imsirovic explains why the current disruption to the Strait of Hormuz represents the gravest energy shock of his career, surpassing even the Gulf Wars of the 1980s. We discuss the mechanics of P&I insurance, why futures markets are fundamentally misreading the crisis, and how Iran and Russia have long used shadow fleets to circumvent Western sanctions. Imsirovic also examines Russia's unexpected financial windfall, South Asia’s energy vulnerability and the erosion of dollar dominance in global energy trade.

Gulf War 3.0: Iran Conflict Spreads to South Asia

In this episode of Beyond the Indus, host Tushar Shetty sits down with Siddhant Kishore, a national security and foreign policy analyst based in Washington, D.C. and former open-source intelligence analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, to examine the impact of the Iran conflict on South Asia. Drawing on his expertise in Middle Eastern security and Iran's axis of resistance, Kishore offers a wide-ranging assessment that covers India's strategic pivot away from Tehran, the shifting objectives of the Israeli-U.S. military campaign, the credibility of Iran's nuclear threshold as a casus belli, the controversial sinking of the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean, and the spillover risks facing Afghanistan and Pakistan – from refugee crises and foreign fighter flows to the exploitation of sectarian unrest by groups like the Baloch Liberation Army and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Nepal's Gen Z Election

On March 5, Nepal will head to the polls for the first election since Gen Z protests toppled the government of former Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli. Beyond the Indus host Tushar Shetty sits down with BiswasBaral, editor of the Kathmandu Post and a columnist for The Diplomat, to discuss the Gen Z Revolution, the new crop of favorites – headed by Kathmandu Mayor Balendra Shah – and the fate of the old political forces. Whoever wins, Baral says, “The new government cannot escape the underlying reasons why the Gen Z uprising happened in the first place: corruption, lack of jobs, unresponsive governance, poor service delivery.”

Bangladesh’s Make or Break Election

Beyond the Indus host Tushar Shetty is joined by Dr. Smruti Pattanaik and Dr. Mubashar Hasan to discuss Bangladesh’s February 12 election. They explore the competing electoral alliances and election manifestos, issues surrounding mob violence and its impact on electoral legitimacy, the long shadow of the Awami League and its future in Bangladesh, the challenges that the new government will face, and the future of the Bangladesh-India relationship.

Alliance of the Betrayed: The Quiet Rise of India-EU relations

Host Tushar Shetty sat down with Dr. Tobias Scholz, South Asia researcher at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin, to examine the rise of India-EU relations and the significance of their soon-to-be-signed FTA and Security & Defense partnership. They discuss how both U.S. partners, facing President Trump’s hostile and erratic foreign policy actions, accelerated their long-awaited FTA, the reexamination within Europe about its dependence on the United States and its role in the world, and how India and the EU handled tricky negotiations and overcame mutual disagreements to sign “the Mother of all Deals.” To find out more about the upcoming ISA-SAWP Conference, you can reach out to SAWP2026@isanet.org or go to https://www.isanet.org/Conferences/SAWP-Colombo-2026/Call

2026: The Outlook for South Asia

Beyond the Indus host Tushar Shetty sits down with Michael Kugelman, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and South Asia analyst, to discuss his outlook for South Asia in 2026. We review the major developments in the region in 2025, the upcoming elections in Bangladesh and Nepal, the India-Pakistan conflict and the reinvigoration of Pakistan’s diplomatic strategy, the downturn in the India-U.S. relationship and how the shifting global security and economic landscape will impact South Asia in 2026.

Brothers' War: TTP and the Pakistan-Taliban Conflict

In this episode of Beyond the Indus, leading Pakistan security expert Dr. Christine Fair, a professor at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, joins host Tushar Shetty to explore Pakistan's failing Afghanistan strategy and the escalating TTP crisis. We discuss the historical roots of Pakistan’s “strategic depth” doctrine and its decades-long support for the Taliban, the structure and origins of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its relationship with the Afghan Taliban, and Pakistan's broader reliance on militant proxies as a tool of foreign policy. Dr. Fair also examines India's role in Afghanistan, the Pashtun perspective on the conflict, and why Pakistan's current approach offers no viable path forward.

COP30 and South Asia

In this episode of Beyond the Indus, Meera Gopal, an international legal scholar and policy professional specializing in climate law and diplomacy, joins host Tushar Shetty to examine the outcomes of COP30 in Belém, Brazil and the implications for South Asia We discuss the mixed results of COP30, the impact of U.S. absence on climate negotiations, the concept of the "Just Transition" mechanism and what it means for developing countries, South Asia's climate vulnerabilities, and the critical challenges of regional climate cooperation in South Asia amid fractured political relations.

IMEC and India’s Middle East Doctrine

In this episode of Beyond the Indus, Ambassador Talmiz Ahmad and John Calabrese from the Middle East Institute join host Tushar Shetty to examine India's evolving strategy in the Middle East. We discuss the region's critical importance to India as a source of energy and trade, India's expanding security presence from the Bab al-Mandeb Strait to Afghanistan, and the country's ambitious infrastructure initiatives including the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor (IMEC). The conversation also explores how India is responding to growing Chinese economic influence and the emerging Saudi Arabia-Pakistan alliance, and whether IMEC can realistically compete with China's Belt and Road Initiative as a transformative regional project. For more in-depth analysis on South Asia, subscribe to the Beyond the Indus podcast.

‘Modi’s War?’ The Truth Behind the India-Russia Oil Trade