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Grand Tamasha

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Each week, Milan Vaishnav and his guests from around the world break down the latest developments in Indian politics, economics, foreign policy, society, and culture for a global audience. Grand Tamasha is a co-production of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Hindustan Times.

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21 episodes
weekly
Avg 53 min
English

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S16 · E7
Wednesday · 46 min
China, India, and the New Global Order
Vince Cable joins Milan on the show this week. The two discuss Vince’s first visit to India as a student in the mid-1960s, the contrasting reception to his writings on China and India, and the concept of “superstates.”
S16 · E6
October 7 · 56 min
Why Clean Air Is So Hard to Deliver in India
This week, Grand Tamasha is launching a new four-part series on energy and climate issues in collaboration with CASI—the Center for the Advanced Study of India—at the University of Pennsylvania. To discuss why toxic air has proven so politically challenging in India—and what it might take to change that—Milan is joined on the show this week by Vaishnavi Chandrashekhar and Tariq Thachil.
S16 · E5
September 30 · 1 hr
India’s Public Finances, Explained
This week, host Milan Vaishnav is joined by Sarthak Pradhan and Pranay Kotasthane to discuss their new book, Fiscal Fables: A Citizen’s Guide to Public Finance. The book demystifies India’s public finances for a lay audience—and explains public finance concepts using relatable stories and examples.
S16 · E4
September 23 · 42 min
How India and Pakistan See Each Other—and the World
New data collected by the Pew Research Center offer a revealing snapshot of how people across South Asia view their neighbors, major powers like the United States and China, and India’s growing global role. To unpack what these findings tell us about global public opinion, Milan is joined on the podcast this week by Jacob Poushter, the lead author of recent Pew report titled, “India and Pakistan: Rivals with Divergent Views of the Global Order.”
S16 · E3
September 16 · 51 min
Episode 300: India, Then and Now
This week, Milan, Sadanand Dhume, and Tanvi Madan discuss the political fall-out of this summer’s Gen Z protests, the political future of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), and the churn within the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Plus, the trio discuss Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the potential thaw in China-India relations, and whether ties between India and the United States can weather the current turbulence.
S16 · E2
September 9 · 47 min
The Three Weeks That Made India
Josy Joseph joins Milan on the podcast this week to talk about his best-selling new book, The Birth of a Nation: Twenty-One Days That Changed India, which reconstructs the dramatic three weeks leading up to August 15, 1947.
S16 · E1
September 2 · 48 min
The Truth About India’s Jobs Crisis
Vidya Mahambare joins Milan on the Season 16 premiere of Grand Tamasha to discuss the economic drivers of the Gen Z protests, the link between unemployment and education, and the futility of the manufacturing versus services debate.
S15 · E24
July 1 · 1 hr 7 min
The Forgotten Origins of Indian Liberalism
This week, Rahul Sagar join Milan to discuss his new book The Birth of Indian Liberalism: Mama Parmanand’s Letters to an Indian Raja, which uncovers an older tradition of Indian liberal thought through a remarkable work first published in 1891 and then largely forgotten for more than a century.
S15 · E23
June 24 · 50 min
Whose Constitution Is It Anyway?
This week, Rohit De and Ornit Shani join Milan to discuss their new book Assembling India’s Constitution: A New Democratic History. Drawing on a remarkable range of archival material, the book shows that constitution-making was not confined to the halls of the Constituent Assembly alone. It also played out in provincial legislatures, princely states, government offices, civic associations, and communities across India. Ordinary citizens debated the constitution, petitioned its authors, organized
S15 · E22
June 17 · 1 hr
The Dark Side of the H-1B Dream
Milan Vaishnav and Tanul Thakur discuss Tanul's new book "Wild Wild East: Exiled Americans, Enslaved Indians and the Systemic Abuse of the H-1B Visa Programme." The book follows the lives of Indian H-1B seekers, displaced American tech workers, and the firms that profit from a deeply broken system. It is at a story about immigration, labor exploitation, globalization, and the darker side of the U.S.-India tech corridor.
S15 · E21
June 10 · 49 min
What Do Indians Think About the World?
Discussing their new short book, Indian Public Opinion toward the Major Powers, Paul Staniland, and Aidan Milliff join Milan Vaishnav to discuss the treasure trove of data on Indian public opinion they stumbled upon, the characteristics of India’s “foreign policy public,” and the variation in Indian attitudes toward the United States, China, and Russia/the Soviet Union. Plus, the discuss why a respondent’s region emerges as a strong predictor of one’s foreign policy views.
S15 · E20
June 3 · 39 min
India’s Nordic Connection
Milan and Ambassador May-Elin Stener discuss the outcomes of the India-Nordic summit, the Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA), and the green technology partnership Norway envisions with India. Plus, the two discussed linkages between the Arctic and the Indo-Pacific and the controversy over a Norwegian journalist’s questioning of Indian officials in Oslo.
S15 · E19
May 27 · 53 min
BJP Ascendant at Home, Tested Abroad
Milan Vaishnav, Sadanand Dhume, and Tanvi Madan discuss whether India is becoming a “one-party state,” the current state of the opposition, and the headwinds facing the Indian economy. Plus, the three discuss Pakistan’s diplomatic moment, Trump’s recent China trip, and Marco Rubio’s visit to India.
S15 · E18
May 20 · 53 min
Rethinking India’s Growth Story
Abhishek Anand and Milan Vaishnav discuss the controversy over India’s GDP estimates, important reforms within India’s statistics ministry, and the debate over the Reserve Bank of India’s policies to defend the rupee. Plus, the two discuss Abhishek’s work on power sector reform and the embrace of non-tariff barriers that stymie the spirit of India’s new bilateral trade agreements.
S15 · E17
May 13 · 47 min
Can India Keep Its Balance in West Asia?
For more than a decade, India has steadily deepened its ties with the Gulf while trying to balance competing interests across the region. How is India being impacted by the Iran crisis? And what do these geopolitical shifts mean for India’s West Asia policy? To discuss these and other questions, Milan is joined on the show this week by Kabir Taneja, the Executive Director of the Observer Research Foundation’s Middle East office.
S15 · E16
May 8 · 59 min
Flash Episode: India's 2026 Elections Explained
It’s safe to say that India’s 2026 state assembly elections have scrambled many of the assumptions that have long shaped our understanding of Indian politics. To make sense of these results, Milan is joined today by Neelanjan Sircar and Yamini Aiyar—two of the sharpest observers of Indian politics and political economy.
S15 · E15
May 6 · 1 hr 12 min
India’s Delimitation Dilemma
India hasn’t updated how political power is distributed across its states in five decades—and the consequences are mounting. Recently, Milan sat down with Shruti Rajagopalan of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University for a wide-ranging webinar on delimitation, representation, and the reshaping of Indian democracy.
S15 · E14
April 29 · 53 min
India’s Youth Boom Meets a Jobs Bust
For more than three decades, India’s growth story has rested on the promise of a large and youthful workforce. But a new report published by the Centre for Sustainable Employment at Azim Premji University takes a comprehensive look at how young Indians move from education into the labor market—and asks whether India is successfully converting its demographic dividend into an economic one. This week on the show Milan speaks with the report’s lead author Rosa Abraham, who heads theCentre for Susta
S15 · E13
April 22 · 59 min
The Indian Who Helped Build Silicon Valley
Kanwal Rekhi was the first Indian-American founder & CEO to take a venture-backed company public on the NASDAQ. He also co-founded and built The Indus Entrepreneurs—or TiE—into the largest global network of Indian entrepreneurs. He writes about his life in his new memoir, which traces his remarkable journey from a modest upbringing in India to becoming one of the most influential figures in the Indian diaspora in the United States. Kanwal joins Milan to discuss his lifelong passion for entrepren
S15 · E12
April 15 · 56 min
India’s Middle Class Hits a Breaking Point
For decades, India’s growth story has rested on the spectacular rise of its middle class. But a new book argues that this very group—roughly 40 million income-tax–paying households—is now under acute strain. Facing a convergence of job disruption, wage stagnation, and rising debt, the middle class may no longer be the engine of growth it once was. This is the argument made in a new book titled, Breakpoint: The Crisis of the Middle Class and the Future of Work. It is authored by Saurabh Mukherjea

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