My podcast with CEA Dr. V Anantha Nageswaran

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In the latest episode of the Ideas of India podcast, I speak with Dr. V Anantha Nageswaran, who is currently serving as the Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India. He is also the co-author of the books Economics of Derivatives (with TV Somanathan) and The Rise of Finance: Causes, Consequences and Cures (with Gulzar Natarajan). It is available on all the podcast platforms. And complete transcript available here. I learnt a lot about political economy problems from the point of view of policymakers. In the last few days since the podcast released I have received dozens of messages expressing surprise over his openness as a policymaker. I was surprised by the surprised messages. Perhaps I have known him and his work for a long time, but I am not at all surprised by his openness to new ideas, challenges, and different points of view relevant for policymaking. I feel this is true of most of the bureaucrats and technocrats I meet in the Indian government. And I usually meet those who are working on economic policy and finance, and find they are very open to conversations and new ideas. How feasible they are and how quickly they are implemented depends on a host of other political variables. But Dr. Nageswaran is perhaps rare even among the elite group of Indian technocrats, and not just for his openness and candor. To begin with, he reads widely, and he is an excellent writer. He has two university press books, had a long running column at Mint, and four very well written and accessible economic surveys during his tenure as CEA. He is also rare in his ability to think …