Today my guests are Ornit Shani and Rohit De, historians and the authors of the latest book Assembling India's Constitution. Ornit Shani is an associate professor of history at the University of Haifa and the author of How India Became Democratic: Citizenship and the Making of the Universal Franchise. Rohit De is an associate professor of history at Yale University and the author of A People's Constitution: The Everyday Life of Law in the Indian Republic.

We talked about how their latest book is a radical departure from the usual telling of the making of the Indian Constitution as an elite project, the mass mobilization that took place during the drafting of the constitution, the role of public participation in political negotiation, the status of provincial legislatures and of princely states during the constitution making, and much more.

Recorded January 20th, 2026 and February 10th, 2026.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro
(00:02:49) - Situating Rohit and Ornit's Book
(00:13:52) - More Than the Text
(00:27:22) - Provincial Legislatures
(00:35:40) - India's Princely States
(01:01:04) - Mass Mobilization
(01:16:10) - Theater and the Constitution
(01:26:06) - Judicial Interpretation
(01:31:21) - Future Projects
(01:34:08) - Outro

Today my guest is Pranay Kotasthane who is the deputy director of the Takshashila Institution and chairs the High Tech Geopolitics Programme.

Pranay co-writes Anticipating the Unintended, a newsletter on public policy ideas and frameworks, and co-hosts Puliyabaazi, a popular Hindi-Urdu podcast on politics, policy, and technology. He is the co-author of - Missing in Action: Why Should You Care About Public Policy, When the Chips are Down, and the graphic nonfiction narrative We, the Citizens.

We spoke about rare earths and critical minerals, China's dominance, the gap between India's ambitions and opportunities, the potential for recycling, and much and more.

Recorded February 2nd, 2026.

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Learn more about The 1991 Fellowship.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - 1991 Fellowship
(00:01:11) - Intro
(00:02:59) - Rare Earths versus Critical Minerals
(00:10:15) - Why Are Rare Earths and Critical Minerals So Important Now?
(00:29:29) - Geopolitical Uncertainty
(00:33:14) - China's Process Advantage
(00:44:10) - Industrial Policy
(00:48:10) - India's Critical Elements Mission
(00:53:00) - Auctions
(00:56:53) - India's Position in the Value Chain
(01:04:36) - Recycling
(01:34:04) - Law of One Price
(01:41:28) - Pakistan and Rare Earth Reserves
(01:46:26) - Outro

Today my guest is Nachiket Mor, a health economist whose work focuses on the design of national and regional health systems. He is a visiting scientist at the Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health, a senior research fellow at the Centre for Information Technology and Public Policy at IIIT Bangalore, and a commissioner and author on the Lancet Citizens' Commission on Reimagining India's Health System, which published its final report in The Lancet in January 2026.

We talked about the different layers of the Indian healthcare system, the design and policy failures in both public and private sector healthcare, the role of community workers, the health insurance and regulation market, and much more.

Recorded January 29th, 2026.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Learn more about The 1991 Fellowship.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - 1991 Fellowship
(00:01:11) - Intro
(00:02:32) - Policy Design Failure in India's Healthcare System
(00:07:43) - Layers of Indian Healthcare
(00:14:04) - ASHA Workers
(00:23:59) - State Capacity
(00:26:47) - The Exit to the Private Sector
(00:34:00) - Getting Ambitious with ASHA Workers
(00:37:54) - Stacking Healthcare
(00:51:53) - India's Private Sector Healthcare
(01:05:14) - Government Insurance Instruments
(01:13:10) - Insurance Regulation in India
(01:41:09) - Outro