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Jan 18, 2025 | 
deccanherald.com | Yamini Aiyar
Contrary to popular wisdom, the Indian state is remarkably understaffed but in line with popular beliefs it is, at the lower end of the hierarchy, paid remarkably well.
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Jan 15, 2025 | 
tribuneindia.com | Yamini Aiyar
One of the biggest puzzles about Indian politics is the near absence of political competition around public goods like education (and health) in the electoral battlefield. It simply does not get as much public debate as it deserves, This is particularly puzzling because Indians care deeply about education and recognise it as the path to better jobs and mobility.
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Jan 14, 2025 | 
hindustantimes.com | Yamini Aiyar
Intellectual traditions of the neo-liberal era — open markets, deregulation, globalisation, smaller state — that dominated policymaking in India since the 1991 moment, are losing legitimacy both in India and across the globe. With the rise of populism, the western turn to de-globalisation, rapid technological advancement, and the accelerating climate crisis, the globe has entered a new, turbulent era.
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Nov 30, 2024 | 
deccanherald.com | Yamini Aiyar
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Nov 21, 2024 | 
hindustantimes.com | Yamini Aiyar
Donald Trump’s re-election as President of the United States (US) has reignited debate on the key questions of our times. The global rise of Right-wing populists, who gain power via the ballot box but have limited regard for democratic norms, suggests that beyond its minimalist criterion i.e. citizens freely electing governments, democracy is in trouble. Phrases like illiberal democracy, electoral autocracy, and democratic recession have entered the lexicon to explain this phenomenon.
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Oct 13, 2024 | 
deccanherald.com | Yamini Aiyar
Congress needs political ideas to mobilise voters around its ideological projectOrganisational question is closely intertwined with the ideological one. What are the key ideological pivots and how does this translates into election narratives that enable grassroots party workers to build social coalitions and mobilise voters.
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Oct 9, 2024 | 
academic.oup.com | Yamini Aiyar
What will it take to build high-performing, purpose-oriented public systems in India? In answering this question, it is all too common to dismiss the voices of India’s army of frontline officers charged with running schools and health centres and delivering the vast array of public services to citizens.
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Aug 13, 2024 | 
almendron.com | Yamini Aiyar
On the morning of June 4, many Indians were glued to their television screens awaiting the results of the 2024 general elections. But far away from that public glare, 2.4 million aspiring doctors who had sat for an intensely competitive government-administered exam were also impatiently refreshing their screens, anticipating the results that would shape their futures. By the end of the day, both the elections and the medical school entrance exams raised enormous uncertainties.
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Aug 13, 2024 | 
foreignaffairs.com | Yamini Aiyar
On the morning of June 4, many Indians were glued to their television screens awaiting the results of the 2024 general elections. But far away from that public glare, 2.4 million aspiring doctors who had sat for an intensely competitive government-administered exam were also impatiently refreshing their screens, anticipating the results that would shape their futures. By the end of the day, both the elections and the medical school entrance exams raised enormous uncertainties.
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Aug 6, 2024 | 
odi.org | Sara Pantuliano |Yamini Aiyar |Ricardo Fuentes-Nieva
We are taking a break from our regular schedule this month to look back on some of the most popular episodes released since Think Change first aired back in March 2022. This episode revisits a conversation we released last year, and the halfway point of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals deadline to end poverty and reduce inequalities.
