Today my guest is Renuka Sane who is the managing director of Managing Director of Trustbridge. An institution that seeks to improve India's business environment by improving the rule of law. Renuka was a member of many expert committees including: the Task Force of Experts set up by the Employees Provident Fund Organisation; the research team of the Bankruptcy Legislative Reforms Commission; the Pension Advisory Committee of the Pension Fund Regulatory Development Authority; and the Working Group on personal insolvency at the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India. She received a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of New South Wales.

We talked about the old, new, and unified pension scheme and related reforms over the last few decades in India, India's broader financial regulation framework, separation of powers in regulatory authorities, the way regulatory orders are written, and much more.

Recorded December 17th, 2025.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Learn more about The 1991 Fellowship.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - The 1991 Fellowship

(00:01:09) - Intro

(00:02:49) - India's Pension System

(00:35:42) - Private Sector Pension Schemes

(01:06:28) - Regulatory Orders

(01:24:03) - Improving Transparency at the Reserve Bank of India

(01:34:57) - Outro

Today my guest is Snigdha Poonam who is a journalist and writer. She is the author of the new book Scamlands and also the author of the 2018 award winning book Dreamers: How Young Indians Are Changing Their World.

We talked about the scam industrial complex in different states like Jharkhand, Assam and Tamil Nadu in India, the interaction between the scam economy and the formal economy, the transnational scams in China and Cambodia and how they are connected to India, the aspirations and traumas of the scam work force and much more.

Recorded November 17th, 2025.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Learn more about The 1991 Fellowship.

Connect with Ideas of India

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Follow Shruti on X

Follow Snigdha on X

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:01:13) - The Scam-Industrial Complex

(00:03:48) - On Jamtara and the Economics of Joining a Scam

(00:09:12) - The Moral Logic of Scamming

(00:13:31) - How the State Enables the Scam Economy

(00:15:54) - Inside Assam's Paperwork and Insurance Scams

(00:23:04) - The Politics of Legibility in Assam

(00:32:47) - Women in the Scam Economy

(00:38:32) - How Scammers Get Trapped Inside the System

(00:46:18) - From Local Scams to Transnational Cybercrime

(00:52:18) - Scam Slavery in Southeast Asia

(01:02:15) - Reporting on the Shadow Economy

(01:10:49) - Starting the Story

(01:16:54) - From Aspiration to Desperation

(01:21:56) - Closing Reflections

(01:27:08) - Outro

Shruti and Ideas of India producer Dallas Floer sit down for the 2025 end-of-year episode. They look back at key themes and top episodes from the past year, address listener questions, and look forward to what's in store for Shruti and the show in 2026.

Recorded December 16th, 2025.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Learn more about The 1991 Fellowship.

Connect with Ideas of India

Follow us on X

Follow Shruti on X

Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox.

Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:01:03) - Listener Questions

(00:25:50) - Big Themes and Top Episodes

(00:42:21) - Personal Moments

(00:46:53) - Looking to 2026

(00:49:47) - Hope or Concern for Next Generation

(00:51:45) - Intellectual Mood Around India

(00:53:01) - Shruti and Animals

(00:56:52) - What's New for 2026

(01:00:07) - The Ideas of India Team

(01:05:21) - Thank You's

(01:09:49) - Outro