Tanvi Madan and Sadanand Dhume join Milan to recap the latest news from India, spanning updates on its latest budget to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.
The news from India has been coming fast and furious.
On February 1, the finance minister revealed the latest Indian budget amidst a backdrop of slowing economic growth. On February 8, a new government in the state of Delhi was elected and, for the first time in a quarter-century, it’s headed by the BJP. And on February 13, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had his first face-to-face sit-down with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in the Trump 2.0 era.
To discuss the latest events and what they mean for India, Milan is joined on the show this week by Grand Tamasha regulars by two Grand Tamasha regulars, Tanvi Madan of the Brookings Institution and Sadanand Dhume of the American Enterprise Institute and the Wall Street Journal.
They discuss the BJP’s striking political resilience, the fortunes of the Aam Aaadmi Party, and India’s current economic malaise. Plus, they discuss Modi’s high-stakes meetings with Trump and Elon Musk and the future of the China-India-United States relationship.
Episode notes:
1. “Will India's Budget 2025 Turn the Economic Tide? (with Sumukar Ranganathan)” Grand Tamasha, February 5, 2025.
2. Sadanand Dhume, “Foreign Lessons in the Perils of DEI and Affirmative Action,” Wall Street Journal, January 29, 2025.
3. Tanvi Madan, “Top Gun and Scattershot,” Times of India, January 20, 2025.
4. Sadanand Dhume, “Manmohan Singh’s Mixed Economic Legacy,” Wall Street Journal, January 1, 2025.
5. Tanvi Madan, “India is Hoping for a Trump Bump,” Foreign Affairs, December 5, 2024.
Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
Facing a convergence of job disruption, wage stagnation, and rising debt, the Indian 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, along with Nandita Rajhansa and Sapana Bhavsar.
Milan Vaishnav, Saurabh Mukherjea, Nandita Rajhansa
On this week’s show, Milan sits down with the novelist Karan Mahajan, author of a much-anticipated new novel, The Complex. Karan is an associate professor in Literary Arts at Brown University and the author of the books Family Planning and The Association of Small Bombs.
Milan Vaishnav, Karan Mahajan
The second Trump administration has adopted a more assertive and unpredictable approach to U.S. foreign policy. For India, this evolving context raises several important questions about the viability of its foreign policy approach.
Milan Vaishnav, Shoumitro Chatterjee, Sameer Lalwani, …
Over the past two decades, Washington and New Delhi have drawn steadily closer—driven by shared concerns about China, expanding economic ties, and a growing Indian diaspora in the United States. To help us unpack all of this, this week Milan spoke with Congressman Ami Bera in his office on Capitol Hill.
Milan Vaishnav, Ami Bera
Just weeks ago, India hosted the 2026 AI Impact Summit, the latest chapter in a global process that began in 2023 in the UK. For the Modi government, the summit was part diplomatic showcase, part investment pitch, and part declaration of ambition. To talk more about the summit and its key takeaways, Milan is joined on the show this week by Anirudh Suri, a nonresident scholar with Carnegie India.
Milan Vaishnav, Anirudh Suri
