India: Brain Gains and Growing Pains with Šumit Ganguly

Two decades shy of its 100th anniversary of statehood, how is India progressing in its goal of becoming an innovative, prosperous, greener and developed nation? Šumit Ganguly, a Hoover Institution senior fellow and director of Hoover’s Huntington Program on Strengthening US-India Relations, discusses Hoover’s newly released Annual Survey of India 2026. Among the survey topics explored: an assessment of India’s economy; the nation’s uncertain foreign policy; Indian education at a “crossroads”; and the nation’s contemporary challenges regarding science, technology and innovation policy. Also discussed: how India’s “strategic autonomy” and oil needs are affected by the war in the Middle East; economic competition with neighboring China; Prime Minister Modi’s complicated relationship with the American president and US tariff policy; and India keeping innovators from relocating to the other land. ABOUT THE SPEAKERS Šumit Ganguly is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and director of its Huntington Program on Strengthening US-India Relations. He is also the Rabindranath Tagore Professor in Indian Cultures and Civilizations, Emeritus, at Indiana University in Bloomington, where he served as distinguished professor and professor of political science and directed programs on India studies and on American and global security. He was previously on the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin, Hunter College, the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and James Madison College of Michigan State University. He has also taught at Columbia University, Sciences Po (Paris, France), the US Army War College, the University of Heidelberg (Germany), Northwestern University, and the Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University (Singapore). He serves on the board of directors of the American Friends of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Bill Whalen, the Virginia Hobbs Carpenter Distinguished Policy Fellow in Journalism and a Hoover Institution research fellow since 1999, writes and comments on campaigns, elections, and governance with an emphasis on California and America’s political landscapes. Whalen writes on politics and current events for various national publications, as well as Hoover’s California On Your Mind web channel. Whalen hosts Hoover’s Matters of Policy & Politics podcast and serves as the moderator of Hoover’s GoodFellows broadcast exploring history, economics, and geopolitical dynamics. RELATED SOURCES Hoover Survey of India 2026 (Hoover Institution Press, 2026) The US-India Nuclear Accord (Stanford University Press, 2026) Huntington Program on Strengthening US-India Relations ABOUT THE SERIES Matters of Policy & Politics, a podcast from the Hoover Institution, examines the direction of federal, state, and local leadership and elections, with an occasional examination of national security and geopolitical concerns, all featuring insightful analysis provided by Hoover Institution scholars and guests. To join our newsletter and be the first to tune into the next episode, visit Matters of Policy & Politics.