The Seen and the Unseen - hosted by Amit Varma

Amit Varma

All Episodes

May 22, 2017

Ep. 19: RTE (The Right to Education)

he Right to Education Act sounds noble, but has caused devastation in schooling across the country. Vivek Kaul joins Amit Varma to discuss its Unseen Effects. Follow The Seen and The Unseen: Website: www.seenu...

25 mins

May 15, 2017

Ep. 18: Restaurant Regulations

If you want to see the many ways in which the government resembles a hafta-extorting mafia, look no further than restaurant regulations. They come about with a noble stated intent, but end up harming both consu...

22 mins

May 08, 2017

Ep. 17: Centrally Sponsored Government Schemes

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna. All these are centrally sponsored government schemes with good intentions at their heart. But are good intentions enough? Pranay Ko...

21 mins

May 01, 2017

Ep. 16: Artificial Intelligence

Like all technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will make humanity better off in the long run. But in the short run, it will cause much disruption, including mammoth job losses in India's services industry. F...

23 mins

Apr 24, 2017

Ep. 15: Kannada Dubbing Ban

For decades, there has been a stricture in Karnataka that non-Kannada films cannot be dubbed into Kannada. The idea behind this was to protect the local film industry -- but were the unintended consequences jus...

18 mins

Apr 17, 2017

Ep. 14: Rent Control

Rent control is a classic example of a regulation meant to help the poor that ends up hurting everyone. Alex Tabarrok joins Amit Varma to discuss how real estate in Mumbai would be so much cheaper if not for su...

18 mins

Apr 10, 2017

Ep. 13: Anti-Defection Law

It is a sad day for any democracy when MPs and MLAs sell themselves to the highest bidder. Horse-trading is monstrous. It was to prevent exactly this that the Anti-Defection Law was passed in 1985. But did it e...

21 mins

Apr 03, 2017

Ep. 12: Futures Markets in Agriculture

For decades now, India has either banned or heavily regulated futures markets in agriculture. The conventional wisdom is that futures markets can turn farmers into gamblers. But what if the Unseen Effect of suc...

17 mins

Mar 27, 2017

Ep. 11: FSI (Floor Space Index)

Mumbai is one of the most expensive cities in the world, and one of the reasons is that there is too little land and too much sky. Alex Tabarrok joins Amit Varma to discuss Mumbai's insanely low Floor Space Ind...

18 mins

Mar 20, 2017

Ep. 10: Digital India

Big Brother is watching you, and you have no protection. There has been much hype about how 'Digital India' will transform our lives, but there are unseen elements to it that should make you worry. Devangshu Da...

28 mins