V. Anantha Nageswaran on Surveying the Growth and Financialization of the Indian Economy

Today my guest is Dr. V Anantha Nageswaran, who is currently serving as the Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India. He is also the co-author of the books Economics of Derivatives and The Rise of Finance: Causes, Consequences and Cures. 

We talked about import substitution and strategic resilience, futures and options market, gross fixed capital formation, crypto markets, India's growth trajectory, and much more.

Recorded March 12th, 2026.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro  
(00:02:38) - Import Substitution as a Policy  
(00:11:19) - Indian States' Spending Problem  
(00:18:16) - Capital Formation  
(00:25:47) - Increasing Financialization  
(00:30:21) - Options and Futures Markets in India  
(00:34:15) - Securities Transactions Tax (STT)  
(00:40:27) - Curbing Crypto  
(00:46:01) - How Should We Approach Policy Regulation?  
(00:51:04) - Deregulation  
(00:53:41) - Digital Public Infrastructure  
(00:56:28) - India's Growth Trajectory