Society cannot be designed in a top-down way. Central planning was a historic blunder that harmed India -- even though it was conceived by great men with good intentions. Nikhil Menon joins Amit Varma in episode 306 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about the flawed genius PC Mahalanobis, the planning commission, and his own life as a scholar.

(For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.)

Also check out:
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2. Planning Democracy: How A Professor, An Institute, And An Idea Shaped India -- Nikhil Menon.
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4. The Use of Knowledge in Society — Friedrich Hayek.
5. Sherlock Holmes, Ramayana and Mahabharata.
6. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju — Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen.
7. Religion and Ideology in Indian Society — Episode 124 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Suyash Rai).
8. Political Ideology in India — Episode 131 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rahul Verma).
9. The Decline of the Congress -- Episode 248 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rahul Verma).
10. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva — Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel).
11. Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope — Episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel).
12. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism — Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul).
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15. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad -- Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Chandra Bhan Prasad).
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17. John Dewey on Wikipedia, Britannica and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
18. The Ideas of Our Constitution — Episode 164 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Madhav Khosla).
19. Friedrich Hayek on Wikipedia, Britannica, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Econlib.
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23. India’s Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra).
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25. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia -- Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen.
26. The Gentle Wisdom of Pratap Bhanu Mehta -- Episode 300 of The Seen and the Unseen.
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28. What is Libertarianism? — Episode 117 of The Seen and the Unseen (w David Boaz).
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