Today my guest is Sajjid Chinoy, managing director and chief India economist at J.P. Morgan. He is also currently serving as a part-time member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India. Sajjid previously served on the Advisory Council to India&#x27;s 15th Finance Commission and has served on a number of expert committees of the Reserve Bank of India. We talked about India&#x27;s current balance of payments and capital account challenges, the constraints holding back private investment, why employment and exports have become first-order policy priorities, rupee depreciation, shrinking FDI, and much more. Recorded May 21st, 2026. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Connect with Ideas of India Follow us on X Follow Shruti on X Click here for the latest Ideas of India episodes sent straight to your inbox. Timestamps (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:18) - Taking Stock of the Indian Economy (00:11:26) - Factors Dragging on Aggregate Demand (00:15:46) - Changing Policy Priorities for Indian Economic Growth (00:22:13) - Rethinking Fiscal Architecture in a Shock-Prone World (00:33:44) - Let the Rupee Depreciate (00:42:46) - Coping with Shrinking Capital Flows (00:50:00) - Improving India&#x27;s Pull Factors (00:54:12) - Export-Led Growth and Improved Resilience (01:00:53) - Navigating Choke Points While Avoiding Autarky (01:07:33) - India&#x27;s Trilemma (01:14:55) - Positive Signs of Resilience in the Indian Economy (01:18:41) - Outro

Sajjid Chinoy on Whether India Faces Another 1991 Moment

Ideas of India

Welcome to Ideas of India, where we examine the academic ideas that can propel India forward. My name is Shruti Rajagopalan and I'm a Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Today my guest is Sajjid Chinoy, who is the Managing Director and Chief India Economist at J.P. Morgan. He's also currently serving as a part-time member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India.

Sajjid previously served on the Advisory Council to India's 15th Finance Commission and has also served on a number of expert committees of the Reserve Bank of India. We talked about India's current balance of payments and capital account challenges, the constraints holding back private investment, why employment and exports have become first-order policy priorities, the rupee depreciation, shrinking FDI and much more.

For a full transcript of this conversation, including helpful links of all the references mentioned, click the link in the show notes or visit mercatus.org slash podcasts. Hi Sajjid, welcome to the show. It's such a pleasure to have you here. It's great to be here, Shruti. Thank you. So we're recording in the last week of May where the world is a little bit crazy.

So the world economy is turbulent. The Indian economy has got a lot of challenges that it hasn't faced in many years, maybe even in decades. The current crisis is that the rupee is well above 95 to the dollar or well below 95 to the dollar, depending on how we say this. Fuel prices are rising and will only rise further because we're almost at the end of our, you know, sort of inventory and stockpile. The import bill is rising again, same because of the West Asian crisis.

Sajjid Chinoy on Whether India Faces Another 1991 Moment

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

Sajjid Chinoy on Whether India Faces Another 1991 Moment

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.