{"podcast":{"title":"Grand Tamasha","slug":"grand-tamasha-340012","podcast_index_feed_id":340012,"rss_url":"https://feeds.simplecast.com/dJuLIw5J","website_url":"http://www.grandtamasha.com","image_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/115ebe2e-23ad-42ec-b051-9234726bbe19/7e6b8c58-9a5f-4940-9169-64b89abf73e1/3000x3000/gt-simplecast-new.jpg?aid=rss_feed","author":"Carnegie Endowment for International Peace","episode_count":293,"summary":"Each week, Milan Vaishnav and his guests from around the world break down the latest developments in Indian politics, economics, foreign policy, society, and culture for a global audience. Grand Tamasha is a co-production of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Hindustan Times.","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/grand-tamasha-340012"},"episode":{"title":"India’s Middle Class Hits a Breaking Point","slug":"india-s-middle-class-hits-a-breaking-point","published_at":"2026-04-15T01:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/grand-tamasha-340012/india-s-middle-class-hits-a-breaking-point","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/grand-tamasha-340012","url":"http://www.grandtamasha.com","audio_url":"https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/cdn.simplecast.com/media/audio/transcoded/66964cde-241f-4fa2-b798-c30191bbadb8/503276c1-2266-428d-bc7e-2dffc1bda4f8/episodes/audio/group/27f946ee-9ef6-4dbd-8861-bee831471c9e/group-item/f8e55df5-b220-4e03-b263-47788b7687d2/128_default_tc.mp3?aid=rss_feed&feed=dJuLIw5J","summary":"For decades, India’s growth story has rested on the spectacular rise of its middle class. But a new book argues that this very group—roughly 40 million income-tax–paying households—is now under acute strain. Facing a convergence of job disruption, wage stagnation, and rising debt, the middle class may no longer be the engine of growth it once was. This is the argument made in a new book titled, Breakpoint: The Crisis of the Middle Class and the Future of Work. It is authored by Saurabh Mukherjea, along with Nandita Rajhansa and Sapana Bhavsar.","meta_description":"For decades, India’s growth story has rested on the spectacular rise of its middle class. But a new book argues that this very group—roughly 40 million in…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3365,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/grand-tamasha-340012/episodes/india-s-middle-class-hits-a-breaking-point/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/grand-tamasha-340012/india-s-middle-class-hits-a-breaking-point.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}