Demography has been detached from political theory and political economy, and population is now considered a part of the problem. A new chapter emphasising the economic value of a population is emerging, but the approach needs to be people-centric.
A Tale of Big Tech, Privacy Violation and Government Control
The ongoing tussle between the Indian government and social media companies has compromised the data integrity & privacy of citizens. We need an ecosystem of innovation and regulation to keep in check the unrestricted data powers of Silicon Valley giants.
Misguided compassion towards street dogs often leads to major human-dog conflict and worsens the problem. Every action of individuals or animal welfare organisations must be carefully thought through, ensuring the welfare of both people and animals.
Delhi's rapidly changing relationship with its ecology has privileged the middle class. The city's transformation into an inequitable and exclusive place increasingly makes it a harder place, an uncivil city, for the poor.
Claims that the livestock sector is a high emitter of greenhouse gases have led to calls for moving towards plant-based diets. These prescriptions rest on flawed assumptions; they also ignore the nutritional needs of the working poor in the Global South.
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The day Fr. Stan Swamy died marked a collective national failure; we are all guilty of his death, either by omission or by commission. We now need symbolic as well as bold gestures to reclaim the moral ground we ceded on 5 July 2021.
'National feeling is not something that has been injected into sport by swaggering players, corrupt politicians, and a scheming media looking to boost ratings; it is native to modern sport, something that is built into its historical evolution.'
The BJP has built an electoral juggernaut but the mishandling of the pandemic has shown that Hindutva as an ideology is a handicap in the running of a modern state. The challenge to the BJP will come at the state-level & will be rooted in a cultural pushback.
"In a conflict-ridden space like Kashmir, can working-class people express and understand the world in a language that is not their own, while simultaneously aspiring to be upwardly mobile? Is that desire worth the struggle it takes to reach there?"
In the 1930s, a spate of murders claimed the lives of several Punjabi men in California’s Central Valley region. US police and press were quick to ascribe these killings to mysterious old ‘Oriental’ cults and factional rivalries.
Decentralisation and data analytics in dealing with the pandemic
The success of the ‘Mumbai Model’ in managing the second wave of the pandemic shows the importance of decentralisation, and the salience of involving a wide range of stakeholders and relying on data analytics.
Mumbai’s peripheral hospitals that form the spine of multi-speciality care for the city’s suburban population coped well with the demands unleashed by the first wave of Covid-19, which helped prepare them for the second wave that hit the city in 2021.
The experience of Kerala ever since its formation in 1956 shows that, contrary to received wisdom, high public spending on social sectors improves people’s lives and also provides a positive thrust to economic growth.
India’s inequality is driven by limited upward mobility due, in turn, to unequal opportunity. Greater taxation of wealth will make possible investments in education, health, and infrastructure which will improve opportunity and raise the growth potential.
"Tiffin" is a snack that keeps you going until the next meal. Tiffin also conveys the sense of an occasion where you engage in friendly conversation and discussion. In that spirit, “Tiffin”-- also linked to our acronym TIF -- is a new section that will offer articles covering topics other than “contemporary issues”.
