June 5, 2020

The Gig Economy in the Pandemic

Several firms in the gig economy have expanded operations during the Covid-19 pandemic. This has been made possible by the ready availability of an at-risk labour force. Fashioned as ‘aggregators’,…
▶04-Jun-2020
Gayatri Nair

Margins and Marginality

The Pathalgadi movement of Jharkhand drew on Munda traditions to fashion the 2019 electoral defeat of the incumbent party. A unique interplay of an assertion of constitutional rights, local…
▶04-Jun-2020
Mukulika Banerjee, Manisha Priyam

States’ Loss of Fiscal Autonomy in a Centralised Federal System

The states bear the larger responsibility in dealing with Covid-19 but they have few resources to do so. The ongoing process of centralisation has weakened the states. We need an institutional…
▶28-May-2020
M. Govinda Rao

How many casual workers in the cities have sought to go home?

There has been no count of the number of workers returning to their home states. An analysis of NSS data tells us that the first wave of returnees is likely to be mainly urban casual workers who lost…
▶27-May-2020
Nomaan Majid

Hunger Grows as India’s Lockdown Kills Jobs

The lockdown has devastated livelihoods at unprecedented levels, causing widespread job losses and hunger. The measures so far will not solve the crisis. India should universalise the PDS, expand…
▶27-May-2020
Rahul Lahoti, Amit Basole, Rosa Abraham, Surbhi Kesar, Paaritosh Nath

Learning to Listen

The Indian state’s lack of empathy for the weakest could be seen so clearly in the hardships it imposed on the poor during the Covid-19 lockdown. This can be fixed only by listening to people's…
▶21-May-2020
Aaditeshwar Seth

Counts and Consequences

Language diversity has always been a given for Indians. The Constitution endorses this diversity as ‘a noble intention’. But as in 2011, the 2021 Census too may see hundreds of languages removed from…
▶21-May-2020
G. N. Devy

Beyond the Pandemic

‘We need to address the basic structural issues of governance design if we are to be better prepared for future complex challenges. This is particularly necessary in managing disasters, but the…
▶18-May-2020
Chiranjib Sen
Covid-19

Psychosocial Challenges In the Midst of the Coronavirus

While trying to maintain our psychological equilibrium during a pandemic, we may well do so in a manner that facilitates the emergence of authoritarianism. But there can be hope too if we allow…
▶18-May-2020
Honey Oberoi Vahali
Essay

Seven Lessons for the Future

The pandemic has already taught us that for a better world we cannot have the market as the backbone of the economy; we need a more inclusive politics; decentralised governance is essential; and we…
▶14-May-2020
Prem Chandavarkar