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This Issue Brief looks at the world of digital spaces and analyses issues such as the politics of silencing women; propriety; and health and gender-specific vulnerabilities.

Despite the unprecedented growth of India’s gig economy and possible benefits to women service providers, little attention has been paid to the hurdles faced by women in pursuing gig work. Indeed, gig work has witnessed similar gendered division as has been evident in traditional work, and has not led to a direct increase in Female Labour Force Participation (FLPR) in India. This brief examines the existing literature on the problems faced by w

Current data suggests that the global community is far from achieving the 2030 agenda of ending hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition. By the end of 2019, 650 million people suffered from chronic hunger and 135 million experienced acute food-insecurity. Not all regions are equal: the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2020 found that some are experiencing less severe incidence of hunger on the GHI scale, compared to others. The most serious levels of

India introduced Gender-Responsive Budgeting (GRB) in financial year 2005-06 to design public spending in a way that ensures that the benefits accrue as much to the country’s women as they do to the men. India’s effort has influenced both the government’s expenditures and its revenue policies—such as additional tax rebates on properties owned by women, for instance—at the levels of both central and state governments. However, 18

Women make up a majority of the four billion people excluded from the digital economy. Policy narratives assert that the digital economy has the potential to transform the world of work. Conversely, there are concerns that the existing ‘digital divide’ within and across nations will simply exacerbate existing social inequalities and reinforce gender hierarchies. G20 member states have repeatedly committed to bridging pervasive gender gaps in

A deal with Taliban will bring war to rest of the world.

Emissions from fossil fuel-powered motor vehicles adversely affect air quality and contribute to global warming. The manufacture and use of electric vehicles (EVs) is among the ways by which this challenge can be mitigated. This brief evaluates the best practices adopted by countries in the forefront of EV adoption, and outlines the lessons India can draw from them to inform its own EVs strategy. It finds that in addition to strengthening

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, reforming the global health governance system has become a key area of concern for the G20 and other multilateral platforms. This comes at a time when the world has increasingly become volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. As a grouping of developed and developing countries, the G20 must prioritise addressing global health challenges by identifying its direct and indirect determinants. This brief

What should be India's approach towards the international internet governance discourse? This Issue Brief attempts answer this question by examining the Indian government's engagement with the global community, using the recently concluded NETmundial conference on internet governance as a case study. It also provides policy recommendations for the way forward.

The recent violent actions of the Maoists have made big news. It will not be easy to resolve this problem because these are the people who have been deprived of their land and development, and they form the core of the movement. Only better distribution of the growth story can bring peace to these people

Saying that South Asian countries need to work closely to share, and not divide, water, the author says the consequence of bringing water to a pedestal on India-Pakistan relations can have devastating effects on regional security and prosperity.

Wetlands are important ecosystems that provide benefits such as flood control, water purification, and biodiversity conservation. In India, however, wetlands are threatened by pollution, encroachment, and rampant real estate development. This brief assesses the East Kolkata Wetlands to illustrate the challenges of preserving urban wetlands in India. It also presents recommendations to establish more comprehensive wetlands management and conservat

To successfully combat climate change, there is an urgent need to finance mitigation and adaptation efforts at various levels. Green bonds are a relatively new funding instrument for green projects that have steadily become the first line of defence against climate change. India, in particular, has immense scope to diversify the green bond market beyond renewable energy. This brief analyses the policy structure of countries that have successfully

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a massive economic and social fallout for India, as it has across the globe. In India, large numbers of people lost their jobs, and supply chains across industries and agriculture have been disrupted. At the same time, environmental indicators—notably air and freshwater quality—showed improvements following the long period of a nationwide lockdown. This brief outlines why India must make a focused decision to mov

It is important to differentiate between physical capital as produced means of production in contrast to natural capital which is naturally endowed. The latter facilitates a host of ecosystem services[i] that flow through human processes, both societal and economic. Unlike physical capital, natural capital cannot be substituted easily. Therefore, this stock of natural capital processing into the flow of ecosystem functions need to be valued and

Greece may be far away from India but the lessons to be drawn are many. Bringing down fiscal deficit through harsh austerity measures has brought Greece to the brink. India should also not cut the important social sector spending in order to bridge the fiscal deficit.

The hypothesis of “jobless growth” has been central to recent debates around India’s economic development trajectory. This brief undertakes an evaluation of secondary data to test whether India is indeed experiencing jobless growth. The authors find that the characterisation of “jobless growth” is both reductive and empirically unsound, and India’s employment landscape has experienced notable expansion alongside robust Gross Domestic

Will President Obama's passionate call for stricter gun laws from the pulpit bring any change, or will he go towards the sunset in 2016 with having done practically nothing on this issue?

Agriculture remains the world’s biggest employer and the most important source of food and raw material for various economic activities. The fulfillment of a number of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is anchored on the performance of the sector. This brief examines the most crucial negative consequences of how modern agriculture is practiced, and how these will make it difficult for the world to realise the SDGs. Drawing on examples fr

Due to the persistent adversarial nature of the Sino-Indian border environment, and because China is now a de facto maritime neighbour as well, India needs to examine its options of leveraging sea power. This brief analyses some fundamentals of sea control and sea denial, and examines some misconceptions about these. By using factors of time, force and space, the brief argues that while maritime economic warfare (explained as counter-value operat

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to “leave no one behind’’ and directed all countries to work together to end poverty and other deprivations. Achieving the SDGs requires collaborative strategies aimed at improving technologies of the Least Developing Countries (LDCs) in the productive sectors such as agriculture. Understandably, in most developing countries, the agriculture sector is characterised by informality, small scale,

India and Nepal are fellow riparian nations in South Asia and thus could potentially use their shared water resources as avenues for collaborative effort. Using water to generate hydropower for maximum benefit comes from a place of mutual interest, allowing for optimum leverage for the socio-economic development of both countries. This brief outlines a history of the India-Nepal hydroelectric power scenario, and offers recommendations for growth.

Forests help mitigate the impacts of climate change, provide economic benefits for the country, and meet specific facets of India’s sustainable development goals. It is essential, therefore, to revisit India’s forest governance and evaluate the country’s efforts at forest restoration and conservation. This brief examines the current state of India’s forests, explores the effectiveness of forest restoration and conservation measures, and r

The future of the Wagner Group, a private mercenary conglomerate linked to Russian foreign policy, is uncertain, raising questions about its global footprint.

Public health is identified by BIMSTEC member countries as one among its fourteen priority areas for cooperation. Such collaborations, however, have been limited around traditional medicine. This year’s launch of the JIPMER-BIMSTEC Telemedicine Network (JBTN) which combines public health, communication, and technology, is bound to change the status quo. In per-capita terms, three BIMSTEC members are wealthier than India, while three are poorer.

This brief examines India’s defence budget for 2023-24. It outlines the economic context for India’s latest defence allocations, and examines the drivers of growth, the broad distribution of resources among the defence forces, and the impact of such distribution on modernisation and the domestic defence industry. The brief posits that the new defence budget, coming on the back of a hefty mid-year upward revision of the previous alloca

The neighbouring waters around China have been marked by competing maritime territorial claims for decades. In recent years, tensions have intensified as Beijing’s inroads have increased in pace and extent. Today China’s economic security is closely linked to the South China Sea. With Beijing repeatedly engaging in acts that are widely seen as violative of international maritime law, there is a growing need to underscore the significance and

It’s ironical that the military is treated as an appendage by those very institutions that ascended to power post-Independence after collaborating with the British

Public displays of exasperation reflect Beijing’s disappointment with the lack of progress in its relations with Kathmandu.

The Centre seems to be keen on development of Free Trade Agreements with our East Asian and South-East Asian neighbours. The general idea floated in this context is: Trade is good. More is better. But, unbridled market force in the form of unbridled trade without the concomitant safeguards in regulation and risk management mechanisms might not be a wise idea.

Across India’s burgeoning cities, the supply of affordable homes is highly inadequate to keep pace with the growing need; as a result, slums and other informally built areas, where living conditions are extremely poor, have grown. In 2015 the Indian government implemented a national housing programme, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (urban) or PMAY (U) to bridge the gap in affordable housing. This report evaluates the progress of PMAY (U), and finds

150 innocent lives have been lost in the serial blasts set-off by terrorists in Mumbai on July 11, 2006; the death toll is likely to mount. The blasts, sadly, are a chilling reminder that terrorist can strike with impunity and at will, secure in the comfort that they cannot be touched. If the 1993 Bomb blasts in Mumbai had a fig leaf of an excuse (the demolition of the Babri mosque), the current blasts have none.

Terrorists have taken to the use of social media networks in a big way. This brings us back to the old dilemma of how much data is information and how much information is adequate intelligence. The other dilemma is how much surveillance is enough for security. The third dilemma is how much liberty is to be sacrificed for security.

As the COVID-19 infection rate continues to increase in the United States (US), this brief examines the country’s social protection system and compares it to those of other rich OECD countries. It argues that implementing basic social protection measures in a time of crisis such as this, may be costly both in resources and time. While addressing immediate needs imposed by the public health emergency is priority, in the long term, institutionali

Trade relations between Europe and India require new eclectic and dynamic ways of thinking. This brief examines hurdles in mainstream policy thinking that block the way for imagining and doing trade differently.

An international posse led by the US has set off along with a motley crowd hunting for one of the two remaining leaders of the Axis of Evil. The British are there, as always, galloping along close to the Americans. The Germans and the French have returned to the fold after staying away in the hunt for Saddam Hussein.

India’s efforts to bring world-class education to Africa can have far-reaching impacts. It will boost local economy, attract investments and foster a culture of innovation.

The global order is fast-changing; the field of International Relations (IR), less so. Despite the rise of other countries in economic and geopolitical terms, the field of IR continues to be dominated by the West and its theories, methods and policy concerns. The idea of ‘Global IR’ proposed in this brief aims to make the field more inclusive and universal. After outlining the major elements of a Global IR paradigm, the brief suggests that In

The multiple crises besetting India’s justice delivery system are related to a large extent to what the Chief Justice calls “dilapidated” infrastructure. Indeed, it is empirically known that there is a positive correlation between adequacy of infrastructure—whether courtrooms, chambers, sanitation facilities, or digital connectivity—and productivity in the delivery of justice. This brief highlights the stark gaps in infrastructu

This brief examines the status of research in Indian higher education and offers an overview of the concept of undergraduate (UG) research as a means of reform. The article attempts a brief review of the government efforts to improve higher education research, and underlines the limitations of their scope as well as their implications. Through an expansive review of existing empirical and qualitative studies, this brief shows the benefits and imp

Territorial disputes in the South China Sea are traditionally viewed through the standpoint of China’s military expansionism, where the threats are more visible. The environmental impacts of China’s activities, which will be long-lasting, remain underexplored. China’s island construction, drilling activities, and overfishing have pushed the marine ecosystem of the region to the brink of collapse, and the destruction of coral reefs a

This brief examines the evolution of the ‘Indo-Pacific’ concept in the context of the dynamic role of “regions” in international relations. It argues that the conception of these theatres is a consequence of power relations; that as power dynamics change, so does the conceptualisation of regions. This would also explain why the boundaries of regions can be arbitrary—why, for instance, the Asia-Pacific stops at Myanmar and does not inclu

In the past few weeks, Afghanistan has received a stream of important visitors from western capitals that are in a position to preside over its destiny ¿ U.S. National Security Council Advisor Stephen J. Hadley, Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, British Secretary of State for Defence John Reid, and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The Bay of Bengal—home to a number of major ports that are lifelines for the economies and populations in India’s east coast that depend on them—is highly prone to extreme weather events. This brief examines the disaster-resilience of three of the ports on the Bay of Bengal: the ports of Kolkata in the state of West Bengal, Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, and Chennai in Tamil Nadu. The brief describes the destruction wrought on these ports

Bangladesh roping in China on Teesta project a challenge for India

This paper highlights the imperatives for India’s G20 Presidency for promoting development cooperation towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Given its unique development cooperation model—more precisely, its development partnership model—India can utilise its G20 presidency to push the sustainability agenda. This will help bridge the North-South divide in sustainable development financing. The paper recommends

The year 2022 saw the global economic outlook deteriorate amidst high inflation, fiscal tightening, and supply chain uncertainties arising from both the Russia-Ukraine war and the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. Global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), after expanding by some 5 percent in 2021, contracted in the first half of 2022. This brief makes a case for gender lens investing (GLI) as a means to boost women’s participation in economic act

Ties between India and Australia are wide-ranging: from geostrategic cooperation and trade, to soft power mechanisms such as cricket and tourism. This paper makes a case for improving bilateral relations between New Delhi and Canberra. While there are substantial opportunities for trade and investment flows between the two countries, the engagements have been largely underdeveloped over the years. The immense scope of complementarities between th