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Indian polity is a prisoner of 'Luddism'. Left or right, it needs someone who can act as a change agent. Between the Congress and a confused BJP is the third force, the real Luddite socialists -- a conglomeration of SP, BSP, JD-U, TMC and a sprinkling of others. India unfortunately is caught between these forces, devastating its economic paradigm.

COVID-19, which is a highly infectious disease of zoonotic origin, serves as a serious reminder that human-nature interactions need to be based on sustainable development pathways. The recent surge in zoonotic infections in different parts of the world—among them, H1N1, Nipah virus, Zika virus, and Lyme disease—can be attributed to the intensification of human-animal contact through wildlife trade and livestock production. Reducing the rates

This paper examines two types of waste on which India can explore transboundary waste-trade opportunities and challenges: farm-produce waste and municipal solid waste. Using lessons learnt from trade between other countries, the paper argues that while India can augment its economy through increased waste exports or imports, certain conditions must be met for India to benefit from sustained international waste trade practices. The paper recommend

India spends over Rs 400,000 crores every year on schemes, projects and programmes broadly falling within the category of social welfare. Embedding appropriate technology in social welfare programmes can give poor Indians a real chance of empowerment.

Adapting health interventions to the social, economic, political, ecological, and cultural contexts of local communities increases trust and acceptability for policies and programmes. Locally led initiatives entrust local stakeholders with providing insights into grassroots-level realities and community-sensitive approaches. Global and country-wide evidence also highlights that granting authority and accountability to local stakeholders improves

Birds provide multiple benefits to the world’s ecosystems. In recent years, experts have raised the alarm about deteriorating bird populations, with some species becoming extinct and others threatened to dangerous levels. This decline in avian populations is primarily attributed to urbanisation. Concerted efforts are required to conserve birds and their habitats in cities. The Government of India, state governments, urban local bodies, non-gove

The "old, new and the social media" in India are "swayed less by ideology and more by commercial interests," according to a senior media professor, Dr Maya Ranganathan.

A three-day Mekong-Ganga Dialogue has stressed the need for shifting thinking around river-basin development and climate change issues from narrow national security concerns to a regional perspective with ecological and social concerns.

The growing concern for mental health has only heightened in the past two years, amidst the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. This brief tells the story of Africa where, in many communities, the subject of mental health can often be a taboo. It discusses the role of the internet in helping individuals manage their mental health issues, while at the same time, posing its own challenges, especially those related to extensive use of social media.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's penchant for using social media to address the public directly has apparently caused a rift within India's mainstream press.

Narendra Modi came to power with an unexceptional agenda: push economic growth; transform the infrastructure; bring about a social transformation. But this agenda appears to be in danger of being drowned out by a cacophony of voices from Hindutva organisations.

As immediate neighbours, India and Myanmar have little choice but to engage each other closely. Such engagement needs understanding of each other's social and economic interests, and respect for each other's political and strategic concerns.

A delegation of Myanmar civil rights groups was of the view that civil society groups could be used as a catalyst for social change in their country. They hoped that the civil society would be able to play a critical role in further transforming the seemingly changing political system of the country.

Developing national digital strategies has become crucial for all countries, especially for developing nations. African countries, in particular, must find a niche in the global digital economy to accelerate inclusive social and economic development using technology. This brief compares the national digital strategies of 17 African countries and analyses them based on the typology of the relationship between state and society in the context of th

Pakistan has for long been grappling with several fundamental problems without any visible signs of overcoming them. Its economic, social and political indicators are amongst the lowest in the world. In its conflicts with India, which it perceives as its sworn enemy, all its tactics have proven to be of insignificant success, as has its intrusive attempts to control Kabul so as to gain strategic depth in Afghanistan. The successive governments' m

There is an urgent need to focus on key legislations in the real world; expanding internet access in India by ensuring social and technological growth go hand-in-hand; and the complexity of bridging divides between various factions on the issue.

The day and age of centralised and linear town planning approaches are over. Conceptually, the urban planners, architects, designers, builders and policy makers have to make a conscious efforts to humanise urban planning to make it part of the larger ecosystem of social sciences.

We are not in an easy situation in Nepal. The country is in a kind of turmoil. It is like a frozen ice cube that is melting and we do not know how we should refreeze it into the shape we want. The country has lots of energy and is ready with a new agenda for social change and progress. But how do we give it direction so that the sense of nationhood that is strongly taking root is reflected in the new constitution now being drafted by the Constit

It is almost a year since fresh elections to the Constituent Assembly in Nepal took place for the formation of a new government and the writing of a new constitution that would, as was expected then, be a breath of fresh air for a country long engulfed in political and social unrest -- and political and constitutional instability afterward.

The onus of striking a balance between price affordability and environmental sustainability with regard to the fashion industry lies on the shoulder of the global community.

The nature of work is changing, leading to the loss of some jobs and the creation of others that require radically changed skills. In India, as the requirements of this evolving labour market change, co-working spaces fulfil many of the new needs. The aim of this paper is twofold: to describe the development of the co-working industry in India, its driving factors, as well as the architecture, design and social aspects of the work environment; a

While acknowledging the fact that many of the larger NGOs have done phenomenal work in public welfare, a social activist in Chennai has said the motives behind the initiatives of some of them in the country have become questionable.

This brief analyses the impact of the Christchurch Call to Action, issued to gather countries and technology companies to stop the use of the internet for disseminating violent extremist content. The Call was the result of a summit organised shortly after a terrorist attack in New Zealand in March 2019. This brief finds that the Call lacks clear conceptual definitions and is singularly focused on social media platforms. It also raises questions a

The concept of ‘intelligence’ immediately brings to mind a covert world of spies, secrets, and classified documents. That might have been true in the past, but in the current age, Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) is gaining prominence. OSINT is intelligence based on information that is publicly available and processed by any interested party, and complements traditional intelligence while providing greater situational awareness to a range of

Observer Research Foundation (ORF), India and Fudan Institute for Advanced Study in Social Sciences Fudan University, China have agreed to undertake a joint research project.

Over the last 30 years, digital innovation has been met with vacillating opinions on whether technology is emancipatory or tends to benefit those with political and/or economic power. In the context of innovations in AI in the early 2020s, this brief tackles the question: In a digital age, what is new in who exercises power over whom? It focuses on the power of States in relation to both citizens and territory, and outlines four areas where funda

The current discourse on the creation of new provinces in Pakistan reflects the limitations of the nation's political structures and social fabric.

Of the many pressing challenges and crises facing Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the one which is perhaps the most difficult to address is the sectarian blood-letting that has been tearing the social fabric of Pakistan for decades now.

Africa is experiencing a food crisis on an unprecedented scale. More than 150 million people in the continent are anticipated to be in danger of increased levels of hunger in the immediate future because of the impacts of the conflict in Ukraine, compounded by climate-related variability and extremes, economic slowdowns, and the lingering consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Within this context, social and gender disparities are increasing, wit

The concept of ‘gentrification’ has been studied extensively in urban agglomerations, specifically in tier-I and tier-II cities. ‘Gentrification’ is largely understood as the displacement of people belonging to certain classes in an area due to the influx of investment and affluent classes into that area. In India, settlements are based on religious and social vectors of caste, rather than economic vectors of class. With settlemen

Assumptions are a necessary part of statecraft and military planning. However, there are dangers in making incorrect presuppositions, especially those related to social, cultural or quasi-cultural aspects of an adversary that are then predicted to have an impact on military-political outcomes. This paper examines some of the most common political-military assumptions about the Chinese People’s Liberation Army that are inherently problematic, as

New Delhi has enough regional ructions without another tense relationship to manage.

Integrating their economies will help Bangladesh and India rise up global and regional value chains

With clearly increasing patterns of inequity, social strife and marginalisation, India's policymakers must understand that they cannot continue to articulate its pro poor agenda shamelessly at the global high table, without first enabling visible socio-economic transformation at home.

The prevalence of malnutrition—encompassing both undernutrition and overnutrition—is an important indicator of a country’s health. Those who are either undernourished or are obese underperform in various aspects of life, missing out on opportunities to become productive members of society. India is among those countries in the world with the highest recorded numbers of undernourished. As the country aspires to fulfil its economic and social

The workforce participation rate of India’s women is significantly lower than that of the men; and amongst the women, the employment levels of urban women are lower than those of their rural counterparts. Using the findings of the 2018 Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), released in 2019, this brief provides an overview of the current state of female labour force participation in urban India. It analyses data on vocational training and employm

Now thanks partly to Paul's bid for the Republican nomination, Libertarianism has become popular in American politics again. Tens of millions of Americans today are fiscally conservative, socially tolerant and sceptical of American military intervention abroad.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made clear that global health crises are geopolitical events with far-reaching and long-lasting effects across the globe. It creates prodigious disruptions across economic, security, and social sectors, with spillover effects through trade, financial linkages, and tourism, to name the least. This essay argues that as the American-led order in Asia arguably falters, instead of China rushing to fill the post COVID-19 vacuu

Central business districts (CBDs) dominate economic activity in large cities. In India’s capital, New Delhi, for example, Connaught Place is a CBD. Firms relocate to CBDs due to the ease of doing business in such areas owing to retail agglomeration, functional grouping, labour pooling, and the ability to attract talent. However, recent phenomenon such as an increase in remote working, the rise in real estate costs, and the expansion of city lim

Whatever be the end-game in the ¿Karuna rebellion¿ within the monolithic LTTE, the development may have heralded a process of ¿social justice¿ or social re-engineering¿ as is understood in India ¿ and also come to stay, in a way. To the extent, the ¿Karuna factor¿ may have become unstoppable in the socio-political sense of the term, whatever be the immediate consequence of the rebellion, or its impact on the suspended peace process in Sri

Following the Nirbhaya case of 2012 and the public outrage that it provoked, public safety for women has been increasingly deemed a political issue worthy of attention and concern, particularly in India’s cities. The government’s response has been to promote precautionary policies for women that, while may be well-meaning, tend to reinforce the prevalent social inclination to put the onus of their safety on women themselves, rather than addre

“The more the number of people, the stronger we are” Mao Zedong In recent years microblogs have emerged as a serious challenge for the Chinese government as they have become an effective means for common citizens to voice their opinions. With more and more citizens joining this new and still emerging media, the Chinese State is doing all it can to curtail freedom of expression. Although the government is trying to have absolute control over

As the frequency and impacts of climate events increase, demand for adaptation at the local level becomes urgent. The adaptation finance received from developing and least- developed countries is estimated to be less than USD 25 billion per year, which is exponentially less than the required amount of USD 215 billion per year. Further, the evidence indicates that less than 10% of global climate finance reaches the local level. Local communities l

The shadow boxing being done by UPA's friends and foes for a rollback of "prices" actually lacks a killer punch because what they are demanding is one of taxes meant to collect revenues for the UPA's flagship social sector schemes

South Africa’s Covid-19 responses are marred by policy paradoxes. How does a country with one of the most sophisticated health systems in Africa account for the highest number of Covid-19 fatalities? This brief argues that contemporary approaches to South Africa’s social, domestic, and foreign policy responses should be viewed through the theoretical lenses of racial capitalism—a racially hierarchical political economy constituting war, mil