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This Week at #IMPRI
(2021 | W10 | March 8 - 14)

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Dear IMPRI Well-wisher,

Greetings from the team!

International Women's Day is around the corner. The theme for this year is #ChooseToChallenge - a call to identify and flag instances of inequality and gender bias around us, in our daily lives, and celebrate women's achievements.

With that in mind, do join us for a talk on March 8, Women's Day, by Prof Govind Kelkar, followed by other events throughout the week - including Prof Vikram Patel speaking on the mental health of India's youth, and further sessions on planet-friendly economies, India's SME's, and the state of real estate and housing in the country.

The newsletter provides an overview of these upcoming events , the week's publications, and videos of past week's #WebPolicyTalks in case you missed them. We hope to see you tune in to one of our events!

Hope you have a wonderful week ahead,

Anshula Mehta, Assistant Director, IMPRI

Past Issues of the Newsletter

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Upcoming #WebPolicyTalks
Register to attend!

International Women's Day - Distinguished Lecture

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Prof Govind Kelkar (Executive Director, GenDev Centre for Research and Innovation; Chairperson, IMPRI Gender Impact Studies Center) on The Role of Policy and Society in Accelerating Inclusive Equality: #ChoosingToChallenge for Action and Impact

When: March 8, 2021 (International Women's Day); 18:30 IST (Monday) | REGISTER HERE

Chaired by Dr Nivedita P. Haran (IAS, retd.), with discussants Prof Indu Agnihotri (Centre for Women's Development Studies (CWDS), Delhi), Prof Mary E. John (CWDS, Delhi) and Dr Francis Raj (Center for Human Security Studies, Hyderabad)

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Special Lecture

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Prof Vikram Patel (Professor, Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, USA;
Co-Founder and Member of Managing Committee, Sangath, India) on The Mental Health of India’s Youth

When: March 9, 2021; 11:30 IST (Tuesday) | REGISTER HERE

Discussants: Dr Soumitra Pathare (Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy, Pune), Sadam Hanjabam (Ya_All, The Youth Network), Dr Aparna Joshi (iCALL, TISS, Mumbai), Dr Paulomi Sudhir (NIMHANS), Dr M. Manjula (NIMHANS) and Urvashi Prasad (NITI Aayog),

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Special Lecture

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Dr R Balasubramanium (Founder and Chairman, Grassroots Research and Advocacy Movement; Founder, Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement) on Building a Planet-friendly Economy

When: March 12, 2021; 11:30 IST (Friday) | REGISTER HERE

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#EmploymentDebate

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Prof M H Bala Subrahmanya (Professor, Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India) on How to enable Indian SMEs to penetrate the Global Value Chains of TNCs? The Need to strengthen Regional Innovation Systems

When: March 12, 2021; 16:00 IST (Friday) | REGISTER HERE

Discussants: Dr Ketan Reddy (IIT, Madras)

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#CityConversations

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Prof P S N Rao (Director, School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), New Delhi) on The State of Real Estate and Housing in India amidst COVID-19 Pandemic: Impact and Way Forward

When: March 13, 2021; 11:00 IST (Saturday) | REGISTER HERE

Discussants: Pavan Dixit (Property360Degree), Dhaval Monani (Future of Living Institute)

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Latest Publications

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'Time for an eco-friendly development model' by Gurinder Kaur and Arjun Kumar | The Pioneer

The massive loss of life and property resulting from natural disasters should serve as a warning signal to the Central Government and make it realise that it must strictly abide by environmental norms. However, the Government seems to be in no mood to hear the alarm bells as the Central Government is planning to relax environmental standards for Mopa Airport in Goa, sand mining in Uttar Pradesh, Sterlite Copper in Tamil Nadu and construction activities in and around Delhi, which have been blocked by the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal.

'New farm laws and Solidarity movement: Unfolding New politics for New Economics' by Sunil Ray | Mainstream Weekly
Farmers’ upheaval, a unique resistance movement against the new farm laws epitomizing neo-liberalism is making a case for an epochal transformation that the nation has ever witnessed after Independence. It is capturing the imagination of structural change not of agriculture alone, but of the entire rural economy of the country.
'Uttarakhand Flood Disaster 2.0: From Analysis to Action' by Simi Mehta and Amita Bhaduri | IndraStra Global
Viewing Science only through the lens of calculations and equations and to be able to manipulate the same to achieve project go-ahead by the government is a regressive thought. Further, naming it ‘Natural Disasters’ and not man-made is nothing but greed that mankind hasn’t been able to contain.“Nature never justifies and accommodates lies in the name of facts”, said Shri Rajendra Singh at a #WebPolicyTalk.
'Strategies for Youth Empowerment in Conflict Zones, and Grassroots Democracy' by Nyla Ali Khan | IMPRI
Should those of us who write on youth movements, people’s movements, and conflict zones accord the authorities more leniency because, legally, the state can claim to have a monopoly on the legitimate use of force? Or should we hold the state and its appendages to a higher standard than militant and vigilante groups? These questions cannot be answered by those invested in the erasure of indigenous histories and asphyxiation of critical thinking.
'The way forward on MSP: Important to explore fiscally prudent, administratively convenient options' by CSC Sekhar | Financial Express
Public procurement needs to continue for staple cereals, but farmers of non-staple food crops need to be provided with direct income transfers
'How can India create a Bright Future for Children?' by Gurinder Kaur | IMPRI
National Family Health Survey-5 has revealed that out of 22 states and union territories in 12 children are underweight for their height while in 16 children are underweight for their age. In the current survey there is also an increase in the percentage of anemic children. Malnutrition among children is on rise in most of the states and union territories. India has a higher percentage of underweight children in South Asia.
'Municipal budgets can make a real difference to citizens’ lives. Here’s how.' by Srikanth Viswanathan | The Indian Express
There seems to be evidence to suggest that when there is citizen participation in budgeting and closer engagement of citizens in the monitoring of civic works, there are better outcomes and fewer leakages. “Participatory Budgeting” is a concept that was pioneered in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre in the mid-1980s. It is now practised in one form or other in thousands of cities around the world.
'Apex court's forestland ruling: Will Himachal Pradesh 'devastate' like Uttarakhand?' by Gurinder Kaur | Counterview
Indiscriminate deforestation could lead to severe water shortages in the state in coming years as trees' roots absorb excess rain and snow water and gradually release this water which flows into rivers, springs, and waterfalls. These projects even include those forest areas which fall under FRA 2006. The law covers the tribal people who are dependent on forests for their basic needs and development rights. The use of their land for development works means the complete displacement of these people.
'Industrial Policy for Innovation and Employment Creation: Challenges and Way Forward towards Make in India & #AtmaNirbharBharat' by Francis Kuriakose | IMPRI
The first step is digital and research skilling of the tertiary educated workforce through expansive public and private investment in training...The second step is to establish institutional linkages across universities, public and private research centers to encourage marginal innovation by developing new products, processes, and business models...The third step is to focus on data governance issues such as localization as part of industrial and innovation policy.
'Everyday Governance And Institutional Heterogeneity In Indian Cities' by Soumyadip Chattopadhyay and Arjun Kumar | Youth Ki Awaaz
The metropolitan cities apart from Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore have a rather different way of functioning and have a strong and effective community service that makes the decision-making process rather easy and meaningful. But in smaller cities, this might not be the case. They might be locally linked to each other or, in some cases, even linked to internationally recognised rotary clubs. Therefore, while conducting research, one needs to collect data all cities other than the metropolitan cities.: Dr Natasha Cornea at a #WebPolicyTalk
'Uttarakhand disaster: 30 yrs not enough for developers to prevent such 'massacres'' by Simi Mehta and Amita Bhaduri | Counterview
Common Alerting Protocol, a centralized system of information and warning dissemination by collecting data from various government bodies and sources, has been on the pipeline for some years with the Government of India and one that needs to be phased out to practice sooner. The information will not just be sent personally to individuals but also broadcasted and communicated in a larger scale like a public place.: Nivedita Khandekar at a #WebPolicyTalk
'Green Infrastructure Financing required for Sustainable Cities' by Soumyadip Chattopadhyay | IMPRI
Climate responsive urban policy is key to address the financial shortfalls. In practice, the climate risks that urban India faces are multifaceted and are functions of local specificities and climatic conditions. Cities need to set local sustainability targets after duly incorporating sustainability and resiliency aspects into their planning exercises. However, fragmented urban governance structure in India marked by the presence of wide range of actors with conflicting as well as overlapping interests and mandates seriously undermine the scope for concrete sustainable infrastructure plans.
'Embedded patriarchy in science must end' by Amita Singh | The Daily Guardian
History and research have shown proof of how few women in science have received their due, despite making discoveries and providing services which have led to the progress of modern science and civilisation. Decision makers must find a way to put an end to the gender bias.
'The idea of ‘one nation one exam’ double-crosses teenagers, shoots up their stress levels' by Chandrachur Singh | The Print
Except for adding on to the high stress levels among the teenagers and double-crossing them, the proposed reform would achieve nothing. The stress will certainly be more aggravated in the upcoming academic year because those appearing for boards in May-June will be required to take the aptitude test almost immediately. Students have been away from the schools for almost a year now and may not be the best Guinea pigs for an experiment of this nature.
'Land Grabs, Slum Clearance, Air Pollution: Urban Governance In China And India' by Soumyadip Chattopadhyay, Arjun Kumar and IMPRI | Youth Ki Awaaz
While China’s form of urban governance can be termed territorial, India takes a more associational approach. Urban policymaking and implementation are largely shaped by local and territorial authorities and institutions in China. In contrast, stakeholders in civil society, the public and private sectors, form alliances and influence India’s policy.: Dr Xuefei Ren at a #WebPolicyTalk

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In case you missed it...

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Dr Simi Mehta (CEO and Editorial Director, IMPRI; Fulbright - Nehru Doctoral Research Scholar, Ohio State University) spoke on Political Participation and Representation of Women in India at the Grassroots in a webinar organized by United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF) as part of the celebration of 75 years of the Fulbright Program.

Watch Now

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#CityConversations: Srikanth Viswanathan (Chief Executive Officer, Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy) and Srinivas Alavilli (Lead, IChangeMyCity, The Civic Tech Platform of Janaagraha; Co-Founder, #SteelFlyoverBeda Movement) on The Status Quo in India’s Cities: How to break it?

Chaired by Prof Tathagata Chatterji (Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar) and moderated by Dr Soumyadip Chattopadhyay (Visva-Bharati; IMPRI), with discussants Dr Lalitha Kamath (TISS, Mumbai), Shubhagato Dasgupta (Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi), Tikender Singh Panwar (Former Deputy Mayor, Shimla)

Watch Now

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#GenderGaps: Elsa Marie D'Silva (Founder, Red Dot Foundation) on Using Technology to Address Gender-based Violence

Chaired by Dr Vibhuti Patel (Formerly, Advanced Centre for Women's Studies, TISS, Mumbai) with discussants Dr Sangita Dutta Gupta (Jagdish Sheth School of Management) and Rwitee Mandal (Safetipin)

Watch Now

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As part of a 3 day session of the Janta Parliament on the 2021 Union Budget, Vikalp Sangam/Kalpavriksh and IMPRI coordinated a 45 minute session on Environment and the Budget, with Ashish Kothari (Founder-member, Kalpavriksh; Coordinator, Vikalp Sangam) and Anshula Mehta (Assistant Director, IMPRI) speaking.

Watch Now

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Special Lecture: Dr Madhavi Menon (Professor of English; Director, Center for Studies in Gender and Sexuality, Ashoka University) - The Law in My Kitchen: Questions on Gender, Agency, and the State

Chaired by Prof Rukmini Bhaya Nair (IIT, Delhi) with discussants Dr Usha Mudiganti (Ambedkar University Delhi) and Akanksha Agrahari, Prerna Sengupta and Riddhi Bang (The Language Rights Blog, NALSAR, Bangalore)

Watch Now

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Thank you for your continued encouragement and participation in our endeavours, and for your meaningful support towards our efforts in carrying out serious research.

Team IMPRI

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IMPRI, a startup research think tank, is a platform for pro-active, independent, non-partisan and policy-based research. It contributes to debates and deliberations for action-based solutions to a host of strategic issues. IMPRI is committed to democracy, mobilization and community building.

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