Author: cprindia

Listen to the full audio recording (above) of the talk by Sheila Jasanoff, where she discusses the historical context of the contrasting stance of the US and the EU on the GM crops debate. Jasanoff elaborates on how the US policymakers dismiss the European reaction as based in scientifically ungrounded fears, while the European anti-GM forces view the US posture as founded on inadequate science.

Additionally, visit the event page to access the presentation.

Watch the full video (above) of the fourth discussion in the series on the central features of populism and cronyism, and their consequences for economic and social development, featuring Michael Walton and James Crabtree.

Populism has emerged in various forms in many parts of the world in recent years. While it is typically associated with an anti-establishment and anti-elite narrative, it is striking how it often coincides with cronyism – favored  relations between the state and (some) big business.

The talk draws on both an ongoing comparative study of state-business relations in India, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa and secondary literature on the history and contemporary features of cronyism and populism.

Michael Walton teaches at the Harvard Kennedy School, and is a Senior Visiting Fellow at CPR. James Crabtree is a writer, journalist and author living in Singapore. He is currently an associate professor of practice at the Lee Kuan Yew School at the National University of Singapore, and a senior fellow at the school’s Centre on Asia and Globalisation.

The question and answer session that followed can be accessed here.

About the CPR-TCPD Dialogues

This was the fourth event in the CPR-TCPD Dialogues on Indian Politics series, launched in a partnership between Centre for Policy Research and Trivedi Centre for Political Data (TPCD) at Ashoka University. This is a monthly event that brings together academicians, policy and political practitioners, and civil society actors to grapple with important social and political issues in India. It provides a forum for intellectually rigorous, non-partisan commentary to strengthen public discourse on politics in India. In these polarised times, debates on politics in India have tended to be increasingly noisy, blurring the lines between critical engagement and partisan endorsement. This dialogue series is an effort to carve out a space for critical, nuanced engagement to understand the changing dynamics of Indian political parties, the impact of new and emerging social movements and the use of new instruments of mobilisation in our polity.

Watch the full video recording (above), where Mike Raco discusses his paper on diversity planning in London, how it is conceptualised in urban policy frameworks, and its implications for citizens and policy priorities. He argues that diversity narratives are underpinned by radical ambiguities, and discusses both pros and cons.

To listen to the lively discussion that followed, tune in to the Q&A session here.

Despite the enactment of successful policy reforms, India is struggling to translate legislative successes into effective gains for citizen groups. Drawing on his extensive field research on forest and land rights, Prakash Kashwan argues about the importance of integrating external social, political and economic factors within the understanding of institutional change to ensure effective delivery.

Listen to the full talk (above) by Prakash Kashwan, and visit the event page for the full presentation.

Listen to Barun Mitra (above) talk about the Forest Rights Act of 2006 as he shares his experiences of working with grassroots communities and civil society organisations working on the ground, contextualising his work within the larger framework of property rights.

The talk was organised by the Land Rights Initiative at Centre for Policy Research.

The Scaling City Institutions for India: Sanitation (SCI-FI) programme and the Accountability Initiative (AI) at the Centre for Policy Research organised a workshop and conference on Sustainable Sanitation: Evidence and Practice on 11-12 December, 2017 at India Habitat Centre, Delhi.

Held on 11 December as a closed door event, the workshop invited policymakers, practitioners, and government officials tasked with overseeing the daily implementation of government sanitation schemes (including both aspects of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) – rural and urban) for in-depth deliberation and debate on sanitation programmes in India.

The conference, held on 12 December as a discussion amongst a wider group, deliberated on the lessons from the previous day’s workshop, as well as a broader set of themes surrounding the conceptualisation, implementation, and future prospects of sanitation programmes in India. The conference included a special focus on sustainable waste management and Faecal Sludge Management (FSM).

The conference was divided into the following sessions:

• Part 1 (full video above)
  • Opening Session: Challenges and Opportunities for Community Approaches to Sanitation
  • Session 2: Current Understandings of Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) implementation
• Part 2 (can be accessed at this link)
  • Session 3: Inclusive City-Wide Sanitation in Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) and AMRUT
  • Session 4: Panel Discussion on lessons from research and implementation experience

The conference report can be accessed here.

Watch the full video (above) of the talk by Olga Chepelianskaia, where she discusses the potential of built heritage to address urban development challenges, through selected Asian cities’ cases, highlighting how these learnings could apply to the Indian context.

Indian cities face an unprecedented urbanisation pressure (50% of India’s population will reside in cities by 2050, UN), which reflects in a rapid and uncontrolled built infrastructure development. Such development often takes place at the expense of natural eco-systems, human scale and cultural distinctiveness, which in turn significantly compromises sustainability, resilience, social cohesion, inclusiveness and economic opportunities. Climate change and extreme weather events further exacerbate negative effects of this unsustainable urbanisation process and further deepen poverty and vulnerability in cities.

In this context, achieving the SDGs and the New Urban Agenda targets imperatively comes to reviving and harnessing on cities’ unique natural and cultural assets. Yet, the potential of built heritage to address urban development challenges in India has hardly been explored and tapped into.

Olga Chepelianskaia is an international sustainable urban development consultant, Founder of UNICITI and Program Manager of SEHER INTACH. She specialises in sustainable and climate resilient urban development in Asian cities, natural eco-systems and heritage revival, climate change and clean energy.

The question and answer session that followed can be accessed here. Find all available videos of previous workshops here.

Listen to the audio recording (above) of a talk by Vipin Narang, Associate Professor of Political Science at MIT, analysing the nuclear acquisition strategies of states. Based on his research on typologies of acquisition strategies, he explores how states pursued the bomb as opposed to simply why, which has dominated scholarship thus far.