Author: cprindia

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CPR POLITICS

Watch the full video (above) of the panel discussion on ‘Emerging Trends in Indian Politics’ featuring Vandita Mishra (National Opinion Editor, Indian Express); Mukulika Banerjee (Director, South Asia Centre, LSE); Mukund Padmanabhan (Consultant & Former Editor, The Hindu); Gilles Verniers (Senior Visiting Fellow, CPR & Co-Director, TCPD, Ashoka University); presentation by Rahul Verma (Fellow, CPR) and moderated by Neelanjan Sircar (Senior Visiting Fellow, CPR & Assistant Professor, Ashoka Univeristy).

The rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the centre stage of Indian politics is marked by multiple shifts. India is undergoing a massive demographic transition as more members of the electorate are part of the middle class, living in urban areas, more educated, and more exposed to media sources. Furthermore, the BJP’s social base over the past two decades has undergone a transformation. The magnitude of the BJP’s victory in 2019 also restructured the competitive political space. While on the one hand, the BJP seems to be on the back foot in state elections, on the other, the party’s ideological hegemony seems to be at its peak. Rahul Verma from the CPR politics team made a brief presentation on the issue, analysing the emerging contours of Indian politics, followed by reflections and insights from the panellists.

The panel was organised as part of the second edition of CPR Dialogues, held on 2nd and 3rd March 2020 at the India Habitat Centre. Addressing the theme of Policy Perspectives for 21st-century India, CPR Dialogues 2020 provided a window to the India of the future. Experts from around the country and the world engaged with and debated these very significant development and policy challenges that India faces in the coming decade.

ThePrint India was the digital partner for the event.

An article on the changing political landscape in India, written by Rahul Verma, Neelanjan Sircar and Gilles Verniers in ThePrint can be read here.

Videos of other panel discussions organised as part of CPR Dialogues 2020 can be found below:

CPR Dialogues 2020- Inaugural Address by Hon’ble Subrahmanyam Jaishankar
CPR Dialogues 2020- At the Threshold of a New Decade: Navigating the Emerging Geopolitical Landscape
CPR Dialogues 2020- Rights in Times of AI: Emerging Technologies and the Public Law Framework
CPR Dialogues 2020- What Would Happen if We Were to Believe in Indian Agriculture?
CPR Dialogues 2020- Creating an Inclusive Economy in a Digital World
CPR Dialogues 2020- What Would it Take to Build a 21st-century State for India? Launch of CPR’s State Capacity Initiative
CPR Dialogues 2020- Technology and Administrative Reform: Experience from India and the World
CPR Dialogues 2020- Tracking Government Spending: Challenges in Social Policy Financing
CPR Dialogues 2020- The Air Pollution Crisis: Making Political Salience Count
CPR Dialogues 2020- Article 21 and India’s Social and Economic Rights
CPR Dialogues 2020- Challenges in Public Education: Balancing State and Non-State Actors
CPR Dialogues 2020- Are India’s Financial Institutions in Crisis? Understanding India’s Economic Slowdown
CPR Dialogues 2020- The Role of Ideas in Shaping Policy
CPR Dialogues 2020- Indo-US Relations
CPR Dialogues 2020- Land and the Constitution: Solving Land Conflict in India
CPR Dialogues 2020- Political Elites and Local Bureaucratic Capacity

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CPR ECONOMY TECHNOLOGY

Watch the full video (above) of the panel discussion on ‘Creating an Inclusive Economy in a Digital World’ featuring Himanshu Wardhan (Managing Director, Etsy India); Rituparna Chakraborty (Co-founder & Executive Vice President, TeamLease Services); Berges Y Malu (Director, Public Policy & Policy Communications, ShareChat) and moderated by Sabina Dewan (Senior Visiting Fellow, CPR; President & Executive Director, JustJobs Network).

As the 21st-century progresses, India, along with the rest of the world, is witnessing the unfolding of rapid and significant technological change. This Fourth Industrial Revolution, as it is often called, is restructuring our labour markets. Against this backdrop, this panel explored how technology is changing the nature of work, and especially its implications for the workforce participation of women, who constitute half of the working-age population. It is essential to understand how the demand for workers will change and how the productive potential of women can be harnessed if technology has to be leveraged in service of development and growth.

The panel was organised as part of the second edition of CPR Dialogues, held on 2nd and 3rd March 2020 at the India Habitat Centre. Addressing the theme of Policy Perspectives for 21st-century India, CPR Dialogues 2020 provided a window to the India of the future. Experts from around the country and the world engaged with and debated these very significant development and policy challenges that India faces in the coming decade.

ThePrint India was the digital partner for the event.

An article on how India can create an inclusive economy, written by Sabina Dewan in ThePrint can be read here.

Videos of other panel discussions organised as part of CPR Dialogues 2020 can be found below:

CPR Dialogues 2020- Inaugural Address by Hon’ble Subrahmanyam Jaishankar
CPR Dialogues 2020- At the Threshold of a New Decade: Navigating the Emerging Geopolitical Landscape
CPR Dialogues 2020- Rights in Times of AI: Emerging Technologies and the Public Law Framework
CPR Dialogues 2020- What Would Happen if We Were to Believe in Indian Agriculture?
CPR Dialogues 2020- What Would it Take to Build a 21st-century State for India? Launch of CPR’s State Capacity Initiative
CPR Dialogues 2020- Technology and Administrative Reform: Experience from India and the World
CPR Dialogues 2020- Tracking Government Spending: Challenges in Social Policy Financing
CPR Dialogues 2020- The Air Pollution Crisis: Making Political Salience Count
CPR Dialogues 2020- Article 21 and India’s Social and Economic Rights
CPR Dialogues 2020- Challenges in Public Education: Balancing State and Non-State Actors
CPR Dialogues 2020- Emerging Trends in Indian Politics
CPR Dialogues 2020- Are India’s Financial Institutions in Crisis? Understanding India’s Economic Slowdown
CPR Dialogues 2020- The Role of Ideas in Shaping Policy
CPR Dialogues 2020- Indo-US Relations
CPR Dialogues 2020- Land and the Constitution: Solving Land Conflict in India
CPR Dialogues 2020- Political Elites and Local Bureaucratic Capacity

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CPR INTERNATIONAL POLITICS

Watch the full video (above) of the panel discussion on ‘At the Threshold of a New Decade: Navigating the Emerging Geopolitical Landscape’ featuring James Steinberg (Professor, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs; Former United States Deputy Secretary of State); Frank N Pieke (Professor of Modern China Studies, Leiden University) and moderated by Shyam Saran (Senior Fellow, CPR; Former Foreign Secretary, India).

What is likely to be the ‘new normal’ in international relations during the coming decade? Has the post Second World War order been finally laid to rest? If so, are the contours of a new geopolitical landscape beginning to emerge? Will some remnants of the old order continue to remain relevant? How are the major players positioning themselves in this ever-changing landscape? As global challenges such as climate change, cyber security, and security of space-based assets warrant a collaborative approach, will the new decade witness a new phase of accommodation and even cooperation? Are we inching towards a contemporary version of a bi-polar world or is the trend towards multi-polarity inescapable? These are some of the key questions that confront nations, big and small, as they prepare to navigate the coming decade. The session featured distinguished speakers with in-depth knowledge on India, the United States, the European Union, and China, who each offered a perspective on these critical issues from the vantage point of these countries.

The panel was organised as part of the second edition of CPR Dialogues, held on 2nd and 3rd March 2020 at the India Habitat Centre. Addressing the theme of Policy Perspectives for 21st-century India, CPR Dialogues 2020 provided a window to the India of the future. Experts from around the country and the world engaged with and debated these very significant development and policy challenges that India faces in the coming decade.

ThePrint India was the digital partner for the event.

An article on the changing geopolitical landscape, written by Shyam Saran in ThePrint can be read here.

Media coverage of the panel discussion can be found below:

‘Trade has been weaponised — India should lift tariffs on America’s Harley-Davidson bikes’ by ThePrint
Videos of other panel discussions organised as part of CPR Dialogues 2020 can be found below:

CPR Dialogues 2020- Inaugural Address by Hon’ble Subrahmanyam Jaishankar
CPR Dialogues 2020- Rights in Times of AI: Emerging Technologies and the Public Law Framework
CPR Dialogues 2020- What Would Happen if We Were to Believe in Indian Agriculture?
CPR Dialogues 2020- Creating an Inclusive Economy in a Digital World
CPR Dialogues 2020- What Would it Take to Build a 21st-century State for India? Launch of CPR’s State Capacity Initiative
CPR Dialogues 2020- Technology and Administrative Reform: Experience from India and the World
CPR Dialogues 2020- Tracking Government Spending: Challenges in Social Policy Financing
CPR Dialogues 2020- The Air Pollution Crisis: Making Political Salience Count
CPR Dialogues 2020- Article 21 and India’s Social and Economic Rights
CPR Dialogues 2020- Challenges in Public Education: Balancing State and Non-State Actors
CPR Dialogues 2020- Emerging Trends in Indian Politics
CPR Dialogues 2020- Are India’s Financial Institutions in Crisis? Understanding India’s Economic Slowdown
CPR Dialogues 2020- The Role of Ideas in Shaping Policy
CPR Dialogues 2020- Indo-US Relations
CPR Dialogues 2020- Land and the Constitution: Solving Land Conflict in India
CPR Dialogues 2020- Political Elites and Local Bureaucratic Capacity

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CPR RIGHTS

Watch the full video (above) of the panel discussion on ‘Article 21 and India’s Social and Economic Rights’ featuring Sudhir Krishnaswamy (Vice-Chancellor, National Law School of India University, Bangalore); Namita Wahi (Fellow and Director, Land Rights Initiative, CPR); Shibani Ghosh (Fellow, CPR); Kiran Bhatty (Senior Fellow, CPR) and moderated by Arkaja Singh (Fellow, CPR).

Social and economic rights (SER) underpin basic human conditions necessary to live a life of freedom and dignity. The Indian Constitution, when it was adopted in 1950, guaranteed SER but they were made expressly non-enforceable by courts. However, starting from the late 1970s, in a series of judgments, the negative guarantee of the right to life in Article 21 was expanded into a positive one of right to life with dignity, and read the rights to health, housing, a clean environment, water, sanitation, food, education as the underlying determinants of the right to life with dignity.

The effect of the recognition of these various rights, however, varies, and the context and actors involved in the court cases has influenced the way in which these rights have been developed. There is considerable disagreement as to whether the articulation of social and economic rights has helped claimants and potential claimants. This panel drew from the experience of specific social and economic rights to understand how they are being put to use, and what constraints and limitations might prevent people from mobilising their rights.

The panel was organised as part of the second edition of CPR Dialogues, held on 2nd and 3rd March 2020 at the India Habitat Centre. Addressing the theme of Policy Perspectives for 21st-century India, CPR Dialogues 2020 provided a window to the India of the future. Experts from around the country and the world engaged with and debated these very significant development and policy challenges that India faces in the coming decade.

ThePrint India was the digital partner for the event.

An article on the rights of manual scavengers, written by Arkaja Singh and Aditya Unnikrishnan in ThePrint can be read here.

Videos of other panel discussions organised as part of CPR Dialogues 2020 can be found below:

CPR Dialogues 2020- Inaugural Address by Hon’ble Subrahmanyam Jaishankar
CPR Dialogues 2020- At the Threshold of a New Decade: Navigating the Emerging Geopolitical Landscape
CPR Dialogues 2020- Rights in Times of AI: Emerging Technologies and the Public Law Framework
CPR Dialogues 2020- What Would Happen if We Were to Believe in Indian Agriculture?
CPR Dialogues 2020- Creating an Inclusive Economy in a Digital World
CPR Dialogues 2020- What Would it Take to Build a 21st-century State for India? Launch of CPR’s State Capacity Initiative
CPR Dialogues 2020- Technology and Administrative Reform: Experience from India and the World
CPR Dialogues 2020- Tracking Government Spending: Challenges in Social Policy Financing
CPR Dialogues 2020- The Air Pollution Crisis: Making Political Salience Count
CPR Dialogues 2020- Challenges in Public Education: Balancing State and Non-State Actors
CPR Dialogues 2020- Emerging Trends in Indian Politics
CPR Dialogues 2020- Are India’s Financial Institutions in Crisis? Understanding India’s Economic Slowdown
CPR Dialogues 2020- The Role of Ideas in Shaping Policy
CPR Dialogues 2020- Indo-US Relations
CPR Dialogues 2020- Land and the Constitution: Solving Land Conflict in India
CPR Dialogues 2020- Political Elites and Local Bureaucratic Capacity

https://soundcloud.com/cpr_india/episode-7-coping-with-notebandidemonetisation-voices-of-informal-workers?utm_source=clipboard&utm_campaign=wtshare&utm_medium=widget&utm_content=https%253A%252F%252Fsoundcloud.com%252Fcpr_india%252Fepisode-7-coping-with-notebandidemonetisation-voices-of-informal-workers

A CONVERSATION BETWEEN RESEARCHERS MUKTA NAIK, ASHWIN PARULKAR, EESHA KUNDURI, MANISH AND RICHA BANSAL
PODCAST ECONOMY POLITICS

The urban team at the Centre for Policy Research carried out intensive field work over two weeks, where the researchers interviewed workers across categories of informal work in Delhi, such as construction workers, sabjiwalas, dhaba workers, small shopkeepers, industrial contract workers etc., to understand how they have coped with the impact of demonetisation or ‘notebandi’, as it is commonly called.

In the seventh episode (above) of CPR’s podcast, ThoughtSpace, Richa Bansal talks to Senior Researchers Mukta Naik and Ashwin Parulkar and Research Associates Eesha Kunduri and Manish to unpack their findings on informal workers’ strategies of coping with ‘notebandi’.

FULL VIDEO OF THE SEMINAR
SANITATION

Watch the full video (above) of the Community of Research and Practice (CORP) seminar on ‘Malaysia’s Sewerage and Sanitation Sector Regulatory Framework’ featuring Punita Nook Naidu.

The seminar explored insights that underlie processes of regulatory development specifically in faecal sludge management and desludging services in Malaysia. The seminar largely focussed on the eventual change in the desludging framework as well as the current status, funding dynamics of sewerage infrastructure and services in Malaysia and the benefits and challenges of the funding mechanism employed. This was followed by deliberation on practical learnings from experiences of Malaysia which can be used by stakeholders in India in driving the sanitation agenda forward.

The event brought together senior policymakers, technocrats, city and state level implementers, members of the civil society and legal experts to learn from their experience in states and in implementation to initiate a broader discussion on the potential for scheduled desludging framework from the viewpoint of technical configuration.

The session was moderated by Anju Dwivedi, Senior Researcher, CPR.

Punita Nook Naidu is an independent consultant at the national and international level.

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

The presentation made at the seminar can be accessed here.

CORP Seminar Series

This is the 19th in a series of the Community of Research and Practice (CORP) seminar hosted by the Scaling City Institution for India: Sanitation (SCI-FI: Sanitation) initiative with the support of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). This seminar series seeks to provide a platform for discussing the experiences of the researchers and practitioners on urban sanitation.

READ HIGHLIGHTS HERE
SANITATION MANAGEMENT WATER RESOURCES

On the occasion of World Toilet Day on 19th November 2018, Centre for Policy Research (CPR) in collaboration with Vidya Bhawan Society organised a seminar on ‘Sustainable Water Resource and Sanitation Management’ in Udaipur. This was the 16th seminar in the Community of Research and Practices seminar series organised by the SCI-FI project.

This seminar was attended by researchers, practitioners, CSOs, and private partners including representatives from Udaipur Municipal Corporation, Urban Improvement Trust and Town Planning Department.

The seminar had two thematic sessions. The first session focused on safe sanitation and waste water reuse. Neelima Khetan, Group CSR Head for Vedanta Resources, Vice President, CSR, Hindustan Zinc Limited (HZL) highlighted that the strength of corporates lies in managing waste water and partnering with competent bodies. This can be leveraged to build capacities of Urban Local Bodies through strategic interface of private partners, government, civil society actors, and community stakeholders. She emphasised on the fact that corporates can strengthen ties with the grassroot community. Considering that Udaipur has a high dependence on on-site sanitation system, Ambarish Karunanithi, Senior Research Associate, CPR emphasised on the need for sustainable solution for non-sewered networks in Udaipur. He also discussed about the partnership with HZL to support Udaipur Municipal Corporation (UMC) to improve sanitation systems in Udaipur. Abhinav Kumar, Research Associate from Vidya Bhawan Society sighted that norms and beliefs play a critical role in determining sanitation choices of the household. He stated access to toilet is not the same as access to sanitation, taking in account the sanitation market scenario in particular. Anju Dwivedi, Senior Researcher, CPR highlighted the need to involve community to improve urban sanitation.

In the second session titled ‘Sustainable Urban Water Management’, Dr Anil Mehta, Principal, Vidya Bhawan Polytechnic presented on Integrated Water Resource Management in Udaipur. He defined Integrated Water Resource Management as a mechanism that promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources in order to maximise the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner. Dr PK Singh, Professor, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology shared lessons of empowering communities through participatory Ground water management at village level through Managing Aquifer Recharge and Sustainable Groundwater Use through Village-level Intervention (MARVI) project. Drawing lessons from the rural landscape, he focused on participatory water shed management and hoped this model can be upscaled in the urban context as well.

FULL VIDEOS OF PRESENTATIONS
SANITATION

Malaysia has developed an integrated approach to management and treatment of waste from sewered and non-sewered areas that is considered very successful. It is estimated that around 65% of the urban population of Malaysia is covered by network sewerage, while the rest rely on Faecal Sludge Management (FSM) services provided by the same agency that provides network sewerage services.

Through these presentations, Dorai Narayanan discusses the causes and remedies associated with river pollution and their link to the sanitation sector, and contextualises Malaysia’s success story, analysing the associated problems and challenges.

The two presentations can be accessed here:

Rivers and Pollution: Causes and Remedies, and its Link to the Sanitation Sector (above)
Sanitation and Sewerage Management in Malaysia: A Case Study of Reform and Sector Transformation
This is the 11th in the series of the Community of Research and Practice (CORP) seminars planned by the Scaling City Institutions for India: Sanitation (SCI-FI: Sanitation) initiative. More information can be found at the event page.

FULL VIDEO OF SEMINAR
SANITATION URBANSANITATION

Watch the full video (above) of the session ‘Socio-legal, technical and financial knowledge base: Evidence and practice’ featuring Ravikant Joshi, Raj Bhushan Roy, Nirat Bhatnagar, Tripti Singh, Manish, Devashish Deshpande, Nilanjana Bhattacharjee and Marie-Hélène Zérah.

The seminar had two thematic sessions. The first session discussed insights from the field to build an understanding of social, legal, technical and financial issues and challenges sanitation workers face, and also deliberated on the ground challenges of bringing sanitary workers into alternative livelihood options. This was followed by a session that focussed on developing an Action Research Agenda for Future for the Indian context and explore possible solutions to improve sanitation workers’ safety. Through this CORP seminar, we aimed to build a shared understanding of the issues and challenges faced by sanitation workers’ and developed future research agenda for furthering action research in order to identify gaps and strengthen evidence to improve sanitation workers’ safety.

The session brought together senior researchers, practitioners and experts to share their insights on various aspects of action-based research pertaining to the issues and challenges that the sanitation worker faces.

Speakers for the session:

Ravikant Joshi, Urban Management Centre

Raj Bhushan Roy, WaterAid India

Nirat Bhatnagar, Dalberg Advisors

Tripti Singh, Centre for Policy Research

Manish, Centre for Policy Research

Nilanjana Bhattacharjee, PRIA

Devashish Deshpande, Centre for Policy Research

The session was moderated by Marie-Hélène Zérah, IRD, and Centre for Policy Research.

The second session on ‘Solutions and Action Research Agenda for Future to Improve Sanitation Workers’ Safety’ featuring Ravikant Joshi, Raj Bhushan Roy, Ambarish Karunanithi, Anahitaa Bakshi, Devashish Deshpande, Shashi Shikha, VR Raman and Anju Dwivedi can be accessed here.

About the Series

This is the 18th in a series of the Community of Research and Practice (CORP) seminar hosted by the Scaling City Institution for India: Sanitation (SCI-FI: Sanitation) initiative with the support of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). This seminar series seeks to provide a platform for discussing the experiences of the researchers and practitioners on urban sanitation.

Access the other CORP sessions below

• 17th CORP Seminar
• 16th CORP Seminar
• 15th CORP Seminar

SECOND DISCUSSION OF THE CPR-TCPD (TRIVEDI CENTRE FOR POLITICAL DATA, ASHOKA UNIVERSITY) DIALOGUES ON INDIAN POLITICS
ELECTION STUDIES POLITICS

Watch the full video (above) of the talk by eminent political scientist, Dr Milan Vaishnav on the current state of Indian politics in the run up to the 2019 national elections.

The talk focused on the seedy underbelly of electoral politics — how candidates are chosen, how parties and campaigns are financed, and how it all affects electoral outcomes.

Milan Vaishnav is Director & Senior Fellow, South Asia Program, at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

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

About the CPR-TCPD Dialogues

This was the second 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.