Recent Explainers
POLITICS
by
Kunal Panda
The Factory of Freedom: Liberalism and the Rule of Law
The advent of pre-capitalist structures in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries created the modern state marked by features of international competition against a common objective of an amalgamated imperialist Empire, the interest in the accumulation of wealth, and population growth and management, which also served as the requisite for the rise of biopolitics.
by
Abhishek Sudke
A Collectivist Strategy to the COVID Crisis
As the world battles this outbreak and attempts to recover from it, lot of questions remain unanswered. We will attempt to answer these questions, while touching upon policy interventions that would be help our world recover better.
ECONOMICS
by
Sajusha Ashok
by
Kunal Panda
The Art of Avant-Garde Economics: Consumer Expectations and Credibility
The Platform Economy and Labour Welfare in Indian Cities: the Case of Ola and Uber Drivers
The twenty-first century emergence of digital platforms, which serve as ‘digital matchmakers’ by linking labour demand and supply with consumer demand, must also be located within this milieu.
Hierarchical power and information dynamics between aggregators and drivers are further entrenched by technology. Unlike conventional employment spaces where there is a human- to-human relationship between the employer and employee, the relationship between platform companies and drivers is primarily dictated by automated algorithms in mobile applications.
The current COVID-19 pandemic has produced numerous precedents to kick start world economies under a deep recession.
Germany, in its € 130 billion stimulus package, announced a temporary drop in VAT starting July 2020 till the end of the year. The fiscal policy change is aimed at stimulating aggregate spending under expected positive inflation in the future.
The unconventional fiscal policy unlike the usually utilizied Monetary Policy directly stimulates consumer expectations in line with the government targets.
POLICY AND GOVERNANCE
by
Kaushik Das
Data Protection Fallacies in India
The development of Artificial Intelligence, 5G networks with high-speed data transfers, storage of digital files, digital healthcare, are some of the multitudes of developments appearing in waves globally as technology is found and improved upon. Therein, one of the key considerations globally is the provisions of a sufficient cover for the protection of an individual’s data.
by
Shreyas Ashok Kumar
Judicialization in the Wake of the Coronavirus Pandemic
Judiciary's power is restricted to application and interpretation of existing law and does not extend to creating new legal norms and policies. While this continues to be the case in many countries, others have seen the emergence of creativity in legal judgements and its applications encroach into the creation of new norms and policies.
ENVIRONMENT
by
Abhishek Sudke
Inhibiting Climate Change in the Post COVID Era: A Base & Trade System
There is a misunderstanding that this pandemic will lead to an automatic reduction in emissions, thereby, solving the climate crisis. It must be understood that if it takes a global pandemic to reduce the level of emissions, the problem of the climate crisis is far more severe than what we perceive. Collective action through individual support along with corporates, government, and policymakers can fix the current crisis that we face.
by
Rohit M
Environment gets
the boot
After 2016, 2020 has become the hottest year in recorded history. Temperatures in the coldest edges of the world rose up by as much as 10-degree Celsius.
Environmentalists celebrate the disaster for ‘helping’ the natural world, it must be recognized that this is nothing more than an artificial condition, and a very short one at that.
SOCIAL ISSUES
by
Saharsh Panjwani
Analysis of the Environmental Impact Assessment Bill, 2020
After severe incidents like the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, one of the most gruesome environmental tragedies in India, the government legislated the framework of laws for the regulation of the activities that affect the existence of natural resources. The Act requires each of the projects seeking development to go through the process of environment clearance test.
There are multiple benefits as well as loopholes in the present proposed EIA bill, which affects the environment and people of India at large. Many experts and activists termed the 2020 amendment draft of the EIA bill as a ‘regressive departure from the previous version of the Act.
by
Saharsh Panjwani
New Education Policy, 2020: A Change
In India, due to the huge economic inequalities, there exists a great disparity wherein on one hand we have schools and institutions ranging from no proper infrastructure to international schools providing best facilities.
India has, till date, formulated 13 education policies aiming to improve enrolment of students in schools, enhance the quality of education, and to make education affordable. The Ministry of Human Resource Department released the draft of the National Education Policy, 2019 in early January 2019.
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
by
Krishna Kataria
India's Indo-Pacific Narrative: The Malabar Convergence
Malabar Exercises began as a tentative opening of maritime contacts between India and the US off the Malabar Coast. However, they took the form of a serious effort to shape the maritime order in the larger region, and constructively turned out to be a reinforcement exercise in the context of the rising power of China.
Malabar Naval exercise became an enforcing tool for the evolution of the Indian Foreign Policy view of its neighbourhood from a territorial centric view, to a more holistic view that encompassed maritime borders and the Indian Ocean Maritime Region.
by
Aditi Agarwal and Sanaa Munjal
Imagi-nation: Restricted Self-Determination of African Nations
Today, the right of a people to national self-determination is regarded as a jus cogens rule, a cardinal principle of international law. The term ‘self-determination’ is extremely contested and has come to denote the free choice of one’s own act without external compulsions.
If people are not allowed to imagine their own national identities, through their lived experiences of culture and geography, the forced national bearings can give way to both political and economic turmoil.