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Showing posts from February, 2022

Ukraine: Russian Communist party supports authorities' move to 'end Nazi provocateurs'

In a surprise move, chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, GA Zyuganov, has in a statement, has said that the people of Ukraine "should not be a victim of world capital and oligarchic clans", supporting President Putin, without naming him, for "forcing Nazi provocateurs" of Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) and the Luhansk People's Republic (LNR) of Ukraine "to peace." *** After the appeal of the leadership of the DPR and LPR, the Russian authorities launched a military-political operation aimed at forcing Nazi provocateurs to peace. The steps taken are intended to guarantee peace in the Donbas and secure Russia from increasingly acute threats from the United States and NATO. The militarization of Eastern Europe after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact is evident. The aggressive intentions of Washington were clearly realized in the process of the destruction of Yugoslavia. The goals of the US authorities

Solidarity for peace and ecology: Condemnation of violence and destruction

By Dr. Mansee Bal Bhargava* When the world is recovering from COVID but still looming with Climate Change and Capitalism impacts, violence and destruction are the last things people on this planet should resort to. The existence of war demands for thinking differently. The existence of climate change demands for thinking differently. The existence of capitalism demands for thinking differently. There are more efforts required to restore peace and ecology of the planet and its people than to do reckless damage like the current Russia-Ukraine tension through invasion. While a war is a product of bad politics and good capitalism, around the world there is a rise in authoritarian rule politically and economically and ironically those are all led by men. The maps on transboundary conflicts triggered since antiquity show that men have been at the center of all the violence and destruction. Relating that with the historical events of wars across the world, it is no exaggeration to say that me

Gender and Union budget 2022-23: Silence on concerns of social protection

By IMPRI Team Research has shown that, globally, women had to disproportionately bear the brunt of the Covid-19 pandemic. In India, Female Labour Force Participation fell to a historic low of 21% in 2019, and gender disparity widened across employment, health, political participation, and education. Given the precarious condition of Indian women, it is imperative to analyze the Union Budget 2022-23 from a gendered lens and see how the central government intends to bridge this inequality. Under this backdrop, the IMPRI Gender Impact Study Center, Impact and Policy Research Institute, New Delhi, hosted a panel discussion on Gender and Budget 2022-23. The talk was chaired by Prof. Vibhuti Patel, Visiting Professor, IMPRI, and Mr. Ravi Duggal, Independent Social, Public Health Researcher, and Activist. The Panelists for the event were Prof. N. Manimekalai, Ms. Seema Kulkarni, Dr. Sanghamitra Dhar, Ms. Jasodhara Dasgupta, and Ms. Renu Khanna. Prof. Patel and Mr. Duggal commenced the discuss

Pandemic restrictions in lieu of lockdown and the working class of West Bengal

By Harasankar Adhikari Omicron (the latest variant of the Corona virus) spiked its wing and the infection rate shortly became high to higher. The government failed to take proper steps to arrange the required health set-up after the 1st and 2nd waves. We see the government was very casual and its efforts are limited within some restrictions. What would be the effect to be seen? This is the motive of the government? It had one solution: pandemic restrictions (a modified alternative step to lockdown). The government of West Bengal declared pandemic restrictions to curb the third wave from January 15, 2022. During the day, there is no such restriction. But it is more prudent to restrict the plying of local trains. But a huge number of populations absolutely depend on the local train for their livelihood. Surprisingly, the opening of ‘panshala’(liquor shops) has no problem. The only issue is that no “pathshala” (educational institution) can be established. From the time of the first lockd

Savarkar's mercy petitions to British rulers in original form dug out from National Archives

In an email alert, Prof Shamsul Islam has released orginal petitions to the British betting forgiveness in 1913, 1914 and 1920. Sourced from the National Archives of India, he says, these have been made available for the first time in the original form. "The credit to gather all these goes to Amit Indurkar and his friends who are intensely involved in unearthing anti-national and anti-humanity documents of Savarkar", he adds. Click here   for the link to the documents

Livelihood and Union Budget: Boosting capital expenditure to create demand?

By IMPRI Team The Covid-19 Pandemic posed a devastating impact on the socio-economic vulnerable segment of the society in terms of health, employment and welfare. In this light, the nation pinned its safety and security on the Booster Budget. To understand the key takeaways from the Budget 2022-23 in this context, the Center for Work and Welfare (CWW), IMPRI Impact and Policy Research Institute, New Delhi, organized a panel discussion on Employment, Livelihoods, and Union Budget 2022-23 under The State of Employment and Livelihoods – #EmploymentDebate series. The event comprised eminent panellists and practitioners, namely Prof. K. Seeta Prabhu, Dr Amrita Pillai, Dr. Sandhya Iyer, Dr Sonia George, Dr Radhicka Kapoor. The chair, Ms. Prabhu clears the misconception at the beginning of the discussion regarding growth that’s said to be 1.26 times more than the pre-Covid times just based on the values of the GDP, when pre-Covid times itself wasn’t a healthy indicator because of the already

Union Budget 2022-23: What is the store for rapidly expanding urban sector?

By Ismail Haque* On February 1, 2022, honourable finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the union budget 2022, which focuses on key priority areas and gives a clear mandate to ensure exemplary economic growth and inclusive development over the next 25 years – from India at 75 to India at 100. With particular reference to the urban sector, numerous facets subsumed within the same were covered, namely – land and housing, transport, urban development and planning. In terms of budgetary allocations, a sum of INR 48000 crore has been earmarked for the housing sector to construct 80 lakh houses under the ongoing PMAY mission by 2023. The union government also seeks to provide urban planning support to states by establishing five centres of excellence in urban planning with INR 250 crore being provided to each. In addition, states have been allocated a fifty-year interest-free loan assistance of INR 1 lakh crore which will be used for reforms related to building bye-laws, town plannin

Catalyzing capital markets the social sector to achieve sustainable development goals

By R.R. Prasad* The social sector is rarely financed for capacity and scale. In fact, government cannot afford to meet all of the growing demand for social services, and that philanthropy and generosity are insufficient to fill the gap. One highly effective solution would be to create an enabling environment in which government and the private sector can come together on a common platform to catalyze efforts towards achievement of the sustainable development goals. Private investment and a robust private sector are fundamental drivers of economic growth and job creation, which are key ingredients to help tackle poverty . The private sector can have a transformational impact on peoples’ lives as a creator of jobs and producer of goods and services that poor people use. Our social sector needs the creation of instruments that will allow market forces to enter it, and there are in fact a number of well-meaning backers of this plan who are working to extend capital markets into the social

Why condition of NREGA workers is likely to be more difficult this year

By Bharat Dogra* Having just completed 16 years of its eventful existence, it is clear that despite several problems including underfunding, corruption and lack of adequate planning, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and the works carried under it have emerged as a significant source of employment and relief to the rural poor in India. A big asset of this Act and the scheme it creates is that it makes available work on demand within or very near to the village and so people get paid to create or improve assets that bring greater sustainability to their own villages. The role of NREGA in helping the rural poor became even more important in COVID times when reverese migration led to a big increase in the need to increase employment opportunities in villages. Hence increasing the NREGA (or MG-NREGA or Mahatma Gandhi-NREGA) budget became an important part of the special COVID packages announced by the government during the financial year 2020-21. While the full potential

Online learning? Teachers have developed sixth sense for false network issues

By Maliha Iqbal We have once again gone from offline to online, from uniform to pajamas, during the third wave of the pandemic. The guy in the habit of muting the teacher jumped for joy. The classrooms now became deserted, both offline and online. In this scenario, I googled to find some advantages of online education. I came across three major benefits- 1. Makes learning flexible 2. Learning can take place from anywhere 3. Improves overall understanding and learning experience. Certainly, learning became flexible, to the point where there was no learning even. Sitting in one of my classes, a friend’s mic opened suddenly, accidently, and we could hear him shouting to throw a grenade and kill someone even as gunfire roared somewhere in the background. The teacher removed him after a few minutes for playing games during classes. Another friend times her breakfast so it is always in the mathematics class, strategically missing each class. One classmate never attends the first two classes

Budget 2022-23: Finance Minister’s endeavour towards strengthening cities?

By Soumyadip Chattopadhyay, Arjun Kumar* India is urbanizing and projections are that by 2047, it will have half of its population in cities, though it might be a conservative estimate. The policy makers face a very difficult task of addressing two conflicting objectives – one relates to serving city population’s needs for basic services and the other one relates to infrastructural needs for making cities engines of economic growth. The impacts of the COVID-19 have been particularly severe in cities due to overcrowded housing, inadequate infrastructure and minimal services. The pandemic has also devasted informal livelihoods in urban areas. The Omicron driven third wave in India have witnessed less severe lockdown restriction and economic disruptions are likely to be limited. Window of opportunity is now to act to revive the economy with focus on harnessing the growth potential of the cities. The distinctive focus of this year’s budget on orderly urban development appears, therefore, t

Event report: Rural realities and Union Budget 2022-23

By IMPRI Team According to the Population Census of 2011, the percentage of people residing in rural areas is close to 69% of the Indian population. As per another report by the Government of India, the percentage of the Indian population that was situated Below the Poverty Line (BPL) in 2011-2012 amounted to 21.9%. Needless to say, people affected by rural poverty contribute to a large chunk of the percentage. Therefore, the development of rural areas in terms of economy and viability of professional options is much needed. Hence, to have a look at the Rural budget separately becomes of utmost importance. To discuss the story of the rural realities, a panel discussion on Rural Realities and the Union Budget 2022-23 was organised by IMPRI Impact and Policy Research Institute, New Delhi under the series The State of Villages – #RuralRealities in the presence of Dr J. Dennis Rajakumar as the chair, Prof. C.S.C Sekhar, Himanshu Shekhar Mishra and Dr Jyotsna Jha as panelists. Background Dr

Tribal movements and background: Need of united struggles

By Palla Trinadha Rao* Tribal peoples have natural and traditional rights to resources in tribal areas. These rights began to be completely disrupted due to British colonial policies treating resources as source of income which continue to this day. Many revolts and resistance struggles in these areas erupted against government’s repression, money lenders, non-tribal exploitation, landlords and land grabbing. There revolts were widespread across regions. These local movements and their persistent struggles impacted the British plans considerably, forcing them to wage regular wars to put down these revolts. Revolts spread across many tribal areas in the 18th century against British rule and the intruding external exploiting forces. These struggles forced the British to initiate several reforms to buy peace which recast the administration of these tribal areas differently than the other areas. These reforms formed the basis of subsequent governance laws, laying forth historical continuit