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Latest Articles
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Kaam ki Kadar:The Ill-Treatment of Domestic Workers in Indian Households
Domestic workers operate in an unregulated, over-saturated sector, subjected to frequent exploitation. The historical devaluation of domestic labor in patriarchal societies has resulted in these abject working conditions. This is exacerbated by the caste and class-based discrimination pervading these employer-employee relationships and resulting in complicity with or active participation in inhumane practices. The privilege and complicity of the entire class of employers ensure a lack of repercussions for this poor treatment of their employees. This paper aims to demonstrate that these untenable working conditions, the lack of redressal mechanisms for employees, and the unacceptable power dynamics placing employees at the top of an immobile social pyramid, effectively ensure that these individuals are not accorded even the basic dignity due all workers and their work.
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Gender Equity And Peacebuilding- El Salvador: The Neglect of Women’s Issues at the Peace Table
The peace process in El Salvador demonstrates how engaging some parties lessened extremism while ignoring others enabled the continuation of societal and economic disadvantages. While it has helped in eradicating the rising political tensions, the neglect of women’s issues continues to be a thorn in the flesh. Though the accord helped in ending the war, it failed to address gender equality. This article aims to examine the main factors that contributed to the marginalization of women issues at the El Salvadoran Peace Accord.
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Evolution of queer literature: from Lihaaf to Shikhandi
Although Ismat Chugtai’s Lihaaf is often cited as a beacon of queer indian literature in the early 20th century, a close scrutiny of its sub-texts and narrative shows how this attribute may not be entirely suitable to its premise. Several instances and inter-personal relationships, created by Chugtai, demonize queerness as exploitative, undesireable, and ugly. It’s image, as a work endorsing queer relationships, seems to originate from the clever characterisation of the queer persons by Chugtai, and this technique is also evident in Devdutt Patnaik’s recent work of short stories titled Shikandi.
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How to Get Away with Bad Policy: Covid-19 Lockdown and its Impact on Street Vendors
People who form the backbone of a predominantly informal Indian workforce and economy have yet to reveal the full extent of the pandemic. Their hardships necessitate amplification through stories and statistics to paint a picture of what went wrong.
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Standing Up Against the Dragon
The Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi’s recent visit to Taiwan has caused a major furore among diplomats and political commentators. Her visit which comes against the backdrop of the deteriorating US-China relationship has riled up the latter to such an extent that China imposed sanctions and conducted military operations near Taiwan in what seemed like a simulated attack. While many argue that the visit has unnecessarily led to more global instability, this article contends that one needs to step back and consider the larger picture of perceiving the visit as a counter to Chinese aggression.
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Saadat Hassan Manto: Stories of resistance, partition, and women
Despite the hardships and the trauma of surviving the partition, Manto wrote about women who were involved in the resistance. He wrote not only about women in elite households but also about those who resided on the fringes of society. Most of Manto’s stories contain women who are not dependent on men for their existence to be validated. They have their voice that carries forth in the story and are not a crutch for patriarchal advances.
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The Need for Scalability in Climate Change Solutions
Climate change is a problem that continues to persist and instead of finding solutions, we are discovering more ways through which human activity continues to worsen the situation. Most people blame the capitalist system for the creation of a culture of constant growth but many also look to solve these issues using certain aspects of the system. One such company is The Ocean Cleanup – which is looking at sustainable and scalable solutions to plastic pollution using business models that focus on an economic perspective.
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Women in the gig economy: Mileage or mere facade?
Being able to make one’s own decisions is one of the many options that the digital world offers. The gig economy refers to those individuals who work part-time or on a project-by-project basis under their own set of working conditions. Unfortunately, despite how ornate the concept may appear, some of its aspects have been hidden by the concept’s extravagant marketing, especially when it was intended to appeal to women who have been neglecting their jobs because of their obligations to their families. As a result, it is vital to determine whether taking up jobs in the gig economy is a viable option for facilitating employment prospects for females on crowd working platforms, both skilled and unskilled
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MID-DAY MEAL SCHEME IN THE GARB OF CASTEISM
The mid-day meal scheme is one of the programs undertaken by the central government to provide nutritious food and education to children. Though this scheme has a long history, what is even older is casteism. The roots of casteism are embedded so deeply in society that now they have found their way into the mid-day meal program in various ways. Be it the Dalit students being denied food, untouchability being practised, their rights infringed upon, or even their dropout, casteism is playing its part. What this results in is malnutrition, discrimination, hunger, and the lives of children who are getting affected. The authors in this article attempt to draw a parallel between mid-day meal schemes and casteism and how the former, despite being a wonderful scheme, has been caught in the vicious web of the latter. Further, it has also been discussed how the legal framework has failed to deter the evils of untouchability.
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Transition to Circular Economy: An Analysis
Although people acknowledge that resources are consumed at an alarming rate which jeopardises future supplies and contributes to carbon dioxide accumulation, they consider a circular economy as a trade-off between environment conservation and profits. This article deals with what a circular economy is, its impact on employment, its shortcoming and its reality in India.
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The Role of Technology in the Emancipation of Women
Technology has always been at the heart of human development. From agriculture to manufacturing, its constant innovation has enabled the emancipation of countless lives. On this front, these technologies have played a crucial role in emancipating women in modern society. By focussing on four main categories – transportation, information and communication, home technologies, and medicine and hygiene – this article tries to provide a comprehensive understanding on how specific technologies have contributed to the emancipation of women in various areas.
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ECOFEMINISM – A WAY TO CONNECT AND UNDERSTAND OPPRESSIONS
Environment and climate have been burning issues in recent times. Here, it becomes important to identify the reasons and solutions for the ongoing crisis. Ecofeminism has emerged as one of the lenses to look into the scenario. It not only brings up a very inclusive understanding of the issue but also tries to address other pressing concerns of the society – gender discrimination, racism and the like. This article explores the basic understanding of the idea and the diversity that exists within its fold. It will also open a channel to connect with real life through examples. Along with that, it will look into the existing gaps in the idea to pave a way forward to a comprehensive understanding.
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Keeping up with Fast Fashion
Fashion and clothes are an important part of everyone’s lives today. In fact, the global apparel market is worth 3 trillion dollars hence, accounting for 2% of the global GDP. This statistic clearly indicates that the fashion and clothing industry is not a small one. People find it necessary to keep up with the latest trends and feel the never-ending need to frequently purchase new clothes; this is referred to as fast fashion. Fast fashion mainly involves trendy clothes being produced on a frequent basis, in bulk, and hence, available for cheap. This benefits customers by providing them with the latest, new and updated choices and also benefits the companies as it promotes more customers to come in with more frequent visits. However, this all comes at the cost of the environment.
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FOREX – THE PILLAR OF DECENTRALIZATION
The forex market is a shining example of global collaboration. Should we look at it as inspiration for the future?
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When Humour is Misogyny
The recent internet fad being pushed from everywhere is the defamation trial of the actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. This article explores what this case tells us about how the internet culture gets influenced by algorithms. It further explores how feminism evolves, falls behind and reacts to these circumstances.
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The Unseen Annihilation: A New Narration of the Threats facing South Asia – I
Not just the states, but South Asia as a region is facing an existential crisis. The urgency of these threats is underplayed by the gradual nature of their onset. Leaving them unresolved entails doom yet little urgency is observed in tackling them. There is a need for a new language which communicates the urgency of a crisis which is slow but sure in its lethality.
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Critical Review of the Basis of China’s Objections to the UNCLOS Tribunal as an Attempt to Delegitimise the 2016 South China Sea Dispute Verdict
This article aims to examine the UNCLOS’s effectiveness and relevance, with a specific emphasis on the case of the South China Sea and the UNCLOS Arbitral Tribunal’s 2016 ruling on the issue. The article contends that, while China’s disregard for the ruling and the Philippines’ subsequent undervaluation of it harms the UNCLOS’s reputation as international law, it does not undermine its effectiveness in clearly defining and resolving the legality of disputes through efficient mechanisms, as will be discussed below.
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The Land of the Lawless:
The “Northeast” as addressed by its western counterparts, stands as an exceptional case against the efforts made by the post-colonial masters of India to build a multi-cultural, multi-religious and a multi-lingual democratic society. India’s tumultuous relations with this region has taken numerous faces in the form of laws, regional militias, ethnic and cultural oppression and insurgencies. The government often shelves this discussion by labeling it as a purely “insurgency issue”, whereas in efforts to uncover the substantive reasons to this deep-rooted problem; Rutu presents a set of arguments that lays bare the duplicity and vested interests of the Central government behind the deliberately manufactured façade of “insurgent conflicts”.
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Role of Constitutional Institutions in the persistence of Indian Democracy
Indian democracy has often baffled scholars and academicians, just by merely surviving. It was seen as a feat in itself by the west, particularly when democracy was considered a western concept. The Indian Constitution is often attributed to be one of the major factors contributing to the success of Indian democracy, forming a long and well-drawn backbone for its institutions to lean on.
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Ola, Uber and their drivers in Delhi: evaluating industry sustainability and future requirements
Despite the rosy picture painted by big MNCs like Ola and Uber for the average working Indian, the shocks and stresses felt by the aggregator taxi industry due to the recent coronavirus lockdown highlighted the need for welfare intervention by the State for the weaker sections.
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Multi-alignment: How Nations are Navigating the present era
With the post-cold war “order” gone for good, and no alternative order in place given the flailing multilateral forums like the UN, something akin to pre-1991 Bloc politics seems inevitable. However, developing nations are playing these cards to their benefit and skillfully so.
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Identity Politics on the Left: Shortcomings and Disillusionment
Political systems all over the world have historically alternated power in the hands of left-wing and right-wing ideologies. While both sides have experienced their ups and downs when it comes to mobilisation, the left-wing seems to have lost its momentum in recent times. Keeping that in mind, this article explores identity politics in the context of the Left and the problems associated with the movement. Further, it aims to identify the shortcomings of the discourse and discusses whether ideological faults contribute to the rise of the right-wing.
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Your Destination is on the Left
Electing a left-wing candidate for the first time in over two hundred years, the recently concluded presidential election in Columbia which saw former guerrilla member and mayor of Bogota, Gustavo Petro, emerge victorious is a monumental moment. Riding on anti-incumbency sentiments against the traditional centre-right parties, Petro has some radical reforms such as agricultural tariffs, free education, a higher tax on the rich, and paving the path for an economy based on greener energy. Yet, without a parliamentary majority, there are doubts whether Petro will be able to deliver on his promises. With the Latin American country turning a historic page, this article aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the implications it bears on Colombia and its future.
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Book Review: Gendering Caste through a feminist lens by Uma Chakravarti
Caste has been made to be this ambiguous concept, painted by mainstream media and society to be almost holographic in nature. Thus a privileged individual grows up questioning if caste still exists or is it just an excuse for reservation and a term used to discredit merit? But what is caste and what does caste mean to a feminist? Uma Chakravarti in this book breaks down the internalised casteist notions and practices hidden behind the garb of tradition and ritual.
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A Furry Socio-Economic Indicator: Deliberating Pet Ownership
This article discusses the value of pet ownership for economies and examines the use of pet ownership as a socioeconomic indicator.
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Overturning Roe vs. Wade: The Bigger Picture
The overruling of Roe vs. Wade by SCOTUS was shocking – not only for the citizens of the United States but also for the people across the globe. Gender Rights activists have put this as – “robbing women of their basic rights and bodily autonomy”. In this article, the authors looked at the effects of the overruling and analyzed whom this decision is going to affect the most, and what will be the global impact of the same.
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India-Pakistan Ties and its Impact on the Economy of Indian Panjab
While trade may have been disrupted via Wagah-Attari, it is happening through neutral countries such as UAE and Singapore. Many analysts argue that the main reason for trade via the Wagah-Attari land-crossing is not just related to India-Pakistan bilateral relations, but also lobbies which have benefited from trade via neutral countries or other circuitous routes.
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The Price (and Profit) of War
Why do we rate any form of conflict justification—barring self-defense—as higher or lower moral than the other? This article explores this question, referring to historical instances and the economic scenarios in them.
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Hijab Ban and the Political Apathy of the Indian Middle-class
There was no popular, long-drawn public outrage, protests or even discussion among the common middle classes, otherwise known as the backbone of all political protests and dissent against the State. Is this political apathy of the middle classes just an unconscious act of self-preservation and general lethargy or an active set of practices based on the ideology of exclusion and alienation of certain groups?
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Water Economics: What Does the Price of Water Tell Us?
When discussing the economics of water, it is important to first, identify the need to set a price, what factors influence the pricing, what challenges are faced along the way and how to account for them in the price itself.
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Book Review—The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable by Amitav Ghosh
Amitav Ghosh’s 2016 masterpiece The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable is a phenomenal work that showcases the drastic impacts of human ignorance on climate change.
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Abortion Ban: Pushing Back Decades of Activism
This article dwells into the ongoing ‘pro-choice’ and ‘anti-choice’ debate while laying special emphasis on the draft opinion belonging to the American Supreme Court which was leaked. Even though the judgement overturning the ‘Roe v Wade’ has been passed, it might have serious effects on the right to abortion which is the basic reproductive right given to women.
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How Stable Are Stablecoins?
The paper posits that the term ‘unstable stablecoin’ might actually be factually correct. Through the case studies of Terra, DAI and USDT, it argues that stablecoins can sometimes be deceptive in nature.
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Sweden, Finland and Türkiye: The New Dispute Triangle
The Ukraine-Russian war has forced Sweden and Finland, two historically neutral countries, to apply for NATO membership as a measure to prevent future aggression. While all expected the induction process to be fairly simple, Türkiye, an important member of the Western alliance, expressed its displeasure at the expansion and threatened to veto the move unless certain demands were met.
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The Slippery Road of Vegetable Oil
As central banks around the world try their best to combat the rising inflation, the global edible oil crisis, caused by a variety of reasons, has unsettled the economic recovery.
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South Asia’s Useful Crisis: Opportunity in Turbulent Times?
While it is true that states themselves have emerged weaker from the pandemic, there might be a silver lining to such developments after all.
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Deep Dive: Can Economic Sanctions Work Against Russia? At What Cost?
There is a need to put in greater thought into the design and implementation of sanctions regimes, preferably through multilateral institutions that command the legitimacy of the international comity of nations.
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Beyond Geopolitics: Why There is an Economic Motive to the Changing Relations in the Middle-East
The re-alignments taking place in the Middle East, such as the improvement of ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates are driven by geopolitical factors. However there is a strong economic component which often tends to get relegated to the sidelines.
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Jal Vivad: An Enquiry Into India’s Water Disputes
Conflicts are eternal, what matters is how they are dealt with. India has managed to keep her international water conflicts at bay but her domestic conflicts often get out of hand and become violent at the first chance that people see.
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Wading through Irrationality: Demystifying Emotional Finance
Since the beginning of time, traditional financial decision-making has been based on logic, arithmetic, and statistical measures, neglecting emotions. Emotional finance studies how conscious and unconscious emotions influence investors’ individual decision-making that come to climax markets’ development.
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The Rise and (Potential) Fall of Netflix
Over the past decade, Netflix has become a household name in entertainment and pop culture. The first half of 2022, however, has not been particularly kind to the company.
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Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Could Be the Way Out of Brexit’s Economic Mess for the UK. Here’s How
This article examines the impact on the UK’s SMEs as a result of Brexit and whether the current economic policy framework is equipped to alleviate the adverse effects of Brexit.
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Power Insecurity in India: Over-reliance on Coal and the Future of Green Energy
In May 2022, states across India issued panic warnings regarding low coal reserves, highlighting the problem of potential electricity blackouts. This article deals with the reasons for India’s current power insecurity.
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New Labour Codes: Pro-business or Pro-labour?
This article examines how—and why—the new labour codes, which have the potential to change the labour market, are creating unrest among the workers with their pitfalls.
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Can Game Theory Help Understand Human Behavior in Times of Crisis?
Human behaviour often follows a pattern – there is an event, then a reaction, and then further reactions, few of them original, many of them borrowed. It is usually the most negative events – like crises, that evoke the most powerful reactions from people, surely replicated by others in some form or other. But what if we had an existing framework that mapped out how predictably we react?
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The Saudi Arabian Resource Curse: Cultivating Socio-Economic Ignorance on Overdependence?
This column elucidates the resource curse paradox by positioning the case study of Saudi Arabia at the center of the concept. It delineates the disadvantageous position of this resource-rich country during the period of shock and its recovery phase. Furthermore, it paints in words the implications of oil abundance on the imperfect correlation that exists between religion and women’s rights in Saudi Arabia.
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Record Labels: The Third-Party Monopolies in the Music Industry
For the past century or so, it is the record labels that have been influential in the growth of the music industry, developing it into a commercial enterprise rather than artistic pursuit.
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The War Crimes of Russia
Clashes between Russia and Ukraine have been a mainstay for the last few years. Russia invaded and captured Crimea in 2014 and has unleashed a full blown war on Ukraine in 2022. This war is illegal and has broken multiple international criminal, humanitarian and human rights laws. This article focuses on the international criminal aspects that have been breached by Russia by initiating the conflict.
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ARE COURTS LEGALISING MARITAL RAPE THROUGH RESTITUTION OF CONJUGAL RIGHTS?
This provision has done more harm than good, and the following piece aims at exploring how so by revolving around its archaic origin and its disproportionate effects on women. This piece also covers how RCR is violative of the Right to Equality, Right to Freedom, Right to Privacy, and Right to life and liberty.
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Clearances for Coastal Structures and Coastal Erosion: Insights From Pondicherry’s Minor Port
In continuance with the theme of analyzing issues of environmental clearances within India, this article provides yet another perspective on faulty regulatory regimes being the primary cause of coastal erosion.
Interesting Reads
The Unseen Annihilation: A New Narration of the Threats facing South Asia – I
Not just the states, but South Asia as a region is facing an existential crisis. The urgency of these threats is underplayed by the gradual nature of their onset. Leaving them unresolved entails doom yet little urgency is observed in tackling them. There is a need for a new language which communicates the urgency of a crisis which is slow but sure in its lethality.
The Land of the Lawless:
The “Northeast” as addressed by its western counterparts, stands as an exceptional case against the efforts made by the post-colonial masters of India to build a multi-cultural, multi-religious and a multi-lingual democratic society. India’s tumultuous relations with this region has taken numerous faces in the form of laws, regional militias, ethnic and cultural oppression and insurgencies. The government often shelves this discussion by labeling it as a purely “insurgency issue”, whereas in efforts to uncover the substantive reasons to this deep-rooted problem; Rutu presents a set of arguments that lays bare the duplicity and vested interests of the Central government behind the deliberately manufactured façade of “insurgent conflicts”.
Role of Constitutional Institutions in the persistence of Indian Democracy
Indian democracy has often baffled scholars and academicians, just by merely surviving. It was seen as a feat in itself by the west, particularly when democracy was considered a western concept. The Indian Constitution is often attributed to be one of the major factors contributing to the success of Indian democracy, forming a long and well-drawn backbone for its institutions to lean on.
Ola, Uber and their drivers in Delhi: evaluating industry sustainability and future requirements
Despite the rosy picture painted by big MNCs like Ola and Uber for the average working Indian, the shocks and stresses felt by the aggregator taxi industry due to the recent coronavirus lockdown highlighted the need for welfare intervention by the State for the weaker sections.
Multi-alignment: How Nations are Navigating the present era
With the post-cold war “order” gone for good, and no alternative order in place given the flailing multilateral forums like the UN, something akin to pre-1991 Bloc politics seems inevitable. However, developing nations are playing these cards to their benefit and skillfully so.
Identity Politics on the Left: Shortcomings and Disillusionment
Political systems all over the world have historically alternated power in the hands of left-wing and right-wing ideologies. While both sides have experienced their ups and downs when it comes to mobilisation, the left-wing seems to have lost its momentum in recent times. Keeping that in mind, this article explores identity politics in the context of the Left and the problems associated with the movement. Further, it aims to identify the shortcomings of the discourse and discusses whether ideological faults contribute to the rise of the right-wing.
International Water Conflicts
Each country wishes to provide for and protect the welfare of its own
citizens but in the case of attempting to safeguard their water resources,
a lot of countries start infringing on the water rights of other nations.
Evolving Secularism: An Enquiry into its Different Forms
Various aspects of secularism can be found throughout the history of various rulers and empires, from the Maurya Empire under Ashoka to that of modern-day India and more radically in that of Turkey. Therefore, the evolution of secularism in the past, and more importantly its applicability in different societies in the present, through different means, is the aspect we will try to address.
What’s Wrong With The Communist Manifesto?
This article tries to highlight the ubiquity of Marx’s ideas in World politics while simultaneously segueing into exploring the problematic aspects of one of the most consequential texts of the twentieth century: The Communist Manifesto.
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NICKELED AND DIMED 