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Global commitments to the education of children with disabilities, have led to progressive policy developments in India, and a surge in the enrolment of children who were traditionally excluded from the formal education system. This paper examines the perceptions and practices of mainstream teachers in rural government schools, within the context of increased learner diversity, focusing on how teachers understand, and respond to, the needs of children with disabilities. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with teachers and classroom observations, in six primary schools, in three districts of Haryana. Our findings suggest that deficit-oriented views dominated teacher thinking, but they showed a readiness to engage with disability issues, recognising the value of education for all. However, they struggled in their classroom practices in relation to meeting diverse learner needs and exclusionary practices were further amplified for children with disabilities. Teachers were unwilling to take responsibility for the learning of children with disabilities, expressing significant concerns about their own preparedness, while highlighting the lack of effective and appropriate support structures. The paper concludes by drawing attention to the pressing need for effective teacher professional development opportunities and other support structures, to provide quality education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Revisiting the citizenship regimes of Myanmar and India through a comparative lens, this article argues that a specter of the "potential foreigner" is decisive in the adjudication of citizenship in both countries. Citizenship is conceptualized not only on the basis of who is a citizen, but a perennial suspicion towards those who may not be. We frame this argument in the context of increasingly restrictive atmospheres in both countries, epitomized by violence towards the Rohingya in Myanmar and the Citizenship Amendment Act in India. This paper employs an historical perspective, tracing the evolution of citizenship since the partitions of Burma and Pakistan from India. It interrogates the very notion of foreignness that is embedded in these discourses, through a detailed description of the religious, ethnic, racial, and administrative "other" etched in the legislative and socio-political fabric of both countries. In order to develop the idea of potential foreigner as a key element of national identity and citizenship policy, the paper examines crucial legislation over the last three-quarters of a century, and the consequences of linking narrowing definitions of ethno-national belonging to citizenship status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using India as a theory building case, this paper puts forward a theoretical framework for understanding countries' responses to global rules and implementation effects across diverse global governance regimes and contexts. The initial premise for this paper is that the strategic structure of implementation dilemmas faced by states and actors within countries need to be understood in addition to design dilemmas. Successful global regimes must not only solve cooperation and uncertainty problems at the initial stages in choosing the right institutional matrix, but also 'require changes in domestic institutions.' The need to change domestic institutions creates certain implementation dilemmas. These dilemmas are a joint product of the institutional design, specific policy issue and the domestic logic of responses after international agreements have been signed. This broader idea helps understand a wide variety of India's interactions across global governance institutions. I also suggest a novel empirical strategy of cross-institutional analysis to assess implementation dilemmas. While we have numerous cross-national studies of how compliance occurs in a wide variety of countries, we lack theory-driven, empirically grounded, comparative studies of a single country or a group of countries across diverse global regimes. Such a framework can help us better understand how countries interact with a variety of global institutions and the reciprocal effects. This framework is then used to understand India's interactions with diverse global regimes in an illustrative manner in this article, and in greater detail by other authors in the section published in this issue of Contemporary South Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current paper describes the shared ideas around feminism and social work profession. Based on the theoretical discourses, it attempts to contextualise the practice framework for feminist social work. It seeks to present few efficacious initiatives in the form of case studies from Indian grassroots and highlight various success stories based on social work practice from a feminist perspective. The central idea of the paper is to explore learning insights from the field based on successful practice based models and how these can be amalgamated to develop an indigenous framework for the practice of feminist social work in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the nuances of the experiences of waiting for state-issued documents and state welfare. Waiting as an everyday experience forms an important aspect of the relationship between socio-economically marginalised groups and the state institutions. In order to examine this relationship, this paper draws upon eight interviews, conducted during December 2017 to February 2018 and in January 2019, among pheriwale. Pheriwale are self-employed traders, in Delhi, India, who collect huge amounts of second-hand/used-clothes and sell them forward to make a living. They largely work in highly precarious informal work environments, lack social security and depend on irregular income. However, as residents of India, they are also regulated through various state measures such as being registered within the national biometric database, as bank account holders and as recipients of public welfare provisions. By focusing on the experiences of pheriwale, findings show that waiting is shaped through intersecting hierarchies of gender, class and caste in the context of India. This article elucidates that a conceptualisation of waiting cannot overlook how the act of waiting for state-issued documents is tied into politics of recognition and redistribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Issues surrounding migration are receiving unprecedented attention at the global, regional, as well as national levels. However, a review of the literature shows that there is more focus on international migration compared to internal migration. Further, there is more emphasis on issues related to the migration destination rather than those at the source of migration. Using the cultural preparation process model as a framework, this paper aims to understand the career and livelihood planning needs of those who are left behind. The left-behind families of pine resin tappers in the Changar region of the Indian Himalayas are presented as a case study to draw the attention of career guidance and counselling professionals to this unattended population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world economy is witnessing the rapid digitization of global production, trade, and consumption of goods and services, which is significantly impacting economic activities in both developing and least developed countries. In this article, we examine and review the evolving framework of the national e-commerce policy in India and map digital policies in the broader contours of the industrial policy framework. Findings of this article show that interventionist policies such as localization of data and restrictions on cross-border data flows are vital for building domestic digital infrastructure, firms, platforms, and capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beef festivals are a dramatic and visible form of protest against the Indian government's ban on beef. These festivals are framed popularly as an assertion of Dalit ‘cultural rights’ and identity, with beef represented as the cultural food of Dalits. While it is clear that the beef ban is a casteist ban based on a Brahmanical food hierarchy, this paper explores the limits of resisting casteism through the assertion of caste-based cultural rights and identities, or as an assertion of an individual right to food choice. It argues that such a politics of resisting casteism runs into problems of the culturalization of caste, and limits the kinds of radical Dalit subjects and actors who could emerge as liberatory political subjects. The paper calls for reframing beef festivals as ‘antagonistic’ moments that articulate the degradation of Dalit labor in the politics of beef, reassert Dalit identity as an anti-caste identity rather than a cultural caste identity, and herald a politics of ‘multiculturalism against caste’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sets up a demand-supply model to analyse India's export performance (in terms of volumes rather than values) between 2000Q1–2014Q4. The main objective is to determine the impact of the financial meltdown of 2008 on India's export performance. During the meltdown period, decline in price by India's competitors in the international market resulted in (1) loss of competitiveness of India's export goods and (2) a complete breakdown of the price mechanism affecting India's export demand. Though export supply was not significantly affected by the meltdown episode we find evidence that exporting firms turned towards the domestic market to cope with the loss in export. The meltdown episode began to significantly affect India's export demand and supply equations from 2009Q3. The demand and supply equations after that period became so unstable that 'nothing worked' for India's exporters as they tried to counter the decline in export. Hence there was ample reason for them to panic and seek the government's help. Government policies aimed at boosting export demand did have a positive impact on India's export performance. Government policies to boost export supply had no impact except being palliative for the exporters at their moment of crisis [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces a symposium of three ethnographic papers on the relational work of policy implementation in the context of international development. Relational work is usually unrecognized in the policy process, creating misunderstandings and barriers as well as promoting improvisation and innovation. Implementers in the cases presented – democracy promotion in Angola, rural livelihoods in India, and birth registration in Tanzania – use interpretive labor and sometimes deceit in order to carry out the creative and interpersonal work of development. Implementers often further local development goals, but ignore and subvert the disciplinary aims of development governance that seek to remake their economic, political, and social habits. These articles identify that it is the social work of forging and managing interpersonal relationships that allows development workers and intended beneficiaries to make policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the current status of Indian smart cities and examines their preparedness and response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The study focuses on implemented & ongoing projects under the Smart City Mission of the Government of India, which have contributed significantly to controlling the pandemic along with other channels. The study finds that modern cities in both developed and developing countries were not well-prepared to deal with the emergency situations and struggled in providing a satisfactory response during the pandemic. The analysis of primary and secondary data has shown that digital surveillance and movement control through integrated control command centers (ICCC) were the most useful projects in monitoring the COVID-19 cases. However, the lack of technology integration in smart cities hinders the effective usage of implemented projects. Thus, the study recommends integrated network-based applications that include healthcare, essential services, mobility, and movement across smart cities in India. The proposed framework is expected to provide the much-needed alignment at the policy, objective, and implementation levels of smart city framework designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tobacco use is associated with an annual global economic cost of two trillion dollars and mortality of half of its regular users. Tobacco leaf cultivation is the starting point of the tobacco cycle. Tobacco farming employs millions of small-scale tobacco farmers around the globe, most of whom are out growers who rely on the tobacco industry. This paper aims to map the regions of greatest tobacco production globally (i.e., the US, Brazil, China, Indonesia, India, and Zambia) and tobacco use rates in these locations. Smoking rates were higher in those areas, except for India, where important population subgroups reported an upward trend for tobacco smoking. In general, there was a relationship between tobacco farming and tobacco smoking. Tobacco farming may lead to a higher risk of tobacco use and lower adherence to tobacco control policies. Therefore, promoting viable alternative livelihoods for tobacco farmers must have dual benefits. Additionally, specific health prevention policies might be necessary for those populations reporting higher tobacco use and lower perception of tobacco-related health risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women in low-and-middle income countries (LMICs) are disproportionately exposed to secondhand smoke (SHS), particularly in the home environment. Girls married before the age of 18 are more likely to remain at home and may be at higher risk of SHS exposure. This paper investigates whether women who were married as child brides had a higher risk of SHS exposure than their peers who were married as adults in India, where both burden of smoking and child marriage are critical public health concerns. Data were obtained from the 2015–2016 wave of the nationally representative India National Family Health Survey and included 306,788 married women ages 18 to 35 years. We estimated bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions to obtain odds ratios in favor of SHS exposure. The prevalence of SHS exposure for those who were married as adults was 50.3% while that was 55.2% for those who were married before age 18. After controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, the adjusted odds of SHS exposure for those who were married as child were 1.06 (95% CI: 1.03, 1.09) times that of those who were married as adults. Findings of this study inform policies for coordinated efforts to eliminate child marriage and strengthen tobacco control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community management has been widely criticized, yet it continues to play a significant role in rural drinking water supply. In India, as with other ‘emerging’ economies, the management model must now adapt to meet the policy demand for ever-increasing technical sophistication. Given this context, the paper reviews the history and concepts of community management to propose three typologies that better account for the changing role of the community and external support entities found in successful cases. It argues that external support entities must be prepared to take greater responsibility for providing ongoing support to communities for ensuring continuous service delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Financial Inclusion means providing basic financial products and services to marginalised groups in society in a cost-effective manner. It is an aspect of financial development which helps to achieve higher growth, reduced inequality and reduced poverty. This article undertakes a thematic literature review of factors responsible for financial exclusion, recent trends regarding inclusion, and policy initiatives by government and regulatory bodies. The literature suggests that low earnings, gender gap, ignorance towards marginalised groups, low degree of financial literacy, remote locations and cultural barriers are all important issues behind financial inclusion. There have been improvements in the extent of inclusiveness alongside various reforms and the development of the digital infrastructure, especially during the past decade. However, certain aspects still necessitate pre-emptive measures by the authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Militarisation and structural violence under the Armed Forces Specials Powers Act (AFSPA) is tied to a strong moral framework to proselytise recalcitrant citizens. Deploying Jacque Derrida's point that law is not justice, this paper highlights how the pursuit of justice within the framework of law is a challenging task. Interrogating the contentions around what constitutes 'justice' under the AFSPA, this paper exposes how states legitimise lawlessness through draconian laws like the AFSPA. In this manner, lawlessness is established as a precedent for states to reproduce forms of lawless regimes and undemocratic mechanisms. This paper proposes that along with the campaigns to repeal the AFSPA, we need to reflect upon what kind of justice we seek. Repressive and discriminatory regimes of law, government or practice survive even after they have been formally dismantled. Here, both the state and its citizens negotiate reality regarding the limits of justice in their own way. For the Indian state, it has had to constantly over-extend its coercive powers in order to control the situation. While for its citizens who live under the AFSPA, such a reality is not only a matter of concern but it also redefines their position as citizens/subjects, to the extent that they question the very foundations of democracy, the language of rights and the unsatisfied appeal of justice. Their negotiations are a reminder that the state apparatus' exercise of power has largely remained unchanged in Northeast India. Despite the framing of rights - be they as part of colonial edicts or postcolonial constitutions - there are spaces where the limits of this discourse are constantly questioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People who beg are almost invisible in public policy debates in India due to their literal absence of bargaining power, in spite of their substantial population in Indian society. Despite being decriminalised by the Delhi High Court in 2018, begging continues to be stigmatised by society. The COVID-19 lockdown endangered the lives of those who beg as evidenced by their lived experiences. Although there were some efforts, governments largely failed to provide social security to people who beg during the lockdown. NGOs and some other associations, an essential part of civil society, have had more success in alleviating the undesirable predicament of the people who beg in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the paper is to assess the usefulness of conceptions of different modes of governance for understanding policy outcomes by studying the experience with hierarchical and non-hierarchical governance modes in the health care sector in China, India, and Thailand. The paper shows their experience with non-hierarchical modes to have been largely disappointing and that all three, but especially Thailand, are in the process of reverting to a more hierarchical mode of service delivery. The conclusion from this study is that non-hierarchical governance is not a substitute for or an improvement upon hierarchical governance in health care due to the many market and government failures that afflict the sector and affect the ability of different governance modes to function effectively. The hierarchical mode of government is also imperfect but less so than the alternatives in delivering health care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper (a) examines the evidence base around rehabilitation of victims of trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation (CSE), (b) identifies the extent that India’s proposed 2016 Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection, and Rehabilitation) Bill reflects scientific and experiential evidence, and (c) discusses how gaps in the proposed bill can be informed by evidence. A rapid review of empirical studies on policies and interventions addressing rehabilitation of CSE victims was conducted. Although evidence is lacking, research suggests that cross-sectoral collaboration, training and monitoring law enforcement, psychotherapeutic interventions and care provided by short-term shelters, reintegration, and recognizing victims’ rights improve the success of rehabilitative efforts. The proposed legislation does not sufficiently reflect evidence around successful rehabilitation efforts and suggests that implementing the bill as it currently stands would change little of the existing structures to support victims in receiving adequate services or successfully reintegrating into society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rural proletariat constitute a substantial proportion of the global poor. Leading better lives is central to their political practices. In this paper, I aim to elaborate the political practices that attend to these aspirations, interrogations and contests. I examine existing approaches to studying political practices of the rural proletariat. I do this with a focus on India, where the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is in force since 2005. I locate the program against the backdrop of neoliberal transformations in India. I then examine the ways in which the rural proletariat engage with the program, even when other opportunities in the agricultural sector are available. Based on these examinations, I argue that the practices spawned by the program are to be understood as ‘encroachments’ into the extant social customs, norms and habits of rural India. This perspective, I contend, is more fruitful than locating the rural proletariat's engagement with the NREGA as a coping strategy or a tactic of resistance against rural elites. The data which this paper draws on include official sources, in-depth interviews with workers in rural Bihar and West Bengal and ethnographic observations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper discusses a relatively new but an emerging demographic phenomenon of single-child families in India. This paper examines the levels, trends and determinants of single-child families using the data from three rounds of National Family Health Surveys (NFHS) conducted in 1992–1993, 1998–1999 and 2005–2006. The paper analyses women who have completed their reproductive life to understand the characteristics of single-child families. The results show that the proportion of single-child families is higher among the urban, educated and professionally employed women. Among the determinants, age at marriage and first birth, place of residence, economic and education status were significantly associated with single-child families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of an increasing scientisation of political processes, epistemic communities have been identified as a unique category of social actors, who exclusively rely on their knowledge resources to shape the preferences of decision-makers. Whereas most authors expect that an expert-driven policy process facilitates the implementation of technically complex policies, critical scholars hint to an evolving technocracy, whose scientific dogmatism may end up in policies that aggravate social problems. In this paper, these countervailing assumptions are empirically assessed for the epistemic community on biodiversity and its role in Brazil and India. At least in this case, it seems that the impact experts' influence depends on the configuration of the policy arena. If experts are institutionally compelled to debate their positions with potential critics, the members of an epistemic community seem to engage in a rather deliberative discourse that widens the policy space for all stakeholders involved. Under the conditions of an elitist closure, however, policy experts seem to adapt to the preferences of the most powerful actors but refrain from any critical self-reflection that might seriously challenge their own convictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the underlying causes of poor economic growth of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh (UP), India, despite being endowed with relatively rich natural resources. Against the conventional view, the analysis reveals that poor economic growth is not due to a particular factor but an outcome of a myriad of social, economic and political factors rooted in structural, historical and macro-economic policies. The economic marginalization of Bihar and UP began in the colonial era through the establishment of an exploitative landlord class, which constantly resisted economic and social development even after independence in 1947. The process of marginalization has further been reinforced by the federal central government's policy of 'freight equalization', which nullified the comparative advantage of Bihar and UP in natural resources by subsidizing railway freights of industrial inputs like coal, iron ore, steel, cement and other bulk resources. This, combined with relatively low financial resources received from central government over the consecutive plan periods, has undermined these states' capacity to invest in health, education, and other social and physical infrastructure and resulted in low human development. The poor performance of Bihar and UP may be attributed to low human capital, weak institutions and poor infrastructure coupled with political instability and social conflict rooted in sectarian politics based on caste, class and ethnic division. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the potential scope for efficiency and equity with reference to the recent public policy decision to commercialize the livestock service sector in India. The livestock service is provided free by the veterinary clinic in the public sector which operates virtually as a monopolist in Indian villages. The paper, using the discriminatory monopoly framework, shows that the government would succeed in its efforts to recover the cost of livestock service; the burden of cost recovery would fall on both the poor and rich beneficiary farm households. As regards to the effective cost of utilization of livestock service, the poor would end up bearing proportionately less than the rich. In the process, the market size for livestock service would decline in the short run but not output from animal husbandry. In the long run, there will be both growth and equity in the livestock sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade and a half, skill development has assumed critical importance in India's policy discourse. In this context, in 2016, a German inspired vocational training programme called Dual System of Training was adopted by the Indian government to ensure a judicious balance of classroom learning and on-the-job training for young people. Based on semi-structured interviews with twenty-five national level policy makers in India we examine the drivers of this particular policy adoption and suggest that the sedimentation, expansion and institutionalization of the policy remain embedded in a bureaucracy-driven centralised and hierarchical framework, thereby limiting much of its transformative promise and potential. Our contextual focus on TVET reforms in India characterised by massive youth demographics, competing political compulsions, uneven capitalist development and increasing nationalistic tendencies reveal the complexities of policy adoption from the Global South perspective, an area that remains understudied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the case of Kashmir to examine the relation between the people of the contested land (Indian-occupied Kashmir) and one of the nation states claiming it (India, in this case) in a game-theoretic framework. The motivation for this paper was whether it was possible to rationalize the lack of democratic space in Kashmir, relative to other states in India (especially since the founding fathers of the country had announced such democratic practices to be the guiding principles of the new nation) and at the same time, a highly rigid stance of the Indian Government on the Kashmir issue. An otherwise standard political economic model is used to capture how the way in which citizens determine their allegiance to one or the other nation state (India or Pakistan) can, in turn, affect the nation state's (India's) policies towards the contested land. I conclude that if the Indian Government perceives allegiance of the citizens to be determined primarily by partisan preferences of the citizens, not so much by their preferences for policies, then the government rationally concentrates on minimizing its disutility due to deviations from its ‘most-favorite' policy. This understanding rationalizes the policies of the Indian Government towards Kashmir. More importantly, it points towards areas that need consideration for any peace-making process to take-off. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this era of globalisation, the present perception of lifelong learning (LLL) in the Indian policy domain has been going through major changes in an attempt to make it nationally realistic yet globally viable. In this process, all facets of the concept of LLL are constantly metamorphosing, and this in many ways outperforms the older perception of LLL in India. The main objective of the paper is to gain a better insight into this metamorphosis in three consecutive stages; from recommendations, to policies and finally to guidelines. It uses Peter Jarvis’s theoretical framework to analyse the tensions in reshaping the dimensions of LLL in a certain context, yet gives flexibility for new analytical inputs. Based on the analysis, it is possible to generalise two major perspectives of LLL in Indian policies; a competitive and skill-oriented one, which is more global in nature. The other possesses a traditional nature and addresses basic educational needs. The process of metamorphosis is going through a major transition phase while facing resistance from several levels. This encourages further research on the complexities of LLL at different levels and contexts to gain better insights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existence of multilayered boundaries and networks in a river basin redefines the river basin geographies and concepts and poses extreme challenges to centralized notions of Integrated River Basin Management (IRBM). The paper traces various boundaries that exist due to the physical peculiarities, political situations, resource transfer scenarios and socio-economic networks in one of the most exploited river basins in the highly populated biodiversity hotspot of the Southern Western Ghats in India and analyses the implications for IRBM. The coexistence of multiple, dynamic and often overlapping boundaries existing within and beyond the hydrological boundary encompasses an inclusive region of resource engagement coined as ‘inclusive basin’ which embeds in it various communities of interests. The governance in such an ‘inclusive basin’, heavily mediated by the power gradients of the boundaries involved, can be envisaged as an issue-based polycentric approach which incorporates these interest group domains at multiple scales. The paper attempts a critical examination of the multilayered boundaries that connect the natural hydrographic basin to its physical, social and political settings and their influence on natural resources management, conservation and conflict resolution, especially in the light of the National River Linking Project. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Solid waste management is one of the major urban problems in cities today. The issue is often most pressing when city governments have to manage in challenging financial, managerial and cultural contexts. Cities in India are no exception. Although some town and cities have implemented and reported good practices, the situation is far from resolved. This paper looks at solid waste management practices in one ward in the city of Kochi, Kerala. The findings from this case suggest a systemic organising principle – a fractal configuration – as conducive to solid waste management. This paper further suggests that the recurring principle in this fractal system can be extended to other systems that involve distance decay or time decay functions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the wake of the present financial crisis, which is believed to have been exacerbated by over-the-counter derivatives, increasing attention is being paid to analysing the regulatory environment of these markets. In this context, we analyse the regulatory framework of the over-the-counter derivatives market in India. The paper, inter alia, analyses how a good reporting system and a post-trade clearing and settlement system, through a centralized counter party, has ensured good surveillance of the systemic risks in the Indian over-the-counter market. This research paper also explores those open issues that are important to ensure market stability and development competition among centralized counterparties and better supervision of the off-balance sheet business of financial institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Indian culture and civilization embodies a unique blend of peace and conflict trajectories. This historical legacy has indubitably moulded the course of our policy and action. However, there are aspects which are queried and contested. For instance, how do we reconcile the ambiguities and opposing claims on peacefulness in Indian lineage? The paper reflects afresh on some of these lingering contestations and decodes the historical transferences in the subcontinental thinking and popular imagination. The paper argues that despite admitting contrary ideas and practices. India in course developed an intrinsic stake in advocating peace--an image that resonates in India's contemporary policy statements and also when it is censured for disowning it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the topic of 'brain drain' was introduced to the United Nations' debates in the late 1960s, policy thinking on skilled migration has shifted its focus from discouraging emigration in the 1970s to encouraging returns in the 1980s, and to facilitating 'brain circulation' since the 1990s. This paper, based on a comparison between China and India in the Information Technology (IT) industry, suggests that how the highly skilled leave the home country in the first place is equally important as how they return or contribute back through transnational connections. IT professionals' migration from India with minimum government intervention may have more sustainable developmental effects than aggressive government programmes in China aimed at promoting return and transnational relations. This is because the migratory process of the Indian IT professionals is built into the dynamics of the global high-tech industry. By comparison, many programmes in China are dissociated from industry despite the heavy investment from the government. But the Chinese programmes may be more conducive for the development of basic research. In short, a proper mix of government policy and market mechanism seems a key to achieving sustainable brain circulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates probable collective doses owing to transport of radioactive material by road mode in India and the USA for an identical hypothetical case under respective transport conditions for the two countries, using the INTERTRAN2 computer code. The differences observed in the transport conditions in the two countries are reflected in the DNORM input parameters for the incident free transport conditions of transport and the accident rates. Owing to differences in the parameter values, it is found that the estimated probable collective dose values owing to transport of radioactive material by road mode for India are much higher than those for USA. Sensitive parameters are identified which contribute maximum to the estimated probable collective dose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the work of a specific group of Indian scholar activists who, during the 1980s, produced a body of writing critical of the Indian state's science, technology and environmental policy. They have been described variously as Luddites, anti-science cranks and polemicists (Guha, 1988; Nanda, 1991; Baber, 1996). At the same time, they have been influential among activists critical of state development policies. This paper examines one particularly polemical set of their writings. It has three broad parts. It begins by providing some context and background and describing the methodological choices made in the acquisition and presentation of the material at hand. The second, substantial section is the exposition of the argument underlying the critique being discussed. Finally, the brief last segment explores the relevance of this work for studies of science and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is about some of the governmental experiences of the jurist/diplomat/minister M.C. Chagla, through which, it seeks to cast a certain light on the possibilities and limits of relations between a majority state and a minority individual, albeit of the privileged kind. Chagla's pre-eminent presence in Bombay's legal fraternity from 1922 and the High Court from 1941 bequeathed to him a sense of belonginess, which was largely untouched by the upheavals of 1947. His 11 years as Chief Justice, followed by five years as India's envoy in U.S./U.K., saw him being elevated to the central cabinet, but not without a question mark at his non-party and non-majority identity. His short ministerial stint till 1967 ended over two issues of identity politics—a domestic language policy and an international crisis—providing a prism to see the coming together of competence, concerns and convictions around cooperation across parties, classes and communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The November 2008 attacks on Mumbai stand as a key moment in understanding how liberalized Western values discursively construct the terms through which acts of terror may be understood. Rooted in the work of Foucault, this article examines newspaper coverage of the 2008 attacks on Mumbai from theTimes of India, Indian Express, andDaily News and Analysis India. Journalistic narratives situated local values and identities inside a discursive structure that construed Mumbai as a victim of a new type of global terror whose threat can be stemmed only through America-centric policies of perpetual militarism. This paper argues that a critical analysis of the discourses surrounding terrorism begets an understanding of the terms that not only construct the attacks themselves, but also render sensible possible reactions to the attacks, even as Western values appear amid news texts published in domestic Indian outlets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue that two key party system characteristics – the effective number of parties and electoral volatility – have a curvilinear, inverted-U shaped, influence on public goods provision. Rejecting the linear pattern generally assumed in the literature, we contend that optimal governance outcomes will be observed at intermediate levels of party system size and stability. Only under these conditions will the benefits of competition be balanced against the risks of fragmentation. We find support for our arguments by employing new data and estimating panel models of public goods provision in 29 Indian states and territories. We hope that our findings will contribute to understanding how party systems function, particularly those at the subnational level, and will better inform how they can be leveraged for development and good governance. We also hope that they will provide some guidance about the future trajectory of public policy in the Indian states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rituals of riparian communities are frequently linked to the flow regimes of their river. These dependencies need to be identified, quantified and communicated to policy makers who manage river flows. This paper describes the first attempt to explicitly evaluate the flows required to maintain the cultural and spiritual activities in the upper Ganga River basin. Riparian dwellers and visitors were interviewed and the responses analyzed to obtain an overview of the needs and motivations for cultural flows. The approach enhances the overall concept of environmental flow assessment, especially in river basins where spiritual values ascribed to rivers are high. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The changing socio-economic and political tableau in India has affected civil society. This paper investigates how the roles, relationships, and strategies of civil society organisations (CSOs) are changing in response to these socio-political and economic changes. It also looks at what new capacities, opportunities, and challenges are emerging as important for CSOs in these changing contexts. La société civile dans une Inde en mutation : rôles, relations et stratégies émergents Le tableau socioéconomique et politique en mutation en Inde a eu une incidence sur la société civile. Cet article examine la manière dont les rôles, les relations et les stratégies des organisations de la société civile (OSC) changent actuellement en réponse à ces changements sociopolitiques et économiques. Il examine également ceux des capacités, opportunités et défis nouveaux se dégageant actuellement qui sont importants pour les OSC dans ces contextes en mutation. La sociedad civil en una India cambiante: roles, relaciones y estrategias emergentes El cambiante panorama socioeconómico y político de India ha afectado a la sociedad civil. El presente artículo examina cómo los roles, las relaciones y las estrategias de las organizaciones de la sociedad civil (osc) están transformándose para responder a los cambios sociopolíticos y económicos. Asimismo, analiza las capacidades, las oportunidades y el surgimiento de retos nuevos que tienen importancia para las osc en estos contextos cambiantes. Sociedade civil na Índia em mutação: papéis, relações e estratégias emergentes A situação sócio-econômica e política em mutação na Índia tem afetado a sociedade civil. Este artigo investiga como os papéis, relações e estratégias das Organizações da Sociedade Civil (OSC) estão mudando em resposta a estas mudanças sócio-políticas e econômicas. Ele também examina quais novas capacidades, oportunidades e desafios importantes estão surgindo para as OSCs nestes contextos variáveis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India has developed a national biofuel policy to increase energy security, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and stimulate rural development. In this policy, the government has set blending targets for mixing ethanol and biodiesel with gasoline and diesel, respectively. In India, ethanol is produced from irrigated sugar-cane while biodiesel is produced from jatropha, which is said to require no irrigation. This paper analyzes the possible impacts of an increase in sugar-cane and jatropha production on water management and use. It finds that India's biofuel policy is likely to place additional pressure on scarce water resources. Although the development of biofuels may be necessary, care must be taken to anticipate its likely impacts on water resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transitioning child labourers from work to education is a key component of global efforts to eliminate child labour. In India, the National Child Labour Project is the central programme aimed at achieving this goal. This paper examines the operation of the project in the state of West Bengal using original survey data collected in 2008. The survey reveals a number of promising findings, including high rates of provision of both midday meals and free learning materials to students, as well as evidence of adequate schooling quality and availability. However, areas of concern were also identified, including irregularities in stipend payments to parents of child labourers who send their children to school and inadequate provision of free health services to children who attend school rather than work. These operational short-comings revealed by the survey reduce the incentive and ability parents have to send their children to school rather than work and, accordingly, undermine the effectiveness of the project. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have become the epicenters of ‘land wars’ across India, with farmers resisting the state's forcible transfer of their land to capitalists. Based on 18 months of research focused on an SEZ in Rajasthan, this paper illuminates the role of ‘accumulation by dispossession’ (ABD) in Indian capitalism today and its consequences for rural India. It argues that the existing theories of land grabs do not adequately explain why dispossession becomes necessary to accumulation at particular times and places, and seeks to reconstruct Harvey's theory of ABD to adequately account for it. It then shows the specific kind of rentier- and IT-driven accumulation that dispossession is making possible in SEZs and the non–labor-absorbing, real-estate–driven agrarian transformation this generates in the surrounding countryside. Land speculation amplifies class and caste inequalities in novel ways, marginalizes women and creates an involutionary dynamic of agrarian change that is ultimately impoverishing for the rural poor. Given the minimal benefits for rural India in this model of development, farmer resistance to land dispossession is likely to continue and pose the most serious obstacle to capitalist growth in India. The agrarian questions of labor and capital are, consequently, now rejoined in ‘the land question.’ [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This case study of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in India, the largest basic education programme in the world, assesses the significance of foreign aid for achieving increased access to elementary education from 2002 to 2010, particularly for the most disadvantaged. It reviews the practical experience of India and its development partners in jointly developing and implementing a national education programme and how greater alignment of external assistance with the Government of India's national policy for achieving universal elementary education was brought about, thus promoting country leadership and harmonising donor practices for effective aid delivery in line with the principles of aid effectiveness set out in the Paris Declaration (signed by the members of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the OECD and representatives of the developing countries in 2005). The paper draws on documentation about, and experience of SSA design and implementation to establish, through analysis, a picture of how foreign aid principally from three development partners is being used effectively to support India's own policy and strategy for universalising elementary education. The case shows that the development partners are playing an important role and that external support for elementary education in India is organised in a unique and effective way and contributed to increased access to basic education, particularly in the populous north of the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to argue that the emergence of a diverse and dominant software (SW) services industry in India is facilitated to a large extent by the range of policies and initiatives undertaken by the Indian State. In addition to a series of sector-specific policy initiatives and promotional schemes, the positive interplay among the trade, technological and tariff policies did contribute to the emergence of the SW services sector. The authors also argue that the overall liberalisation project initiated in the early 1990s, by way of initiating a distinct export orientation to economic thinking, did contribute to the sector's emergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insurgency in Northeast India has long been explained as an outcome of poverty and isolation that in turn produces further poverty and militancy. In order to break this cycle and achieve 'peace and prosperity', the Indian Government released North Eastern Region Vision 2020 in July 2008 - a comprehensive policy agenda to achieve 'peace and prosperity' in the Northeast. This is to be realised through deeper economic and political engagement with neighbouring countries and a 'paradigm shift in development strategy' that will be simultaneously more participatory and more infrastructure intensive. This paper argues that in practice the political manifestations of increased regional engagement are contradictory. Each measure designed to break the region's isolation is countered by measures to maintain control of borders, trade, and the movement of people. At the heart of this new development vision is a re-visioning of counter-insurgency underpinned by the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (1958). Far from signalling a new era in the region, the measures contained in this new development vision appear more likely to exacerbate the grievances of people in the region and reinforce the ways the region has been governed through five decades of counter-insurgency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

States have signed hundreds of treaties and protocols over their shared rivers. Many of these agreements established commissions to implement the accords and maintain cooperation. Consistent with this expectation, the Israeli-Jordanian Peace Treaty established the Joint Water Committee (JWC). Through a comparison of the JWC with the Permanent Indus Commission, established to manage the Indus River between India and Pakistan, the paper argues that the JWC has been only somewhat effective. To account for the source of effectiveness it is necessary to consider the capabilities vested in commissions. Commissioners can fulfil their tasks when they communicate directly, hold regular meetings, monitor the river's development and possess conflict resolution mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through an ethnographic examination of legal processes in Family Court, this article maps some of the circumstances which Indian Muslim women confront in the area of Family Law. It provides a portrait of the politically interested spaces which govern their lives, indicating the osmosis between 'religious,' cultural and legal realms, rather than essentialisms about the nature of Islam. It provides a reminder that we can no more separate religious practices fundamentally from patriarchal logic than we can separate jurisprudence and the workings of law, indeed the State, from its constitution in multiple embedded sites of patriarchal logic and race and imperial regimes. Optimal strategies for Indian Muslim women to be socioeconomically and legally empowered are also interrogated in this context, as the paper explores the ways in which gender equality and cultural difference and community support can, or not, protect women. It emphasizes the importance of problematizing both notions of 'community' and 'gender equity' in any attempt to address women's rights and needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sketches a picture, with broad strokes on a wide canvas, of thinking about, and outcomes in, development during the second half of the 20th Century, to stress the importance of learning and “unlearning” from experience. In doing so, it questions the caricature distinctions between success and failure at development, in a world where outcomes were mixed. This is illustrated vividly by a tale of two countries: China and India. In this time span, thinking about development witnessed a complete swing of the pendulum, from the Development Consensus to the Washington Consensus. These shifts in paradigm, which reshaped strategies of development, were influenced strongly by history and conjuncture, reinforced by the dominant political ideology of the times. However, changes in development strategies did not lead to the expected outcomes. In fact, there was a discernible mismatch between turning points in thinking and performance. Of course, experience of the past 50 years did lead to some rethinking about development. This learning from experience, however, was selective; and it differed across schools of thought, for it was shaped only in part by outcomes. It was also influenced significantly by priors in thinking and ideology in perspectives. Thus, attempts to unlearn from development, which questioned beliefs or changed previous beliefs embedded in ideologies, were few and far between. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adverse sex ratio, a feature of India, is an outcome of two forms of inequality; natal inequality through sex-selective abortion, and mortality inequality. The analysis of trends in mortality inequality at the infant stage, which is the subject of this paper, in the rural and urban areas of 15 major Indian states reveals that overall mortality inequality has intensified. This is particularly the case in the developed states, accounting for a large proportion of the foregone reduction in the infant mortality rate. However, the trend in Tamil Nadu state points to a reversal in mortality inequality in recent years on account of multi-pronged policy interventions by the state government, which are aimed at protecting the girl child. The political-will of the party in power during 1991-1996 and 2001-2006 in Tamil Nadu points the way for the rest of the nation, and is possibly the way for India to achieve the Millennium Development Goal with respect to the infant mortality rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite government efforts to provide services for children with disabilities in line with recommendations from international aid agencies, the 2003 Census of Individuals with Disabilities found that over 90% remain unserved. This paper identifies some of the limitations of these efforts in the context of the census findings, with particular reference to the issues of under-representation of specific groups and identification. The 2003 Education For All (EFA) programme and recent policy initiatives, the Right to Education Bill 2005, the Action Plan for Inclusion in Education of Children and Youth with Disabilities (IECYD) 2005 and the National Policy for Persons with Disabilities 2006, are examined for their responsiveness to these concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]