Articles

October 7, 2021

Pandemics & Connotations to Empires: Washington may Take Note

Introduction Historically, pandemics have been one of the critical ways for dramatic socio-political and economic changes. Starting from labour market rupture to online mode of education to Amazon doing more trade than several markets put together, Covid-19 pandemic has changed […]
October 6, 2021

Pandemics & Social Restructuring: Lessons from Black Death

Introduction As Covid-19 Pandemic ravaged the world economy with over 4 million casualties, pandemic history literature has proliferated, helping to understand pandemic and social structure correlation. Pandemics have played a major role in historical change and development. They are as […]
October 5, 2021

Pandemics and Empires: Lessons from Justinian Plague

Introduction Pandemics have historically been instrumental in major socio-political and economic changes. The Black Death of 14th century which led to the end of serfdom in Europe, Spanish Flu of the 20th century which led to major nationalist awakenings are […]
October 1, 2021

A call for WTO reform: what can G20 and BRICS do?

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has been grappling with an existential crisis over the last decade and deadlocks on various issues are tampering its regular functioning. Its process of rulemaking also warrants a rethink to adjust to the existing global […]
September 29, 2021

G20’s leadership for global health security and pandemic preparedness

The Group of 20 (G20), often referred to as the ‘economic steering committee’ for the world, has been credited to provide coordinated responses to economic and financial crises since its inception in 1999. The grouping was also successful in steering […]
September 28, 2021

Satyagraha of Self Regulation: How “Wise-phones” and wise humans can offset years of cherry-picking of scientific discoveries and help avert a climate apocalypse

The right to unrestricted access to the Internet ought to coexist with the responsibility to self-regulate consumption of smartphone Internet activity. The fate of the planet lies in the hands of the consumer.  There is nothing “smart” about a phone whose […]
September 28, 2021

Covid-19 & Future Pandemics: Lessons From Influenza

Introduction The world is currently reeling under the burden of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, pandemics are not a new phenomenon. History is replete with instances of pandemics of varying proportions. These pandemics in the past offer valuable lessons that could […]
September 27, 2021

Time to Rejuvenate Urban Employment Scheme

India went through one of the world’s stringent lockdowns with heavy restrictions on economic activities and human mobility. The byproduct was India’s GDP taking a nosedive to –7.4% in July-August 2020 and unemployment rates increasing to historical highs of 23.5%. […]
September 24, 2021

Kerala needs to raise its own bar of transparency in service delivery

The LDF Government who retained power in the state after a historic victory had claimed that ‘Transparency’ is the hallmark of left governance. In Kerala’s fight against the COVID pandemic, transparency has been the state’s biggest weapon against the deadly […]
September 23, 2021

Black Death & Renaissance: Post Covid-19 Social Restructuring

Introduction  Historically, pandemics have been devastating. As we experience several waves of the current pandemic, more and more literature on the history of pandemics is emerging to help us reflect on how economies, social structure, labour market as well as […]
September 20, 2021

Will Uttar Pradesh be writing Mayawati’s destiny in 2022 ?

The era of 1990s saw the rise of a woman from the Dalit community, named Mayawati, in one of the largest, most populous and “caste ridden” state of Uttar Pradesh. Mayawati succeeded the political ground prepared by the founder of […]
September 15, 2021

China’s Vaccine Diplomacy Requires Sophistication

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, and through the period of the development of vaccines, China has made numerous commitments to provide vaccine to developing countries across the globe. According to “China COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker”, as on […]
September 14, 2021

COVID-19 & Negative Population Growth Fear: Reflections on Global Demographic Changes

Introduction On 31 May 2021, the Chinese Communist Party explained its decision to allow families to have three children by citing the need to “keep China’s natural advantage in human resources.”  Many scientists already fear de-population in the long term […]
September 11, 2021

Logging into Online Higher Education v 2.0

Old is gold is a popular adage. But old giving way for new is a perennial reality. The traditional brick-and-mortar classroom-based education is now passé, at least among a large segment of the higher education sector, which have bet their […]
September 4, 2021

The changing tides of Punjab politics

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which was the oldest ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), exited from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on 26 September 2020 over the three controversial farm laws. The SAD’s member in the Union […]