G20 Global Land Initiative | Aug 29, 2023

Recently, the Government of Karnataka along with Azim Premji University, LibTech India, ATREE and the Foundation for Ecological Security has initiated work towards understanding the avenues for aligning MGNREGA with the goal of ecological restoration. This work was done as a pilot project in Chikkabalapur district of Karnataka.

Compiled by Santhakumar V and Apoorva Bose | July 24, 2023

Restoring 150 million hectares of degraded agricultural land could generate USD 85 billion in net benefits to national and local economies, raise USD 30 – 40 billion a year in extra income for smallholder farmers, and provide additional food for close to 200 million people.

By Santhakumar and Apoorva Bose | April 14, 2023

The human development indicators of most Indian states are low. The development of the manufacturing sector is slow (though there has been higher economic growth during the last 3 – 4 decades) and this has slowed the transition of a land-dependent population towards industries and urban areas. 

By Santhakumar V and Apoorva Bose | March 24, 2023

It is obvious that different socio-economic and institutional factors impact land restoration in a country. These may include laws and their enforcement, economic incentives of people which in turn are determined by national and international markets and government policies; actions of organisations that are involved in restoration, etc.

By Santhakumar V | Feb 24, 2023

‘Intercultural Education is the response to classroom diversity aiming to go beyond passive coexistence, to achieve a developing and sustainable way of living together in multicultural societies through the creation of an understanding of respect for and a productive dialogue between the different groups.’

By Santhakumar V  | Mar 18, 2022

The research on behavioural economics has brought out insights into the actual motivations of individuals. Some of these are not in tune with the concepts of rationality and self-interest within the framework of conventional microeconomics.

By Santhakumar V | Feb 14, 2022

Government schools are expected to work on tangible and intangible outcomes and have a public service orientation. They are less likely to have an ​‘outcome’ orientation and may not have an internal incentive structure that can be changed through OBF. 

By Santhakumar V | Jan 18, 2022

In cases where the private gain is greater than the private cost, one can expect for-profit organisations to invest even in education and healthcare. This is evident from the functioning of fee-paying private schools or self-financing colleges. 

By Santhakumar V | Jan 6, 2022

It is possible to think about alternative ownership structures, such as worker- or consumer-owned companies and to visualise Education for Rural Management for creating managers for these alternative organisations. It is also possible to think of ERM as education for creating professionals in the public sector and NGOs.

By Santhakumar V | Dec 20, 2021

Worker-owned companies can be made efficient if they are managed like privately owned firms, and then, the surplus that is generated can be used for the welfare of all workers. This may need the limiting of employment to an optimum number of workers on each day but all workers can benefit from the consequent surplus.

By M S Sriram | Dec 7, 2021

There could be an alternate approach to examine aid and design financial instruments appropriate to the objective and tenor. Distinct instruments are needed for interventions that benefit society at large in the long term with unknown outcomes and intrusive interventions for course correction in the marketplace. 

By Santhakumar V, Kerry Shepard, Qudsia Kalsoom, Lorenz Probst, Paul Gannon | June 9, 2021

Those who advocate the use of higher education to educate for sustainable development know that what they really seek is some form of value education but they avoid calling it that. Instead, they use the euphemism of ​‘competence’ to make it appear more acceptable to higher education. The plan works in situations where we judge the quality of education by how many pass exams, or what the students think about the teachers, but generally fails when we judge the quality of education as resulting in social change.

By Santhakumar V, Kerry Shepard, Qudsia Kalsoom, Lorenz Probst, Paul Gannon | May 13, 2021

We would all agree that the creation of autonomous-thinking individuals should be the goal of education (whether it has any direct social purpose or not). However, the majority of schools/​colleges in India (and possibly in Pakistan and several such countries) fail in this regard. What happens in our education system is the outcome of many constraints…

By Devashree Pillai and Amrita C | Mar 12, 2021

It is argued that the Act is a colourable piece of legislation that is outside the legislative competence of the Parliament as it falls under the State List, and therefore, ultra vires the Constitution. The petitioners contend that the forest lands referred to in the Act are more closely associated with the item ​‘Land’ instead of ​‘Forests’ because it deals with the conversion of forest lands into revenue lands and pertains to rights accrued in and over such land.

By Braja Bandhu Swain | Dec 4, 2020

It is important to note here that the parliamentarians have failed to identify and highlight the potential implications of these bills and to redress their many limitations. While the bills have received presidential assent and are notified in the gazette on 27 September 2020, the actual effects of these ordinances can only be seen after the coming Kharif harvest.

By Amrita Chekkutty and Suraj Jacob | Oct 13, 2020

The process of implementation of the FR Act in Kerala has many serious lapses, which could actually defeat the purpose of the original Act. One fundamental problem is the abysmal level of awareness about the Act, rights and processes among the beneficiaries and the officials. Another problem is the burden of workload, as the state nodal agency is invested with the implementation of several other welfare schemes for the Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste communities.

By Praveena Kodoth |  Oct 6, 2020

To equip India’s emigration policy to deal with the emerging character of the overseas market, policymakers would need to rethink the restrictive gender perspective that has guided policy hitherto and adopt a fundamentally different perspective that empowers women migrant workers by ensuring their right to mobility and protection from exploitation.

By Seema Purushothaman and Rema Devi | Sep 24, 2020

The cultural-ecological know-how of the adivasis is of obvious value in this era of the pandemic, economic slowdown and climate change. This realisation might accelerate and support effective FRA implementation by generating necessary momentum among departments and development agencies and within the constituency of the adivasis themselves.

The Scheduled Tribes constitute nearly 1.45 percent of Kerala’s population. However, their human development indicators are significantly lower than those of the mainstream population. Their female literacy rate is nearly 36 percent lower than that of the state as a whole. Poverty among them is nearly 2.5 times higher than that of the rural population. This reflects their inadequate access to resources considering their spatial settlements in forests, their socio-cultural specificities, and historical deprivation.

By Santhakumar V | Mar 11, 2020

This note explores the limitations of the strategies for the empowerment of women and the need to move towards a more radical approach in this regard. The work of several organisations which follow different approaches to women’s empowerment informs this note.