Publications & Resources
Our faculty, students and researchers work together everyday to contribute to a better world by grappling with urgent problems we are facing in India. We conduct rigorous work to produce high quality learning resources and publications to contribute to public discourse and social change. Here, we feature a sample from our work for everyone to access. You can explore featured resources, policies, and the latest publications from the University.
To explore all the work of our University, please visit our publications repository.
List of Publications & Resources
Explaining COVID-19 Lockdown, Employment and Migration in India- Challenges and Prospects
in Azim Premji University
- Published
- Authors
Abstract
This paper makes an attempt to do an assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on employment and migration in India. The analysis is based on up-to-date facts and figures available in the public domain on economic growth, employment and migration. Using the employment elasticity approach, the study estimates employment loss during 2020 – 21 owing to the negative impact of COVID-19 on economic activities. The results of the study suggest that the country may witness job loss with the tune of 18.5 18.8 million in the current fiscal year. This in turn would shoot up the unemployment rate from 5.8% in 2018 – 19 to 8.9% in 2020 – 21, warranting a coordinated and focused approach from both the Central and State governments to uplift the confidence of the people and bring back the lost jobs, particularly the migrant workers. The study also emphasises on Central government’s urgent attention and action plan for uplifting the rural economy in order to revive India’s economy in the short run.
Authors:
- Purna Chandra Parida
- Yogesh Suri
Links
- Published
- Authors
Abstract
E‑governance has changed the functioning of public programmes in India. In most cases, one technological platform is expected to perform multiple roles such as improving administrative efficiency, as an information repository for the beneficiaries and as a system for accountability. However, techno-solutionism can be incongruous to democratic principles. In this article, we highlight this by looking at some technologies, such as the Management Information System (MIS) among others, used for the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in India. We illustrate how such technologies have been used to subvert legal rights of workers and critically examine whether these designs incorporate democratic values. We underscore that technological interventions, with compassionate design are potentially powerful tools for transparency, accountability, and grievance redressal. However, we argue that technology alone can neither enhance participatory democracy nor reduce socio-economic inequalities.
Authors:
- Rajendran Narayanan
- Chakradhar Buddha
- Sakina Dhorajiwala
Links
Reconceptualising rehabilitation of female survivors of violence: The case of Sampoornata Model of Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) in India
in Women & Therapy
Article
- Published
- Authors
- Rhea Kaikobad
Abstract
This article discusses an intervention for rehabilitation of female survivors of violence that reconceptualises rehabilitation through a feminist lens: the Sampoornata model of Dance Movement Therapy (DMT), which has been created and is being practiced by an NGO called Kolkata Sanved in Kolkata, India. Feminist rehabilitation is seen as a perspective which, in contrast to dominant rehabilitation praxis, recognises that individual experiences of violence are embedded in patriarchal social structures and aims for survivors to internalise a sense of agency by deconstructing internalised patriarchal norms that legitimise violence against women and girls and stigmatisation of survivors. The article highlights how Sampoornata enacts feminist rehabilitation through the medium of the body. Survivors reclaim the body from patriarchal control and reflect on the embodied experience in order to question patriarchal norms, remove self-blame, and negotiate a space for themselves within society.
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Labour Reforms in the Indian State of Rajasthan- a boon or a bane
in Azim Premji University
- Published
- Authors
Abstract
The authors examine the impact of labour law deregulations in the Indian state of Rajasthan on plant employment and performance. In 2014, after a long time, Rajasthan was the first Indian state that introduced labour reforms in the Industrial Disputes Act (1947), the Factories Act (1948), the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act (1970), and the Apprentices Act (1961). Exploiting this unique quasi-natural experiment, the authors apply a difference-in-difference framework using the Annual Survey of Industries longitudinal data of India’s manufacturing establishments. Their results show that reforms had an unintended consequence of the decline in labour use. Also, worryingly, the flexibility resulted in a disproportionate decline in the directly employed worker. Evidence suggests that the reforms positively impact the value-added and productivity of the establishments. The strength of these effects varies depending on the underlying industry and reform structure. These findings prove robust to a set of specifications.
Authors:
- Diti Goswami
- Sourabh Paul
Links
- Published
- Authors
Abstract
One of the central concerns against increasing expenditures in the recent period has been the possibility of an adverse impact on debt-GDP ratio. Once stability of debt-ratio is regarded as a policy-objective, the aggregate expenditure that is consistent with the stability condition gets determined by the given level of output growth rate and revenue receipts. Instead of perceiving expenditures to be determined by the debt-stability condition, this short note attempts to lay bare the conditions under which the debt-stability condition is restored despite increasing the growth rate of non-capital primary expenditure to a targeted level. The targeted level can be perceived as one which fully compensates the income loss of labour during the pandemic. In contrast to conventional wisdom, the possibility of increasing non-capital expenditures is explored not by reducing capital expenditures, but rather by increasing the latter. Using the multiplier value of capital expenditures estimated by the RBI, it is argued that the debt-ratio would remain unchanged despite increasing the growth rate of non-capital primary expenditure if the capital expenditures growth rate is allowed to increase in a specific proportion.
Author:
- Zico Dasgupta
Links
Tracking Employment Trajectories during the Covid-19 Pandemic- Evidence from Indian Panel Data
in Azim Premji University
- Published
- Authors
Abstract
Using the CMIE’s Consumer Pyramids Household Survey, we track a panel of households prior to the lockdown (in December 2019), during the lockdown (in April 2020) and afterwards (in August 2020) to investigate the employment and income effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and its associated containment measures. We identify four distinct employment experiences during the pandemic for those who were in the workforce just prior to the lockdown: no loss of employment (“No effect”), loss of employment followed by recovery (“Recovery”), loss of employment with no recovery (“No recovery”), and a delayed loss of employment (“Delayed job loss”). Overall, 54% of individuals experienced no job loss, while 30% lost work in April but recovered by August. 12% had not recovered employment as of August 2020. We analyse how these trajectories vary across different social and economic characteristics to quantify contractions and recovery in the labour market and the extent to which the vulnerabilities vary across different social groups, employment arrangements, and industries. We find that women were substantially more likely to lose employment as well as less likely to recover employment. Job loss was also more severe for lower castes as compared to intermediate and upper castes and for daily wage workers as compared to regular wage workers. Younger workers were particularly vulnerable to job loss compared to older workers. Having lost employment in April, younger workers were also less likely to recover employment in August. Finally, for those who were employed in both December 2019 and August 2020, we examine the changes in employment arrangements. We find a much greater frequency of transitions from wage employment to self-employment, more than that in the seasonally comparable period last year (Dec 2018 to Aug 2019). Our results call for urgent additional fiscal measures to counteract these effects.
Authors:
- Rosa Abraham
- Amit Basole
- Surbhi Kesar
Links
Urban Wastewater for Agriculture: Farmers’ Perspectives from Peri-urban Bengaluru
in Azim Premji University
- Published
- Authors
Abstract
This working paper studied farmers’ perspectives on their future as beneficiaries of wastewater (domestic sewage with industrial effluents) generated in the Vrishabhavathy watershed of Bengaluru city.
Links