The advent of twenty-first century has witnessed the rise of populist parties and their governments in the western world. Many argue that their rise is coupled with changing socio-political landscape in terms of rejection of liberal values; inward-looking sentiments vis-à-vis open markets and international cooperation and many others. Populism means different things to different groups, but all versions share a suspicion of and hostility toward elites, mainstream politics, and established institutions. It sees itself as speaking for the forgotten “ordinary” person and often imagines itself as the voice of genuine patri

People get left behind when they lack the choices and opportunities to participate in and benefit from development progress. Various reports and studies, in general, indicate that across countries, a common trend is that vulnerable groups such as women and children, people in rural areas, indigenous peoples, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, and older persons are disproportionately among those who have been left behind. In general, people are left behind when they lack the choices and capabilities that enable others to participate in or benefit from development processes. Reasons for thes

Data is the new oil as it has gradually evolved as a valuable commodity that can be bought and sold, and serves as a strategic resource for nations. Indeed, digital assets now matter far more than physical ones. The Internet, it has become clear, is not so free, after all as users are paying in the form of personal information, which is collected by “data brokers” and sold to third parties. In 2018, news broke out that the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica had harvested personal data from tens of millions of Facebook users and sold it to political campaigns. The scandal showed how malicious actors could wiel

The concept of democracy as visualized by the Indian Constitution pre-supposes the representation of the people in Parliament and State legislatures by the method of election. The Supreme Court has held that democracy is one of the inalienable basic features of the Constitution of India and forms part of its basic structure. Voting is a basic process which enables people with the right to elect their representatives. However, time and again, it has been an issue of discussion, do Indian voters know the nitty-gritty of the government’s day to day functioning; what shall be the parameters on which they should base their dec

For hundred years, conventional fossil-fueled power plants were at the core of power systems around the world. Electricity grids of the twentieth century were designed to distribute power from large, centralized coal, gas, nuclear, and hydro generating plants to far-flung end users. But the renewable sources of energy are different. To harness the benefits of renewable energy, there is requirement of rethinking and reengineering of institutions, the redefinition of policies, the re-tuning of power grids and related systems, and the replacement of old mental inertia with new ones. The que

Global Commission on the Future of Work in its “Work for a Brighter Future Report” opined that technological advances like artificial intelligence, automation and robotics will create new jobs, but those who lose their jobs in this transition may be the least equipped to seize the new opportunities. Moreover today’s skills will not match the jobs of tomorrow and newly acquired skills may quickly become obsolete. Further, the greening of our economies will create millions of jobs with adoption of sustainable practices and clean technologies but other jobs will disappear as countries scale back their carbon- and resource-intensive industries. Thus the repo

Economic theory argues that free trade leads to an increase in the aggregate real income for countries engaging in trade only under ideal conditions. The literature on international trade often refers to a situation wherein the ‘gainers bribe the losers’. As a result, state needs to design a compensation mechanism which implies that the state will tax the gainers and transfer enough to compensate the losers. Even if trade benefits a nation in aggregate measures and promises long-run benefits, affected groups would continue to suffer if enough compensation is not made available to them to cope with short-run adjus

Rural development is a complex and slow process of undertaking diverse range of activities for welfare of masses which are deprived of luxury and comfort of developed cities. It requires a great amount of coordination between various sectors, with the impact of external environment posing a challenge due to its tendency to change rapidly. The change comes from internal as well as external processes such as privatization and globalization and over the years, the focus of the rural development programmes has shifted towards the overall economic and social upliftment of rural areas, through a sound strategy. The past five decades have witnessed a great transforma

Migration is not a new phenomenon. The movement of populations in various forms has been part and parcel of the history of humanity. Migration has often been the cause or consequence (or both) of conflict and violence. Large migratory flows have also been driven by natural disasters, adverse climatic and weather events, and natural resource constraints. However, there is also a fundamentally positive side to migration. Human mobility has always been an essential component of economic, social and human development and has contributed to the progress of communities and societies. United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (