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The Social Development Forum of CSD, New Delhi invites you to a talk on ‘Agitation to Legislation: Negotiating Equity and Justice in India’

 Schedule of the Programme

Agitation to Legislation: Negotiating Equity and Justice in India

Speaker: Prof Zoya Hasan, Distinguished Professor, Council for Social Development, New Delhi and Professor Emerita, Centre for Political Studies, JNU New Delhi

Chair: Professor K B Saxena, Distinguished Professor, CSD New Delhi

Date: April 26, 2018 (Thursday)
Time: 3.00-4.30 PM
Venue: Durgabai Deshmukh Memorial Lecture Hall, CSD, Sangha Rachna, 53 Lodi Estate, New Delhi 110003

A Brief Introduction of the Talk
The past few years have seen the street emerge as one of the most volatile and engaging sites of a politics in flux. Mass protests, widespread networks, and quick mobilization in the age of social media have instilled a new life in protests and agitations, engendering an entirely new brand of rights agenda in India today. Grassroots activism along with organized, collective action has influenced several landmark legislations, often resulting in progressive outcomes and policies.

Agitation to Legislation finds that such a progression is not so sudden. It examines ways in which social mobilizations influence legislative trajectory, opening up modes of direct engagement between the state and its citizens, between the government and the governed. It simultaneously focuses on political actors and processes that help expand rights and accountability and at the same time resist any attempt to increase representation of under-represented groups. Positive outcomes have depended on political responses and party strategies, either appropriating or reinforcing or disregarding the scale and intensity of public protests and collective action.

About the Speaker

Zoya Hasan, is Professor Emerita, Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University and former Dean of the School of Social Sciences, JNU and currently Distinguished Professor, Council for Social Development, New Delhi. She is a member of the Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy, and a member of the Editorial Board of the International Political Science Review, Secular Studies (Brille) and the Journal of Human Development in India. Her recent books include Congress After Indira: Policy, Power, Political Change (1984-2009) and Politics of Inclusion: Caste, Minority. A collection of her essays titled Democracy and the Crisis of Inequality was published in 2014. Apart from her book Agitation to Legislation: Negotiating Equity and Justice, a co-edited book titled Empire of Disgust: Prejudice, Discrimination and Policy in the United States and India will also be published in 2018.

The Social Development Forum of CSD, New Delhi invites you to a talk on

‘Constitutional and Social Democracy: An Ambedkar Perspective’

Schedule of the Programme

Constitutional and Social Democracy: An Ambedkar Perspective

Speaker: Prof. Valerian Rodrigues

Chair: Professor Ashok Pankaj

Director, CSD New Delhi

Date: January 18, 2018 (Thursday)

Time: 3.00-4.30 PM

Venue: Durgabai Deshmukh Memorial Lecture Hall, CSD,

Sangha Rachna, 53 Lodi Estate, New Delhi 110003

Abstract of the Presentation

Ambedkar argued for rule of law rather than rule of virtue. Much of his work devolves around critique of the prevailing system of rule of law and proposals to rectify it either by speaking law to social practices or through reform of the prevalent system of rule of law. This belief in constitutionalism antedates his interventions in the Constituent Assembly and is reflected in his writings and practices right from his deputation before the Southborough Committee in 1919. Ambedkar also develops a set of distinct arguments why the future of post-colonial dispensation in India squarely lies in constitutionalism. Constitutionalism prioritizes rule of law and celebrates a public culture informed by rule of law rather than ‘will of the people’. At the same time Ambedkar avows democracy as a way of life. For him democracy was a system of conducting public affairs, wherein a people equal and free regulate their lives in the indefinite future. He argues that self-realization is possible only by access to expanding spheres of social networks. Obviously, there is much tension between the rule of law he avows and the idea of democracy he celebrates. The lecture focuses on this tension, dwelling on the way, Ambedkar set about responding to it.

A Brief Introduction of the Speaker

Valerian Rodrigues currently holds Ambedkar Chair at Ambedkar University, Delhi. His areas of specialization are Political Philosophy; Political Ideas and Institutions in India; Disadvantage; Marginality; and Preferential Public Policies. Prof Rodrigues has taught at Mangalore University, Karnataka before joining Centre for Political Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University , New Delhi.

Prof Rodrigues was Agatha Harrison Fellow at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford from 1989-1991, visiting Professor at the University of Wurzburg (2011), ICCR visiting Professor at the University of Erfurt (2012), and ICSSR National Fellow (2015-17) at Mangalore university. He has authored or edited three books and has over 80 research publications to his credit.

The Social Development Forum of CSD, New Delhi invites you to a talk on

‘Jagged Edges: Technology, Yields, Cropping Choices and Farmer Adaption to Climate Change in Three Semi-Arid Districts in Peninsular India, Maharashtra, 1966-2011‘ by Dr Deepak Dasgupta at 3 pm on October 30 (Monday), 2017 at Durgabai Deshmukh Hall, CSD, 53, Sangha Rachna, Lodhi Estate, New Delhi-110003.

The event will be chaired by Professor Ashok Pankaj, Director, CSD, New Delhi.

About the Talk: The central thesis of the paper is that patterns and impact of effects of climate change ─ more erratic rainfall and rising temperatures ─ provide a better way of assessing how farmers adapt to climate shocks in reality on the ground rather than the standard method of forecasting the future from climate models and using crop and farm behavior models.

Both technology and climate change effects can be distinguished as farmer adaptation strategies. These adaptation strategies, however, are not necessarily the same everywhere: they differ by institutional, social and historical settings particular to that district and its farmers. Three different typologies: (a) “gamblers” in highly commercial agricultural settings, where risk-reward strategies may actually involve taking even more risk for higher average returns with greater volatility of returns; (b) “risk-averse diversifiers”, in more public research institutional settings, where farmers may diversify to multiple crops and cropping systems to lower their overall risk and perhaps settle for slightly lower average pay-off strategies; and (c) “technology-adopters”, where the driving way that farmers seem to ultimately adapt is to rely even more on new technology and information (new varieties, new cropping systems, water management, etc.) to deal with climate shocks.

Markets, institutions and innovation are shaped by public policy—in sometimes intended or stated, and sometimes unintended or unstated ways, beneficially, and sometimes not. For example, coarse grains lost out to other food crops; commercial crops such as cotton saw much greater support; oilseeds and pulses have been only lately the focus of public attention; public research has everywhere played a crucial role in ushering new varieties and spreading information, and spurring private markets in commercial crops (Bt cotton). The policy challenges for the future rests ─ conjecturally ─ on some areas of focus: more attention to technology in scarce water management (sprinklers and drip-irrigation and not flood irrigation) rather than crop varieties and farm practices alone; weather forecasting reliability at more granular local levels; weather-based crop insurance, especially to guard against catastrophic events; and innovative market stabilization (rather than exhausted public procurement) instruments.

Dr Deepak Dasgupta’s areas of research are Climate change, Agriculture and Macroeconomics. A recipient of Adam Smith Prize and medallion at Cambridge University and the Amex Bank Review Award for essays in International finance, Dr Dasgupta is presently ICSSR Senior Fellow at the CSD. He has earlier worked with the World Bank for over twenty-five years in various capacities. He is a former founding Board Member of the UNFCCC Green Climate Fund (GCF), representing India and Asia Pacific; and former Principal Economic Adviser, Government of India, Ministry of Finance.
Dr Dasgupta has taught and lectured at universities and think-tanks in India as well as in other countries. He is the principal author, co-author or editor of 10 books and 100 articles.

Date: 05 September 2017
Venue: Conference Room No:II, IIC (Main), New Delhi

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