Space In India Research Articles

Contested Urban Green Spaces in India: Complex Dynamics of Environmental Development

This research paper examines the proliferation of urbanization in contemporary India has led to a pressing need for the preservation and expansion of green spaces within cities. As rapid development continues to reshape the landscape, the importance of green spaces in promoting ecological balance, enhancing public health, and fostering social well-being becomes increasingly evident. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the issues and challenges associated with green spaces in modern India.

Discerning personhood through lena‐dena: Disability professionals, ethics, and communication

AbstractThis article looks at practices of discernment in disability spaces in India by analyzing (hierarchical) relational contexts in which disability professionals and disabled people in India interact. We argue that discernment, which we explore through lena‐dena (giving and taking), allows us to analyze the ethical stakes of processes of communication, interpreting, and facilitation. Vaidya analyzes how special educators make broad discernments about intellectually disabled people by interpreting their unconventional and nonlinguistic communicative cues. In contrast, Friedner examines how speech and language therapists that work with deaf children make narrow discernments regarding what counts as language and perform the labor of training deaf children to communicate in the normatively correct way—that is, using speech. While disability professionals produce specific kinds of personhood for disabled people through their practices of discernment, they also end up discerning themselves in the process as professionals with difficult yet rewarding jobs. We conclude by discussing a program for individuals with intellectual disabilities where both authors conducted ethnographic research wherein disability professionals discerned disabled people as having social needs and desires on par with nondisabled people and created enabling environments, scaffolded activities, and facilitated conversations to produce and enable complex personhood for them.

Challenges of Disabled Women in the Workplace: A Comparative Analysis of Public and Private Spaces in India

Challenges of Disabled Women in the Workplace: A Comparative Analysis of Public and Private Spaces in India

From the Translocal to the Multi‐Sited Transnational: Tracing Rohingya Refugee Networks in India

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the transnational and translocal experiences of the Rohingya in India, a stateless, refugee community forcibly displaced from Myanmar, onward migrants from Bangladesh, who currently occupy a legally precarious space in India. Drawing on approximately 90 interviews conducted with refugees, community leaders and NGOs across three Indian cities, along with informal group discussions and field notes, this paper makes two arguments that shed light on the complex, multi‐factorial ways in which networks are rebuilt in displacement as well as the emerging characteristics of Rohingya onward migration in Asia. First, that early generations of Rohingya in India leveraged translocal network building spaces and encounters to rebuild their networks with others in the community and create translocal networks of care and support with local civil society actors, cementing the notion of a ‘Rohingya refugee community’ in India. Second, that the gradual internationalisation of the Rohingya crisis as well as the transnationalisation of the Rohingya diaspora in the last decade through multiple waves of displacement, onward migration and resettlement schemes has prompted a shift towards multi‐sited transnationalism, particularly reflected in the emergence of multi‐sited transnational families, digital transnational spaces among younger refugees and extended diasporic networks.

Is “Open” ready for investment? A venture capitalist’s dilemma

Learning outcomes Upon completion of the case study, student will be able to discuss valuation of new-age ventures and understand how it is different from the valuation of organisations with a longer history; analyse the considerations (quantitative and qualitative) while evaluating investments in new-age ventures; and develop a framework involving the various dimensions of investment readiness. Case overview/synopsis The fintech space in India has seen an upsurge of activities since 2016. The growth of Paytm, RazorPay and many such ventures and the drastic improvements in this ecosystem have been significant catalysts for this segment of new-age tech companies. Funding and valuations have seen a sharp increase, especially when businesses worldwide felt the after-effects of the pandemic, with India being home to a large number of unicorns, second only to the USA. Open Financial Technologies Ltd (OPEN TECH) is one such venture that claimed its spot as the 100th unicorn of India within a span of five years since inception. With a strong focus on disrupting the banking sector in India, this neo-bank aspires to be the equivalent of Stripe in India and eventually be a strong competitor in the international market. Richard O’Neil is an active investor in the fintech space, based out of the UK, and he is currently looking to expand the market by considering investment options. In the process, Richard and his team have identified India as a viable and competitive market, as new venture support and funding are increasingly emphasized through policies such as Startup India, Make in India and many such more to sustain and propel its benefits. As the team was exploring ventures worth investing, Open Financial Technologies caught their attention. However, Richard, given his experience across fields and being a seasoned private equity investor, realised that valuing new-age companies is as much an art as it is a science. Multiple quantitative and qualitative aspects need to be considered while relevance of traditional valuation techniques to put a value on such entrepreneurial ventures is questioned. At this juncture, he finds it crucial to evaluate the investment readiness of OPEN TECH. This case allows students to understand how valuation of new ventures is different from that of established companies and analyse the crucial factors worth considering while evaluating an investment proposal as a venture capitalist, which eventually helps shape the funding pitch of an entrepreneur in the space. Complexity academic level This case study can be useful for students undertaking graduate- and executive-level courses on business valuation and strategy and entrepreneurship, as well as entrepreneurial finance elective at the undergraduate level. One could use this case in courses on entrepreneurship and innovation, such as an introductory course on entrepreneurial finance and a course on venture capital and private equity. It also allows discussion on fintech and neobanking and the valuation of privately held companies. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS 1: Accounting and finance.

Voice, access, and ownership: enabling environments for nutrition advocacy in India and Nigeria

What constitutes an enabling environment for nutrition advocacy in low- and middle-income countries? While a sizeable body of scholarship considers the enabling environment for nutrition policy, we focus specifically on the necessary conditions for advocacy. We argue that three factors—voice, access, and ownership—provide a useful lens into the advocacy enabling environment. These are operationalized, respectively, as the space to articulate and frame policy positions, entry points to interact with policy decision makers, and the existence of committed decision makers rather than those responding to pressures from external actors. These three factors are explored vis-à-vis a comparative analysis of two federal democracies—India and Nigeria—that each have vibrant advocacy communities confronting persistent malnutrition. Drawing on more than 100 structured interviews with nutrition advocates, government actors, donors, and researchers in the two countries, we highlight the ways in which voice, access, and ownership interactively shape advocacy efforts. In doing so, we find that Nigeria has a less ideological approach to certain nutrition issues than in India but also perceived to be more beholden to external actors in defining its nutrition actions. Recent restrictions on freedom of speech and association shrunk the civic space in India but these were less problematic in Nigeria. In both countries, the multi-tiered, multi-party system offers many different points of access into the policy arena, with sometimes negative implications for coordination. Overall, the paper contributes more broadly to the literature on enabling environments by highlighting potential indicators to guide nutrition advocates in other settings.

A tale of the city of Kolkata through the eyes of the “common women"

This paper focuses on working-class women from the informal settlements of Kolkata, India and their precarious relationships with the city. Their existence at the margins of society (socially, spatially, historically, and sometimes even geographically) tends to make them invisible actors in the production of contemporary urban spaces of Kolkata. This paper examines the role of class, caste, and gender in informing the spatial practices of these minoritized women that occur in the city’s liminal landscapes. These practices are quite distinct from those of women from middle- and upper-classes in Kolkata. Terms like “public women” or “bad women” or chhotolok (a common Bengali term used for people from lower classes or castes) have been used to represent and mark these working-class, lower caste women as deviant bodies in terms of their class, caste, and even sexualities. These labels are important to understand how these women have been represented historically in the urban history of Kolkata. By analyzing secondary literature, archival texts, songs, films, poems, and photographs, the paper investigates the following interrelated questions. First, how has the spatial organization of urban Kolkata historically determined the ways in which these women have navigated, engaged with, and attempted to overcome a wide array of structural and systemic constraints? And second, how have these women produced and applied various forms of situated spatial knowledge in the city’s liminal landscapes? In terms of the paper’s structure, I start by analyzing the existing literature on gender and urban space in India. Thereafter, I lay a theoretical groundwork to elucidate the importance of adopting an intersectional lens to understand overlapping regimes of power that affect the life-worlds of minoritized bodies; in this case, the working-class lower caste women of Kolkata. Finally, I use a chronological approach to examine the changes in Kolkata’s urban fabric and its material culture that have significantly added to the precarities faced by these minoritized and marginalized women. In other words, I trace an alternate urban history of Kolkata through the eyes of these “common women.”

Qoruz: riding the influencer marketing wave

Learning outcomes After working through the case and the assignment questions, students will be able to understand the current practices and importance of influencer marketing strategies within overall marketing strategies; appreciate both the debate and dissonance that surround influencer performance measures; outline the key elements of Qoruz.com’s investments and efforts that brought them success; understand the strategic intent and justify the logic of operationalisation of Qoruz.com by creating two different SBUs after they launched a vastly improved tech platform; and evaluate potential strategies that Qoruz.com could use to move ahead and cement its supremacy in the influencer marketing space. Case overview / synopsis Interest in influencer marketing which found many takers during the pandemic was expected to intensify and form the core of many brand strategies. Coupled with this heightened interest and increased budget overlay, demands from brands and agencies alike for clearer ROI linkages and KPIs that have better correlation with business goals, have gained momentum. Qoruz, an early entrant in the influencer marketing space in India, attributed their success to their focus on product innovation and service quality. From a predominantly narrow service offering providing analytics that facilitated decision-making for influencer marketing campaigns, their recently launched multi-feature platform enabled them to expand their services and consolidate their position. However, today, in an increasing volatile market, drawn by the high growth trajectory of the influencer marketing space, many players had jumped in and tried to introduce technology-based platforms with almost similar features while aggressively playing the price card. With the monetary and economic conditions under pressure and constantly changing demands of clients, Qoruz.com found itself faced with a dilemma to protect their first mover advantage. The co-founders of Qoruz realised that to give confidence to their loyal client base, and really cement their leadership, they would need to urgently take stock and relook at their strategy afresh relying on their deep experience of the industry, loyalty of their customers and their tech-centric DNA to build a holistic and ambitious strategy. Complexity academic level This case is designed for use by graduate and under-graduate level students in marketing management and strategic management courses. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS 11: Strategy.

The techno-politics of human rights: The case of the National Food Security Act in India

To attend to the techno-politics of human rights is to bring into focus how tacit assumptions and norms about human dignity are rendered into technical, or implementable, legal frameworks and governmental interventions. Drawing on legal geography, an analytics of governmentality of human rights, and Nancy Fraser’s “politics of need interpretation,” this article presents an ethnographic examination of how the right to food, and its related normative principles, were translated and ratified, or not, into a food entitlement law, called the National Food Security Act (NFSA). It scrutinizes how the judiciary, para-public, and legislative lawmaking spaces in India have framed the formulation of what the hungry may need and how the state develop legal tools to satisfy (some of) those needs. Human rights policy-making is complex and messy. As this article shows, bringing into focus the technical and procedural process of human rights lawmaking reveals how which interpretation of food security needs were legitimized and which ones were not.

Comparative microstructural and elemental analysis of iron artefacts from Kaveri valley archaeological sites

AbstractIron has been one of the most critical technotraditions that had lasting impact on social formation throughout the Iron Age and historical period. Iron was used in warfare and subsistence economy. Our knowledge on ancient iron smelting and working have generally been derived from ethnography and ethnohistory, which is by all means, time, region, and raw material specific. Scientific analyses of ancient iron have contributed in understanding this heritage to a respectable extent, yet a comprehensive knowledge about the evolution of iron making through time and space in India eludes us. In this work, a comparative study of iron artefacts from two Iron Age/Megalithic‐Early Historic sites of Tamil Nadu, south India, that is, Mangadu (burial site) and Ambal (habitation‐cum‐burial site) is carried out to understand the iron thermal‐processing capabilities. The retrieved artefacts were examined using X‐ray fluorescence (XRF) for elemental composition. The imaging of the artefacts was done using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD), and Optical Microscopy (OM). In addition, phase identification was performed using X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and Energy Dispersive X‐ray Spectroscopy (EDS). Combination of these analyses illustrates that inhabitants of Mangadu and Ambal were aware of the iron alloy manufacturing/processing techniques such as forging and hammering.

Breaking Language Barriers: How Translanguaging is Shaping Language Policy and Transforming the Education Space in India

Breaking Language Barriers: How Translanguaging is Shaping Language Policy and Transforming the Education Space in India

Data Security and Privacy Protection in Web in Indian Environment

This paper deals with the privacy issue in Indian perspective with respect to challenges in three different dimensions like Legal, Technical and Political domain. We have research to deal with these challenges. Advancement in technology such as remote accessibility, Data interchange Mining, Cloud computing etc. brings unforeseen challenges and one of the major challenges is threat to “privacy and protection”. There have been a plethora of developments in the privacy and data protection space in India. Data, off late, has been looked at by many very differently today in terms of value and treatment. There appears to be some rationale in the new saying that data is the new mark material [8].

Food and communities in post-COVID-19 cities: Case of India

While Covid-19 pandemic has affected countries across the world, the burden has been shared disproportionately by urban poor from the cities in Global South. In much of Global South, while cities have emerged as growth centers, they are mostly driven by informalities, belying the image of cities, visualized in the mainstream development economics literature as a place of secured formal jobs that free one from the drudgery of rural life. Covid-19 pandemic has exposed these fault-lines in the cities. India serves as a typical case of such urban-centric growth, with informal workers, predominated by disadvantaged social and religious categories, accounting for 81% of workers in urban space. In cities, migrant in general and seasonal migrants increasingly account for bulk of informal workforce. The lockdown imposed in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic left the community of households reliant on informal works for livelihoods, without any rights and entitlements, which affect their access to food. The review of evidence collected in both primary surveys and macro level data points towards sluggishness in recovery of jobs, which coupled with high food inflation, suggests that access to food continues to be an issue in urban governance. The paper calls for a roadmap entailing both short-term and long-term measures to build sustainable urban livelihoods for ensuring food secure urban space in India.

Analysis of Design Agents for Mediation of Gender Inclusivity in Domestic Space: A Case Study of Chettinad Vernacular Architecture

Architects often emphasize on form and spatial layout in domestic architecture. Yet, functionality of form is evaluated by the experience of its users. This research wishes to address a central problem often ignored in domestic architecture—the connection linking gender, experience, and space. The study aims to analyze design agents that aid in mediating gender inclusivity in domestic space. This research delves into the vernacular architecture of Chettinad, which has been widely deliberated and celebrated for its climate responsiveness, materiality, sustainability, etc. Considering the rationale of cultural transition and SDG5 in promoting gender equality, the study seeks to answer the following research question: What are the agents that could help to mediate gender inclusivity in designing domestic space in India? Using snowball sampling, 25 in-depth interviews with women users and participant observation were carried out in 12 villages of the Chettinad region. Findings identified the social actions as design agents and recognized space as referential to experience. Furthermore, the article argues that this opulent tradition must be preserved, and its meaning must be altered such that the indigenous lessons may be translated to other spaces it inspires, in such a way that it empowers the people living in it. Limited to a conceptual study, this research accommodated a small sample of women respondents. The article presents insights for architects who must consider gender inclusivity as a central factor in their design.

The Necessity ofDalitude: Being Dalit in Urban and Academic Spaces in the Twenty-First Century in India

AbstractThis article examines the existing and emerging morphology of caste-based discrimination in urban and academic spaces in India. Practices of caste-based profiling are similar to racial profiling or policing but are not acknowledged as caste-based discrimination by the public and the law, since they do not match constitutionally recognized practices of discrimination like untouchability. Caste-based profiling is deeply ingrained in how upper-caste people in urban and academic spaces speak, read, and think. Profiling performs the same function as untouchability, since it weeds out the Dalit from public spaces that pretend to be liberal and secular. Profiling is part of a larger process of “casteization,” which ensures the continuation of caste-based discrimination in newer forms to maintain caste hierarchy and upper-caste hegemony. Profiling traps the urban Dalit in a conundrum with respect to self-representation—should they reveal their Dalit identity to build solidarity with the Dalit, Bahujan, and Adivasi community but risk social ostracization and stigmatization, or should they hide their Dalit identity and try to evade caste-based discrimination? This article defines the emphasis of a new political movement inaugurated by Dalit writers called “Dalitude,” which attempts to break out of this conundrum, challenges casteization, and aims to empower a lower-caste majority.

Compendium of Dimensions for Evaluating Publicness of Public Spaces

A classic case of privatization of use and not of ownership, privatized public space is a newly defined dimension that falls in the range far from purely private or purely public. These newly found dimensions need a measuring tool to describe the publicity of that space before designating the usage. This research paper has been extracted from the larger study on privatized public spaces addressing the questions on defining characteristics of good public space, and some measurable parameters to evaluate these public spaces. The paper focuses on creating a compendium of parameters from the already defined literature on public spaces, publicness and publicity, which can be used to explore publicness of such spaces and their associated dynamics. These parameters are sought to thread the dimensions that will further help in determining a measurable set of variables to analyze the public spaces empirically and analytically. A discussion on various models developed by authors till date has been made a part to this paper. The scenarios have transformed in 21^st century with the advent of digital socialization and urbanization of spaces. Urban public spaces in India represent a clear contradiction of consistency and change. The paper concludes with a set of parameters extracted from the study and appropriated for the changing public spaces in India.

Understanding the shared working spaces: a Geography of Co-working supply in Delhi.

The present paper investigates the location pattern of co-working spaces in Delhi which is absent in the existing body of knowledge. Delhi is a political, administrative, educational, scientific and innovation capital that accommodates many co-working spaces in India. We developed Ordinary least squares (OLS) and geographically weighted regression (GWR) models to understand the associations of co-working spaces of digital labourers with other urban socio-economic, services and lifestyle variables in Delhi using secondary data for 117 coworking locations in 280 municipal wards of NCT-Delhi. Model diagnostic suggested that the GWR model provides additional information regarding geographical distribution of coworking spaces, and density of bars, median house rent, fitness centres, metro train stations, restaurants, cinemas, cafés, and creative enterprises are statistically significant parameters to estimate them. The importance of coworking spaces has increased in the post-disaster period, so this study informs public policies to benefit people and companies who choose coworking routes, and recommends urban planners, developers, and real-estate professionals to consider the proximity of creative industries in planning and developing coworking spaces in the future. Also, in the post COVID-19 period, to increase local jobs and long-term place sustainability, a localised policy intervention for coworking spaces in Delhi is highly recommended.

The History of Medical Ethics in India

The History of Medical Ethics in India

Folk Deities as the Alternative Myths in India

My purpose in this work is to interpret a nd critica lly investiga te folklore a nd socia l epistemology, with specific reference to some folk deities a nd pra ctices tha t I refer to a s 'a lterna tive mythologies,' a nd I da re to do so with tena city. In the India n cultura l context, cla ssica l Sa nskritic a nd Bra hma nica l religious a cts ha ve la rgely ta ken centersta ge in the religious pa noptica l system, a t the expense of subverting extremely significa nt a nd relevant loca l a nd verna cula r pra ctices a nd doctrines. The blending of mythology a nd folklore, the blending of loca l deities with the ostensibly"officia l" ones, ca n be seen in pra ctica lly a ll public spa ces in India . To comprehend the excha nges between myth a nd folklore, one must first comprehend India 's geogra phica l a nd cultura l diversity, as well a s the pra ctica l requirement of holy ceremonies. This technique considers the distinct sociologica l, a nthropologica l, a nd psychologica l roles tha t myth a nd folklore pla y in a group. It becomes necessa ry to penetrate society's sympa thetic gra sp of the implica tions of a certa in rite, whether mythologica l or folkloristic. Dussehra provides a n opportunity for a thorough expla na tion a nd sensitiza tion of tha t spiritua l system, a s well a s an a ppropria te exa mple of a cceptance a nd inclusion of diverse religious a ctivities.

Learning on the Go - Journey of a Dance Educator in a K-12 Space in India

ABSTRACT Dancers in India come from a background that focuses on performance and are trained to teach the way they were taught. When such dancers join a K-12 space as dance educators, they need to find new ways of teaching dance and movement. The teaching strategies employed in a dance studio, institute, or under a guru vary immensely from the strategies employed in a school. This article is a beginning into identifying some accessible and culturally relevant teaching practices that may help a dance educator establish connections between students’ personal experiences and their classroom content in K-12 spaces. This is being written at a time when the country is witnessing a paradigm shift in its education system leading to an increase in demand for dance educators in the K-12 spaces because of India’s 2020 “The New Education Policy.” The hope is that this article empowers future dance educators to find and document their experiences.