Can a poorer individual who has a particular talent realistically hope to move up in life because they have this particular talent? This proposition is put to the test by interviewing more than 800 young individuals in rural and urban Bihar and Delhi. Findings show that these individuals have had virtually no opportunity to be tested for any hidden talent, be it a talent for athletics, for singing, chess, art or mathematics. Not one of these young people has ever competed at the national, state, or district level. The poverty of their circumstances is made worse by this poverty of opportunity. Millions lose out on alternative careers. Future champions remain unidentified and unrewarded. Something better is necessary to make equality of opportunity less of a slogan and more of a reality.
Seelampur in north-east Delhi is one of the largest e-waste markets in India. Featured in numerous non-governmental organisation reports and journalistic accounts, mainly to highlight the environmental perils of informal e-waste dismantling, the e-waste market’s spatial history and underlying social relations have never been systematically studied. Combining 10 months of ethnographic fieldwork in 2021–22 with a quantitative primary survey of 115 traders in Seelampur, this paper offers new insights on the caste segmentation of commerce in urban India and, specifically, the role of kin networks and “community capital” in consolidating Seelampur’s status as a key node within India’s e-waste economy.
This paper analyses the ways in which informal mediation channels facilitate service delivery in the Citizen Service Bureaus at the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and give rise to an interplay between formal and informal institutions. In particular, the personal backgrounds of brokers as informal mediators and how they ensure their acceptance amongst service seekers are explored. Further, the motivations of the service seekers to solicit help from these mediators as well as institutional responses from the municipal administration along with other relevant actors like the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi are examined.
The AAP stung by its recent series of electoral losses is politically pulverised and in a state of total denial that it decimated a historical mandate for alternative politics and lost a golden opportunity to position itself as the principal opposition to the BJP. AAP’s confrontational encounters and politics of antithesis have eroded their electoral base.
The Aam Aadmi Mohalla Clinics of the Delhi government have received national and international attention for their unique public health service delivery design. From April 2016 to March 2017 they delivered over 31 lakh free outpatient consultations at an average cost of `94 per consultation. This paper provides first-hand information and insight into how the clinics were operationalised in terms of infrastructure, human resources, laboratory services, medicines, and technology. It analyses their utilisation, financing, strengths and challenges at the operational, administrative and political level, and discusses how, in low-income settings, urban health systems can be strengthened using this model to expand primary healthcare services.
The impact of the national lockdown due to COVID-19 on domestic workers in New Delhi and Gurugram is examined. Through extensive surveys with members of three labour unions, it was found that not only were domestic workers able to find less work, but were also paid lower wages, while unable to access government schemes or financial or in-kind support from their employers. This points to a dire need for policies that protect domestic workers’ interests.
The renewed Public Distribution System (PDS) under the “rights-based” National Food Security Act, 2013 has increased access to foodgrains in Delhi. However, the Aadhaar-enabled PDS has created new barriers and glitches undermining the promise of efficient, error-free, and transparent service-delivery.
The AAP stung by its recent series of electoral losses is politically pulverised and in a state of total denial that it decimated a historical mandate for alternative politics and lost a golden opportunity to position itself as the principal opposition to the BJP. AAP’s confrontational encounters and politics of antithesis have eroded their electoral base.
High levels of air pollution from transport systems in urban India pose a severe threat to public health. While long-term challenges remain to curtail pollution sources, immediate measures must be taken to minimise risks to exposed populations.
By committing itself to improving environmental conditions in the core region of the national capital, the new master plan for Delhi makes no significant departure from its predecessors. But the strategy for a balanced regional development, a relocation of industrial units to the peripheries, which appeared as a window-dressing in the first two master plans, has been entirely given the go-by.
