International Relations and Governance Studies

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For the longest part of the two decades since the end of the Cold War, there were mostly Indian perspectives, rather than debates, on Iran and bilateral relations. Domestic debates on Iran began in 2005 and continued until mid-2008, reaching a crescendo during this period and dissipating soon after. The debates, when they took place, were not about influencing the government's Iran policy. Rather they were the necessary oppositions that emerged from specificities of India's domestic politics in which coalition compulsions, parliamentary democracy and ideological differences played their part. {\textcopyright} 2012 Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.

(SoHSS) School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Strategic Analysis

Necessary oppositions: Domestic debates on Iran

Emphasis on democracy in Indian and international perspectives on India's foreign policy has grown over the past decade. Claiming that India is a 'successful' example of a non-Western liberal democracy, these perspectives prescribe a role for India in international democratisation efforts. The keener among these suggests that India must participate in Western-style, or Western initiatives of, democracy promotion. This article offers a critique of these prescriptions. Recent theorisations of India's democratic practices argue that India is a predominantly non-liberal democracy. Drawing upon these theorisations, this article outlines the non-liberal features inherent in the practices of Indian democracy. It also outlines the democratic processes that restrain India's foreign policy from acquiring an other-regarding orientation. Contesting the characterisations of India as a liberal democracy, this article questions the basis on which the calls for India to participate in liberal democracy promotion projects are made.

Fulltext

South Asian Survey

India's non-liberal democracy and the discourse of democracy promotion

Climate change is a bag of nettles in India’s contentious, iniquitous and unsustainable agriculture sector. Climate change is expected to adversely impact agriculture through increased temperatures, inter-and intra-seasonal changes in precipitation and temperature regimes, and sea level rise. The expected result is an overall decline in food grain production in the country. © 2012 Selection and editorial material, Navroz K. Dubash.

Handbook of Climate Change and India: Development, Politics and Governance

Agriculture in the environment: Are sustainable climate friendly systems possible in India?

This book uses eclectic, triangulated methods to explore the socio-economics of waste and of the commodity chains involved in recycling. Known as 'unorganised' in India, this part of the informal economy is anything but that. In developing theoretical ideas about poverty, agency and choice, the politics of caste and patronage, the institutions and regulation of markets and judicial activism, this book illustrates how grounded field research contributes to practical policies of urban land-use, pollution, and livelihoods. Its study of garbage collectors, scavengers, and the plastic recycling or scrap trading self-employed entrepreneurs reveals a very complex pattern of organisation and linkages with the market economy and productive employment. The book shows that the most imperative requirement for a policy of alleviating poverty and expanding employment is understanding very clearly how the different segments of India's informal economy work, interact with each other, and link up with market forces. © Oxford University Press 2010. All rights reserved.

Of Poverty and Plastic: Scavenging and Scrap Trading Entrepreneurs in India's Urban Informal Economy

Rural India finds mention in every document on poverty, inequality, malnutrition, unemployment and disguised employment, agriculture and artisanal livelihoods and gender relationships. Almost all these refer to limited capacities for economic growth and development. Thereby, technologies and investments in people and infrastructure for these have become the bedrock of rural development efforts in the country. This theme presents an overview of S and T strategies for rural development in India. The focus is on understanding S and T capacities that exist and how knowledge and technologies are accessed and used for rural development. India is rural (2000–01 to 2004–05) • Rural population of 830 million–in 1100 million • Cultivators + main and marginal workers–430 million • Urban literacy rate (81 per cent); rural (61 per cent) • Female literacy 45 per cent in rural areas (70 per cent in urban areas) • Malnourished–49 per cent of children and 39 per cent of women in rural India (36 per cent and 20 per cent in urban areas) • Rural infant mortality rate–61 (37 in urban areas) in 1000 Overall rural development efforts in India focus on: • Provision of basic infrastructure facilities in the rural areas, for example, schools, health facilities, roads, drinking water, electrification etc. • Improving agricultural productivity in the rural areas. • Provision of social services like health and education for socio-economic development. © National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies.

World University root node

India: Science and Technology

Rural development - science and technology (S and T) strategies and capacities

The chapter explores the possibility of establishing a regional human rights regime in South Asia. Commencing with an examination of the literature on regimes from the vantage points of Structural Realists, Neoliberal Institutionalists and Critical Constructivists, Mallavarapu demonstrates that each of these accounts result in distinct pictures and assessments of the guiding motivations of a universal human rights regime. However, more crucially premised on field work in Sri Lanka, Mallavarapu details the texture of human rights discourse in the island state and its ambivalence vis-à-vis the universal human rights framing. From the perspective of critical Sri Lankan commentators, there remains general scepticism about the possibility of a regional human rights regime in South Asia on account of concerns about political timing, reconciliation of diverse cultural repertoires in the region, anxieties about the overall Indian footprint and trepidation about a further watering down of existing international legal obligations as pertains to human rights as an issue-area. © Oxford University Press 2011. All rights reserved.

International Relations Theory and South Asia

The Normative Politics of Regime Formation: Human Rights in the South Asian Context

This article examines how and why India, the world's largest democracy, remains sceptical about the idea of promoting its own political order abroad. It first lays down the historical background of India's long abstinence from promoting democracy and describes the country's more recent shift in foreign policies towards greater (though still cautious and selective) support for international democracy promotion. On a conceptual level and as a thought experiment, the article then compares in what ways three prominent schools of thought in international relations (neo-realism, neo-institutionalist liberalism, and social constructivism) are capable of contributing to an explanation of Indian reticence in democracy promotion. While they emphasize different aspects and dimensions of India's hesitance to engage in democracy promotion, all three contribute analytically to such an explanation. © 2010 Taylor & Francis.

Contemporary Politics

Democracy promotion circa 2010: An Indian perspective

Economic and Political Weekly

Situating ethics in technology and science

Erratum to Democracy promotion circa 2010: An Indian perspective: (Contemporary Politics, (2010), 16, 1, (49-61), 10.1080/13569771003602895)

The 2008 food crisis sets the stage for this paper, which explores the processes involved in the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development. The insights drawn are situated in an historical recognition of the interface between agricultural crises and agricultural knowledge. The paper offers a window on both ongoing debates in agricultural science and the experiences of other recent international assessments of energy, the environment, and climate change. It is concerned with analysing how the iaastd was designed and written, for what it can tell us about the conclusions drawn and controversies raised. The democratic practices underpinning the set of iaastd reports and the integrated approach to agricultural knowledge, science, and technology, commodity production, and environmental and social goals, are central for understanding contemporary debates about agricultural knowledge.