Politicking Infrastructure Development in Northeast India Published: 4 February 2022 Article It is in the development paradigm that the Northeast has witnessed various policies that include infrastructure development. However, infrastructure development in Northeast India entails injustice to both people and the environment. The author argues for locating infrastructure development from the sustainable development as well as justice framework. He stresses on serious engagement in infrastructural research in Northeast India to seek an alternative. By Raile Rocky Ziipao
Setting agenda for G20 Presidency 2023 Published: 31 May 2021 Article Hosting G20 Presidency in 2023 is a fitting aspiration and a welcome challenge for India. A major economy and a developing country with a mature democracy, heading into its 76th year of its independence, India has the unique opportunity to set ‘Agenda 2023’ with a focus on equitable green and resilient recovery. The groundwork must begin now, to embrace the troika, and soon after the presidency. India can showcase the standards, practices and policies being developed to align with 1.5-degree target, adaptation readiness for building resilience of its most vulnerable while strongly highlighting the need for industrialised countries of the bloc to do much more. The government will have to begin working together with civil society organisations, think tanks, businesses, youth and women to deliver on Agenda 2023 and the agenda of G20 that responds to the COVID-19 pandemic, climate and inclusive sustainable development. By Dr Ajita Tiwari Padhi
Quality Infrastructure and civil society Published: 19 March 2020 The article analyses Quality Infrastructure as a catalyst to achieve sustainable development considering the underlined emphasis it has received from G20. Quality Infrastructure conceptualises economic efficiency, safety, resilience against natural disaster, job creation, addressing social-environmental impacts and aligning with economic and development strategies. It will become an instrumental policy agenda because the Modi government’s attention is geared towards elevating India’s infrastructure status. With infrastructure carrying heavy weightage in the development basket, there is a need to make civil society an effective participant in its decision-making that ensures investments result in social good and all-round prosperity. By Arjun Phillips
Mega industrial-infrastructure projects and their impact on people Published: 19 March 2020 The article takes a look at the several ongoing projects as part of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC). It provides an overview of the projects implemented under it, assessment of the current status of projects and their financing aspects. It gives details of infrastructure projects being implemented across the six states, which form part of the influence area of the DMIC project. The article would also provide details of the financial institutions and agencies involved in executing projects within DMIC. Besides, it discusses the social, environmental and financial implications of the projects including land acquisition, industrial development and the role of the private sector. By Gaurav Dwivedi
‘Pickled’ infrastructure and connectivity: Locating community engagement in Northeast India’s infrastructural transformation Published: 7 June 2019 ‘Pickled’ infrastructure/ connectivity/ roads is a metaphor that this article employs to understand the dynamics of connectivity and infrastructure development in Northeast India, in context of how local communities are able to use, absorb and participate in the decision making processes of such transformational physical change in the region. The hard external borders in Northeast India ensure that the existing roads built remain trapped within the nation-state container, without any meaningful opening up. The local communities remain trapped between the interplay of the past developmental lag of the region and the current development impetus led by the central government. The manner and method of connectivity and infrastructure development in the region brings additional layers of exclusion and conflict, reinforcing past sites, and connects new sites of accumulation politics and resource extraction within the nation-state container. By Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman
