On the Contrary by IDR

Kiran Karnik, former president of NASSCOM, and Osama Manzar, co-founder of Digital Empowerment Foundation, discuss the promises and pitfalls of technology, the gaps in its application in India, and the role the government can play in making access to technology more equitable.

Highlights (for the app only):

• How digital technologies have enabled people, even in the remotest parts of India.
• Why we cannot look at technology in isolation and need to address the systemic flaws creating unequal access.
• Why the government’s primary objective when it comes to using technology must be to create more equity for its citizens.
• Why the purpose of technology must be very clear. Whose interest does it serve? Does it benefit the least empowered people in the world?

Read more:

1. The missing link in technology
2. India urgently needs an EdTech policy
3. How the social sector thinks about tech is wrong
4. Developing our digital commons
5. How to think about funding technology in the social sector
6. Four things to think about with tech for social good
7. Are we ready for EdTech?
8. When internet comes home: E-learning in Indian villages during COVID-19
9. Connecting the disconnected
10. Open-source tech for nonprofits
11. India’s gendered digital divide
12. Non-linkage with Aadhaar has impeded access of the poor to welfare entitlements
13. An offline alternative for Aadhaar-based biometric authentication
14. How COVID-19 deepens the digital education divide in India

This podcast is a Maed in India production, you can find out more about us https://www.maedinindia.in/

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What makes a city liveable? Who should benefit the most from the growth of a city—financial investors or its residents? On this episode, Sheela Patel, director of SPARC, and Ireena Vittal, former partner at McKinsey, answer these questions and more.

Highlights:

• Who are our cities built for? Whose voices do we prioritise in order to plan our cities better?
• Climate change is not a separate space, but a lens that we must adopt while planning resilient cities. 
• We need to ensure continuous dialogue between those governing the cities and everyone living in the cities.
• Citizens must be active participants in the planning and operation of cities.

Read more

1. Want a better quality of life?
2. ‘Project spending’ can only take our cities so far
3. IDR Explains | Local government in India
4. How can we empower city governments?
5. Fighting COVID-19 in cities
6. Six things we learned from Dr Armida Fernandez
7. The gaps and opportunities in low-income housing
8. How can Indian cities shield vulnerable migrants from climate change? With better affordable housing
9. What India can learn about effective rental housing for migrant workers
10. Photo essay: How sanitation workers live and work in urban India
11. It’s time to reimagine water systems in cities
12. Mumbai’s climate adaptation plan: Designing the city for water
13. Make India climate smart: We have big infrastructure plans but forget to review them through a climate change lens
14. Finding the missing pieces of urban planning puzzle in India

This podcast is a Maed in India production, you can find out more about us https://www.maedinindia.in/

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In this episode, we discuss how global climate policy is made, how it negatively impacts communities on the ground, and what needs to change when it comes to policy at a national level. Speakers include Nitin Desai, Indian economist and key draftsman of the landmark Brundtland Commission report, and Ulka Kelkar, Director of the Climate programme at World Resources Institute.

Highlights

• How is climate change affecting marginalised communities on the ground? 
• What the focus of global climate policy has been so far, and what it needs to be going forward.
• How can we balance scientific expertise with local knowledge on climate change?
• Why we need to adopt a climate lens at an individual, organisational, and societal level.

Know more 

1. IPCC climate change report: What does it mean for India?
2. Essential climate change terms, explained
3. What will it take to prioritise climate change?
4. What is COP26 in Glasgow and why does the climate change summit matter?
5. The Health Argument for Climate Action: COP26 Special Report on Climate Change and Health
6. How to make climate action popular
7. Climate change, disasters, and what philanthropy can do
8. IDR Interviews | Dr Vandana Shiva
9. Humanity’s greatest ally against climate change is Earth itself
10. P Sainath: The water crisis is not caused by drought
11. Can solar power initiatives provide sustainable self-employment?
12. COVID-19 has exacerbated climate concerns
13. Ecology is economy
14. Economic growth vs climate security: We can have it all
15. The environmental movement has made a few mistakes

This podcast is a Maed in India production, you can find out more about us https://www.maedinindia.in/

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Microbiologist and virologist, Dr Gagandeep Kang speaks with Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, the founder-chairperson of one of India’s largest pharmaceutical companies, about India’s flawed vaccine roll-out, and the trade-offs between patents and pricing. 

Highlights

• India’s vaccine roll-out programme: How does one decide who gets priority and who does not?
• What does the Indian government need to do to ensure vaccines are affordable and available for everyone?
• What role should the private sector play in India’s vaccine roll-out programme?
• Should COVID-19 vaccines be protected by patents? 

For more information about IDR, go to www.idronline.com. Also, follow IDR on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram.

Read more

1. India’s COVID-19 vaccine drive is excluding millions of citizens
2. India’s COVID-19 response limited by strong urban and tech bias
3. Fighting the pandemic: Two contrasting approaches[T1]
4. How rebuilding trust in the public healthcare system can help combat vaccine hesitancy in rural communities
5. A ‘corona demon’ raises awareness about COVID-19 in rural Andhra Pradesh
6. A pathway to universal healthcare in India
7. Engaging communities is critical to the COVID-19 response
8. Is the COVID-19 vaccine in India a public or a private good?
9. Upholding trust in vaccination
10. Covid-19 Pandemic: Shortages, Hesitancy and Pricing Plague India’s Covid-19 Vaccination Programme
11. All work, no vaccines: Security guards and COVID-19
12. Learn more about the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations or Cepi
13. ‘None are safe until all are safe’: COVID-19 vaccine rollout in low- and middle-income countries
14. Covid: The vaccine patent row explained

This podcast is a Maed in India production, you can find out more about us https://www.maedinindia.in/

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Politician and educator, Atishi Marlena, and founder of some of India’s leading educational institutions, Pramath Raj Sinha talk about the purpose of education in a rapidly changing world. Can government schools provide a ‘good’ education to our children? Is the private sector the answer to a failing system? What are our children and youth really learning in their schools and colleges? All this and more in this episode on the education system in India.

Highlights

• Has the education system veered towards producing workers for the economy, and away from producing better citizens for society?
• How do you learn something new, when you haven’t been trained for it?
• What will it take to make government schools work, and how should we be thinking of private institutions?
• Is it possible to create reflective spaces where students can learn values and ethics?
• Can excellence in education be measured?

For more information about IDR, go to www.idronline.org. Also, follow IDR on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram

Read more:

1. What the National Education Policy 2020 has gotten right and what it hasn’t
2. Why Indian children can’t read
3. Incorporating play to improve cognitive learning
4. Standardised tests ignore indigenous knowledge, language, or problem-solving strategies
5. Our solutions for education aren’t working
6. Seek and you shall find

Production by Maed in India, to find out more visit www.maedinindia.in

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Nachiket Mor, expert in health systems design, and Dr Abhay Bang, public health expert with deep experience working at the grassroots, debate the approach India must take when fighting the second wave of COVID-19. Mor is in favour of a more centralised approach, grounded in science and trust. On the contrary, Bang believes local communities know best when it comes to their problems.

Highlights – 

• The current catastrophe we are facing in India points to the need for a stronger governance model, and a health system that inspires trust, and better serves the people. 
• Comprehensive, high quality primary care informed by expertise has to be the bedrock of any health system.
• We need both science, as well as the knowledge, experience, and buy-in of local communities at the grassroots, to fight a pandemic like this one. 
• Communities need to be at the centre of this fight, with the government, the private sector, and civil society, doing more. 

For more information about IDR, go to www.idronline.org. Also, follow IDR on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram.

Read more: 

• How you can support nonprofits in their COVID-19 relief efforts in 2021
• How is rural Bihar dealing with the second wave of COVID-19?
• A pandemic, an infodemic, and the fear of vaccination
• Mental health and COVID-19 in India
• Making virtual volunteering work
• Research, for whom?
• A day in the life of a hospital ward worker, who cares for COVID-19 patients at a government hospital
• A day in the life of a sero survey field manager, who works in the slums of Mumbai. 
• The Wisdom of the Crowds
• You cannot bypass the power of communities
• Photo essay: The everyday lives of migrants

This is a Maed in India production. To find out more visit www.maedinindia.in.

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Given the dire crisis that our country is facing because of the second wave of Covid-19, On the Contrary is taking a break this week.

If you would like to support the fight against COVID-19, check out this page ( https://idronline.org/covid-19-in-2021-latest-updates-for-the-social-sector/ ) on IDR that is a repository of information, insights, and asks from social sector organisations/collectives at the frontlines.

For more information about IDR, go to www.idronline.org. Also, follow IDR on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram.

Production by Maed in India find out more at www.maedinindia.in.

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In the race for economic growth, who wins and who loses? In this episode, Bittu Sahgal, environmental activist and writer, and TV Narendran, CEO and Managing Director of Tata Steel, discuss the conflict between the economy, industry and environment.

Highlights – 

• The need to move beyond GDP and economic growth to include environmental indicators when assessing a country’s performance.
• What has been and needs to be done to ensure that industry, government, and society engage in more conversations about sustainable long-term economic growth. 
• How the needs of industry, government, and community can be better balanced when it comes to policy-making. 
• How to persuade businesses and governments to think and act long-term when it comes to growth strategy as well as the environment. 

For more information about IDR, go to www.idronline.org. Also, follow IDR on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram.

Read more: 

1. Sustainable Economic Development Assessment (SEDA)
2. The Vision of a Well-Being Economy
3. Ecology is Economy
4. Economic growth vs climate security: We can have it all 
5. The need to invest in climate change education
6. India ranks 168th on Environmental Protection Index 
7. India ranks 120th of 122 countries in a global water quality index
8. CSR and sustainable development: Do Indian companies care about the environment? 
9. The environmental movement has made a few mistakes
10. IDR Interviews | Dr. Vandana Shiva
11. Climate finance for MSMEs
12. Climate change cost India over 2000 lives and $37 billion in just a year

Production by Maed in India find out more at www.maedinindia.in.

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In this episode, business leader and ex-President of the Confederation of Indian Industry, Naushad Forbes, speaks with former journalist and philanthropist Rohini Nilekani, about what a good market looks like. They discuss what markets must include, whom they should serve, and the role they must play in enabling inclusive economic growth.

Highlights – 

- There’s a need to create a better balance between the public (government), private, and civil society sectors, such that the benefits of the market are evenly distributed across all. 

- What is the role that markets can play in creating a more inclusive pattern of growth, one with less environmental degradation, and more equity, more justice?

- What needs to change about the processes currently in place for economic reforms, to ensure sustainable and inclusive growth?

- We need to create democratic and safe platforms to listen to and talk with all citizens, not just experts and people at the top, in order to ensure a more equitable economy.

For more information about IDR, go to www.idronline.org. Also, follow IDR on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram.

Read more:

1. Transforming systems: Why the world needs a new ethical toolkit
2. Redesigning the aeroplane while flying: Reforming institutions
3. Addressing inequality in India 
4. Wealth of India’s richest 1% more than 4-times of total for 70% poorest: Oxfam
5. India must come to terms with inequality: Thomas Piketty
6. IDR Interviews | Muhammad Yunus
7. Amitabh Behar on the changing nature of civil society
8. Why we must listen to farmers
9. Creating resilience to the dream
10. Bringing informal workers to the forefront of our economy
11. How do you solve a problem like livelihoods? 
12. The Tyranny of Merit: What’s become of the Common Good
13. We need new practices and ideas
14. A new paradigm for rural livelihoods

This is a Maed in India production, to find out more visit www.maedinindia.in.

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Yashica Dutt, journalist and author of Coming out as Dalit, and Ashif Shaikh, Dalit activist and leader of Jan Sahas, have a conversation about caste-based violence and oppression, manual scavenging, dignity, the Black Lives Matter movement, and, what it means to be an ally in the fight against caste hierarchy.

Highlights –

• The vulnerabilities faced by Dalit women, and their needs.
• How to fight caste-based discrimination in society.
• What needs to change within society, within the government, and within policy.
• How to be an ally in the movement for equality.

For more information about IDR, go to www.idronline.org. Also, follow IDR on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and Instagram.

Read more

1. Growing up a Dalit child in small-town India
2. Coming out as Dalit: A memoir
3. IDR Interviews: Bezwada Wilson
4. Want social change? Give communities more agency
5. Meet the man who has gifted new life to over 31,000 manual scavengers
6. Manual scavengers: the hands that clean you
7. The 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case
8. The 2020 Hathras gang rape and murder case
9. Dalitality: Inherent untouchability in planning for SC/STs

This is a Maed in India production. To find out more about us visit www.maedinindia.in

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