Articles
Gendered Human Capital Misallocation in India: Education, Labour Market Barriers, and Policy Failure
Authors: Simran Sinha; Beaulah Anton; Priyansi; Rezaa Sharma
Abstract:
India has made significant progress in expanding female education, yet women’s labour market outcomes remain disproportionately poor. This study reframes this paradox as an issue of gendered human capital misallocation, rather than a deficit in skill formation. It examines how the gendered labour market constraints impede the educated women from productive employment, leading to underutilisation of skills and decreased economic efficiency.
Utilising a qualitative-descriptive approach and secondary data from multiple databases, this paper examines unemployment, occupational segregation, unpaid care work, and wage disparities between educated women and their male counterparts. The findings show a persistent education-employment paradox: increased female education correlates with high unemployment, informalisation, and labour force withdrawal. These patterns are driven by demand-side discrimination, inflexible work arrangements, safety and challenges in mobility, and unequal distribution of care responsibilities. The analysis argues that government policies have largely prioritised educational expansion without addressing labour market absorption, therefore sustaining gendered inefficiencies. Addressing this inefficient allocation is what makes it important for optimal human capital utilisation and for inclusive economic growth.
Keywords:
Human Capital, Female labour, Labour market segmentation, Gender wage gap, public policy, employment, Human capital misallocation
Impact of the Smart Cities Mission on Household Cost of Living, Access to Urban Services, and Economic Well-Being: A Field Study of Selected Indian Cities
Authors : Anjana Tripathi ; Divya Natarajan ; Gautam Kumar Mishra ; Soumili Rakshit
Abstract
India’s Smart Cities Mission (SCM), launched in 2015, aims to improve urban livability through targeted investments in infrastructure, service delivery, and digital governance. However, empirical evidence on the household-level economic implications of these interventions remains limited. This study examines the impact of the Smart Cities Mission on household cost of living, access to urban services, and economic well-being in selected Indian cities using a comprehensive secondary data approach.
The analysis integrates unit-level data from the National Sample Survey (NSS) Consumer Expenditure and Housing Conditions rounds to assess changes in household consumption patterns, housing affordability, and expenditure on utilities and transportation. Employment outcomes and income-related proxies are examined using the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), while demographic characteristics, housing quality, and access to basic amenities are drawn from the Census of India. City-level information on project type, investment size, and sectoral focus is sourced from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) Smart Cities Mission dashboards and official reports. A comparative framework is employed to analyze trends across Smart Cities and non-Smart Cities, as well as pre- and post-SCM implementation periods.
By triangulating multiple nationally representative datasets with administrative project data, the study evaluates whether Smart City investments have translated into measurable improvements in household welfare or have contributed to rising costs and uneven access to services. The findings aim to provide evidence-based insights for strengthening the inclusiveness, affordability, and effectiveness of urban development policies under the Smart Cities Mission.
Keywords :
Smart Cities Mission; Secondary Data Analysis; National Sample Survey; Periodic Labour Force Survey; Census of India; Urban Services Access; Household Cost of Living; Economic Well- Being; Urban Policy; Indian Cities
Gender Neutrality In Law , State & Society
Abstract
An interdisciplinary approach is attempted in this paper to analyse the interplay between gender neutrality and
access to justice. While gender neutrality is often said to be a very progressive idea in law, a host of new problems
are generated when it is applied in a postcolonial society like India. The paper draws from the disciplines such
as law, political science, international relations, history, and statistics to criticize the assumption that neutrality
would bring forth justice all by itself.
Legal analyses show that gender-neutral laws may in fact sometimes uphold patriarchal structures when no steps
are taken to address the underlying inequalities. The political approach ponders over the questions of how
governance, policy language, and representation impact the availability of justice for gender-diverse individuals.
From a data standpoint, it illustrates how binary data catapult non-binary identities into the margins. From a
historical and international perspective, the modern laws are seated within colonial legacies and critique the
global human rights discourse for its limited inclusiveness.
We argue that gender neutrality, though important, remains alone insufficient. A meaningful framework of access
to justice must be context-sensitive, historically aware, and structurally inclusive of all gender identities.
Keywords: Gender Neutrality, Access to Justice, Constitutional Law, Gender-Based Violence, Public Policy,
Legal Reform, Colonial Legacy, International Norms, Gender Data, Inclusive Governance
Diaspora Kitchens and Diplomacy: Indian Restaurants as Informal Soft Power Sites Abroad
Authors: Prapti Das; Diya Jain; Aditi Shree
ABSTRACT
Indian diaspora restaurants increasingly serve as unrecognised informal venues of cultural diplomacy, mediating the world’s perceptions of India at the level of daily culinary practice. The existing literature has viewed these sites mostly through perspectives on soft power, identity formation, and cultural representation in terms of the symbolic and affective impacts they exert within host societies. Drawing from international relations, food studies, and diaspora scholarship, this paper places overseas Indian restaurants as decentralised informal soft power actors outside of any framework controlled by the state. While their cultural and representative roles have been copiously documented otherwise; it is rather inadequately theorised and even more poorly empirically demonstrated how economic dimensions underlie their diplomatic salience. This paper highlights the fact that there has been no systematic analysis of the economic impact of diaspora restaurants. It puts forth the argument that while discussing culinary soft power and attempting to foreground, or bring into consideration, the material conditions that sustain it, one must regard economic viability not as incidental but rather as integral to the endurance and reach of informal diplomacy. This paper is another addition to the debate around soft power in its call for bringing cultural influence back into an integrated political economy approach with economic structures as a way of providing a fuller account of how diaspora kitchens participate in global diplomatic processes.
KEYWORDS
Gastrodiplomacy, Indian Diaspora, Soft Power, Informal Diplomacy, Culinary Political Economy, Diaspora Restaurants, Cultural Diplomacy, Everyday Diplomacy
BRICS Plus and Contested Multilateralism: Policy Coordination, Internal Tensions, and the Role of Emerging Middle Powers in Global Governance Reform
Authors: Kamatchi Devi S; Revanth Udutha; Vanshita Baid
Abstract
Academic research has increased its focus on BRICS Plus expansion which occurred during the early 2020s because researchers want to determine whether this alliance serves as a counterforce against the Western-dominated liberal international order or operates mainly as a national interest-driven platform. The research investigates how BRICS Plus members coordinate their policies while assessing their global governance reform efforts and studying how the group handles internal conflicts which arise from the ongoing competition between India and China. The study uses qualitative research methods to analyze secondary data from BRICS summit declarations and institutional documents and existing academic literature. BRICS Plus shows increasing rhetorical unity and institutional governance reform collaboration but actual governance reform partnerships remain limited because of power imbalances and different national objectives and clashing leadership goals. Indian, Brazilian, and South African emerging middle powers use BRICS to improve their strategic independence and international recognition instead of establishing a unified movement against existing power structures. The research demonstrates that BRICS Plus functions as a contested multilateral system which permits international governance changes to proceed through minor
adjustments that avoid major transformations of the current global system.
Key words :
BRICS Plus Expansion, Contested Multilateralism, Global
Governance Reform, Emerging Middle Powers, Policy Coordination and Power
Asymmetries