Browsing by Subject "India"

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The Breath Within the Breath: Contemporary Performance Art Practices in India
(2015-05) Heer, Melissa
This dissertation examines contemporary performance art practices in India, with a particular focus on the work of three artists with diverse approaches to this ever-evolving art form: Ratnabali Kant, Samudra Kajal Saikia and Nikhil Chopra. The performances that serve as the focus of my analysis took place during the period of 1985 to 2012. In my examination of specific performances, I weave together strands of performance studies, histories of performance art and theater, and a theoretical analysis of “the performative” nature of society at large. The works I examine question the ways in which historical memory is itself performed through national spectacle, the reiteration of social norms, and the production of subject formations.
Circuits of capital: India’s electronic waste in the informal global economy
(2018-08) Corwin, Julia
Electronics are rife with significance to the complex workings of the global economy: commodity circuits to produce devices like personal computers and smartphones include materials mined and manufactured from across the globe, and the recycling and disposal of these commodities has attracted significant attention due to globe-trotting electronic wastes (e-waste) as well. This dissertation begins and ends with contemplating Delhi’s diverse e-waste industries as part of the global economy, with ramifications for both the Delhi-based workers themselves and the circuits of capital in which they operate. Against the common discourse on informal electronic waste recycling labor in India as crude, polluting and hazardous work, my research argues that this local industry is rooted in the creative reinvention of electronics and their reentry into commodity circuits, rather than their disposal. I demonstrate how Delhi’s organized and uniquely efficient informal secondary use electronics industries provide environmental services for the city as well as the immaterially and materially interconnected world. This inventive repair work exists in what is otherwise conceived of as a world in the digital ‘cloud,’ the ephemeral and immaterial world of the human mind and the computer processor. Revaluing supposedly local, used and non-corporate secondary use electronics labor reveals the politics behind electronic waste management, in which access to e-waste as a valuable ‘urban’ mine is fought over through environmental governance and corporate campaigns. By understanding supposedly local electronics repair work as inseparable from global economic processes, these electronic circuits of capital reveal the global economy to be densely connected and fundamentally informal, based in a variety of illegal, legal-adjacent, unauthorized and unregulated business practices that form the backbone of India’s electronics industry. Rather than the informal sector and informal labor representing the forgotten underbelly of global consumption, I argue that not only is global trade and corporate capital dependent on informality but it is intimately entrenched in this informality as a basis for ensuring smooth capital flows. The circuits of capital are connected through the processes of moving materials both across categories (of waste/value, informal/formal, non-corporate/corporate, non-capital/capital) and across places in the world. All this positions the informal work of waste not as peripheral or ancillary to global capitalism but right in the middle of it all, enabling its flows of supply and demand through the wastage of materials along with their informal trade networks. In this way, the work of waste is not just a facilitator of global electronics production, consumption and trade but illustrative of the norms and functions of global capitalism as rooted in waste production, subterranean pathways and salvage accumulation.
Climate Change Adaptation policies in Himalayan Region of Nepal. Comparative analysis of INDCs between Nepal, India, and Peru
(2017) Gurung, Tashi, Wongdi
The Himalayas are also known as the third pole as they comprise the third largest amount of snow on the earth after the Arctic and Antarctica. They are also known as The Water Towers of Asia. With global climate change, the temperatures on the Tibetan Plateau in the Himalayas are rising substantially compared to other regions. The Himalayan people are far from being the top contributors to this climate change, yet they suffer its hardest consequences. Studies show that communities struggle to adapt to the changing environment because of limited information, poor or no access to services, lack of infrastructure, lack of capacity on the part of the central government, an unfavorable geographical location, lack of external support etc. Hence, rural mountain communities in developing nations such as Mustang in Nepal have very low adaptive capacity. In addition to the many existing problems like poverty, the changing climate has exacerbated the numerous difficulties of day-to-day life of people in the mountains. This is just as much an environmental problem as it is a policy and social justice problem. Mustang, a mountainous district in northern Nepal, is not immune to the impact of climate change. This paper focuses on how different adaptation policies and strategies can help the Himalayan region of Nepal adapt better to the constantly changing environment and assuage the impacts exacerbated by climate change. The challenges in Nepal are not unique: other mountainous regions in developing countries have begun to develop strategies to adapt to a changing climate. India and Peru provide two useful comparative cases. Recommendations and reforms for Nepal are discussed after comparative analysis of INDCs (Intended Nationally Determined Contributions) prepared by Peru and India.
Data for Decades of tree planting in Northern India had little effect on forest canopy cover and rural livelihoods
(2021-06-24) Coleman, Eric; Schultz, Bill; Ramprasad, Vijay; Fischer, Harry; Rana, Pushpendra; Filippi, Anthony; Güneralp, Burak; Ma, Angdong; Rodriguez Solorzano, Claudia; Guleria, Vijay; Rana, Rajesh; Fleischman, Forrest; ffleisch@umn.edu; Fleischman, Forrest
This contains data from three sources: 1. Remote sensing-based analysis of land cover and land use change in the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh, India, with a focus on government run tree plantations we mapped in the region that had occurred between 1980 and 2018, were located in 60 randomly sampled panchayats (local governments), and were at least 5 HA in size. We also have supplemental information on these plantations provided by the local informants who helped map them (e.g. such as the date of establishment and the involvement of local communities in planting them) 2. A survey of Panchayat characteristics across 60 randomly sampled panchayats in Kangra District 3. A random sample survey of 40 households in each of the 60 panchayats, focusing on household livelihood needs and their relationship to forests and tree plantations in terms of both livelihood related uses (e.g. fuelwood, fodder, and grazing) and forest governance. Viewing these data sources together enable us to understand the relationships between land use change as driven by government plantations, local governance, and livelihoods.
Data for: Tree-planting programs in Himachal Pradesh India 2019
(2020-03-26) Rana, Pushpendra; Fleischman, Forrest; Ramprasad, Vijay; Lee, Kangjae; pranaifs27@gmail.com; Rana, Pushpendra
This dataset provides information on the tree plantation programs of the government of the state of Himachal Pradesh, India. Data were released publicly by the government in response to questions posed by Members of the State Legislative Assembly in 2019. We combined this data with other publicly available datasets to provide a more complete picture of plantation programs for the purpose of evaluating their effectiveness.
Exploring Evaluation Capacity Building in Community-Based Health Organizations in India: What Works and Why
(2021-06) Dighe, Satlaj
This research explored evaluation capacity building (ECB) needs and strategies, as well as facilitators and barriers experienced by program staff and independent evaluators working with community-based health organizations (CBHOs) in India. It suggests a significant shift from donor-led to CBHO-led evaluation practice in the community health sector of India. CBHOs, however, have limited access to evaluation training, resources, and macro-level evaluation infrastructure. The overall purpose of the study was to understand how CBHOs in India build their capacity to conduct evaluations and use evaluation results in guiding program planning and improvement. This was explored with the following questions: 1) what are the internal and external contexts driving the need to engage in ECB? 2) what strategies and approaches are viewed by the organizations as most important in bringing about evaluation capacity in Indian CBHOs? and 3) what, according to the leadership of these organizations, enables or obstructs the process of ECB? To answer these questions, the study conducted semi-structured, in-depth interviews with twenty-three (23) CBHO employees and seven (7) independent evaluators. The interview data were analyzed using constant comparative analysis, which aided in identifying themes across the data. The results of the analysis demonstrate that CBHOs build their evaluation capacity by embedding ECB in program structures, facilitating on-the-job training, and building a support network of evaluation experts to guide their ECB efforts. The study also observed that organizations committed to developing evaluation capacity are intentional about organizational learning and seek to establish peer learning structures and create learning opportunities for their employees. In addition, senior leadership in such organizations demonstrates support of evaluation by facilitating on-the-job capacity building, securing adequate funds for evaluation, and creating a democratic work culture that encourages critical thinking. On the other hand, short project timelines, shifting donor priorities, limited government interest in following evidence-informed policy, and resource constraints hinder the use of evaluation and negatively affect organizations’ interest in ECB. The senior-level program staff indicated a need to build critical thinking capacities at CBHOs to enhance ECB processes. Entry-level staff expressed their interest in learning evaluation skills and methods to implement internal evaluations. The experiences of grassroots health workers suggest limited access to evaluation training, resources, and support structures. The availability of evaluation training seminars, resource persons, and other support material is limited at regional locations and in regional languages, highlighting an urgent need for decentralized and culturally responsive ECB interventions. This research adds to the literature by identifying needs, strategies, and both facilitating and impeding factors for developing evaluation capacity at CBHOs. CBHOs can use this information to design and implement ECB interventions. The study can be helpful for government, institutes of higher education, and international donor and development organizations as they create ECB resources and provide effective support to grassroots ECB initiatives.
Fate and collecting embroidery in India
(Journal of Opinions, Ideas & Essays (JOIE), 2013-11) Johnson, Donald Clay
An overview of the challenges and experiences the author had in 2005 while collecting embroidered textiles in India. This includes identification of some of the distinctive techniques used in India to enhance artistic expression on surface design fabrics.
A Foreign Field No Longer: India, the IPL, and the Global Business of Cricket
(Journal of Asian & African Studies, 2013) Agur, Colin
In the past decade India has become the financing hub for cricket, a broadcaster in its own right, and an agenda-setter in the management of all forms of the game. What some commentators have called the ‘Indianization’ of cricket extends beyond business: it is a social, political, and cultural phenomenon. For five seasons, the Indian Premier League (IPL) has offered a glimpse of this phenomenon, prompting enthusiasm from young fans and those who stand to profit from the new league, and resistance from traditionalists. This paper discusses the material and symbolic roles the IPL has come to play in global cricket. It begins with an overview of the IPL’s history, discusses how the IPL is changing the global business of cricket, and explores how the IPL is challenging the traditional culture of the sport. The paper concludes with arguments about the IPL as a grand spectacle, and a cultural phenomenon that, despite its problems, might prove its critics wrong. Throughout, the paper treats the IPL as a useful case study not only in the business of sports, but also more widely in our theoretical and empirical studies of globalization.
Globalizing through the vernacular: gender/sexual transnationalism and the making of sexual minorities in Eastern India
(2013-05) Dutta, Aniruddha
The dissertation explores how the globalizing expansion of LGBT and HIV-AIDS activism into global south locations such as India relies on transregional and translocal communities of gender/sexually variant persons, and yet subordinates them and associated discourses of gender/sexual difference within the tiered hierarchies of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender; particularly GTB) organizations and transnationally-funded HIV-AIDS intervention projects. Engaging with conversations and debates across transnational sexuality studies, transnational feminism, Marxist theories of capital, and literary approaches to cross-cultural translation, I argue that the globalizing expansion of gender/sexual identity and rights based politics in India takes place through mutually transformative, yet structurally constrained, intersections and translations between institutions such as funders, non-governmental organizations and the state on one hand, and networks, communities and subcultures of socio-economically marginalized gender/sexually variant persons (such as kothis, dhuranis and hijras) on the other. Such transformative interactions both create new political possibilities, and reproduce hierarchies related to location, class, caste, gender/sexual marginality and social respectability. Even as translations with subcultural languages of gender/sexual variance enable the transnational expansion and hegemony of institutional categories of identity and representation, lower class/caste communities and discourses become positioned as `local' or `vernacular' relative to national and transnational formations of activism and discourse. On one hand, the reification of communities as `sexual minorities' and as local variants of transnational categories like transgender or `men who have sex with men' results in identitarian distinctions such as the homosexual/transgender divide that selectively enable certain political possibilities, but constrain many contextually flexible lived practices and fluid subject positions that become unintelligible in terms of emerging cartographies of identity. On the other hand, liberal discourses that valorize individual choice and gender/sexual fluidity may also elide mobile negotiations with privilege and power (such as locally variable distinctions between feminine insiders and masculine outsiders) in kothi, dhurani and hijra communities. Further, dominant forms of activism based on discourses of equal rights and the private/public divide often cast lower class/caste persons and related practices as uncivil and/or criminal. Drawing upon five years of ethnographic research in eastern India, the dissertation critiques how hegemonic forms of identity and rights based politics produces lower class/caste groups as a victimized minorities and exploitable labor pools, rather than as active and full participants in the transnational movement for LGBT rights.
A grounded theory study of effective global leadership development strategies: perspectives from Brazil, India, and Nigeria.
(2009-06) Lokkesmoe, Karen Jane
This qualitative, grounded theory study focuses on global leadership and global leadership development strategies from the perspective of people from three developing countries, Brazil, India, and Nigeria. The study explores conceptualizations of global leadership, the skills required to lead effectively in global contexts, and recommended strategies for developing capacity as a global leader from a developing country perspective, leading to an integrated global leadership development model. The question this study explores is, "What are effective global leadership development strategies for people from developing countries working in public and nonprofit sectors?" The literature review encompasses readings on leadership, intercultural training, leadership development, and global leadership. The review of leadership includes a brief history of the development of the field of leadership as a foundational base from which to understand global leadership. The reviews of intercultural training and leadership development literatures serve to frame the methods being utilized in education and training to develop leadership and intercultural capacity in current and future leaders. Finally, the review of global leadership literature surveys the state of the art in the field. Concerns regarding the transferability of western-based leadership theories and processes to contexts significantly different from the global corporate contexts for which the theories were developed were confirmed through the review of literatures. Little has been published on global leadership or indeed on leadership at all from a developing country perspective and far less about development strategies for non-corporate, non-western contexts. Data collection consisted of baseline surveys with 32 participants and follow up interviews with 14 primary research participants. Individual interviews were conducted with former Humphrey Fellows from Brazil, India, and Nigeria, representing public and nonprofit, government, and private business in their respective countries. Data analysis followed a grounded theory, constant comparative method that allows themes to emerge directly from the data through text analysis. Findings were compared across the three countries, as well as across four additional biographical factors (sector, experience, gender, and age), although country and sector analyses were most central to the study and therefore considered more fully. Results show that while there are theories and practices in global leadership development that are common across country and sector boundaries, there are also some divergent conceptualizations of global leadership and global leadership contexts in developing countries that have implications for development strategies. Recommendations from the study participants demonstrated the centrality of intercultural competence as the mechanism to translate effective local action to effective global action. Specific strategies focused on ways to gain intercultural experience, to gain global knowledge, and to address contextual factors through policy advocacy. In a synthesis of existing knowledge and new learning from the study a set of recommendations and strategies as well as a new integrated model of global leadership development emerged that incorporate perspectives from multiple sectors, multiple disciplines, and multiple cultures.
Hope amidst hopelessness: life histories of illiterate Oraon women In Jharkhand, India.
(2012-03) Minz, Nijhar Jharia
Hope Amidst Hopelessness: Life Histories of Illiterate Oraon Tribal Women in Jharkhand, India. This interpretive study asked the question: “What education and literacy insights can be gained from the studies of the life stories of illiterate Oraon women in Jharkhand, India?” Life history methodology was used to gain insights into the lived experiences of illiterate women. I hoped to provide meaning and give voice to the voiceless. Observations, in-depth and open-ended interviews were used for data collection. The six Oraon tribal women shared their life experiences in Sadri language with the researcher who was from the same group. Six themes were identified: First, our lives are heavy and painful because of daily hard work; second, we do everything to send our children to school hoping that their lives will be better than ours; third, why do our husbands who went to school live as if they have never been to school?; fourth, no one is there to listen to us; fifth, we look forward to cultural gatherings because they give us joy and satisfaction and sixth occasionally our hopes are raised by those in power but soon we are forgotten. The study emphasizes the role of women as major providers and loss of women’s work. The women felt shame because of illiteracy. The focus of the women’s lives was their children. Also the lack of support from spouses and feelings of isolation permeated their lives. Their lives were in flux due to change in household and loss of tribal identity. The one brighter spot was their joy in celebration. The study recommendations are for more in-depth study of Oraon women and in-depth study of the education system as related to the cultural identity of Oroans. The influence of patriarchy on women’s lives in the Oraon community. Adult education recommendations are for the implementation of culturally sensitive and comprehensive literacy campaign among Oraon women. The study of Oraon songs and dance can be used as a tool for literacy. Using a Frieran model of literacy is recommended for training adult educators from the Oraon community. Village involvement and supervision of community action programs is needed.
India - Sustainable horticulture crop production
(2010-11-28) Pehoski, Myra
India's Urban Poor Financial Services Needs: Challenges and Solutions
(Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, 2014-04-29) Karnik, Harshada
In this paper I identify the institutional and consumer barriers that have kept the urban poor out of the banking network. I also analyze how informal mechanisms overcome these barriers to create a sustainable and reliable network of financial services for the urban poor. I end by discussing the need to rethink existing policies in order to make the formal financial services more accessible and user friendly to the unbanked.
Martenitsa: The Sacred Thread that Connects the Bulgarians with the People of the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent
(2012-01-24) Moussorlieva, Avrora
In this thesis, the Bulgarian martenitsa comes to be seen as an amulet - a sacred thread - historically connected with similar ones in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Armenia and the Hmong of Laos. They are all made of material that is not durable, and it is not likely to find them through archaeological excavations. Using a comparative method, I was able to prove their association with the ancient religion of the first farmers. The amulets are still used for one of their original functions, namely to bind together individual people and the community.
The New Experts: Politics (and Anti-Politics) of Expertise in the Making of Hegemony
(2020-11) Sajjanhar, Anuradha
This dissertation examines the evolution of a shifting network of experts and elites, interrogating what is considered to be expertise in the context of governance. Through a study of Indian think tanks, political consulting firms, and policy research organisations, I argue that two forms of political legitimacy govern contemporary India: 1) populist politics, which appeals to the masses/majority by defining nationalism through rigid boundaries of caste, class, and religion; and 2) technocratic policy, which produces a consensus of pragmatism and neutralises charges of hyper-nationalism. I emphasise the relational dynamic between the two: they function through different, often contradictory, logics and content yet are able to work towards the same goals in key moments of mutual reinforcement. At its core, this dissertation is motivated by a desire to make sense of how political and policy elites have gradually normalised Hindu supremacy. Through a study of powerful actors and institutions, I examine the: a) mechanics of the process (for example, think tanks, consulting firms, IT cells, government advisory groups, political parties) and b) the emergent multiple discourses they form. Each chapter shows how these mechanisms work through different but interactively linked effects to produce the political field. My research is based on semi-structured interviews with over fifty politicians, policy makers, government officials, consultants, and other socially anointed intellectuals, several years of participant observation (between 2016-2020) in three prominent New Delhi think tanks, and discourse and documentary analysis.
Performing Corporate Bodies: Organizational Theatre in Global India
(2019-05) Saddler, Sarah
This dissertation examines the use of theatrical performance in the corporate workplace, with a focus on post-liberalization India. In major multinational corporations, dramatic skits and simulations drawn from theatre for social change repertories have become a popular training tool used to teach the cultural competencies, social norms, and behavioral skills now deemed essential to job success in the international work economy. This dissertation is a critical examination of this trend (“corporate theatre”) that examines how corporations deploy theatre in the service of profit, and demonstrates the transformative impacts corporate theatre is having on employees, creative economic growth, and the landscape of postcolonial arts practice in urban India. Drawing on 23 months of ethnographic research in India from 2012-2018, I analyze how theatre has become a key technology of 21st century management ideology through detailing case studies from leading sites of India’s global work ecology that provide a nuanced look at how dramatic repertoires are teaching employees to embody the entrepreneurial ethos of a globalizing Indian nation-state. Alongside detailing the ways corporate theatre functions as a technology of worker discipline which exacerbates the precarious labor conditions and gender, caste, and class dimensions of global software work, I highlight the small-scale, intimate ways individuals use the dramatic tools these trainings provide to create new ways of moving, feeling, and being together in India’s competitive work cultures. In so doing, this dissertation demonstrates how performance functions as a prime technology of human capital formation in contemporary neoliberalism, at the same time as it opens pathways for individuals to express their struggles, identities, and aspirations in the context of corporate power.
Pharmacovigilance Programme of India
(University of Minnesota, College of Pharmacy, 2015) Kumar, Duvvuru Ashok; Reddenna, Languluri; Basha, Shaik Ayub
Pharmacovigilance is defined as “the pharmacological science relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects, principally long term and short term adverse effects of medicines.” It is an important and integral part of clinical research. India is the world’s second most populated country with over one billion potential drug consumers. Although, India is participating in the Uppsala monitoring center program, its contribution to that database is relatively small. This problem is essentially due to the absence of a robust ADR monitoring system and also the lack of awareness of reporting concepts among Indian health care professionals. The specific aims of pharmacovigilance are to advance patient care and safety in relation to the use of medicines and all medical and paramedical interventions, contribute to the assessment of benefit, harm, effectiveness, and risk of medicines, promising their safe, rational, and more effective use, promote indulgent, education, and clinical training in pharmacovigilance and its effective communication to the public. Pharmacovigilance methods must also be capable to designate which patients are at risk of developing an adverse drug reaction. A suitably working pharmacovigilance system is important if medicines are to be used prudently. It will be advantageous for healthcare professionals, regulatory authorities, pharmaceutical companies and consumers to monitor medicines for risk.
Producing educated selves: Gender, migration and subjectivity on the edge of transnational high-tech labor arbitrage
(2017-05) Timiri, Himabindu
This study examines the transnational movement of high-tech labor from the perspective of techmigrant families. It highlights the issue of dependent immigrant women, spouses of guestworkers who perform high-skilled jobs in the United States. As dependents, these immigrant women are subject to a restrictive immigration status that mandates years of unemployment, while permitting limited pathways to pursue higher education. The study poses the issue of dependent migration as a feminized construct at the intersection of the fields of gender, migration and educational studies. Data were collected through an ethnographic study of the Indian techmigrant community in and around Atlanta over a period of eighteen months. In-depth interviews with techmigrant spouses generated narratives on migration and education. The study framework accounted for the simultaneous subjection and self-making of gendered and dependent immigrant subjectivities. Using a blend of discourse and narrative analyses, a contextual reading of subject-making processes saw immigrant women as located on the edge of transnational labor arbitrage and within overlapping state, market and familial discourses. While the narratives of dependent immigrant women showed evidence of interwoven subjection discourses, they also exemplified moments of awareness of subjection processes and the appropriation of these same discourses into self-making processes. Ultimately, in the navigation of macro institutional forces, educated subjectivities, also referred to as “educated selves” in this study, played a significant role in offering these immigrant women room to leverage these subject-making processes.
Re-examination of the standards for transit oriented development influence zones in India
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2019) Ann, Sangeetha; Jiang, Meilan; Yamamoto, Toshiyuki
Transit oriented development (TOD) is a land-use and transport integrated urban planning strategy that is highly acclaimed for promoting sustainable city development. This review aims to identify the problems regarding adoption of TOD standards or guidelines formulated by developed countries in developing countries, such as India, and the necessity of conducting adaptability studies on TOD influence areas. The existing studies show that the size of the influence area varies among different cities and travel modes. Accordingly, no single size influence zone is suitable for all cases. This review highlights the necessity of carefully considering the spatial extent of influence areas and modes other than walking as access or egress modes in the Indian context. Moreover, this review aims to provide insight on how to plan TOD in the context of developing countries, because the mobility patterns in these countries differ considerably from those in the developed world.
Reconstructing the Indian public sphere: Newswork and social media in the Delhi gang rape case
(Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, 2014) Belair-Gagnon, Valerie; Mishra, Smeeta; Agur, Colin
In recent years, a growing literature in journalism studies has discussed the increasing importance of social media in European and American news production. Adding to this body of work, we explore how Indian and foreign correspondents reporting from India used social media during the coverage of the Delhi gang rape; how journalists represented the public sphere in their social media usage; and, what this representation says about the future of India’s public sphere. Throughout our analysis, Manuel Castells’ discussion of ‘space of flows’ informs our examination of journalists’ social media uses. Our article reveals that while the coverage of the Delhi gang rape highlights an emerging, participatory nature of storytelling by journalists, this new-found inclusiveness remains exclusive to the urban, educated, connected middle and upper classes. We also find that today in India, social media usage is rearticulated around pre-existing journalistic practices and norms common to both Indian reporters working for English-language media houses and foreign correspondents stationed in India.

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