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Tinker, tailor, trader, TEACHER
It is the last day of 2020. The sun falls pleasantly on my back, mildly warming the mid-afternoon chill in the air. I must not forget it is still winter and spring is a few months away. And though tomorrow a new year will begin, winter will still persist… Perhaps that is 2020’s lesson to me: to trust (and expect) the persistence and resoluteness of nature. Nature remained infallible as we witnessed one cataclysm after the other unleashed by the pandemic and pestilence (remember the locusts?). So much has happened in the last twelve months that in many ways, it feels like one has lived right through a decade. Two…
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#NoCoverUp
Are we really surprised about the spate of domestic violence unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic? This brief by UNWOMEN has estimated that globally, 243 million women and girls between the ages of 15 and 49 have experienced sexual and/or physical violence perpetrated by an intimate partner in the previous 12 months. “This number is likely to increase as security, health, and money worries heighten tensions and strains are accentuated by cramped and confined living conditions.” What was that last sentence again? It almost sounded like a justification for domestic violence. As the world attempts a feeble recovery from the pandemic, economic uncertainty will continue for a long time. More people…
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Farm to Capital
Like most great teachers, Professor MS Swaminathan offers the most profound lessons through his experiences. It is up to his students to learn from his mistakes and (attempt) not repeat them. A few decades ago, when I was still a rookie in the practice of development, he narrated an anecdote from the Green Revolution. He was in one of the north eastern states of India, introducing High Yielding Varieties of rice to cultivators. Since gender roles are fluid in most communities, men and women – young and old; as well as children had gathered and hung on to every word he said. Soon, there was time for questions. An old…