#Staffpicks: We share IDFC Institute staff’s favourite Indian newsletters for your weekend reading pleasure. Listed below are the newsletter link with an excerpt of its self-description. (1/n)
“The Nutgraf is a 10-min newsletter sent at 10 AM IST every Saturday. It connects the dots and synthesizes one big event in business, technology and finance that happened over the week in India.” the-ken.com/the-nutgraf/ (2/n) @TheKenWeb
“This thought-letter is about frameworks, mental models, and key ideas that will hopefully help you think about any public policy problem in imaginative ways.” publicpolicy.substack.com (3/n) @pranaykotas
“The Parallel Campaign is a fortnightly newsletter that questions the traditional orthodoxies presented in Indian schools’ history curricula.” theparallelcampaign.substack.com (4/n) @thellcampaign
“We wade through all the clunky newspaper copy and all the shouty debates to bring you analysis, headlines and links to the best pieces from all over.” thepoliticalfix.substack.com (5/n) @RohanV@scroll_in
“We think that women reporting the news in their language, from their perspective, from our small towns and villages, can be the heart of a revolution. ” khabarlahariya.org/signup/ (6/n) @KhabarLahariya
“To make sense of life and times under COVID-19, I decided to track the fundamental disruptions on the global economy. Follow this blog to get sharp and succinct insights, coupled with fun memes” evolvingeconomy.substack.com (8/n)
Last week, our team submitted its feedback on the proposed policy on National Data Governance Framework (#NDGFP) by @GoI_MeitY. 🧵Here’s a summary of our key suggestions. (1/n) @DataGovNetwork
First, what is the National Data Governance Framework Policy? (2/n)
The new policy should:
1)➡️Align with other existing and proposed data regulations and policies in India to avoid confusion over jurisdiction and duties (3/n)
Last week, IDFC Institute collaborated with Madhya Pradesh Police (MPP) in the launch of PARIMAL (Pracademic Action Research Initiative with Multidisciplinary Approach Lab) within @MPPA_bhopal. We congratulate MPP on their commitment towards evidence based policing (1/n).
PARIMAL is an initiative under the DG Research & Policy Cell. Our Assistant Director & Junior Fellow, @AvantiDurani explained how the lab will follow a three-pronged approach of training, research and collaborations to amplify incremental efforts towards police reform. (2/n)
As part of the week-long launch, MPP organised roundtable discussions on the theme of Justice Inclusion and Victims’ Access (JIVA) to address vulnerabilities and exclusion in the system. The discussions can be accessed here: youtube.com/playlist?list=… (3/n)
- Manage the spatial growth of cities and allow them to build more,
- Plan road networks for future horizontal expansion,
- Revoke faulty policies that constraint the use of floor space to build vertically.
3/10 || Housing: Richard Green & Sahil Gandhi
- Provide public housing for the poor; India can learn from successful models in Singapore or Hong Kong,
- Enable efficient rental markets,
- Manage density better to prevent overcrowded and unsafe housing.
A proposed change in WhatsApp’s #privacy policy has dominated headlines and prompted users worldwide to rethink their choice of messaging apps. Since then, WhatsApp has undertaken multiple efforts to clarify how the change affects users. #thread
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WhatsApp has over 400 million monthly active users in India (one-fifth of their global user base) and handles over 1 billion messages a day globally tcrn.ch/2XKWiib
WhatsApp Business claims to have 50 million users globally bit.ly/35NIeIY
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#WhatsApp also decided to push the change to May instead of February, to assuage user privacy concerns and stem the flight of users to competing apps like #Signal and #Telegram that saw millions of signups last week. cnn.it/3srOHTP
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#YearinReview Here is our list of 5 of the most interesting papers on state capacity this year!
Devesh Kapur's 'Why Does the Indian State Both Fail and
Succeed?' seeks to explain why India tends to have a better record on specific tasks like eradicating polio—where delivery is episodic with inbuilt exit—than on things like improving public health outcomes more generally.
Kapur proposes some explanations: understaffing of local governments, ramifications of India adopting democracy at a 'precocious' stage relative to its economic development, and the persistence of social cleavages in India by caste, gender, and religion.
Being at the forefront also posed operational and business continuity risks for the police. @_NehaSinha & @TveshaSippy addressed this risk in this blog post published by @IPF