News Type: Event

NLSIU invites you to our public lecture on ‘The Gold of Words: Sultans and Sufis on Money in Persian Literature’ this Thursday at 5 PM.

Speaker

Prashant Keshavmurthy, Associate Professor, McGill University, Canada.

Abstract

The convex mirror of pre-modern Persian literature, a tradition extending from the 800s to the 1800s across a vast zone from the Balkans to Xinjiang and Bengal to Arcot, offers us the world’s oldest continuous magnifications of the relations between virtue and money. This talk sets forth, with passages and paintings, two initially divergent ethical attitudes towards money with attention to the literary forms that magnify them: courtly thrift and Sufi excess. It then traces the convergence of these attitudes around 1500 into a new ethics and aesthetics of sacralized wealth in the centuries before English colonialism.

NLSIU invites you to our next public lecture titled “Many lives of land” on August 5, 2022 at 5 PM. The lecture will take place at Room 201 of the New Academic Block on campus.

Speaker

Nikita Sud is Professor of the Politics of Development at the University of Oxford. She is Governing Body Fellow and Vicegerent (Deputy Head) of Wolfson College. She researches the neoliberal transformation of the state and governance in the Global South; and the social and political life of nature, especially land and water in the era of Climate Change. She is the author of the academic monographs The Making of Land and The Making of India (Oxford University Press, 2021) and Liberalization, Hindu Nationalism and The State: A Biography of Gujarat (Oxford University Press, 2012). Besides publishing in journals across the social sciences, Nikita speaks and writes regularly for the media. Her work has appeared in The Conversation, Scroll.in, Wire.in, NDTV, Thomson Reuters Place, Mongabay, Al Jazeera, openDemocracy, East Asia Forum, BBC World Service, Radio 4, Radio France and Mediapart, among others.

Abstract

For long, humans have conceived of land as inert. Modernization as the institutional control of nature sought to mould this land, as also water, air, minerals, flora, and fauna in the service of economic growth. Building on research from across the social sciences, Nikita Sud’s work rethinks land as the solid, dry surface of the earth. Instead, it presents land as multi-dimensional. Land is imbued with identity and history. It is simultaneously enlivened, territory, property, authority, and a point of contested access and exclusion. Materially and conceptually “unfixed” land is not “naturally” so. It is constantly made and re-made by institutions of the state, market, and politics. In her field sites in post-liberalization, globalizing India, land is sought to be ordered for capitalist development. In the process, a state attempting to order a layered topography is stretched into shadowy domains of informality and unsanctioned practices. A market in land may be advanced, but remains precariously embedded in sociality. Politics may challenge the land-making of the state and market. It may also effect compromises. Attempts at constructing a durable landed order thus reveal our own (dis)orders. In attempting to “make” the land, Sud shows that the land simultaneously “makes” us.

 

 

As part of our Faculty Seminar series, we are attempting something different this week. We bring together faculty from two courses, Constitutional Law and Sociology to throw open the question of teaching methods and pedagogy. This ‘seminar’ would be mostly about conversations we have had with each other — about designing course curriculum, styles of pedagogy, experiments and assessments and how we negotiate both the opportunities and challenges that emerge in the Classroom. The conversation, hopefully, the first among many, would be in the spirit of opening up wider conversations about why we do what we do, how we do it better.

Speakers:

• Dr. Aparna Chandra, Associate Professor, NLSIU
• Dr. Arun Thiruvengadam, Professor of Law, NLSIU
• Dr. Aniket Nandan, Assistant Professor- Sociology, NLSIU
• Dr. Atreyee Majumder, Assistant Professor- Sociology, NLSIU

The University is hosting a talk on ‘The Case of Tibet: International Law and United Nations’ by Dr. Lobsang Sangay, the former Sikyong (the democratically elected leader) of the Central Tibetan Administration on Friday, 29 July, 2022. The event will take place from 11.15 am to 12.30 pm.

About the speaker

Dr. Lobsang Sangay, an expert in Tibetan law and international human rights law, served as the political leader of the Central Tibetan Administration (and previously, the Tibetan Administration from 2011-12) between 2012 and 2021. Born in a refugee settlement in Darjeeling, India, Dr. Sangay is also an alumnus of the Harvard Law School, having obtained his Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree there before becoming the first Tibetan to earn Harvard Law School’s Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.) degree, with his dissertation ‘Democracy in Distress: Is Exile Polity a Remedy? A Case Study of Tibet’s Government-in-Exile’ winning the 2004 Yong K. Kim ’95 Memorial Prize. In addition, he has been the recipient of fellowships from the International Commission of Jurists, Geneva and the Pacific Basin Research Centre.

Dr. Sangay’s role as the Sikyong saw him call for the peaceful resolution of the issues surrounding Tibet, including providing Tibet with autonomy within the framework of the Chinese constitution.

 

NLSIU invites you to the public lecture on “The Challenges and opportunities of a rules-based order: India and the WTO” on 22nd July at 5 pm. This lecture is being organised as part of the “India@75: Videsh Niti Distinguished Lecture Series” under the Ministry of External Affairs of India.  The Ministry is organizing this commemorative lecture series as part of celebrations of 75 years of India’s Independence. The idea behind the lectures is to ”demystify India’s foreign policy” so as to make young minds understand how India’s foreign policy operates and the role of the Ministry of External Affairs of India.

Speaker

Ambassador(Retd) Asoke Mukerji, Former Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations

Abstract

India has been a founder-member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) since January 1995.  As India transforms into a $5 trillion economy during the coming decade, India’s international trade (which currently contributes about 40% of her GDP) will play a major role in sustaining a supportive external environment to meet India’s aspirations. The lecture will look at the role of India’s support as a developing country for the core principles of international trade cooperation, India’s increasing use of the emerging international trade framework including its dispute settlement provisions to anchor the main thrust of her economic reforms since 1992, and the impact on India of the current challenges and opportunities facing the WTO rules-based international trade order.”

How do I attend the event?

To register for the event, please click here.

NLSIU Faculty member Dr. Sushmita Pati will be discussing her book ‘Properties of Rent: Community, Capital and Politics in Globalising Delhi’ at the Indian Institute of Human Settlements (IIHS), Bengaluru City Campus on July 22, 2022. The event will be moderated by Mr. Gautam Bhan, Dean, IIHS School of Human Development.

The event is free and open to all.

Abstract

We live in cities whose borders have always been subject to expansion. What does such transformation of rural spaces mean for cities and vice-versa? This book looks at the spatial transformation of villages brought into the Delhi’s urban fray in the 1950s. As these villages transform physically; their residents, an agrarian-pastoralist community – the Jats – also transform into dabblers in real estate. A study of two villages – Munirka and Shahpur Jat – both in the heart of bustling urban economies of Delhi, reveal that it is ‘rent’ that could define this suburbanisation. ‘Bhaichara’, once a form of land ownership in colonial times, transforms into an affective claim of belonging, and managing urban property in the face of a steady onslaught from the ‘city’. Properties of Rent is a study of how vernacular form of capitalism and its various affects shape up in opposition to both state, finance capital and the city in contemporary urban Delhi.

 

 

The Institute of Public Policy, NLSIU in collaboration with Environment Support Group, Bangalore is organising a national consultation to respond to the proposed changes to the environmental laws in India on 18th July, 2022. The Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change, GOI, had issued a notice inviting public comments on the Ministry’s website on 1st July 2022.  Comments from the public and State/Union Territory and Local Governments are required to be submitted via email by 21st July 2022.

The proposal has been put forth to amend various provisions of the following laws and make several environmental violations a civil offense: Environment Protection Act, 1986, Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 and Public Liability Insurance Act, 1991. Besides, there are fundamental changes proposed in the Forest Rights Act, 2006, Indian Forest Act, 1927, Biological Diversity Act, 2002 and other environmental and forest protection laws.  A collation of the proposed Bills is accessible here.

To assess the implications of the proposed changes, and also to propose a pathway for progressive reforms of India’s environmental laws,  a half day consultation is being organised on 18th July 2022 (Monday) from 2 pm – 6 pm. The Consultation will be held in the Training Centre (Ground Floor) of NLSIU.

Anyone interested to participate in the event through online mode may send the request to . As this is an hybrid event to accommodate participation across the country, links will be sent to those confirming from outside the Bangalore region a few hours before the consultation.

 

Restarting a tradition delayed due to the  Covid-19 lockdowns, this Saturday, NLSIU will be hosting a campus reunion for alumni celebrating 10 years of their graduation from the University.

The BA LLB (Hons) batch of 2011 will be spending the day on campus re-connecting with batchmates, faculty and other members of the NLS community as well as meeting current students. Using the best lessons from the pandemic, some events will take place in a hybrid setting so that anyone not in the city can participate too. We look forward to hosting pending and upcoming milestone gatherings for other batches and courses too in the coming months.

We were delighted when the batch reached out to plan their reunion on campus, and invited them to share their thoughts. They had this to say:

“Reunion was the promise we made to each other. While packing up our bags and vacating our hostel rooms, it was a given that the only opportunity to meet most of us again in-person, and potentially even visiting NLS, would only be possible at The Reunion.

However, as time flies by and we experience the pace of work and life, especially as alumni of NLS, a reunion is not just about catching up but a lot more – it turns into those few rare moments in our lives where we find the vocabulary failing to meet the requirements of our expressions.

While the pandemic has created a lot of uncertainty, including delaying the reunion, it has also given everyone a chance to reflect on what is truly important in their lives. This experience certainly has a huge role in shaping three main goals behind the reunion:

• Renew and strengthen the connections within and among our batch, the institution and our faculty;
• Reflect on our time at law school and after (the good and the bad!), and come up with concrete suggestions for making law school a more inclusive and welcoming place; and
• Give back to the alma mater by raising funds to support students in need of resources and explore more ways of actively supporting the students by means other than monetary donations.

We are very grateful to NLS for hosting us and hope to be able to continue to give back to the institution where we spent the formative years of our lives.”

For further information, please write to

 

Speaker:

Dr. Manpreet Singh Dhillon, Academic Fellow, NLSIU

Abstract:

DNA databases have become part of the governance of crime in sixty countries, and the project is expanding across the globe with many more countries building their database capability. India has been on a project to build a national DNA database since 2003 but despite many different drafts of the DNA bill being made public since 2007, the database has not been operationalized. This paper provides a brief historical outline of the evolution of DNA fingerprinting and databasing in India and argues that the lack of a transparent, inclusive and deliberative decision-making exercise has ensured that crucial questions pertaining to privacy and human rights still remain unaddressed. The rise of privacy as a global discourse has questioned the bio-legal co-production of the National DNA Data Bank as a sociotechnical assemblage in India. Currently, the database is constructed through a techno-bureaucratic forensic imaginary which does not take human rights seriously. I conclude by asserting that since India is a liberal democratic State, a robust, independent and accountable privacy governance regime should be a pre-requisite to operationalizing the National DNA Data Bank. This requires due consideration for the sociocultural, ethical and sociolegal aspects of the impact of the database. Doing otherwise would be akin to putting the cart before the horse.

NLSIU invites you to our next Public Lecture on “The Good Jobs Challenge in Developing Countries: What Can Be Done About It?.”

Speaker

Prof. Kunal Sen, Director, UNU-WIDER and Professor. Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.

Abstract

Estimates from the World Bank suggest that two-thirds of all jobs in developing countries are at risk of automation; meanwhile the ILO has calculated that 344 million jobs need to be created by 2030 to address unemployment. At the same time, around 80 per cent of the workforce in Africa and South Asia are in precarious and poorly paid employment in the informal sector. Can automation and new technologies help to create these much-needed jobs, or could it lead to greater inequality, leaving behind the most disadvantaged? What are the prospects of good jobs for millions of workers in the informal sectors of the Global South? In this lecture, Prof Sen will outline the challenges that developing countries are facing in creating good jobs, and discuss the key policy options to create productive employment for unskilled and semi-skilled workers.