How Bihar can address the economic concerns of the returning migrants – The Hindu Business Line

Noted economist Jean Dreze recently stated that Bihar will be the worst-hit State due to the massive reverse migration triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. I could not agree with him more on this. According to a latest study by the Institute of Population Sciences, 50 percent of Bihar households are exposed to migration. With the breadwinners of the family becoming unemployed, and seemingly in the absence of any concrete plan of the Bihar government to tackle this challenge, the State is staring at a social and economic doom. With agriculture and arts & crafts being the largest income generators in the rural areas, the State government must go all out to provide a further boost to both these sectors. Read more

Covid-19 has proven that the Internet needs complete rehaul – Economic Times CIO

Times of upheaval, such as war and pandemics, are always times of radical changes. During World War II, with men away to war, many works were opened up for women that were previously being carried out by men. Women proved that they could do the so called “men’s work”. Women never looked back after that. The global Spanish flu of 1918, one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, revolutionized national health policies in many European countries. The world right now is fighting a war against the Covid-19 pandemic. The novel coronavirus is here to change the world in multiple dimensions. One of these dimensions is — the Internet as infrastructure. Read more

Justice delayed! Are courts involved in an infinite game? – Forbes India

Indian judiciary is going through a massive crisis. According to the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), as of October 2018, about 30 million cases are pending in the various Indian courts. Of all the pending cases, about 7 million cases are more than 5 years old and 2.3 million cases are more than 10 years old. In July 2018, the former chief justice Dipak Misra, while delivering the inaugural address at the Conference on National Initiative to Reduce Pendency and Delay in Judicial System, urged the high courts to form think tanks with judges, lawyers, and academicians to explore innovative models to reduce pendency of cases. He emphasized that the pendency of cases for long time periods raises serious questions about the efficacy of the Indian judicial system and brings a lot of disrepute to the institution. He proposed a 15-point plan to tackle this problem. Justice Ranjan Gogoi, the new Chief Justice of India, has also expressed his plans to address this challenge. He is of the view that the pendency problem has the potential of making the judicial system itself irrelevant. Legal experts believe that the problem could worsen in the days to come. This article presents a game-theoretic conjecture of the delayed judicial processes and mounting pendency of cases in Indian courts. Read more

Judges often fail to interpret a legal norm. Or do they? – Forbes India

In July 2009, the Delhi High Court decriminalized homosexuality which was overturned by the Supreme Court of India in December 2013. The Supreme Court in September 2018 overturned its previous judgment, and homosexuality was decriminalized again. While teaching game theory at my institute, I was posed this question by a student – “This is not the first-time one judgment has been overturned by another judgment. In this case, the courts were interpreting the meaning of “unnatural offenses”, a linguistic expression from Section 377 of the IPC. Why do our learned judges often fail to come up with a rational and objective interpretation of a legal norm which cannot be overturned? Is there any strategic reason for failing to select a proper meaning?”   Read more

Preach the falsehood to know the truth! Cunningham’s law can increase group participation – LinkedIn Pulse

If you are a teacher who wants to increase students’ participation in classroom discussions or you are a manager who wants to increase employees’ participation in corporate brainstorming sessions, deliberately say something that is incorrect. A human disposition called the tendency to correct comes into play and you get more participation from your students or employees. This article claims that careful and clever use of Cunningham’s law can significantly improve participation in group discussions. Read more