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2002 research outputs found
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The Improvement Regime: Public Trusts, Real Estates, and India’s Urban Futurities
No full textOver the last two decades, since scholarly writing on India witnessed an “urban turn,” numerous historians have analyzed the role of the improvement trust in the redevelopment of Indian cities in the twentieth century, most specifically those of Bombay, Calcutta, and Delhi. This paper revisits and reassesses some of their key arguments to suggest that rather than studying the “failures” of the individual trusts to foster sanitary built environments, we should pay attention to the contingent workings of the city trusts that were constitutively designed for such failures. Using a comparative analysis of the Bombay and Calcutta improvement trusts, this paper offers a retelling of the history of twentieth-century Indian urbanism through the inauguration of an “improvement regime.” It posits that a structural analysis of the trust’s legal and financial framework opens innovative ways of reading “improvement” as a new, twentieth-century language, technology, and rationality of urban governance. The improvement trust devised the art of spatiotemporal management to secure the city’s built environment—rather than its residents—against future uncertainties. The paper takes us through various episodes in the career of the improvement trust—its introduction of technocratic rule, partnership with private investors, speculation in the urban land market, and finally emergence as the city’s leading rentier—in short, the “new developments” that we associate with neoliberal urbanism today. Rather than mapping these developments as neoliberal inventions, this paper invites readers to view them as the slow and (dis)continuous unraveling of a century-old improvement regime
What Stories do the Numbers Tell? A Data-Driven Narrative to Seek Women’s Equal Opportunity in the Higher Judiciary in India
No full textRights in the Eyes of the Beholder: The Lived Hierarchy of Rights in India\u27s Democracy
No full textThis paper examines how citizens in India perceive and prioritise fundamental rights, with particular attention to the six freedoms under Article 19(1) and the property right. While the freedoms of Article 19(1) remain central to democratic citizenship, the Forty-Fourth Constitutional Amendment of 1978 reclassified the right to property as a constitutional right under Article 300A. This shift prompts an important question: Does the diminished constitutional rank of property correspond to its place in popular hierarchies of rights? Our in-depth interviews with 26 respondents, whose livelihoods make them especially sensitive to changes in both categories of rights, reveal that citizens continue to prioritise property rights and consider it a key to making other rights meaningful. Within Article 19(1), valuations vary according to lived experience: journalists and activists emphasise freedom of expression, while migrants and small entrepreneurs prioritise movement, residence, and profession. A recurring asymmetry also emerges, whereby individuals defend expansive protections for the rights they exercise, yet endorse restrictions on the same rights when claimed by others. By mapping these lived hierarchies of rights, this note from the field highlights a persistent gap between constitutional design and public perception. It suggests that constitutional amendments may alter the formal status of rights without reshaping their everyday salience, with important implications for debates on rights-ordering, constitutional legitimacy, and democratic practice. These findings reveal a gap, raising questions about how legal amendments shape, or fail to shape, the lived hierarchy of rights
What the Opposition can Learn from Mamdani
No full textThe particularities of the American political context notwithstanding, Zohran Mamdani’s campaign for New York City mayor can offer valuable insights for Opposition politics in India
Kerala\u27s Extreme Poverty-Free Claim And The Political Possibility of Positive Freedom
No full textThis piece argues that Kerala’s recent declaration of having eradicated “extreme poverty” should not be celebrated, but understood as an opportunity to realise the political possibility of positive freedom—articulated in the language of rights rather than welfare. It further suggests that such a celebratory approach, rooted in notions of Kerala exceptionalism, overlooks the dynamic nature of poverty and the deeper questions of structural inequality in the state
Sorry, Not All Roses Smell The Same: A Critical Look At The Decision In Sumitomo\u27s Smell Mark Application
No full textAcross the globe, there have been many attempts to monopolise scents through trade mark law. Smell marks or olfactory marks are generally considered as non-conventional trademarks and belong to a growing list that also includes sound and taste marks. Through a decision released last week, the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks has allowed the grant of smell mark protection to a company named Sumitomo, which claims to have infused a rose-like floral fragrance into its tyres
Competition Law
No full textCompetition Law offers a clear, rigorous, and student-centric overview of India\u27s competition framework, seamlessly connecting doctrinal foundations with contemporary market realities. It covers core antitrust themes—cartels, bid-rigging, vertical restraints, dominance, and merger control—while thoughtfully addressing emerging challenges posed by digital markets, platform economies, algorithmic pricing, and AI-driven collusion. The book integrates leading judgments of the CCI, NCLAT, and Supreme Court, along with the latest developments under the Competition (Amendment) Act 2023. Featuring structured explanations, case summaries, illustrations, and learning aids, it is ideally suited for law, business, and exam-focused students. Authored by Gautam Shahi and Dr Sudhanshu Kumar, it strikes an effective balance between conceptual clarity and practical insight into India\u27s evolving competition regime.https://repository.nls.ac.in/books/1060/thumbnail.jp
“The Pitfalls of Dual Regulatory Oversight in CIRP: IBC, 2016 Vs. Competition Act, 2002”
No full text
From Fixed Pricing to E-Prescriptions: The West Bengal Clinical Establishments (Amendment) Act, 2025
No full textThe 2025 amendment to the West Bengal Clinical Establishments (Registration, Regulation and Transparency) Act, 2017 seeks to enhance transparency in private healthcare by mandating e-prescriptions, digital health records, and the display of standardised treatment rates. While several provisions resemble those in the centrally enacted Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2010, the state law operates independently of the central framework. The reforms signal a push towards greater accountability but raise concerns regarding enforceability, interoperability with national digital health systems, and patient data protection