At In the Field, we’re very interested in the debates around gender and work. We know that women face a number of constraints while running their businesses, and women are constantly strategizing on how to balance their domestic responsibilities while facing prejudice as women business owners. In this episode, we’re looking at how crucial social interactions within business ecosystems work to enable or limit the aspirations of women entrepreneurs. Thanks to Professors Vidya Soundararajan at IIT ...
Mar 22, 2022•34 min
In our final episode of Founders, we talk about the economics of female entrepreneurship and what it takes to make a dream come to life. Is it having a single-minded focus on the goal? Is it financial independence? Or is it the ability to say no - because in the end your entrepreneurial dream is yours alone? In the rollercoaster ride of entrepreneurship, you’ve got to keep your eyes on the goal. And when you fail - pick up, dust off, and start again. Thanks to Hardika Shah from KInara Capital, S...
Apr 13, 2021•25 min
If there’s a word that’s often used to characterise women’s careers it is “interruption”. Starting a business interrupts “life” too. It’s a big disruptive interruption that challenges what many see are the natural order of things for women - getting a steady job, earning a safe and regular income, and the idea of being settled. In this episode we ask, how do women entrepreneurs juggle it all to make it work? Thanks to Professor Seema Jayachandran and Soumya Kapoor. Supported by Her and Now.in ....
Apr 06, 2021•24 min
In the first episode of Founders we set the stage by exploring how women are positioned in the economy and in society. When we try to wrap our heads around the challenges women face to participate in the workforce, entrepreneurship can come across as one of the hardest paths a woman could choose. Grit and sacrifice is very normalized in the stories of women’s working lives. But we can’t keep trying to imagine it, we have to learn what it actually takes. Supported by Her and Now.in . Music and So...
Mar 30, 2021•21 min
Have you ever thought about how women are positioned in the economy? Two stories dominate discussions about India’s female labourforce: the low rates of female labour force participation, but also the fact that women make up a significant proportion of small businesses in India ! How do we make sense of these two stories - falling female labourforce participation and the significance of women as enterprise owners? Are they even connected? Join us in Founders, where we unpack the economics and so...
Mar 17, 2021•3 min
Across the world, there is a space where the battle against COVID -19 rages. This frontline of the pandemic is the local government, which faces an unprecedented challenge. So what’s happening at Kerala’s frontline? This is the final episode of Kaalavastha, our 6 part series on Kerala, climate change and the meaning of resilience. Thanks to Jose Shailaja Teacher, Sarada Muraleedharan, Mridul Eapen, Soumya Kapoor, Prof Jiju Ulahanan and Dr Sekhar Lukose Kuriakose. The Kaalavastha mini-series is b...
Oct 14, 2020•30 min
Kerala’s economy relies heavily on things that are native and unique to it - its natural resources, its traditions and heritage. In this episode we look at efforts to build resilience into the livelihoods of the people of Kerala and at some of its prominent traditional sectors. In their rebuilding, lies Kerala's future. The Kaalavastha miniseries is brought to you by the World Bank. Thanks to Jose Dominic, Gopi Parayil, Sreejith Jeevan, Lakshmi Menon and P. Robin. Additional sounds used are unde...
Sep 17, 2020•30 min
As Kerala today thinks about how to reduce its reliance on remittances, and on how to revive the economy after the COVID-19 crisis, agriculture is one place where many say there is huge potential. But reorienting this is no easy task. Thanks to Mr DK Singh, Suma Vishnudas, Viju B and Vinayak Ghatate. The Kaalavastha miniseries is brought to you by the World Bank. Additional sounds: “Climate change in Wayanad, Kerala: ‘Farming only makes sense if it is a hobby” by People’s Archive of Rural India ...
Sep 10, 2020•30 min
In Kerala resilience has been a part of the conversation for quite a while before it became the word we all seem to be talking about. So, given its head start, what is Kerala doing to keep the well from going dry? In this episode, we explore how new efforts to build Kerala’s resilience are focussing on it’s two most important resources, rivers and remittances. Thanks to Anil Das, Dilip Ratha, Thomas Mathew , VD Satheesan and Dr V Venu. Kaalavastha is brought to you by the World Bank.
Sep 03, 2020•33 min
The 2018 floods were called once in a century floods - because in people’s memory, there was only flood before it that had marked so many lives, the flood of 1924. But when the state flooded again in 2019, many asked, why this was happening again? Why was the once in a lifetime flood back with a vengeance in less than a year? In this episode we find out about a contentious topic that may have increased the scale of the disaster: Kerala’s relationship with land. Thanks to Sreeranganathan, Profess...
Aug 27, 2020•24 min
Kerala has been marked by devastating floods in 2018 and 2019. But the state has been experiencing the effects of climate change for much longer. Scientists talk about 2015 as a sort of turning point. In this episode, we explore where and how people began noticing the changes. Thanks to Professor Abhilash, Harichandan Arakali, Sreedevi Pillai, Sobha Viswanath and Viju B. Additional music licensed from Freesound.org under Creative Commons Attribution License: "Rain, Moderate, C.wav" by InspectorJ...
Aug 20, 2020•26 min
Welcome to Kaalavastha. A word which conjures so many things in Malayalam: clouds, climate, the weather. In this 6 part series, we dive deep into God’s Own Country, past romantic ideas about rivers and mountains and the rain to find out what kind of relationship Kerala’s people have with their environment? And what will have to change as they learn about their vulnerability? What new kinds of local action are evolving? And how are Kerala’s communities planning for their future? We travel through...
Aug 14, 2020•5 min
Announcing a new series on In the Field. The story of a state, the story of the weather, and the story of a people, chronicled over six episodes. Kaalavastha drops later this week on this feed. Subscribe now to In the Field if you haven’t already!
Aug 11, 2020•2 min
ITF is back! In this mid-series episode we want to talk about how non-profits are dealing with the pandemic and we ask a few of our friends and colleagues about what they’ve been experiencing. Right now we have more questions than answers, but here are a few things we want to share. We also want to hear from you, our listeners, about how you have been about the processes by which you are making decisions now, and participating in this moment - do you feel like your voice is being represented? Do...
Jun 04, 2020•21 min
The past decade has seen a proliferation of movements all over the world. Fighting for everything from racial equality, to end authoritarianism and corruption, for struggling farmers, for climate action, for net neutrality and to end sexual harassment. At the very heart of societal change very often, lies the NGO, that works alongside these movements, with the government, for the citizens, and thanks to funders. It’s these NGOs, that engage with the state, help deliver services, or make people m...
Jul 02, 2019•38 min
In part two of our two parter on sustainability, climate change and consumption, we’re going find out about our relationship to the things we love - Like fish, coffee, travelling. These are things that are frequently talked about in relation to high consumption lifestyles, the kind that make climate change worse. We all know that sustainable producers needs ethical consumers. Going beyond the label, how are organisations in the sector contending with issues such as livelihoods of small scale pro...
Apr 05, 2019•36 min
In this special two-parter we’re talking about sustainability and consumption. And we’re starting with a story about fish, to understand how the twin forces, climate change and our ravaging consumption, are depleting the oceans. This is a story about a system of production that is in desperate need of rescue. At the heart of it are the fish themselves, but also the fisherworkers, a group that seems just as endangered. Stay tuned for the second episode of this two parter next week! Thanks to Divy...
Mar 29, 2019•31 min
Worklife in India has many elements to it, and we see the whole gamut of experiences in India from workers working with little or no welfare to more privileged workers, and increasingly all of us are working more and for longer. How do we get to a point where we can experience the best possible version of worklife, where the worker has more power in deciding how to distribute time, rather than becoming a part of a system where work happens all the time? Thanks to Apoorva Verma, Amrita Sharma, Ha...
Feb 28, 2019•41 min
Welcome to this very special bonus episode of In the Field. Stay tuned for our next In the Field episode, coming very soon. This episode is brought to you by Indus Action (www.indusaction.org), an organization working on a very specific tenet of the Right to Education Act - they’re trying to improve the way affirmative action is implemented in India’s private schools. We make In the Field to to introduce you to the people trying to solve hard social problems, to their ideas and practices, and to...
Feb 18, 2019•15 min
Development work is full of models. And a famous one originated in Kerala - it was so famous it defined the state’s identity in so many ways; it was credited for producing a literate, educated population, for empowering women and an engaged, active public. But this is a stubborn old story, and one we’ll attempt to update. In this episode we trace back the history of Kerala’s development, find out how it got its world renowned reputation, and why it’s a land of mesmerising contradictions. In 2018...
Jan 31, 2019•34 min
The youth are a prized population, for they represent the much talked about demographic dividend and so countries are supposed to nurture and help them develop. However, most approaches are instrumentalist, and see young people as mediums for prosperity. Or as a problem that needs a solution - through jobs, skills, education and even through settling down. But it skirts around the hard questions of young India’s identity. How do the youth see themselves in society? And what are their individual ...
Apr 26, 2018•38 min
In development work, there are some spaces that need big ideas and radical new thinking, and there are others that require a different form of engagement - a slower, more steady, enabling presence. In these spaces, it’s about fixing something by actually just getting it to work - but that’s no small task. Access to Justice is one of the harder spaces to fund and work in. From a development sector perspective, it seems ‘unfundable’, because it is hard to activate solutions for. The justice system...
Apr 14, 2018•36 min
Do we know where our food comes from? Does it come from down the road, or from a continent away? And do we really care? It’s all the same to us. Agriculture, especially food production is a topic deeply rooted in development. It’s too important to not pay attention to but it’s hard to know where to begin understanding it. And we know this because conversations about food can get uncomfortable sometimes, especially while there are farmer protests taking place, when we realise our cities are inund...
Mar 22, 2018•36 min
A recent preoccupation within the development sector is the falling female workforce participation in India. More pronounced in rural India than in urban India, nevertheless a concern given that our country has made significant strides in education and economic growth as a whole. The story of women and work in India is complex. It's connected to all of the big things: structural issues, patriarchy, and cultural values. In development, we're constantly trying to find ways to bring women into the ...
Mar 08, 2018•39 min
The Indian environmental movement has had a long and fascinating history. While young India’s charismatic leaders were instrumental in instituting laws to protect nature and wildlife, powerful social movements fought to bring to light the important connection between development, the environment, and vulnerable people. Environmental justice in the Indian context has arisen from these movements and we now have laws and regulation that are intended to protect people and compensate them for what th...
Feb 16, 2018•29 min
In a thriving, vibrant, and diverse democracy like India, what does it mean to participate? We tend to see participation in a democracy as an act that happens every five years, but there are many spaces for a more continuous and enduring engagement. So, how do people participate, and what hinders effective participation? How do we level the playing field, so that everyone can participate in, engage with, and contribute to India’s democracy? In this episode, we take a look this essential aspect o...
Feb 01, 2018•37 min
In this mini-episode, we revisit some of the conversations we've had over the course of the year. Every episode gives us the chance to meet some of the most committed people in the field and we've truly learnt a lot. There are many very interesting conversations that don't make it to the final cut of the show, and here, we bring to you two of them. We go back to our meeting with Dr Anura Kurpad, and he tells us about some of the challenges with the 'development' way of addressing complex issues ...
Dec 24, 2017•10 min
In this episode of In the Field, we take a closer look at the informal economy in India - the workers that hold up our cities. These are the millions of street vendors, drivers, dhobis, vegetable sellers, domestic workers, electricians, construction workers and wastepickers that are very much a part of the urban landscape, but also an integral part of our lives. Informal workers are usually self-employed, work from home or make their living from contractual work. This means their livelihoods are...
Dec 07, 2017•30 min
The word “development” implies progress - a forward, positive progression of processes, standards of living, and human behaviours. The crux of most development work is to affect change in some form, for the better, for those less fortunate. In this episode of In the Field, we attempt to look at change and what it means in the context of development work in India. In this episode, we talk to a range of people working on change in different ways and in different fields - a communicator, a research...
Nov 22, 2017•32 min
Do you remember the first time you were out in nature? Or the first time you saw a wild animal? Do you remember how it made you feel? Among the many things we have to be proud of, India’s rich heritage of biodiversity and fascinating history of conservation stand out. During the British rule, conservation was focused on specific species and geographic areas, and for a long time was based on the idea that protecting nature meant keeping humans out or away from it. The foundations for modern day c...
Nov 07, 2017•23 min
