FAS Young Scholars' Corner: Recent Episodes

Foundation for Agrarian Studies

Produced by the Foundation for Agrarian Studies, FAS Young Scholars Corner explores research questions on agrarian studies. This podcast aims to bring to fore the voices of young research collaborators of FAS conducting studies on various aspects of rural economies. All of the researchers have made use of FAS data and/or methods for their doctoral studies.

For any queries or media requests, please contact: web_ops@fas.org.in

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For the fifth and final episode of FAS Young Scholars' Corner Season 2, we spoke to Sandipan Baksi, Director, Foundation for Agrarian Studies, about the colonial administration's role in the modernisation of Indian agriculture during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Reading List:

  1. Tilling the Land: Agricultural Knowledge and Practises in Colonial India - Deepak Kumar and Bipasha Raha
  2. The Impact of Agricultural Research in British India - Carl E. Pray
  3. A History of Agriculture in India, Volume III: 1757-1947 - M. S. Randhawa
  4. Indigo Plantations and Science in Colonial India - Prakash Kumar
  5. The Hindi-Speaking Intelligentsia and Agricultural Modernisation in the Colonial Period- Sandipan Baksi
  6. The Dissemination of Modern Agricultural Knowledge in the Colonial Period: A Review of the Marathi Monthly Shetki aani Shetkari- Sandipan Baksi and Tushar Kamble

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For the fourth episode of the FAS Young Scholars' Corner Season 2, we spoke to Deepak Johnson, Associate Fellow, Foundation for Agrarian Studies, about the price and non-price factors affecting incomes from rice cultivation in Kerala and the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam.

Deepak explains that non-price support measures like technological support need to complement price-related support to increase the incomes of rice cultivators.

Reading List:

  1. Agricultural Development and Economic Transformation: Promoting Growth with Poverty Reduction - John W. Mellor
  2. Paddy Cultivation in Kerala - Jayan Jose Thomas
  3. Agricultural Land Policies and Their Impact on Agricultural Production and Peasants’ Lives in Viet Nam Today - Pham Van Duc
  4. Impact of Economic Liberalization on Rice Intensification, Agricultural Diversification, and Rural Livelihoods in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam - Jean-François Le Coq and Guy Trebuil
  5. Observations from the Fieldwork in Kerala- Deepak Johnson
  6. Observations from the Fieldwork in Mekong Delta - Deepak Johnson

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For the third episode of the FAS Young Scholars' Corner Season 2, we spoke to Shruti Nagbhushan, Research Scholar, Department of Development Studies, SOAS, London, about the differentiated labour conditions of women in rural India.

Reading List:

  • Women and Work in Rural India - Edited by Madhura Swaminathan, Shruti Nagbhushan and VK Ramachandran
  • Sources of Energy and “Time-Poverty” Among Rural Women - Shruti Nagbhushan
  • Energy Strategies for Rural India: Evidence from Six States - Barnes, D. F., & Sen, M.
  • Gender and Livelihoods Impacts of Clean Cookstoves in South Asia - Bloomfield, E.
  • How Does Time Poverty Affect Behavior? A Look at Eating and Physical Activity - Kalenkoski, C. M., Hamrick, K.S.

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For the second episode of the FAS Young Scholars' Corner Season 2, we spoke to Arindam Das, Joint Director, Foundation for Agrarian Studies, about the stagnant wages in the countryside in India and the resultant sufferings endured by the workers.

Reading List:

  • Agricultural Wages in India: A Reliability Analysis - Rao, V. M.
  • Agricultural Wages in India - Jose, A. V.
  • Trends in Agricultural Wages in India 1964–65 to 1999–2000 - Pallavi Chavan and Rajshree Bedamatta
  • Rural Wages in India: Recent Trends and Determinants - Himanshu and Sujata Kundu
  • Methodology of Data Collection Unsuited to Changing Rural Reality: A Study of Agricultural Wage Data in India - Yoshifumi Usami, Arindam Das and Madhura Swaminathan

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For the first episode of FAS Young Scholars' Corner Season 2, we spoke to Tapas Modak, Associate Fellow, Foundation for Agrarian Studies, about the changing patterns of irrigation in rural West Bengal.

Reading List:

  1. Socio-Economic Surveys of Three Villages in West Bengal, Edited by Aparajita Bakshi and Tapas Modak

  2. Agrarian Impasse in Bengal: Agricultural Growth in Bangladesh and West Bengal, 1949-1980, Boyce J.

  3. Public to Private Irrigation: Implications for Equity in Access to Water, Review of Agrarian Studies, vol. 8, no. 1, Tapas Modak

  4. Sonar Bangla: Agricultural Growth and Agrarian Change in West Bengal and Bangladesh, Rogaly B., Harris-White B., and Bose

  5. Water Resource Management: Institutional and Irrigation Development in India, Vaidyanathan A.

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For our fifth episode of FAS Young Scholars Corner, we spoke to R. Vijayamba, a PhD student at the Indian Statistical Institute (Bangalore) about the critical and often unseen role rural women play in India's livestock economy.

Reading list for today's episode:

1) Understanding Women's Work Using Time-Use Statistics: The Case of India - Indira Hirway and Sunny Jose

2) Women’s Role in the Livestock Economy - Madhura Swaminathan and Yoshifumi Usami

3) Gender and Livestock: Key Issues, Challenges and Opportunities - Jemimah Njuki and Pascal Sanginga

4) Gender Asset and Wealth Gaps: Evidence from Karnataka - Hema Swaminathan, Rahul Lahoti, Suchitra J. Y.

5) The Female of the Species: Women and Dairying in India - Shanti George

Host: Nihira

Music Credits: Difference - Ketsa

Image Credits: FAS PARI Photo Archives

Disclaimer: The views presented in these episodes are based on research of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the Foundation’s research findings.

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For our fourth episode of FAS Young Scholars Corner, we spoke to Ranjini Basu, a policy researcher based out of New Delhi, about her PhD research titled Land Reforms in West Bengal and how COVID-19 has impacted MGNREGA in Tripura.

Reading list for today's episode:

  1. MGNREGS and the Pandemic Crisis: Reflections from Tripura - Ranjini Basu and Tapas Modak

  2. The Tripura Model - Madhura Swaminathan and V. K. Ramachandran

  3. It is a class attack: Interview with Manik Sarkar - T. J. Rajalakshmi

  4. "Employment and Wages of Manual Workers" - Arindam Das and Subhajit Patra, Socio-Economic Surveys of Three Villages in Tripura: A Study of Agrarian Relations

5. "Public Support for Rural Households" - Madhura Swaminathan, Socio-Economic Surveys of Three Villages in Tripura: A Study of Agrarian Relations

Our next episode will feature R. Vijayamba, a PhD student at the Indian Statistical Institute (Bangalore). It will focus on the critical and often unseen role rural women play in India's livestock economy.

Host: Nihira

Music Credits: Difference - Ketsa

Image Credits: FAS PARI Photo Archives

Disclaimer: The views presented in these episodes are based on research of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the Foundation’s research findings.

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For our third episode of FAS Young Scholars Corner, we spoke to Soham Bhattacharya, a PhD student at the Indian Statistical Institute (Bangalore) about the differentiated nature of the Indian countryside, something he was first exposed to as part of his field-work at FAS.

Reading list for today's episode:

1) Agricultural Tenancy in Contemporary Punjab: A Study Based on National Sample Survey Data - Soham Bhattacharya

2) De-Regulation of Tenancy in Rural India - Madhura Swaminathan

3) “Agrarian Transformation and Human Development: Instrumental and Constitutive Links” - Amiya Kumar Bagchi, Agrarian Studies Essays On Agrarian Relations in Less Developed Countries

4) Tenancy Reforms: A Critique of NITI Aayog’s Model Law - Sukhpal Singh

5) Socioeconomic Surveys of Three Villages in Andhra Pradesh: A Study of Agrarian Relations- V. K. Ramachandran, V. Rawal, and Madhura Swaminathan (eds.)

Host: Nihira

Music Credits: Difference - Ketsa

Image Credits: FAS PARI Photo Archives

Disclaimer: The views presented in these episodes are based on research of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the Foundation’s research findings.

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For our second episode of FAS Young Scholars Corner, we spoke to S. Niyati, a PhD student at the Indian Statistical Institute (Bangalore) about how the pandemic has impacted working women in rural India.

Reading List:

1) Features of Rural Underemployment in India: Evidence from Nine Villages - Niladri Sekhar Dhar with Navpreet Kaur

2) Women in Agriculture: A Review of the Indian Literature - Nata Duvvury

3) Limited Options: Women Workers in Rural India, Asian Regional Team for Employment Promotion - A. V. Jose

4) Women and Work in Rural India - Madhura Swaminathan, Shruti Nagbhushan, and V. K. Ramachandran

5) Measuring Female Work Participation in Rural India: What do the Primary and Secondary Data Show? - Yoshifumi Usami, with Subhajit Patra and Abhinav Kapoor

6) Work and Empowerment: Women in Agriculture in South India - Smriti Rao

Host: Nihira

Image Credits: FAS PARI Photo Archives

Music Credits: Difference - Ketsa

Disclaimer: The views presented in these episodes are based on research of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the Foundation's research findings.

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For the first episode of FAS Young Scholars Corner, we spoke to Gaurav Bansal, a PhD candidate at the University of East Anglia (UK) about the nuances of agricultural distress prevalent in Punjab today.

Reading list for today’s episode:

1) Green Revolution and the Small Peasant: A Study of Income Distribution in Punjab Agriculture – G. S. Bhalla, and G. K. Chadha

2) Changing Land Relations in Punjab and Implications for Land Reforms – Sucha Singh Gill

3) Crisis in Agrarian Economy in Punjab: Some Urgent Steps – H. S. Sindhu

4) The Politics of Markets: Farmer–Trader Relations Under Neoliberalism in Punjab, India – Shreya Sinha

5) Changing Modes of Agriculture in Punjab – Surinder S. Jodhka

Host: Nihira

Image Credits: FAS PARI Photo Archives

Music Credits: Difference – Ketsa