Night shift bans and female employment in Indian manufacturing

25 July 2018

Perspectives

Perspectives

Robots have long existed in human imagination and only recently in the real world. The baggage of past imagination often intrudes into our understanding of how real robots will affect our economic lives. This explainer rigorously defines ‘robots’ and artificial intelligence; presents empirical evidence and analysis on the impacts of robotisation on production processes and aggregate economic outcomes; and puts forth policy recommendations for ensuring social benefits from robotisation at minimal cost.

13 April 2018

Notes from the Field

About a third of the total area of Tripura is covered by bamboo, and bamboo has emerged as a key thrust area for the state’s industrial development. Based on a field visit that was undertaken to study skill development in Tripura’s bamboo sector, Bornali Bhandari discusses the livelihood-based approach of Tripura Bamboo Mission vis-à-vis a market-based approach adopted by a private bamboo wood manufacturing unit.

24 September 2018

Perspectives

While decision on the constitutionality of Aadhaar by the Supreme Court of India remains a matter of speculation, it has become abundantly clear that most of the use cases for Aadhaar-based biometric authentication (ABBA) have turned out to be deeply problematic. In this post, Banerjee and Sharma outline the tentative design sketch of an alternate offline protocol, with digitisation and identity verification objectives similar to ABBA, which may be more accurate and free of the negatives.