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Manali Chakrabarti is an independent researcher and her research interest is in the political economy of contemporary India and the economic history of colonial India. She has been involved with the issue of contract workers' rights for three decades.

Rahul Varman is on the faculty of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, where he teaches and writes about corporations and the neoliberal order.
Digitalisation of Education: A Dystopian Solution for a Dismal Reality

Digitalisation of Education: A Dystopian Solution for a Dismal Reality

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After almost eight decades since independence, the state of India’s school education remains in complete disarray. Though a significant number of children of school-going age have been herded into schools, the learning levels remain dismal in spite of very low bars set to assess them. In this situation, there is a wholesale push for edtech by the cartel of Capital and ‘non-profits’ (funded by Capital), with the State providing a massive boost for the commercialisation and privatisation of schools. While education will be a casualty, this policy promises savings for the State and profits for Capital.

The election of a Pradhan in a small village in UP

The election of a Pradhan in a small village in UP

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This is the story of a contract worker who, out of financial desperation, puts up his father for the reserved seat of pradhan of a village. He does so in the hope that he can make enough money from the post to pull his family out of financial distress. What happens during and after the elections tells us much about the character of India’s democracy.