Urvashi Sarkar
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Urvashi Sarkar

Thoughts, stories and ideas.

Is India the Arms Exporter it Claims to Be?
The India Forum

Is India the Arms Exporter it Claims to Be?

The government's desire to project India as a significant defence exporter are more apparent on paper than in the order books.

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 3 Dec 2022 • 6 min read
French nuclear power reactors in India: Are they worth the wait (and cost)?
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

French nuclear power reactors in India: Are they worth the wait (and cost)?

Why is the Indian government insistent on purchasing French EPRs which have a record of being over budget and massively delayed?

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 2 Sep 2022 • 7 min read
Review: India’s “Rocket Boys” series fetishizes science-and the atomic bomb-in a dangerous way
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Review: India’s “Rocket Boys” series fetishizes science-and the atomic bomb-in a dangerous way

While Rocket Boys makes for engaging drama, does it tell this story with due diligence to scientific and historical facts? Unfortunately, the answer is resoundingly in the negative.

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 14 Jun 2022 • 4 min read
Bipolar disorder: The group changing attitudes about the conditions
BBC

Bipolar disorder: The group changing attitudes about the conditions

Living with bipolar disorder is not easy. Many people do not understand the condition and patients suffer discrimination as a result. An online community in India is now trying to change such attitudes.

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 14 Jun 2022 • 4 min read
India’s refusal to side with the West should not be interpreted as a revival of its non-alignment policy
City University of London

India’s refusal to side with the West should not be interpreted as a revival of its non-alignment policy

India’s continuing aggressive and muscular foreign policy, in line with the vision of its right-wing government whose authoritarian tendencies are increasingly evident, at home and abroad

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 6 Jun 2022 • 4 min read
Israel has long exported arms to India. Now it’s selling spyware too
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Israel has long exported arms to India. Now it’s selling spyware too

Prime Minister Modi’s silence through the political storm around Pegasus and what is being called India’s Watergate moment is conspicuous

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 4 Apr 2022 • 5 min read
'I didn't want others to know I had miscarried'
People's Archive of Rural India

'I didn't want others to know I had miscarried'

Saline river water, intensifying climate change and poor public healthcare is playing havoc with women's health in the Sundarbans.

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 10 Mar 2022 • 8 min read
Is a shadow presidency fueling the gas-prices fire in oil-rich Kazakhstan?
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Is a shadow presidency fueling the gas-prices fire in oil-rich Kazakhstan?

A citizens' uprising takes Kazakhstan by storm. Socio-economic inequalities and neglect of workers' rights might be at play.

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 1 Feb 2022 • 4 min read
India has long suppressed antinuclear activism. Still, activists persist
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

India has long suppressed antinuclear activism. Still, activists persist

India's nuclear programme has a history of encountering stiff resistance.

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 17 Dec 2021 • 6 min read
What’s known—and not known—about India’s nuclear weapons budget
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

What’s known—and not known—about India’s nuclear weapons budget

India provides precious little information on nuclear weapons expenditure thus raising questions on accountability and transparency.

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 17 Nov 2021 • 6 min read
Think tanks in India and the United States and the alignment of state and corporate goals
City University of London

Think tanks in India and the United States and the alignment of state and corporate goals

India and the United States have maintained their ties through wide-ranging means and mechanisms including think tanks supported by corporations and government.

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 7 Sep 2021 • 12 min read
Fissile
nuclear

Fissile

India has big plans for new nuclear power plants. What does it plan to do with the old ones?

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 5 Mar 2021 • 18 min read
Parent Entity: The Jaishankars blur the lines between the ministry of external affairs and Reliance-funded ORF
Caravan Magazine

Parent Entity: The Jaishankars blur the lines between the ministry of external affairs and Reliance-funded ORF

India's most prominent think tank launches its Washington operations. The son of India's External Affairs Minister is in the thick of it.

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 1 Jan 2021 • 1 min read
Getting away with murder
thakur-foundation.org

Getting away with murder

A study on the killings of and attacks on journalists in India, 2014–2019, and justice delivery in these cases.

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 31 Dec 2019 • 2 min read
Sundarbans: Not a blade of grass grew
People's Archive of Rural India

Sundarbans: Not a blade of grass grew

People in the Sundarbans of West Bengal, are facing climate change – recurring cyclones, erratic rain, growing salinity, rising heat, depleting mangroves and more.

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 10 Sep 2019 • 11 min read
Cheerleader and referee: Appearance of conflicts of interest at microfinance regulators
Global Ground Media

Cheerleader and referee: Appearance of conflicts of interest at microfinance regulators

The lack of independence of microfinance self-regulatory organisations (SROs) in India

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 5 Aug 2019 • 7 min read
Assessments show problems remain: are paper exercises sufficient to bring about change?
Global Ground Media

Assessments show problems remain: are paper exercises sufficient to bring about change?

Are code of conduct assessments of microfinance institutions just on paper or do they really work?

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 24 Jul 2019 • 3 min read
Serving the poor or profiting off them?
Global Ground Media

Serving the poor or profiting off them?

Indian microfinance institutions are growing rapidly, raising renewed concerns of overlending.

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 17 Jul 2019 • 6 min read
India owed the highest in unpaid dues for UN peacekeeping
Newsclick

India owed the highest in unpaid dues for UN peacekeeping

As financial woes burden the UN, it is struggling to repay troop and police contributing countries like India and support its peacekeeping missions across the world.

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 9 May 2019 • 4 min read
Reliance Industries' mark on Observer Research Foundation
Caravan Magazine

Reliance Industries' mark on Observer Research Foundation

Conflicts of interest with its main corporate backer and a lack of independence dog Asia's most influential think tank.

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 1 Mar 2019 • 64 min read
Slow train, hard work, low wages, long days
People's Archive of Rural India

Slow train, hard work, low wages, long days

Many women domestic workers travel every day from faraway stations on the fringes of the Sundarbans to south Kolkata. The crush of the long train journey adds to the demands of their ceaseless workdays

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 28 Dec 2018 • 8 min read
UN's green award for Modi comes despite criticism of environmental record
The Wire

UN's green award for Modi comes despite criticism of environmental record

Asked about the contradictory actions of UN agencies, staffers say UN bodies may not necessarily coordinate and in some cases even be aware of each other’s work.

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 3 Oct 2018 • 5 min read
Why Sushma Swaraj’s UN speech was a missed chance
Newslaundry

Why Sushma Swaraj’s UN speech was a missed chance

Instead of presenting an internationalist vision at the UN General Assembly, India's External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj played to the gallery at home.

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 1 Oct 2018 • 4 min read
Our houses are vanishing. Nobody cares.
People's Archive of Rural India

Our houses are vanishing. Nobody cares.

For decades, villagers from Ghoramara island in the Sundarbans have been migrating to Sagar island because the river and rain keep washing away their houses. They have received little help from the state

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 20 Jul 2018 • 6 min read
Systematically terrorised: Rohingyas face severe health restrictions in Myanmar
The New Arab

Systematically terrorised: Rohingyas face severe health restrictions in Myanmar

Rohingyas continue to face discrimination in Myanmar as they deal with grave limitations in practically all areas of life including access to basic healthcare

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 15 May 2018 • 4 min read
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