Urvashi Sarkar
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Urvashi Sarkar

Thoughts, stories and ideas.

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
With no formal schools or jobs, young Rohingya left in lurch
Al Jazeera

With no formal schools or jobs, young Rohingya left in lurch

Despair and frustration bogs down Rohingya refugees as they face a future with no access to formal education or jobs.

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 13 Apr 2018 • 4 min read
Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay: The marvellous freedom fighter and feminist that India forgot about
The Print

Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay: The marvellous freedom fighter and feminist that India forgot about

A Passionate Life, a collection of writings by and on Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, is testimony to her considerable work in various fields, from the cooperative movement, settling of Partition refugees to films and theatre.

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 3 Apr 2018 • 3 min read
Azeem Ibrahim’s book on Rohingyas is a portrait of a people persecuted left, right and centre
The Print

Azeem Ibrahim’s book on Rohingyas is a portrait of a people persecuted left, right and centre

The persecution of Rohingyas is no impulsive incidence but a systemic project executed with surgical precision.

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 4 Feb 2018 • 3 min read
Freelancing: Freedom or folly?
The Hoot

Freelancing: Freedom or folly?

With more journalists becoming freelancers, it’s time to attend to the issues of pay, ID, and safety

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 17 Jan 2018 • 9 min read
Brookings demystified: Overlapping networks and the business of influencing policy
The Wire

Brookings demystified: Overlapping networks and the business of influencing policy

Published in The Wire. 3 January 2018 In 2016, India had 280 think tanks, the fourth largest after the US, China and the UK. The number of Indian think tanks

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 3 Jan 2018 • 18 min read
‘The People Next door’ provides a wide angle view of India-Pakistan relations
The Print

‘The People Next door’ provides a wide angle view of India-Pakistan relations

Author T.C.A. Raghavan attempts to show the flesh and blood of the relationship rather than just mapping the skeleton.

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 23 Dec 2017 • 3 min read
Adani’s Aussie coal mine could fuel China’s BRI
Asia Times

Adani’s Aussie coal mine could fuel China’s BRI

Coal from the group's proposed mega-mine in northeastern Australia could go to the Belt & Road Initiative which India has strongly opposed

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 30 Nov 2017 • 5 min read
Why India’s commitment to nuclear disarmament is “merely rhetorical”
Caravan Magazine

Why India’s commitment to nuclear disarmament is “merely rhetorical”

India champions itself as a leader of nuclear disarmament, but fails to walk the talk.

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 18 Nov 2017 • 7 min read
Widowed by tigers, abandoned by the state
People's Archive of Rural India

Widowed by tigers, abandoned by the state

Every year, estimates indicate, around 100 men are killed by tigers in the Sundarbans. A bureaucratic maze then disallows their widows from getting compensation, forcing them to live in distress and penury

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 12 Oct 2017 • 5 min read
India-China rivalries overshadow the larger purpose of BRICS
The Asia Dialogue

India-China rivalries overshadow the larger purpose of BRICS

Can the BRICS group of countries take on a larger role in world affairs?

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 11 Sep 2017 • 6 min read
Carnegie Endowment in India: Promoting US leadership with Indian corporate wealth
The Wire

Carnegie Endowment in India: Promoting US leadership with Indian corporate wealth

The influential think tank, whose goal is to safeguard 'American interests' globally, is also seen by Indian businesses with strong US partnerships as a way of lobbying the Indian government

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 31 Aug 2017 • 10 min read
India, Israel and Palestine: A triangle that does not sum up
The Wire

India, Israel and Palestine: A triangle that does not sum up

As Palestine observes its 50th year of Israeli occupation, hard strategic and military calculations define India’s national interest and colour its ties with Israel and Palestine.

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 2 Jul 2017 • 5 min read
‘Maach (fishing) and chaash (cultivation) brought us to Sundarbans’
People's Archive of Rural India

‘Maach (fishing) and chaash (cultivation) brought us to Sundarbans’

Flood, famine, Partition, riots, and the promise of land and jobs drove early migrations to the Sundarbans. The settlers then battled disease, hunger and attacks by tigers, but eventually found a home

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 10 Apr 2017 • 5 min read
'We are not safe even in office': Pune techie's murder raises concerns on security, workplace sexism
Scroll.in

'We are not safe even in office': Pune techie's murder raises concerns on security, workplace sexism

he software sector is a large employer of women, but safety measures and sensitivity is sorely lacking, say the IT hub's young professionals.

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 4 Feb 2017 • 5 min read
From river to plate: the journey of the Sundarbans tiger prawn
People's Archive of Rural India

From river to plate: the journey of the Sundarbans tiger prawn

For village women in the Sundarbans, collecting tiger prawn seedlings is unrewarding and unsavoury work – though the delicacy fetches high prices for others later along the supply chain

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 11 Jan 2017 • 6 min read
Kashmir: A look at the Kunan Poshpora rapes
Al Jazeera

Kashmir: A look at the Kunan Poshpora rapes

Writers Ifrah Butt and Natasha Rather discuss the impact of militarisation on Kashmiri women and men

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 24 Dec 2016 • 4 min read
Brics' New Development Bank may be new only in name – it's yet to lay the ground for sweeping change
Scroll.in

Brics' New Development Bank may be new only in name – it's yet to lay the ground for sweeping change

As the member countries look to take the New Development Bank ahead at the ongoing summit, they would do well to first look at its existing problems.

  • Urvashi Sarkar
    Urvashi Sarkar
Urvashi Sarkar 17 Oct 2016 • 4 min read
Urvashi Sarkar
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