Articles by Sudhir Chella Rajan

A response to the article “The Work of Theory: Thinking across Traditions” (EPW, 10 September 2016) by Prathama Banerjee, Aditya Nigam and Rakesh Pandey builds on their argument by proposing extensions to their new postcolonial theory.

Climate migrants and exiles pose a unique challenge that requires a special international strategy, which only the United States, with its well-established and transparent regimes for legal immigration, has the experience and capacity to develop. To begin with, the US could take the initiative in formulating domestic policy to start absorbing a significant proportion of the most vulnerable climate exiles from small island states. It could raise and attend to an urgent issue on the impacts of warming and at the same time claim a leadership position in global climate negotiations by tacitly accepting its historic responsibility for climate change.

The success of electricity reforms in India will depend critically upon the existence of some sort of restraining or disciplining mechanism in the sector, in the absence of which current efforts will likely result in a transition from inefficient public ownership to profit-gouging monopolies or oligarchies. In principle, such a mechanism could be strong, independent and effective regulatory oversight over public or private monopolies or significant competition among a large number of public and private entities. But it is important to examine without bias, and as thoroughly as possible, the feasibility and effectivness of both these sector-disciplining mechanisms before making any claims regarding the desirability of privatisation. The authors also argue that issues related to protecting the environment, extending access to the poor and other off-grid populations and strategic concerns related to import dependence and foreign private ownership need to be addressed upfront in order for the reforms to be in the broader public interest. [This paper is dedicated to the memory of Stephen R Bernow, 1942-2003.]