29 January 2019: Workshop on 'Urban Mobility and Dengue in Delhi and Bangkok: What Can We Learn from Online Data?'

Alexandre Cebeillac
University of Rouen (France) and the Centre for Social Science and Humanities (CSH), New Delhi

Abstract:
Emerging vector-borne diseases such as dengue intensify public health crises in the Asian mega cities of Bangkok (Thailand) and Delhi (India). The links between mosquitoes and the urban environment are well documented, but our understanding of human movement, as a key element of virus spreading, has yet to be fully explored as a research subject.

Given the paucity in adequate or available institutional data, our research first focused on field surveys, and then on the collection, comparison and critique of data collected from major Internet platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Google, Microsoft). Their potential varies from one geographical area to another, still they shed light on the organisation and structure of the studied cities. Moreover, they highlight intra-urban interactions and time frames.

However, such studies cannot be carried out without knowledge acquired from the field. Using the concept of activity space, we propose a method that uses Twitter data and field surveys to model the daily schedules of individuals, thus offering insights into mobility patterns. This is a first step in the development of an agent-based model of individual mobility.

Date: January 29, 2019
Time: 03:45 P.M.

Venue:
Centre for Science and Humanities (CSH),
2, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Road,
New Delhi - 110 011

Note:
Please confirm participation to amit.arora@csh-delhi.com

Location:

21 January 2019: Book launch of "The Land Question in Urban Development"

Edited by:
Shashanka Bhide, Former Director, Madras Institute of Development Studies and Devendra B. Gupta, National Council of Applied Economic Research

Abstract:
India is one of the most land-scarce countries in the world. This scarcity has been increasing at a rapid pace in urban India. The resulting rise in urban land prices has led to the growth of unauthorised settlements, inadequate infrastructure, squalor, and homeless populations. Land regulation is hampered by the absence of systematic data collection and analysis, and by poorly drafted laws and the limited management capacities of urban development agencies. Despite these concerns, urban economics in India has remained a neglected field of policymaking and policy assessment. This edited conference volume contains invited papers from NCAER’s Round Table in New Delhi on Land Economics–Issues and Challenges. The Editors also commissioned several additional papers that the Round Table did not cover. The ten papers cover the full array of problems that confront India’s urban areas. It is a testimony both to the quality of these papers and to the persistence of the problems that the papers remain fully relevant and have much to offer four years after the NCAER Round Table.

Date: January 21, 2019
Time: 01:00 P.M.

Venue:
T2 Conference Centre,
The NCAER India Centre
Parisila Bhawan, 11, Indraprastha Estate
New Delhi-110002(INDIA)

Note:
For queries, please contact Ms Sudesh Bala at sbala@ncaer.org, +91-11-2345-2722

Location:

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14 January 2019: Improving Monetary Transmission Through the Banking Channel - The Case for External Benchmarks in Bank Loans

Viral Acharya
Reserve Bank of India

Date: January 14, 2019
Time: 03:00 P.M.

Venue:
Swami Vivekananda Hall
Department of Economics,
Delhi School of Economics,
New Delhi-110007(INDIA)

Location:

15 January 2019: Critique of and Alternatives to the Extractive Imagination of AI

Anupam Guha

Discussant:
Tarunima Prabhakar, Center for Long Term Cybersecurity, UC Berkeley

Abstract:
The imminence of artificial intelligence has been accompanied by a narrative of inevitability in social relations based on premises which have not been critically interrogated. Companies are selling “AI solutions” to problems where neither what constitutes AI nor whether these problems are technological in nature is debated as fiercely as it should, if only to prevent unforeseen consequences. These premises do not question the extractive nature of current social relations and thus imagine AI in the role of accelerant and property and not much else. This lack of political imagination has potentially dire consequences of furthering inequity, baking in precarity, and freezing structural oppression, perhaps even causing regression. Even the critique of AI policy in a sense accepts these premises and focuses on bias and transparency of systems as they are used now, rather than power and ownership, both legitimising solutionism and diverting the blame for what are sociological problems onto technology.

Considering the oppressive and the emancipatory potential of AI systems it becomes our task to critique both the social relations it is premised on and provide an alternative imagination for AI which explores the nature of work and property in the era of automation. My talk will go into (in the Indian context) the limitations of current policy thought when it comes to AI, a critique of band aid measures being presented like UBI and robot taxes, and an exploration of the premises, especially the nature of data as property, current policy is being written on. My talk will then present an alternative imagination for labour in relation to AI, of work, wage, and public prosperity, and thus a framework for what is to be done.

Date: January 15, 2019
Time: 04:30 P.M.

Venue:
Conference Hall, Ground Floor
R&T Building
National Institute of Public Finance and Policy,
18/2 Satsang Vihar Marg, Special Institutional Area,
New Delhi-110067(INDIA)

Note:
Those who are interested may please confirm your participation at latha.balasubramanian@nipfp.org.in

Location:

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