As part of its series, The State of Cities – #CityConversations, #IMPRI Center for Habitat, Urban and Regional Studies (CHURS), IMPRI Impact and Policy Research Institute, New Delhi, organized a panel discussion under IMPRI #WebPolicyTalk on the Regional Futures and the Dynamics of Digitisation-as-Urbanisation on March 2, 2022.
The #IMPRI Gender Impact Studies Centre (GISC), IMPRI Impact and Policy Research Institute, New Delhi, hosted a panel discussion under #WebPolicyTalk series- The State of Gender Equality – #GenderGaps on the topic National Family Health Survey Round 5 (NFHS-5), 2019-2021 under a Gender Lens. The session was chaired by Prof Vibhuti Patel, Visiting Professor, IMPRI and Former Professor, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. Our esteemed panellists included Ms Poonam Muttreja, Executive Director, Population Foundation of India (PFI), New Delhi, Prof Sayeed Unisa, Professor and Head, Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, Mr Ravi Duggal, Independent Sociologist, Public Health Researcher and Activist, Prof Mala Ramanathan, Professor, AMCHSS, SCTIMST, Thiruvananthapuram, Working Editor, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics (IJME).
The Russian blitzkrieg does not seem to have worked. It wanted to have a quick victory but the popular resistance sui generis and also supported and allegedly fomented for years by western countries could make the winning sour and delayed.
The international community has been intensely scrutinising India’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The United States has desired India to play a constructive role by influencing President Vladimir Putin to put an end to his military intervention in Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has urged India to help restore normalcy by engaging in talks with Putin. While Russia has asked nothing of India, it has showered praise on India for its balanced role in view of its abstention from the UN Security Council Resolutions: One condemning the Russian military action, and the other calling for an emergency meeting of the UN General Assembly to discuss the Ukrainian crisis.
As Russian aggression against Ukraine drags on, there is a palpable sense that the world has entered a more dangerous phase. Russian President Vladimir Putin has unleashed mayhem not only in Ukraine but has also transformed the landscape of European security that will have reverberations far and wide. What started as a smart game of diplomatic manoeuvring by Putin has turned into an urban siege where whatever the Russian leader may or may not achieve on the battlefield will result in him losing significantly over the long term. Tactical, and even operational, success is likely to yield little strategic gain for Russia as nations around the world assess the impact of one of the most profound shifts in global security in decades.
While the eyes of the world are focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, here in India our gaze remains fixed on China – even as the positions of India and China at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), on the need for dialogue and diplomacy over conflict and casualties and regard for sovereignty, and security concerns for all, are broadly similar.