Articles by N C Narayanan

This paper maps out the key drivers, actors, and policies that have shaped the shrimp aquaculture industry in post-independence India. While the existing aquaculture regulations vilify the farmers for the industry’s socioecological disaster, this paper—through its analysis—shifts the liability to the multilateral consultancies and technical research institutions that were arbitrated by the postcolonial developmental state with the help of international aid under the guise of food security and alternate livelihoods while the shrimps were being exported.

Laudable aims aside, the implementation of India's largest welfare programme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, leaves much to be desired. Taking a close look at its functioning in three development blocks in Maharashtra in the last three financial years, this study emphasises that there is a serious lack of capacities in the agencies tasked with actualising the scheme. A partnership between local non-governmental organisation and educational institutions could offer a way out by bringing in transparency, accountability, and participation to strengthen local governance.