Annual meeting of IASSI in progress

The second day of the 22nd annual conference of the Indian Association of Social Science Institutions (IASSI) took place at the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS) in Hyderabad. The conference focused on important topics in the field of social sciences.
Professor Seeta Prabhu spoke at the opening session and discussed the pressing development issues of the current ‘poly-crisis’. She advocated for a shift in policy-making to address economic, geopolitical, and environmental crises together. She highlighted the need for policies that reduce inequalities worsened by climate change. Professor Prabhu also mentioned the challenges of post-covid-19 recovery, geopolitical conflicts, rising food and fuel prices, and the impending climate crisis. She introduced the term ‘polycrisis’ to describe the combination of these challenges.
Professor Prabhu identified four primary drivers of the polycrisis: widening inequality, anthropocene and overshoot, rising complexity, and hyper globalisation. She explained that economic growth without addressing income distribution has led to severe inequalities, which were further intensified during the pandemic. Professor Prabhu emphasized the importance of balancing immediate political goals with long-term sustainability and intergenerational equity in development policy.
In another session, Professor Alakh N Sharma and Professor Mahendra Dev led a panel discussion on India’s evolving employment landscape. They discussed post-pandemic employment trends, including the increase in female employment, agricultural work, and the expansion of the informal sector. Dr Balwant Singh Mehta also highlighted demographic changes impacting the job market, such as increased educational engagement among youth. However, he mentioned the irony of higher education leading to a surplus of qualified individuals who are not employed, especially among engineering graduates.
Throughout the day, researchers presented their work under three thematic umbrellas: sustainable development, urbanization and development, and women empowerment. The segment on women empowerment covered various issues like land rights and labor market participation.