Higher At Work

5 Nov

Self Employed Women’s Association

In

What is the story of SEWA? SEWA began as groups of urban poor — marginalized, disempowered, migrant cartloaders, vendors, rag pickers — who came together to ensure basic dignity of work and labor for themselves. It started in 1971 as a wing within TLA (Textile Labour Association), the then powerful [...]

21 Oct

Tracking Indian Society: Whose stories do we love?

In

History is written by the victors. Whose stories do we love? In a recent interview Arundhati Roy said we have successfully erased the poor from our consciousness. This is why we were shocked when we witnessed the distress of migrant labourers walking hundreds of miles during lockdown. Look at the [...]

24 Jul

Covid-19: Stories of impact

In

Work and Income As a small firm in the business of research and strategy, expectedly, our work is significantly impacted by the pandemic lockdown. This maybe true for most people, however, the severity of the experience is not the same — across large companies, self-employed, high-income groups, low-income groups. To [...]

26 Jun

Customer Centricity and Design Thinking

In

Here’s a quiz. What do you find offensive in the following: we should learn to empathize with our customerswe should clearly articulate the problem we are trying to solve for our customerswe should learn to generate many ideas in smart ways before jumping to one final solutionwe should continuously trying [...]

26 Jun

Women Entrepreneurs: Housewives rise

In

My apartment complex, of about 700 households, is a vibrant centre of commerce. At any point in time there are raw materials being procured, goods being produced, and transactions being completed. All in the intimacy of homes and the neighbourhood. An app that enabled people to buy and sell meals within [...]

26 Jun

Brands and their Covid-19 Response

In

Summary of covid-19 responses by top Brands How did leading Brands respond to Covid19 crisis? A study of the largest global and Indian brands led to an understanding of 5 key themes of actions: 1. Support employees & partners to continue work safely and sustainably. 2. Speed innovations to develop [...]

24 Jun

Culture of Airports

In

I stood with about 200 people ahead of me in the famous Heathrow immigration queue. After waiting for more than an hour, I was greeted by a hostile immigration officer who clearly thought I shouldn’t have renewed my very valid visa to stay and work in London. I couldn’t help [...]

24 Jun

India’s informal economy: Creating millions of leaders

In

Call it forced entrepreneurship or the realities of thriving in our country for a vast majority of the population — millions of leaders emerge just trying to better their lot. Earlier this week, a cab driver I traveled with was easily the most dynamic person I had met recently. In [...]

24 Jun

India’s demographic tightrope: Education’s link to livelihoods

In

Source: National Sample Survey 2014, https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/still-too-many-children-out-of-school/article24857149.ece We were in the villages and towns of Uttar Pradesh, chatting with groups of women and youth primarily from low income households. They shared their life concerns and access to a regular source of livelihood appeared to be their biggest worry. The men found it [...]

24 Jun

Invisible Migrant Workers

In

Men have been the most visible migrants in India. However, nearly 70% of migrants in India are women. While their primary reason for migration is stated as marriage, we know many women, especially in the lower socio-economic strata, work after marriage and migration. Many times, during research work across rural [...]

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