'On the Question of Land : New realities, severe urgencies' a talk by Prof. Sanjoy Chakravorty, Temple University, USA at Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 16th July 2014

Time : 3:00 pm Add to Calendar 16-07-2014 15:00:00 16-07-2014 16:30:00 68 'On the Question of Land : New realities, severe urgencies' a talk by Prof. Sanjoy Chakravorty, Temple University, USA Event Page : http://goo.gl/aqTF2t Seminar Room, Library Building, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg, New Delhi - 110011 DD/MM/YYYY

Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served basis)

Place : Seminar Room, 1st Floor, Library Building, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg, New Delhi - 110011
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Event Description : The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library cordially invites you to Public Lecture (in the ‘India in Transition’ series) on ‘On the Question of Land : New realities, severe urgencies’ by Prof. Sanjoy Chakravorty, Temple University, USA.

Abstract : Questions on land are arguably the most important ones facing India.  At independence, land reform and redistribution were high on the legislative and policy agenda.  Now the critical issues are very different, namely: price, productivity, and acquisition.  At the core is the reality of extreme land shortage and fragmentation, leading to extraordinary demand, conflict, and criminality.  Land prices in India, both urban and rural, are the highest in the world, having increased at least five-fold in the last decade.  Agricultural productivity is among the lowest, making farming increasingly unviable for many, leading to what is being called an “agrarian crisis”.  The demand for land for new uses (urban/industry/infrastructure) is rising rapidly at the same time that land is increasingly seen as the most important asset (by agriculturalists, the growing middle class, investors, the political class, and criminals).  There is a severe and growing imbalance between demand and supply.  Powerful interests gain from this imbalance and the resulting stratospheric prices, and the urban economy is now hooked on these prices.  A new law to make acquisition more just is likely to exacerbate the price crisis even further. There is an urgent need for level-headed analysis, unbiased by ideology or short term self-interest, based on a clear understanding of these new realities of India’s land situation. This talk is a step in that direction.

Speaker : Prof. Sanjoy Chakravorty is Professor of Geography and Urban Studies at Temple University. Over the last decade his research has focused on empirical work on India and theoretical work on distribution. His most recent book is The Price of Land, which analyzes land acquisition and conflicts in the framework of state policies and land markets in India. Other recent books include Fragments of Inequality, which investigates structure and change in income distributions, and Made in India, which studies the economic geography of Indian industry.  His shorter work (over fifty papers and chapters) are scattered through journals in geography, development economics, and urban studies.  His work has been funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. National Institute of Justice, the American Institute of Indian Studies, and the World Bank.  Professor Chakravorty is working (by himself or collaboratively) on four substantive projects now: an unconventional book on contemporary Kolkata, a book on epistemology provisionally titled “The Truth About Us: Categories, Counts, and Other Fabrications,” a book on Indians in America, and a large survey of urban India.

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