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Report6 November 2025Mobility as Social Protection: Fare-free Public Bus Transport and Women’s Economic Participation- A Study of Karnataka’s “Shakti Yojane”
by Shipra Nigam et al.
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PerspectiveEducation and Skills, Gender 28 August 2025Kerala’s silent crisis: Educated youth, but locked out of work
by Isha Gupta
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Bridging the chasm: Rethinking education and skill systems
7 August 2025
ABOUT THIS Perspective
JJN's Sabina Dewan writes on how technological advancement, trade shocks, climate change, and the energy transition are transforming how we live and work, faster than the ability of our education and skill systems to keep pace. She says urgent, comprehensive reforms — from effective implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) to stronger industry partnerships — are necessary to improve our education and skills systems.
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Sabina Dewan Calls for Human-Centric AI Regulation at AICESIS, Curaçao
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From Precarious Work to Perennial Rights? Some Lessons from Dharam Singh
In a landmark shift, the Supreme Court's 2025 ruling in Dharam Singh & Anr. v. State of UP & Anr. declared that "perennial work deserves perennial posts". Breaking from decades of judicial precedent, the court held that long-serving daily wage workers in government service performing essential, continuous functions must be regularised, with full employment benefits. The judgment directly challenges past rulings that treated temporary government employment as inherently non-regularisable, instead emphasizing the nature and continuity of the work as central to constitutional fairness.
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Redefining Wealth & Work: Gen Z, Multi Retirements, and the Reality
HSBC's Quality of Life report reveals a shift among Gen Z from traditional wealth accumulation to seeking balance, fulfilment, and purpose, with "multi retirements" emerging as a trend. But Sabina Dewan highlights this perspective reflects the privileged few. In India and other developing countries, most young people continue to struggle with low earnings and lack of social security and even well-paying jobs can feel isolating and purposeless.
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Kerala’s silent crisis: Educated youth, but locked out of work
Despite high education levels, Kerala faces alarmingly high rates of youth who are Not in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET). This disconnect between education and labour force participation signals a deep socioeconomic challenge. Based on qualitative interviews with a range of stakeholders in the state, JustJobs Network's Isha Gupta unpacks this paradox, pointing to a mismatch between youth aspirations and available opportunities.
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India is advancing social security for online gig workers, but this marks only a reactive step in addressing the evolving nature of informal work. JJN’s Renjini Rajagopalan writes for The Hindu highlighting the need for a more inclusive, universal social protection system to ensure no worker is left behind, especially as new worker categories emerge.
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Jobs: Bridging the gap between growth and quality
JJN’s Sabina Dewan writes on the urgent need to bridge the gap between growth and quality of jobs for the Indian working-age population. Labour market in India is failing to generate enough high-quality jobs for its large and growing population; at the same time employers struggle to find workers with the right skills for the job openings they have. Highlighting the growing extent of precarity in the nature of available work in the country, she makes the case for adopting a ground-up approach for job creation.
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E-commerce revolution is not inclusive enough
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Capital versus labour in the digital age: Rigged against workers
While tech platforms have eased our lives, too little attention is paid to a growing inequity. Capital gets to multiply, but gig workers are left at a disadvantage as they’re not treated as employees and lack labour protection under the law. This capital-labour imbalance needs to be addressed.
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FutureWORKS Collective: Charting New Frontiers in the Global South
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