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CSLG organises a seminar by Usha Ramanathan

CSLG organises a seminar by Usha Ramanathan

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CSLG organises a seminar by Usha Ramanathan
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CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF LAW AND GOVERNANCE

Jawaharlal Nehru University

 

SEMINAR SERIES

 

Usha Ramanathan

 

On

 

After the Judgment: The UID Project

 

 Abstract

 

On 26 September 2018, a Constitution Bench gave its decision on the constitutionality of the UID project, and the Aadhaar Act 2016. The case was taken to court with concerns about exclusion, biometrics, privacy, and surveillance. It tells us the story of the companies involved and their link with foreign security and intelligence agencies. The case narrates coercion, contempt of court, ubiquity and the seeding of multiple data bases. It raises questions of data breaches and insecurity of our data. And how personal data is treated as a business resource. Surely the Constitution is about the limits of state power, and the project steps outside this constitutional principle. The majority decision upheld the project, and the Act. The dissenting judgment reached a completely contrary conclusion. What explains this difference? The talk will search for answers to this question.

   

3.00 PM, Thursday, 25 October 2018

Conference Room, CSLG, JNU

 

 

About the Speaker: Usha Ramanathan works on the jurisprudence of law, poverty and rights. She researches, writes and speaks on issues that include the nature of law, Bhopal Gas Disaster, mass displacement, eminent domain, manual scavenging, civil liberties including the death penalty, beggary, criminal law, custodial institutions, the environment, judicial process. She has been tracking, and engaging with, the UID project and has written, and debated extensively, on the subject. She was a member of the Expert Group on Privacy set up in the Planning Commission of India which gave in its report in October 2012. She has served a member on committees to review the Draft Human DNA Profiling Bill 2012, to study the socio-economic status of tribal communities, and to revise the vagrancy law.

 

 PLEASE JOIN US FOR TEA AFTER THE SEMINAR 

ALL ARE WELCOME 

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.