In The Field

At In the Field, we’re very interested in the debates around gender and work. We know that women face a number of constraints while running their businesses, and women are constantly strategizing on how to balance their domestic responsibilities while facing prejudice as women business owners. In this episode, we’re looking at how crucial social interactions within business ecosystems work to enable or limit the aspirations of women entrepreneurs. Thanks to Professors Vidya Soundararajan at IIT Bombay, Jeemol Unni at Ahmedabad University, Kanika Bansal, Mridulya Narasimhan, and Aishwarya Joshi and Preethi Rao, Diksha Singh, and Keerthana Ramaswamy. This episode is brought to you by LEAD at Krea University, an action-oriented research center based in India. WE Hub Foundation of the Government of Telangana is this study’s partner. For more information on LEAD’s Social Interactions study, watch this space at https://ifmrlead.org/stree. For further reading, check out their report on “COVID-19 Enterprise Response Research: Key Findings”, and to know more about LEAD’s work, please visit them on LinkedIn or Twitter @LeadatKrea.

In our final episode of Founders, we talk about the economics of female entrepreneurship and what it takes to make a dream come to life. Is it having a single-minded focus on the goal? Is it financial independence? Or is it the ability to say no - because in the end your entrepreneurial dream is yours alone? In the rollercoaster ride of entrepreneurship, you’ve got to keep your eyes on the goal. And when you fail - pick up, dust off, and start again. Thanks to Hardika Shah from KInara Capital, Soumya Kapoor from IWWAGE, Lavanya Mohan and Professor Seema Jayachandran from Northwestern University.

If there’s a word that’s often used to characterise women’s careers it is “interruption”. Starting a business interrupts “life” too. It’s a big disruptive interruption that challenges what many see are the natural order of things for women - getting a steady job, earning a safe and regular income, and the idea of being settled. In this episode we ask, how do women entrepreneurs juggle it all to make it work? Thanks to Professor Seema Jayachandran and Soumya Kapoor. Supported by Her and Now.in .

In the first episode of Founders we set the stage by exploring how women are positioned in the economy and in society. When we try to wrap our heads around the challenges women face to participate in the workforce, entrepreneurship can come across as one of the hardest paths a woman could choose. Grit and sacrifice is very normalized in the stories of women’s working lives. But we can’t keep trying to imagine it, we have to learn what it actually takes. Supported by Her and Now.in . Music and Sound by Yashwanth Vinay.

Have you ever thought about how women are positioned in the economy? Two stories dominate discussions about India’s female labourforce: the low rates of female labour force participation, but also the fact that women make up a significant proportion of small businesses in India ! How do we make sense of these two stories - falling female labourforce participation and the significance of women as enterprise owners? Are they even connected? Join us in Founders, where we unpack the economics and social realities of women entrepreneurship in India. Supported by Her and Now.in . Music and Sound by Yashwanth Vinay. (Additional audio used under a CC Attribution License_Reuse allowed.)

Across the world, there is a space where the battle against COVID -19 rages. This frontline of the pandemic is the local government, which faces an unprecedented challenge. So what’s happening at Kerala’s frontline? This is the final episode of Kaalavastha, our 6 part series on Kerala, climate change and the meaning of resilience. Thanks to Jose Shailaja Teacher, Sarada Muraleedharan, Mridul Eapen, Soumya Kapoor, Prof Jiju Ulahanan and Dr Sekhar Lukose Kuriakose. The Kaalavastha mini-series is brought to you by the World Bank.

Kerala’s economy relies heavily on things that are native and unique to it - its natural resources, its traditions and heritage. In this episode we look at efforts to build resilience into the livelihoods of the people of Kerala and at some of its prominent traditional sectors. In their rebuilding, lies Kerala's future. The Kaalavastha miniseries is brought to you by the World Bank. Thanks to Jose Dominic, Gopi Parayil, Sreejith Jeevan, Lakshmi Menon and P. Robin. Additional sounds used are under a CC attribution: Weaving mills and factories » Bhagalpur, silk weaving handlloom.wav by phonoflora Kerala-4.wav by xserra.

As Kerala today thinks about how to reduce its reliance on remittances, and on how to revive the economy after the COVID-19 crisis, agriculture is one place where many say there is huge potential. But reorienting this is no easy task. Thanks to Mr DK Singh, Suma Vishnudas, Viju B and Vinayak Ghatate. The Kaalavastha miniseries is brought to you by the World Bank. Additional sounds: “Climate change in Wayanad, Kerala: ‘Farming only makes sense if it is a hobby” by People’s Archive of Rural India (CC license), Attributions under Freesound.org (Frogmouth.wav - shyamal), and Cheruvayil Raman audio from Thanima 2 / NITC 2017.

In Kerala resilience has been a part of the conversation for quite a while before it became the word we all seem to be talking about. So, given its head start, what is Kerala doing to keep the well from going dry? In this episode, we explore how new efforts to build Kerala’s resilience are focussing on it’s two most important resources, rivers and remittances. Thanks to Anil Das, Dilip Ratha, Thomas Mathew , VD Satheesan and Dr V Venu. Kaalavastha is brought to you by the World Bank.

The 2018 floods were called once in a century floods - because in people’s memory, there was only flood before it that had marked so many lives, the flood of 1924. But when the state flooded again in 2019, many asked, why this was happening again? Why was the once in a lifetime flood back with a vengeance in less than a year? In this episode we find out about a contentious topic that may have increased the scale of the disaster: Kerala’s relationship with land. Thanks to Sreeranganathan, Professor Srikumar Chattopadhyay, Sobha Viswanath and Viju B. Additional sound from Freesound.org are attributable under Creative Commons Attribution Licences: HEAVY_SMASH_001.wav, QUICK_SMASH_002.wav, QUICK_SMASH_001.wav, GRUNT_002.wav by JoelAudio and Waves in small rocky cavern.flac by Phistomefel. The Kaalavastha miniseries is brought to you by the World Bank.