Cases

Problems and Purpose

In 2002, the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) saw the completion of the construction of the Simhadri Thermal Power Project (STPP), a coal-fired power plant, in the Vizag District of India. The construction of the STPP, while having promised potential benefits and opportunities for local residents, had instead served to compromise their existing economic wellbeing. This case presents the latter’s response to their predicament through a public hearing with the participation of relevant actors, including civil society actors.

Problems and Purpose

The financial and economic crisis, of which we have heard so much discussion since 2007-8, is only one aspect of a whole series of underlying political trends which have been apparent for much longer: a crisis of (in)equality and of increased precarity of the workforce, a human rights crisis, a demographic crisis, an ecological crisis, a crisis in civil liberties, and above all a crisis in democracy.