We are pleased to present the combined June and December 2021 issue of SOCRATES, our esteemed journal dedicated to the dissemination of original research in the disciplines of Public Policy, Public Administration, and Philosophy. This issue marks a significant milestone, symbolising our commitment to advancing academic scholarship despite the challenges we have faced in recent years. We apologize for the delay in releasing this issue due to various constraints and reasons, and we appreciate your understanding and patience. This double issue, titled the "North-East India Special" features selected articles from emerging researchers in the Northeastern region. These insightful and thought-provoking research articles bring unique perspectives and contribute to a deeper understanding of pertinent issues within their respective domains.

The first article in this issue, by Birta Hansepi, examines the staffing patterns in public and private schools in the West Karbi Anglong region of Assam. The research focuses on the recruitment processes and the availability of training and development programs in these schools. Using survey questionnaires administered to teachers, Hansepi identifies significant differences between the public and private sectors in terms of staffing practices and opportunities for professional development. This research is crucial for understanding the management functions that underpin effective educational institutions.

The second article, by Ibanjelin Mawrie, assesses the socio-economic impacts of MGNREGA in the Laitlyngkot region. By employing a mixed-methods approach, this study integrates qualitative insights from field observations and interviews with quantitative data analysis. Mawrie's findings indicate that MGNREGA has significantly improved livelihood security, household incomes, and access to essential services. However, the study also identifies challenges, such as discrepancies and delays in wage payments, which hinder the program's overall effectiveness.

The third article, by Josephine H.M., explores the socio-economic and political challenges encountered by the Maram Centre Village Council in Manipur. This research highlights the need for capacity building to enhance governance capabilities and stresses the importance of stakeholder engagement, transparency, and accountability. The study’s quantitative approach reveals critical insights for policymakers aiming to formulate effective strategies for inclusive and sustainable development.

The fourth article, by Lamngaineng Guite, assesses the socio-economic status of Kuki tribal women in Moreh Town. The research identifies key factors influencing their socio-economic conditions, including education, health, economic pursuits, and social behaviour. Using structured questionnaires and statistical analysis, the study reveals that the socio-economic status of Kuki women is generally low, emphasizing the need for better education, health, and economic opportunities to enhance their roles and status within their families and communities.

The fifth and final article, by Madhu Thakur, explores the migration of youth from Kamrup (M), Assam, to metropolitan areas across India, focusing on the socio-economic implications of this trend. Through surveys, interviews, and secondary data analysis, Thakur identifies economic opportunities, educational pursuits, and aspirations for a modern lifestyle as primary motivators for migration. The study also addresses the challenges faced by these youths, such as cultural adjustment and social integration, while highlighting the broader impacts on local development due to the 'brain drain' phenomenon.

As we move forward, our editorial team remains dedicated to upholding the highest standards of academic excellence and integrity. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the authors for their valuable contributions and to our reviewers for their diligent efforts in ensuring the quality of the published research. We also thank our readers for their continued support and patience during these challenging times. The resilience of our academic community is evident in the remarkable research presented in this issue. Through such collaborative efforts, we can overcome obstacles and continue to contribute to the collective knowledge and progress of our journal. We are optimistic about the future and confident that SOCRATES will continue to serve as a vital platform for scholarly dialogue and innovation. We invite researchers and scholars to contribute their work to upcoming issues and join us in our mission to advance knowledge and understanding across diverse fields. In closing, we hope that this issue of SOCRATES will inspire new ideas, provoke thoughtful discussion, and stimulate further research. Together, we will navigate the challenges ahead and strive for a brighter, more informed future.

Warm regards

Prof. Dr. Manoj Dixit 

Dr. Saurabh Chandra

The regular issues of SOCRATES are always diverse. They are not labelled as special issues, but the variety of themes and topics presented in each issue makes them unique. This issue is no exception. This issue addresses critical topics such as poverty, gender inequality, violence against women, governance, education, and data management—issues that are interconnected and essential for policymaking and societal development. Beyond presenting the current realities, the articles in this issue call for concrete action.

The first article in this issue, authored by Ajay Sharma Chinnadurai and Asmita Debbarma, fulfils the need for an intersectional approach to understanding poverty. It emphasizes how socioeconomic and gender disparities create distinct challenges. The authors analyse how gender and socioeconomic status influence experiences of poverty, demonstrating how these factors interact to create unique circumstances for men and women.

The second article, authored by Purna Laxmi Jamatia, examines the nature of violence against women, with a particular focus on the experiences of employed and unemployed women. The study highlights the alarming prevalence of violence in various forms and the differing challenges faced by women in different employment situations.

The third article, by Manas Ranjan Behera and Dr Rajshree Dutta, presents an analysis of the 5T model of governance introduced by the Odisha state government. Based on secondary sources, the paper evaluates how the 5T approach—transparency, teamwork, technology, and timeliness leading to transformation—has established citizen-centric governance in Odisha.

The fourth article, authored by Wapangnaro Imchen, investigates primary school educators' perspectives on the challenges they face while teaching students with intellectual disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, learning disabilities, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The study provides insights into the struggles faced by educators and highlights the need for better training and resources.

The fifth article, by Annaliya Shaji and Dr Meera Rajeev Kumar, explores best practices for data governance in developing countries, drawing on examples from around the world. The paper discusses key aspects such as data market strategy, government incentives, data literacy, and data localization. It also analyses the Indian government’s initiatives to strengthen data governance, emphasizing its growing importance in the post-COVID era.

The articles in this issue emphasize the urgent need for targeted policy reforms to address socioeconomic and gender disparities, promoting a more equitable society. They also highlight the importance of stronger legal and social measures to protect women from violence and combat its widespread prevalence. Additionally, the articles stress the need for greater investment in education and teacher training to support students with disabilities, ensuring educators have the necessary skills to create inclusive learning environments. The adoption of transparent and efficient governance models, such as the 5T approach, is presented as a means to enhance citizen-centric governance and improve public administration. Finally, the issue underscores the importance of strengthening data governance frameworks to ensure security, accessibility, and accountability in the digital era, as data becomes increasingly crucial to governance and development.

As a serious scholarly publication, SOCRATES is committed to shedding light on critical societal issues. We encourage further research, policy interventions, and public discourse based on the findings presented in this issue.

Editors

Prof. (Dr.) Manoj Dixit
Vice-Chancellor, Maharaja Ganga Singh University, Bikaner, Rajasthan, India.

Dr Saurabh Chandra
Assistant Professor – Public Administration, Assam Don Bosco University, Guwahati, India.

The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly impacted the global economy, society, and politics, raising critical questions about existing policy discourses and priorities. The pandemic not only resulted in a significant death toll but also exacerbated unemployment, social conflict, and disruptions in education. These effects were felt worldwide, regardless of income status or growth rates, and have had lasting impacts on socio-economic conditions, many of which are irreversible.

The extensive loss of life and livelihoods has highlighted serious gaps in state preparedness for external shocks, underlining the urgent need for fundamental restructuring of public policies in the post-COVID-19 era. This unprecedented crisis has sparked a vital policy debate on shifting priorities from focusing exclusively on economic growth to enhancing social sector development.  Additionally, it has reinvigorated discussions about the public sector’s role in providing essential  goods and services.

The sudden outbreak and its devastating impact of the Covid 19 pandemic raised the most pertinent question about the level of preparedness for any unforeseen circumstances leading to natural disasters. Recently, India has seen several natural disasters, such as earthquakes, tsunamis and COVID-19. Given their enormous impact on many people’s lives, it is imperative to critically explore the country’s level of preparedness in mitigating and recovering from such high-impact natural disasters. Dr Vasantha Gouri, in her article ‘Handling Natural Disasters and Resilience Building: A Study in South Asia’, sheds some light on such challenges in the country.

The COVID-19 outbreak and its disastrous impact have indicated the country has inadequate healthcare infrastructure to deal with such unforeseen crises, particularly concerning access for the large populations living at the margin. More precisely, marginalised social categories, including women, have remained the biggest victims of the sudden outbreak and limited preparedness of the healthcare system in India. Haritha Surap and Dr. Ravinder Kaur, in their jointly authored article ‘Influence of Socio-Economic and Cultural Factors on Women’s Health in India: An Overview’, elaborately discuss some of these concerns.

Education also remained one of the most crucial sectors bearing the brunt of the COVID-19 lockdown. One of the special impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the change in the mode of teaching from offline to online, particularly for school children. Such shifting of the teaching mode in the country certainly has enormous socioeconomic implications in countries like India, where internet penetration is extremely low. It seems evident that education quality is not only under question in the online mode of education, but its highly regressive nature has had more long-term implications for the socially and economically marginal sections of the population. In his article titled ‘The Government of India Initiatives for Online Education during COVID-19: An Observation and Experiences’, Dr. Arvind Kumar Yadav covers some of these aspects in detail.

Further, due to the lockdown and the destruction of a large section of the informal means of livelihood, the impact on food security of the masses, in general, was put under severe stress. In this context, one needs to evaluate the role of the Public Distribution System in ensuring food security in the country. ‘Agrarian Crisis in India, Food Security and MSP’ by Dr Trishna Sarkar addresses some of these concerns profoundly. One of the country’s major challenges in addressing such infrastructural bottlenecks is primarily due to inadequate resources. In a country like India, where resources are not abundant, the proper utilisation and assessment of output and income becomes unavoidable. Creating infrastructure to address such unforeseen situations needs an assessment of the country’s potential output. Measuring the potential and existing output gap is paramount to formulating policies to bridge the gap. The mobilisation of resources in their fullest capacity could perhaps be the best way to improve the country’s preparedness for addressing natural disasters and challenges of policy in this regard. Some of these points are addressed in the article ‘Estimation of Output gap- Exploring different methodologies’ by Arushi Joshi.

A top-down approach was one of the most significant criticisms of India’s response to the COVID-19 crisis. In fact, the impact of the COVID-19-led policy responses formulated and implemented from the top profoundly affected different regions of the country in different ways. Therefore, in academic discourse, both formulations and implementations of policies at the decentralized levels are highly appreciated. However, in India, the decentralized level of government has its challenges. Rupak Biswas, in his article ‘Barriers to Grassroots Democracy: Examining the Impediments of People’s Participation in the Governance of Gram Panchayats in Tripura, with Policy Insights’, explains some of such limitations and suggests a few relevant measures to make decentralized governance more effective.

In this context, the special issue on public policy explores some of the critical aspects of recent public policy challenges in India. It covers a wide range of articles addressing the challenges of public policy on issues such as health, education, the economy, natural disasters, effective functioning of local governance and food security in the country.

Issue Editors
Prof. (Dr.) Avanindra Nath Thakur
Professor, Jindal School of Government and Public Policy, O.P. Jindal Global (Institution of
Eminence Deemed to Be University), Sonipat, Haryana, India.
Dr Saurabh Chandra
Assistant Professor – Public Administration, Assam Don Bosco University, Guwahati, India.