IIM Indore seeks to be a contextually-relevant business school with world-class academic standards that develops socially-conscious managers, leaders and entrepreneurs. IIM Indore is committed to: Excellence in management education, research, and training, Use of contemporary participant-centric pedagogies and teaching methods, A presence in emerging segments of management education.

IIM Indore

Humanities and Social Sciences

The investment treaty arbitral tribunals had experienced a significant increase in the disputes initiated for noncommercial activities, such as environmental protection, public health, human rights and labour standards. It has witnessed the greater participation of civil society as non-disputing parties to gain access to these forums as amicus curiae. Initially, none of the international investment instruments had explicitly authorized the submission of amicus curiae briefs. It was only after 2001 when the NAFTA tribunal accepted amicus curiae briefs in the most celebrated case of Methanex, which was followed by the UPS and the Glamis disputes, it is emerging as a practice in the investment treaty arbitration. The ICSID tribunal also admitted amicus briefs on the basis of public interest for the first time in the Vivendi case on 19 May 2005, followed by the Aguas Provinciales in 2006 for the purpose of distribution of water. As an outcome of this Tribunal, the ICSID Arbitration Rules were amended to incorporate an explicit provision to approve amicus curiae briefs. The acceptance of amicus briefs clearly shows the interest of the common public in the process of investment arbitration. Most of the scholars welcomed the arrival of non-disputing parties in the ICSID and the UNCITRAL arbitrations. But, the confidentiality of proceedings remains as a general rule. Amicus-curiae are refused to access documents and to attend hearings unless disputing parties consented to do so. This practice apparently raised a serious doubt on greater transparency and equal participation of non-disputing parties in arbitral proceedings. It is in this connection, the paper makes a concerted attempt to address the pertinent issues involved in participation of amicus curiae in arbitral proceedings. It further looks into the details on various issues on access to information, publication of awards and the admissibility of amicus curiae briefs.

Journal of Civil & Legal Sciences

The Participation of Amicus Curiae in Investment Treaty Arbitration

People who are more avoidant of pathogens are more politically conservative, as are nations with greater parasite stress. In the current research, we test two prominent hypotheses that have been proposed as explanations for these relationships. The first, which is an intragroup account, holds that these relationships between pathogens and politics are based on motivations to adhere to local norms, which are sometimes shaped by cultural evolution to have pathogen-neutralizing properties. The second, which is an intergroup account, holds that these same relationships are based on motivations to avoid contact with outgroups, who might pose greater infectious disease threats than ingroup members. Results from a study surveying 11,501 participants across 30 nations are more consistent with the intragroup account than with the intergroup account. National parasite stress relates to traditionalism (an aspect of conservatism especially related to adherence to group norms) but not to social dominance orientation (SDO; an aspect of conservatism especially related to endorsements of intergroup barriers and negativity toward ethnic and racial outgroups). Further, individual differences in pathogen-avoidance motives (i.e., disgust sensitivity) relate more strongly to traditionalism than to SDO within the 30 nations.

Fulltext

Parasite stress and pathogen avoidance relate to distinct dimensions of political ideology across 30 nations

Self-help group (SHG) is a small, economically homogeneous and affinity group of poor people that helps its members save some money in a common fund and meets the emergency needs of the members by providing collateral free and low interest loans on terms decided by the group. This paper intends to examine: 1) the extent of economic, social and political empowerment of women through Participation in SHG activities, and 2) the relationship between the level of participation of women SHG members and economic, social and political effectiveness of Self-help Groups,. Adopting a survey method, and using a structured interview schedule modeled before the Likert’s summative scale, we studied 353 women SHG members (a sample selected by the joint method of multistage and simple random sampling method) and analyzed the result applying Chi-Square, Correlation, ANOVA and Regression. In the first section, our findings suggest that increasing level of participation in SHG brings for its members better employment opportunities, better income, stabilization of old jobs, and entrepreneurial skills, which together we call economic empowerment. The second section reveals that increased level of participation in SHG brings for its members more household decision making power, better health facilities, increased self-confidence & self-esteem, capacity building and financial literacy (which are all indicators of social empowerment). The third section divulges that level of participation in SHG is positively and significantly associated with the community mobilization and political participation of members (that we term as political empowerment). The quantitative results have been triangulated with the qualitative findings obtained through observation and case studies.

World University root node

3rd ISA Foruma of Sociology

Women Empowerment and Participatory Development through Women Self-Help Groups: Empirical Explorations from the Eastern India State of Odisha

Infectious diseases resulting in pandemics remain one of the biggest threats to the wellbeing of the human race. Apart from physiological damage, pandemics have an adverse psychological impact on the victim. The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential psychological and behavioral reactions of H1N1 swine flu pandemic in India 50 individuals residing in India were studied in 2 equivalent groups. The authors performed a comparative analysis of 25 individuals impacted by the H1N1 swine flu pandemic while other group was not impacted by H1N1 swine flu. Two standardized self-report questionnaires were administered to these groups in order to measure the level of stress and fear of personal death. Descriptive statistical analysis was used (mean and standard deviation) and two sample t- test was employed and results indicated that there was a statistically significant difference in level of stress and fear of personal death between the impacted and non-impacted groups.

Marketing

Journal of Psychosocial Research

Psychological Responses to Influenza A, H1N1 ("Swine Flu") in India

A prosocial bonus is money given to people with a condition that the amount needs to be spent on others. This article suggests a new way of implementing corporate social spending by involving ‘prosocial bonuses'. Such a policy can potentially serve a dual benefit of improving employee satisfaction and help organizations reach the mandate for social spending. This study examined predicted satisfaction from choosing between pro-self and prosocial bonuses, with both options being available concurrently. Previous discussions have stated that people predict higher satisfaction from spending on the self, compared to spending money on others. However, this study showed that predicted stated satisfaction from opting to spend on the poor can be higher (Experiment 1) or equal (Experiment 2) to spending a bonus on oneself. We argue that this is possible when spending options are evaluated simultaneously. The major motivation for spending on the poor was to positively impact lives. A prosocial employee incentive policy could be built into corporate social responsibility programmes in developing countries like India that benefit both the company and increase social welfare.

Psychological Studies

Predicted Satisfaction from Simultaneous Evaluation of Prosocial and Pro-self Employee Bonus Schemes: Towards a New Form of Management Strategy for Corporate Social Spending