The accumulation of greenhouse gases (GHGs) has now made emission control obsolete as the framing idea for a climate change remedy, as the climate crisis is no longer primarily an emission problem — it is now a concentration problem.

Minister-in-Charge of the Public Service Chan Chun Sing recently remarked that the diversity of Public Service Commission Scholarship recipients goes beyond race, language, and religion. This raises questions about how diverse recipients have been in socio-economic terms, of which pre-university education provides a good proxy for assessment. In this piece, Andrew Chia looks at why diversity in background matters, and explores the diversity of PSC scholars using compiled data on PSC Scholarships from 2007 to 2018.

Singapore’s current efforts in managing plastic waste are mostly focused on downstream measures, but the broader issue of plastic consumption continues to require action upstream. Ensuring responsible production processes, through policy regulation, can help to promote general reduction of plastic waste and environmental impact. To that end, Woo Qiyun spotlights the role of an Extended Producer Responsibility scheme in Singapore, to increase the accountability of corporations and government.

Advances-in and increasing use-of FRT have brought myriad concerns about the risks of such technology to the forefront of public debate.

As Federal Communications Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel noted in a recent interview with the Verge, “Numbers are what make Washington move.” Vital statistics, financial information, and other data transmitted over the Internet are central to how the federal government discovers social problems and shapes public policy. As COVID-19 has forced millions of Americans to work, learn, […]

While three-fourths of the world’s population has access to a basic sanitation service, only about half of the world’s population uses a safely managed sanitation service. Over the last decade, the Government of India has strived to increase access to sanitation, building 100 million additional toilets in rural India over the last five years under […]

The coronavirus pandemic has dramatically changed the way governments everywhere, and at all levels, deliver services to citizens. There has been a widespread embrace of technology, new and old, even among the most reluctant. Medical services, education and work – for many of us – have moved online, and despite initial hiccups, seem to be […]

On July 10, 2020, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed an order which would allow the disintegration of Hagia Sophia’s museum status and turn it back into a mosque. Pro-government Turkish news outlet Yeni Şafak  headlined the same day: “The West Goes Mad.” (Batı çıldırıyor) [1]  With the signature of the Council of State’s memorandum […]

How might we mainstream social justice ideas and language, beginning a national conversation that extends beyond more recognised civil society actors? Reflecting on the discourse surrounding migrant rights, Quah Say Jye draws upon philosopher Miranda Fricker’s concept of “epistemic injustice” to propose a shared vocabulary that might allow migrant workers into our linguistic community. He suggests that our semantic choices need to accurately represent the lived experiences of migrant workers, be accessible to them and the general public, and have the potential to pivot towards broader structural critiques.

Over the past few years, scientists and experts have repeatedly warned the world community about the possibility of a new viral pandemic as a major threat to humanity. As usual, their voices were ignored. “Who was there to hear them anyway?” you might ask, when in the light of ubiquitously growing populism and nationalism, as […]

The current COVID-19 pandemic has placed a stranglehold on the world economy, and China has been no exception. Significantly, these effects have rippled across many countries that have benefitted from China’s lending spree over the past two decades, and whose economies have now taken a plunge. Many, if not all, are now in desperate need […]

As I was completing my MPP, a faculty member at Harvard Kennedy School had written to the chair of a prominent North American foundation, confident they would be interested in my work. The chair, a man of South Asian descent whom I shall call Mr. X, sent back a pat response: The proposal focusing on […]