Dr. Anand Parappadi Krishnan

Education

• BA English Language and Literature, Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam (affiliated to Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam), 2004.
• MA Politics (with specialisation in International Relations), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 2006.
• M.Phil, Chinese Studies, Centre for East Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 2008.
• PhD, Chinese Studies, Centre for East Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 2016.

Profile

Dr. Anand Parappadi Krishnan is a Visiting Associate Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS), Delhi. Previously, he was a full-time Research Associate and Programme Officer, at the ICS from 2015-20. He was awarded his doctoral degree for his research thesis on ‘Market Dynamics and State Responses in China: Social Welfare and Industrial Workers, 1987-2008’. His main area of research is labour relations in China, and post PhD, he has also been exploring the labour question through the China-India comparative framework.

He was a Teaching Fellow, of China India Foundation (now rechristened as Asia Century Foundation), New Delhi, November 2020-January 2021, helping in developing ‘China 101’ online course for their AsiaSlate Programme. He was a Non-Resident Fellow under the China-India Scholar Leaders Initiative, of the India China Institute, The New School for Social Research, New York City, from 2018-20. In 2016-17, he was also a Visiting Fellow, at the Harvard-Yenching Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

Research Interests

• Political Economy of India and China
• State-Society Relations
• Labour and Supply Chains in the Global South
• Labour-Urban Interface
• Social Policy

Research work

1. Research Project (funded by India China Institute, New School for Social Research, New York City, USA): ‘Mutual but Informal: State-Labour Dynamics in Leather Goods Manufacturing Sector in China and India’. Duration: May 2018-March 2020.
2. Research Project (sponsored by the Indian Council of Social Science Research): ‘State Responses to Social Welfare in China and India: A Comparative Study of Workers in Small and Medium Enterprises;. Duration: March 2014-August 2016.

Publications

Journal Articles

• ‘Vanguard to Periphery: The CPC’s Changing Narrative on the Labour Question’, China Report: A Journal of East Asian Studies, 58(1), February 2022, Special Issue on the 100^th Anniversary of the Communist Party of China.

Book Chapters

• ‘Worlds of Work in the Belt and Road: Analyzing the Dynamics of Labour in Chinese Enterprises in Africa’, in David Arase and Pedro Raposo (eds.) The Belt and Road Initiative in Asia, Africa, and Europe, London: Routledge, 2022.
• ‘Management of Labour and Social Security by the Chinese Party-state’, in China at a Turning Point: Perspectives after the 19^thParty Congress, Mohanty, Manoranjan (ed.), Delhi: Pentagon Press, 2019.

Issue Briefs 

• ‘Hazarding Hazards: An Assessment of China’s Workplace Safety Since Year 2000’, ICS Analysis, Issue No. 110, July 2020.
• ‘Non-Standard Employment and Precarity: Student-Workers in China’, ICS Analysis, Issue No. 67, October 2018.

 Commentaries/Opinion Pieces

• ‘Xi Jinping’s China Abdicates its Responsibility towards Worker-Centric Reforms’, Moneycontrol.com, 26 October 2022.
• ‘Threat of a Young and Disillusioned China’, Moneycontrol.com, 21 October 2022.
• Co-Authored with Jabin T. Jacob, ‘എല്ലാം നയിക്കുന്ന പാർട്ടി; ചൈനീസ് പാർട്ടി കോൺഗ്രസിന് കൊടിയേറുമ്പോൾ‘ (The Party Leads Everything: As the 20^th Congress of Communist Party of China Begins) [in Malayalam], 24News.com, 15 October 2022.
• ‘Xi Jinping’s ‘New Deal’ for China’, The India Forum, 29 September 2022.
• ‘The Precarious Lives of Chinese Delivery Workers Who Keep the Country Running Through ‘Zero-Covid’, Scroll.in, 21 May 2022.
• ‘Clear or Blurred? Viewing China through CPI(M)’s Lens’, The New Indian Express, 7 April 2022.
• ‘The Red Truth of China’s Common Prosperity Discourse’, The Hindu, 11 November 2021.
• ‘‘മനോജ്ഞചൈനയും’ തൊഴിലാളികളും‘ (“Beautiful China” and Workers) [in Malayalam], Mathrubhumi, 31 July 2021.
• ‘The Diminishing Status of the Chinese Worker’, The Hindu, 23 July 2021.
• ‘India’s Workers Devastated by Deadly Second Wave of COVID-19’, China Labour Bulletin, 13 May 2021.
• ‘The Tightrope Between Production, Industrial Peace’, The Hindu, 24 December 2020.
• Three Case Studies on Workers’ Rights and Collective Action in India during COVID-19 in China Labour Bulletin:
  – ‘The Karnataka Garment Workers’ Union’, 16 November 2020;
  – ‘The All-India Gig Workers’ Union’, 9 November 2020; and
  – ‘The Indian Federation of App BasedTransport Workers’, 2 November 2020.
• ‘In China and India, Street Vendors face Similar Urban Challenges’, Moneycontrol.com, 10 September 2020.
• ‘ചൈനീസ് സ്ഥാനപതിയുടെ മാധ്യമ ഇടപെടലുകളും അവ ഉയര്‍ത്തുന്ന ചോദ്യങ്ങളും‘ (Chinese Ambassador’s Media Interventions and the Questions They Raise) [in Malayalam], Asianet News, 19 August 2020.
• ‘PTI Interview was only Latest Salvo in Chinese Envoy’s Blitzkrieg in Indian Media over the Past Year’, Scroll.in, 12 July 2020.
• ‘Urban Spaces | Migrant Workers Remain Invisible in India and China’, Moneycontrol.com, 21 May 2020.
• ‘COVID-19 and the Crisis of Informal Labour in India’, China Labour Bulletin, 13 April 2020.
• ‘COVID-19 | Labour, Lockdown and the State’s Predicament’, Moneycontrol.com, 3 April 2020.
• ‘Coronavirus Exposes Brittleness of Chinese Prowess’, Moneycontrol.com, 18 February 2020.
• ‘Why BRI Through India is Wishful Thinking at Best’, Moneycontrol.com, 23 January 2020.
• Entry of Chinese Manufacturing in India is a Bridge Too Far’, Moneycontrol.com, 9 October 2019.
• ‘HongKong Protests: Facts, Realities’, Mangalam (Malayalam Language Daily, Kottayam, Kerala, India), 13 October 2014.
• ‘चीन-भारत संबंधों का ‘आर्थिक’ आधार’ (TheEconomic Foundation of Sino-Indian Relations) [in Hindi], Prabhat Khabar, 21 September 2014.
• ‘Sailingon Economic Wings, Xi Jinping’s Visit’, Mangalam (Malayalam Language Daily, Kottayam, Kerala, India), 20 September 2014.
• ‘TheChinese Puzzle Confronting the Modi Government’, Mangalam (Malayalam Language Daily, Kottayam, Kerala, India), 8 July 2014.
• ‘China’s Small and Medium Enterprises: A Key Growth Engine Propelling the Economy’, India China Chronicle, March 2014.
• ‘DespiteLoosening, India and China Continue to Maintain Distance’, Mangalam (Malayalam Language Daily, Kottayam, Kerala, India), 9 November 2013.
• ‘DepsangIncident: The Border Issue and the Broader India-China Relationship Matrix, Diplomacy and Foreign Affairs Journal, Monthly Issue, June 2013.
• ‘New Awakeningin India-China Relations’, Mangalam (Malayalam Language Daily, Kottayam, Kerala, India), 8 June 2013.

Blogs

• ‘Work and Workplaces in the ‘New Era: Labour Issues at the 19th Party Congress’, ICS Delhi Blogs, 7 November 2017.
• ‘Whereis China Headed?’, Dillipost (Malayalam Language Web Magazine), 28 November 2013.
• ‘Onthe Year-Long Campaign of Thorough Cleanup launched by the Communist Party of China’, China Studies Centre, IIT Chennai Website, 24 July 2013.
• ‘Restructuring,Realignment and Austerity: Opening Moves of the New Leadership in China’, China Studies Centre, IIT Chennai Website, 9 April 2013.

 Working Papers

• ‘Labour Dynamics and Social Security in Leather-based Enterprises in Mumbai and Shanghai: A Preliminary Background Study’, Institute of Chinese Studies, Working Paper Series, September 2014.

Book Reviews

• Dying for an iPhone: Apple, Foxconn and the Lives of China’s Workers(Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2020), in Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.56, Issue No.23, 5 June 2021.
• Mihir Pandya, शहर और सिनेमा वाया दिल्ली(City and Cinema via Delhi) [New Delhi: Vani Prakashan, 2011], in New Frontiers in Asian Scholarship, Harvard-Yenching Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, 12 July 2017.
• M. Gangadharan, വാണിജ്യ കേരളം: കേരളത്തിന്റെ വാണിജ്യ ചരിത്രം അന്വേഷിക്കുന്ന കൃതി(Commercial Kerala: A Book Enquiring the Commercial History of Kerala), [Kottayam: D.C. Books, 2013], in New Frontiers in Asian Scholarship, Harvard-Yenching Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, 15 March 2017.
• Tom Miller, China’s Urban Billion: The Story Behind the Biggest Migration in Human History(London: Zed Books, 2013), in China Report, Vol. 51, No.3, August 2015, 288-91.
• Zhao Litao and Lim Tin Seng (eds.),of Zhao Litao and Lim Tin Seng (eds.), China’s New Social Policy: Initiatives for a Harmonious Society (Singapore: World Scientific, 2010) in China Report, Vol. 49, No.2, May 2013, 265-68.