Impact of COVID-19 on Mental Health of Adults with Autism in India

Background: This study focuses on the direct and indirect implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on adults with Autism in India. This study took into account the social isolation during the global pandemic in 2020 and its effect on the emotional well-being of the community. Methods: We designed a survey involving Indian residents. Part I involved questionnaires for different cohorts: 1) educated, 2) employed and 3) unemployed. The questions were based on proposed life models to maintain the heterogeneity according to the preferences of the target group. Part II of involved online interviews conducted in English. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were performed. Findings: The analyses of participants’ responses (N=10) stipulated that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on autistic people's mental health has been variable. Participants encountered both positive and negative emotions. Factors such as disrupted schedules, fear of job loss, poor domestic support system and inconsistency in transition were important. These were associated with development of new or worsening of pre-existing psychological as well as behavioural conditions including depression, anxiety, panic attacks and high-stress levels. At the same time, reduced interactions with decreased social insistence led to an improvement for some participants. Interpretation: Our results illustrate the deterioration of mental health and well-being for Autistic adults due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings emphasise the need for the development of innovative approaches and investment in the creation of support systems to address mental distress in this population.

Demystifying Blue Box Support to Agriculture Under the WTO: Implications for Developing Countries

Developing members at the WTO face a shrinkage in policy space for supporting their agricultural sector due to the limited room available under the provisions of the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA). Contrastingly, most developed members can provide high levels of product-specific support without breaching their commitments on account of their support entitlements. For some of these members, the so-called ‘Blue Box’ under the AoA, plays a pivotal role in expanding the policy space with respect to domestic support to agricultural products. Though a lot of scholarship has discussed and examined other support provisions under the AoA, the ‘Blue Box’ remains relatively shrouded in mystery. Testimony to this is the fact that although the Blue Box has found use amongst developed members, no developing member, except for China in 2016, has ever used the Blue Box to support their producers. Given the impasse in the Doha Round of negotiations and limited flexibilities available under the AoA, this paper examines the feasibility and compatibility Blue Box measures with developing members’ socio-economic situation. Findings of this paper bring to fore the variations in member practice and the operational flexibilities available in implementing Blue Box programmes to support agriculture. JEL: F13, F14, F17, Q17

China’s Debt Trap in Pakistan? A Case Study of the CPEC Project

Existing literature on China–Pakistan trade relations mainly deals with potential opportunities for Chinese investment, while no study has so far specifically analysed Chinese investment in light of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project by taking into account how Pakistan’s domestic factors shape foreign trade relations. This article argues that the weak economic indicators of Pakistan reveal a possibility of defaulting on debt repayments, as Chinese loans have relatively high-interest rates. Through a two-level analytical framework, this article demonstrates that, despite concerns about Chinese debt traps at the international level, the CPEC project is still largely intact due to strong domestic support of the Pakistani establishment. Further, the geostrategic importance of Pakistan for China is higher than merely trade relations. It is thus also not in the interest of China to see its investments in Pakistan become a debt trap, though the institutional arrangements in Pakistan are prone to mounting debts.

Agriculture Subsidies: Unravelling the Linkages between the Amber Box and the Blue Box Support

Domestic support disciplines under the Agreement on Agriculture are controversial, to say the least. The aggregate measurement of support (AMS) restricts Members’ policy space to provide product-specific support. The structural flaws in the determination of AMS further compel Members to explore alternatives. In contrast to the Amber Box, the Blue Box offers certain flexibilities for Members to exempt product-specific support from AMS calculation. The Blue Box reflects several elements which are seemingly typical to the Amber Box, except that it has certain production-limiting features. This article explores the legal bounds of the Blue Box measures, and its similarities and dissimilarities with the Amber Box. Towards this end, the article builds on a fresh legal understanding of the Blue Box based on its negotiating history and interpretative bounds, and also offers a fuller appreciation of market price support (MPS) and non-exempt direct payments under the Amber Box. While the calculation methodology for non-exempt direct payments bears a close resemblance to the calculation of MPS, the article argues that direct payment and MPS measures are fundamentally distinct types of product-specific support which makes the interchangeability of Blue and Amber Boxes seemingly difficult.

China ‒ Domestic Support for Agricultural Producers: One Policy, Multiple Parameters Imply Modest Discipline

This paper assesses key issues in the dispute over the United States’ claim that for certain grains China exceeded its limits on domestic support under the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) during 2012–2015. The panel first determined that the base years for the reference price in calculating China's market price support were 1996–1998, rather than 1986–1988 as stipulated in the AoA, and that production in the geographic regions where the support programs operated, not the smaller quantities purchased at administered prices, constituted eligible production. The panel then found China had exceeded its limits in each of the four years for wheat, Indica rice, and Japonica rice. The possibility was left open that a government can determine eligible production by setting maximum purchases at support prices in its regulatory framework. China used this option to claim that its programs for 2020 implemented the recommendations and rulings of the DSB. We argue that use of outdated fixed external reference prices to measure the price gap and to define eligible production by limits on purchases, distance calculation under the AoA from economic support measurement. The measurement issues compound the discord among Members over levels of agricultural support.

Who is China?

This chapter examines Chinese national identity as a core element of China’s political worldview and claims to exceptionalism. Using a sociological structure of liquid modernity, the chapter analyzes how Chinese national identity is being considered and constructed within domestic conditions and the extent to which it affects social capital and the cohesiveness of Chinese social life. I argue that liquid modernity has resulted in greater fragmentation between Chinese private and public life as well as complicating efforts to construct a unified sense of collective national identity (Chinese-ness). To remedy these challenges, the Chinese government utilizes nationalism to cultivate domestic support by projecting itself as good vis-à-vis the West, which is scapegoated as evil and the root cause of all Chinese ills.

Status Signaling and the Risk of Domestic Opposition: Comparing South Africa and Brazil's Hosting of the 2010 and 2014 World Cups

Whereas much of the literature on status and domestic audiences analyzes how international achievement helps shore up domestic legitimacy, analyses regarding the opposite direction—how the lack of domestic support undercuts status signaling—remain rare. Mega-events constitute a highly public and visible example of conspicuous consumption as a form of status signaling. However, in rising democracies state elites are obliged to frame the benefits of hosting a World Cup in both instrumental dimensions and expressive virtues. In Brazil, the political fallout from the economic crisis, however, made it very difficult for state elites to rely on the expressive value of Brazil's status as World Cup host to subdue domestic opposition driven by instrumental logics. In contrast, for South Africans, the 2010 World Cup not only became an “exceptional status moment” but also constituted a “nation founding moment,” which meant that the expressive significance of hosting the first World Cup in Africa mitigated similar instrumental criticism.