Such a humbling experience to speak at the University of Lethbridge Border Studies Group E Conference- ‘The Line Crossed Us’ on Racial Capitalism and Borders in the Post Oil Gulf.

Loved the kind, inclusive spirit of the congregation where academic solidarity rather than snobbery was in action.

Remote Conferences are a boon for scholars from the Global South, and the 11.5 hour time zone difference is bearable at 2.15am.

Loved speaking on the area of the world where I work and grew up in the Khaleej and there is so much interest as people want deeper insights rather than mere headlines.

There needs to be a dialogue between IFC Performance Standards, Equator Principles and MFI Safeguards or the world of project finance with the realm of ESG ratings and emergent frameworks such as CSRD and TNFD for better transition finance mechanisms.

The world of MFI lending will provide the patient capital for long durée climate transitions. The interoperability of ESG frameworks should act as a bridge to MFI Safeguards.

At the Ajmal Store next to the Gateway of India, Bombay soaking in the aroma with the chatter of Khaleeji tourists with Gahwa.

There were Omani tourists who were enquiring about Bakhour.

I am aware that companies are there to sell their product to make a profit and not sustainability considerations, however the global zeitgeist is evolving towards treating workers better while combatting climate change. Thus, it is a factor towards mainstreaming human rights reflected in the HRDD mandate in the EU CSRD law. The meta considerations behind ESG are quasi political, in transnational liberal politics, in a next wave of globalization and integration. Green parties are a major feature on the electoral landscape in the EU.

The HRDD mandate needs to go beyond tier one suppliers where the problems lie. If the civil society actors and journalists can identify the rot, I bet mega corporations with plenty of spare change can allocate resources more than the token sustainability team.

Having worked with labor and civil society actors at the base of the pyramid throughout Asia, there are ways and means to creatively detect and diagnose problems at various scales. I am happy to speak to actors who need the right insights beyond consulting obfuscation.

In the era of transnational litigation, each data point is material. There are forced labor and modern slavery legislations from the EU to Australia.

I start a small research project on transnational social protection of injured migrant workers, building on working with migrant activists and community leaders and NGOs in SE Asia and the Gulf since the past decade, as there needs to be better action research to protect and care for those who build our cities and communities with our remittances. I would work on this for the next year. Please suggest readings or names to speak to.

At the soul of ESG reporting data is sentiment which reflects the meta performance of an entity, its workings at the scale of a number, which can be benchmarked and compared. The comparison triggers change towards achieving targets, which will be measured in the next cycle.

I have been attributed to coining two terms which have been published and cited, being a non PhD so far it has been deeply gratifying:

‘Desi Khaleeji’ – encapsulates the lived experience of generations of south Asians in the Gulf who feel at home in Dubai rather than passport address back in South Asia. I published an essay on this topic in a creative-critical book published by Swalif Publishing in Abu Dhabi. The term has been debated and vociferously critiqued in webinars by significant gulf watchers.

‘Hindu Nationalist Intellectual Architecture’ was a term I introduced in a column for The Tilak Chronicle with whom I was a weekly contributor for a year. The term was picked up by Dr Sanjaya Baru for his book , The New Indian Power Elite, and I have a citation there.

For a person who was deemed to be a person unfit for a scholarship once upon a time by a certain supervisor, two concepts for a writer, if not a pretentious scholar is a contribution to the discourse none the less.

Fascinating talk which was illuminating as came to know that south Asians comprised of one third the population of Mecca on the eve of the First World War and that Indian Independence Stalwart Azad was born in Mecca to an Arab mother in the year 1888. I would like to know how many Arabs lived in Bombay, Karachi and Calcutta in the same time period.