WHAT IS LAW?

Center for Teaching Research and Learning, General Blog, IILM University06 JulyDr Anchal MittalLaw, Legal

The term law is a species of various things in different societies. Many authors, jurists, academicians, etc., have given different definitions to exemplify and explain the meaning of the law. It is erstwhile law that has been equated to the concept of Dharma under the Hindu system. Dharma means duty in different contexts according to Hindu jurisprudence. It derives from the Vedas and is inclined to moral values and a way of life.

In Roman law, the term law is ‘Jus’; in the Islamic system, it is ‘Hukum’; in German, it is ‘Richt’ and in French, it is ‘Droit’. The idea and meaning of these terms are not identical or the same, although similarities can’t be denied.

Law is considered a set of rules applicable to all actions without discrimination. It is a body of rules and regulations based on general principles like fair play, convenience and justice enforced by the State to regulate human activities to foster an organised society. In the widest sense, it involves uniformity of behaviour and actions for civilised society.

Even though there is no general definition of law, however, there are a few definitions given by notable jurists and law dictionaries. They are-
As per Austin, positive law has three main features: Command, Sovereign and Sanction. He states-
“Law is the command of Sovereign.” Rules laid down by political superiors to political inferiors. In other words, body of command by a sovereign member or members of an independent society wherein the author of law is supreme.

Aristotle, the famous Greek philosopher, said-
It (perfect law) is inherent in the nature of man/woman and can be discovered through reason. It is immutable, universal and capable of growth.

A.V. Dicey gives a precise and compact definition-
“Law is the reflection of Public opinion.”

According to Webster’s New World Law Dictionary, law is-
“The complete body of statutes, rules, enforced customs and norms, and court decisions governing the relations of individuals and corporate entities to one another and to the state. The subset of such statutes and other rules and materials dealing with a particular subject matter. The system by which such statutes and rules are administered.”

Since the law is an elementary part of a civilised society and plays a quintessential role in the daily life of a particular society, many jurists, academicians and legal luminaries have attempted to define and exemplify the term law. This makes it necessary to understand what is the law and its various aspects.

References:
I. https://thelawexpress.com/the-concept-of-dharma-in-indian-jurisprudence
II. Webster’s New World Law Dictionary, Published by Wiley, Hoboken, NJ (2006).
III.https://nios.ac.in/media/documents/SrSec338New/338_Introduction_To_Law_Eng/338_Introduction_To_Law_Eng_L1.pdfhttps://books.google.co.in/books?id=r2uADwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=taxation+regime+of+ipr&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiRnpmq39v3AhX_TGwGHeocAlkQ6AF6BAgLEAI

Why Embracing Uncertainty is Critical to your Success: Try to Push Open the Envelope … bit by bit

Center for Emotional Intelligence, Faculty, General Blog, IILM University04 JulyPreeti Kapur

Undoubtedly, we all live in uncertain times. Pandemic and its varied challenges made it amply clear that uncertainty is a constant companion of our life world. The newspaper headlines tell us about economic instability, climate change, political strife and its implications. Uncertainty has been and will continue to be a part of our life. We yearn for the good old times of pre-Covid. Ah! To be free to meet our friends, be out in the open gardens, hold our loved ones closely to us, and enjoy our freedom. In other words, the choice/s we have to manage and control our environment. Familiarity with our daily routine is essential for our health and well-being.

The previously set ways of thinking and behaving are known to us; hence, we find comfort in them. The continuity between the past and the future brings stability to our lives, but at the same time, as some might say, it sets a monotonous tone. On the other hand, while changes are scary in nature, they make us think differently, challenge our actions, and bring newness and adventure. In short, change and some amount of uncertainty makes us feel alive and kicking.

Hence, how do we plan and map our path through uncharted waters? For example, transitioning from school to college or, in other words, from being an adolescent to becoming a young adult may make you feel excited yet frightened and scared. The heady mixture of wanting to go forward towards the uncertainty that possibly invites and repels you too! So do you leave the confines of your comfort and the familiar? Or retreat into your shell and close your eyes and ear to the cacophony of noise hammering in your mind!

I, too, have been in such situations where I have had to submit to the guarantees of what I had and become accustomed to. I left home at the age of 5 to join a hostel in the hills and learned to not give in to tears when I left home for boarding. Who I am today is possibly because I had to give up the security of a mother’s lap, taking up the new opportunities that came my way. Each step required strength and resolve. Yes, I did waver often, felt tired, alone and lost. Yet, life taught me to accept the uncertainties that come up in life and attempt to turn some of them into personal growth, confidence and a transformation.

We can succeed in our work, relationships, career, and in life when we push the envelope bit by bit to open up new horizons. When we willingly attempt to hug the unknown and try to be open to the new experiences that come our way. Risk-taking, within limits, means pushing yourself to achieve new heights. From this perspective, the uncertainties are a vital part of exploring ourselves and the social environment in which we are embedded.

Rather than resisting the uncertainties, let us draw upon the following inputs to sustain ourselves.

Uncertainty is a part of our life. We cannot control everything. At times we have to just let go. Let us ease ourselves into slowly and gradually accepting that uncertainty is and will be a part of our life. If we panic all is likely to be lost. Let us take a deep breath. Accept that we will lose some battles and win others. Life need not be perfect.

Try to accept the overwhelming emotions of anger, frustration, disgust, fear, anxiety, grief, and loss. Each emotion, negative or positive, plays a vital role. Our feelings convey a message that all is not well! If emotions are acknowledged and felt, they will motivate us to take the necessary steps to accept the situation and the accompanying thoughts and feelings. Please take the message from your emotion and not shoot the messenger!

Take a reality check. Does the issue or situation call for alarm? Are you possibly overreacting? Or can you take a step back and objectively try to reassess the issue/situation? Perhaps something can be done and salvaged? If we let our feelings overtake us, then our thinking too gets disturbed. Fear and anxiety impact the way we think. Recall when you have been angry and you have been unable to express your thoughts. You are so angry that you may stammer or even say things you later regret.

Focus on what you can accomplish and succeed. Instead of overthinking about issues that you cannot manage or attain, recognise your limitations, particularly during times of stress and strain. Attempt new challenges, or push the envelope when you have identified and understood your strengths and limitations. Self-awareness is the key to success. Hence, tread softly and take firm steps towards self-knowledge.

Finally, uncertainty can bring disappointment. Students across the globe could not attend university and missed out on the experience of friends, excitement, and learning. Of having to stay at home, the inability to go abroad for further studies, your plans for the future were at a standstill. At such times give yourself the space to contemplate as to what this means to you. Talk to people you trust and who will help you unravel fear, anxiety and angst. The more you share and discuss your thoughts and feelings will untangle to provide a deeper understanding of your issue/situation.

Throughout our lives, we must reflect upon whether we are letting the fear of uncertainty grip us. Do not be afraid to fall, for we often judge ourselves for falling down, or are we allowing ourselves the bandwidth to grow and move forward ourselves a failure. Remember falling down and not getting up is more likely to be a failure. If you fall, get up, dust yourself and stand up, albeit a little shakily. This act will lead us toward the path of accomplishment and success.

“Bouncing Back: Swim but don’t Sink, Bend but don’t Break”

Blog Catgeory, Campus Blog Category, Campus Life, Career Development (Placement), Center for Emotional Intelligence, Exam Watch, Faculty, General Blog, IILM University29 MarchDr Kriti Vyasadaptability, flourishing, Growth, hope, optimism, positive psychology, problem solving, Resilience., self care, strength, tough times, wellbeing

Ms. Megha Kochhar and Dr. Kriti Vyas

Assistant Professor, Dept. of Psychology

29^th March 2022 10 mins Read

Resilience has often been referred to as “ordinary magic” while it looks like an extraordinary act. It is more than once thought. It’s a human trait inhibited by all, but only used by some.

Research by Dan Gilbert, a Harvard psychologist, suggests that no matter how extreme the difficulty may seem, people will bounce back to their happiness baseline in what seems like a short time. Rather, it surprises us how fast a huge majority of people who experience any kind of tragedy or trauma get back to their daily routine, as Gilbert notes “We don’t recognize that we are as resilient a species as we turn out to be.”

I don’t remember someone teaching me to be resilient nor telling me that trouble and turmoil would be an inevitable part of my life. That, someday I would face really tough times with disappointment, fear, and the occasional carpet pull (when life pulls the ground beneath your feet.) I always grew up thinking life was a fairy tale, all rosy and that staying safe and secure was the best strategy to survive. Over the years I have realized I have become much more resilient by challenging my own limits, facing my fears and enduring through my perceived limitations. After surviving near to death situations in my life, I started to face more challenges in life.

The secret to resilience is not stopping, it is to keep trying hard, then falling, getting up then recovering, again trying, then falling, then getting up again and keep trying again. It’s more like climbing a mountain without a route map. Yes, it undoubtedly requires time, effort, and support. One may face setbacks and roadblocks along the way. However, you will eventually reach the top and will feel proud of your journey. It’s all about becoming aware of and then building the endurance levels residing within you.

You are stronger than your beliefs, this is the affirmation you need to give yourself every moment. Build your stamina. It’s all about your self-belief, hope and optimism. Stress is an internal process and our emotional reaction that we add meaning to based on external events in our life.

Dr. Martin Seligman, founder of Positive Psychology writes “Talk to yourself. Give yourself a cognitive intervention and counter defeatist thinking with an optimistic attitude. Challenge your downbeat thinking. And replace it with positive outlook.”

The bestseller author of Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goldman also opines that changing our self-talk makes us more resilient. This is the key to resilience, and we overcome from our self-induced stress. Positive conversations with our self, give our lives a perspective that opens new windows of hope and belief. We have heard of the flight-or-flight response. So, the way we fight back and regain our control over our self helps us to talk to our inner self in a compassionate and gentle way. Being mindful of your internal states helps us to become generative, positive and more pragmatic.

So, step one is to take care of physical body, love yourself, and eat healthy, foods that have all colors of the rainbow. Get quality sleep. Install a habit tracking app. Make self-care your second nature. Finally, rather than blaming yourself about what all that’s happening in you life world treat yourself, with love, compassion, and empathy.

Practice accepting life’s impermanence, nothing stays forever not even your pains. This shall also pass. Ask yourself “How can I mould myself to life’s changes.”

Get curious to deal with uncomfortable emotions like embarrassment, disappointment, failure, comparisons as they arise. Our ability to be comfortable in uncomfortable emotions builds our resilience. There are various forms of meditation like sound, water, light self-guided meditation, practice what resonates best with you.

Build a supportive network of friends, family, health care professionals whom you can reach out to, not all challenges in life re meant to be faced alone.

How about creating a set of Calm Cards, pick a card in the morning that will help you reflect on the intention of the day. Pick a card on Sunday to set an intention for the week. Pick a card when you are struggling with another person, explore his good qualities and ease your relationship. Send a card to someone who needs some inspiration in life.

Adopt a Furry friend, don’t know about you but, my dog Raja was one of my strengths during my tough times, fostering him and getting greeted by him with those extra cuddles was so therapeutic.

Self-Reflection works the best –

Embrace challenges as opportunities for growth. When you are facing tough time just ask yourself “What can I learn here” or “How can I add meaning to this situation of my life?”
Which part of me is tender and needs special attention?
Journaling really helps to get your stream of consciousness going.
Ask yourself “Am I taking anything for granted”
Am I letting matters that are out of control, stress me out?
Make a list of 21 things that make you smile. When was the last you followed them?

We all are aware that setbacks are a part of our lives. What matters is how quickly we learn to bounce back from adversity and negative events. In the words of Angela Duckworth that has inspired me “As much as talent counts, efforts count twice.”

Let us take a step forward and make our time worth it.

Share your experiences with us on megha.kochhar@iilm.edu / kriti.vyas@iilm.edu

A Positive psychology toolkit for your virtual semester

General Blog22 JulyKirti Maheshwaripsychology, psychology toolkit

On a Tuesday afternoon class on July 15^th, I watched my students stare at the whiteboard during an online class without “BLINKING”. While all of them had a vast opportunity to make connections with each other in a class of thirty, half of them were looking for connections on their cell phones, scrolling tirelessly through their feeds while the other half sat there distracted.

I realized it was time for feedback. There was undoubtedly something about my pedagogy that was not working, despite how hard I tried to make it work. After one big session of qualitative feedback and discussions, we concluded that the students were not bored because of the ‘teaching style’ or the ‘curriculum’ but because they were so tired of missing out on the “college experience.” To put it differently, a consistent lack of human touch from a young student’s life in a socially distant and virtual system had started becoming a serious concern, and not many of us were/are talking about it.

Therefore, here I am with some hand-picked tools from the pool of “Positive Psychology” to activate the offline experience in an online setting:

Tool 1: Unprecedented engagement through a Mind-Body connection

The attention span during an online session is way less than an offline session. Multiple distractions are at play, and it becomes a necessity to increase the levels of student engagement. While brainstorming and mentally stimulating activities can enhance this engagement, I recommend here also include certain tasks that enable movement and demand the brain and body to work together. Simple techniques like an online scavenger hunt, stretching in the chair, looking for a suitable example around the house or having a sip of water can restore the mind-body connection, refresh the minds of the students and enhance their attention spans.

Tool 2: Emotional experience and emotional expression

One thing that made college interesting was the unpredictable range of emotions. One never knew that at what moment they will end up being excited, nervous, happy, sad, surprised, humoured or anything else. However, what really added meaning to those emotional experiences was your ability to express and share them with your mates. Some good ways to go about it is by interacting in a video mode, using self-reflection exercises, experience sharing and including elements of surprise during a class session.

Tool 3: Social Relationships

College years have always been fruitful in the development of social skills and social confidence. Hanging out with friends, socializing in college clubs, inter-college competitions, events or maybe something as simple as a group study could add a charm to the boring week. Well! The good news is that you can still do all of it in an online setup. Some ways would include running virtual clubs, singing a group song, a jam session, surprise birthdays, hosting a watch party or a virtual dinner with your classmates from the comfort of your homes. These small ways can help boost your social relationships while adding a more personal touch to them.

Tool 4: Savouring and Avoiding kill-joy thinking

The pandemic has been tough, and it has been challenging for all of us. At some point, it just becomes important for us to cultivate a sense of optimism and savour what we have till we have it. One essential key to this process is to stop devaluating or underestimating a positive virtual experience by only focusing on its imperfections. Instead, look at the bright side and savour your virtual semester.

Last but not least, Tool 5: Mindfulness

‘Mindfulness’ or ‘being present in the present has become part and parcel of life during COVID years. The same can be incorporated into the virtual classroom to help students relax and focus better. A number of techniques can be used in a virtual setting like breathing exercises, a pre-recorded guided meditation, imagery, or mindful photography. These simple methods can go a long way in enabling the student to be more rooted in the present.

That’s all, folks! I hope you enjoyed reading through these tools, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on using them to enhance learning and engagement. Let us know of more such tools in the comments below!

How has the COVID-19 pandemic left the poor even farther behind?

General Blog06 JulyAditi GuptaCOVID-19 pandemic, Economy

In light of the economic downturn our world has been facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it can be more than considered the biggest and worst economic calamity post the Great Depression. According to the IMF, the global economy was expected to grow 3 percent in January 2020, but instead, it is now estimated to fall 3 percent, which can be assumed to be way worse than during the period of the Great Recession in 2008-09. If the pandemics in the past are to be analyzed, they have more adversely affected the poor and downtrodden section in comparison to the upper class. Leading economists worldwide have stated the COVID-19 pandemic will create a further economic divide between the rich and poor, leading to unforeseen inequality. Furthermore, it has been observed that pandemics have augmented unemployment and inequality more for low-skilled workers or people with basic education than people with advanced degrees.

Migrant and daily wage labourers have suffered severely due to the pandemic after a nationwide lockdown was announced in March 2020. The ultra-rich population of India has successfully managed to keep themselves away from harm’s way, but the low-income families have been facing the brunt of the crisis as they are forced to deal with the pandemic with limited or no resources. According to research conducted in January 2020, India’s richest 1 percent were accounted to have held more than four times the wealth held by 953 million people who made up the bottom 70 percent of the nation’s population. Therefore, upcoming government policies to uplift the nation’s economy needs to particularly focus on preventing a long-term dent in the livelihoods of the poor and disadvantaged section of the society. A stronger public healthcare system is one of the most important demands in the current situation, but unemployment benefits, boosting public work programs to present job opportunities, providing financing opportunities to sustain employment, and progressive tax measures can provide a cushioning effect for the poorer segment of our society which has been reeling under effects of the pandemic. Thus, our policymakers must take up this opportunity to introduce the changes as mentioned above to the teeth to protect their most vulnerable from any such further calamities.

Experiential Learning Through Summer Internships

Blog Catgeory, General Blog, IILM University28 JuneRachna MadaanEXPERIENTIAL LEARNING, NGO, Summer Internships

Summer Internships are an admirable way to start building a sturdy foundation for a successful career path. IILM University provides students with numerous such opportunities to work with NGOs and Corporates in order to enhance their experiential learning experience. Students get a chance to have an incredible experience by working directly with the companies.

Below mentioned is one of such experiences felt by our undergraduate student named Harshit Sultania, BBA 2019 Batch, when he got an opportunity to work with an NGO called Seva Bharti Foundation to fulfill his role as a responsible citizen. We all think of doing something good for society and hope for that little opportunity that would create a little difference in someone’s life.

That opportunity was given to the students by IILM University through an internship initiative to work with the Seva Bharti Foundation. This program gave students a chance to help the unprivileged group of students. The program was for six weeks and every week they used to spend at least two hours with our buddy via telephonic or video calls.

In Harshit’s words – “I was very much excited about the concept of helping and guiding students. Because obviously! it’s the student who knows best about the student. They know what and how to talk and what exactly to work on. All of us were allocated one student each from Seva Bharti Foundation with whom we talked about their career and other concerns as their buddy mentors.

I was lucky to get the opportunity to be the student coordinator for the program where my job was to ensure the smooth coordination between the students and their buddies. And similarly, a few other students were also made student coordinators and each coordinator got ten students to supervise and help in the smooth functioning of the program. With much enthusiasm, I started with week one by getting connected with my students. I explained every detail about the whole program to everyone individually. Initially, it was difficult to motivate the underprivileged students to continue the program, but with little more effort, I started getting the result.

As from week two, things finally started to move in the right direction and students started talking about their career goals, living conditions, and other areas of interest. I tried my best to mentor and guide them in the right direction making them aware of the kind of additional online courses they can do to enhance their learning. I managed to listen to their concerns patiently and help them in whatever way I could.

Students also were coordinating well with their buddies and started to share their awesome experiences with us. And at the end of every week, I had to send a weekly report covering all the aspects discussed. Time flies really quickly just like those six weeks. But yes, I have to accept that I learned a lot from the student coordinator job. I learned how to talk to people and motivate them to come forward with their concerns in a professional way. I learned how to solve issues in a proficient manner and most importantly I learned how to manage things in an efficient way”.

“I would like to take this opportunity to express my thankfulness to the IILM University, without them this whole journey would not have existed in the first place. It helped me in knowing more about the lives of underprivileged students and gave me a platform to help them in whatever little way I was able to manage. I am pleased to share that it certainly added value to my learnings and my journey with Seva Bharti Foundation concluded with a happy ending” – Harshit Sultania.

Dr. Rachna Madaan

An Ideal Law School

Campus Life, Career Development (Placement), Center for Teaching Research and Learning, General Blog, IILM University28 JuneHarshita JainBest Law School, IILM University, Law School

The question that most frequently crosses our mind while selecting a college to pursue our higher education in law is what we need and what they offer? An ideal Law college should be a paradise land offering a mock of the entire life ahead of every budding lawyer. It is paramount to understand that a lawyer is not only the one who practices the law. Instead, a lawyer is expected to preach its values and propagate them in society. This brings us to the foremost value every budding lawyer searches for in a law school, the quality of being able to be good. Law school should focus on the speaking abilities of every law student, even of the ones sitting in the corner of the class. To polish this skill, law school should regularly engage their students in moot court competitions, panel discussions, debates, and classroom interactions. The use of these practices makes the students confident to face the world with much ease.

The second virtue a law college should offer is the opportunity to let the young minds speak, write and publish. An ideal law school is the one that pushes all its students to contribute towards the law journals of the college and also help them build up their research skills to enable them to publish their works in other journals. The next essential trait a law student looks for in a law college is its ability to offer internships and placement opportunities. Law school should also focus on co-curricular activities apart from the regular law classes, which will ensure the student’s overall growth. For the overall growth of students, the students should be able to stay in touch with their teachers even beyond the classroom and college years. The professors and mentors should establish healthy relations with the students or a system that offers continuous mentoring of the students by following some unique mentor-mentee system. In addition to this, any law school that follows the Socratic method of teaching will raise the more analytical and intellectual lawyers. That involves complete participation of the student in the learning process, whereby he gets the freedom to ask questions and the confidence to raise his voice.

So an ideal law school should follow a student-centric approach, keeping in mind that a law student is not made a lawyer only by reading the books, instead what he experiences throughout the law school. A student becomes a lawyer with all the experiences he/she shares with his/her fellow students and mentors at the law school.

The Free Speech Crisis

General Blog28 JuneAditi Chatterjee

The Indian government in the last two years have continually made international headlines for its strong curbs on the freedom of speech jeopardizing the very essence of Indian democracy. Whether it has been strong arming the Twitter into removing tweets critical of the Prime Ministers Covid response or arrest of twenty two year old activist for mobilizing support for the farmers protests or the multiple arrests and FIRs against journalists for reporting the plight of daily labourers during the 2020 lockdown and also on the massive deaths during the second wave of Covid or charging student protesters protesting against the CAA under the UAPA, this systematic crackdown on freedom of speech and expression in the name of national security has been the order of recent times. Censorship on one’s speech is freedom lost forever and such blatant attacks on free speech and social media censorship is an anathema to the free and democratic society that the Indian Constitution guarantees its citizens.

The regular use of the draconian UAPA and the NSA to crush dissent in any form has become a dangerous trend setter and the existing legal system is the only respite that one can turn to for the protection of their fundamental right. Though we must continue to fight for freedom of speech and expression, at the same time we have to be careful not to advocate them at the cost of stifling the voices of minorities, as is seen in developed democracies where free speech is equated with absolute speech as it has become a tool to normalize hate speech.

The question however remains is whether the world’s largest democracy will realize soon enough the seriousness of the impositions and curbs that are being laid on its citizens freedom of expression through unnecessary crackdown on journalists and students, through Internet shutdowns and through social media restrictions and put an end to this authoritative stand by making safeguarding of human rights and freedom it’s top most priority.

The Challenges faced by Finance Industry

General Blog, IILM Institute for Higher Education, IILM University26 JuneDisha Gupta#COVID19, #IILMUNIVERSITY, Finance, IILM Blog, IILM Gurgaon

The Finance Industry features a huge role to play when it involves making business purposeful. This sector currently faces multiple challenges, but the two most prominent ones are information asymmetry and financial illiteracy. The cutthroat competition within the industry has led to several institutions flouting norms. Wells Fargo may be a case in point wherein the culture and unsustainable targets led to employees committing fraud and the senior management turning a blind eye, therefore, enabling the act. Another even more potent example is that the concealment by HSBC in Mexico and Colombia for Drug Cartels. In both these cases, the institutions were excused by just paying fines, which was nothing more than seven days of profits for them. These institutions know that they are too big and influential to be jailed because they are too big to fail and thus can escape perhaps with the foremost notorious and irresponsible behaviours.

Definitely, the planet is ill-equipped to handle another Lehman Brothers, but that does not mean that the planet should need to see thousands of people being killed by the drug cartels that these institutions use to move their money. To prevent these and bring justice to already what has been done wrong, these firms should be held accountable, and therefore the CEO should be held liable for the actions of the institution.

As we steel ourselves against a post-Covid-19 economy, the long term of the finance industry looks drastically different. Additionally, to the changes within the way banking would be conducted, which is about to become highly digitized, monetary institutions’ role is also going to change. The whole world is looking ahead at an enormous recession. These institutions would need to be the first source of liquidity to the firms, which might stimulate demand within the economy

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LUXURY REDEFINED – Making Sustainability Fashionable

Faculty, General Blog, IILM University31 MayNitika SethDesign

Luxury has always been synonymous with the terms expensive, status, power and exclusivity. While the luxury consumer of the past was the extremely wealthy and still represents an important segment, they are no longer the only audience in town. There are younger consumers, especially millennials that are making up an increasingly large share of the luxury market.

Would this segment of consumers be interested in sustainable or ethical fashion?

Sustainability is a concept with many definitions and its application in fashion involves diverse outlooks, covering environmental impact of materials, social justice and issues concerning labor rights. A topic that is so widely covered in conferences & creative interventions around the world and yet remains a mystery to most.

It is mostly since there is a lack of knowledge of sustainable fashion and the destruction caused by the fashion world to the environment. The perception of products and their accessibility, availability and pricing also play a big role in a sort of ignorance towards sustainability.

The consumer’s mindset in a developing country like India is most interesting and different age groups and social strata of society reveal the complexities of contemporary consumption behavior.

While the discovery is slow, it is steady. This movement is gaining momentum with celebrities endorsing the cause of responsible consumer behaviour via digital media and popular brands promoting it via ad campaigns.

Even though the majority of society does not really understand or worry about the repercussions of their actions, there is a growing number that would be happier to choose products wisely. Knowledge is key to the growth of the sustainability movement to empower consumers and future designers in society.

The more endorsements and popularity that this wave of ethical fashion gains the more people would want to adopt it and luxury would have a whole new meaning – sustainable and responsible. The design courses at IILM are geared towards inculcating these very ideas in our students.