equitable economies
ZOURI LEVERS
What Drives Equity.
What Denies It.
What Can Shift It.
Deep dives into the structures, policies, decisions, that determine whether systems become equitable — or facilitate inequality and exclusion
What we engage with reflects what we value. And what we overlook - care, equity, gaps, inclusion, defines the limits of our progress. It’s time to rethink how we lead, budget, invest and build.
Intent & Commitments alone do not deliver equitable outcomes
Equitable economies don’t emerge by accident. They are engineered every day, through decisions, incentives, budgets, policies, & systems. Across sectors and societies, countries and economies, conversations about equity and inclusion often remain at the surface-level. They stop at intent, at best commitment. But intent and commitments alone do not shape equitable economies. Decisions do, Leaders do. By shifting structures, designing systems and measuring change. The Zouri Levers is for these leaders.
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Zouri Levers Editions
See the System. Understand the Forces. Shift the Outcomes
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Caring Futures
From Invisible Work to an Economic Engine
This inaugural edition of the Zouri Levers deep dives into India's care economy. It shows how care shapes labour participation, community resilience, growth, and productivity, yet remains structurally undervalued in public budgets and institutional design. Caring Futures is a map, not a manual. It offers evidence, global benchmarks, and decision pathways to help leaders shape India’s care economy as a core pillar of equitable development.
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Powering Equity
Engendering India’s EV Policy
The EV transition is not just about vehicles and technology, it's economic, spatial, social. It is also about who gets to ride and who gets left behind in this transition. Launching August 2025, this Lever Edition unpacks the gender gaps in India’s electric mobility policies. Over the next 12 months this edition along with the ZURI Policy Accelerator will release articles, tools, and leadership briefings that map systemic exclusions, highlight financing and implementation gaps, and recommend actionable, equity focused reforms to drive a just and inclusive transition.
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Silver Shift
From aspirations to inclusive systems that work
India's 60+ population is growing fast. This signals important public health gains, but also heralds rising care demands. Yet, India lacks an eldercare system. Instead of public systems, care need is mainly absorbed by families, primarily by women, often unpaid care, unsupported & invisible in economic accounts. Scattered government initiatives, experimenting private sector pilots focussed on high cost assisted living, marginal policy discourse embedded within health, pension or retirement homes is keeping eldercare invisible, under-financed & on the sidelines
Engineering Equity & Inclusion, One Edition at a Time
A Structured Deep Dive Series for Leaders Who Shape Systems. It examines what shapes outcomes, the rules, the incentives, the gaps, the defaults, the power dynamics. Each Lever Edition explores structural forces that shape our world. From how care is (under)valued in national budgets, to how products are designed for the default consumer, to how informal workers are excluded from resilience strategies, to where capital flows, and where it does not.
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Latest Insights from Zouri Levers
theZURI Levers, is where we slow down to examine what is underneath the system, what are the rules, where are the incentives, the data gaps, and what default decisions are driving current outcomes. This is where we unpack insights by exploring the systems, decisions, and power structures that shape equitable economies, inclusive cities, and resilient communities. And unravel the policies, investments, and innovations that can shift outcomes at scale.
For all Lever resources, visit the individual Lever Edition pages on this site available here
Dec 2025 | 11 min read | Release 4
Caring Futures
Financing Caring Futures - Compendium of Global Care Financing Models & Pathways for India - Part 1
Care financing is being redesigned across the world. Countries are testing innovative tools, from impact bonds to pooled national care funds. Explore the models in one place. The first in a 5 part series on Financing Caring Futures: Compendium Of Care Financing Instruments & potential pathways for India.
Nov 2025 | 6 min read | Release 3
Caring Futures
Emerging Care Shifts & What They Signal for India's Care Economy
Across the world, countries are investing in care as infrastructure — to drive growth, create jobs, and stabilise their futures. India is missing the moment. In Part 3 of Invisible Infrastructure Underwriting India’s Economic Development series, the-ZURI explores global care strategy shifts and what they signal for India’s economic path.
Sep 2025 | 7 min read | Release 2
Caring Futures
India's Care Financing Deficit
Part 2 of the Series - Invisible Infrastructure Underwriting India’s Economic Development looks at why India’s Care Financing Deficit is not just a policy oversight, it’s a structural risk. As public investment stagnates and private care costs soar, the burden falls unfairly on unpaid and underpaid labour. This article exposes the cracks in care financing and why investing in the care economy is essential for equity, productivity, and growth.
Oct 2025 | 11 min read | Release 1
Caring Futures
The Invisible 2.6 billion hours powering India every day!
This article is the first in the 3-Part series on The Invisible Infrastructure Underwriting India’s Economic Development The trilogy also...
Aug 2025 | 6 min read | Lever Edition Intro
Caring Futures
Caring Futures -from Invisible Work to Care Economy
Care powers our economies, but remains invisible in our policies, budgets, and data. Caring Futures, a new 6-part ZURI Lever Inaugural Edition reframes care as economic infrastructure. Drawing on global models and India’s own realities, it offers a decision maker’s guide to designing equitable, resilient care systems.
Powering Equity
Powering Equity - Engendering India's EV Policy
India’s EV transition is moving at speed. But is it taking everyone along? The ZURI Policy Accelerator launches a new Lever Edition — a 12-month, 18-part inquiry into how gender equity can be embedded in the design of India’s EV policy. Featuring 12 articles and 6 gender responsiveness scorecards (ZURI Prism), this edition is a roadmap for policymakers, donors, think tanks & investors shaping India’s mobility future.
Silver Shift
Defining Eldercare Economy - Why India's Silver Shift demands a Taxonomy
The Demographic Shift & Policy Imperative - Unlike many ageing societies that grew rich before they grew old, India is ageing at lower income levels and with large informal labour markets. The challenge is stark - how to secure dignified, affordable, and inclusive eldercare while sustaining economic growth and social cohesion.
Powering Equity
Who gets to ride the future?
The EV transition powered by the EV Policy, is not just technological — it is economic, spatial, and social. This opening article surfaces the exclusions shaping India’s EV policies today — in vehicle design, workforce participation, charging infrastructure, and access to capital. It also introduces five structural levers that will guide this Lever Edition’s inquiry into a gender-responsive, inclusive mobility transition.
Silver Shift
The Silver Shift
India has more than 153 million elderly population today but no eldercare system. Public sector solutions are scattered and underfunded. Private sector solutions remain urban and niche. What will it take to shift from aspirations without architecture to an equitable functional eldercare system in India? Explore whats coming up in this special series designed to chart the move to a functional eldercare system
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How the Zouri Levers works
Every Edition Uses a Simple, Clear Structure
Each Edition of the Zouri Levers aims to provide leaders with clarity, direction, and the levers for systemic change. Each edition has multiple releases staggered over 6 months to a year. Each edition can take a different format depending on the topic under analysis. However it mostly tends to be either one or a combination of the following
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Zouri Dispatch
Subscribe for early access to upcoming editions of the Zouri Levers — covering climate, care, labour, capital flows, infrastructure, technology, and more.