Aura Talks Ep. 1: The Economy

Welcome to Episode 1! In this podcast series we will be delving into the concepts of Alternative Economy, Universal Basic Income, Auroville’s connection to these two, not to mention a general overview of what it really means to be a resident of this ‘one-of-a-kind’ community. If you’re worried that it’s going to be hard to keep up (or perhaps the material is a little dry)-- we as a team are determined to keep it interesting, relevant and hopefully informative for you. But wait, who are we? Well we are a bunch of Auroville Youth, with different backgrounds with different relationships to this community, working together to hopefully achieve something pretty cool in Auroville. But more on that later.

In this particular Episode, we will introduce ourselves to you, and bring into the spotlight the topic of Universal Basic Income. Big words, and fancy terminology. But what does it mean? To keep it brief, it means every individual within the community receives an unconditional and periodic sum of money to cover their basic needs. And when I say every individual, I mean every individual.

We’ll be discussing this very interesting concept and talk a little bit about its pros, its cons and of course bring it down to the context of Auroville. Is Auroville a good space to try this out? Why is it necessary?

We will dabble into the sustainability of the economy of the world and Auroville, as well as tell you a little bit about why we joined this project. To put it simply the project is a collaboration with Science Walden Institute to experiment with an unconventional spin off of Universal Basic Income in Auroville. Interesting right? How in the world are we going to do this? Well I guess tune in to the series to find out. Catch us every week and spend some time listening to some Auroville Youth, trying to figure it all out, just as much as you are.