Contributor : Profile
Jean Drèze studied Mathematical Economics at the University of Essex and did his Ph.D. at the Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi. He has taught at the London School of Economics and the Delhi School of Economics, and is currently Visiting Professor at Ranchi University as well as Honorary Professor at the Delhi School of Economics. He has made wide-ranging contributions to development economics and public policy, with special reference to India. His research interests include rural development, social inequality, elementary education, child nutrition, health care and food security. Jean Drèze is co-author (with Amartya Sen) of Hunger and Public Action (Oxford University Press, 1989) and An Uncertain Glory: India and Its Contradictions (Penguin, 2013)", and also one of the co-authors of the Public Report on Basic Education in India, also known as “PROBE Report”.
Posts by Jean Drèze
The tale and maths of universal basic income
Commenting on the discussion on universal basic income in the recently released Economic Survey, Jean Drèze argues that UBI is an idea whose time will come, but that time is still quite distant as f...
- Jean Drèze
- 15 February, 2017
- Perspectives
Decoding universal basic income for India
In this article, Jean Drèze argues that while universal basic income is a good idea in principle, as far as India today is concerned, it sounds like premature articulation. It could also become a Tr...
- Jean Drèze
- 20 January, 2017
- Perspectives
Food Security Act: How are India's poorest states faring?
The National Food Security Act was passed in 2013. This column reports findings from a recent survey on the status of the Act in six of India’s poorest states. Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha a...
- Jean Drèze Prankur Gupta Reetika Khera Isabel Pimenta
- 29 June, 2016
- Articles
Aadhaar Bill: UID without excessively compromising privacy?
Can something like UID be created without compromising privacy beyond acceptable limits? If so, how should the Aadhaar Bill have been written? What are its specific and avoidable weaknesses?
- Jean Drèze Reetika Khera Raju Rajagopal
- 06 May, 2016
- Perspectives
Aadhaar Bill: Move towards a surveillance State?
Most advanced economies have had some version of UID for a long time, example, the Social Security number in the US, the Social Insurance Number in Canada, etc. This is recorded not only in interactio...
- Jean Drèze Reetika Khera Raju Rajagopal Bharat Ramaswami
- 05 May, 2016
- Perspectives
Aadhaar Bill and government benefits: Risk of increasing exclusion?
Supporters of Aadhaar express the hope that will reduce inclusion errors and corruption by eliminating ghost beneficiaries, say in schemes like MNREGA. Are there substantial benefits to be reaped on t...
- Jean Drèze Reetika Khera Raju Rajagopal Bharat Ramaswami
- 04 May, 2016
- Perspectives
Aadhaar Bill and government benefits: Better targeting and reduced corruption?
Supporters of Aadhaar express the hope that will reduce inclusion errors and corruption by eliminating ghost beneficiaries, say in schemes like MNREGA. Are there substantial benefits to be reaped on t...
- Jean Drèze Reetika Khera Raju Rajagopal Bharat Ramaswami
- 04 May, 2016
- Perspectives
Aadhaar Bill: Incremental information-gathering powers for government?
The government already has the means to collect a lot of information on citizens (example, phone conversations and logs, credit card transactions, income tax records, bank account details, etc.). Conv...
- Jean Drèze Reetika Khera Raju Rajagopal Bharat Ramaswami
- 02 May, 2016
- Perspectives
Child development: How are Indian states faring?
The recent release of the ‘Rapid Survey On Children’ report presents an opportunity to take a fresh look at the state of Indian children. Based on a simple Child Development Index constructed for...
- Jean Drèze Reetika Khera
- 10 December, 2015
- Articles
JAM and the pursuit of nirvana
The Finance Ministry is proposing to roll all subsidies into a single, lump-sum cash transfer to households, on the back of the JAM (Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar, Mobile numbers) trinity. In this article,...
- Jean Drèze
- 13 November, 2015
- Perspectives
Squaring the poverty circle
An expert group headed by C Rangarajan has recommended a poverty measurement methodology for India. In this article, Deaton and Drèze argue that the method proposed by the expert group to set povert...
- Angus Deaton Jean Drèze
- 30 July, 2014
- Perspectives
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act: is it working?
MNREGA is one of the government´s largest flagship schemes, and is the largest job creation programme of its kind in the world. Supporters believe that it is necessary to help rural workers smooth in...
- Jean Drèze Ashwini Kulkarni Neelakshi Mann Varad Pande Martin Ravallion
- 29 November, 2012
- Symposium