The ‘cereal gap’: Looming issues in India’s foodgrain policy
Cereal production in India recently crossed 300 million tonnes for the first time. In this post, Drèze and Oldiges point out that a major gap has emerged between the net availability of cereals and household consumption – and it is unclear where the balance goes. With cereal production expected t...
- Christian Oldiges Jean Drèze
- 18 April, 2024
- Perspectives
Content Type: Perspectives
Topic: Agriculture
Year: 2024
Policy Roundup: Elections, black money, state of the economy
This post presents our curation of key developments in the Indian policy landscape in recent months – highlighting I4I content pertaining to the issues of synchronised elections, funding of political parties, farmers’ protests, and India’s 2016 demonetisation in the context of 'black money'. W...
- Nalini Gulati
- 16 April, 2024
- Perspectives
Content Type: Perspectives
Topic: Miscellany
Year: 2024
Reshaping social protection in India
As India has undergone a transformation in recent decades in terms of trends such as poverty reduction, food security and urbanisation, there is a need to also revamp the traditional social protection architecture. In this post, Ejaz Ghani proposes a four-pillar approach involving a focus on informa...
- Ejaz Ghani
- 12 April, 2024
- Perspectives
Content Type: Perspectives
Topic: Governance
Year: 2024
How investing in girls’ education can reduce domestic violence in India
One-third of women in India aged 15-49 report experiencing domestic violence. This article examines the impact of an increase in education among girls due to the District Primary Education Programme – a large-scale school expansion programme – on domestic violence in adulthood. It finds a signif...
- Katja Bergonzoli Madhuri Agarwal Souparna Maji Vikram Bahure
- 10 April, 2024
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Human Development
Year: 2024
Enhancing secondary school learning: Role of remedial camps and teacher flexibility
A key dilemma in Indian education is that while children are enrolled in school, they are not actually learning. Based on an experiment in Odisha, this article explores possible solutions to the learning deficit in secondary schooling. It finds that tailored remedial programmes improve learning and ...
- Adrienne Lucas Anne Fitzpatrick Jason Kerwin Khandker Wahedur Rahman Sabrin Beg
- 08 April, 2024
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Human Development
Year: 2024
Interim Budget 2024-25: Are we on track to achieve healthcare for all?
The National Health Policy, 2017 set a target of increasing India’s health expenditure to 2.5% of its gross domestic product by 2025. In this post, Sayamsiddha decodes the recently presented Interim Budget, with a spotlight on outlays for health programmes. In her view, the government should compl...
- Sayamsiddha
- 05 April, 2024
- Perspectives
Content Type: Perspectives
Topic: Macroeconomics
Year: 2024
How do private players respond to public entry in pharmaceutical markets?
In 2012, the government of West Bengal outsourced the operation of key public pharmacies to private players – creating fair-price shops for selected generic medicines. How has the private sector responded to this policy intervention? Analysing the impact on prices of different categories of medici...
- Chirantan Chatterjee Samarth Gupta
- 03 April, 2024
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Productivity & Innovation
Year: 2024
Transforming menstrual hygiene in India
Launched in 2014, the ‘Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram’ seeks to improve menstrual hygiene in India by addressing issues around affordability as well as awareness. In this post, Kanika Dua contends that the programme – combined with enhanced provision of sanitation facilities – helped in...
- Kanika Dua
- 01 April, 2024
- Perspectives
Content Type: Perspectives
Topic: Human Development
Year: 2024
What are the effects of India’s rapid urbanisation on women’s empowerment?
Women in urban areas, compared to their rural counterparts, are thought to enjoy greater social, economic, and political opportunities and freedoms. At the same time, research shows barriers to women’s empowerment remain widespread in urban environments. Given India’s rapid urbanisation and the ...
- Binay Shankar Gaurav Dhamija Punarjit Roychowdhury
- 28 March, 2024
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Urbanisation
Year: 2024
Budget 2024-25: A countercyclical approach to fiscal policy
Keynes propounded that fiscal policy should be countercyclical in nature – expansionary during recession and contractionary during periods of boom. In this post, Aakanksha Shrawan analyses India’s Interim Union Budget for 2024-25, as well as trends in the discretionary spending component of gove...
- Aakanksha Shrawan
- 26 March, 2024
- Perspectives
Content Type: Perspectives
Topic: Macroeconomics
Year: 2024
Growth, well-being and distribution in the last decade – II
In the first part of this two-part series, Balakrishnan and Parameswaran presented an assessment of the performance of the Indian economy on macroeconomic indicators. In this post, they focus on well-being indicators – including those pertaining to health, sanitation and housing, poverty, and food...
- M. Parameswaran Pulapre Balakrishnan
- 22 March, 2024
- Perspectives
Content Type: Perspectives
Topic: Macroeconomics
Year: 2024
Growth, well-being and distribution in India in the last decade – I
As India gets ready to vote in the general election, Balakrishnan and Parameswaran present a comprehensive, evidence-based review of the performance of the Indian economy over the past decade. In the first of a two-part series, they focus on macroeconomic indicators including growth, investment, une...
- M. Parameswaran Pulapre Balakrishnan
- 20 March, 2024
- Perspectives
Content Type: Perspectives
Topic: Macroeconomics
Year: 2024