04 September, 2025Kerala’s silent crisis: Educated youth, but locked out of work
Despite performing well in terms of educational access and attainment, the southern state of Kerala exhibits very high rates of youth who are not in education, employment, or training. Based on qualit...
-
Isha Gupta 
28 August, 2025
- Notes from the Field
When fathers migrate: Does It benefit or disrupt left-behind children’s education?
While studies have explored the impact of male out-migration on left-behind women, there is limited evidence on the effects on children. Analysing data from eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, this artic...
-
Pintu Paul
- 04 August, 2025
- Articles
Making vocational training more effective at improving youth employment outcomes
Youth unemployment remains a significant challenge in India, with large-scale public skilling programmes achieving limited success in improving labour-market outcomes. This article explains the approa...
-
Evan Borkum Irina Cheban Edith Felix
- 16 July, 2025
- Articles
Taxing Tobacco
The steep increase in excise taxes on cigarettes in this year’s Union Budget is a welcome move. However, this column argues that unless more commonly consumed bidis are also taxed heavily, the publi...
-
Rijo M. John
- 09 December, 2014
- Articles
Financing Sanitation
The Government of India has set a rather ambitious goal of eliminating open defecation by 2019. For urban areas, this implies providing toilets to about 22 million households. This column contends th...
-
Dinesh Mehta Meera Mehta
- 11 November, 2014
- Articles
Rural infrastructure provision in India: mapping the Bharat Nirman programme
This project introduces a unique, integrated dataset on Maoist activity, three flagship programmes for rural infrastructure development (PMGSY,RGGVY, and USOF), and a dedicated programme targeted at I...
-
Oliver Eynde Jacob Shapiro
- 31 October, 2014
- IGC Research on India
Analysing efficiency of government hospitals in West Bengal
Given the insufficient public investment in the health sector in India, optimal utilisation of resources in the sector is crucial. This column analyses the efficiency of secondary government hospital...
-
Satarupa Bandyopadhyay Arijita Dutta Arpita Ghose
- 24 October, 2014
- Articles
Swachh Bharat Mission: The long walk from rhetoric to implementation
Swachh Bharat Mission – the flagship sanitation programme of the Indian government – aims to realise the dream of a ‘clean India’ by 2 October 2019, the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gand...
-
Varad Pande
- 01 October, 2014
- Perspectives
Where has all the education in India gone?
The average years of education per Indian citizen have significantly increased since independence. This column analyses whether the increase in education has led to higher material wellbeing overall....
-
Scott Fulford
- 18 September, 2014
- Articles
The youngest are hungriest
Babies born in India are more likely to be stunted than those in sub-Saharan Africa, even though the former are better off on average. This column examines how the India-Africa height gap varies by b...
-
Seema Jayachandran Rohini Pande
- 17 September, 2014
- Articles
Choice and cost: The role of household decision making and spending on secondary education in rural Bihar
This project attempts to understand the educational choices that households make and expenditures they undertake for children going from upper primary school to secondary school in Bihar. It is design...
-
Rukmini Banerji Wilima Wadhwa
- 15 September, 2014
- IGC Research on India
Do private tuitions improve learning outcomes?
About a fourth of the students enrolled in elementary schools in rural India attend private tuitions. This column analyses the impact of private tuition on learning outcomes, and finds that it has a ...
-
Ambrish Dongre Vibhu Tewary
- 13 August, 2014
- Articles
Improving children's learning: Challenges and priorities for the new government
Over the last 15 years, continued effort to universalise access to elementary education in India has resulted in high enrolment rates in schools. Now that most children are in school, policy and plan...
-
Rukmini Banerji
- 14 July, 2014
- Notes from the Field
Putting undernutrition higher on the political agenda in India
In his previous article, Lawrence Haddad contented that globally, we are in the midst of a ‘perfect storm’ for ending undernutrition, and maximum effort is required to take advantage of this tran...
-
Lawrence Haddad
- 02 July, 2014
- Perspectives
Ending undernutrition: In clear sight?
The World Health Assembly is targeting a decline of 100 million in the number of stunted under-five children by 2025; a 10% decline in stunting rates in India by 2014 can close a fifth of the gap. Th...
-
Lawrence Haddad
- 30 June, 2014
- Perspectives
Twitter feed
Tweets by Ideas4IndiaMost Popular Human Development Posts
Hindu-Muslim fertility differentials in India: District-level estimates from Census 2011
The 2011 Indian Census data show a higher growth rate of Muslim population compared to the Hindu population. This article provides an in-depth picture of Hindu-Muslim fertility differentials at the di...
- Saswata Ghosh
- 27 March, 2019
- Articles
Understanding India’s mental health crisis
Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, several reports have indicated a worsening of mental health issues among individuals across age groups. In this post, Michele Mary Bernadine examines the stat...
- Michele Mary Bernadine
- 06 April, 2021
- Perspectives
Ten steps to transform the quality of education in India
In this article, Sridhar Rajagopalan, Managing Director of Educational Initiatives, suggests 10 initiatives that can help transform the quality of education in India.
- Sridhar Rajagopalan
- 19 November, 2015
- Perspectives