31 May, 2019Right to Education Act: Trends in enrolment, test scores, and school quality
A decade ago, India joined a range of countries that mandate free, compulsory education for school-aged children. Passed in August 2009, India’s Right to Education Act was potentially transformative...
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Manisha Shah 
12 July, 2019
- Articles
Access to toilets and public safety of women
Launched on 2 October 2014, Swachh Bharat Mission aimed to increase the proportion of rural households with access to a toilet from 38.8% to 100% by 2019. In the run-up to Gandhi Jayanti and the 5th a...
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Kanika Mahajan Sheetal Sekhri
- 01 October, 2019
- Articles
What the Swachh Bharat Mission did not change
On the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and 5th anniversary of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), Coffey and Spears discuss findings from a field survey about changes in open defecation in rura...
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Diane Coffey Dean Spears
- 02 October, 2019
- Perspectives
National Health Stack: A job half well-done
To support the implementation of the recently launched National Health Protection Scheme, NITI Aayog has proposed the creation of digital infrastructure called National Health Stack. In this post, Smr...
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Smriti Mudgal Sharma
- 10 September, 2018
- Perspectives
How retail drug markets in poor countries develop
We need effective, affordable medicines to confront the alarming burden of infectious diseases in the developing world. However, many of the drugs for sale in developing countries are of poor quality....
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Daniel Bennett Wes Yin
- 07 September, 2018
- Articles
Maternal health services utilisation: Has the rich-poor gap declined?
Various studies have noted that vast inequalities – economic and socio-demographic – exist in maternal, newborn, and child health outcomes and utilisation of care services. In this post, Sohini Pa...
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Sohini Paul
- 29 August, 2018
- Perspectives
Designing India’s national healthcare protection: Challenges and opportunities
The burden of non-communicable diseases, requiring costly hospital-based treatment, is increasing in India, and only 15% of the population has health insurance coverage. The Modi government recently i...
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Sisir Debnath Tarun Jain Dibya Mishra Revathy Suryanarayana
- 27 August, 2018
- Perspectives
How sanitation facilities in schools can improve educational outcomes
The Indian government launched the School Sanitation and Hygiene Education programme in 1999 to build latrines in schools. Analysing data from nearly 140,000 schools in 2003 - some of which received a...
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Anjali Adukia
- 20 August, 2018
- Articles
Expected income support and child health
Government of India’s maternity support programme – Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana – seeks to provide income support to pregnant women and lactating mothers in rural India. Evaluating the p...
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Prabhat P. Ghosh Anjini Kochar
- 17 August, 2018
- Articles
Are we prepared for the future of work?
Given the threat of jobs displacement on account of the rise of automation and artificial intelligence, it has become crucial to develop a high-quality labour force with advanced cognitive skills. In ...
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Raavi Aggarwal
- 13 August, 2018
- Perspectives
C-section deliveries and the role of the private health sector in India
India, like the rest of the world, is witnessing an upward trend in caesarean-section (C-section) deliveries – with the proportion of C-section deliveries rising even faster in private health facili...
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Ambrish Dongre Mitul Surana
- 23 July, 2018
- Articles
Can double-fortified salt in school mid-day meals help reduce anaemia?
Micronutrient malnutrition is a major risk factor for more than half of the daily under-five deaths in India. It leads to iron-deficiency anaemia, which especially affects pregnant women, and young an...
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Marion Kraemer Santosh Kumar Abhijeet Kumar Sebastian Vollmer
- 27 June, 2018
- Articles
Financial incentives and the fertility-sex ratio trade-off in India
Fertility reduction and a gender-balanced population often appear to be conflicting objectives in countries with persistent son preference and easy access to sex-selection technology, as targeting one...
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S. Anukriti
- 25 June, 2018
- Articles
How can immigrant scientists give back to their homelands?
In addition to contributing to their adopted countries, immigrant scientists have potential to use their talents to give back to their homelands. In this context, Madhukar Pai shares his personal expe...
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Madhukar Pai
- 14 June, 2018
- Perspectives
Reducing maternal mortality in India: A four-pronged strategy
While India’s maternal mortality rate declined substantially during 2004-2006 to 2014-2016, at an annual rate of 5%, the reduction is still short of what is required to achieve the National Health P...
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Jithin Jose
- 11 June, 2018
- Perspectives
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Tweets by Ideas4IndiaMost Popular Human Development Posts
Giving up too early on malnourished children? Catch-up growth and Midday Meals
It is widely believed that malnourishment in the first few years of childhood adversely affects cognition and adult economic outcomes. This column presents new research which shows that full recovery...
- Abhijeet Singh
- 14 April, 2014
- Articles
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
A quiet revolution: The case of primary education in Uttar Pradesh
The challenge in India’s school education system today is how to translate years of schooling into learning. While there is reason to lament the learning crisis, a quiet movement is taking place in ...
- Shobhini Mukerji
- 31 May, 2019
- Notes