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Does subsidising publicly provided services discipline markets or distort demand?

Prior research has documented the failure of India’s flagship safe motherhood programme in reducing perinatal mortality, despite substantially increasing the share of mothers delivering at public he...

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Did Covid-19 pandemic increase incidence of low-birth-weight among newborns?

Globally, one in four babies are born with low birth weight, with long-term impacts on health and economic outcomes. This article uses Indian data from 2019-2021 to analyse the impact of the Covid-19 ...

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India’s massive employment problem and some ways out

In the recent announcement of India’s Union Budget 2024-25, significant emphasis was placed on the need for job creation. In this post, Pranab Bardhan presents a four-pronged strategy for the sustai...

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Urbanisation, gender, and social change: Do working women enjoy more agency?

Women’s limited work participation in India is not only of economic significance, but also has ramifications for their well-being and societal status. Based on a household survey in four north India...

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Assessing the assessments: Taking stock of India’s ‘learning outcomes’ data

As India recovers from the pandemic and the new National Education Policy is implemented, availability of reliable data on ‘learning outcomes’ is crucial. In this post, Johnson and Parrado assess ...

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Incentivising quality of public infrastructure: Does it work?

Community toilets in slums are often poorly maintained, and upgrading facilities is difficult due to low willingness-to-pay among potential users and ‘free riding’. Based on an experiment in Uttar...

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Covid-19 and mobility: A behavioural perspective

The imposition of a nationwide lockdown in March 2020 to check the spread of Covid-19, sparked debates on the necessity and effectiveness of such measures due to resulting economic hardships. In this ...

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Examining Covid-19 travel restrictions in developing countries

At the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the developing world took many of the same policy steps as developed nations to contain the spread, including lockdowns. This article uses evidence from India t...

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Timeliness and coverage of child vaccinations across India

Despite free vaccinations for children below 12 years of age under the Universal Immunisation Programme, one-third of global child deaths due to vaccine-preventable diseases occur in India. In this po...

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Covid-19 and mental health: Are children ready to go back to school?

Previous parts of the I4I e-symposium on ‘Covid-19 and mental health’ have discussed the potential adverse effects of school closures on children’s psychological well-being – particularly thos...

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Covid-19 and mental health: Focus on children’s holistic development

Santanu Mishra (Co-founder and Trustee Smile Foundation) discusses how Covid-related restrictions on movement and social interactions, and complete dependence on adults to create a conducive home envi...

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Covid-19 and mental health: How have children been faring?

Dr John Vijay Sagar Kommu of NIMHANS examines the factors affecting the mental health of children during the pandemic and the role of caregivers and mental health professionals in helping children nav...

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Covid-19 and mental health: Strengthening psychosocial well-being of children

Yasmin Haque, UNICEF Representative in India, outlines the evidence on the severe impact of the pandemic on the mental health of children and adolescents – particularly girls, and the measures being...

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Covid-19 and mental health: Fighting the “infodemic”, one phone call at a time

COVID-19 information communication strategies globally have been dominated by SMS and voice recording based campaigns. The most pervasive Indian government campaign was a pre-recorded message that pla...

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Covid-19 and mental health: Improving women’s mental well-being via telecounselling

Public health emergencies such as Covid-19 disproportionally cause mental health problems among women due to factors such as their inferior socioeconomic position in the household, greater care respon...

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Most 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...

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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.

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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...

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