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Human Development

A quiet revolution: The case of primary education in Uttar Pradesh

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Right 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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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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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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Why doesn’t anybody know if Swachh Bharat Mission is succeeding?

In 2014, the Prime Minister announced a goal of eliminating open defecation by 2019. In this article, Coffey and Spears, contend that now almost two-thirds of the way through the Swachh Bharat Mission...

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Language and development

Language choice is central to organisation of society, transmission of knowledge, and interpersonal communication, and hence, has implications for socioeconomic inequality. This column examines the co...

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Building institutional capacity for rural sanitation in Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state with about 200 million people, has historically not performed well on sanitation. In this article, Mariappa Kullappa of the World Bank Water Global Practic...

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Good monsoon, bad test scores? Substituting away from schooling

Good monsoons in India raise agricultural productivity and hence, bring added work and higher wages. Is this extra work at the expense of schooling for poor children? This column finds that increased ...

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Zika virus: Is it a potential threat to India?

The WHO recently reported the first three laboratory-confirmed cases of Zika virus disease in India – all in the state of Gujarat. In this article, public health consultant Kaushik Bharati discusses...

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Assam's Brahmaputra Community Radio Station: Innovation in health communication

River Brahmaputra which flows across the Northeast Indian state of Assam, carves out a network of nearly 2,300 islands, isolating them from the mainland and excluding their inhabitants from access to ...

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Moving towards a principles-based drug retail policy in India?

The health ministry has proposed a new e-platform for tracking the country’s entire drug supply chain, including online sales. In this article, Smriti Sharma and Amey Sapre contend that the e-platfo...

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Leaving stunting behind: Evidence from ethnic Indians in England

Despite impressive rates of economic growth in recent decades, India remains one of the worst-performing countries worldwide in terms of height, among children and adults. This column shows that heigh...

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Smart policy for women's economic empowerment in South Asia

In this article, Jennifer Johnson and Nalini Gulati highlight the different trajectories of women’s economic empowerment across South Asia, based on a recent policy dialogue hosted by Evidence for ...

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On Delhi's mohalla clinics

The Delhi government planned to set up 1,000 mohalla or community clinics in the state by end-2016, but only one-tenth of the target was met in the proposed timeline. In this article, public health ex...

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Kanyashree Prakalpa in West Bengal: Justification and evaluation

Kanyasree Prakalpa is a conditional cash transfer scheme of the Government of West Bengal that offers scholarship to adolescent girls for continuing education and remaining unmarried until the age of ...

  • IGC Research on India

Risks and Investment in Education

This project analysed the effects of household income risk on schooling investment in rural India. The findings from this project suggest that income risk faced by poorer households is an important re...

  • IGC Research on India

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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...

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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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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 ...

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