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Human Development

Lighting the path to learning: Can electricity boost children’s test scores?

  • Articles

Reflections on how the New Education Policy plays out in the classroom

The National Education Policy, 2020 emphasises the acquisition of foundational literacy and numeracy by Standard 2. Yet, little is known about how the related initiatives have translated into changes ...

  • Notes from the Field

The wide-ranging benefits of India’s Public Distribution System

India’s Public Distribution System (PDS) is the world’s largest food transfer programme and India’s most far-reaching social safety net, accounting for 60% of the country’s social assistance b...

  • Articles

Network membership and demand for health insurance

Despite being free and having liberal eligibility criteria, the adoption of public health insurance in India remains low. This article examines how informal networks influence adoption behaviour, in t...

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Economic development, the nutrition trap, and metabolic disease

Two recently documented facts run counter to the conventional wisdom that economic development leads to better health: the absence of a clear link between income and nutritional status in developing c...

  • Articles

Food insecurity and child malnutrition: New empirical evidence from India

Child malnutrition is among the most pressing public health issues in India today. Equally alarming is the country’s food security crisis. Analysing ‘Young Lives Survey’ data from the states of ...

  • Articles

Estimating changes in India’s workforce during 2011-2018

Prior to the 2017-18 Periodic Labour Force Survey, there was paucity of official, labour-market data since the last nationally representative survey was from 2011, and other surveys in the intervening...

  • Perspectives

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 ...

  • Articles

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...

  • Articles

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 ...

  • Perspectives

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...

  • Articles

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...

  • Perspectives

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...

  • Perspectives

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...

  • Perspectives

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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Recent Contributors

Somdeep

Somdeep Chatterjee

Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta

Shiv

Shiv Hastawala

State University of New York at Binghamton

Jai

Jai Kamal

Indian Institute of Management Jammu

Suman

Suman Bhattacharjea

ASER Centre

Shweta

Shweta Bhutada

ASER Centre

Akanksha

Akanksha Bisht

ASER centre

Rashmi

Rashmi Barua

Jawaharlal Nehru University

Khushboo

Khushboo Aggarwal

Institute of Economic Growth

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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...

  • 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...

  • 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.

  • Perspectives