Policy Roundup: State budgets, time use survey, natural calamities
This post presents our monthly curation of developments in the policy landscape – highlighting I4I content pertaining to state budgets, gender gaps in time use, and mitigating the impact of natural calamities.
-
Nalini Gulati
01 April, 2025
- Perspectives
Content Type: Perspectives
Topic: Miscellany
Year: 2025
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 in teaching-learning in the classroom. In this note, Bhattacharjea, Bhutada and Bisht share insights...
-
Akanksha Bisht
Shweta Bhutada
Suman Bhattacharjea
26 March, 2025
- Notes from the Field
Content Type: Notes from the Field
Topic: Human Development
Year: 2025
Complementarity between labour and energy in Indian manufacturing
As India develops its carbon markets to mitigate climate change, it is important to consider the short-term costs for industry. Analysing data on formal manufacturing from 2009-10 to 2019-20, this article finds that energy and labour are complementary inputs in production – if an intervention such...
-
Raavi Aggarwal
24 March, 2025
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Productivity & Innovation
Year: 2025
The unintended effect of alcohol prohibition on adolescents’ mental health
Alcohol consumption is typically initiated during adolescence, with long-lasting implications on adult health, economic stability, and well-being. Analysing Bihar’s alcohol ban, this article finds adverse impacts on adolescents’ mental health – driven by increased access to illegal alcohol fro...
-
Khushboo Aggarwal
Marian Vidal-Fernandez
Rajdeep Chaudhuri
Rashmi Barua
21 March, 2025
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Human Development
Year: 2025
How police patrols reduced severe street harassment in India
Street harassment is a pervasive issue, with negative impacts on women’s safety and mobility in urban public spaces. Based on an experiment conducted in collaboration with the Hyderabad City Police, this article demonstrates that visible, anti-harassment policing strategies combined with efforts t...
-
Anjani Kumar
Girija Borker
Maria Micaela Sviatschi
Nathan Fiala
Nishith Prakash
Sofia Amaral
19 March, 2025
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Social Identity
Year: 2025
The growing burden of state subsidies
Delivery of welfare benefits to citizens by state governments in India often takes the form of subsidies. Analysing budgetary data from seven Indian states for the period between 2018-19 and 2022-23, this article documents how explicit subsidies are straining state finances and compromising developm...
-
Kishan Narayan
17 March, 2025
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Macroeconomics
Year: 2025
Accountability and responsibility
Accountability of public institutions and employees is deemed important for them to function for the common good. In this post, Drèze and Sen argue that accountability is only one aspect of a much broader concern for responsibility. Explaining how a sense of responsibility can be an immense force f...
-
Amartya Sen
Jean Drèze
13 March, 2025
- Perspectives
Content Type: Perspectives
Topic: Governance
Year: 2025
ASER 2024: More than a post-pandemic recovery in learning
The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2024 reports on children’s schooling status and reading and arithmetic levels from almost all rural districts of India. In this post, Wilima Wadhwa, Director of the ASER Centre, discusses the key trends in school enrolment and learning outcomes across g...
-
Wilima Wadhwa
12 March, 2025
- Perspectives
Content Type: Perspectives
Topic: Human Development
Year: 2025
Female labour force participation: Measurement and data quality
Official data revealed a sharp decline in female labour force participation in India between 2004-05 and 2011-12, despite fast economic growth in the country. Examining the measurement of women’s work and data quality issues, this article identifies three explanations for the low observed female l...
-
Karan Bhasin
Surjit Bhalla
Tirthatanmoy Das
10 March, 2025
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Social Identity
Year: 2025
International Women’s Day 2025: Towards equality and empowerment
Throughout this week, I4I has been sharing some of the latest evidence and ideas around women’s empowerment to mark International Women’s Day 2025. Discover the five-part series, and more about I4I’s gender-focused research, in this post.
-
I4I Team
08 March, 2025
- Symposium
Content Type: Symposium
Topic: Social Identity
Year: 2025
Pedalling towards gender equality and empowerment
In Bihar, India and in rural Zambia, the government introduced programmes to address gender gaps in education by providing adolescent girls with bicycles for their commute to school. Discussing the immediate and long-term impacts of these initiatives, this article provides insights into designing mo...
-
Nishith Prakash
Sahil Pawar
Vagisha Pandey
07 March, 2025
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Social Identity
Year: 2025
Can job ad language help explain the gender gap in the Indian labour market?
Women applying for jobs tend to earn a lot less than men of the same age and education qualifications. Understanding the factors contributing to this disparity is crucial for addressing gender inequality in the labour market. This article explores one such factor: the wording of job advertisements a...
-
Kanika Mahajan
Sugat Chaturvedi
Zahra Siddique
06 March, 2025
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Social Identity
Year: 2025



