Main Banner Image

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 ...

  • Articles

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...

  • Perspectives

Managing India’s demographic transition

India’s population is expected to peak at about 1.7 billion in 2064, and while the current median age is only 28, the share of Indians aged 65 and above will go from 7% to 20% in the next 40 years o...

  • Videos
Refine list by:
--Please Select--
--Please Select--

India’s battle against Covid-19: A comparative perspective

It has been suggested that, India could selectively relax the lockdown that has been imposed on it, given its favourable demographic profile. In this post, Ghosh and Pal argue that having a younger po...

  • Perspectives

The State’s frontline workers: An overlooked human resource

The Covid-19 and the related lockdown have focused the nation's attention on two groups of people who number in millions but have still somehow not received adequate attention: the migrant informal wo...

  • Notes from the Field

Covid-19: Online classes and the digital divide

As the Covid-19 infections rise in India, there is justified pressure to keep universities closed. Online teaching is something many institutions are contemplating, but do the Indian students have the...

  • Perspectives

How to walk the talk on prioritising public health and nutrition

India accounts for more than 3 out of every 10 stunted children in the world, and the largest number of babies born with low birth weight per year.In this post, Shweta Khandelwal contends that India h...

  • Perspectives

Human development in India’s Economic Survey 2019-20

Measuring changes in human development can help us understand how the economy, and well-being of a country, is changing. The chapter on human development in this year’s Economic Survey emphasises th...

  • Perspectives

The early advantage: Learning levels in grade 1

According to ASER 2019, children in grade 1 of government schools in India lag behind private school children in both language and numeracy skills. In this post, Wilima Wadhwa explains that children i...

  • Perspectives

Learning environment as third teacher? Evidence on the impact of school infrastructure

One of the ways to ensure education quality in schools is to create education facilities that are child-centred and provide a safe, inclusive, and effective learning environment for all. In this post,...

  • Perspectives

The precocious period: Impact of early menarche on schooling in India

In socio-cultural contexts onset of menstruation (menarche) adversely affects educational attainments of girls. This article shows that onset of menses before age 12 causes a 13% decrease in school en...

  • Articles

Has the National Rural Health Mission improved utilisation of maternal healthcare services in Bihar?

Bihar is a socioeconomically backward state with a persistently poor record with respect to maternal and child health indicators. Based on data from the National Sample Surveys on healthcare, this art...

  • Articles

Banerjee and Duflo’s journey with Pratham

This year’s economics Nobel laureates Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo have worked closely with education NGO Pratham in India for more than 20 years. Over time, this unique partnership of research...

  • Perspectives

Draft National Education Policy: Vision for out-of-school children

The draft National Education Policy released in May 2019 took a step forward by recommending an extension of the scope of the right to education act by including pre-primary and secondary education wi...

  • Perspectives

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...

  • Perspectives

Recent Contributors

Parijat

Parijat Lal

Columbia University

Utkarsh

Utkarsh Kumar

Columbia University

Santosh

Santosh Kumar

University of Notre Dame

Tim

Tim Halliday

University of Hawaii at Manoa

Pranab

Pranab Bardhan

University of California, Berkeley

Farzana

Farzana Afridi

Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi Centre

Sonalde

Sonalde Desai

University of Maryland

Kartikeya

Kartikeya Batra

University of Maryland

View all Contributors

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

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

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