04 September, 2025Kerala’s silent crisis: Educated youth, but locked out of work
Despite performing well in terms of educational access and attainment, the southern state of Kerala exhibits very high rates of youth who are not in education, employment, or training. Based on qualit...
-
Isha Gupta 
28 August, 2025
- Notes from the Field
When fathers migrate: Does It benefit or disrupt left-behind children’s education?
While studies have explored the impact of male out-migration on left-behind women, there is limited evidence on the effects on children. Analysing data from eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, this artic...
-
Pintu Paul
- 04 August, 2025
- Articles
Making vocational training more effective at improving youth employment outcomes
Youth unemployment remains a significant challenge in India, with large-scale public skilling programmes achieving limited success in improving labour-market outcomes. This article explains the approa...
-
Evan Borkum Irina Cheban Edith Felix
- 16 July, 2025
- Articles
Encouraging household investment in sanitation
While the detrimental effects of poor sanitation are widely known, there is disagreement about the key barriers to expanding improved sanitation coverage. This column presents results from a field ex...
-
Raymond Guiteras James Levinsohn Mushfiq Mobarak
- 13 May, 2015
- Articles
A campaign to end malnutrition in Bihar
About 55% of 0-3 year old children in the state of Bihar are malnourished. In this article, Hena Naqvi, State Programme Officer at the Department of Social Welfare, Government of Bihar, describes an ...
-
Hena Naqvi
- 08 May, 2015
- Notes from the Field
Getting centre-state relations right for health in India
The 14th Finance Commission has recommended devolving a greater share of revenues to states in order to give them more control over spending. In this article, Amanda Glassman and Anit Mukherjee exami...
-
Amanda Glassman Anit Mukherjee
- 01 April, 2015
- Perspectives
How serious is the government about Swachh Bharat Mission?
The recently announced Union budget 2015-16 has reduced the central government allocation for Swachh Bharat Mission – the flagship sanitation programme of the government. In this article, Sangita V...
-
Sangita Vyas
- 20 March, 2015
- Perspectives
Assessing teacher quality in India
Research in the US has pointed out that the most important determinant of the quality of education is the quality of teachers but that students’ achievement is not linked to observable teacher char...
-
Mehtabul Azam Geeta Gandhi Kingdon
- 16 February, 2015
- Articles
Public spending on health coverage: Are we raising the right questions?
The National Health Assurance Mission – India’s first move towards Universal Health Coverage – is expected to be launched soon. In this context, this column analyses the extent, distribution an...
-
Samik Chowdhury Indrani Gupta
- 13 February, 2015
- Articles
Taking education beyond educationists
ASER – Annual Status of Education Report – has been tracking learning outcomes of children in rural India for the past 10 years. In this note, Rukmini Banerji, Director of the ASER Centre/Pratham...
-
Rukmini Banerji
- 09 February, 2015
- Notes from the Field
How much does India spend on elementary education?
There has been a significant policy focus on expanding elementary education in India in recent years. Yet, estimates of public and private expenditure on elementary education are not available. This ...
-
Ambrish Dongre Avani Kapur
- 02 February, 2015
- Articles
Droughts and child health
Research has pointed towards the importance of foetal health in child development. Assessing the impact of rainfall variability on child health, this column finds that exposure to drought in the womb...
-
Santosh Kumar Ramona Molitor Sebastian Vollmer
- 27 January, 2015
- Articles
Teacher accountability and assessment of student learning levels
Research has found that holding teachers accountable to the local community has scant impact on student learning. Based on a survey of government schools in Karnataka, this column suggests that this ...
-
Anjini Kochar
- 15 January, 2015
- Articles
Can we select the right peers in Indian education? Evidence from Kolkata
This project studies the effect of random dormitory assignment in a tertiary-level educational institution in India on subsequent academic achievements. The effects of peer-ability are around one-thir...
-
Paul Frijters
- 31 December, 2014
- IGC Research on India
Defining Teacher Quality in India
Using administrative data from linked private schools from one of districts in India that matches 8,319 pupils to their subject-specific teachers at the senior secondary level, the project estimates t...
-
Mehtabul Azam Geeta Gandhi Kingdon
- 31 December, 2014
- IGC Research on India
Twitter feed
Tweets by Ideas4IndiaMost 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...
- Saswata Ghosh
- 27 March, 2019
- 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...
- Michele Mary Bernadine
- 06 April, 2021
- 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.
- Sridhar Rajagopalan
- 19 November, 2015
- Perspectives