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...
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Kathy Baylis
Ben Crost
Aditya Shrinivas
17 February, 2025
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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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Titir Bhattacharya
Tanika Chakraborty
Anirban Mukherjee
17 January, 2025
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Powering progress: How reliable community electrification boosts women’s autonomy
While there has been significant progress in expanding access to grid electricity in India, the reliability of electricity remains a concern. Based on five national-level datasets spanning over a peri...
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Rikhia Bhukta
Debayan Pakrashi
Sarani Saha
Ashish Sedai
06 January, 2025
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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 ...
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Doug Johnson
Andrés Parrado
01 November, 2021
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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...
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Alex Armand
Britta Augsburg
Antonella Bancalari
08 October, 2021
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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 ...
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Nishant Chadha
Shafin Naik
06 October, 2021
- 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...
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Fiona Burlig
Garrison Schlauch
Anant Sudarshan
01 October, 2021
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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...
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Abyaleek Chaudhuri
Sisir Debnath
27 September, 2021
- 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...
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Wilima Wadhwa
24 September, 2021
- 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...
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Santanu Mishra
24 September, 2021
- 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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John Vijay Sagar Kommu
23 September, 2021
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Covid-19 and mental health: Strengthening psychosocial well-being of children
Yasmin Haque, UNICEF Representative in India, outlines the evidence on the severe impact of the pandemic on the mental health of children and adolescents – particularly girls, and the measures being...
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Yasmin Ali Haque
23 September, 2021
- Perspectives
Covid-19 and mental health: Fighting the “infodemic”, one phone call at a time
COVID-19 information communication strategies globally have been dominated by SMS and voice recording based campaigns. The most pervasive Indian government campaign was a pre-recorded message that pla...
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Achyuta Adhvaryu
Varun Chati
Sadish D
Saswati Mishra
Anant Nyshadham
Nirupama V
22 September, 2021
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Covid-19 and mental health: Improving women’s mental well-being via telecounselling
Public health emergencies such as Covid-19 disproportionally cause mental health problems among women due to factors such as their inferior socioeconomic position in the household, greater care respon...
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Firoz Ahmed
Asad Islam
Debayan Pakrashi
Tabassum Rahman
Abu Siddique
Michael Vlassopoulos
21 September, 2021
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Covid-19 and mental health: Large-scale phone survey in six Indian states
The Covid-19 pandemic brought with it the dual crises of public health and the economy, particularly in low-income settings with limited formal safety nets. Based on a large-scale phone survey conduct...
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Natalie Bau
Gaurav Khanna
Corinne Low
Manisha Shah
Sreyashi Sharmin
Alessandra Voena
20 September, 2021
- Perspectives
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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
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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