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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Wilima Wadhwa

ASER Centre

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Nishith Prakash

Northeastern University

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Sahil Pawar

Northeastern University

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Independent reseacher

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Digvijay S. Negi

Ashoka University

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Roanoke College, Salem

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University of Cambridge

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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...

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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...

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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.

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