Lighting the path to learning: Can electricity boost children’s test scores?
When households gain access to electricity, children are more likely to be enrolled in school. But do they also perform better? Based on West Bengal’s universal household electrification programme a...
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Somdeep Chatterjee
Shiv Hastawala
Jai Kamal
23 April, 2025
- Articles
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
- Articles
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
- Articles
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
- Articles
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
- Articles
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
Covid-19 and mental health: Introduction to e-Symposium
The Covid-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns had a devastating effect on the economy, with loss of livelihoods, earnings, and food insecurity suffered by the most vulnerable sections. Although econo...
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Farzana Afridi
20 September, 2021
- Symposium
The intergenerational mortality tradeoff of Covid-19 lockdown policies
The introduction of lockdown policies to contain the transmission of Covid-19 led to a debate on what type of lockdowns were warranted, and whether the benefits justified the accompanying economic con...
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Damien de Walque
Quy-Toan Do
Jed Friedman
Andrei Levchenko
Lin Ma
Gil Shapira
15 September, 2021
- Articles
Challenges faced by community health workers in Covid-19 containment efforts
Although community health workers have been the backbone of the fight against Covid-19 in India, there has not been sufficient focus on their well-being and working conditions. Based on a survey in th...
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Somya Bhatia
Stutilina Pal
Devanik Saha
11 August, 2021
- Notes from the Field
The power of school feeding programmes to improve nutrition
India has the world’s highest number of undernourished children and the largest school-feeding programme – the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) scheme – but limited evidence is available on the intergeneratio...
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Harold Alderman
Suman Chakrabarti
Daniel Gilligan
Purnima Menon
Samuel Scott
04 August, 2021
- Articles
Start what you finish! Risk and schooling investments
Economic shocks prompt parents to work more in order to reduce the fallout, and children may spend more time helping in the household or on the family farm, thereby interrupting their schooling. Analy...
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Andrew Foster
Esther Gehrke
19 July, 2021
- Articles
Grandads, dads, and sons: Examining multigenerational mobility in India
While studies have examined the association in socioeconomic status between parent and offspring, there has been relatively little research on multigenerational mobility, especially in the developing ...
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Anustup Kundu
Kunal Sen
05 July, 2021
- Articles
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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
- 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