Whither freedom

Post independence, governments expanded squeezing village republics out of existence

Child poverty a global concern

It is time poverty alleviation policies and programmes get child-centric, to lay a solid foundation for a future generation that is healthy and …

A personal memoir of planned development

India's affair with five-year plans ends

Sabhas we listen to

On the 30th year of Panchayati Raj, the rise of the Gram Sabha holds the hope of making local-government accountable  

Toothless at 10

A decade after their inception, Panchayati Raj bodies are yet to be granted adequate powers

The national local elections

Bangladesh loses an opportunity to revive its most important local government—upazilla parishad—as competing national parties turn …

Betrayed

Nepal's forest bureaucracy prepares for the funeral of the much-hailed community forest management programme

Brazilian lessons for Modi

Dilma Rousseff's re-election as president is a lesson on facing development challenges in an unequal economy

Much ado about nothing

How much does government support add to household income?

“90 वोटों के लिए धन्यवाद”

मानवाधिकार कार्यकर्ता की अपमानजनक हार ने कहीं और जीत का संकेत दिया

Women’s Day 2024: ‘She’ is for Self Help Empowerment

In India, women self-help groups have been a source of empowerment, fostering economic independence, social stature & community resilience. …

Why the data block?

India does not know how many people are poor or who they are; no consumer expenditure survey has been done in the last decade. We also do not …

India’s homemakers being wooed by political parties is path-breaking

The socio-political message of parties promising cash value to homemakers is a recognition of women’s work in a typical male-dominated …

US elections 2020: Trumped by hunger

US presidential candidates aren’t known to talk hunger; but they do talk inequality. This year, the pandemic and racial polarisation made …

भारत में आधे बच्चे हैं गरीब

ये बच्चे मूलभूत मानव विकास की जरूरतों से वंचित हैं। यह सर्वेक्षण यह भी बताता है कि बच्चों को केंद्र में रखकर चलाए जा ...

Elected democracy: democratic enough?

Global trends reveal that people are no longer finding this popular governance mechanism effective

A deal for votes

2013-14 might see expansion or monetisation of development schemes in run-up to election

The beauty & beast of malnutrition

Consigned to flames

Central and state authorities fiddle while underground coalfields burn in Jharia in the state of Jharkhand

A state in chaos

The human cost of the cyclone in Orissa is very high. So is the cost of the damage to the environment. The failure of the state machinery in …

A vocal for local verdict

PM Modi’s performance on the most important issues of unemployment, price rise and dipping income didn’t reflect the slogan he had …

For a decade, earnings of regular salaried & self-employed Indians have been declining: ILO

At the all-India level, 40.8% of regular workers and 51.9% of casual workers did not receive the average daily minimum wage prescribed for …

Power of the local

Panchayat elections almost contested with the Bihar poll. Is this desirable?

On the world’s largest and longest UBI experiment

The experiment is ongoing in 'sequestered' 200 villages in Kenya for the next eight years and India has some lessons as it plans for a similar scheme

Forget 2022, more than 110 million Indians would remain poor forever

The next generation of the current poor Indians has high probability of remaining poor as well. Lack of access to resources like forests and …