APRIL 14TH was a big day in India. Hindus and Sikhs gathered to mark the new year. Many Muslims celebrated the first day of Ramadan at late-night feasts with friends and family. In Haridwar, a temple town that this year hosts the Kumbh Mela, an intermittent Hindu festival that is the [...]

  There are two main reasons why the novel Coronavirushas been such a disaster for the world economy: One, that it infects everyone — regardless of their economic status, and two, because it essentially spreads just the way economic growth does — via human interaction. In other words, controlling the virus’ [...]

On March 31, the World Economic Forum released its annual Gender Gap Report 2021. India had slipped 28 spots to rank 140 out of the 156 countries covered. […]

India faces a huge burden of malnutrition rooted in its social, economic, and cultural asymmetries and challenges. According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-4 conducted in 2014-15, for children under five years of age, 38.4 per cent were stunted (height-for-age), 21 per cent were wasted (weight-for-height), 7.5 per cent [...]

The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) paints even a more dismal picture of the future of girls in their childhood worldwide. Roughly, 10 million additional child marriages may occur in the next 10 years because of the adverse impact of Covid-19. […]

Gender discrimination pervades India’s socio-economic pyramid. At its upper reaches, we encounter anecdotes of single women entrepreneurs finding it difficult to get bank loans. According to the report, India has closed 62.5 per cent of its gender gap till date. The country had ranked 140th among countries in the Global Gender Gap Index 2021 [...]

Communities cannot thrive without good health, but sadly, good health can be elusive for communities on the margins of society. Even before covid, tribal and indigenous people all over the world have routinely experienced lower life expectancies, poor maternal and child health, and higher rates of both infectious and non-communicable [...]

Most armies of the world follow a version of the British Defence Doctrine that lays down Ten Principles of War, the first of which is “Selection and Maintenance of Aim”. If the national aim is to achieve quick economic recovery, then we need to remember that the second of the [...]

In the last 50 or 60 years, rigid master plans have been the way to plan India’s cities. And what has this resulted in? “The urban dysfunction,” according to Sanjeev Sanyal, Principal Economic Advisor, Government of India. […]