-CaravanMagazine.in The economist Jean Drèze’s book, Sense and Solidarity, published in late 2017, deals with the impact of Aadhaar on social-welfare programmes, such as the National Food Security Act and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, among other things. Drèze was a member of the United Progressive Alliance government’s advisory council, which designed the NFSA and MGNREGS. He co-authored some of the essays in this book with colleagues and...

-Business Standard The large informal sector is a consequence - not a cause - of the low level of development For decades, one of the central aims of economic policy in India has been to create conditions for workers to move from low- to high-income employment. This has usually implied a shift from the informal sector where productivity is low, to the formal sector where productivity is high. This process of “formalisation”...

-Firstpost.com Development economist Jean Dreze has been vociferous critic of the Narendra Modi government's demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes a year back. He had famously warned that "demonetisation in a booming economy is like shooting at the tyres of a racing car". A year on, it seems his caution has come true. In the first quarter of the current financial year, the GDP growth slowed to a three-year...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: India is set to host this weekend a quadrennial global conference on adolescent health that will discuss self-harm, substance abuse, obesity and risk-taking behaviour on the Internet among other risks to the health of young people. About a 1,000 delegates, including public health experts, paediatricians, mental health experts, and health policy-makers, are expected to attend the eleventh World Congress on Adolescent Health, a three-day conference that opens here...

-Hindustan Times Healthcare in India could use the help of better data and analysis from both public health systems and private sector interventions Better data is needed to enhance state intervention in health and nutrition and harness the strengths of the well-entrenched private sector to achieve public health goals. To meet the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) over the next 15 years, it is important to measure progress closely and ensure mid-course...