-The Hindu Launched in 2006 by the JD(U)-BJP government at the time, the scheme provided money to all girls who enrolled in Class IX through their schools to buy themselves a cycle. The first independent, scientific evaluation of the impact of Bihar's cycles-for-girls programme has shown that the scheme significantly improved female school enrolment and substantially reduced the gender gap in secondary school enrolment. The study, by Karthik Muralidharan, an economist at...

-Economic and Political Weekly In the popular and media imagination, fed by economists and columnists, Gujarat and Bihar have both recorded an extraordinary economic performance in the past decade. But a careful analysis shows that Gujarat, always one of the richest states, has done no better than before. In neither industry nor agriculture has its position radically changed. The only dramatic difference has been the emergence of import-dependent and export-oriented petroleum...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: An expert panel has ranked Gujarat 12th among states in development, its findings flying in the face of Narendra Modi's claims but winning endorsement from economists The Telegraph spoke to. The committee, headed by Raghuram Rajan who has since been appointed Reserve Bank governor, assessed states on the basis of 10 criteria, which included many human development indicators. Bengal came 16th. Economist and Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen, who...

-The Hindu In richer and poorer States, differing periods of danger for girl children: data Last year, 74,000 more girls under the age of 5 than boys died in India, numbers for which there is no biological explanation, researchers say. Moreover, while many richer States abort female foetuses at a higher rate than some poorer States, once the child is born, many poorer States have a worse record in ensuring her survival,...

-The Indian Express To address the crisis of rising unemployment, first fix labour laws. That there haven't been too many protests against the elevated levels of consumer price inflation for several years probably has to do with the number of jobs being created. While UPA 1 had a poor track record, and only 3 million new jobs were created between 2004-05 and 2009-10, National Sample Survey (NSS) data shows the situation improved...