In his recent Budget speech, the finance minister reiterated the government’s plans to make India “slum-free” within five years. This mantra is now being chanted in many urban-related conferences. However, this raises a number of questions. What does a “slum-free” India really mean? Is the removal of slums really desirable? Most importantly, what needs to be done to improve the lives of the millions of urban poor? In this article,...

Indian farmers are known to be second to none when it comes to adoption of new technology. But, what is not so well-appreciated is that many of them are daring enough to take a break from traditional crops and venture into wholly new fields and make a success of it through their own ingenuity or with some institutional or state help. There are countless instances of such endeavours. The agriculture ministry...

Statistical poverty lines should not become real-life eligibility criteria for food entitlements.  Nothing is easier than to recognise a poor person when you see him or her. Yet the task of identifying and counting the poor seems to elude the country's best experts. Take for instance the “headcount” of rural poverty — the proportion of the rural population below the poverty line. At least four alternative figures are available: 28...

Monica Das Gupta is a senior social scientist at the World Bank. Her field research in Punjab, when she was at the National Council of Applied Economic Research, established that sex differentials in child mortality in rural Punjab persisted despite relative wealth, socio-economic development including rapid universalization of female education, fertility decline, and mortality decline. Amartya Sen’s writings drew attention to female foeticide and infanticide in Asia that led to...

If we can have a nuclear submarine programme, a space missile programme, cricket sponsorship programme by individuals like Sharukh Khan, why can’t we have a programme to save rotting paddy lying across the country,” says Dr MS Swaminathan highlighting the parody that India’s is currently facing. In Ludhiana to address the convocation of Punjab Agriculture University the scientist and Member of Parliament speaks to ET highlighting that the future belongs...