-The Hindu We could hold people accountable to a reasonable standard of expectation and that's the first step, says economist Esther Duflo In 2003, French-American economist Esther Duflo co-founded the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (JPAL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with Abhijit Banerjee and Sendhil Mullainathan. In just over ten years, JPAL has carried out 568 field experiments - or Randomised Control Trials (RCTs) - in 56 countries,...

-India Today Devgadh Baria, Gujarat: Savita Naik, Navliben, Chandaben and Kamtiben eke out a meagre living in Panchiyasaal village, just about 30 km from the block headquarters of Devgadh Baria in Gujarat's tribal-dominated Dahod district. They have 1 to 1.5 bighas of land and so have been categorised as marginal land holders. It was a huge fight for them to earn even this land - they fought right from the level of...

-Niti Central India's western State Gujarat does not have a fertile land and most of its landscape is arid, even then the State has taken a big leap in agriculture sector by maintaining nearly 9 per cent of agricultural growth rate for nearly last one decade. Gujarat has written a success story despite being faced with challenges like depletion of water table, deterioration of soil and water conditions due to salinity...

-Down to Earth   BJP thinks undoing labour laws will spur a manufacturing boom. Even now workers enjoy little protection or social security In recent weeks, the pink press has been singing paeans to a new star in the political firmament, one whom they see as a worthy disciple of the man who gave us the "Gujarat model" of development. The media's new discovery is none other than Vasundhara Raje, the Rajasthan...

-Outlook More government took Himachal near the top of development indices In the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, the buzz around the so-called ‘Gujarat model' was such that without really knowing what it stood for, everyone wanted it. ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance' is as close as one could get in terms of concrete proposals. However, when one looks at the achievements of Gujarat, the buzz turns to a whimper (see...