There are numerous debilitating factors that disallow Indian agriculture from growing to its potential. The most critical of them, which, ironically, are not receiving due attention, are related to land. Not only is the availability of land for farming shrinking, but its quality and fertility are also waning. Agricultural holdings are getting smaller and turning uneconomical to operate. The much-hyped land reforms have, right from the beginning, been misdirected. These have...

Could the Great Indian Middle Class be the Great Indian Mythical Class? A proposed new international definition of what constitutes the middle class in a developing country has thrown up a startling conclusion by global standards, India has no middle class. Noted economist Nancy Birdsall, president of the Center for Global Development, has proposed a new definition of the middle class for developing countries in a forthcoming World Bank publication,...

Increased representation for women can unleash a broader process that can be set in motion by the strength of sheer numbers. One measure of whether it is important to have women in important policy formulation roles is to examine how a largely male-dominated system of government has served women. It turns out that India performs very poorly in this regard. Despite a few heartening examples to the contrary, in general Indian...

It may still happen. If the Women's Reservation Bill - which was tabled in the Rajya Sabha yesterday amidst chaos and disruption - does actually get passed by both houses of Parliament, it will bring to closure an issue that has been hanging fire for 14 years in national politics. It may even be law in time for the next general elections in the country. Of course, it will be...

Birth gender disparity is greatest in the region China, India together account for over 85 million of the nearly 100 million “missing'' women The problem of “missing girls'' – a scenario where more boys are born than girls, as girl foetuses are presumably aborted, and women die from health and nutrition neglect – is growing in Asia Pacific. Birth gender disparity is the greatest in East Asia, where 119 boys are born...