The increase in the total number of suicides committed in India during 2020 in comparison to the previous years has hit the headlines recently. While some media commentators have stated that the economic distress (caused by job loss, income loss, failure of business, and growing hunger, among other things) in 2020 could have led to more suicides being committed, others have said that home isolation and deteriorating mental health (associated...

-Down to Earth Rate of returns for females higher than that of males; intervention to address gaps in India’s mental healthcare for adolescents need India has the highest adolescent population in the world — the country is home to over 250 million adolescents, according to India’s 2011 Census.  This has increasingly built a case for investing in them. The Population Foundation of India, a non-profit, commissioned a study ‘Investing in Adolescent Development, which examines...

-PTI/ The Hindu The Crisil argument is based on the fact that the burden of inflation varies across different income groups, as the share of spending on food, fuel, and core categories differ across classes Extrapolating the retail inflation print for October, which inched up on-month to 4.5% from 4.3% in September, but steeply declined from 7.6% on-year, Crisil says the richest 20% of the population, who pay more on non-food or...

-The Hindu The study was done by the Centre for Socio-Economic and Environmental Studies in Kochi Kerala needs to focus on the challenges posed by an increasingly ageing population in the midst of a demographic transition that has seen fertility levels falling below the replacement level and life expectancy remaining at 75 years. The State must draw up long-term strategies to face a situation in which there is a decline in the...

-The Hindu Caste data will help us understand the contours of inequality and craft reasoned and inclusive policies The debate about whether the decennial Census should collect data on caste from individuals who fall into the administrative categories of ‘General’ and ‘Other Backward Classes’ (OBCs) has been argued by public intellectuals, politicians, and government administrators for decades. As the Census currently only collects data on ‘Scheduled Castes’ (SCs) and ‘Scheduled Tribes’ (STs),...