-The Times of India   Prem Das Rai, an MP from Sikkim, knew that development indicators from his state were exceptional. But his office didn't know how to showcase them. He reached out to Swaniti, a Delhi-based not-for-profit organization that has been working "consulting style" with parliamentarians. Their portal called Jigyasa aims to answer questions like Rai's. Rwitwika Bhattacharya, Swaniti's founder-CEO, was surprised at what they uncovered. "I always thought that the...

-The Hindu     The state must remain in higher education as the private sector is yet to demonstrate its capacity to create knowledge on a sufficient scale The impending inauguration of a new government finds interested parties bringing into the public arena matters of importance to them. One of the issues that has been raised recently is whether higher education in India should be privatised. This question merits serious attention. And though interest...

-Economic and Political Weekly   Open defecation is a major health hazard and causes enormous hardship, especially to rural women. Government funds for constructing toilets have to be supplemented with awareness campaigns to motivate ordinary people to do their part. Sarola, a village in Maharashtra, was able to become "open defecation free" with effective community participation, taking advantage of the Sant Gadgebaba Gram Swachhata Abhiyan. Toilets were built in every house, along...

-The Hindu   If Gujarat is a model, then the real toppers in development indicators, like Kerala and Tamil Nadu, must be supermodels In an earlier article published on this page ("The Gujarat Muddle," April 11, 2014), I pointed out that Gujarat's development achievements were hardly "model" class. This is pretty firm ground: the same point has been made by a long list of eminent economists. Yet confusion persists, so I decided to...

-Live Mint   Building toilets holds the key to reducing India's malnutrition burden Commenting on the Indian elections in his satire show, British humorist John Oliver remarked, "(Narendra) Modi has managed to inspire people with his populist platform including a pledge to put a toilet in every home. That's a bold move, coming out as pro-toilet." Oliver's wisecrack may have deliberately exaggerated Narendra Modi's pitch on toilets but the focus on sanitation has been...