-The Telegraph The government has not institutionalized SAUs which are at times intimidated when it comes to accessing data on various programmes The auditing agility of government programmes seems to have gained strength. After the recent floods in Assam, the state planned to carry out a social audit of relief measures to look into corruption and bribery. This is the first time that any government is trying to reinforce a social audit...

-The Hindu City-based non-profit trains students to crack entrance exams to these Institutions Bengaluru: Access to the national law universities (NLUs) in the country was earlier restricted to the well-heeled and students from big cities. However, the efforts of a city-based non-profit is helping bring diversity in these university campuses by ensuring that students from low socio-economic and disadvantaged backgrounds too get an opportunity to study in these Institutions. Increasing Diversity by Increasing...

-IndiaSpend.com Patna: The first time she heard of a woman leading a village in Bihar as its mukhiya (head), Ramvati Devi (name changed), 50, was astounded. “I couldn’t even comprehend how a woman could lead. How could she have any power over a man or the dominant castes in a village where she had walked all her life with her head covered?” she told IndiaSpend on a recent October day. In 2006,...

  Among other things, one of the reasons (given by some economists) behind low labour force participation rate (LFPR) of women vis-à-vis men in the country is that more young girls are educating themselves, causing an improvement in the secondary and tertiary enrolment rates. It means that more Indian women are staying out of the labour force in order to continue their education – secondary education and / or college &...

-Economic and Political Weekly In recent years, the Indian official data has been challenged for many reasons, most of them arising out of the perception that the government is reluctant to release unfavourable data. These doubts have been exacerbated by the controversy posed by the debate around Citizenship (Amendment) Act, National Population Register, and National Register of Citizens and the weakening of established Institutions like the National Statistical Commission. The COVID-19...