For the first time in Jharkhand, World Bank officials from Washington DC will hold daylong deliberations with a select group of academics, bureaucrats and stakeholders here to thrash out a roadmap for improving the standard of higher education in the state. “The quality of higher education is not up to the mark at most educational institutions. There are many challenges and opportunities in the sector in a country where there is...

Women speak out fears of resisting deep-seated taboos associated with menstruation, viewed even today as polluting in much of India The status of women in India, despite all the brave talk, remains as precarious as ever. This is, after all, a culture which not just condones, but actively encourages the termination of foetuses determined to be female. Other crimes of violence against women are routine. Can things ever change? We took...

Using India’s populist Right to Information process gives citizens about as good a chance of receiving basic services as paying a bribe does, providing a new, and surprising weapon in the war against corruption. Two doctoral candidates in political science at Yale University recruited slum dwellers in Delhi and asked them to apply for a “ration card,” which allows people living below the poverty line to buy food at subsidized prices....

Tribal people constitute close to 50 per cent of the population that has been displaced because of "developmental" activities. “IF you are to suffer, you should suffer in the interest of the country,” Jawaharlal Nehru has been quoted as telling the village residents to be displaced by the Hirakud dam in 1948. And so it has been for the past 64 years. People, mostly impoverished tribes, have been suffering because...

Cash transfers are now suggested by many as a silver bullet for addressing the problems that plague India’s anti-poverty programmes. This article argues instead for evidence-based policy and informed public debate to clarify the place, prospects and problems of cash transfers in India. By drawing on key empirical findings from academic and grey literature across the world an attempt is made to draw attention to three aspects of cash transfers...