-The Hindu Business Line Farmers’ incomes are too inadequate for actuarial premium rates to work for them The farm crisis in India continues unabated, proving all the governmental nostrums ineffective. Unfortunately, the new crop insurance scheme — the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) — recently cleared by the Union Cabinet, to be implemented from the kharif crop cycle beginning this June, too, is unlikely to bring in any significant relief to...

-Business Standard According to NSSO, employment surveys, women participation rates in India fell sharply after 2004-05 India ranks 120 among 131 countries on women labour participation, according to a report by International Labour Organization. Traditionally, this has been blamed on a culturally patriarchal society and rising family incomes that allow more women to stay at home. A new paper by World Bank economists blames a "jobs deficit" for the decline in female labour...

-The Indian Express ICDS, the primary scheme targeting malnutrition, needs to be broadened with the help of the National Nutrition Mission. Every once in a while, a discussion or debate starts on malnutrition. On a debated issue, precision is desirable. Initially, there were several discussions on the word “malnutrition”, which can technically mean over-nutrition, as well as under-nutrition. But now, there is global consensus on three terms. First, for a given reference age,...

-The Indian Express Delhi’s odd-even trial was brave, but policy needs good research at design stage. The trial period of the odd-even policy demonstrated a commendable willingness from the Delhi government to experiment with a policy option, and decide its future based on the evidence of impact, and acceptability from the residents of Delhi. Good evidence on the impact of any public policy requires a willingness to experiment, quality data, and a...

  A French journalist once wrote: The more things change, the more they stay the same. Perhaps the same can be said about nutritional status of children in West Bengal at present in comparison to the past. At the time when Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the then Chief Minister of West Bengal, was entertaining private capital in Singur and Nandigram, the rate of undernutrition was quite high in his state. A little less than...