-The Hindu We need to rethink social safety nets in India’s growing economy so that they can also focus on the accidents of life rather than solely on the accidents of birth. Sometimes the grand narratives of the Left and the Right do not seem to have any relationship with the lived experiences of ordinary Indians. For the past two decades, the Left has tried to expand social welfare programmes for the...

-Livemint.com A significant share of women in the country get married without even the most basic forms of communication with their to-be-spouses before their wedding day Indian women may be shedding their clichéd demure image, but when it comes to matters of choosing life partners they still opt for the traditional, conventional ways. According to the India Human Development Survey (IHDS), 2011-12, a significant share of women in the country continue to...

-Livemint.com Work-related seasonal migration is higher when rainfall is low and the construction sector, the largest employer of such labour, is witnessing a slowdown Mumbai: The announcement of plentiful rains this year is likely to spell relief for those forced to migrate because of failing monsoons. A slowdown in the construction industry which employs most migrant labourers would likely have strained their ability to deal with another deficient year after rains...

-Livemint.com Intergenerational educational mobility continues to be low in India All of us love stories of the son or daughter of an uneducated daily wage labourer or farmer cracking civil service or Indian Institute of Technology entrance exams. The real question, however, is whether such success stories, constituting inter-generational upward mobility in education, are becoming more common or do they constitute pleasant aberrations? Recent economic research suggests that the latter situation...

-The Hindu The lack of any established principles or credible data prompts demands for reservation such as those of the Patels and Jats.The solution lies in shuffling reserved categories. It is only when Jats, Gujjars or Muslims demand reservation, and particularly when these demands become aggressive, that our political system suddenly wakes up and takes notice. However, this notice is simply confined to ascertaining whether the specific group demanding reservation is worthy...