-The Business Standard Ending open defecation by 2019 will require changing minds, not just allocating money to build latrines for people that will either go unused or not be built at all During Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Independence Day speech, we learned that his Swachch Bharat Mission to eliminate open defecation in India by Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary, would begin in less than two months on October 2. What was...

-Economic and Political Weekly Any discussion on universal health coverage in India is premature without a comprehensive understanding of public financing of health coverage in the country. This article analyses the government's share of financial resources for health across different agents, with particular focus on resources for health coverage. An attempt is made to separate spending for health in general and health coverage in particular, and to examine the issue of...

-IndiaSpend.com Is India winning the battle against malnutrition? A comprehensive answer, for several reasons, would be yes. First, there is a downstream impact of economic growth and reduction in overall poverty numbers, most of which has happened in the last decade. Second, it does appear that in many states of India, concerted and co-ordinated efforts by the Government are beginning to bear fruit. Also remember that most data on malnutrition goes back a...

-Economic and Political Weekly The relationship between depleting water levels and school dropout rates is poorly studied. As chronic water shortages begin to affect more regions of the country, this trend will begin to appear more forcefully. Kishore Jha (kishor.delhi6@gmail.com) is working on child rights with Terre des Homes, Germany. Devender, a 14-year-old boy from Kheeda village in Almora district in Uttarakhand State, studies in Class 8. He spends at least three hours...

The Business Standard The Planning Commission has not been central to the policymaking process since the mid-1960s In his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the end of the Planning Commission. There will be few mourners at its funeral, mainly old war horses like me. So this is in the nature of an obituary for an institution in which I served for a decade and a half, and where I...