-Economic and Political Weekly Mihir Shah (mihir.shah@NIC.in) is Secretary, Samaj Pragati Sahayog, a grass-roots organisation based in Dewas District of Madhya Pradesh. A close examination of Bihar's recent growth experience reveals several paradoxes. These are paradoxes only with reference to certain orthodox positions widely held in development economics. Resolving these paradoxes helps formulate a more incisive understanding of what bottlenecks lie in the way of eliminating poverty in Bihar and opens the...

-Economic and Political Weekly Health and nutrition indicators have improved, but remain unacceptably low. After a hiatus of a decade, we now have up-to-date information on the health and nutrition status of the population. Preliminary results for 13 states and two union territories of the much awaited National Family Health Survey–4 (NFHS–4) which was conducted in 2015–16—the first after NFHS–3 of 2005–06—have just been released. In a welcome development, NFHS–4, for the...

-Down to Earth Jharkhand taps its dam reservoirs and ponds to boost fish production as well as livelihood AFFLUENCE IS not a word one would normally associate with Jharkhand’s Jamukhadi village, which falls in one of India’s 250 most backward districts. But almost all the houses in the village have TV sets, computers and motorbikes. “There were only a few pucca (brick) houses in our village till 2000 when the state was...

-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...

-Livemint.com States, including Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Uttarakahand and West Bengal, saw a fall in percentage of men consuming alcohol New Delhi: Tobacco use across all the states have dropped in the past 10 years but alcohol consumption in south Indian states along with Sikkim and Tripura in the northeast have increased, according to the initial findings of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) released on Tuesday. Increase in alcohol consumption...