-The Indian Express Education outcomes may have declined under the RTE, but scrapping the no-detention policy is not the answer. In the five years since the potentially transformative Right to Education Act (RTE) was implemented, several studies have documented the decline and stagnation of learning levels in school. The Annual Status of Education Reports have painted a dismal picture. Most children emerge from primary school lacking even rudimentary arithmetic and reading...

-Down to Earth An earlier report had said that India accounts for the maximum number of maternal deaths in the world — 17 per cent or nearly 50,000 of the 289,000 The number of women dying during pregnancy, childbirth or within six weeks after birth has fallen by 44 per cent since 1990, say United Nations agencies, including the World Bank. A recently-released report has said that maternal deaths around the world dropped...

-The Indian Express My mother does not work”. In country after country, this expression is heard each time someone describes a woman not engaged in paid employment. A recent study by McKinsey, titled “The Power of Parity: How equality for women could drive $ 2 trillion in global growth”, has evidence that every “stay-at-home” woman directly damages a country’s GDP by billions. Its message is that every woman should “work”; India’s...

-The Hindu Business Line Policy interventions, skill development enhance opportunities for farmers Agriculture, the largest livelihood generating activity, is fast transforming itself from a supply-driven to a demand-demand scenario. The discerning consumer (urban, rural and global) is increasingly demanding better quality, multiple choices, food safety and convenience. Diversification is the key to convene these changing demand patterns with supply, and more importantly, to act as an overall risk mitigant for the producer himself....

-The Indian Express Why early life investment matters, and what we should do about it. With the success in reducing child mortality, the challenge before India is to safeguard early-life conditions in order to prevent long-run loss in welfare for individuals and the economy. Malnutrition rates for India are extremely high, with about 38.4 per cent of children being stunted and 46 per cent underweight (National Family Health Survey, 2005-06). There...