For long, economists have argued among themselves whether income should be the only criterion for measuring poverty. After all, in real life a person can face multiple deprivations, say, in terms of access to education, health and living standards, among others. The multidimensional poverty index (MPI), which offers a valuable complement to traditional income-based poverty measures, was first introduced in the 2010 Human Development Report (HDR). The MPI looks at...

-Livemint.com Distributing biofortified staple foods via government schemes such as Midday Meal can help in the battle against hidden hunger Iron deficiency and anemia are well-recognized and persistent problems in India, exacting a toll that goes much beyond measurable health problems. Most Indian government initiatives targeting anemia so far have had limited success in achieving large-scale impact. Solving these problems require an innovative approach that can reach the most affected segment of the...

-Scroll.in In August Delhi High Court set aside the state government’s March 2017 notification raising minimum wages. Lata Rani, 32, is a caretaker at a Delhi government school in Jhandewalan. She joined in 2015 for a salary of Rs 7,300 a month which was raised to Rs 11,000 in March 2017. When she went to collect her pay this month, Rani was in for a shock: her salary had been cut...

-The Hindu Sanitary napkins made by adivasi women of the State are in great demand. Hyderabad: In Telangana’s tribal belt, since February this year, adivasi women have been running four small units that produce sanitary napkins for free distribution to students in the tribal welfare hostels and ashram schools. Now, the region is set to get four more sanitary napkin production units, thanks to the demand for pads among young women in...

-TheWire.in The finance ministry can continue to quibble, but the stark fact is that decades of underspending in education and health may result in India wasting its demographic dividend. On October 11, the World Bank launched the latest of its country rankings: the Human Capital Index (HCI). The objective of the index is to show how low education and health outcomes – or human capital – impact productivity, growth and prosperity. The...