-The Hindu In his book on Bihar, M.R. Sharan provides a closely observed, scholarly, and empathetic account of the struggle to make constitutional promises a reality in rural India M.R. Sharan’s splendid book brought tears to my eyes on more than one occasion. The scene is a public meeting at “Narega Chowk” in Ratnauli village, Muzaffarpur district of Bihar. Activists of Bihar Manrega Watch (BMW) are helping resolve grievances. An old woman...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Total Matching Records found : 5
Why RCTs aren't the simple answer to solving India's learning crisis -Martin Haus and Rakesh K Rajak
-TheWire.in The problem with the domination of RCTs in development is the depreciation of other, more relevant findings using different methodologies. This year’s Nobel prize in economics has been awarded to the three researchers Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer, who are well-known for their field experiments in the form of Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs). But can that methodology make meaningful contributions to solving the problem of our schools failing our...
More »More women is good economics -- economists -Shamika Ravi
-The Indian Express It is crucial for young girls to have female mentors because research shows that it encourages them to persevere ahead, despite difficulties. The person who convinced me to do a PhD in economics was Abhijit Banerjee of MIT, when I worked with him on one of the first Randomised Controlled Trials in the field of economics in the late 1990s. During my PhD, I had the good fortune...
More »Evidence, policy, and politics -Jean Dreze
-Ideas for India Commenting on the concept of evidence-based policy, Jean Drèze argues that the relation between evidence and policy needs further thought. Based on his involvement with social policy in India, he believes that while economists can contribute to more informed policy discussions and public debates they ought to be cautious in offering advice on policy design. Once upon a time, ‘evidence’ was widely confused with Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs). The...
More »Evidence matters to policymaking -Howard White & Radhika Menon
-The Hindu The challenge for the Modi government is to evaluate what works in development programming before making large spending decisions Governments in India have always launched big-ticket social development programmes with ambitious goals. The Narendra Modi government is no exception. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan aims to make India open defecation-free by 2019. The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana's financial inclusion programme set a target of opening 10 crore bank accounts by January...
More »
