Op-Eds

Can the Generation Equality Forum ensure two basic rights for women: The right to safety and peace at home and to decent work outside of it? The recently concluded Generation Equality Forum has once again pinned the focus on gender equality and how far we are from achieving it in most parts of the world....   Read More

The evaluation criteria proposed by CBSE is flexible enough to accommodate concerns of students. With the central government deciding to cancel the Class XII examinations a majority of state education boards and stakeholders welcomed the move in view of the safety of students and teachers. However the cancellation policy also introduced uncertainty on how students...   Read More

The United Nations’ “Policy Brief: The impact of Covid-19 on children” dated April 15 2020 was convinced that “Children are not the face of this pandemic.” This was also evident in India when the ‘first wave’ of Covid-19 hit the country. Scientists and experts were convinced that children were less susceptible as compared to adults...   Read More

No doubt the pandemic has exposed the fragility of India’s health sector. The shortage of doctors hospital beds ventilators oxygen medicine etc. is the stark reality of the day. The story is true across all over India. Incidentally none of the metros have stood apart in this pandemic disaster even though health infrastructure is quite...   Read More

Using tech to monitor river water quality real-time will help. India is a home to 4 per cent of the world’s freshwater resources and it ranks among the top 10 water-rich countries of the world. In spite of being home to the major river systems both perennial and non-perennial India is a designated water stressed region...   Read More

Children in households without piped water or LPG have lower learning outcomes. This negative impact is greater when women bear a greater share of the burden of unpaid work compared to men. Inadequate access to safe drinking water and clean cooking fuel leads to serious health concerns. The importance of safe water in preventing water-borne...   Read More

The answer to the question of how to vaccinate a billion Indians is perhaps to be found in basic economics. What is the most important health imperative as well as the most significant economic stimuli for India today? Unarguably it is Covid vaccination. We must remember that the story does not end with the strains of...   Read More

The East’s low may worsen the regional imbalance as the second Covid wave rages on. The NCAER Business Confidence Index (BCI) a measure of business sentiments fell for two consecutive quarters in 2019-20:Q4 and 2020-21:Q1 on a quarter-on-quarter basis. After the lockdown restrictions were withdrawn business sentiments recovered in a V-shaped form in 2020-21:Q2 and then...   Read More

The Covid-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns have had a significant adverse impact on jobs and livelihoods. Using 2006-2021 data from a quarterly survey on business sentiments this article examines fluctuations in firms’ hiring of temporary/casual and permanent workers across three major economic events – the Global Financial Crisis demonetisation and the Covid-19 crisis. It shows...   Read More

A mechanism to separate Sebi's judicial and executive powers is central to creating a regulator more in tune with the rule of law In 1748 the French philosopher Montesquieu proposed a form of government where powers were not excessively concentrated. The legislature defines what is forbidden in laws. The xecutive administers laws investigates violations and prosecutes...   Read More