Trams are more energy-efficient and economical. After the push for carbon neutral transport system, all metros in India are now moving towards electric-bus. Recently, Mumbai introduced double-decker e-bus like the one that plies in London. The impression one gets is that this is the preferred mode for an urban transport system. However, one finds it... Read More
Bank account ownership took a leap over the last decade. But some of the gains stagnated during the pandemic. 2021 Global Findex data show that 78% of women reported having bank accounts. However, 64% did not withdraw any funds during the last 12 months, and 28% reported having an inactive account. Budget 2023 announced the... Read More
Ayushman Bharat: These schemes have a good coverage. But funds use will suffer, if people are unaware of entitlements The introduction of social health insurance has been one of the most significant innovations of the past decade. While public health spending (including both Centre and States) has seen only a marginal increase over the last... Read More
India’s expenditure on health budget is a smaller share of the GDP than assured. Budget 2023-24 can be seen as the first Union budget since the recovery from the pandemic, in which the health sector did not receive much focus, unlike the previous two years. We can note a marginal reduction in the share of... Read More
The decline in AYUSH medicine adoption was prevalent in most states and Union territories. It was constant across all economic groups. The recognition of 21 June as the International Day of Yoga by the United Nations has significantly elevated the relevance of AYUSH systems, which encompass Ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and homoeopathy. With... Read More
By valorising women’s diverse activities, we may treat their vulnerabilities as strengths and fail to acknowledge the lack of access to income-generating activities for women The 2022-23 Economic Survey (ES) should be credited for acknowledging that official statistics may have inadequately captured the true nature of women’s work in India. This inadequacy affects both how... Read More
The viability of long-gestation transport projects hinges on rightly projecting future revenue flows. Big Data can help in this. The successive Budgets of the NDA government have emphasised on increased investments to upgrade infrastructure. This is a thrust area in Budget 2023 as well. Roads, transport and the Railways continue to remain in focus, with... Read More
NCAER Professor and Director of the National Data Innovation Centre (NDIC) at NCAER, Sonalde Desai, who holds a joint appointment as a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland College Park, has been named as a Fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). In a tradition dating back to 1874,... Read More
The 2023-24 Union Budget focuses on domestic consumption as the main engine of growth, followed by public investment as the second, albeit smaller, growth engine. Significantly, it has not equally supported private investment or exports as accelerators of economic growth or generators of employment. The Government’s enthusiastic support to domestic demand is both reasonable and... Read More
The Economic Survey for 2022-23 has presented the customary wealth of information and data pertaining to the Indian economy. It has provided the growth projections for the current year and next year, as well as a medium-term outlook. Simultaneously, it has also further articulated the rationale for those projections and outlooks. All these outputs are... Read More