Researchers Publication

An NCAER survey shows that Indian firms seemed to have weathered the US tariff storm, for now Amidst the international uncertainty caused by rapid announcements of US trade policies balanced by rationalisation of GST rates, business sentiments as measured by the NCAER Business Confidence Index (BCI) had eased in the second quarter of 2025-26. The...   Read More

The continent’s bid to rebalance global finance  Could there be a moratorium on further studies diagnosing what ails African development? The continent has been examined, measured and prescribed to exhaustion – yet the patient deteriorates. Since 2000, multilateral institutions have catalogued the same barriers: mispriced capital, unsustainable debt, illicit outflows, and governance asymmetries. What Africa...   Read More

Real-time digital hiring signals, analysed through AI, offer India a powerful new way to anticipate and close emerging skill gaps India’s debate on skills often concentrate on curriculum reforms, institutional capacity, and the widening gap between education and employer needs. However, a more fundamental challenge concerns our ability to interpret the labour market almost in...   Read More

Though the incidence of son preference in Indian families has fallen, there is still little preference for daughters. Instead of asking parents, just count their children to get a sense of what India genuinely values. From 1.33 males for every girl at the first birth to 1.43 at the second and 1.51 at the third,...   Read More

NCAER News is a monthly digest where you can learn about NCAER's research outputs, its latest events, and offerings.

2026 will determine whether philosophical ambition becomes institutional reality.   At the G20’s 20th meeting in Johannesburg in November 2025, the Declaration placed the African humanist Ubuntu philosophy – ‘I am because we are’ – at the centre of its framing for global economic governance. This was more than rhetorical flourish. The statement reflects a...   Read More

The challenge is to produce green hydrogen without depleting water reserves. Using seawater could be a viable alternative. It is not often that a single molecule captures the imagination of an entire nation. But hydrogen — the lightest element on Earth — is suddenly carrying the heaviest expectations of India’s clean-energy transition. In global climate...   Read More

Climate change poses significant risks to human health in India, with 80% of the population located in areas highly vulnerable to extreme events, such as cyclones, floods and heatwaves. While India has made progress on several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), risks from climate change can undermine the achievements. This study examines the impact of climate...   Read More

The regulation should ensure that flexibility is for real, with no incentive structure that seeks to distort it. What does the word ‘flexibility’ mean in the context of platform work? The two stakeholders, platforms and the workers, are debating the term. The platforms argue they offer ‘flexibility’ but workers disagree. But both the workers and...   Read More

The IHDS Forum is a monthly update of socio-economic developments in India by the IHDS research community, based on the India Human Development Survey, jointly conducted by NCAER and the University of Maryland. While two earlier rounds of the survey were completed in 2004-05 and 2011-12, respectively. Fieldwork for the third round was undertaken in...   Read More

New research shows forests, wetlands and blue-carbon ecosystems are absorbing far less CO₂ under heat stress, threatening India’s net-zero pathway When policymakers tally national climate progress, they often balance a country’s emissions with the carbon captured by forests, wetlands, and coasts — nature’s “negative emissions”. The logic appears straightforward: Plant more trees, lock away more carbon,...   Read More

India needs a nationwide, real-time groundwater monitoring system with open access to data so communities know what they are drinking and irrigating with On a sweltering afternoon in Punjab, a farmer lowers his bucket into the well that has sustained his family for generations. The water looks clear, but tests reveal a different story: uranium...   Read More