NCAER - NATIONAL DATA INNOVATION CENTRE
The impulse that led to the passing of MGNREGA celebrated the spirit of inclusive development. However, the engineering that rendered the spirit behind MGNREGA into functioning machinery requires repairs and unclogging. Unless we recognise both achievements and challenges facing MGNREGA, it will be difficult to repair it, and this omission will continue to haunt both.
For India, agricultural protection is similar to US anxiety on immigration.
Once, I took a group of American students to learn more about the rural parts of India. We spent a couple of weeks in a village, where the students were constantly trailed by giggling children, several of them shouting out questions. So, we decided to hold an assembly at a school where the children could learn about America, with me translating. One of the questions was about the difference between villages in India and those in the US.
Sonalde Desai speaks to us about how the dipping fertility rate is going to impact India’s population, how variations in State fertility rates, primarily between the north and south are going to play out and the future of an ageing India
The early decades of the 21st century reflect tremendous transformation in Indian society due to both economic growth and global challenges. The Gross Domestic Product has grown at the rate of 5–9 per cent resulting in a decline in poverty. Whereas, the India Human Development Survey (IHDS) recorded a sharp fall in the poverty rate from 38.6 per cent in 2004–2005 to 8.5 per cent in 2022–2024 (Desai et al., 2024). Data from the National Sample Survey’s Household Consumption Expenditure Surveys (Government of India, 2024) suggest an even lower poverty rate.
