NCAER - NATIONAL DATA INNOVATION CENTRE
India has made remarkable strides in expanding access to education for girls over the past few decades. Enrolment rates for girls in primary and secondary schools have risen significantly, and gender gaps in literacy have narrowed. Girls have surpassed boys even in gross enrolment in higher education. However, this educational success has not translated into a proportional increase in female labour force participation.
As India seeks to enhance its innovation ecosystem, it is worthwhile to pay attention to opportunities and lessons from the self-inflicted wounds on American science.
Above all, trust in government is the key to successfully implementing difficult decisions during emergencies. This March marks five years since the world stopped. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared Covid a pandemic. On March 24, the Government of India declared a nationwide lockdown, one of the most stringent globally. With five years and much water under the bridge, it is easy to forget the gasping breaths, millions of deaths, and shuttered businesses. That is, until the next disaster strikes. Can we learn from that painful experience to prepare for the next disaster, whether it is a black swan event like the pandemic, a tsunami, or a drought?
The two decades since the passage of the act have seen tremendous changes The year 2025 marks the 20th anniversary of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The programme design, resulting from a unique collaboration between bureaucrats and civil society, reflects a rights-based approach where 100 days of manual labour are to be provided to any rural household. It is the largest government programme with its budget reflecting 17% of the total budget for centrally sponsored schemes.
Of the four key areas that define women’s empowerment, personal efficacy, power in intra-household negotiations, societal engagement, and access to income-generating activities, we see improvements in the first three domains. In contrast, the fourth — access to employment — has stagnated.