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
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.