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NREGS Scheme Brief

Satyarupa Shekhar

A flagship programme of the UPA government, the NREGS was announced in 2005. It was introduced in 200 of the country’s most backward districts in 2006 and was expanded to cover all 615 rural districts across India in 2008. Today, … Read More

Mid-Day Meal Scheme Brief

Satyarupa Shekhar

One of two flagship programmes initiated to achieve the goal of Education for All, India’s Mid Day Meal (MDM) scheme is the largest school lunch programme in the world. It currently reaches 12 crore children in 9.5 lakh schools across … Read More

Integrated Child Development Services: Scheme Brief

Satyarupa Shekhar

ICDS is a comprehensive programme designed to ensure the holistic development of children. It is one of the largest childcare programmes in the world and has been in operation for more than three decades. This scheme brief examines the salient … Read More

Indira Awas Yojana Scheme Brief

Nithya V. Raman, Satyarupa Shekhar, Bree Bacon

Indira Awas Yojana was initiated a part of employment generation programme in 1985 and was made an independent scheme in 1996. Since then the scheme has spent 33,000 crore providing funding for poor rural residents to build pucca houses in … Read More

Impact Evaluation and Public Sector Programs in India: What Can We do Right Now?

Elizabeth Mathew, Jonathan Sprague

This paper explores the existing gaps in the way CSS’ are evaluated for their impact in the Indian public sector. The authors identify an ‘ideal type’ model for a public sector impact evaluation mechanism that would be both effective and … Read More

Toxic Release Inventory for India: A Discussion Paper

Carishma Gokhale-Welch

This report examines the directives set forth by the October 2003 Supreme Court of India order on the management and treatment of hazardous waste, and it reviews the current status of implementation of the directives with a specific focus on … Read More

Cooking Practices and Cookstoves: A Pilot Study of User Experience with Traditional and Improved Cookstove

Revati Dhoble, Sreyamsa Bairiganjan

This paper is the result of field research undertaken across five states in India over a period of two months. The first part of the study aims to develop an understanding of traditional cooking practices with regard to fuel and … Read More

Economic Environment Index: Measuring the Enabling Environment for Households and Firms at District Level

Santosh K Singh, Chinmaya Kumar, L. Somasundaram

The Economic Environment Index (EEI) study in the state of Tamil Nadu, India comes in the wake of the recognition to foster inclusive growth through a decentralised planning process. Such recognition inherently implies the existence of regional diversity that may … Read More

Financial Inclusion in Gulbarga: Finding Usage in Access

Minakshi Ramji

The paper presents insights from a study to assess the implementation of the financial inclusion drive and usage of banking services by households in Gulbarga district in Karnataka, one of the locations that claimed to have achieved 100% financial inclusion.

Can Workfare Serve as a Substitute for Weather Insurance? The Case of NREGA in Andhra Pradesh

Doug Johnson

In this paper, the authors attempt to assess whether a recently enacted workfare program in India, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), allowed potential participants to mitigate the effects of weather shocks by investigating whether participation levels in the … Read More