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The Indian National Congress's promise of guaranteed minimum income (NYAY) has shifted the narrative surrounding the general elections back to economi

Nor has the Narendra Modi government been deaf to the needs of the farming community.

The coming decade requires an urgent effort toward the establishment of mechanisms that ensures an egalitarian re-distribution of the tech-revolution

To reduce inequality of income, the government should increase taxes rather than reduce taxes.

Kisan Rails is a step taken in the right direction as it intends to capitalise on the robust railway network — and cutting-edge technology — to co

To ensure responsible borrowing, FinTechs should build a credit assessment framework that the microfinance industry can adopt to help keep low-income

Is the economic model effective to tackle poverty?

While the jury is yet to be out globally on the UBI, it has many takers in India.

Goal seven of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) commits the international community to providing access to clean cooking fuels and technologies to all by 2030. Progress has been slow, however, and in about 40 of the UN’s 189 member countries for which data is available, more that 80 percent of the populations continue to lack such access. Using case studies, this brief analyses the role of a country’s policies, i

Robust economic growth, coupled with a dibao-like subsistence guarantee to target poor through poverty household registry, and UBI in Macau and Hong K

If Uttar Pradesh was to be declared a separate country, it would be the sixth-largest nation. With a population at par with Brazil and per-capita income similar to Kenya's,

To correct the trend of agglomeration of wealth, young economist Thomas Picketty has suggested an annual progressive tax on wealth. He also says it will be difficult to implement it because there will always be flight to tax havens. In India, any type of wealth tax would be hardest to implement because a huge amount of wealth is already stashed away abroad.

In 2016, the Indian government cleared the Model Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Services) Act, allowing retail establishments to remain open throughout the day and night. Proponents say that when fully implemented, the act will drive nighttime economy and, in turn, increase cities’ incomes. In the past few years, certain states have begun implementing such concept of “24×7 cities”, including Mumbai, Ah

With Verdict 2019 giving a greater political force to Modi’s next five years, we hope some of them will make the grade, or at least, in experiential

Overlay this construct with the income-tax data for the same year and the situation becomes even worse.

To achieve both its development goals and energy transition goals, India needs consistently higher levels of growth in national income to enhance the

This paper presents a status report of the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) on two crucial development parameters—inequality and poverty—that have a significant bearing on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs; especially SDG-1 and SDG-10). The paper tracks the origins and movements of absolute and relative poverty, and income and wealth inequality in the BRICS economies over time, highlights the associated cha

The government’s promises on jobs and farmers’ incomes have fallen flat, so it may look to fill the gap with ‘sound and fury’.

Reviving the economy will require addressing the two major challenges — of a rising informal labour force, and slackening demand.

India has achieved better Covid-19 vaccine coverage than most other countries in its income class, aided mainly by domestic production capacity and the government’s decision to offer the vaccines to the adult population for free. There are stark sub-national differences, however, in the pace and coverage of the vaccine rollout. This special report tells the story of the district of Raigarh in Chhattisgarh—one of the low-income, Empowered Acti

Sri Lanka’s Budget 2024 has ambitious proposals that could push the country forward, however, it continues to stare at a long road to economic recov

While the coverage of Budgets in the media and research reports are mainly limited to high interest items like income-tax, sales tax, excise, inflation etc., the "Part A" of the budget, which is an indicator of government intention and priority, remains relatively under explored.

Investment and demand are interlinked, thus a lack of investment creates a lack of demand as it impacts income and employment levels, which in turn im

Across the globe, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a massive impact on food and nutrition security. Efforts to meet Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 on Zero Hunger have been stalled, and it is estimated that an additional 137 million people faced acute food insecurity as 2020 ended. The reasons are many: interrupted food supply chains, high levels of unemployment, loss of incomes, and rising food cost. Climate change and the resultant extreme we

The juxtaposition between the death toll in Asia and the West as well as government response teams has been stark.

The race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine is gaining ground in many parts of the world. This brief examines the challenges that India must hurdle to successfully manufacture and distribute a vaccine. It argues for a fair and equitable distribution of vaccine with an aim to save the maximum number of lives. It suggests a multi-parameter model based on age, co-morbidity, income and profession to justify one’s claim for vaccine. The imperative is to

The data divide can drastically impact the progress of the 2030 Agenda, thus bridging this divide is imperative to ensure that no one is left behind

A policy of carrot and sticks would need to be adopted with affluent and low-income families to decarbonise transport in India

Across the globe, more than 730 million women report ever having experienced some form of gender-based violence; those in low- and lower-middle-income countries are disproportionately affected. In the past two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has only increased the incidence of violence suffered by women in the hands of their intimate partners, owing to heightened stresses of loss of livelihood, disruption of social and protective networks, a

This double whammy will pose a challenge to those at the bottom of the income pyramid

Even though the government seems to be addressing concerns ailing the economy, the slowdown seems to be deeper than what the numbers suggest.

The problems India is facing are hard to solve in the short term and only incremental changes can be undertaken in the five-year term of any government at the Centre. As per an Oxfam survey, India is a highly unequal country on all counts. There are inequalities in wealth, income and consumption as well as structural inequalities of opportunity, region and social groups.

Domestic climate of social peace and stability needed to turn the tide

It will prove beneficial in terms of growth and income for both countries to establish a federal reserve swap line

As the world confronts multiple challenges which are intricately connected, our path for development stands at a crucial juncture. In the context of the embroiling polycrisis, progress on the sustainable development goals (SDGs) has been steady but fragile with major and persistent challenges. Financing for Agenda 2030 has emerged as a major bottleneck with several developing economies, especially the least developed countries (LDCs), low-income

Why have the north-eastern States remained poor? This has to be looked into carefully. It has to do with inadequacy or inefficacy of development programmes for income generation. Why have some states like Bihar, UP and Chhattisgarh also not done well?

Low-income groups are more susceptible to multimorbidities due to unequal access to healthcare in urban areas

With the rise of global debt levels in recent times, the current requirement of debt restructuring programmes is to ameliorate debt transparency.

This paper assesses the gendered division of labour for household-level domestic service activities, of which water management remains a primary component, across Indian states and the various dimensions of gender that are relevant in this context. Women have traditionally played an essential role in water management at the household level, devoting a significant share of their day to related unpaid domestic service activities. Such engagements o

What awaits the world in the aftermath of the Ukrainian war as years of trust and cooperation to tackle global challenges have been dismantled?

In India, expenditure on energy grew faster than expenditure on food and non-food expenditure. This could either mean energy prices increased or that

Nearly half of Indian households still use biomass for cooking. A credible transition to LPG or equivalent cooking fuels will come only when household

India’s geographical landscape is vast, cultural differences can be sharp, and income disparities are stark in certain regions. Access to healthcare, therefore, is varied and the on-ground gaps and challenges are complex. The NITI Aayog Health Index is an attempt by the current government to formulate a mechanism to monitor at the sub-national level the country’s performance in improving healthcare. This paper uses the findings of the Health

The Indian economy cannot attain normalcy in the long run without addressing glitches in its industrial sectors — particularly in manufacturing.

India, which has experienced a 4.6 per cent growth rate in 2013-14, requires higher public spending on infrastructure. More public services and goods are needed to bring relief to the lower income groups, especially health services, otherwise they are likely to slip into poverty.

Indian growth over the last three decades has been largely consumption driven, but consumption has been hit by lockdown.