Murder of RTI Activist
The National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI) is deeply shocked and grieved at the brutal murder of Right to Information (RTI) activist Satish Shetty in Pune on 13 January.read more
View ArticleThe BPL Census and a Possible Alternative
This paper explores the possibility of a simple method for the identification of households eligible for social assistance. In exploring alternative approaches for identifying a "social assistance...
View ArticleNutrition, Poverty and Calorie Fundamentalism: Response to Utsa Patnaik
Utsa Patnaik's critique ("A Critical Look at Some Propositions on Consumption and Poverty", 6 February 2010) of the authors' earlier paper on food and nutrition ("Food and Nutrition in India: Facts and...
View ArticleFrom Calorie Fundamentalism to Cereal Accounting
Utsa Patnaik's new critique of our work on food and nutrition is wholly unconvincing. Her analysis of international patterns of "total" cereal consumption, interesting as it may be, does not invalidate...
View ArticleChild Sex Ratio and Sex Selection
Two comments point out fundamental fl aws in the article "Declining Child Sex Ratio and Sex-Selection in India" (EPW, 18 August 2012), which tried to demonstrate that stopping rules can affect the sex...
View ArticleCitizens' Statement: Repression in Koodankulam
We are appalled at the police repression unleashed on the people protesting peacefully against the Koodankulam nuclear plant. The repression has forced them to take to a jal satyagraha.read more
View ArticleRegional Patterns of Human and Child Deprivation in India
This paper takes a look at regional patterns of human and child deprivation in India, based on district-level data. It presents and compares two simple summary indices of living conditions at the...
View ArticleCash Transfers and UID
We support cash transfers such as old-age pensions, widow pensions, maternity entitlements and scholarships. However, we oppose the government’s plan for accelerated mass conversion of welfare schemes...
View ArticleStunting among Children
Indian children are very short, on average, compared with children living in other countries. Because height reflects early life health and net nutrition, and because good early life health also helps...
View ArticleRural Poverty and the Public Distribution System
This article presents estimates of the impact of the public distribution system on rural poverty, using National Sample Survey data for 2009-10 and official poverty lines. At the all-India level, the...
View ArticleDo Not Dilute NREGA
[An Open Letter to the Prime Minister on NREGA by economists based in India and elsewhere in the world.]We are writing to express our deep concern about the future of India’s National Rural Employment...
View ArticleCaste and the Power Elite in Allahabad
This article examines the social composition of public institutions in Allahabad, and specifically, the share of different castes and communities in positions of power and influence - the Press Club,...
View ArticleUnderstanding Leakages in the Public Distribution System
This article attempts to resolve the puzzle of public distribution system leakages using the latest available data. Leakages remain high, but there is clear evidence of improvement in recent years,...
View ArticleFood Security
Bihar's public distribution system used to be one of the worst in India, but the system has improved significantly from 2011 onwards. The National Food Security Act, backed early on by the political...
View ArticleClarification on PDS Leakages
This note outlines the methodological reasons for the (small) differences in estimates of leakages from the public distribution system in 2011-12, as reported in Himanshu and Abhijit Sen (EPW, 16 and...
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