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The War on Poverty during COVID-19: 3 Strategies for Governments to Use

Aug 26, 2020

The War on Poverty during COVID-19: 3 Strategies for Governments to Use

Francois Gerard, Clement Imbert and Kate Orkin recommend that developing nations provide social protection to their most vulnerable citizens through broad ‘safety nets’ during the COVID-19 crisis. They outline three strategies governments can use. COVID-19 lockdowns, across the globe, have carried heavy economic costs, but those in developing countries have been hit particularly hard because of lower income levels and larger unorganised economic sectors (in India, this compri

The NEP Language Debate: For & Against

Aug 1, 2020

The NEP Language Debate: For & Against

In the aftermath of the new National Education Policy, as the debate over education in Indian languages heats up, IPC collates arguments from both sides. The new National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, is the talk of the town. What is being most debated is its proposals for change regarding education in regional languages, that claims to lead us towards a more multilingual approach. According to the NEP, the medium of instruction should be in the “home language/mother tongue/l

Messaging Can Help Fight COVID-19: Evidence from an RCT by Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee

Jul 18, 2020

Messaging Can Help Fight COVID-19: Evidence from an RCT by Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee

There is new evidence, from West Bengal, that messaging by celebrities can act as a ‘nudge’ to help in prevention and early diagnosis of COVID-19. We explain the implications of this study for India. We are in the midst of an unprecedented health emergency in independent India. The challenges of low human development indicators, poverty, poor public health infrastructure, low levels of education, and population density compound the threat of a highly infectious pandemic. In t

Indian States Are Going Under. What Does This Mean For Us?

Jul 14, 2020

Indian States Are Going Under. What Does This Mean For Us?

M. Govinda Rao and Arjun Srinivas each examine the precarious financial situation of Indian states and the implications of this. Here are key takeaways from two pieces, by M. Govinda Rao and Arjun Srinivas, that tell you what Indian states are going through financially and what this means for us as a country and people. - The Covid 19 Pandemic and resulting lockdown in April led to a large and sudden shortage of revenue inflow for State Governments. Economic slowdown prior to

It's Time to Talk About Healthcare

Jul 6, 2020

It's Time to Talk About Healthcare

Indian Policy Collective is announcing a series aimed at collating facts, figures and policy recommendations to inform the public health debate. Do read, spread the word, and write in. As India began to emerge from a stringent and devastating lockdown, news of its crumbling public health infrastructure began to filter in: lack of beds, of medicines, of basic hygiene, food and water, and care in wards, of hospital staff and of PPE and adequate compensation for them, and of mea

Questions for the 15th Finance Commission to Answer

Jun 16, 2020

Questions for the 15th Finance Commission to Answer

The 15th Finance Commission is expected to submit its five year report. Read on to know how and why this is important, especially for centre-state relations and a list of questions the commission will have to confront. The bulk of the responsibility to fight the virus is upon the states. This battle has exponentially increased their expenditure burden. Meanwhile, revenues have been hit by the various phases of lockdown. Against this backdrop, the 15th Finance Commission is ex

The Adivasi and the State

Jun 11, 2020

The Adivasi and the State

Scheduled tribes constitute over 30 percent of Chhattisgarh’s population. IPC spoke to officials in the Chhattisgarh state government to better understand the issues they face and what the government is doing to try and resolve these. At the national level, Scheduled Tribes constitute a little over 8 percent of the Indian population. In Chhattisgarh, however, they constitute over 30 percent of the total population. In some districts, such as Bastar and Surguja, more than 70 p

Fix MGNREGA, Save Rural Poor

Jun 3, 2020

Fix MGNREGA, Save Rural Poor

To provide relief to the migrant and rural poor as well as the economy the government needs to fix MGNREGA urgently. From de-digitization to decentralisation, Reetika Khera lists out what needs to be done. After an unprecedented ordeal of months, lakhs of migrant workers are making their way back to rural India. The majority of them will be out of pocket by the time they make it back home and in urgent need of livelihood to make ends meet. India’s flagship employment guara

The Law Behind the Lathi

May 27, 2020

The Law Behind the Lathi

The images of police brutality you have witnessed during this lockdown point to a systemic failure. We tell you how. We tell you what must be done for lasting police reform. We tell you why it isn’t being done. An essay by Avi Singh. The onus of enforcement of the lockdown and quarantining is on the police force. The police, often rightly, have been strongly criticized for the use of disproportionate and arbitrary force in the implementation of the lockdown, but with little u