During the last few decades, India has been experiencing an increasing number of natural disasters that have caused huge financial burdens to the Central Government as well as to several State Governments. The expenditures for damage control and for developing preventive mechanisms have been on the rise.

This article provides a brief overview of the renewable energy sector in India. The importance of harnessing renewable energy has been widely acknowledged, for both meeting the ever increasing energy requirements as well as addressing the negative externalities associated with the conventional sources of energy.

The article discusses some of the features of the newly proposed Swachch Bharat Abhiyan. Though the detailed guidelines of the programme have not been issued yet, a preliminary assessment has been made from the information available in the public domain.

This article highlights the fact that the urban areas have failed to meet the demands of the increasing population pressure resulting in large gaps in provisioning of basic amenities. Deprivation of such services has resulted in the expanding of slums with conditions unfit for human habitation.

This article explains the findings of the latest Human Development Report (HDR), 2014. It reveals that India has maintained its position at 135 out of 187 countries, reflecting little improvement in the living standard of its people during 2013.

The paper explores the significance of capacity of governance with reference to the experience of public policies and their implementation in India over the past decade.

The Union Budget 2014-15 has a few new interventions in the social sector and there is an increase in allocation for select schemes and programmes. This article suggests a need for higher financial provisions for quality education and health care services.

Financial inclusion is necessary for growth to be inclusive. Increasing the amount of credit flow to the agriculture sector, particularly provisioning of credit to small and marginal farmers is one of the important ways for making the country’s economic growth more inclusive. In this context, the article attempts to trace the amount of institutional credit flow to small holders in agriculture.

The new government got a little over a month to carry out the budget preparation process, which usually takes up to five months in every financial year.

One of prime minister Narendra Modi’s first decisions, to set up a special investigating team (SIT) to probe the matter of black money stashed abroad, reopens some of the biggest questions for the Indian economy – and politics. It has also brought public attention back on the discourse on corruption and black money.

Violence against women, in the public sphere as well as within the home, has been a major challenge in the country for long, but until recently it had largely been a concern raised by women’s rights activists. It is the recent public outrage at the rising levels of violence faced by women that has brought the issue to the forefront of public discourse, forcing the Union government to acknowledge the severity of the problem.

The life of the democratic state is built upon the party system,” Harold J Laski said in his classic text, A Grammar of Politics. Political parties, despite being non-governmental entities, are the means through which a modern, democratic nation-state is operationalised.