India is home to 253 million adolescents, and half of them are girls. These girls confront anaemia, undernutrition, and limited sexual and mental health knowledge, while often sacrificing education for unpaid domestic duties among others. As the interim budget approaches on February 1, it is imperative to focus on investing in the health and education of these adolescent girls.

The year 2023 has seen crucial developments for gender equality and women empowerment including the enactment of the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, ensuring one-third of the seats in parliament and state legislatures for women, and India’s G20 Presidency, which concluded with emphasis on women-led development. In this context, what are the key expectations from the interim budget in the run up to the 2024 general election? How will budgetary priorities be routed towards gender equality and women’s empowerment goals? This piece maps the promises, priorities, patterns and prospects ahead of the interim Union Budget 2024 from a gender perspective.

In view of the fact that the growth of the agricultural sector has stagnated and the non-farm activities have largely supported rural incomes in the past few years and especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, the present article examines the role of public spending in enhancing rural employment generation especially in the construction sector by analyzing budgetary allocations in some of the major centrally sponsored schemes (CSS) in the rural areas.

The process of nation building cannot be limited to only expanding working hours, but it has to focus on improving work conditions and pushing for norms that are inclusive and not blind to socio-cultural realities of contexts

The United Nations has designated October 31 as the World Cities Day to address multifaceted challenges posed by urbanisation and promote the achievements of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within the urban domain. With respect to this year’s overarching theme of ‘financing a sustainable urban future for all,’ this opinion piece aims to shed light on the interplay between fiscal decentralisation and urban size distribution. It firmly advocates for prioritising the development of small and medium-sized urban areas as central components of future strategies for fiscal decentralisation.

The recently released Periodic Labour Force Survey data indicates a momentous increase in LFPR along with a decline in unemployment rate but a closure look reveals that the increase in LFPR is majorly because of the increase in women LFPR. The article attempted to explore the reasons behind the increase and analysed the trends in women’s employment across various industries and the possible reasons for the widespread gender wage gaps observed in India.

The recently released Periodic Labour Force Survey data (2022-23) shows a momentous increase in women Labour force participation rate and the increase was more in rural areas compared to urban areas. The article explores the activities performed by rural women and identifies that lack of visibility and identity as farmers is one of the challenges faced by women farmers despite their major contribution to these activities. The article hints at the change in the Union Government’s budgetary expenditure on Agriculture and Allied Sectors (AAS) and discusses how many women farmers received benefits from these.

The momentum of climate action following the various international agreements has gained pace in India. As we approach the COP 28 to be held in UAE, the countries will take global stocktake on how far we have come. Despite various policy and budgetary measures being taken in India towards climate action, there are still some significant challenges which need to be tackled for expediting the decarbonisation process in the country. This article tries to zoom into one such challenge of policy inconsistencies to understand how it is impacting the efficacies of the climate policies, and an insight of what can be the way forward.

This article provides a brief overview of the status of Indian agriculture with respect to the commitments made by G20 nations for the agriculture and allied sectors, under the Indian presidency. It outlines where India stands with respect to other G20 nations and also, the progress made by India on selected indicators of food security and nutrition. The article also examined the changing quantum of budgetary support provided to such schemes and provisions over the period of time.

As the International Day of Rural Women is approaching on October 15, this article reflects upon the current condition of India’s rural women and how they are placed in the changing landscape of Agriculture and Allied Sectors (AASs) in the country. It also explored where rural Indian women are if not in the workforce and how they are coping in terms of economic empowerment and entitlement. Moreover, the article discussed the role of overall budgetary policies/schemes of the Union Government and whether the recently launched individually-targeted agriculture and allied sector schemes are benefiting rural women farmers or not.

The recently released Performance Grading Index for Districts (PGI-D) 2020-21 & 2021-22 is a critical tool for assessing school education performance at the district level. The comprehensive index provides valuable insights for policy makers to design evidence based interventions. In this context, this article sheds light on the performance of the 35 districts of Assam based on PGI methodology and tracks the key challenges that have affected the district’s grades in the PGI 2021-22. It further highlights the key areas for policy interventions in Assam’s education sector.

The recently released monthly Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) data has shown a net increase in enrolment rate of the EPF beneficiaries over the last three years. This article argues that though this development is encouraging, interpreting it entirely to new job creation can be misleading.