Abstract The caste system – a system of elaborately stratified social hierarchy – distinguishes India from most other societies. Among the most distinctive factors of the caste system is the close link between castes and occupations, especially in rural India, with Dalits or Scheduled Castes...

Affirmative action has been at the heart of public policies towards the socially disadvantaged in India. Compensatory discrimination policies which have been adopted for the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) since independence were recommended for Other Backward Classes (OBC) by...

Abstract Skyrocketing staple food prices in combination with falling incomes around the world raised serious concerns among policy makers, media and the public at large over the past few years. We rigorously explore the dietary and nutritional implications of such shocks in a before, during and...