Is the high degree of gender inequality in developing countries in education, personal autonomy, and more explained by underdevelopment itself? Or do the societies that are poor today hold certain cultural views that lead to gender inequality? This article discusses several mechanisms through...

It is conventional wisdom that it is possible to reduce exposure to indoor air pollution, improve health outcomes, and decrease greenhouse gas emissions in the rural areas of developing countries through the adoption of improved cooking stoves. This belief is largely supported by observational...

This paper analyses interrelationships between ‘economic development’, ‘health’, and ‘environment’ in a simultaneous equations framework. The endogenous variables chosen for the model are GDPPC (per capita gross domestic product), LE (life expectancy),...

Data from two surveys of twins in China are used to contribute to an improved understanding of the role of economic development in affecting gender differences in the trends in, levels of, and returns to schooling observed in China and in many developing countries in recent decades. [BREAD...

Why do many households remain exposed to large exogenous sources of non-systematic income risk? Why don’t financial markets develop to pool these risks? This paper uses a series of randomized field experiments to test the importance of price and non-price factors in the adoption of an...

A brief outline of the economic and financial structure of the State and the various financial inclusion initiatives taken by the Reserve Bank is highlighted. But there are some policy challenges in sustaining the growth momentum. [Speech delivered at the G. B. Pant University of Agricultural...

This paper looks at rural infrastructure facilities in India, the lack of which is demonstrated to be an impediment to sustained economic development. It is argued that problems of rural infrastructure provision are different from those of the urban, given the smaller size, density and per...

The aim of this paper is to examine the driving forces behind China’s military modernization efforts followed by an assessment of the goals and foci of China’s military modernization at present and in the foreseeable future. The paper concludes with an analysis of the...

Can young people help to increase awareness about climate change and its impacts working through local bodies? A perceptive and informative presentation by the UN-HABITAT Youth Advisory Board Member at the Local Government Climate Leadership Summit held in Copenhagen last week.

The Doha Declaration provides for access to medicines particularly by simplifying the compulsory licensing (CL) clause. This paper tries to provide a comprehensive review of the working of CL in the developed and developing countries with some useful case studies. [GIDR WP No. 184].