While quota based and other affirmative action remains on the policy radar of nations faced with social inequalities, there is limited evidence informing policy choices at the national level. This paper estimates the mid-term impact of quota-based affirmative action in higher education (HE) in...

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru once said: “If you educate a man you educate an individual, however, if you educate a woman you educate a whole family. Women empowered means mother India empowered”. When women who contribute almost half of the population are empowered it will strengthen the national...

We combine newly created data on per student government expenditure on children in government elementary schools across India, data on per student expenditure by households on students attending private elementary schools, and the ASER measure of learning achievement of students in rural areas....

Gender has been among the most pervasive forms of inequality across all classes, social groups and communities especially in developing countries. Literature indicates evident gender bias in labor market opportunities including wage gap, which can be partially explained by performance in...

The paper explores the trend of supply of professional education institutions. The secondary data is analyzed to investigate the reasons for large number of vacant seats in professional colleges. The last two decades had witnessed unprecedented growth in institutes of higher education primarily...

Evaluation of Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programmes in a developing country context indicates a positive impact on increasing enrollment but finds mixed evidence on improving learning outcomes. Using representative rural household survey data, we evaluated one of the largest CCT programmes...

The paper explores need, challenges of privatization of higher education in India. The last two decades had witnessed unprecedented growth in institutes of higher education primarily due to private sector participation. The private sector has contributed significantly in increasing the gross...