The Numbers Behind the Movement Walk down any Indian city street today and you will encounter a chai vendor, a fruit cart or a cobbler. The harshest part is they are invisible in our policies, but very essential in life. For decades, this workforce worked outside formal finance, trapped in debt cycles with local moneylenders…
India’s digital health programme has hit a milestone that few countries can match. The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission has crossed 90 crore Ayushman Bharat Health Accounts. That is more than two-thirds of India’s population of approximately 1.4 billion holding a unique digital health identity. Few, if any, other countries have built a health ID system…
The pledge directs $40 million to maternal mental health in Africa and $10 million to close the menopause care gap across the United States. Philanthropist Melinda French Gates announced Thursday a $215 million commitment to women’s health through her organisation Pivotal, covering contraceptive access, maternal care, and a notable new push into menopause treatment in…
The India Meteorological Department’s revised forecast for 2026 places the southwest monsoon at its weakest in over a decade and the consequences will ripple from paddy fields to grocery shelves. The onset of the monsoons is as significant an annual event as the results of any election and as much talked about as any budget…
More than half a century since India started the first blindness prevention programme in the world, the nation still carries one of the greatest burdens of avoidable blindness anywhere in the world. While clinicians fight their usual foe of blindness caused by cataract in rural clinics, a new enemy has appeared on the horizon, in…
India’s Budget speech is a carefully choreographed event. Numbers go up, schemes get named, and ministers applaud. But a quieter story plays out months later, in documents called Revised Estimates. This is where the real spending decisions happen. In 2025-26, two of India’s most critical welfare schemes for women and children were slashed significantly at…
India has one of the largest mandated corporate social responsibility frameworks in the world. Since 2014, companies above a certain size have been legally required to spend at least 2% of their average net profits on social causes from education and healthcare to environmental sustainability and skill development. In FY 2022-23 alone, eligible companies collectively…
A viral video circulating on social media platforms highlighting young girls exposing themselves to danger in fetching water amid soaring temperatures in Khargone, Madhya Pradesh, has reignited discussions about the issue of rural water scarcity in India. Although great strides have been made through the Jal Jeevan Mission, much still needs to be done. Access…
India’s classrooms are in the middle of a storm. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has mandated a three-language structure for students from Classes 6 to 9, effective the 2026-27 academic session. Under the revised framework, students must study three languages that are R1, R2, and R3 with at least two being Indian languages….
India’s largest school education scheme is facing a quiet funding crisis. Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, the Union government’s flagship programme covering school education from pre-primary to Class 12, is receiving higher headline allocations on paper. But the real story lies beneath the numbers. Even as Budget 2026-27 increased allocations for Samagra Shiksha, budget cuts have resulted…
