India’s oldest skill training institutions – Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) – experienced rapid expansion during 2010-2015, which was largely private-led. Analysing administrative data from ITIs, Halder et al. show that the newer institutions fail to meet desired standards, and skilling is geographically disconnected from where jobs actually are. Further, the ITI system needs to undergo a transformation that lifts its prestige, in order to correct for the existing social and economic divides that it currently mirrors.

Read here: https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/human-development/iit-or-iti-indias-divided-skilling-ecosystem

‍Beyond moving people from one place to another, metro stations can reshape nearby public spaces – by increasing footfall, attracting shops and street vendors, and improving lighting – making them safer for women. Analysing the staggered opening of Delhi metro stations between 2016 and 2019, this article shows that reported sexual harassment rates fall by roughly 32% in a police jurisdiction where a new station opens.

Read here: https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/urbanisation/metro-stations-eyes-on-the-street-and-womens-safety-in-delhi

While lithium-ion batteries have enabled the expansion of renewable energy storage so far, these are now confronting physical and chemical barriers. In this post, Amit Mitra and Sanjib Pohit put forth that the clean energy sector has successfully transitioned to a multi-chemistry ecosystem that leverages both physical materials and artificial intelligence. They highlight the opportunity that this paradigm shift presents for India to secure a self-reliant energy future. 

Read here: https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/environment/breaking-the-lithium-dependency-the-future-of-clean-energy-storage

Even as India's financial inclusion gains are evident in the sheer number of new bank accounts and digital transactions, gender gaps in the use of digital financial services persist. In this post, Jasmeet Khanuja contends that as policymakers push digitisation at scale, ignoring the reasons behind women's low usage risks reinforcing existing gendered norms around financial decision-making, rather than reducing women's dependence on others.

Read here: https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/money-finance/indias-digital-financial-inclusion-story-overlooks-womens-active-participation

The Union Budget 2026-27 announced various ‘vertical’ initiatives pertaining to human development domains including education, health, and skilling. In this post, Amarjeet Sinha contends that such initiatives can be impactful only if there are systemic reforms in related sectors. He recommends adopting a decentralised approach that engages the community, in order to meaningfully improve human development outcomes in the country.

Read Here: https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/human-development/fixing-the-highway-of-human-development

Alan Greenspan, the former Fed Chair who passed away in June 2026, was once hailed as the infallible “maestro” of American monetary policy. In this blog, Vivek Moorthy revisits Greenspan’s asymmetric record on asset bubbles – which was to deny that they could be spotted in advance while repeatedly slashing rates once they burst – and traces how this “Greenspan put” set the stage for the 2008 financial crisis.

Read here: https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/macroeconomics/alan-greenspans-inconsistent-stance-on-asset-bubbles

The adoption of digital payments in India has increased dramatically since the launch of UPI (Unified Payments Interface) in 2016. Yet, national averages mask significant local differences. Based on a district-level dataset, this article shows that while infrastructure in the form of internet connectivity laid the foundation for the digital payment revolution, the binding constraint today is the spread of merchant acceptance. 

Read Here: https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/money-finance/from-pipes-to-points-what-drives-digital-payments-adoption-in-india

The Indian government’s data systems are a single, centralised source for information on outcomes, designed to simultaneously serve the needs of every official from the frontline employee to the national policymaker. In this post, Ganesh Rao highlights how the prevalent monolithic data architecture creates perverse incentives, distorts the reality it purports to measure, and ultimately undermines the very goals it is designed to achieve. 

Read Here: https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/governance/distributed-by-design-the-case-for-unbundling-governance-data-systems-for-outcomes

July Policy Roundup is here!

This post presents our monthly curation of developments in the Indian policy landscape – discussing I4I content pertaining to pollution from Ludhiana’s industrial clusters; how India’s Act East Policy can spur industrial renewal in the country’s eastern states; and Delhi’s new policy to promote electric vehicles in the city.

Read Here: https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/miscellany/policy-roundup-ludhianas-pollution-act-east-delhi-ev-policy

Even though India possesses one of the world’s largest foreign-exchange reserve buffers, why does the rupee depreciate during episodes of global turbulence? In this post, Apica Sharma contends that in today’s context, a weaker rupee often reflects not a weaker India but a more interconnected and increasingly uncertain global financial system. 

Read Here: https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/macroeconomics/why-a-falling-rupee-no-longer-means-a-weak-indian-economy

India has about 10-11 crore people belonging to denotified, nomadic, and semi-nomadic tribes, constituting 8% of the total population. In this post, Utkarsh Mishra discusses how the lack of a fixed address keeps them out of India’s welfare system, and what it would take to build one for lives that don’t hold still.

Read Here: https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/social-identity/no-address-no-access-how-indias-welfare-system-excludes-nomadic-communities

The latest round of the National Family Health Survey, which was conducted in 2023-24, was released in May 2026. In this post, Tiken Das highlights that the reported decline in stunting is the biggest breakthrough in child nutrition in a generation. On the downside, diabetes among women has surged, nearly half of pregnant women still do not consume iron supplements for the recommended duration, and anaemia data have not yet been released.

Read Here: https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/human-development/indias-children-are-finally-less-stunted---but-its-women-are-still-getting-sicker

The EU and India concluded FTA negotiations in January 2026, just as the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism entered its definitive financial phase. In this post, Banerjee and Morotti argue that while the two policies are not inherently at odds, differences in how the EU and India measure and recognise carbon costs risk saddling Indian exporters with a double compliance burden – eroding potential gains from the trade deal.

Read Here: https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/trade/will-cbam-undercut-gains-from-the-india-eu-trade-pact

While Artificial intelligence is a digital technology that appears to exist in the “cloud”, every AI prompt depends on an enormous physical system. In this post, Neha Arya highlights that the future of AI is not just about innovation; it is also a question of energy security, infrastructure, and whether systems powering the digital economy can expand sustainably, while keeping pace with the technologies they support.

Read Here: https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/productivity-innovation/the-hidden-cost-of-an-ai-prompt-energy-infrastructure-and-future-of-digital-growth

While India’s ageing challenge is often discussed as a national demographic transition, it has important regional aspects. In this post, Sana Gupta draws on recent demographic and public expenditure data to examine four dimensions of unevenness across states. She argues that India's ageing policy needs to move beyond uniform national schemes towards responses calibrated to each state's stage of demographic transition.

Read Here: https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/human-development/indias-uneven-greying-why-policy-cant-be-one-size-fits-all

Technological adoption is known to drive export growth and economic development. Using the adoption of technologically improved Bt. Cotton seeds in 2002 by Indian farmers as a quasi-natural experiment, this article presents the first evidence that technologically improved seeds can not only increase exports and a country’s comparative advantage in the global trade matrix, but also positively impact farmers’ welfare. 

Read Here: https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/agriculture/technology-adoption-exports-and-welfare-the-case-of-bt-cotton

The Indian government has made significant financial commitment to semiconductors, positioning them as the backbone of energy networks, financial markets, and telecommunications. In this post, Dr. Srishti Gupta and Kushal Kabra use a four-tier framework of state readiness to show that budgetary commitment and ecosystem preparation have progressed at different rates across states. They highlight the need for state-level execution, involving the development and testing of land, water, and electricity infrastructure against demand.

https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/macroeconomics/from-subsidies-to-semiconductor-clusters-why-some-states-are-pulling-ahead

Does higher share of women in boardrooms of firms translate into higher corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending directed towards sustainability? Using a quasi-natural experiment stemming from the policy mandating women’s representation on the board of directors in India, this article documents evidence of female leaders potentially increasing the CSR spending and directing it towards sustainability issues.

Read Here: https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/social-identity/female-leadership-and-corporate-social-responsibility

📢 Policy Roundup is here! This post presents our monthly curation of developments in the Indian policy landscape – discussing I4I content pertaining to the UPI completing 10 years and the potential levy of a merchant fee; India’s financial commitment towards semiconductors and progress across states; and declining confidence among consumers.

Read Here: https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/miscellany/policy-roundup-a-decade-of-free-upi-semiconductor-self-reliance-consumer-confidence-survey

Global trade disruptions have inflated India’s urea import bill, while a domestically produced and environmental-friendly alternative – nano urea – receives virtually no State support. In this post, Aditya Vardhan Bhardwaj proposes a methodology under India's Carbon Credit Trading Scheme that pays farmers for verified nano urea use via product discounts funded by industrial emitters purchasing credits – thus cutting the fertiliser subsidy bill, the import bill, and carbon emissions.

https://www.ideasforindia.in/topics/trade/the-carbon-credit-case-for-nano-urea