Urban Poor

A binary classification of areas as urban or rural doesn’t reflect today’s reality of urbanization, but state programmes still go by it. This could result in abrupt cut-offs from schemes that vulnerable households depend on. Here's what policymakers should consider that’s both doable and just.

The country's urban population is growing faster than official numbers indicate. While policymakers seem to have an inkling of this, three measures could help ensure a regular supply of robust data. Here’s what ought to be done

Those from evidently privileged backgrounds who claim hardscrabble lives in the past probably confuse being broke with being poor. They are not the same. Yet public figures are prone to putting on poverty as if it’s makeup.

Concerns over unoccupied houses under PMAY-AHP have prompted the Centre to instruct states to ensure occupancy before proposing new projects.

India extracts a very high price from those who hurt its rich and middle class, but this shield could weaken as the country begins to grow out of this peculiarity in its development journey.

A study of seven decades of disparities—as they widened and shrank in phases—offers the country insights as well as clues to the policies we must pursue for a more equitable future. We need the best of times for everyone.

Our lives are unlikely to improve so long as India is unable to change how it treats Indians. On a positive note, though, India has now prospered enough to hold some attraction for the new economic elite.