Decline in population growth would increase the amount of capital resources and infrastructure available in per capita terms. Additionally, it would permit the relocation of resources for the education and skill development of children rather than expanding coverage
We must guard against use of surveys and studies whose methodologies are opaque, sample sizes too small or selection process too purposive, just because they support a particular view point
Amitabh Kundu writes: It is very likely that those who work in the private sector, where it is difficult to establish the actual income, along with political pressure groups, will grab the benefits
India, belonging to the medium HDI category, shows dimensional inequalities similar to or slightly below the average figures in the category, except in the case of education where it is high and closer to the low HDI countries. The inequalities in health and education are more than twice that of the very high and high HDI categories
Amitabh Kundu writes: Intending to provide inputs for policy making, researchers have evolved ingenious methods of estimating the data, using past datasets and those that have not been designed to get robust expenditure estimates
Centre must make transparent efforts to push exports consistently and not follow the stop-go policy emanating from price controls for the Indian consumer market.
Policy-making in India has in recent decades been generally neutral to data and research. However, in matters of demography, particularly while prescribing strong punitive measures for having large families, decisions must be taken based on rigorous analysis of the data to avoid a China type crisis.