India wants development. What is development in our imagination, especially the elite? This is the development model they have taken away from USA, Singapore and now the big cities of China. This is the Gurgaon model of development— big buildings, cars and malls. …

I was quite surprised when our Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said recently in a media briefing that Rs 6–18 lakh annual income is the lowest strata of the middle income group. I shouldn’t have been surprised as every single family in my social circle seems to think that they are…

As Congress comes back to power in Karnataka in alliance with JD(S), it is time to look at one of the most public announcement of ex-CM Siddaramaiah — The Indira Canteens. I did some work on them for my course ‘Nutrition and Public Policy’ during my Masters’ in Public Policy and Governance during 2016–18 at Azim Premji University. My finding is that the scheme does little to improve food security and malnutrition security for anyone. It takes away focus from the harder and long-term steps that need to be taken.

A Literature Review Why is the idea of studying chemical engineering in Bhojpuri or fashion technology in Konkani so laughable? I did a paper on this for ‘Public Policy in India’ course in my first semester during my Masters’ in Public Policy and Governance during 2016–18 at Azim Premji University…

I am putting up some of my work done during my Masters’ in Public Policy and Governance during 2016–18 at Azim Premji University. This is a paper from my State and Governance course in the first semester. The task was to do a basic governance analysis of any organ of…

A few months ago, I spent 20 days visiting more than 15 anganwadis in a block in south Odisha. I interacted with children, anganwadi workers (called didis), cooks, locals, supervisors, project officers, union leaders and instructors in training institutions. Here are a few takeaways. One, more than 40 years after…

Surveys, like ASER, indicating poor learning outcomes has brought about much discussion about how to improve those learning outcomes. One strategy has been to focus on literacy in Early Childhood so that children are ‘school ready’. However, the focus needs to be on children, not learning outcomes. Instead of children…

I saw the Hindi movie ‘Hichki’ yesterday. The script is predictable but it still moved me. Without getting into the film-making aspects, I want to discuss the movie from an educator’s perspective. It is about a teacher having a speech disability who struggles to get a teaching position but is…

A weekly newsletter about what I find interesting in education and learning. If you like it, subscribe. NCTE, the teacher education regulator in India, is finally showing some teeth and the will to regulate private B.Ed colleges. It has come out with the new TeachR ranking and accreditation framework and…