Policy Briefs & Reports

The 14th Finance Commission’s (FFC) recommendations, accepted by the Union Government in February 2015, set the stage for a radical overhaul of India’s fiscal architecture. The recommendations were designed to enhance the fiscal autonomy of states by increasing the vertical tax devolution of the ...

Public Sector Banks (PSBs) in India are struggling with high NPAs (Non-Performing Assets) which has been rising steadily since 2009-10. These banks continue to face the dual problem of significant asset quality stress and meagre capitalisation, which has impacted their growth. On 14 August 2015,...

The Centre for Policy Research (CPR) jointly with the Freshwater Action Network, South Asia (FANSA) have collaborated to bring out this research report. It highlights the need for policy focus on smaller city sanitation and discusses why faecal waste management requires immediate attention in the...

Since the launch of the Swachh Bharat Mission in October 2014, sanitation issues in India are receiving immense attention from policymakers, media and civil society alike. The sector however received enormous funds even before this scheme with little positive results. This paper argues that the t...

Movement is integral to urban life and cities function off the energy of potential opportunity, growth and freedom. One of the cornerstones of an inclusive urban space is the availability of regular and affordable mobility opportunities for all citizens, irrespective of their socio-economic statu...

China’s growing water thirst lends an urgency to understand China’s resource choices, the possible conditions under which it is likely to exercise these choices and the ripple effects these are likely to have across the borders. While overinterpretation and hysteria has tended to take the place o...

The National Urbnan Health Mission was launched in 2013 to provide universal access to healthcare in urban areas of India. Efforts of stakeholders already present in this field can provide useful lessons that can contribute towards making the mission a success. This report sought to conduct an an...

The Centre for Policy Research (CPR), Delhi in collaboration with the BSE Ltd., Mumbai have started a monthly Macro Economic Seminar Series. The objective of these Seminars is to generate fresh analytical insights into the Indian macroeconomic issues for potential use by policy makers. The unique...

India embodies many perplexing contradictions in development. A middle-income country with a powerful diplomatic and economic presence at the global level, and citizens in business, science, and the arts with world-class contributions, India is also home to more desperately poor people than all t...

The subregional project as a narrative aimed at transforming economic geographies has been raised to the highest levels of rhetorical importance in India’s policy discourse. At the core of this vision stands a series of transborder infrastructure projects that India has initiated in the subregion...

This report explores the opportunities for investment in sanitation by the private sector, and it profiles 16 initiatives currently being undertaken for the provision of sanitation services and infrastructure, either through corporate social responsibility (CSR) funding, public private partnershi...

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement between 12 Pacific Rim countries is not just another tariff-eliminating mega regional trade pact, but it is about developing a higher global standard for international trade – encompassing lower benchmarks for non-tariff barriers, more stringent...

Elementary education policy in India is undergoing an important transition. For decades, the primary goal of the Indian Government’s elementary education policy was to create a universal education system through the provision of school inputs. This resulted in a significant expansion of India’s e...

The subregional turn in Indian diplomacy marks an interesting discursive shift in Indian foreign policy and its engagement of the Asian neighbourhood. Delhi’s ‘new’ reading of borders is an admittedly feel-good narrative of rethinking borders as bridges and speaks a comfortable cosmopolitan langu...

The Centre for Policy Research (CPR), Delhi in collaboration with the BSE Ltd., Mumbai have started a monthly Macro Economic Seminar Series. The objective of these Seminars is to generate fresh analytical insights into the Indian macroeconomic issues for potential use by policy makers. The unique...

According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB, India) at least 284,694 Indian farmers have taken their lives since 1995. This occurred at an annual average rate of 14,462 in the five years from 1995 to 2000, and 17,699 in the 12 years between 2000 and 2012. That is, since 2001 around 49 fa...

The 86th Amendment to the Constitution has made Elementary Education a Fundamental Right of every child in the age group 6-14 years. Based on this Amendment the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act was passed in Parliament in August 2009 and came into effect on April 1, 2010. This is a land...

The Right to Education Act provides for no detention of any student till Class 8. However, there has been much debate on this clause, with surmounting pressure for revocation of the No-Detention Policy and Continuous & Comprehensive Learning. However, “No detention” does not mean “no assessment”....