By Archana Sinha, Nourishing Schools Foundation   This year marks 15 years of impact for Niiti Consulting, and we at Nourishing Schools...

According to the Human Development Report 2020, 78.8% of workers in India are unskilled. This is just one of many stark facts: Present-day labour markets are structured so entry-level wages in the organised sector differ little from casual daily wage labour. While state programs focus on skills relevant to the formal sector, such as computer training and retail, skill development resources for industries like construction need to be more evolved. Given that the construction

Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSMEs) have long since been touted to be an impetus to India’s growing economy. They currently contribute 29% of the total GDP, which the government intends to expand to 50% by 2024. With schemes such as Make in India, MUDRA, ASPIRE, CLCSS, CGTSME, so on and so forth, the government is undoubtedly pushing for creation of an entrepreneurial environment in the country. However, despite these efforts, there continue to remain certain gaps in

The recognition of skilling and skills as a salient feature of employment, is a fairly recent phenomenon. Over the past few years, the Indian government has established the NSDC, and promulgated Mission Skill India, which includes several components such as PMKVY, SANKALP, UDAAN to name a few. Despite this, we are nowhere near accomplishing our promise of skilling 300 million people of the population by 2020. This underscores certain deficiencies or flaws of our skilling appr

Innumerable debates have occurred on gender equity world over and more so in India, most of them including women’s positing in the society, general level of education and exposure, health status, participation in sports, economic standing and the like. While on one hand, there is an increased literacy and participation in workforce by women in India, they still struggle to counter the patriarchal mindset which is the root cause for issues like early school dropouts, lack of f

Health is a fundamental human right and is a pre-requisite for any further human, social or economic development. It is a causative factor that impacts a nation’s aggregate economic growth. With the COVID-19 outbreak , there is no denying the fact that human health is one of the most critical areas and needs government’s attention. Though currently, healthcare is the focal point for everyone, getting undivided attention of both central and state governments, the same wasn’t

World Bank’s 2012 report on India’s Poverty Profile exclaims that 21% population of India lives below poverty line, i.e. 1 in every 5 persons in India is poor. The numbers in 2020 would be rather grimmer. Poverty presents itself with other issues of hunger, debt-trap, poor health status, minimal or no education for children, no decent employment opportunities and thus the vicious cycle of poverty continues for the next generation of the family. Multitude of government schemes