Living Conditions
Household ownership of computers in India remains low, particularly in rural India. The share of Indian adults who report being able to use a computer is also growing very slowly.
Measurement
India's Periodic Labour Force Survey is a vital source of employment data, and drives research and policy. We track changes in its methodology and their implications, key uses of the dataset, and important debates around its methodology and findings.
Indians now make up the largest group of emigrants in the world, but their destination countries have changed significantly over time.
Whether in the north or the south, Indian states are all seeing their populations begin to age. However over a decade separates India's youngest and oldest states, and the southern states are already seeing a shrinking working-age population.
Indian children are among the shortest in the world. While the rates of child stunting have declined over time, a substantial share of Indian children, especially in poorer states and among marginalised groups, are stunted.
Indians are consuming more dairy, and spending more of their food budgets on dairy products. But wealth affects consumption and gender gaps persist.
Factories in India are concentrated regionally. While food products, textile and apparel are the biggest employers, the manufacture of metals drives value added. Each of these industries has its own regional hubs.
India's 200,000 factories employ 18.5 million workers and are significant contributors to the economy. We look at where they are, what they produce and whom them employ.
Most Indians can send messages, but far fewer have the information and communications technology (ICT) skills needed to do calculations, make presentations or write code. There are large gaps between rural and urban Indians, and between men and women.
India has made major strides in improving sanitation, but one in four rural households still does not have access to toilets.
The share of women in manufacturing jobs in India has risen, propelled by the apparel and textile sectors. Yet, women's manufacturing jobs are more precarious and secure jobs are relatively rare.
The self-employed make up the majority of the Indian workforce. But self-employment plays out in different ways among men and women, and between rural and urban India.
Capturing the true situation of manufacturing employment in India is a vital part of understanding its economy. We examine the implications of using different data sources to track manufacturing.
Global growth standards used to define the levels of child stunting in India have been contentious. While a substantial body of research shows that the standards are not inaccurate, more context-specific growth references could also be useful.
