Insights, a blog published by IMPRI.
Home to an aboriginal world of flora, fauna and tribal population, Andaman and Nicobar Islands serve as a Union Territory to the Indian administration. It houses an estimated population of 4,34,192 people across 836 islets/islands/rocky outcrops with a total area of 8,249 sq. kms (Andaman and Nicobar Administration, n.d.).
The Pradhan Mantri Viksit Bharat Rozgar Yojana (PM-VBRY) is a Central Sector Scheme of the Government of India aimed at promoting new employment, encouraging formalisation of jobs, and strengthening social security for workers. It provides incentives to both first-time employees entering the formal workforce and employers who create and sustain additional employment.
India's ports handle nearly 95 percent of the country's trade by volume and about 65-70 percent by value, positioning the maritime sector as a critical lever for both economic growth and climate action (PIB, 2026, feb26).
Rakhine State is at a special place in India's neighbourhood policy. It is situated on the Bay of Bengal, flanked by Bangladesh and is home to the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project (KMTTP) that is expected to connect Kolkata with Mizoram by sea, river and road as well as provide alternative access to the landlocked north-eastern states for Indian transport. It's also where one of Asia's worst humanitarian crises is taking place. In August 2017, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) attacked security posts and in response the Myanmar military conducted "clearance operations" that forced an estimated 700,000+ Rohingya across the border into Bangladesh. This, along with the early arrivals, resulted in a refugee camp of almost a million people in Cox's Bazar, one of the world's largest refugee centres. The roots of the crisis are long-standing. Most Rohingya were left stateless by the Citizenship Law of 1982. In 2012, communal violence in Rakhine forced many to flee, and movement, access to health and education and livelihoods were severely restricted over the following years.
Self-Help Groups (SHGs) emerged in India during the early 1980s as a response to the persistent exclusion of rural poor, particularly women, from formal financial systems. Traditional banking institutions required collateral and formal documentation that marginalized communities lacked, forcing them to depend on informal moneylenders who charged exorbitant interest rates. The SHG model drew inspiration from Muhammad Yunus's Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, which demonstrated that group-based lending without collateral could achieve high repayment rates through peer monitoring and social pressure. Self-Help Groups have, therefore, emerged as one of India's most transformative instruments for women's financial inclusion and economic empowerment. This represents one of the world's largest community-based financial inclusion initiatives.
In recent years, heatwaves have become a major concern worldwide. The recent incidents of heatwaves have shown the severe effects of climate change and the urgent need to address environmental challenges, especially in India. Between 1992 and 2015, heatwaves took more than 20,000 lives in India, with 2,422 deaths in 2015 alone (NDMA, 2016).
The National Mental Health Policy (NMHP) of India was unveiled on 10 October 2014 by the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare as the country’s first dedicated policy framework for mental health (Press Information Bureau, 2014). It emerged from the recognition that earlier legal instruments, such as the Indian Lunacy Act, 1912, and the Mental Health Act, 1987, focused primarily on custodial arrangements and failed to adequately address human rights, community-based care, or the scale of need.