Category Insights

Insights, a blog published by IMPRI.

WhatsApp Image 2026 09 09 at 11.24.31 AM

Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme: Strengthening Social Security for Persons with Disabilities, 2009

The Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme (IGNDPS) was introduced in February 2009 as a component of the National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) to provide basic financial support to persons with severe or multiple disabilities belonging to economically vulnerable households. The scheme was introduced alongside the Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme as an expansion of NSAP, which was originally launched on 15 August 1995. 

biopharma

Biopharma SHAKTI (2026): Strengthening India’s Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing

Biopharma SHAKTI (Strategy for Healthcare Advancement through Knowledge, Technology and Innovation) was proposed in the Union Budget 2026–27 to develop India as a global biopharma manufacturing hub. The initiative has an outlay of ₹10,000 crore over the next five years and aims to build an ecosystem for the domestic production of biologics and biosimilars (Government of India, 2026a). The initiative was announced as part of the Union Government’s broader focus on the healthcare sector under the three Kartavyas outlined in the Union Budget 2026–27: accelerating and sustaining economic growth, fulfilling aspirations and building the capacity of the population, and ensuring access to resources for every family, community, region and sector. Health was identified as an important component of all three priorities.

Aashi

IndiaAI Datasets Platform (AIKosh) 2025: A Unified National Datasets Platform for AI Innovation

India generates one of the largest volumes of data globally, yet this data remains fragmented across ministries, institutions, and private silos. This fragmentation posed a critical challenge for students, researchers, and innovators seeking authentic, machine-readable, and India-specific datasets. Consequently, reliance on Western datasets like ImageNet has been noted as a contributing factor to the limited representation of India's linguistic diversity, socio-economic realities, and local contexts in AI models.

Arjya

Digitalising Retirement Security: Assessing the Role of eNPS in Expanding Pension Access Since 2015

The electronic National Pension System (eNPS) is the online platform of India’s National Pension System (NPS), developed to enable seamless digital registration, contribution, and account management. NPS itself was introduced by the Government of India initially only for Central Government employees (except armed forces) joining service on or after 1 January 2004, replacing the earlier defined-benefit pension system, and was extended to all citizens on a voluntary basis from May 2009. It is regulated by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) under the PFRDA Act, 2013 (effective 1 February 2014) (Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, n.d.; PFRDA, 2025).

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Education Reform Stalled: Promises, Protests and Political Delay

Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan has resigned under extreme pressure. His resignation was a precondition of Sonam Wangchuk and the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) to end the youth movement that started at Jantar Mantar and spread to metros and small towns. In a show of seriousness, the government has quickly got the Amendment of Public Examinations Bill passed, set up a high powered task force for reforming exams including those conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA).

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The GDP Growth Mystery: What the Methodology Reveals

Government of India, through its agency Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has released the data for Quarterly Estimate of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the First Quarter of 2026-27, that is for the period April to June of 2026. It shows a high growth rate of 7.8% compared to 6.9% in Q1 of previous year, 2025-26. This is surprising since Q1 of 2026-27 contained the months April and May when the economy was impacted by the West Asia crisis which led to a drastic reduction in availability of crude oil and gas from that area. Pre-war 20% of the world supplies came from there and of that India was a major recipient.

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