Imagine you fall ill or have a serious accident. You survive, but to recover you need extensive medical care. The problem? You don’t have insurance and have to pay out of pocket. Your life savings…

Mr. Kannan, a differently abled social entrepreneur. (Photo: Varalakshmi Vemuru) During my recent mission visit to Sivagangai District in Tamil Nadu, India, I met with Mr. Kannan, a social…

I usually don’t wake up to hate mail in my inbox. What prompted this deluge is a recent paper that evaluates the impact of a training program for informal health care providers (providers without…

Devotees at the Erwadi Dargah in Tamil Nadu, India. (Photo: DMPH Erwadi) Last month I blogged about how mental illness is curable, treatable, and preventable. Today, let me take you to a town in…

Photo: © Masaru Goto / World Bank

India’s rivers are heavily polluted. According to official estimates, 302 of 445 river stretches fail to meet even bathing criteria (Central Pollution Control Board [CPCB], 2014). This is known to…

On World Mental Health Day, here’s a fact to reflect on: [[tweetable]]people with mental illness are among the socially excluded and marginalized groups in society. [[/tweetable]]They are often…

During a recent visit to Barsam village in the Saharsa district of Bihar, I talked with members of a women’s self-help group - one of over 480, 000 such groups formed under Jeevika, a rural…

Child using a latrine in Rajasthan.  Photo credit: World Bank [[tweetable]]Almost 600 million Indians living in rural areas defecate in the open[[/tweetable]]. To meet the ambitious targets of the…

  Blog #5: The low income, low growth trap India is home to the largest number of poor people in the world, as well as the largest number of people who have recently escaped poverty. Over the next…