Education

This article seeks to analyse how Bihar’s prohibition policy is oscillating between hypocrisy and moralism and how the act of ban is turning out to be a big failure, legally and socially, because of illicit liquor selling and rising consumption. Farces in the name of prohibition are choking the legal structure and jail system because of a huge number of cases related to violations of liquor laws.

The comparative role of determinants of household-level consumption expenditure inequalities (henceforth, inequalities) in rural India between two sub-periods, 1994–2005 and 2005–12 are examined, using three rounds of the National Sample Survey Consumer Expenditure Survey. The changes in the components of consumption expenditure and population characteristics are explored that explain inequalities during the two sub-periods, which represent distinct policy environments. We use both a priori and regression-based decomposition methods for the analysis. We find that there is a complete reversal of the role of education in explaining inequalities. It shifted from being an inequality-increasing factor during 1994–2005 to an inequality-equalising factor during 2005–12. This reversal is induced by decreasing consumption returns to education due to the depressed job market. The role of locational factors has increased in explaining the increase in inequalities over time. The non-food components induce an increase in the overall inequalities via an increased expenditure on durables. The within-group component contributes the most to the level of and change in inequalities.

This article examines de facto privatisation and populist budgets of the central and Delhi state governments. The delay in releasing grants to 12 constituent colleges of the University of Delhi shows a correspondence between privatisation and populism in implementing the National Education Policy 2020, thus resulting in socio-economic inequality and a delay in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 4, namely quality and inclusive education for all.

In June 2021, Google and BYJU’s announced a partnership to provide education services in India. By offering education content gratis and supporting “personalised learning,” Google and BYJU’s see themselves as facilitating the transition from the traditional brick-and-mortar classroom to a virtual learning space, potentially benefiting millions of Indian students during and beyond the pandemic. Examining the implications of this tie-up, in the context of commercialisation of education and the increasing concentration of power with monopolistic corporations, it is argued that private platforms in the unregulated edtech sector are incentivised to prioritise growth above all else and their programmes are sharply opposed to the socially transformative aims of education.