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Ease of Operating Budget Private Schools in India
In a background paper submitted for UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring Report 2022, we explore the interface between the state and budget private schools with a focus on licensure, hiring of teachers, inspections, admissions, and grievance redressal. We examine legislation, supplement our analysis with interviews and surveys of school owners, and fill the gap in the literature on this sector. We do so for budget private schools in Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Haryana. Finally, we document the impact of COVID-19 on budget private schools. The research questions that the paper explores include:
- What are the existing regulatory frameworks that govern private schools in India? How do they vary by state?
- What are the characteristics of budget private schools, their monitoring, and compliance-related experiences? How do they vary by state?
- How do the regulatory frameworks and experiences contrast within each state? What would explain these differences?
By exploring all the different aspects of the operations of a budget private school, such as regulatory requirements, quality of education, and information for parents, we fill the gap in the literature on this sector.
READ UNESCO GLOBAL EDUCATION MONITORING REPORT 2022
Insights from PRISM: Policy Dialogue on Open Access in South Asia
On 26th March 2022, Centre for Civil Society hosted a panel discussion on ‘Open Access in South Asia’ as part of the PRISM - the science & technology policy dialogue series. The speakers included Ms. Anubha Sinha (Senior Researcher at Centre for Internet and Society), Dr. Haseeb Irfanullah (Independent Consultant in Environment, Climate Change & Research System, based in Bangladesh) and Prof. Devika Madalli (Chair, Working Group, Open Access India; Professor, Documentation Research and Training Centre, Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore). The discussion was moderated by Dr Moumita Koley (Policy Researcher at DST-Centre for Policy Research, IISc, Bangalore). This document captures some key insights from the discussion. The speakers shared their insights on differences in open access narratives in high income countries vs low & middle income countries, India’s ‘One Nation, One Subscription’ idea, potential for a unified power of South Asia, Copyright Act, and the need for a national open access, among other key topics.
Freedom & Prosperity in Asia
Presenting at the Asia Liberty Forum, on 30th September 2022 in Manila, Dr. Prashant Narang (Senior Fellow) spoke about the Atlantic Council Freedom and Prosperity Indexes Report 2021. The presentation entailed an overview of Asia's performance across the Freedom Index and its bearing on the Prosperity Index
Research Management in India
The field of research management (RM) has emerged as a tool to create an enabling research environment within universities, where researchers can get support, including but not limited to management of their research grant, getting legal and technology transfer-related advice and finding ways of increasing the impact of their research and innovation. In this infographic, we discuss the components of research management within a research project cycle. We also look at the current role of various stakeholders in India's research management ecosystem. Given the current lack of active involvement by the private sector in this ecosystem, we map out the potential it has to transform research management in India—as a service provider, a contributor, and a beneficiary. In our report titled 'Enabling Research through Research Management: The Case of India', we discuss further about RM's future potential, case studies, etc.
Preparing the Fields for Genetically Modified Crops in India
By 2050, the world will need to produce 60-70% more food than what it is already producing to feed an anticipated population of 9.3 billion people. A large proportion of this demand is expected to come from the developing world. With India’s population set to reach 1.7 billion by 2050, its annual domestic food production must increase to 333 million tonnes against the current level of 252 million tonnes. But the farming-as-usual approach would significantly reduce natural resources. High-yielding, pest-resistant genetically modified (GM) crops are often put forth as one of the tools to solve prospective food shortages in a changing environment.
Enabling Research through Research Management
The field of research management (RM) has emerged as a tool to create an enabling research environment within universities, where researchers can get support, including but not limited to management of their research grant, getting legal and technology transfer-related advice and finding ways of increasing the impact of their research and innovation. In this report, we discuss some of the current conceptual challenges related to RM and look into the details of the current scenario and future potential of RM in India. This report has emerged from the study of cases in India and around the world, coupled with one-on-one interactions with some of the leading professionals engaged in providing RM services at Indian higher educational institutions (HEIs). Some of the key findings that emerged from this study include the evolving RM priorities of Indian HEIs and the lack of a defined career trajectory for RM professionals engaged in providing the service. We discuss in detail the current and potential role of various stakeholders in the RM system. A dedicated chapter on the role of markets highlights the current lack of involvement of the private sector and the potential it has to transform research management in India—as a service provider, a contributor, and a beneficiary. The way forward for research universities without any current RM mechanism has also been discussed in detail.
Quality of Science & Technology Policy
Science and Technology (S&T) policies of a country alter how individuals & entities of the science, technology, and innovation ecosystem interact with each other and determine how resources are to be allocated to serve the best interest of the public. This toolkit aims to provide a suited guideline for policymakers and others who wish to assess the quality of science and technology policies of a country holistically. This toolkit takes into account several metrics that help identify characteristics of a sound S&T policy. Metrics like Collaboration, Resources & Research, Entrepreneurship & Innovation, and Environment & Sustainability establish the outcomes and effectiveness of this policy, whereas metrics like Transparency, Accountability & Administration help in assessing the clarity and impact of the policy.
Improving the Quality of Laws in India: A Qualitative and Quantitative Approach
Laws and regulations impact the social and economic well-being, and freedom of members of society. They alter how individuals interact and trade with each other. While all laws and regulations alter behaviour and impact stakeholders, a good regulation maximises social welfare while minimising the cost and extent of intervention (CUTS International n.d).
A cost-benefit analysis alone is insufficient to assess the quality of a law or regulation. This is, in part, because it is not possible to know all the costs and benefits associated with a specific regulation. Further, while known costs and benefits can be calculated, there will be costs and benefits that are impossible to predict ex-ante (Bastiat 1850). Added to this, is the knowledge problem (Hayek 1945). All the relevant data will never be available to any one individual since this knowledge and data is distributed among individual actors.
To tackle this challenge, we have developed a two-fold method to assess the quality of a law. First, we propose using a 3-part Quality of Laws Toolkit that reviews laws on three safeguards: Representation, Rights, and Resources safeguards. Representation safeguards ensure that the interests of stakeholders and the general public are reflected in a law. Rights safeguards check whether a law protects the rights of individuals. Resources safeguards assess the impact of a law on stakeholders’ incentives and the administrative burden it imposes. Second, we use Mercatus Center’s RegData to quantify different aspects of a law: volume, restriction, and complexity.
This compendium has three parts. The first part elaborates on the 3Rs of the Toolkit and presents the question-set under each. The second part provides guidance on using the Toolkit by applying the ‘Rights’ safeguards to all state school education laws. The third part elaborates on the quantitative methodology and applies it to all national laws in India.