Inequality

Proper early nutrition can spectacularly change the entire life trajectory of a child. We know from long-term studies that it promotes brain development, making the child do better in school, and much better later in life, affecting everything from the happiness of marriages to the quality of jobs, and up to 60% more earnings.

The government has made significant progress in reducing child malnutrition, but with nearly half of all deaths of children aged under five mainly caused by poor diet, much still needs to be done. 

When a “solution” to a problem causes more damage than the problem, policymaking has gone awry. That’s where we often find ourselves with global warming today.

Activist organizations like Worldwatch argue that higher temperatures will make more people hungry, so drastic carbon cuts are needed. But a comprehensive new study published in Nature Climate Change led by researchers from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis has found that strong global climate action would cause far more hunger and food insecurity than climate change itself.

Algunas políticas parecen ser tan altruistas que es casi imposible imaginar cualquier objeción a las mismas. Por ejemplo, prestar pequeñas cantidades de dinero o perdonar deudas para ayudar a los extremadamente pobres parecen abordajes totalmente razonables. Sin embargo, el escrutinio de los mismos revela que estas políticas bien intencionadas son erróneas.

Algumas políticas parecem tão altruístas que é quase impossível imaginar qualquer objecção a elas. Por exemplo, emprestar pequenas quantias de dinheiro ou anular dívidas para ajudar os mais pobres são medidas tidas como benéficas, e ambas as abordagens parecem inteiramente sensatas. No entanto, um escrutínio mais tento revela que essas políticas bem-intencionadas estão equivocadas.

For the well-off in both rich and poor countries around the world, lives are enriched by plentiful access to energy that provides light, fresh food, and clean water, and that powers technology and allows the ability to control the temperature.

Early childhood programmes have long been shown to create improvements that last a lifetime. Whether by instilling good habits or by encouraging a passion for learning, early exposure to learning cuts drop-out rates in later schooling, and generates measurable improvements to the productivity and income of adults.

Some policies seem so altruistic that it is almost impossible to imagine any objection to them. For example, lending small amounts of money or writing off debts to help the extreme poor are intended to help the most vulnerable, and both approaches seem entirely sensible. However, scrutiny reveals these well-intentioned policies to be misguided.

On the eve of the Karnataka election, waivers of farm loans were one of the major election promises. Now, chief minister HD Kumaraswamy wants to fulfill his pre-poll promise and even threatened to resign if he cannot fulfill his promise. As has been seen time and time again, “farmers first” provides political mileage. With more than 55% of Indians earning their livelihood from the agricultural sector, it comes as no surprise that political parties like to place their bets on the farmers’ cause. However, the real benefit to the farmers won’t come from loan waivers.

Sometimes in life, it is clear that the direct approach isn’t the best one. This is true in many areas, even when it comes to policymaking. Take, as an example, the area of extreme poverty. It seems logical, at first, that the most effective response should be head-on: giving money and assets to protect people from income shocks.

Life expectancy in India has increased almost four years in the last decade. Every 24 hours, India added more than nine hours to the life of a newborn — thereby ‘allowing’ a baby born today four more years of life. To a large extent, this progress is due to substantial reductions in infant and maternal mortality, dropping a quarter and a third over the last decade.

Yet, India can do better. It ranks 145th out of 193 nations on infant mortality, and 129 of 184 nations on maternal mortality, according to the World Bank.