India Development Review Online

India Development Review (IDR) stands as the first and largest independent media platform dedicated to the development sector in India. We share innovative ideas, valuable lessons, and insightful perspectives crafted by those who are tackling some of the most challenging issues in the country. Our content is grounded in facts and maintains editorial independence, ensuring clarity and relevance so that you can enhance your work effectively. We are convinced that knowledge can be a catalyst for transformation, and we aim for our platform to highlight overlooked subjects, amplify unheard voices, and present alternative narratives that are essential for fostering social advancement.

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Using technology to support early childhood education

2 weeks ago | idronline.org | Tanupriya Singh

Over the past few years, there has been a renewed focus on early childhood education (ECE) in India, with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 serving as a major impetus. The policy places particular emphasis on ECE, which focuses on children between the ages of three and six years, and links it to formal schooling. While the right to education has not yet been extended to children under the age of six, the NEP aims to universalise ECE by 2030.
How can renewable energy models put people first?

2 weeks ago | idronline.org | Tanupriya Singh

Three perspectives, one conversation. A developer, an investor, and a development professional unpack what it would take to make renewable energy truly people-centric. As with any large infrastructure push, renewable energy (RE) expansion can bring unintended consequences for the communities living in and around project sites, such as reducing access to arable land, disrupting livelihoods, and reshaping local economies.
Appraisals: What we wanted vs what we got

2 weeks ago | idronline.org | Tanupriya Singh

We want IDR to be as much yours as it is ours. Tell us what you want to read.
IDR Explains: Forest Rights Act (FRA)

1 month ago | idronline.org | Tanupriya Singh

In just four questions, learn what FRA is, why it was enacted, how it aims to benefit India’s forest-dwelling communities, and what are the barriers in doing so. India’s Forest Rights Act impacts an estimated 150 million forest-dwelling people, 40 million hectares of land, and 1,70,000 villages. The act is considered a landmark legislation for the country’s Adivasis and other forest-dwelling communities who were exploited and removed from their own land during colonial rule.
Philanthropy must be committed to social justice | IDR

1 month ago | idronline.org | Martin Macwan

Philanthropy cannot flourish under fear, especially as its objective is to empower people by losing their fear.
Forest guard by day, Bru culture documenter by night

2 months ago | idronline.org | Kamal Sharma |JASPREET SINGH |Giridhar Mishra |Shivali Dubey

Vanlaldika Apeto is a resident of Damparengpui village in Mizoram’s Mamit district. By day, he works as a guard with the forest department at the Dampa Tiger Reserve, and like many others from the Bru community in his village, he also practises jhum farming. By night, he dedicates himself to documenting Bru culture, much of which is gradually disappearing. Vanlaldika is the author of Chini Yapai (Our Footsteps), a book that explores traditional Bru attire, games, and rituals.
A restaurant in Tripura with a unique way of taking orders

Jan 21, 2025 | idronline.org | Kamal Sharma |JASPREET SINGH |Giridhar Mishra |Shivali Dubey

In 2004, I started the Swasti Niramish Hotel with my family—my wife, my brother, and my brother’s wife. What sets our restaurant apart from others in the city is our unique way of taking orders. While we have a menu displayed on a board, we don’t take orders as is commonly seen in restaurants. Instead, our staff carries small bowls of cooked dishes directly to the customers. The customer can take a look at the food and pick a bowl of the dish they wish to consume.
IDR Explains | Circular Economy

Jan 17, 2025 | idronline.org | Srishti Gupta

Circular economy or circularity is a system designed to minimise waste and maximise resource efficiency. This is achieved through it’s three core principles: eliminating waste entirely, circulating products and materials in a closed loop, and supporting regeneration. This means products are kept in continuous circulation and are reused and repaired which reduces the need to extract new resources.
All is not well in Nagaland’s oil palm plantations

Jan 15, 2025 | idronline.org | Kamal Sharma |JASPREET SINGH |Giridhar Mishra |Shivali Dubey

The cultivation of oil palm in Nagaland began in 2015–16 when the state government introduced it to farmers as a replacement for low-value crops. This was a result of the central government’s National Mission on Oilseeds and Oil Palm to enhance and increase domestic edible oil production and reduce import dependency. Many farmers in the state started cultivating oil palm because they were promised high returns for their yield. However, things didn’t turn out as expected.
Conference partners: What they actually do

Jan 13, 2025 | idronline.org | Srishti Gupta

Provide monetary support to cover the event cost, and inevitably become the ones you blame for the quality of coffee, the lack of hot rotis, and the sticker you got with your name on it, when you were really looking forward to a lanyard. The ‘experts’ from nonprofits, think tanks, and research organisations that end up on all the panels. Can be found having a minor existential crisis on the stage when they are asked questions that makes them question everything they do.