Achieving universal health and well-being remains a formidable challenge across Asia, where disparities in healthcare access and affordability persist despite rapid economic growth. This study investigates whether digital financial inclusion (DFI) can serve as a catalyst for improved health outcomes in 31 Asian economies from 2000 to 2023. We construct a composite DFI index through principal component analysis, integrating five indicators of digital connectivity and financial access. The empirical strategy employs three-stage least squares and dynamic panel system generalized method of moments estimators to address endogeneity, simultaneity and unobserved heterogeneity, complemented by panel quantile regression to examine distributional effects. Three health indicators serve as dependent variables across separate models: infant mortality rate, life expectancy (LE) at birth and hospital beds (HBs) per 1,000 people. The findings consistently demonstrate that DFI exerts a statistically significant beneficial effect on all three health outcomes. Higher DFI is associated with lower infant mortality, longer LE and increased HB availability. These results remain robust across estimation techniques, model specifications and distributional quantiles. Among the control variables, health expenditure and economic growth are consistently significant determinants of health improvements, whereas inflation adversely affects health outcomes. The study contributes to the literature by offering novel cross-country evidence on the DFI–health nexus in Asia and by employing a methodological triangulation approach that strengthens causal inference. The findings carry important policy implications. Governments should integrate DFI strategies into public health frameworks, particularly in underserved and rural populations.
Utilizing the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data of 2023–24, this article seeks to examine private returns to education (general and technical) across three segments of the Indian labour market—regular salaried/wage employees (RSWE), casual workers and self-employed workers—disaggregated by gender. A comparison of the augmented Mincerian and selectivity-corrected estimates of returns is made. Our results show that the returns to education vary by gender and employment sectors. Gendered differences in returns are the lowest for the RSWE and the highest for self-employment. The casual sector does not seem to benefit workers irrespective of gender. There is also evidence of selection bias, and this implies that the allocation of workers into different sectors of employment is not random. This article makes an important contribution to understanding the gendered differences in returns to education, particularly for self-employment in India, for which there is scanty literature available. The findings of this study also support the argument that human capital alone, in the form of educational attainment, is not enough to ensure higher returns.
This study examines the gendered dimensions of informal labour within the saree recycling economy in Dhanbad, Jharkhand, through the lens of feminist political economy and intersectionality. Based on qualitative fieldwork conducted between June and July 2025, the research draws on 30 in-depth semi-structured interviews with women workers, along with five focus group discussions (FGDs) involving 30 women participants (six women in each group), participant observation and informal discussions with 15 male workers engaged in different stages of the saree recycling process. The findings reveal that saree recycling functions as a survival-oriented livelihood for economically marginalized women belonging largely to Scheduled Caste Rajak/Dhobi communities, minority Muslim households and other low-income groups. Despite contributing significantly to local circular textile economies, women workers experience low wages, irregular employment, poor working conditions and lack of social protection. The study highlights how women’s labour remains undervalued within informal recycling systems while simultaneously sustaining household economies and environmentally sustainable practices. It argues for greater policy recognition, labour protections and inclusive approaches to sustainable textile circularity in India.
Climate change risks necessitate climate mitigation and adaptation policy measures, which require adequate allocation of financial resources to reduce climate vulnerability. India, one of the highly hazard-prone countries of the world, has made substantial commitments towards tackling climate change, including increasing budgetary allocations for initiatives addressing this pressing issue. This study explores the extent to which India’s government budgetary expenditures have contributed to reducing climate change vulnerabilities. An index measuring India’s climate vulnerability over a period of 35 years, from 1990 to 2024, was calculated, and a Generalized Additive Model framework was employed to determine the effectiveness of government budgetary expenditures in diminishing vulnerability over the same period. The results show that climate budget expenditures had a significant negative and non-linear relationship with vulnerability, playing an important role in bringing India’s vulnerability measures down and signifying its efficacy in addressing vulnerability concerns.
This study examines the long- and short-run dynamics of trade openness, economic growth and CO 2 emissions in India within the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) framework. Drawing on annual data spanning from 1971 to 2021, the autoregressive distributed lag bounds testing approach is employed alongside the Bai–Perron multiple structural break controls, estimated across three interconnected specifications, namely an economic growth model, an environmental quality model and a nonlinear EKC model. Stable long-run cointegrating relationships are confirmed across all specifications. The EKC hypothesis is supported by the coefficient estimates, with an estimated income turning point of approximately $6,300 per capita, which is well above India’s current income level, implying that CO 2 emissions will continue to rise with economic growth if there is no deliberate structural intervention. Trade openness increases emissions in the long run as scale effects dominate, indicating a scale-effect-driven trade pattern in India. Energy consumption emerges as the dominant long-run driver of emissions. Structural breaks identified in 1978, 1984, 2009 and 2014 capture India’s major developmental transitions and are found to exert persistent effects on both growth and emissions. The findings underscore that India’s 2070 net-zero commitment requires an integrated trade–energy–climate policy framework rather than reliance on income-driven environmental improvement alone.
