The Competitiveness Roadmap for India lays out policy principles to guide India's efforts to move towards middle-income and beyond over the next 25 years. It covers a discussion of appropriate outcome ambitions, the underlying development approach, specific policy actions to pursue, and the implementation architecture to design and execute on policies over time. The Roadmap is based on an in-depth diagnostic of India's current competitiveness, including an assessment of the policy actions taken so far. The document has been developed upon a request of Prime Minister Modi and the Economic Advisory Council to the PM within Niti Aayog.
The milestone of India's 75th anniversary of independence on Aug 15, 2022, offers an opportunity to reassert the country's commitment to realising universal health coverage (UHC). The first such effort predates independence, with the 1946 Bhore Committee report. India's colonial ruler, the UK Government, had simultaneously commissioned the Beveridge Report (1942), which led to the birth of the UK National Health Service in 1948. The Bhore Committee recommended a similar national health-care system for India with guiding principles that have stood the test of time.
Founders of Rocket Learning, an India-based nonprofit which focused on early childhood education (ECE), received an invitation from MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (JPAL), a development research organization, to test its intervention for ECE with a randomized controlled trial (RCT), the gold standard of impact evidence. Rocket Learning used classroom WhatsApp groups to provide parents access to byte-sized learning activities to help their children prepare for school. Since its launch in June 2020, Rocket Learning had reached over 50,000 low-income children in three states of India, in partnership with district and state governments. Though encouraged by the positive feedback from parents and teachers, the co-founders did not yet have evidence that Rocket Learning improved educational outcomes for early learners. They were elated to get the offer for a RCT in October 2020 but wondered whether the timing was right for the trial. After all, Rocket Learning was only five months old. Were the founders ready to do a largescale, rigorous evaluation and share the results publicly? If the results were negative, would it impact scaling? The founding team did not have much time in hand to decide.
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Anjali Raina is the Executive Director of the Harvard Business School India Research Centre. In her leadership role at the IRC, Anjali focuses on building and maintaining relationships with senior business leaders in the region to facilitate the work of the center in research, educational programs, community building and faculty development.
Under her leadership, the IRC has facilitated the writing of over 168 case studies on Indian Business Practice and supported half a dozen research projects. Anjali has co-authored several case studies such as Aadhaar: India’s ‘Unique Identification’ System, TeamLease: Putting India to Work (II) Legally; Pratham – Every Child in School and Learning Well; Naina Lal Kidwai: Investing in Her Country; Tech Mahindra and the Acquisition of Satyam Computers (A); HN Agri Serve : Growing Prosperity as well as an HBR Article on The Ordinary Heroes of the Taj.
Anjali wears several additional hats. She is a Director on the Board of Harvard Business Publishing, India, the Regional President (Western Region) of NHRDN, an Advisor to The Akanksha Foundation, Trustee to LIFE Trust, an Advisory Member on the Board of HBS Club of India, and on the Advisory Board of the Indian Business School.
Prior to joining HBS IRC Anjali spent 15 years with Citigroup India, most recently as Country Director, before which she worked for more than a decade with ANZ Grindlays Bank PLC. Anjali holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, a bachelor's degree (Eng. Hons) from Loreto College and is an alumnus of HBS having completed the Advanced Management Program.