India
The world’s largest democracy and second most populous country emerged as a major power in the 1990s and is now a fast-growing economy with major influence. India’s 1.3 billion people live in 28 States and 7 Union Territories. India is among the most diverse societies in the world, an amalgamation of languages, religions and cultures. The country is also a place of increasingly stark extremes in wealth. In the same India where millions use smartphones, millions struggle to survive. Despite elaborate institutional mechanisms within and across the different levels of government, the delivery of quality basic services to the poorest and most marginalised is erratic and weak. India has a strong national legislation and has made significant progress towards strengthening the education system and getting more children into school over the past decade. However, staggering numbers of children (especially girls) remain out of school, due to relatively few effective interventions to tackle prominent socio-cultural barriers and a lack of systemic quality education sector reforms. (Sources: UNICEF 2017; UNDP 2018; UNAIDS 2017; World Bank 2017)
- total population (thousands)
- 1,324,171
- GNI per capita
- 1790$
- Life expectancy at birth
- 69 years
- Human Development Index
- 130 (out of 189)
- Under-5 mortality rate
- 43‰
- Primary school net enrolment
- 92%
- Adult HIV prevalence (% of the population)
- 0.2%
- People of all ages living with HIV (thousands)
- 2,100
- improved access to safe water (% of the population)
- 88%
- moderate-severe underweight (% children under-5)
- 38%
related programmes

Getting Indian girls into classrooms

Challenging barriers, empowering women

Developing a revolutionary greenhouse

Scaling up girls’ quality education

Taxis for women, driven by women

Fighting disparities through children’s education

Smart greenhouses for Indian small farmers

Championing girls’ quality education

Market-based innovations to serve the poor
