This article examines a randomised intervention in Delhi, India, that provided unconditional cash transfers to a group of households as a replacement for the food security offered by a below-poverty-level card. The experimental approach can differentiate beneficial effects due to either unconditional cash transfers or newly opened bank accounts. The unconditional cash transfer does not induce a decline in food security; rather, it provides opportunities for households to shift to other nutritious options in non-cereal product categories.

Associative learning plays a significant role in shaping human behaviors. Complex cognitions such as image recognition and pattern recognition in real-time, abstract thinking, among others, are easily accomplished with high energy efficiencies, outperforming the superior machines existing today. Thus, brain-inspired synaptic devices are proposed to enhance the computation speed and efficiency, which are lacking in the conventional von Neumann architecture and hence a promising approach for neuromorphic artificial intelligence. Here, an artificial synaptic network (ASN) is explored for emulating higher-order learning without any CMOS supporting circuits. A self-assembled Ag dewetted island network resembling the bioneural network is utilized to fabricate the synaptic device (Ag-ASN). Under an electric field, Ag migration results in the formation of filaments, leading to the emulation of synaptic behavior such as short-term plasticity (STP) and long-term plasticity (LTP). By tuning the input signal, a rehearsal- and compliance-based STP to LTP transition was realized. Along with the diverse nanogap, the formation of various filaments in response to the different electrical stimuli leads to the mimicking of Pavlov’s dog experiment and a louder bell concept. Excitingly, the complex second-order conditioning was emulated for the first time using the synaptic device without any supporting circuits.

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In this article, we document some empirical facts about vocational training in India. First, we show that the education levels and vocational training of the Indian labour force are low and have not changed between 2004-2005 and 2011-2012. Then, we show that in wage employment, regular wage and salary earners and casual labour, the returns to skilling are low while the returns to general education are significant, even within the same occupation and industry category. Using the enterprise surveys from the NSS, we also document that self-employment, which is the outside option for most unskilled, semiskilled and even skilled people, is very unproductive. We, thus, argue that the Indian labour market is stuck in an equilibrium where both the number of persons getting skilled and the returns to skilling are low.