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The present chapter examined the behavior of relative wage rate, productivity of labor, and total factor productivity growth (TFPG) and also attempted to explore the causal relationship between relative wage rate and productivity of labor as well as relative wage rate and TFPG in food and beverage industry in India over the period 1980–1981 to 2017–2018. The result of Sen (2003) approach of endogenous structural break suggests that the series of relative wage rate, productivity of labor, and TFPG follows trend stationary process. A significant break is found for all the three aforementioned variables, being 1984–1985 for relative wage rate and productivity of labor whereas 2007–2008 for TFPG. For the three variables, growth rate has increased after the break. Bidirectional causality between relative wage rate and productivity of labor as well as relative wage rate and TFPG is evident.

This chapter tries to capture the disparity in expenditure on primary education based on gender among the religious groups (Hindu, Muslim, and Christian) in rural India. The gender gap in education expenditure for a certain demographic group is calculated using the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition approach. Further, we tried to identify the various household-related factors which might influence the decision of spending on a child's education. We used the 75th-level National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) unit-level dataset of July 2017 to June 2018 (one academic year) to obtain data on education expenditure and other household factors which play a manifesting role in the gender gap in expenditure on education. Our finding suggests that the total differential (log mean boys education expenditure-log mean girls education expenditure) is positive among all religious groups signifying the gender bias in education expenditure. We also found that the magnitude of the “Unexplained Effect” component is higher compared to the “Explained Effect” component signifying that the treatment of characteristics by students differs by their sex at elementary education. Household size and if household members are employed on a casual basis, then their expenditure on education falls on the other hand income of the household, a household with computer availability and household member engaged in regular wage/salary earning plays a positive role in expenditure on primary education in rural India.

India depicts the picture of severe social stringencies keeping girls away from attending school education due to the harsh reality of early child marriage and denial of aspirations of girl students in Indian society. The gender disparity in school educational attainment is evident as the figures of girls' enrollment in comparison to boys' enrollment at higher secondary stage of education in India always turn lower. In this context, measurement of technical efficiency (TE) is important because existence of technical inefficiency implies that one cannot produce maximum amount of output, given the resources, which can be interpreted as the penalty that the system is paying, and there is also the need to find out the relation between TE and gender inequality. The chapter contributes to the literature by (i) in the first stage estimating output-oriented TE of Indian higher secondary education for the period 2010–2011 to 2015–2016, using nonparametric Data Envelopment Analysis, for general category states and (ii) in the second stage, using the estimated TE scores from the first stage, and the regression analysis establishing the positive impact of the girls' enrollment relative to boys' on the resulting TE and hence the positive role of gender equality in enrollment on enhancing TE. The favorable role of (1) “government expenditures on education (as a ratio to aggregate expenditure for the state),” “proportion of para teachers” and the adverse role of (2) “percentage of schools without girl's toilet” and “percentage of schools without building,” in determining TE of Indian higher secondary education are evident.

In contrast to the available literature which uses common frontier for efficiency measurement of Indian secondary education (ISE) with state level data, output-oriented technical efficiency (OUTTE) of Indian states and union territories (UT) is estimated to find whether maximum possible output of ISE given the resources are being generated, by creating two separate frontiers for (i) General Category States (GCS) and (ii) Special Category States (SCS) and UT, as two groups operate under different economic and fiscal conditions, for 2010–2011 to 2015–2016 under variable returns to scale and using non-parametric Data Envelopment Approach. Not all GCS and SCS&UT are perfectly technically efficient, implying GCS/SCS can increase output of ISE given the existing inputs. OUTTE of ISE varies within and between GCS/SCS. A second step determinant analysis suggests both for GCS and SCS, OUTTE is related positively to (i) percentage of girls to boy’s enrollment in ISE, supporting the positive role of gender equality in education regarding enrollment; and (ii) ratio of government education expenditure to aggregate government expenditure and negatively to poor infrastructural variables. OUTTE is also positively related to per capita net state domestic product at factor cost (constant prices), proportion of para-teachers for GCS and percentage of ST enrollment for SCS.

The issue of dropout looms large in the context of school education in India despite various flagship programs that have been initiated in school education. According to U-DISE report (2019–2020), girls drop out more than boys at the upper primary level. An analysis of the dropout problem demands probing deeper into intrahousehold dynamics that involves bargaining at the household level on investment decision. These decisions are often influenced by the social context in which the girl child in the family faces discrimination which gets reflected in terms of dropout of girl children. Apart from the issue of gender, birth order also determines which child is more likely to drop out. Using NSSO data (2017–2018), we observe that not all children of a household are equally susceptible to the dropout problem. Moreover, the eldest sibling is found to be more susceptible to the dropout problem and dropout rate goes down with the other younger siblings in the same household. First-born girl children drop out more than their male counterparts showing gender bias. The chapter concludes that the factors pushing a child to drop out become more effective for the eldest sibling. The major reason is the family structure of India as the eldest sibling is expected to be more responsible and look after other younger siblings. Consequently, a certain number of the younger siblings try to follow the elder siblings and discontinue going to school.