From numbers to impact: Learning from effective data management in Rajasthan
Access to good data is critical for evidence-based decision-making in policy. In this note, Santhosh and Kapur discuss insights from a study of Rajasthan’s experience with collecting, sharing and us...
- Avani Kapur Sidharth Santhosh
- 31 May, 2024
- Notes from the Field
Reshaping social protection in India
As India has undergone a transformation in recent decades in terms of trends such as poverty reduction, food security and urbanisation, there is a need to also revamp the traditional social protection...
- Ejaz Ghani
- 12 April, 2024
- Perspectives
The growing wave of decentralisation: Comparative evidence from developing countries
Over the last few decades, decentralisation has been rapidly spreading in developing countries across the world, with around 35 countries announcing new or deepening decentralisation reforms in recent...
- Jean-Paul Faguet Lakshmi Iyer Sarmistha Pal
- 16 November, 2023
- Videos
The alcoholic mammaries of the welfare State
Tamil Nadu is known to give away more freebies to voters than any other state and these are financed mainly by massive revenues from liquor sales. In this article, Swaminathan Aiyar, Consulting Editor...
- Swaminathan Aiyar
- 30 May, 2016
- Articles
Impact of Electronic Voting Machines on electoral frauds, democracy, and development
In an attempt to curb electoral malpractices, Electronic Voting Machines were introduced on a national scale by the Election Commission of India in the 1990s. Using data from state assembly elections ...
- Sisir Debnath
- 19 May, 2016
- Articles
The first two years of Modi government
In this article, Pranab Bardhan, Professor of Graduate School at the Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley, provides his perspective on the performance of the Modi government in ...
- Pranab Bardhan
- 11 May, 2016
- Perspectives
Aadhaar Bill: UID without excessively compromising privacy?
Can something like UID be created without compromising privacy beyond acceptable limits? If so, how should the Aadhaar Bill have been written? What are its specific and avoidable weaknesses?
- Jean Drèze Reetika Khera Raju Rajagopal
- 06 May, 2016
- Perspectives
Aadhaar Bill: Move towards a surveillance State?
Most advanced economies have had some version of UID for a long time, example, the Social Security number in the US, the Social Insurance Number in Canada, etc. This is recorded not only in interactio...
- Jean Drèze Reetika Khera Raju Rajagopal Bharat Ramaswami
- 05 May, 2016
- Perspectives
Aadhaar Bill and government benefits: Risk of increasing exclusion?
Supporters of Aadhaar express the hope that will reduce inclusion errors and corruption by eliminating ghost beneficiaries, say in schemes like MNREGA. Are there substantial benefits to be reaped on t...
- Jean Drèze Reetika Khera Raju Rajagopal Bharat Ramaswami
- 04 May, 2016
- Perspectives
Aadhaar Bill and government benefits: Better targeting and reduced corruption?
Supporters of Aadhaar express the hope that will reduce inclusion errors and corruption by eliminating ghost beneficiaries, say in schemes like MNREGA. Are there substantial benefits to be reaped on t...
- Jean Drèze Reetika Khera Raju Rajagopal Bharat Ramaswami
- 04 May, 2016
- Perspectives
Debate: The Aadhaar Bill
In a debate on the Aadhaar Bill, commentators from academia and civil society will weigh in on issues around potential benefits and privacy concerns.
- Parikshit Ghosh Ashok Kotwal
- 02 May, 2016
- Symposium
Aadhaar Bill: Incremental information-gathering powers for government?
The government already has the means to collect a lot of information on citizens (example, phone conversations and logs, credit card transactions, income tax records, bank account details, etc.). Conv...
- Jean Drèze Reetika Khera Raju Rajagopal Bharat Ramaswami
- 02 May, 2016
- Perspectives
Quality of governance and welfare outcomes
As the MDGs gave way to the SDGs, considerable attention has been focussed on movements in key welfare indicators for women and children in the past decade. In this context, this column compares India...
- Salma Ahmed Ranjan Ray
- 27 April, 2016
- Perspectives
Rethinking clientelism: Politics of service delivery in rural India
Clientelism is often blamed for public service delivery failures in developing countries. While the top-down drivers of political support in exchange for service delivery for specific constituents is ...
- Aditya Dasgupta
- 19 April, 2016
- Perspectives
Local political elite capture and BPL card allocation
There is significant anecdotal evidence for the fact that local political connections at the grassroots level is an important channel through which leakages take place in welfare schemes in India such...
- Sitakanta Panda
- 08 April, 2016
- Articles
Twitter feed
Tweets by Ideas4IndiaMost Popular Governance Posts
Unique Health Identification and Aadhaar: A case for mandatory linkage
As part of the Digital India initiative, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) issues a Unique Health Identification (UHID) number to each patient, which documents their entire journey in th...
- Mudit Kapoor
- 23 December, 2016
- Perspectives
Caste dominance in rural India: Cause and effect
Rural India remains a caste-based society. This column explores why caste continues to play such an important role and what the effects are. It argues that trade and agricultural productivity suffer, ...
- Siwan Anderson
- 16 August, 2012
- Articles
Why did the Indian economy stagnate under the colonial rule?
How did the Indian economy fare under the colonial rule? Is the average Indian significantly better off after Independence? This column examines trends in GDP per capita in order to determine the stan...
- Aniruddha Bagchi
- 16 September, 2013
- Articles