Is it better to be governed by an elected leader or appointed bureaucrat?
The division of governance functions and responsibilities between politicians and bureaucrats varies, both across and within political regimes. Based on an experiment in Karnataka, this article examin...
- Abhishek Arora Siddharth George Nivedita Mantha Vijayendra Rao M.R. Sharan
- 25 September, 2024
- Articles
Why political competition matters when inequality is high
In a high-inequality setting, local politicians with secure positions may favour the rich by diverting resources towards them, at the cost of the poor. To test this hypothesis, this article analyses d...
- Anders Kjelsrud Kalle Moene Lore Vandewalle
- 13 September, 2024
- Articles
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
Corruption and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
Corruption continues to strangle India’s public finances. This column presents evidence of embezzlement in India’s flagship rural employment programme and suggests new ways policymakers can test w...
- Sandip Sukhtankar
- 16 July, 2012
- Articles
Understanding Mandis: Market Towns and the Dynamics of India's Rural and Urban Transformations
The idea behind this project is to undertake process-oriented investigations that will involve the study of interactions, especially between agricultural markets, settlements, technology, infrastructu...
- Devesh Kapur Mekhala Krishnamurthy
- 01 April, 2012
- IGC Research on India
Enhancing Local Public Service Delivery: Experimental Evidence on the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in Bihar
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGA) is among the largest social protection programmes in the world.
- Abhijit Banerjee Esther Duflo Rohini Pande
- 31 March, 2012
- IGC Research on India
Third-party environmental auditing
High levels of industrial pollution are a harmful by-product of growth. The Indian state of Gujarat is an industrial powerhouse with about 5% of the Indian population, but 9% of India’s registered m...
- Esther Duflo Michael Greenstone Rohini Pande Nicholas Ryan
- 01 March, 2012
- IGC Research on India
Land Acquisition for Business and Compensation of Displaced Farmers
This project addresses the question of how farmers displaced by acquisition of agricultural land for the purpose of industrialisation ought to be compensated. Prior to acquisition, the farmers are lea...
- Maitreesh Ghatak Sandip Mitra Dilip Mookherjee
- 01 March, 2012
- IGC Research on India
Federal versus Regional Control: Implications for Groundwater Resource in India
Federal versus regional control over provision of resources can have different implications for long-run sustainability of natural resources. This project examines the trade-off between short-term gro...
- Sheetal Sekhri
- 31 March, 2011
- IGC Research on India
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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
The digital dream: Upskilling India for the future
While the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the pace at which technology is becoming commonplace in our lives, it has also exposed a stark digital divide, leaving a large proportion of India’s popul...
- Venugopal Mothkoor Fatima Mumtaz
- 23 March, 2021
- Perspectives