16 November, 2023Synchronised elections, voter behaviour, and governance outcomes
An active policy proposal of the Government of India is to hold national elections at the same time as the assembly elections of all the states. This article examines whether holding national and stat...
-
Vimal Balasubramaniam Sabyasachi Das Apurav Yash Bhatiya 
28 August, 2020
- Articles
Political determinants of newspaper markets in India
Newspapers are an important source of political information for Indian voters. This article looks at how political factors influence the newspaper market. Using the announcement of delimitation in the...
-
Julia Cagé Guilhem Cassan Francesca R. Jensenius
- 23 November, 2023
- Articles
A proposal for public funding of elections and political parties in India
The Finance Minister of India recently introduced measures aimed at cleaning up political party funding in the country. In this article, Gowda and Santhosh highlight the limitations of these measures,...
-
M.V. Rajeev Gowda Varun Santhosh
- 21 April, 2017
- Perspectives
Fixing incentives for power plants to reduce outages
Consumers in India face frequent power outages despite relatively high-quality infrastructure and ample supply of power plants. This article identifies a novel explanation for India’s blackouts: whe...
-
Fiona Burlig Akshaya Jha Louis Preonas
- 08 April, 2022
- Articles
Does going cashless make you tax-rich? Evidence from India’s demonetisation
During 2014-2017, the share of adults using electronic payments in the developing world increased by over a third, and policymakers have expressed optimism regarding the role of this trend in promotin...
-
Lucie Gadenne Tushar Nandi Ross Warwick
- 28 March, 2022
- Articles
How colonial is Indian law?
Critiques of the colonial rule in India and its legacy have been extended to law – with many allusions to the need to shake off the yoke of the colonial legacy. In this post, Roy and Swamy unpack th...
-
Tirthankar Roy Anand Swamy
- 18 February, 2022
- Perspectives
Budget and politics in pandemic times
Applying a political economy lens to the recently announced Budget 2022-23, Yamini Aiyar contends that the emphasis on capital expenditure over welfare in the two Budgets announced during the pandemic...
-
Yamini Aiyar
- 16 February, 2022
- Perspectives
Improving public service delivery by fixing payment systems
Fixing how funds flow through the government systems grabs far fewer headlines than malnutrition, problems in the education sector, or crumbling infrastructure. In this post, Charity Troyer Moore cont...
-
Charity Troyer Moore
- 28 January, 2022
- Perspectives
India’s new National Water Policy: A paradigm shift
In 2019, the Ministry of Jal Shakti set up a committee of independent experts – led by Dr Mihir Shah – to draft a new National Water Policy. To examine the recommendations made by the Committee, A...
-
Ashwini Kulkarni Mihir Shah
- 20 January, 2022
- Videos
India’s new National Water Policy: A paradigm shift
In 2019, the Ministry of Jal Shakti set up a committee of independent experts – led by Dr Mihir Shah – to draft a new National Water Policy. To examine the recommendations made by the Committee, A...
-
Ashwini Kulkarni Mihir Shah
- 20 January, 2022
- Podcasts
She wins: Electing women in ethnically divided societies
The Indian Constitution reserves a minimum of 33% of village council head positions for women, and Bihar is among the nine states that have opted for 50% reservation. This note investigates how gender...
-
Arindam Banerjee Sayan Banerjee Charles R. Hankla Kunal Singh Anjali Thomas
- 22 July, 2021
- Notes from the Field
Escaping the subsidy-quality trap in India’s retail electricity market
Cross-subsidies in retail electricity tariffs leave distribution utilities with neither the incentive nor the capital to improve reliability, particularly for their most subsidised consumers. Using bi...
-
Shefali Khanna Kevin Rowe
- 19 May, 2021
- Articles
2021 West Bengal Assembly election: Did the Covid-19 surge matter?
In the recent Assembly elections in the state of West Bengal, the ruling Trinamool Congress bucked an anti-incumbency headwind to secure victory. Using electoral data from 2016, 2019, and 2021, Ghata...
-
Maitreesh Ghatak Pushkar Maitra
- 12 May, 2021
- Perspectives
Rising industrial accidents: Fallout of boosting ‘Ease of Doing Business’?
India has witnessed a surge in severe fire and explosion-related accidents in industrial and commercial establishments, in recent years. In this post, R Nagaraj contends that perhaps the dilution – ...
-
R. Nagaraj
- 28 April, 2021
- Perspectives
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
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