Main Banner Image

Synchronised 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...

  • 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...

  • 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,...

  • Perspectives
Refine list by:
--Please Select--
--Please Select--

How leader identity impacts group coordination

In principle, leaders can facilitate group coordination towards a common goal but in diverse societies, their effectiveness may depend upon their social identity, and how citizens react to leader iden...

  • Articles

Heart of darkness: Misplaced priorities of Jharkhand’s District Mineral Foundation

In 2015, the central government launched District Mineral Foundations in the districts affected by mining, which are mandated to collect royalty from all mining activities and use the funds for the we...

  • Notes from the Field

The Impact of Community-Driven Accountability on Land Rights Governance: Evidence from a Homestead Land Titling Initiative

How and under what circumstances can civic mobilization improve local governance and service delivery? This project seeks to contribute to debates on this question through a multi-method analysis of a...

  • IGC Research on India

Judicial Institutions and Economic Development: Examining Micro-evidence from India

This project examines the relationship between a country’s legal environment and its economic outcomes. This project will be constructing relevant measures of friction from trial level data at subor...

  • IGC Research on India

Do Indian voters mind their representatives getting rich in office?

Asset declarations, requiring politicians to disclose their financial information, are becoming increasingly common across the world. In India, financial declarations are part of public affidavits fil...

  • Articles

How governance and public expenditure impact human development

The state of Madhya Pradesh displays wide variance in human development outcomes across its districts. This article examines the link between public expenditure, quality of governance, and human devel...

  • Articles

Do dishonest people gravitate towards the public sector in India?

The corruption level in the public sector may not only depend on punishments and systems put in place to deter corruption, but also on who chooses to enter the sector. This article finds that people w...

  • Articles

The strategic logic of money flows in Indian elections

Why do political candidates give voters handouts during election campaigns, even when they are unable to monitor voter behaviour? Based on a qualitative study in Mumbai, this article argues that compe...

  • Articles

Protecting data privacy: Authorisation and access control

The B.N. Srikrishna Committee, which was constituted in August 2017 to draft India’s data protection laws, is expected to submit its final recommendations this month. In this post, Banerjee and Shar...

  • Perspectives

Sunlight as disinfectant: Disclosure requirements and corruption in India

It is believed that transparency and free access to information can root out corruption and malfeasance in government. This article finds that the introduction of asset disclosure rules for candidates...

  • Articles

Enfranchising your own? Polling officer identity and electoral outcomes

The provision of free and fair elections is a public service critical to maintaining accountability and responsiveness of elected officials. This article examines the administration of polling station...

  • Articles

Election by community consensus: Effects on political selection and governance

Multiple states in India incentivise village communities to elect their political representatives by community consensus, doing away with the need for state governments to organise official secret bal...

  • Articles

Recent Contributors

Ejaz

Ejaz Ghani

Pune International Center

Rahul

Rahul De

Azim Premji University

Guilhem

Guilhem Cassan

University of Namur

Francesca R.

Francesca R. Jensenius

University of Oslo

Julia

Julia Cagé

Sciences Po Paris

Lakshmi

Lakshmi Iyer

University of Notre Dame

Sarmistha

Sarmistha Pal

University of Surrey

Jean-Paul

Jean-Paul Faguet

London School of Economics

View all Contributors

Most 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...

  • 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, ...

  • 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...

  • Articles