India at work: Challenges and the road ahead
While India’s economy experienced steady growth over the last 20 years or so, the growth in employment has not kept pace and key challenges remain to the creation of good-quality jobs. In this post,...
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Nalini Gulati
Kanika Mahajan
Anisha Sharma
15 September, 2025
- Perspectives
Why next-generation economic reforms are crucial for reviving investment
While corporate profitability and banks' lending ability have been on the rise for some time, corporate investment remains sluggish. In this post, Gupta and Sachdeva argue that investment levels of In...
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Shishir Gupta
Rishita Sachdeva
11 April, 2025
- Articles
The growing burden of state subsidies
Delivery of welfare benefits to citizens by state governments in India often takes the form of subsidies. Analysing budgetary data from seven Indian states for the period between 2018-19 and 2022-23, ...
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Kishan Narayan
17 March, 2025
- Articles
Reconsidering the 4% inflation target
The RBI targets an inflation rate of 4%. In this article, Gurbachan Singh takes an in-depth look at the prevailing macroeconomic policy regime. This exercise provides an insight, which forms the basis...
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Gurbachan Singh
16 January, 2017
- Perspectives
The historical roots of India's booming service economy
India stands out from other emerging economies because its growth has been led by the service sector rather than labour-intensive manufactures. This column summarises recent research showing that Indi...
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Stephen Broadberry
Bishnupriya Gupta
13 January, 2017
- Articles
Terms of trade shocks and monetary policy in India
Understanding monetary policy design in emerging markets and developing economies is a growing area of research. One aspect that is missing is how distortions in the agricultural sector translate into...
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Chetan Ghate
Sargam Gupta
Debdulal Mallick
31 December, 2016
- IGC Research on India
Women and work in rural India
In contrast to the global average of 48%, only 32.6% of the half-a-billion working-age women in India report to be working. It is puzzling that the rapid fertility transition, broad increases in femal...
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Farzana Afridi
Taryn Dinkelman
31 December, 2016
- IGC Research on India
Female Politicians and Economic Growth: Evidence from State Elections in India
This project investigates whether women legislators are good for economic growth using constituency level data for all elections to State Legislative Assemblies in India during 1992-2012.
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Thushyanthan Baskaran
Sonia Bhalotra
Yogesh Uppal
31 December, 2016
- IGC Research on India
Book review: 'India’s long road' by Vijay Joshi
In this article, Pulapre Balakrishnan, Professor of Economics at Ashoka University, reviews Vijay Joshi’s book, ‘India’s long road: The search for prosperity’.
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Pulapre Balakrishnan
21 December, 2016
- Perspectives
Riding the energy transition: Oil beyond 2040
The motor vehicle was very quick to replace horses in the early 20th century, and the advent of the electric car suggests that another profound shift in transportation and energy could be around the c...
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Reda Cherif
Fuad Hasanov
Aditya Pande
08 December, 2016
- Articles
Land acquisition law: The buck stops with the states
Some believe that by encouraging states to enact their own versions of the land acquisition law, the central government is diluting the law. In this article, Dhanmanjiri Sathe, Professor of Economics ...
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Dhanmanjiri Sathe
07 December, 2016
- Perspectives
Is the structure of Indian manufacturing geared towards job creation?
Government of India has envisaged adding 100 million jobs in manufacturing by 2022. This column finds that the structure of the country’s manufacturing sector is misaligned with the objective of jo...
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Sharmila Kantha
05 December, 2016
- Articles
How did de-reservation of small-scale industry affect employment?
To protect small, labour-intensive manufacturing enterprises and boost employment, the Indian government reserved certain products for exclusive production by such enterprises. This policy was gradual...
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Ann. E. Harrison
Leslie Martin
Shanti Nataraj
05 December, 2016
- Articles
Food processing industries: Lessons from Bihar
For an industrially backward state like Bihar, placing food processing as the lead sector for industrial development is a natural choice from the perspective of resource advantage and interlinked sect...
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Barna Ganguli
Debdatta Saha
29 November, 2016
- Articles
Minimum wage legislation for domestic workers: Does it work?
Between 2005 and 2009, for the first time, seven Indian states notified minimum wages for domestic workers. This column evaluates the impact of the legislation in terms of real wages and employment op...
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Rohan Gudibande
Arun Jacob
28 November, 2016
- Articles
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Land in India: Market price vs. fundamental value
The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2015, is focused on protecting the few home buyers who can afford to buy homes but does not address the issue of high land prices, which is a very se...
Gurbachan Singh
29 February, 2016
- Articles
Land records and titles in India
Land ownership is broadly determined by access to a land title, which protects the rights of the title-holder, and impacts livelihoods, and industrial, economic, and social growth. However, land title...
Prachee Mishra
Roopal Suhag
20 November, 2017
- Perspectives
Understanding the dynamics of the rupee-dollar exchange rate
Since 1993, the Indian rupee (INR) has officially been following a market-determined exchange rate – price is determined by demand for and supply of foreign exchange – with intervention by the Res...
Ila Patnaik
Rajeswari Sengupta
11 October, 2021
- Perspectives




27 October, 2025






