31 July, 2025What broad lessons have we learned from 115 studies on unconditional cash transfers?
Globally, around 700 million people currently live in extreme poverty, and in recent years, unconditional cash transfers have emerged as a popular tool for poverty alleviation in low- and middle-incom...
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Tommaso Crosta Dean Karlan Finley Ong Julius Ruschenpohler Christopher Udry 
20 June, 2025
- Articles
Food deprivation: A thali index reveals what poverty estimates do not
Poverty in India is typically estimated based on a poverty line that identifies the purchasing power needed to satisfy the daily calorific intake deemed necessary. In this post, Balakrishnan and Raj m...
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Pulapre Balakrishnan Aman Raj
- 06 June, 2025
- Perspectives
Could better jobs for men have improved gender equality?
Evidence indicates that economic growth can improve gender equality. In this post, Sujata Balasubramanian suggests that India’s high-growth period from 1982-83 to 2011-12 failed to do so substantial...
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Sujata Balasubramanian
- 25 April, 2025
- Articles
Squaring the poverty circle
An expert group headed by C Rangarajan has recommended a poverty measurement methodology for India. In this article, Deaton and Drèze argue that the method proposed by the expert group to set povert...
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Angus Deaton Jean Drèze
- 30 July, 2014
- Perspectives
MNREGA: Populist leaky bucket or successful anti-poverty programme?
MNREGA – the world’s largest workfare programme - formed the backbone of the UPA government’s anti-poverty programme, and may well represent its most important legacy in the long run. This colu...
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Dilip Mookherjee
- 28 May, 2014
- Articles
The plight of 'complimentary' migrants: Children at brick kilns
Migration for work is meant to benefit families of migrant workers. But what if the families migrate along with the worker? Based on visits to brick kilns in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Prade...
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Parul Agarwal
- 09 May, 2014
- Notes from the Field
Going beyond the Gujarat versus rest of India debate on growth rates
This column attempts to widen the ongoing growth rates-based debate on ‘Gujarat vs. rest of India’ by ranking Indian states on prices, cost of living, household expenditures and inequality, which...
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Ranjan Ray
- 07 May, 2014
- Articles
Growth, structural change, and poverty reduction: Evidence from India
Poverty reduction in India has been relatively slow even in years of high economic growth. A possible explanation is that growth has mainly been driven by sectors that generate fewer jobs for the poo...
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Abhijit Sen Gupta Rana Hasan
- 21 March, 2014
- Articles
Some thoughts on paternalism in poverty programmes
it is pretty ironic the number of conversations I have had with development people about the poor and their drinking - over drinks. – Paul Niehaus.
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Jishnu Das
- 23 December, 2013
- Perspectives
Why is Maharashtra's average income five times that of Bihar?
Income gaps among Indian states are large, persistent and increasing over time. Differences in technology and efficiency in production processes have been found to be the primary explanation for inco...
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Areendam Chanda
- 09 December, 2013
- Articles
A second debate on the Land Acquisition Act
Of all the recently enacted parliamentary legislations, none is more important for industrial investment and growth than the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilita...
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Varad Pande
- 21 October, 2013
- Perspectives
Muktidhara: A sustainable livelihood project in West Bengal
In this ‘Note from the Field’, two Prime Minister’s Rural Development Fellows describe a government funded project in the state of West Bengal that seeks to generate self-employment opportunitie...
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Sourabh Bhattacharjee Animesh Ghosh
- 14 October, 2013
- Notes from the Field
Migrating out of poverty: The role of finance
Financial liberalisation has been controversial as it is not clear whom the expanded credit allocation actually benefits. Using variation across time and states in India, this column finds strong evid...
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Meghana Ayyagiri Thorsten Beck Mohammad Hoseini
- 13 September, 2013
- Articles
What explains the steep poverty decline in India from 2004 to 2011?
Ashok Kotwal, Editor-in-Chief, Ideas for India, interviews Pronab Sen on the recent poverty figures that show a steep decline in poverty in India between 2004 and 2011. According to him, the shift in...
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Ashok Kotwal Pronab Sen
- 29 July, 2013
- Perspectives
A success story from Keonjhar
The final narrative in our three part series on what development means to real women comes from Keonjhar in Odisha. In spite of facing deprivation and setbacks early in life, today Basanti Naik succes...
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Chandrasekhar Bhuyan
- 12 July, 2013
- Notes from the Field
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Tweets by Ideas4IndiaMost Popular Poverty & Inequality Posts
Wealth inequality, class, and caste in India: 1961-2012
The level of wealth inequality in India is close to that of some highly unequal countries in the world. This article assesses the long-term evolution of wealth inequality in the country for the period...
- Nitin Kumar Bharti
- 28 June, 2019
- Articles
Covid-19: What can be done immediately to help vulnerable population
With over 80% of India’s workforce employed in the informal sector and one-third working as casual labour, Covid-19's spread and subsequent unplanned lockdowns, have created economic havoc in the li...
- Reetika Khera
- 25 March, 2020
- Perspectives
A review of the coverage of PDS
The coverage of the Public Distribution System (PDS) has been of wide interest due to the pandemic and lockdown. Based on government data sources, Khera and Somanchi estimate the state-wise coverage o...
- Reetika Khera Anmol Somanchi
- 19 August, 2020
- Perspectives