Defensive cooperation: Understanding pro-social attitudes in Indian Muslims
Mainstream theories of development predict greater willingness to contribute to public goods in more homogeneous settings. This article reports findings from a study in Delhi slums to assess how Hindu...
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Melani Cammett
Poulomi Chakrabarti
David Romney
14 October, 2024
- Articles
Reporting of gender-based violence: Why public activism and dialogue matter
The recent case of an on-duty female doctor being brutally raped and murdered in a Kolkata hospital, has sparked nation-wide protests and yet again raised serious questions and concerns around women...
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Abhilasha Sahay
11 October, 2024
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Affirmative action in credit markets: Can it enhance minorities’ welfare?
In 2009, as part of a Government of India programme to improve the welfare of religious minorities, commercial banks were directed to increase credit to these groups. This article finds that the polic...
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S. K. Ritadhi
Muhammad Yasir Khan
27 August, 2024
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Why so few women in politics in India?
Women are severely under-represented in political positions across the world. This column analyses constituency-level election data from Indian states to explore why this is so. It finds that while w...
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Mudit Kapoor
Shamika Ravi
02 January, 2014
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How backward are 'Other Backward Classes' in India?
Since reservations were provided in government bodies for lower castes in the early 90s, ‘Other Backward Classes’ have been an important force in Indian politics at all levels. Has there been a c...
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Ashwini Deshpande
Rajesh Ramachandran
04 December, 2013
- Articles
What explains the stagnation of female labour force participation in urban India?
Over the past two decades, urban India has experienced expansion in women’s education, fertility decline and growth in white-collared jobs. Then why is it that female labour force participation has ...
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Stephan Klasen
Janneke Pieters
27 September, 2013
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Entrepreneurship or survival? Caste and gender of small business in India
Can entrepreneurship be a vehicle for social mobility in India? This column analyses data from micro, small and medium enterprises, and finds clear and persistent caste and gender disparities in virtu...
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Ashwini Deshpande
Smriti Sharma
23 September, 2013
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Caste and entrepreneurship in India
It is now widely accepted that the lower castes have risen in Indian politics. Has there been a corresponding change in their entrepreneurial activity? This column seeks to answer this question by ana...
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Lakshmi Iyer
Tarun Khanna
Ashutosh Varshney
26 August, 2013
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Combating gender imbalance through legislation
The rapid decline in the sex ratio in India over the past few decades is an artefact of the historically strong preference for sons over daughters. To address the problem, the Indian government passed...
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Anil Deolalikar
Arindam Nandi
16 August, 2013
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The power of women's political voice
With more women in power, can India’s women expect to see a fall in violent crime committed against them? This column looks at the effect of a law to mandate minimum numbers for women in public offi...
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Lakshmi Iyer
Anandi Mani
17 June, 2013
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Does caste influence access to agricultural loans in rural India?
Increasing access to agricultural credit in rural India is a major policy priority. This column examines whether farmers’ access to formal agricultural loans depends on their caste. It is found that...
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Sunil Mitra Kumar
03 June, 2013
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Casteism and corruption: Beyond political correctness
Sociologist Ashis Nandy’s recent remark that most corrupt people belong to lower castes drew a lot of flak. In this column, Pranab Bardhan shares his views on what he considers to be the two substan...
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Pranab Bardhan
12 April, 2013
- Perspectives
Saving Behaviour in India: Understanding the differences across castes
The past three decades in India have witnessed a sharp reduction in the historically large gaps in the education levels, occupation choices and wages of the backward castes relative to the rest of the...
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Viktoria Hnatkovska
Amartya Lahiri
01 March, 2013
- IGC Research on India
Does mother's status affect the child's stature?
Both women’s status and children’s health in South Asia are abysmal. Can a well-defined link be established from women’s status to child health? This column presents results of a study that uses...
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Diane Coffey
22 February, 2013
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Violence against married women in India: Can the data tell us anything?
Violence against women in India has recently been brought to the world’s attention. But for too long the problem has been under reported. This column looks at what the data can tell us.
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Sreeparna Ghosh
11 February, 2013
- Articles
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Hindu-Muslim fertility differentials in India: An update
Building on past research, Saswata Ghosh and Pallabi Das estimate the state- and district-level fertility differentials between Hindus and Muslims using data from the latest round of the NFHS. They sh...
Pallabi Das
Saswata Ghosh
18 April, 2023
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A division of labourers: Caste identity and efficiency in India
Castes in India are closely associated with certain occupations and determine the jobs done by millions. This study uses a new dataset to show that a large proportion of workers still work in their ca...
Guilhem Cassan
Daniel Keniston
Tatjana Kleineberg
18 November, 2022
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Sex ratios and religion in India and South Asia
In South Asia, low child sex ratios are increasingly an isolated Indian phenomenon. Within India, child sex ratios are ‘normal’ among Christians and Muslims but much lower among Hindus, Sikhs, and...
Swati Narayan
03 April, 2019
- Articles