Chinmaya Kumar

Chinmaya Kumar is an assistant professor at Azim Premji University. We finished his PhD from the University of Chicago. He was a Country Economist for IGC India Bihar. He holds an M.Phil. degree in development studies from the University of Oxford. He has previously worked with the Centre for Development Finance in Chennai, where he co-authored a pilot study on measuring the district-level economic governance for the state of Tamil Nadu. He also holds an undergraduate degree in economics from University of Delhi.

Land acquisition and structural transformation in Bihar: An analysis of alternative approaches
This project has three main objectives: One, the construction and analysis of a theoretical framework to evaluate the various options open to the government of Bihar to facilitate land acquisition for industrial development, Two, this analysis will be informed by case studies, building on surveys of recently completed private transactions in which industry has acquired agricultural land without government intervention and Three, there will be survey of landowners and other potentially “affected families”, as defined in the Land Acquisition and Relief and Rehabilitation Act 2013, (LARR Act 2013).

राजनीतिक आरक्षण के वितरणात्मक परिणाम
सन 2011 से 25 जनवरी को भारत में राष्ट्रीय मतदाता दिवस के रूप में मनाया जाता है ताकि 18 वर्ष की आयु पूरी करने वाले सभी मतदातों को मतदान के महत्त्व के बारे में जागरूक बनाया जाए। मतदान में हमेशा अनुसूचित जातियों, जनजातियों और अन्य पिछड़े वर्गों का महत्त्व रहा है। इसी पृष्ठभूमि में प्रस्तुत आज के इस शोध आलेख में पंचायतों में अनुसूचितजाति (एससी) के लिए आरक्षण के प्रभावों को समझने में कमियों की पहचान की गई है और उन्हें भरने का प्रयास किया गया है। राज्य-व्यापी जनगणना के डेटा, कई अन्य प्रशासनिक डेटासेट और बिहार के प्राथमिक सर्वेक्षण डेटा का उपयोग करते हुए, यह पाया गया कि आरक्षणअनुसूचित जाति और अन्य के बीच की संपत्ति असमानता को कम करता है। यह शोध सार्वजनिक सुविधाओं का अधिक लक्ष्यीकरण, कल्याण कार्यक्रमों तक पहुँच और बेहतर राजनीतिक भागीदारी जैसे उन कारणों की जाँच करता है, जिनके माध्यम से ऐसा होता है। इस सन्दर्भ में, यह शोध यह भी दर्शाता है कि आरक्षण तब सबसे कारगर तब होता है, जब एससी श्रेणी के भीतर उपजातियाँ कम होती हैं और पंचायत में उनकी आबादी न तो बहुत छोटी होती है और न ही बहुत बड़ी।

The distributional consequences of political reservations
This article identifies and attempts to fill in the gaps in understanding the effects of reservations for Scheduled Castes (SCs) in Panchayats. Using data from a state-wide census, multiple administrative datasets and primary survey data from Bihar, it finds that reservations reduce asset inequality between scheduled castes and others, both in the short run and more substantially, in the long run. It investigates the mechanisms through which this takes place – including greater targeting of public goods, access to welfare programmes and improved political participation. In this context, they also show that reservation works best when sub-castes within SCs are few and their population in the GP is neither too small nor too large.

Is Bihar the new poster boy for PDS reforms?
Food security is a critical issue and Bihar has made remarkable progress over the years. The aim of this project was to document the supply side reforms in Bihar’s PDS and explain why or why not these changes have been effective. The project tries to understand the level of leakage in PDS after implementation of National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013.
