Developing a Land Acquisition Policy for India
The Land Acquisition Bill is a key piece of legislation under consideration in the Indian Parliament. This column argues that the current policy on compensating landowners, as proposed in the Bill, is misguided and could adversely affect the pace and character of future growth in India. It draws les...
-
Dilip Mookherjee Maitreesh Ghatak 
05 September, 2012
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Macroeconomics
Year: 2012
Monetary policy in India and other developing countries
Setting interest rates and controlling inflation is an altogether different challenge in countries like India. This column argues that in many developing countries, the financial system is still too underdeveloped for monetary policy to have a reliable effect on the economy, raising doubts over seve...
-
Peter Montiel Prachi Mishra
- 03 September, 2012
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Macroeconomics
Year: 2012
Violence, organisation and skills
This column seeks to understand the effect of violent conflict on a country’s subsequent political and economic development. It argues that measuring post-conflict effects is extremely challenging due to data and other methodological concerns. Using a new methodology and data from the Partition of...
-
Steven Wilkinson
- 28 August, 2012
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Governance
Year: 2012
The value of land administration information for financial development
While the effect of improved property rights on economic development has been extensively studied, the specific relationship between better land administration information and improved credit access is understudied. This column uses evidence to demonstrate that the computerisation of land registries...
-
Aparajita Goyal
- 28 August, 2012
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Macroeconomics
Year: 2012
Measuring India's Capital Control Regime
India’s policies on international capital flows are extremely complex, in part due to the absence of a consensus on the value of capital account controls. This column argues that the tools for measuring the implementation of the policy need to be revisited, and presents new evidence to suggest tha...
-
Nirvikar Singh
- 23 August, 2012
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Macroeconomics
Year: 2012
What explains gender disparities in economic participation in India?
The UN Global Gender Gap data shows that women’s economic participation and opportunity is worse in India than in 95% of all other countries studied. This column attempts to uncover what drives the gender balances of new enterprise in India and suggests measures for promoting women’s entrepreneu...
-
Ejaz Ghani Stephen D O'Connell William Kerr
- 21 August, 2012
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Social Identity
Year: 2012
Misguided policy and school inequality in rural India
Despite government efforts, stark inequality in India’s schools persists, particularly in rural areas. This column argues that the failure may lie in policy design – rather than helping the worst schools catch up, policies are helping the better ones get further ahead.
-
Anjini Kochar
- 18 August, 2012
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Human Development
Year: 2012
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, as well as the functioning of democracy.
-
Siwan Anderson
- 16 August, 2012
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Governance
Year: 2012
A plague on all houses
Which is better, India´s liberal capitalism modelled on the US or China´s authoritarian state-controlled capitalism? This column argues that dysfunctional governments in both systems are leading to dangerous levels of inequality and triggering populism.
-
Pranab Bardhan
- 13 August, 2012
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Governance
Year: 2012
Searching for the soul of monetary policy in India
What is the thinking behind the current policy of the Reserve Bank of India? This column argues that its rules for deciding on India’s interest rates are based on assumptions that hold in developed economies – but not necessarily in India. Indeed, in many cases this leads to precisely the wrong ...
-
Amartya Lahiri
- 09 August, 2012
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Macroeconomics
Year: 2012
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme: Falling demand or funds crunch?
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) – India’s flagship job guarantee scheme - provides every rural household in India with a guaranteed 100 days of work in a year at minimum wage on public projects. Yet many commentators argue that there is falling demand among rural workers ...
-
Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay
- 08 August, 2012
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Macroeconomics
Year: 2012
Food for thought: On the design of school subsidy programmes
Despite significant increase in primary school enrollments, student attendance rates are less than 70% in public schools. This column argues that India needs to start evaluating its existing school subsidies systematically. It finds that provision of free cooked meals at schools that are sufficient ...
-
Farzana Afridi
- 06 August, 2012
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Human Development
Year: 2012