Improving farmers’ income: Learnings from a survey in Jharkhand
To work towards the central government’s goal of doubling farmers’ incomes by 2022, the state government of Jharkhand initiated the ‘Jharkhand Opportunities for Harnessing Rural Growth’ project in 2017. In this note, Khanuja et al. present results of a large-scale baseline survey of rural pr...
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Gurpreet Singh Jasmeet Khanuja Vinod Hariharan 
30 November, 2020
- Notes from the Field
Content Type: Notes from the Field
Topic: Agriculture
Year: 2020
Aatmanirbhar Bharat: Foreign trade, capital flows, and India’s growth
The Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) policy was announced by the central government, along with the economic package, as a response to the crisis triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic. In this post, Partha Sen discusses the role of foreign trade and capital flows in India’s growth performance....
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Partha Sen
- 27 November, 2020
- Perspectives
Content Type: Perspectives
Topic: Macroeconomics
Year: 2020
Crop insurance scheme 2.0: Implementation issues and weaknesses
Launched in 2016 and revamped earlier this year, the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana is Government of India’s flagship crop insurance scheme. However, it has been riddled with implementation challenges and non-payment of dues to farmers. In this note, Ashwini Kulkarni highlights some of the key i...
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Ashwini Kulkarni
- 26 November, 2020
- Notes from the Field
Content Type: Notes from the Field
Topic: Agriculture
Year: 2020
International day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
25 November is observed by the United Nations as the International day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. This year, there is a particular focus on the alarming increase in domestic violence on account of the Covid-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns. Watch this space and our social med...
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I4I Team
- 25 November, 2020
- Perspectives
Content Type: Perspectives
Topic: Social Identity
Year: 2020
Gender norms and competitiveness: Evidence from the tribes of Northeast India
The under-representation of women in leadership positions is often attributed to systematic gender differences in the inclination to compete. Do gender-balanced social norms have the potential to close the gender gap in competitiveness in the long run? This article compares the preferences for compe...
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Christiane Schwieren Stefan Klonner Sumantra Pal
- 24 November, 2020
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Social Identity
Year: 2020
Diversity and public goods: Why the geographical unit of analysis matters
Research has shown that regions with higher caste diversity have lower share of villages with essential public goods. This article challenges this finding and shows that empirical models estimated at higher levels of geographical aggregation mask a considerable amount of variation. Any meaningful st...
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Andaleeb Rahman Deepak Malghan Naveen Bharathi Sumit Mishra
- 23 November, 2020
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Governance
Year: 2020
What pay ratios in NIFTY50 companies tell us about income inequality in India
In the wake of the economic crisis triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns, demands for relief from the corporate sector were as vocal as those for affected workers. However, the same corporates were simultaneously paying shockingly high salaries to their CEOs. Analysing data fro...
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Meghna Yadav Reetika Khera
- 20 November, 2020
- Perspectives
Content Type: Perspectives
Topic: Poverty & Inequality
Year: 2020
Balancing corruption and exclusion: Comment on the response
The role of Aadhaar in reducing corruption in the PDS has been highly controversial. In a recent I4I article, Muralidharan et al. summarised the insights of their study of Aadhaar-based biometric authentication in Jharkhand. The study found that compulsory biometric authentication on its own had cau...
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Anmol Somanchi Jean Drèze Reetika Khera
- 19 November, 2020
- Perspectives
Content Type: Perspectives
Topic: Poverty & Inequality
Year: 2020
Designing incentives for mid-level officials in India's public sector
In the Indian public education system, block/cluster resource persons are mid-level officials who are responsible for monitoring the performance of teachers. In this note, Vivek et al. discuss their experience of working with the state government of Jharkhand to design a ‘results-based financing...
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Kumar Vivek Pradyumna Bhattacharjee Subha Mani Utteeyo Dasgupta
- 18 November, 2020
- Notes from the Field
Content Type: Notes from the Field
Topic: Human Development
Year: 2020
Does the right to vote affect political behaviour? Historical evidence from India
Democracies are known to have better economic development outcomes over the longer run. However, it is not clear whether giving citizens the right to vote is sufficient for ensuring an effective degree of political participation or competition. Creating a novel, district-level dataset from 1921-1957...
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Guilhem Cassan Lakshmi Iyer Rinchan Ali Mirza
- 17 November, 2020
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Governance
Year: 2020
Mental health disparities in India
While a large, multidisciplinary literature focusses on disparities in physical health across social groups, the mental health dimension remains invisible. Analysing data from a WHO survey conducted in six Indian states in 2007-2008, this article shows that Scheduled Castes and Muslims have worse (s...
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Aashish Gupta Diane Coffey Meghana Mungikar
- 13 November, 2020
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Social Identity
Year: 2020
Using phone surveys to measure mental health
The public health and humanitarian crises caused by Covid-19 have led to greater recognition of the issue of poor mental health. Although mental health can affect work and quality of life much like physical health, it remains under-researched. In this article, Coffey et al. show that mobile phone su...
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Amit Thorat Diane Coffey Nazar Khalid Payal Hathi
- 12 November, 2020
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Human Development
Year: 2020