16 December, 2019Consent to nothing: Aadhaar-based payment systems in welfare
The process of seeding Aadhaar with bank accounts in order to link welfare schemes and cash transfers with Aadhaar payment systems, created chaos on the ground. In this note, Niklas Wagner and Sakina ...
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Sakina Dhorajiwala Niklas Wagner 
23 August, 2019
- Notes
How democratic are the states of India?
India is often credited for its success as the world’s largest democracy – but does the degree of democracy vary across Indian states? This article develops an index to map the development of subn...
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Jos Bartman Imke Harbers Enrike van Wingerden
- 13 August, 2019
- Articles
Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana: Issues and gaps in service delivery and access
The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana is a much-needed and purposeful scheme, given the health hazards faced by women inside households as 79% of rural Indian households still depend on traditional unclea...
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Rahul Ranjan
- 11 December, 2019
- Perspectives
How are India's new states faring?
In the year 2000, three new states – Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand – were carved out of the large states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh respectively. This column analyses the...
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Amrita Dhillon Pramila Krishnan Manasa Patnam Carlo Perroni
- 02 March, 2016
- Perspectives
Regulating land markets: The colonial inheritance
State intervention in markets is usually thought of as a post-independence phenomenon. However, this column demonstrates that extensive State intervention in land and credit transactions can be traced...
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Anand Swamy
- 10 February, 2016
- Articles
A conversation on development - II
Parikshit Ghosh (Associate Professor of Economics, Delhi School of Economics) speaks with Kaushik Basu (Chief Economist and Senior Vice President, World Bank and former Chief Economic Adviser, Govern...
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Kaushik Basu Parikshit Ghosh
- 03 February, 2016
- Perspectives
How a corruption scam brought MNREGA to a standstill in Nanded
Nanded district in Maharashtra demonstrated exemplary performance in MNREGA until 2012-13, when the exposure of a corruption scam brought the programme to a virtual standstill. In this note, researche...
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Sangita Jadhav Ashwini Kulkarni Aysha Shamsuddin
- 28 January, 2016
- Notes
Unleashing the full potential of India's 'Open Government Data' initiative
In October 2012, India embarked upon its ‘Open Government Data’ journey, by opening up access to government-owned shareable data in machine-readable formats for the use of general public. In this...
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Natasha Agarwal
- 26 January, 2016
- Perspectives
Access to energy in rural India: A survey of six states
While access to energy is crucial for socioeconomic development, statistically representative surveys on the issue are missing in India. Based on a survey on energy access in six energy-poor states i...
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Chao-yo Cheng Abhishek Jain Johannes Urpelainen
- 18 January, 2016
- Articles
Criminally accused politicians and economic outcomes
Despite a history of widely contested and transparent elections, and presence of vibrant and open media, an increasing number of criminally accused politicians are being elected in India. Based on an...
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Tasneem Ahmed Nishith Prakash Marc Rockmore Yogesh Uppal
- 15 January, 2016
- Articles
Bihar's alcohol ban: Prudent policy or tail-chasing?
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s decision to implement prohibition in the state from 1 April 2016 is based on the rationale that alcohol consumption is the primary reason for violence against wo...
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Sanjeev Kumar Nishith Prakash
- 21 December, 2015
- Perspectives
Intimidation, imitation, economics: Why youth are taking to terror
Men between the ages of 18 and 35 become terrorists, and it is the same demographic that supplies drug dealers, violent criminals, and foot soldiers of political parties. Abhijit Banerjee, Professor ...
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Abhijit Banerjee
- 15 December, 2015
- Perspectives
Democracy, inclusion, and prosperity
In his speech at the D.D. Kosambi Ideas Festival in February 2015 in Goa, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan put on his hat as a professor of political economy and spoke about the development of a liberal m...
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Raghuram Rajan
- 17 November, 2015
- Perspectives
Bihar verdict: Development, cow politics, and caste
The Nitish Kumar-led Grand Alliance of JD(U)-RJD-Congress defeated the Modi-led NDA in the recent Bihar assembly elections. In this article, Maitreesh Ghatak, Professor of Economics at the London Sch...
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Maitreesh Ghatak
- 12 November, 2015
- Perspectives
Connecting the red corridor: Infrastructure provision in conflict areas
The government’s efforts to develop rural infrastructure have been particularly intense in the 90-odd districts that are affected by Maoism. How successful has the implementation of flagship infras...
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Oliver Eynde Jacob Shapiro
- 05 November, 2015
- Articles
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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, ...
- Siwan Anderson
- 16 August, 2012
- Articles
Unique Health Identification and Aadhaar: A case for mandatory linkage
As part of the Digital India initiative, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) issues a Unique Health Identification (UHID) number to each patient, which documents their entire journey in th...
- Mudit Kapoor
- 23 December, 2016
- Perspectives
Rethinking cadre allocation procedures in civil services
The allocation procedure of All-India Services’ officers to states is an important aspect of personnel administration in the public sector. This article shows that a change in allocation policy in 2...
- Ashutosh Thakur
- 18 March, 2019
- Articles