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The growing wave of decentralisation: Comparative evidence from developing countries

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The growing wave of decentralisation: Comparative evidence from developing countries

Over the last few decades, decentralisation has been rapidly spreading in developing countries across the world, with around 35 countries announcing new or deepening decentralisation reforms in recent...

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Has Budget 2023-24 been successful in balancing gender priorities?

Ahead of International Women’s Day, Tanya Rana and Neeha Susan Jacob categorise and analyse scheme allocations through the Union Budget’s Gender Budget Statement (GBS), by looking at what schemes ...

  • Perspectives

How women in politics impact maternal mortality

In the twelfth post of I4I’s month-long campaign to mark International Women’s Day 2023, Bhalotra et al. show that mortality during and after childbirth remains high, even where the knowledge and ...

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What the Muslim mortality paradox reveals about importance of sanitation for all children in India

It has long been noted that in India, Hindu children face substantially higher mortality rates than Muslim children, despite being relatively richer on average. This column shows that differences in ...

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Culture, religion and open defecation in rural north India

Open defecation in rural India is a human development emergency that is causing infant deaths, child stunting, and widespread infectious diseases. This column presents surprising qualitative and quan...

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Colonial Origins of Restrictions on Land Transfer in India

Lack of access to credit is often argued to be an important determinant of poverty. This lack is often traced back to the poor not having collateral. This absence of collateral in turn has been linked...

  • IGC Research on India

The challenge of fulfilling aspirations

This year’s election is a watershed in Indian history. This editorial discusses possible reasons for the stunning defeat of the previous government. While there is no denying that the previous gove...

  • Perspectives

Andhra Pradesh's youth training and employment scheme: Did it work?

To promote youth employment, the state government of Andhra Pradesh launched an innovative public-private partnership programme for skill development, training and job placement for the youth. This n...

  • Notes from the Field

Political clientelism in MNREGA: Evidence from West Bengal

The problem of political clientelism becomes imminent in decentralised systems where certain individuals or groups associated with the political party locally in power, get preferential access to sca...

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Emerging challenges: Economic and social

To mark the second anniversary of I4I in July 2014, we invited two eminent scholars – Abhijit Banerjee (MIT) and Mukul Kesavan (Jamia Milia) to discuss the emerging economic and social challenges in...

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Do women in power have an impact on corruption?

The recently elected 16th Lok Sabha of India will have a record number of 61 women parliamentarians. This column assesses whether women in the labour force or positions of power can have an impact on...

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What voters reward: Evidence from the 2009 Indian parliamentary elections

Do voters care about economic outcomes? This column analyses the 2009 parliamentary elections in India and finds that voters favoured parties that delivered high growth in their states and rejected t...

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Can workfare programmes moderate violence?

It is widely known that income shocks may trigger spurts of violence. This column explores whether workfare programmes can help mitigate support for violent movements. It finds that MNREGA has had a ...

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Open defecation in cities: A faltering India story

Despite significant public investment in urban sanitation, over 37 million people in Indian cities resort to open defecation. This column examines the existing information on open defecation in urban...

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Mirror, mirror on the wall, which is the most dynamic state of them all?

This column analyses the economic performance of 16 major Indian states over the last three decades. It finds that Bihar has improved the most during the 2000s, Kerala has always been a star performe...

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Guilhem

Guilhem Cassan

University of Namur

Francesca R.

Francesca R. Jensenius

University of Oslo

Julia

Julia Cagé

Sciences Po Paris

Lakshmi

Lakshmi Iyer

University of Notre Dame

Sarmistha

Sarmistha Pal

University of Surrey

Jean-Paul

Jean-Paul Faguet

London School of Economics

Sarthak

Sarthak Agrawal

Indian Administrative Service officer

Dr. Archana

Dr. Archana Bharadwaj Siva

Senior Principal Scientist, Centre for Cellular an

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Most Popular Governance Posts

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...

  • Perspectives

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, ...

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Why did the Indian economy stagnate under the colonial rule?

How did the Indian economy fare under the colonial rule? Is the average Indian significantly better off after Independence? This column examines trends in GDP per capita in order to determine the stan...

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