28 April, 2022Do value-added taxes benefit firms? Evidence from the adoption of state-specific value-added taxes
Value-added tax (VAT) systems have grown popular in the last 30 years, especially among developing countries looking for ways to raise tax revenue efficiently. Using 2000-2012 data on product, state-s...
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David Agrawal Laura Zimmermann 
25 May, 2022
- Articles
Does going cashless make you tax-rich? Evidence from India’s demonetisation
During 2014-2017, the share of adults using electronic payments in the developing world increased by over a third, and policymakers have expressed optimism regarding the role of this trend in promotin...
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Lucie Gadenne Tushar Nandi Ross Warwick
- 28 March, 2022
- Articles
Fixing incentives for power plants to reduce outages
Consumers in India face frequent power outages despite relatively high-quality infrastructure and ample supply of power plants. This article identifies a novel explanation for India’s blackouts: whe...
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Fiona Burlig Akshaya Jha Louis Preonas
- 08 April, 2022
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UID project: Does evidence matter?
The Indian government has been pushing to make UID compulsory, and is now moving towards charging for use of authentication services. This article asserts that the three key selling points of UID –...
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Reetika Khera
- 05 February, 2014
- Perspectives
Religion and relief in Muzzafarnagar
The communal riots that broke out in Muzzafarnagar in the state of Uttar Pradesh in September last year took several lives and left hundreds homeless. In this Note from the Field, Rohini Somanathan s...
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Rohini Somanathan
- 10 January, 2014
- Notes from the Field
Unintended consequences of India's child labour ban
Bans and regulations against child labour are among the most popular policy tools used to address the problem throughout the developing world. But how well do they work in practice? This column analy...
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Prashant Bharadwaj Leah K. Lakdawala Nicholas Li
- 08 January, 2014
- Articles
Some reflections on the National Food Security Act
The Food Security Bill became an Act with little parliamentary opposition. Yet the public debate has lingered. Would subsidised food grains reduce malnutrition? Won’t it be better to invest in heal...
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Ashok Kotwal Milind Murugkar Bharat Ramaswami
- 10 December, 2013
- Perspectives
A suggestion for WTO negotiations
India’s new food security law is likely to breach WTO’s limit on farmer support. India is keen to ask for a temporary exemption from the rule so that the law can be implemented unhindered. But, i...
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Ashok Kotwal Milind Murugkar Bharat Ramaswami
- 02 December, 2013
- Perspectives
Estimating the nutritional impact of the Food Security Bill
The provisions of the new National Food Security Bill seek to expand the value and reach of food subsidies provided through the Public Distribution System. This column analyses the nutritional impact ...
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Tara Kaul
- 18 November, 2013
- Articles
Connecting India's youth with development in red bastions
The Prime Minister’s Rural Development Fellowship is an initiative of the Ministry of Rural Development that recruits young professionals to work with local governments for grassroots development in...
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Varad Pande
- 13 November, 2013
- Notes from the Field
Doing a number on the Food Security Bill
In a recent article, Kotwal, Murugkar and Ramaswami pointed out errors in estimation by Surjit Bhalla that led him to assert that the Food Security Bill will increase cost of food subsidy by 336%, an...
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Ashok Kotwal Milind Murugkar Bharat Ramaswami
- 11 November, 2013
- Perspectives
How can Indians be happier?
The recently released World Happiness Report 2013 seeks to go beyond Gross Domestic Product and the Human Development Index to understand what really matters to people for their well-being. It is fou...
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Nirvikar Singh
- 30 October, 2013
- Perspectives
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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Aniruddha Bagchi
- 16 September, 2013
- Articles
Economists on the wrong foot
This article asserts that the Sen-Bhagwati debate misses out two crucial elements – communities as agents of development, and ecological sustainability. It emphasises the importance of community em...
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Ashish Kothari Aseem Shrivastava
- 11 September, 2013
- Perspectives
Litigation over Eminent Domain Compensation
In the recent past, use of Eminent Domain to acquire land for developmental purposes has become highly controversial. Several parts of India have experienced violent protests against the compulsory ac...
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Ram Singh
- 01 September, 2013
- IGC Research on India
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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
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
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