14 November, 2024Is it better to be governed by an elected leader or appointed bureaucrat?
The division of governance functions and responsibilities between politicians and bureaucrats varies, both across and within political regimes. Based on an experiment in Karnataka, this article examin...
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Abhishek Arora Siddharth George Nivedita Mantha Vijayendra Rao M.R. Sharan 
25 September, 2024
- Articles
Why political competition matters when inequality is high
In a high-inequality setting, local politicians with secure positions may favour the rich by diverting resources towards them, at the cost of the poor. To test this hypothesis, this article analyses d...
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Anders Kjelsrud Kalle Moene Lore Vandewalle
- 13 September, 2024
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The ‘Odisha model’ for disaster resilience
From its management of the devastating Super Cyclone in 1999 to the more recent challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the state of Odisha has been a testament to the power of adaptive governance....
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Souryabrata Mohapatra
- 16 August, 2024
- Perspectives
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...
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Ashok Kotwal
- 15 July, 2014
- 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...
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Rajendra Kondepati
- 07 July, 2014
- 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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Upasak Das
- 25 June, 2014
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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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Abhijit Banerjee Mukul Kesavan Ashok Kotwal
- 06 June, 2014
- Videos
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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Chandan Kumar Jha Sudipta Sarangi
- 21 May, 2014
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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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Poonam Gupta Arvind Panagariya
- 12 May, 2014
- Articles
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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Thiemo Fetzer
- 05 May, 2014
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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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Dinesh Mehta Meera Mehta
- 23 April, 2014
- Articles
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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Maitreesh Ghatak Sanchari Roy
- 23 March, 2014
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Governance by ordinance
The UPA government recently explored taking the ordinance route to promulgate six anti-corruption bills. This article traces the shift from the post-Independence culture of healthy parliamentary deba...
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Pushparaj Deshpande
- 17 March, 2014
- Perspectives
Direct Benefits Transfer: An idea whose time has come
About a year ago, the Government of India launched a Direct Benefits Transfer programme that involves transferring government benefits and subsidies directly to residents through a biometric identifi...
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Varad Pande
- 14 March, 2014
- Notes from the Field
Has community monitoring helped reduce corruption in public programme delivery?
MNREGA mandates social audits of public work projects undertaken under the Act in order to empower beneficiaries to scrutinise programme expenditures, and monitor programme delivery. Has community mo...
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Farzana Afridi Vegard Iversen
- 12 March, 2014
- Articles
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Tweets by Ideas4IndiaMost 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...
- 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
The digital dream: Upskilling India for the future
While the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the pace at which technology is becoming commonplace in our lives, it has also exposed a stark digital divide, leaving a large proportion of India’s popul...
- Venugopal Mothkoor Fatima Mumtaz
- 23 March, 2021
- Perspectives