18 February, 2022Budget and politics in pandemic times
Applying a political economy lens to the recently announced Budget 2022-23, Yamini Aiyar contends that the emphasis on capital expenditure over welfare in the two Budgets announced during the pandemic...
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Yamini Aiyar 
16 February, 2022
- Perspectives
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
- Articles
Improving public service delivery by fixing payment systems
Fixing how funds flow through the government systems grabs far fewer headlines than malnutrition, problems in the education sector, or crumbling infrastructure. In this post, Charity Troyer Moore cont...
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Charity Troyer Moore
- 28 January, 2022
- Perspectives
Does political reservation for women improve programme delivery?
This column outlines results of a study that assesses the impact of women leaders on corruption and other aspects of the quality of delivery of MNREGA. It argues that administrative experience, traini...
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Farzana Afridi
- 17 January, 2013
- Articles
Economic policy agenda for India in 2013
What should the priorities be for economic policymakers in India in the coming year? This column emphasises the need for greater transparency, and improved governance and regulation for reviving econo...
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Dilip Mookherjee
- 02 January, 2013
- Articles
The impacts of linking NREGA payments to UID. A Study of Maharashtra
This project attempts to measure the impact of Universal Identification (UID)-linked wage payments on corruption in public works projects funded under MNREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act)....
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Siwan Anderson Ashok Kotwal Ashwini Kulkarni Bharat Ramaswami
- 15 December, 2012
- IGC Research on India
A Novel, Market Based Mechanism to Incentivize Efficient Groundwater/Energy use in Indian Agriculture – Setting Up a Field Experiment in Gujarat
This project documents patterns of rural-urban migration and employment shifts in a region that is facing ongoing depletion of groundwater resources in northern Gujarat in India. Given that migration ...
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Ram Fishman Meha Jain Avinash Kishore Anjal Prakash
- 01 December, 2012
- IGC Research on India
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act: is it working?
MNREGA is one of the government´s largest flagship schemes, and is the largest job creation programme of its kind in the world. Supporters believe that it is necessary to help rural workers smooth in...
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Jean Drèze Ashwini Kulkarni Neelakshi Mann Varad Pande Martin Ravallion
- 29 November, 2012
- Symposium
Political Clientelism and Government Accountability in West Bengal: Theory and Evidence
This project provide a theory of political clientelism, which explains sources and determinants of political clientelism, the relationship between clientelism and elite capture, and their respective c...
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Pranab Bardhan Sandip Mitra Dilip Mookherjee
- 31 October, 2012
- IGC Research on India
The fight against left-wing extremism
In this Note From the Field, Varad Pande of the Ministry of Rural Development argues that left-wing extremism and violence is a major challenge for India. He says that while this is definitely a secur...
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Varad Pande
- 23 October, 2012
- Notes from the Field
Cutting delays in MNREGA wages
Officials in charge of paying MNREGA wages in the state of Andhra Pradesh can now expect to receive fines if there are delays. This column shows how this move was made possible by a simple automated s...
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Saloni Chopra Reetika Khera
- 10 October, 2012
- Articles
Violence, organisation and skills
This column seeks to understand the effect of violent conflict on a country’s subsequent political and economic development. It argues that measuring post-conflict effects is extremely challenging d...
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Steven Wilkinson
- 28 August, 2012
- Articles
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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Siwan Anderson
- 16 August, 2012
- Articles
A plague on all houses
Which is better, India´s liberal capitalism modelled on the US or China´s authoritarian state-controlled capitalism? This column argues that dysfunctional governments in both systems are leading to ...
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Pranab Bardhan
- 13 August, 2012
- Articles
The Transfer Raj
When Chief Ministers come to power in India, they extensively reshuffle civil servants postings. This column asks why state politicians transfer bureaucrats, whether they favour loyalty over competenc...
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Lakshmi Iyer Anandi Mani
- 01 August, 2012
- Articles
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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