24 August, 2020Regionalist party representation and tribal insecurity
Observers have long been ambivalent about regionalism as a principle underlying the organisation of politics. Analysing data from India, this article shows that when regionalist parties win elections,...
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Sacha Kapoor Arvind Magesan 
19 February, 2021
- Articles
How district courts influence firm growth
The Economic Survey 2018-19 highlights that the single biggest constraint to ease of doing business in India is contract enforcement and dispute resolution, and increasing capacity in lower judiciary ...
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Manaswini Rao
- 29 January, 2020
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DUET: Decentralise employment generation to urban local bodies
Dilip Mookherjee supports Drèze’s suggestion to decentralise employment generation to urban local bodies, and contends that the moribund nature of urban local government is a key reason for the neg...
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Dilip Mookherjee
- 14 September, 2020
- Perspectives
Out of power? Political capture of the Indian electricity sector
Although power generation has been growing exponentially in India, the quality of electricity supply remains poor. This article argues that political corruption is among the root causes behind unrelia...
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Meera Mahadevan
- 21 January, 2019
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Need for a choice-based approach in PDS
A large share of public spending on the Public Distribution System (PDS), India’s flagship food security programme, does not reach intended beneficiaries. Thus, the idea of Direct Benefits Transfer ...
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Karthik Muralidharan Paul Niehaus Sandip Sukhtankar
- 11 January, 2019
- Perspectives
Like father, like son? The economic impacts of political dynasties in India
Political dynasties remain ubiquitous in democratic countries even though many societies democratised to end hereditary rule. This article studies how dynastic politics affects economic development in...
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Siddharth George
- 19 December, 2018
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Indian economy: High performer or Potemkin village?
The recent schizophrenic commentary on the health of the Indian economy raises questions on the true state: Is India doing really well or are we just seeing an impressive facade? In this post, Amartya...
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Amartya Lahiri
- 14 December, 2018
- Perspectives
Are independent candidates unimportant for political representation?
Independent candidates are often deemed ‘frivolous’ or ‘spoilers’ by mainstream political figures and authorities, although there is little to no evidence on their effect on elections. This ar...
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Sacha Kapoor Arvind Magesan
- 03 December, 2018
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Bank and its critics
There has been a lot of commentary in recent weeks on the Reserve Bank of India, around its capital base, performance, and autonomy. In this post, Amartya Lahiri contends that RBI has a more coherent ...
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Amartya Lahiri
- 16 November, 2018
- Perspectives
Promoting women in grassroots governance: Strategies that work
There are more than a million women elected to the Panchayati Raj Institutions of local governance in India. Despite constitutional provisions, women face many barriers when they participate in local ...
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Madhu Joshi
- 14 November, 2018
- Notes from the Field
Does choice of procurement contract matter for cost and quality of highways?
In the past, infrastructure projects in India have suffered from long delays, massive cost overruns, and poor quality of assets. A widely held belief is that public private partnerships (PPPs) can sol...
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Ram Singh
- 05 November, 2018
- Articles
Food subsidy – PDS, cash, or both?
Should food subsidies – currently availed in the form of subsidised cereals – be given out in the form of cash instead? In this post, Krishna and Agrawal contend that rather than asking this binar...
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Tushar Agrawal Anirudh Krishna
- 31 October, 2018
- Perspectives
Anganwadi: A workforce of women with a near-impossible mandate
With a workforce of 1.4 million women, the Anganwadi system forms the backbone of India’s Integrated Child Development Services Scheme – the world’s largest community-based programme for child d...
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G. Ananthapadmanabhan Guruswamy Kavitha Kuruganti
- 26 October, 2018
- Notes from the Field
How leader identity impacts group coordination
In principle, leaders can facilitate group coordination towards a common goal but in diverse societies, their effectiveness may depend upon their social identity, and how citizens react to leader iden...
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Irma Clots-Figueras Sonia Bhalotra Lakshmi Iyer Joseph Vecci
- 22 October, 2018
- Articles
Heart of darkness: Misplaced priorities of Jharkhand’s District Mineral Foundation
In 2015, the central government launched District Mineral Foundations in the districts affected by mining, which are mandated to collect royalty from all mining activities and use the funds for the we...
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Arindam Banerjee Aditya Ranjan
- 08 October, 2018
- Notes from the Field
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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
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