24 April, 2019(Un)ease of doing business: How congested courts hinder firm productivity
The strength of contract enforcement determines how firms source inputs and organise production, and hence influences productivity. Using microdata on Indian manufacturing, this article quantifies the...
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Johannes Boehm Ezra Oberfield 
01 March, 2019
- Articles
Using mobiles to improve governance
Measuring how well major public programmes are implemented remains a core governance challenge. With the increasing mobile-phone penetration in the country, Muralidharan, Niehaus, Sukhtankar, and Weav...
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Karthik Muralidharan Paul Niehaus Sandip Sukhtankar Jeffrey Weaver
- 26 June, 2019
- Perspectives
Ujjwala 2.0: What should be done next?
Stopping the use of wood and other solid fuels for cooking and other household uses is crucial to mitigating air pollution and its staggeringly high health impacts in India. In 2016, the government an...
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Ambuj Sagar Alok Tripathi
- 22 July, 2019
- Articles
Enfranchising your own? Polling officer identity and electoral outcomes
The provision of free and fair elections is a public service critical to maintaining accountability and responsiveness of elected officials. This article examines the administration of polling station...
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Yusuf Neggers
- 20 June, 2018
- Articles
Election by community consensus: Effects on political selection and governance
Multiple states in India incentivise village communities to elect their political representatives by community consensus, doing away with the need for state governments to organise official secret bal...
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Ashna Arora
- 21 May, 2018
- Articles
New ideas for fighting corruption in India
Even as technological innovations have reduced petty bribery, it is clear that bigger forms of corruption are flourishing in India. In this post, Avinash Dixit and Ritika Mankar propose the formation ...
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Avinash Dixit Ritika Mankar
- 18 May, 2018
- Perspectives
Podcast: Parikshit Ghosh speaks with Karl Ove Moene
There is a view that upsurge in inequality due to globalisation is leading to rising appeal of political platforms that promote inward-looking policies. In this podcast, I4I Editor Parikshit Ghosh (As...
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Parikshit Ghosh Karl Ove Moene
- 23 April, 2018
- Podcasts
Do political parties matter for ethnic violence? The Congress and Hindu-Muslim riots in India
India has seen frequent violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims since independence. This column analyses an important yet largely overlooked driver of ethnic violence: the ruling political party at...
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Gareth Nellis Steven Rosenzweig Michael Weaver
- 02 April, 2018
- Articles
Social Networks, Property Rights and Public Services in the Slums of Patna and Jaipur
This project provides important original insight into the factors that condition the capacity of the urban poor to achieve formal recognition of slums, private property rights, and better public servi...
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Anirudh Krishna Erik Wibbels
- 28 January, 2018
- IGC Research on India
Why is Assam left behind in India's economic boom? A behavioural perspective on the effect of conflict
In addition to having deep, persistent socioeconomic costs, civil conflict can profoundly change individual beliefs, values, and preferences. This project seeks to analyse why Assam – a state where ...
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Dipanwita Sarkar
- 28 December, 2017
- IGC Research on India
Why governments across the globe are cracking down on civic organisations
Dupuy, Ron and Prakash content that NGOs need to generate resources from the communities they serve. This will make them accountable to these communities and enhance their legitimacy, and incentivise ...
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Kendra Dupuy Aseem Prakash James Ron
- 21 December, 2017
- Perspectives
Breaking the clientelist trap: Can reform create demand for good governance in Bihar?
How has over a decade of rapid and programmatic policy reform in Bihar affected voters? Based on a household survey comparing political attitudes of residents on either side of the Bihar-Jharkhand bor...
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Jonathan Phillips
- 14 November, 2017
- Articles
Doing Business in India: Myths and realities
Ahead of the global release of the 2018 edition of the World Bank Doing Business rankings, this column compares data from firm-level surveys conducted by the Bank and the IDFC Institute-NITI Aayog wi...
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Mathew Lillehaugen Milan Vaishnav
- 25 October, 2017
- Articles
The power of enforcement: State capacity and child marriage in India
In an attempt to deter child marriage, a recent Supreme Court verdict has criminalised sexual relations between a man and minor wife. Worldwide, more than 700 million women alive today were married be...
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Tanushree Goyal Sam Van Noort
- 24 October, 2017
- Articles
Political Change and Crime Reduction in Bihar
The aim of this project was to understand the mechanisms through which the political changes in 2005 contributed to the dramatic subsequent reduction in violent crimes. This project is an extension of...
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Oliver Eynde Clément Imbert Nishith Prakash
- 12 October, 2017
- IGC Research on India
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Tweets by Ideas4IndiaMost Popular Governance Posts
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
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
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