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...
- Anders Kjelsrud Kalle Moene Lore Vandewalle
- 13 September, 2024
- Articles
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...
- Sacha Kapoor Arvind Magesan
- 03 December, 2018
- Articles
Impact of Electronic Voting Machines on electoral frauds, democracy, and development
In an attempt to curb electoral malpractices, Electronic Voting Machines were introduced on a national scale by the Election Commission of India in the 1990s. Using data from state assembly elections ...
- Sisir Debnath
- 19 May, 2016
- Articles
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...
- Sacha Kapoor Arvind Magesan
- 03 December, 2018
- Articles
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 ...
- 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 ...
- 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...
- 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...
- 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...
- 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...
- Sonia Bhalotra Irma Clots-Figueras 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...
- Arindam Banerjee Aditya Ranjan
- 08 October, 2018
- Notes from the Field
The Impact of Community-Driven Accountability on Land Rights Governance: Evidence from a Homestead Land Titling Initiative
How and under what circumstances can civic mobilization improve local governance and service delivery? This project seeks to contribute to debates on this question through a multi-method analysis of a...
- Sanjay Kumar Andre Nickow
- 30 September, 2018
- IGC Research on India
Judicial Institutions and Economic Development: Examining Micro-evidence from India
This project examines the relationship between a country’s legal environment and its economic outcomes. This project will be constructing relevant measures of friction from trial level data at subor...
- Aprajit Mahajan
- 30 September, 2018
- IGC Research on India
Do Indian voters mind their representatives getting rich in office?
Asset declarations, requiring politicians to disclose their financial information, are becoming increasingly common across the world. In India, financial declarations are part of public affidavits fil...
- Simon Chauchard S.P. Harish Marko Klašnja
- 10 August, 2018
- Articles
How governance and public expenditure impact human development
The state of Madhya Pradesh displays wide variance in human development outcomes across its districts. This article examines the link between public expenditure, quality of governance, and human devel...
- N. R. Bhanumurthy Richa Jain Manish Kumar Prasad
- 01 August, 2018
- 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
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