Decentralisation and spatial (mis)allocation of irrigation water
Canal water – an important source of irrigation in India – often tends to be unequally distributed among farmers within a geographical area. Based on a survey in the state of Odisha, following the...
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Sabyasachi Das
Souvik Dutta
14 February, 2025
- Articles
The influence of local politicians in the private education market
Private schooling has experienced rapid expansion in India – both in terms of number of schools and student enrolment. Analysing data from 2005-2017, this article shows that constituencies represent...
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Muneer Kalliylil
Soham Sahoo
07 February, 2025
- Articles
How immigration policy uncertainty affects labour markets
President Trump’s re-election has reignited debate over H-1B visa policies, a temporary high-skill work visa programme wherein 70% of visas are held by Indians. Analysing jobs data from India from t...
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Ritam Chaurey
Kanika Mahajan
Shekhar Tomar
08 January, 2025
- Articles
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
- Articles
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
Evaluating Economic and Administrative Linkages in Determining Firm’s Location Choice in Hajipur (Bihar)
The purpose of this project is to understand the rationales of firms’ location choice in which complex decision making mechanisms are manifested by various factors. This project attempts to understa...
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Abhinav Alakshendra
31 December, 2018
- IGC Research on India
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
- Articles
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
- 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 ...
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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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Sonia Bhalotra
Irma Clots-Figueras
Lakshmi Iyer
Joseph Vecci
22 October, 2018
- 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