Fatal oblivion: India's National Family Benefit Scheme
The National Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS) – which provides financial assistance to families in the event of the death of a breadwinner – has been plagued by low budget allocations, restricted cove...
- Jasmin Naur Hafiz
- 03 January, 2022
- Perspectives
The implications of India’s spatial development
Mahatma Gandhi once said, “poverty is the worst form of violence”. In this piece, Ejaz Ghani highlights India’s poverty burden, its regional disparities and convergence thereof. He highlights ho...
- Ejaz Ghani
- 30 September, 2022
- Articles
The decline of rural earning inequality in India
While earnings inequality remained virtually unchanged in urban India between 2004-05 and 2011-12, it declined sharply in rural India over this period. This column finds that although the change in t...
- Deepti Goel Shantanu Khanna Rene Morissette
- 05 April, 2017
- Articles
Disintermediating the State: Would a universal basic income reduce poverty more than targeted programmes?
Commenting on the discussion of the universal basic income in India’s Economic Survey 2016-17, Justin Sandefur contends that a modest version of UBI could potentially save money and shift expenditu...
- Justin Sandefur
- 31 March, 2017
- Perspectives
Getting kinky with chickens
In the context of Bill Gates’ commitment to chickens as a high-impact poverty intervention, Chris Blattman recently proposed a study to compare interventions that provide chicken rather than cash, ...
- Lant Pritchett
- 04 March, 2017
- Perspectives
Income inequality in a globalising world
Since the turn of the century, income inequality has risen to be among the most prominent policy issues of our time. This column looks at inequality trends in recent decades. While relative global in...
- Miguel Niño-Zarazúa Laurence Roope Finn Tarp
- 17 February, 2017
- Articles
The tale and maths of universal basic income
Commenting on the discussion on universal basic income in the recently released Economic Survey, Jean Drèze argues that UBI is an idea whose time will come, but that time is still quite distant as f...
- Jean Drèze
- 15 February, 2017
- Perspectives
Inequality in the typical country in the last 25 years
While inequality has received a great deal of attention in the public debate in recent times, the poor quality of data available on this issue is a constraint. Based on a recently-compiled database o...
- Jose Cuesta Christoph Lakner Mario Negre Ani Silwal
- 10 February, 2017
- Articles
Decoding universal basic income for India
In this article, Jean Drèze argues that while universal basic income is a good idea in principle, as far as India today is concerned, it sounds like premature articulation. It could also become a Tr...
- Jean Drèze
- 20 January, 2017
- Perspectives
A universal basic income to step up economic reform
In this article, Nimai Mehta, Academic Director of the Global Economics and Business Program at the American University, highlights the political challenge of introducing the wider set of reforms nee...
- Nimai Mehta
- 28 October, 2016
- Perspectives
What do we know about the wealthy in India? A pre-liberalisation analysis
Academic attention on the metamorphosis and concentration of wealth has so far excluded poor countries. This column analyses wealth distribution in India, post-independence and pre-liberalisation. It...
- Rishabh Kumar
- 26 October, 2016
- Articles
Universal basic income for India
In this article, Vijay Joshi, Emeritus Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford, sets out his proposal for a universal basic income (UBI) in India. He contends that deep fiscal adjustment, in co...
- Vijay Joshi
- 21 October, 2016
- Perspectives
Poverty reduction in India: Revisiting past debates with 60 years of data
There has been much debate about the poverty impacts of economic growth and structural transformation in developing countries. This column revisits these issues using a newly constructed dataset of p...
- Gaurav Datt Rinku Murgai Martin Ravallion
- 10 October, 2016
- Articles
The universal basic share and social incentives
In the previous article in the series, Debraj Ray proposes a simple amendment of the universal basic income called the universal basic share. In this article, Debraj Ray and Karl Ove Moene (Universit...
- Karl Ove Moene Debraj Ray
- 30 September, 2016
- Perspectives
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Wealth inequality, class, and caste in India: 1961-2012
The level of wealth inequality in India is close to that of some highly unequal countries in the world. This article assesses the long-term evolution of wealth inequality in the country for the period...
- Nitin Kumar Bharti
- 28 June, 2019
- Articles
Covid-19: What can be done immediately to help vulnerable population
With over 80% of India’s workforce employed in the informal sector and one-third working as casual labour, Covid-19's spread and subsequent unplanned lockdowns, have created economic havoc in the li...
- Reetika Khera
- 25 March, 2020
- Perspectives
EWS reservation in higher education: Affirmative action or vote bank politics?
The Constitution (103rd Amendment) Act, 2019, provides for 10% reservation for the economically weaker sections (EWS) in higher educational institutions within the general category. In this post, Devi...
- Devika Malhotra Sharma
- 11 September, 2019
- Perspectives