Main Banner Image

Introduction to e-Symposium: Estimation of poverty in India

Estimates of poverty in India put forth in two papers published earlier this year – by Bhalla, Bhasin and Virmani; and Roy and van der Weide – have sparked the “Great Indian Poverty Debate 2.0...

  • Symposium

How financial access impacts women’s decision-making role in households

Government programmes which grant women access to financial support often provide assistance which is too small to significantly impact women’s economic position within the household. This article u...

  • Articles
Refine list by:
--Please Select--
--Please Select--

Lack of aspirations as a poverty trap

Much of the literature on chronic poverty focuses on external constraints as impediments to escaping the poverty trap. A new strand of research suggests psychological factors such as a lack of aspirat...

  • Articles

Evaluating the Effects of Targeted Transfers to 'Mahadalits' in Bihar

The aim of this project is to examine how the transfer of assets to ultra-poor households under different Mahadalit inititatives influences their sense of well-being and their notions of identity. The...

  • IGC Research on India

Incorporating Public Good Availability into the Measure of Poverty

This project makes an attempt to incorporate benefits from unpaid public services into consumption decisions to arrive at more accurate measures of poverty and inequality. The project considered thre...

  • IGC Research on India

Boosting shared prosperity in South Asia

Two-thirds of the poor in India and other South Asian countries live in the lagging regions. This column examines whether there are poverty traps that make it difficult to achieve shared prosperity, a...

  • Articles

Why is poverty declining so slowly in India?

Despite two decades of fast growth of per capita GDP, India has experienced a very slow decline in poverty. The column suggests that this disconnect between GDP growth and poverty decline can largely ...

  • Articles

Creating entrepreneurs: A big new idea in development

Can the world’s poorest people become entrepreneurs? This column outlines results from an evaluation of the Ultra Poor programme in Bangladesh, a scheme that the NGO behind it claims is a staggering...

  • Articles

Cash Transfers - through the postal system or the banks?

The central government has announced the conversion of 29 poverty schemes to Direct Cash Transfers. Should this be implemented through banks or the postal system? This article assesses the pros and co...

  • Notes from the Field

Effect of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme on Intra-Household Allocation of Labour

This project focusses on the impact of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGA) on the labour market through studying its impact on intra-household allocation of labour, particularly betwee...

  • IGC Research on India

South Asia's bottom half billion

South Asia has more people in extreme poverty than Sub-Saharan Africa. This column asks why such conditions continue in the second fastest growing region in the world. It argues that growth is extreme...

  • Articles

Why some poverty-fighting programmes show no net impact

An increasingly popular way to tackle acute poverty is ‘targeting the ultra-poor’. The scheme provides not only money but also training and support and has been hailed a huge success in its origin...

  • Articles

The resurgence of poverty

Policymakers who aim only at lifting people out of poverty miss an essential fact: even as many people move out of poverty, many others fall back into it. This column argues that tackling poverty requ...

  • Articles

Right to Food: Let's get it right

The proposed inter-state resource allocation in the upcoming National Food Security Bill is anti-poor. It will result in unequal treatment of equally poor individuals across rich and poor states. This...

  • Articles

Recent Contributors

Ejaz

Ejaz Ghani

World Bank

Students of Humanities and

Students of Humanities and Social Sciences Department

Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Dhananjay

Dhananjay Sinha

Systematix Group

Purvi

Purvi Mundhra

Systematix Group

Shagun

Shagun Sabarwal

WomenLift Health

Parikrama

Parikrama Chowdhry

J-Pal South Asia

Jean

Jean Drèze

Ranchi University; Delhi School of Economics

Anmol

Anmol Somanchi

Paris School of Economics

View all Contributors

Most Popular Poverty & Inequality Posts

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...

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • Perspectives