16 December, 2024Grain subsidies and junk food purchases among low-income individuals
While governments rely on expensive food subsidy programmes to address malnutrition among low-income communities, their impact is unclear as only self-reported data on food purchase decisions are avai...
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Ali Aouad Kamalini Ramdas Alp Sungu 
23 September, 2024
- Articles
The problem of India’s stagnant real wages
New data from the Labour Bureau and the National Sample Survey Office point to a virtual stagnation of real wages in India over the past decade. In this post, Das and Drèze argue that this trend poin...
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Arindam Das Jean Drèze
- 26 July, 2024
- Perspectives
Rethinking social safety nets in a changing society
This paper was coauthored by Debasis Barik, Pallavi Choudhuri, Bijay Chouhan, Om Prakash Sharma, Dinesh Kumar Tiwari (NCAER) and Sharan Sharma (University of Maryland College Park and NCAER). Histori...
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Sonalde Desai
- 15 July, 2024
- Articles
Going beyond the Gujarat versus rest of India debate on growth rates
This column attempts to widen the ongoing growth rates-based debate on ‘Gujarat vs. rest of India’ by ranking Indian states on prices, cost of living, household expenditures and inequality, which...
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Ranjan Ray
- 07 May, 2014
- Articles
Growth, structural change, and poverty reduction: Evidence from India
Poverty reduction in India has been relatively slow even in years of high economic growth. A possible explanation is that growth has mainly been driven by sectors that generate fewer jobs for the poo...
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Abhijit Sen Gupta Rana Hasan
- 21 March, 2014
- Articles
Some thoughts on paternalism in poverty programmes
it is pretty ironic the number of conversations I have had with development people about the poor and their drinking - over drinks. – Paul Niehaus.
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Jishnu Das
- 23 December, 2013
- Perspectives
Why is Maharashtra's average income five times that of Bihar?
Income gaps among Indian states are large, persistent and increasing over time. Differences in technology and efficiency in production processes have been found to be the primary explanation for inco...
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Areendam Chanda
- 09 December, 2013
- Articles
A second debate on the Land Acquisition Act
Of all the recently enacted parliamentary legislations, none is more important for industrial investment and growth than the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilita...
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Varad Pande
- 21 October, 2013
- Perspectives
Muktidhara: A sustainable livelihood project in West Bengal
In this ‘Note from the Field’, two Prime Minister’s Rural Development Fellows describe a government funded project in the state of West Bengal that seeks to generate self-employment opportunitie...
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Sourabh Bhattacharjee Animesh Ghosh
- 14 October, 2013
- Notes from the Field
Migrating out of poverty: The role of finance
Financial liberalisation has been controversial as it is not clear whom the expanded credit allocation actually benefits. Using variation across time and states in India, this column finds strong evid...
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Meghana Ayyagiri Thorsten Beck Mohammad Hoseini
- 13 September, 2013
- Articles
What explains the steep poverty decline in India from 2004 to 2011?
Ashok Kotwal, Editor-in-Chief, Ideas for India, interviews Pronab Sen on the recent poverty figures that show a steep decline in poverty in India between 2004 and 2011. According to him, the shift in...
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Ashok Kotwal Pronab Sen
- 29 July, 2013
- Perspectives
A success story from Keonjhar
The final narrative in our three part series on what development means to real women comes from Keonjhar in Odisha. In spite of facing deprivation and setbacks early in life, today Basanti Naik succes...
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Chandrasekhar Bhuyan
- 12 July, 2013
- Notes from the Field
Empowering women for development
In conversation with a Prime Minister’s Rural Development Fellow, Bahrin Bhuyinya, a resident of the Khunti district in Jharkhand shares her story. While she feels that the village has significantl...
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Belmati Jonko
- 05 July, 2013
- Notes from the Field
Recession and child labour: The poverty link revisited
While poverty is believed to be the main cause behind child labour, higher poverty is not seen to be associated with higher child work participation rates across Indian states. This column explores th...
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Sahana Roy Chowdhury
- 01 July, 2013
- Articles
Lost in transition
As part of a special three part series, the Prime Minister’s rural development fellows bring us voices from the field about what development means to women in some of the most remote parts of the co...
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Arindam Banerjee
- 28 June, 2013
- Notes from the Field
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Tweets by Ideas4IndiaMost 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...
- 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