31 July, 2025What broad lessons have we learned from 115 studies on unconditional cash transfers?
Globally, around 700 million people currently live in extreme poverty, and in recent years, unconditional cash transfers have emerged as a popular tool for poverty alleviation in low- and middle-incom...
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Tommaso Crosta Dean Karlan Finley Ong Julius Ruschenpohler Christopher Udry 
20 June, 2025
- Articles
Food deprivation: A thali index reveals what poverty estimates do not
Poverty in India is typically estimated based on a poverty line that identifies the purchasing power needed to satisfy the daily calorific intake deemed necessary. In this post, Balakrishnan and Raj m...
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Pulapre Balakrishnan Aman Raj
- 06 June, 2025
- Perspectives
Could better jobs for men have improved gender equality?
Evidence indicates that economic growth can improve gender equality. In this post, Sujata Balasubramanian suggests that India’s high-growth period from 1982-83 to 2011-12 failed to do so substantial...
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Sujata Balasubramanian
- 25 April, 2025
- Articles
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
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...
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Sayantan Ghosal
- 10 June, 2013
- 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...
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Hemanshu Kumar Rohini Somanathan
- 01 June, 2013
- 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...
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Anders Kjelsrud Rohini Somanathan
- 01 May, 2013
- 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...
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Ejaz Ghani Lakshmi Iyer Saurabh Mishra
- 04 March, 2013
- 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 ...
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Arka Roy Chaudhuri Ashok Kotwal
- 25 February, 2013
- 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...
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Oriana Bandiera Robin Burgess Imran Rasul
- 07 January, 2013
- 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...
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Ashwini Kulkarni
- 20 December, 2012
- 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...
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Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay
- 15 December, 2012
- 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...
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Ejaz Ghani
- 09 November, 2012
- Articles
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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
A review of the coverage of PDS
The coverage of the Public Distribution System (PDS) has been of wide interest due to the pandemic and lockdown. Based on government data sources, Khera and Somanchi estimate the state-wise coverage o...
- Reetika Khera Anmol Somanchi
- 19 August, 2020
- Perspectives