Examining Himachal’s urban employment guarantee
Despite proposals by economists on the need for an urban work programme in India, a national-level policy seems some time away from coming to fruition. However, some states have implemented such progr...
-
Krishna Priya Choragudi
21 March, 2022
- Notes from the Field
Spatial disparities in household earnings in India
The per-capita state domestic product of Haryana (India’s richest state) was 5.6 times that of Bihar (poorest state) in 2017-18, up from 3.8 in 1996-97. Differences in urbanisation levels and inabil...
-
S. Chandrasekhar
Karthikeya Naraparaju
Ajay Sharma
18 August, 2021
- Articles
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
Estimating intergenerational income mobility in rural India
For developing countries, it is difficult to find income mobility studies that rely on datasets linking parents with their children. Using a panel dataset spanning 1994-2012, this column presents imp...
-
Shariq Mohammed
03 July, 2017
- Articles
Understanding livelihood resilience in Bihar
This column develops a livelihood resilience index including three key components – bio-physical, economic, and social resources – and estimates the index for districts in the state of Bihar.
-
Surya Bhushan
K. V. Raju
16 June, 2017
- Articles
A proposal for universal basic services
In the context of the ongoing debate on the idea of a universal basic income for India, Prof. Himanshu of Jawaharlal Nehru University argues that we first need to ensure that all citizens have access...
-
Himanshu .
21 May, 2017
- Perspectives
Price risk and poverty
There is an ongoing policy debate in India on whether grain entitlements under PDS should be converted into cash transfers. This column shows that in the face of high price variability, in-kind trans...
-
Lucie Gadenne
Sam Norris
Monica Singhal
Sandip Sukhtankar
15 May, 2017
- Articles
Two views on fighting world poverty
In the previous article, Lant Pritchett critiqued Chris Blattman’s proposal to compare interventions that provide chickens rather than cash, and the view that the answer is the best investment we c...
-
Chris Blattman
05 May, 2017
- Perspectives
Inequality and economics: Tony Atkinson's enduring lessons
Sir Tony Atkinson, the doyen of inequality economics, passed away in January. This article, by a longstanding friend and co-author, outlines his contributions to the analysis and measurement of inequ...
-
Andrea Brandolini
25 April, 2017
- 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
Twitter feed
Tweets by Ideas4IndiaMost Popular Poverty & Inequality Posts
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
Lockdown, life, and livelihood in the times of Corona
After around 36 hours of the lockdown to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in India, the Finance Minister announced a slew of welfare measures amounting to Rs. 1.7 trillion to support the vulnerable popu...
Arjun Kumar
Balwant Singh Mehta
Simi Mehta
07 April, 2020
- Perspectives
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