Walking the poverty line
As India’s Planning Commission seeks to review its measurement of poverty, the issue has become a hot topic for public debate. This column argues that while poverty lines should be used as benchmarks for policy, they should not be used to decide who receives benefits and who doesn’t – nor shou...
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Himanshu . 
20 July, 2012
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Poverty & Inequality
Year: 2012
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 requires not only helping the existing poor, but also preventing the growth of future poverty
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Anirudh Krishna
- 09 September, 2012
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Poverty & Inequality
Year: 2012
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 country Bangladesh. But this column evaluates a copycat scheme in southern India and finds that the...
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Jonathan Morduch Shamika Ravi
- 16 October, 2012
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Poverty & Inequality
Year: 2012
For the New Year
Five months ago we launched this portal to start new conversations on issues of vital importance for Indian growth and development. We had hoped that by making serious research accessible to lay people we could help elevate the level of public debate. The time has come to assess our progress – wh...
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Ashok Kotwal
- 12 December, 2012
- Perspectives
Content Type: Perspectives
Topic: Macroeconomics
Year: 2012
Why Nations Fail: And why India and China don’t fit the story
‘Why Nations Fail’ by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson is becoming a must-read for development economists. But this column argues that the central thesis of the book fails to explain two big development stories: those of India and China.
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Arvind Subramanian
- 01 February, 2013
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Macroeconomics
Year: 2013
The Chit fund crisis: Should not put all financial intermediaries in the same bracket
The government has announced a bailout package for the participants of unregulated saving schemes that have been put at risk by the current Chit fund crisis in West Bengal. In this article, Banerjee and Ghatak caution against putting deposit-takers and micro-lenders in the same bracket while consid...
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Abhijit Banerjee Maitreesh Ghatak
- 03 May, 2013
- Perspectives
Content Type: Perspectives
Topic: Money & Finance
Year: 2013
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 aspirations and low self-esteem could reinforce these traps. This column presents results from an ongoing s...
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Sayantan Ghosal
- 10 June, 2013
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Poverty & Inequality
Year: 2013
Underperforming even in good times
The late Professor Raj Krishna´s term ‘Hindu growth rate’ was an aptly pejorative description of India´s economic performance in the post-independence period. But how has India performed in the good times, when the country´s growth turned around? This column compares India´s boom years with ...
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Arvind Subramanian
- 14 June, 2013
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Macroeconomics
Year: 2013
I4I turns 1!
It has been a year since the voice of ‘Ideas for India’ was first heard. Our mission was to be an outlet for evidence-based arguments on a wide set of issues relevant to Indian growth and development. We had hoped then that this would be a voice that would clarify rather than obscure, a distinct...
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Ashok Kotwal
- 06 August, 2013
- Perspectives
Content Type: Perspectives
Topic: Governance
Year: 2013
Why do insecure rural property rights persist?
Poorly specified and weakly enforced property rights over land may reduce productivity in the agricultural sector. This column examines why strong private property rights are not adopted more widely, and offers a theory of the determination of rural property rights institutions.
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Leopoldo Fergusson
- 18 September, 2013
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Agriculture
Year: 2013
Monkeying with the rupee
In this article, Debraj Ray discusses the sharp depreciation of the rupee and the ongoing outflow of foreign capital from India. Further, he refutes claims that the costs associated with the Food Security Bill are having a negative impact on the Indian currency.
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Debraj Ray
- 04 September, 2013
- Perspectives
Content Type: Perspectives
Topic: Macroeconomics
Year: 2013
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 income gaps across countries. Does the same apply to Indian states? This column attempts to answer this ...
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Areendam Chanda
- 09 December, 2013
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Poverty & Inequality
Year: 2013