The growing wave of decentralisation: Comparative evidence from developing countries
Over the last few decades, decentralisation has been rapidly spreading in developing countries across the world, with around 35 countries announcing new or deepening decentralisation reforms in recent...
- Jean-Paul Faguet Lakshmi Iyer Sarmistha Pal
- 16 November, 2023
- Videos
How women in politics impact maternal mortality
In the twelfth post of I4I’s month-long campaign to mark International Women’s Day 2023, Bhalotra et al. show that mortality during and after childbirth remains high, even where the knowledge and ...
- Articles
Does being local matter? Administrative decentralisation and human development
In this post, Chaudhary and Iyer discuss the administrative decentralisation reforms brought about by the Panchayati Raj Act, and measure the effect of decentralisation on the provision of public serv...
- Latika Chaudhary Lakshmi Iyer
- 13 January, 2023
- Articles
Caste dominance in rural India: Cause and effect
Rural India remains a caste-based society. This column explores why caste continues to play such an important role and what the effects are. It argues that trade and agricultural productivity suffer, ...
- Siwan Anderson
- 16 August, 2012
- Articles
A plague on all houses
Which is better, India´s liberal capitalism modelled on the US or China´s authoritarian state-controlled capitalism? This column argues that dysfunctional governments in both systems are leading to ...
- Pranab Bardhan
- 13 August, 2012
- Articles
The Transfer Raj
When Chief Ministers come to power in India, they extensively reshuffle civil servants postings. This column asks why state politicians transfer bureaucrats, whether they favour loyalty over competenc...
- Lakshmi Iyer Anandi Mani
- 01 August, 2012
- Articles
How do Indian voters respond to candidates with criminal charges: Evidence from Lok Sabha elections
An alarming number of India’s politicians have criminal records or some charges against them. This column asks how they manage to get away with it. It looks at evidence from parliamentary elections ...
- Bhaskar Dutta Poonam Gupta
- 30 July, 2012
- Articles
Corruption and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
Corruption continues to strangle India’s public finances. This column presents evidence of embezzlement in India’s flagship rural employment programme and suggests new ways policymakers can test w...
- Sandip Sukhtankar
- 16 July, 2012
- Articles
Understanding Mandis: Market Towns and the Dynamics of India's Rural and Urban Transformations
The idea behind this project is to undertake process-oriented investigations that will involve the study of interactions, especially between agricultural markets, settlements, technology, infrastructu...
- Devesh Kapur Mekhala Krishnamurthy
- 01 April, 2012
- IGC Research on India
Enhancing Local Public Service Delivery: Experimental Evidence on the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in Bihar
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGA) is among the largest social protection programmes in the world.
- Abhijit Banerjee Esther Duflo Rohini Pande
- 31 March, 2012
- IGC Research on India
Third-party environmental auditing
High levels of industrial pollution are a harmful by-product of growth. The Indian state of Gujarat is an industrial powerhouse with about 5% of the Indian population, but 9% of India’s registered m...
- Esther Duflo Michael Greenstone Rohini Pande Nicholas Ryan
- 01 March, 2012
- IGC Research on India
Land Acquisition for Business and Compensation of Displaced Farmers
This project addresses the question of how farmers displaced by acquisition of agricultural land for the purpose of industrialisation ought to be compensated. Prior to acquisition, the farmers are lea...
- Maitreesh Ghatak Sandip Mitra Dilip Mookherjee
- 01 March, 2012
- IGC Research on India
Federal versus Regional Control: Implications for Groundwater Resource in India
Federal versus regional control over provision of resources can have different implications for long-run sustainability of natural resources. This project examines the trade-off between short-term gro...
- Sheetal Sekhri
- 31 March, 2011
- IGC Research on India
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Unique Health Identification and Aadhaar: A case for mandatory linkage
As part of the Digital India initiative, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) issues a Unique Health Identification (UHID) number to each patient, which documents their entire journey in th...
- Mudit Kapoor
- 23 December, 2016
- Perspectives
Caste dominance in rural India: Cause and effect
Rural India remains a caste-based society. This column explores why caste continues to play such an important role and what the effects are. It argues that trade and agricultural productivity suffer, ...
- Siwan Anderson
- 16 August, 2012
- Articles
Why did the Indian economy stagnate under the colonial rule?
How did the Indian economy fare under the colonial rule? Is the average Indian significantly better off after Independence? This column examines trends in GDP per capita in order to determine the stan...
- Aniruddha Bagchi
- 16 September, 2013
- Articles