19 February, 2025India’s poverty rate does not measure what you think it does
Like all national poverty rates, India’s poverty rate is interpreted as the share of the population that is poor in a given year. In this post, Merfeld and Morduch argue that, in practice, India’s...
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Joshua Merfeld Jonathan Morduch 
16 December, 2024
- Articles
In-kind transfers: Deadweight losses or gains?
Do in-kind transfers for social assistance lead to ‘deadweight losses’ by restricting consumer choice? This article presents findings from an experiment in Maharashtra, which involved offering low...
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Klaus Abbink Gaurav Datt Lata Gangadharan Digvijay S. Negi Bharat Ramaswami
- 16 October, 2024
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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