The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act: is it working?
MNREGA is one of the government´s largest flagship schemes, and is the largest job creation programme of its kind in the world. Supporters believe that it is necessary to help rural workers smooth income in times of distress and increase labour market access for marginalised groups, whereas critics...
-
Ashwini Kulkarni Jean Drèze Martin Ravallion Neelakshi Mann Varad Pande 
29 November, 2012
- Symposium
Content Type: Symposium
Topic: Governance
Year: 2012
Formally insuring the informally insured
Rainfall is critical for the livelihoods of millions of Indians – yet many have no formal insurance if the rains fail. This column looks at what happens when a new formal insurance policy based on the weather is offered at random to farmers and farm workers across several states in India.
-
Mushfiq Mobarak
- 16 November, 2012
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Money & Finance
Year: 2012
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 extremely important and necessary but not sufficient for reducing poverty – policymakers need to combine ...
-
Ejaz Ghani
- 09 November, 2012
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Poverty & Inequality
Year: 2012
Where have all the young girls gone? The rise in female foeticide in India
Gender inequality remains a huge issue in India and policies aimed at changing this are welcome. But this column finds that an unintended consequence of the introduction and spread of ultrasound scans in India is the abortion of female foetuses on an unprecedented scale.
-
Sonia Bhalotra
- 07 November, 2012
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Social Identity
Year: 2012
Agricultural wages and MNREGA: Exploring the myth
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, India’s flagship programme that guarantees 100 days of minimum wage employment to rural households, has come under attack for pushing up the wages demanded by hired hands in agriculture. This column argues that most of these attacks fail ...
-
Kanika Mahajan
- 05 November, 2012
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Agriculture
Year: 2012
Himayat - A silent skills revolution in the making
In this Note from the Field, Varad Pande of the Ministry of Rural Development discusses the Himayat programme in Jammu and Kashmir which offers skills-training and a job to unemployed young people in the state. This column argues that the scheme provides a ray of hope to thousands of young people an...
-
Varad Pande
- 31 October, 2012
- Notes from the Field
Content Type: Notes from the Field
Topic: Macroeconomics
Year: 2012
Political Clientelism and Government Accountability in West Bengal: Theory and Evidence
This project provide a theory of political clientelism, which explains sources and determinants of political clientelism, the relationship between clientelism and elite capture, and their respective consequences for allocation of public services, welfare and empirical measurement of government accou...
-
Dilip Mookherjee Pranab Bardhan Sandip Mitra
- 31 October, 2012
- IGC Research on India
Content Type: IGC Research on India
Topic: Governance
Year: 2012
The root of poverty: Ruinous healthcare costs
While natural disasters and political turmoil rightly grab our attention, this column shows that it is everyday events that drag most people into poverty. For many, the first of these is illness and this column argues that this is where the first battle lines against poverty must be drawn. People ne...
-
Anirudh Krishna
- 26 October, 2012
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Human Development
Year: 2012
The fight against left-wing extremism
In this Note From the Field, Varad Pande of the Ministry of Rural Development argues that left-wing extremism and violence is a major challenge for India. He says that while this is definitely a security issue, it is as much a political and a development issue. We will not end this war by bullets al...
-
Varad Pande
- 23 October, 2012
- Notes from the Field
Content Type: Notes from the Field
Topic: Governance
Year: 2012
Multi-dimensional deprivation in India: Comparisons with China and Vietnam
While several studies have compared India with China on economic measures such as GDP per capita, this column looks at a measure of people’s deprivation across a wide range of indicators. It finds India lagging behind in several dimensions, particularly on children’s health.
-
Ranjan Ray
- 22 October, 2012
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Human Development
Year: 2012
Microfinance and predatory lending: The same old story?
Once hailed as a near-miraculous way of lending money to the poor, microfinance is now often seen as exploitation – and governments are stepping in. This column looks at another point in India’s history where lawmakers have intervened in lending practices: following the Deccan Riots between farm...
-
Anand Swamy Latika Chaudhary
- 19 October, 2012
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Money & Finance
Year: 2012
The political economies of land acquisition
India is in the process of reforming the way that land is bought and sold – a source of heated debate as many blame the current laws for unfairly forcing millions from their homes and livelihoods. This column argues that the latest proposals focus on the politics and overlook the economics. As a r...
-
Sanjoy Chakravorty
- 17 October, 2012
- Articles
Content Type: Articles
Topic: Macroeconomics
Year: 2012