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Fiscal transfers and natural calamities: Does political alignment matter?

Fiscal transfers from the central government serve as an important mechanism for state governments to mitigate adverse impacts of extreme climate events. This article demonstrates that higher allocati...

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Why political competition matters when inequality is high

In a high-inequality setting, local politicians with secure positions may favour the rich by diverting resources towards them, at the cost of the poor. To test this hypothesis, this article analyses d...

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Expected or unexpected? Strategic communication around audits to maximise deterrence

Even with evidence on how audits can be designed to be more effective in deterring corruption by bureaucrats, in practice, budget constraints restrict governments from being able to conduct audits wit...

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The Impact of Community-Driven Accountability on Land Rights Governance: Evidence from a Homestead Land Titling Initiative

How and under what circumstances can civic mobilization improve local governance and service delivery? This project seeks to contribute to debates on this question through a multi-method analysis of a...

  • IGC Research on India

Judicial Institutions and Economic Development: Examining Micro-evidence from India

This project examines the relationship between a country’s legal environment and its economic outcomes. This project will be constructing relevant measures of friction from trial level data at subor...

  • IGC Research on India

Do Indian voters mind their representatives getting rich in office?

Asset declarations, requiring politicians to disclose their financial information, are becoming increasingly common across the world. In India, financial declarations are part of public affidavits fil...

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How governance and public expenditure impact human development

The state of Madhya Pradesh displays wide variance in human development outcomes across its districts. This article examines the link between public expenditure, quality of governance, and human devel...

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Do dishonest people gravitate towards the public sector in India?

The corruption level in the public sector may not only depend on punishments and systems put in place to deter corruption, but also on who chooses to enter the sector. This article finds that people w...

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The strategic logic of money flows in Indian elections

Why do political candidates give voters handouts during election campaigns, even when they are unable to monitor voter behaviour? Based on a qualitative study in Mumbai, this article argues that compe...

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Protecting data privacy: Authorisation and access control

The B.N. Srikrishna Committee, which was constituted in August 2017 to draft India’s data protection laws, is expected to submit its final recommendations this month. In this post, Banerjee and Shar...

  • Perspectives

Sunlight as disinfectant: Disclosure requirements and corruption in India

It is believed that transparency and free access to information can root out corruption and malfeasance in government. This article finds that the introduction of asset disclosure rules for candidates...

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Enfranchising your own? Polling officer identity and electoral outcomes

The provision of free and fair elections is a public service critical to maintaining accountability and responsiveness of elected officials. This article examines the administration of polling station...

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Election by community consensus: Effects on political selection and governance

Multiple states in India incentivise village communities to elect their political representatives by community consensus, doing away with the need for state governments to organise official secret bal...

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New ideas for fighting corruption in India

Even as technological innovations have reduced petty bribery, it is clear that bigger forms of corruption are flourishing in India. In this post, Avinash Dixit and Ritika Mankar propose the formation ...

  • Perspectives

Parikshit Ghosh speaks with Karl Ove Moene

There is a view that upsurge in inequality due to globalisation is leading to rising appeal of political platforms that promote inward-looking policies. In this podcast, Parikshit Ghosh (Member of the...

  • Podcasts

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Sabyasachi Das

Ahmedabad University

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Souvik Dutta

Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology

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Soham Sahoo

Loughborough University and Indian Institute of Ma

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Muneer Kalliylil

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore

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Kanika Mahajan

Ashoka University

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Ritam Chaurey

Johns Hopkins SAIS

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Indian School of Business

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Anubhab Pattanayak

IIT Kharagpur

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Most Popular Governance Posts

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...

  • 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, ...

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The digital dream: Upskilling India for the future

While the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the pace at which technology is becoming commonplace in our lives, it has also exposed a stark digital divide, leaving a large proportion of India’s popul...

  • Perspectives