25 October, 2024In-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
- 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
- Articles
Grain subsidies and junk food purchases among low-income individuals
While governments rely on expensive food subsidy programmes to address malnutrition among low-income communities, their impact is unclear as only self-reported data on food purchase decisions are avai...
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Ali Aouad Kamalini Ramdas Alp Sungu
- 23 September, 2024
- Notes from the Field
Boosting shared prosperity in South Asia
Two-thirds of the poor in India and other South Asian countries live in the lagging regions. This column examines whether there are poverty traps that make it difficult to achieve shared prosperity, a...
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Ejaz Ghani Lakshmi Iyer Saurabh Mishra
- 04 March, 2013
- Articles
Why is poverty declining so slowly in India?
Despite two decades of fast growth of per capita GDP, India has experienced a very slow decline in poverty. The column suggests that this disconnect between GDP growth and poverty decline can largely ...
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Arka Roy Chaudhuri Ashok Kotwal
- 25 February, 2013
- Articles
Creating entrepreneurs: A big new idea in development
Can the world’s poorest people become entrepreneurs? This column outlines results from an evaluation of the Ultra Poor programme in Bangladesh, a scheme that the NGO behind it claims is a staggering...
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Oriana Bandiera Robin Burgess Imran Rasul
- 07 January, 2013
- Articles
Cash Transfers - through the postal system or the banks?
The central government has announced the conversion of 29 poverty schemes to Direct Cash Transfers. Should this be implemented through banks or the postal system? This article assesses the pros and co...
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Ashwini Kulkarni
- 20 December, 2012
- Notes from the Field
Effect of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme on Intra-Household Allocation of Labour
This project focusses on the impact of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGA) on the labour market through studying its impact on intra-household allocation of labour, particularly betwee...
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Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay
- 15 December, 2012
- IGC Research on India
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 extreme...
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Ejaz Ghani
- 09 November, 2012
- Articles
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...
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Jonathan Morduch Shamika Ravi
- 16 October, 2012
- Articles
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 requ...
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Anirudh Krishna
- 09 September, 2012
- Articles
Right to Food: Let's get it right
The proposed inter-state resource allocation in the upcoming National Food Security Bill is anti-poor. It will result in unequal treatment of equally poor individuals across rich and poor states. This...
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Abhijit Banerjee
- 25 July, 2012
- Articles
A national shame: Hunger and malnutrition in India
One area where India’s development falls desperately short is nutrition. Child malnutrition rates are higher in India than in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa. This column argues that there can be n...
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Anil Deolalikar
- 23 July, 2012
- Articles
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 benchmark...
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Himanshu .
- 20 July, 2012
- Articles
Exploratory research on the impact of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, on deforestation, tribal welfare, and poverty, with implications for implementation
When the United Progressive Alliance came to power in the Indian general elections of May 2004, it published a Common Minimum Programme in which it promised to end the eviction of tribal and other for...
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Jean-Marie Baland Jagdish Krishnaswamy François Libois E. Somanathan
- 01 July, 2012
- IGC Research on India
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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
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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
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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
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