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Productivity & Innovation

Post-Covid informal manufacturing growth: How states fared

  • Articles

Share of manufacturing in India’s total employment: No mean performance

Available jobs data show only a modest increase in the share of manufacturing in India’s total employment in the last 50 years. In this post, Bishwanath Goldar highlights that the outsourcing of ser...

  • Perspectives

Creating good jobs for young Indians: Insights from recent research

Young Indians – who are often more educated and have greater aspiration than their previous generations –are seeking ‘good jobs’. Yet, such jobs are not available to the majority. To mark Inte...

  • Perspectives

A brighter future: Harnessing solar energy in a Jharkhand village

Simdega district in Jharkhand – one of NITI Aayog’s ‘Aspirational Districts’ – comprises small habitations that are not yet connected to grid-based electricity. In this note, Goswami and co-...

  • Notes from the Field
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Creative destruction and catch-up growth in India

In this post, Peters and Zilibotti compare the size of firms in India and the US, and find that the 90% of firms in India have four employees or less, and attribute it to the absence of creative destr...

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The promise of technology for women’s employment

The growth of digital labour platforms holds tremendous potential to improve employment outcomes for India’s young, urban population. In this post, Farzana Afridi discusses the challenges in leverag...

  • Perspectives

Mirroring realities: Digital technology through the eyes of women microentrepreneurs

The expansion of markets from physical spaces to e-commerce platforms during the pandemic widened the pre-existing digital gender divide in India. Employing the method of ‘auto-photography’, the t...

  • Notes from the Field

The role of political connections of firms during a crisis

Research has shown that political connections matter for a firm during times of economic crisis. This article refers to a unique data set of political connections of firms in India, and finds that fir...

  • Articles

Changing the frame: Making small firms compete like large ones

Although small firms have natural advantages, they face constraints when it comes to reach and scale; this prevents them from competing with larger firms. Pankaj Chandra shares business models from It...

  • Perspectives

Introduction to e-Symposium: The good jobs challenge in India

One of the primary concerns for India is the question of jobs – specifically good quality jobs. Why has India lagged in creating opportunities for its working age population, and how different secto...

  • Symposium

Barriers to upgrading in developing countries

In recent decades, several countries have seen rapid development, aided in part by the adoption of advanced technologies. In this post, Eric Verhoogen looks at recent research to highlight the factors...

  • Perspectives

The effect of easing labour restrictions: Evidence on employment in Rajasthan

Stringent labour laws in India can hinder firms’ growth and increase the incidence of informal and contract employment. Looking at evidence from firms in Rajasthan after the amendment of the Industr...

  • Articles

The future of work from home

With the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic, work from home became the norm in 2020. However, even though mobility restrictions have been lifted, many workplaces all over the world continue to follow a m...

  • Podcasts

The future of work from home

With the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic, work from home became the norm in 2020. However, even though mobility restrictions have been lifted, many workplaces all over the world continue to follow a m...

  • Videos

Birth versus worth: Impact of the caste system on entrepreneurship in India

The prevalence of the caste system has restricted social mobility in India. This article further looks at how caste disparities have contributed to the misallocation of resources across firms. It quan...

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Leveraging digital labour markets to increase employment opportunities

India’s relatively young population, the pace of adoption of smartphones and digital technology, and rapid urbanisation has contributed to the growth of digital labour markets. In recent years, we h...

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Institute of Economic Growth

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Institute of Human Development

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Most Popular Productivity & Innovation Posts

The impact of robotisation on the world economy: A forward-looking review

Robots have long existed in human imagination and only recently in the real world. The baggage of past imagination often intrudes into our understanding of how real robots will affect our economic liv...

  • Explainers

Tripura’s bamboo sector: Potential and challenges

About a third of the total area of Tripura is covered by bamboo, and bamboo has emerged as a key thrust area for the state’s industrial development. Based on a field visit that was undertaken to stu...

  • Notes from the Field

An offline alternative for Aadhaar-based biometric authentication

While decision on the constitutionality of Aadhaar by the Supreme Court of India remains a matter of speculation, it has become abundantly clear that most of the use cases for Aadhaar-based biometric ...

  • Perspectives