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Report of the 16th Finance Commission for 2026-31

The Report of the 16th Finance Commission (Chair: Dr. Arvind Panagariya) was tabled in Parliament on February 1, 2026 for the five-year period between 2026-27 and 2030-31 [Report Summary].

by Shrusti Singh | On 27 Feb 2026

3rd Urban Economy Forum 2021:The Brampton Resolution

The 3rd Urban Economy Forum is one of the world’s most premier urban gatherings on sustainable urban economies and urban management. The collaborative approach for collective action taken by the organ...

by | On 07 Jan 2022

Climate finance for Cities and Urban Governments

Ambitious actions taken to reduce urban emissions and increase resilience can enhance cities’ quality of life and social equity in far-reaching ways.4 However, building just cities in an era of clim...

by | On 09 Nov 2021

Indebtedness among the Rural Poor in Kerala

This study intends to understand the magnitude and nature of indebtedness among rural poor households in Kerala. The study d analyses the role played by various sources in meeting the credit requir...

by Aswathi Rebecca Asok | On 08 Mar 2021

ADB’s Comprehensive Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has become a major global crisis that requires country, regional, and global intervention, as well as collaboration to mitigate damage to economies and peop...

by Asian Development Bank | On 25 Jan 2021

Prakriti Karyshala: Case Studies Ecomanagement: Mapping and Securing Commons

Prakriti Karyashala, launched in 2012 through the Foundation for Ecological Security (FES), to respond to the rising needs of rural communities to respond to ecological change. It trains a cadre of f...

by Anjali P Iyer | On 20 Nov 2020

Housing for All: A Goal Achievable by 2030

Urban Economy Forum 2020 echoes the global call for affordable housing for all. With over 1.8 billion people living in slums and informal settlements globally, the question remains, when will we be ab...

by Alex Venuto | On 07 Nov 2020

Envisioning Urban Economy in Uncertain Times

A major output of Urban Economy Forum is the Regent Park World Urban Pavilion by UN-Habitat (The Pavilion), a collaboration between the Urban Economy Forum, UN-Habitat and the Government of Canada. Th...

by | On 20 Oct 2020

Shifting Paradigms in Urbanism

Covid-19 has provided a magnifying glass which highlighted the fragility of our urban systems and suggested new ways to address the related challenges. The aftermath of COVID many paradigms may change...

by | On 16 Oct 2020

Urban Development Perspectives of Affordable Housing Strategy

Although, under the current institutional dispensations, both national and local governments have significant roles to play in providing infrastructure, services and housing in urban areas, the limite...

by Narayanan Edadan | On 08 Oct 2020

Is India Creating Adequate Jobs Post 2000: Treading Through Employment Elasticity

This paper looks into diverse databases to gauge if economic growth in India creates adequate volume of jobs since the year 2000. In our exercise, we use a popular index called employment elasticity....

by G.D Bino Paul | On 26 Jun 2020

The Sunday Edit: Challenges of the Pandemic: Confronting Harsh Realities

Measures to control/mitigate the spread of the disease appear to be surprisingly ill informed about the living and working conditions of the urban millions who support the life and work of the city’s...

by Udaya S. Mishra | On 07 Jun 2020

The Sunday Edit: Exodus of Migrants from Urban Areas

Imaginative policies that simultaneously address rural and urban livelihood issues have to be put in place without delay to address the issue of labour migrants that has come into focus since the star...

by R. B. Bhagat | On 31 May 2020

COVID-19 in India: An Epidemic in Congested Cities

In our analysis, high urban proportion and population density were significantly correlated with the COVID-19 burden in districts having the highest burden of COVID-19. It seems COVID-19 is spreading...

by | On 29 May 2020

The Women Warriors Fighting COVID-19 at the Frontline: ASHA Workers Left Without Hope

Over 90,000 women, the ASHA workers at the community level, are at the centre of the public health system especially in the rural areas have been working non-stop during this pandemic. But they are no...

by | On 22 May 2020

Containment Strategies and Support for Vulnerable Households

Policymakers across the developing world are facing the need to make rapid decisions on their COVID-19 response with little available data or guidance. Policies that help deal with the economic cri...

by Jonathan Leape | On 18 May 2020

The COVID-19, Migration and Livelihood in India

Sudden eruption of migration crisis resulting from the out-break of COVID-19 again reminds us the urgency of the matter. This policy paper presents how our understanding of migration and livelihood...

by R. B. Bhagat | On 08 May 2020

Urban Food Markets and the Lockdown in India

On March 24, 2020, the Government of India announced a 21-day national lockdown that has since been extended to May 3, 2020. The lockdown has left urban food markets in disarray with severe supply b...

by Sudha Narayanan | On 06 May 2020

Determinants and Impacts of Financial Literacy in the Lao PD

The paper extends the literature by conducting the survey in a relatively low-income Asian economy— the Lao PDR—and analyzing the determinants of financial literacy and the effects of financial litera...

by Peter J. Morgan | On 12 Mar 2019

The Anomaly of Women’s Work and Education in India

This paper utilizes a large cross-section of data sets such as the ILOSTAT, NSSO Quinquennial Employment and Unemployment Survey, Labour Bureau Annual Employment and Unemployment Survey, National Fami...

by Surbhi Ghai | On 03 Feb 2019

Is There a Demand for Reverse Mortgages in China? Evidence from Two Online Surveys

Reverse mortgages provide an alternative source of retirement funding by allowing older homeowners to borrow against their home. However, a recent pilot program of reserve mortgage products in several...

by Katja Hanewald | On 03 Feb 2019

Changing Structure of Employment in Indian States

The study attempts a comparative assessment of the changing employment situation in major Indian states, measured in terms of worker-population ratios and the distribution of workers into status group...

by A.V. Jose | On 01 Feb 2019

Wage Inequalities in India

This paper examines the dimension of inequality since our earlier work on poverty and deprivation suggest that social inequality seems to overwhelm all other inequalities in a whole range of indicator...

by K.P. Kannan | On 31 Jan 2019

Emigration and Remittances: New Evidences from the Kerala Migration Survey 2018

The report sheds light on the various issues concerning migration and mobility. It gathers the fruit of two decades of research done at the CDS and examines migration dynamics from demographic, econom...

by S. Irudaya Rajan | On 31 Jan 2019

Exporting and Firm Performance: Evidence from India

In this paper the positive correlation between firm productivity and export status is well established. This correlation can arise from multiple alternative casual models. It has investigated these re...

by Apoorva Gupta | On 12 Jan 2019

Assessing Opportunities for Solar Lanterns to Improve Educational Outcomes in Rural Off-Grid Regions: Challenges and Lessons from a Randomized Controlled Trial

Solar lanterns are promoted across rural sub-Saharan Africa to improve both lighting in homes and educational outcomes. It undertakes a randomized controlled trial in Zimba District, Zambia, to evalua...

by Ognen Stojanovski | On 03 Jan 2019

Identifying the Costs of a Public Health Success: Arsenic Well Water Contamination and Productivity in Bangladesh

This paper exploits the recent molecular genetics evidence on the genetic basis of arsenic excretion and unique information on family links among respondents living in different environments from a la...

by Mark M. Pitt | On 22 Nov 2018

Mobility and congestion in urban India

The paper presents the development of a methodology to estimate robust city-level vehicular mobility indices, and apply it to 154 Indian cities using 22 million counterfactual trips measured by a web...

by Prottoy A. Akbar | On 22 Nov 2018

Looking Beyond the Farm and Household: Determinants of On-farm Diversification in India

This paper analyses the factors affecting on-farm diversification decision. Notwithstanding the influence of farm and household conditions, studies have also highlighted the role of external pull fact...

by Varun Kumar Das | On 20 Nov 2018

Debt Traps? Market Vendors and Moneylender Debt in India and the Philippines

A debt trap occurs when someone takes on a high-interest rate loan and is barely able to pay back the interest, and thus perpetually finds themselves in debt (often by re-financing). Studying such pra...

by Dean Karlan | On 04 Oct 2018

Women’s Land Title Ownership and Empowerment: Evidence from India

This paper examines how women’s participation in family decision-making is affected by land rights in rural areas in India. The 2005 Hindu Succession Act was legislated to protect women’s rights to an...

by Harold Glenn A. Valera | On 26 Sep 2018

The Spread of Deposit Insurance and the Global Rise in Bank Asset Risk since the 1970s

The paper constructs a new measure of the changing generosity of deposit insurance for many countries, empirically model the international influences on the adoption and generosity of deposit insuranc...

by Charles W. Calomiris | On 03 Sep 2018

Crafting Policies and programs for Women in the Agriculture Sector

This Policy Note revisits the country’s efforts to achieve gender equality focusing on the rural and agriculture sector. It likewise recommends measures to enrich the policy narratives on women in the...

by Connie Bayudan-Dacuycuy | On 30 Aug 2018

Documenting Heritage of Localities around Hyderabad Issues and Challenges

The story of irrevocable erasure and thoroughgoing transformation is part of the story of ‘development’ around Hyderabad as it is elsewhere. A case study of the transformation affecting the villages i...

by Aloka Parasher Sen | On 26 Jul 2018

Enabling Smart Urban Redevelopment in India through Floor Area Ratio Incentives

This working paper assesses the potential of incentive FAR approaches in two Indian cities, Mumbai and Ahmedabad, for leveraging the economic value of urban land. A thorough analysis of Mumbai’s clust...

by Apoorva Shenvi | On 25 Jul 2018

Short-term Migration in Rural India: The Impact of Nature and Extent of Participation in Agriculture

The paper analyses a nationally representative data set from India for the year 2013 in order to provide evidence on how short term migration is affected by household's ownership of land, and particip...

by S. Chandrasekhar | On 25 Jul 2018

Assessment of Implementation Issues and Livelihood Success on the Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) of the DSWD

The study aims to assess the sustainable livelihood program (SLP) implementation processes based on recent policy enhancements and indicators of program success. The analysis is based on focus group d...

by Marife M. Ballesteros | On 05 Jul 2018

Urban and Rural Households’ Energy Use: Sets, Shocks, and Strategies in the Philippines

This paper aims to analyze the determinants of household energy portfolio in urban and rural areas and to determine how choices are affected by price shocks and weather variabilities in the Philippine...

by Connie Bayudan-Dacuycuy | On 29 Jun 2018

Lessons on Providing Cash Transfers to Disaster Victims: A Case Study of UNICEF’s Unconditional Cash Transfer Program for super typhoon Yolanda Victims

This paper describes and assesses the design of the UCT program. It evaluates the UCT based on data collected from three survey rounds from a sample of UCT household beneficiaries, as well as other pr...

by Celia M. Reyes | On 29 Jun 2018

Maternal Education, Parental Investment and Non-Cognitive Characteristics in Rural China

This paper evaluates the parental response to non-cognitive variation across siblings in rural Gansu province, China, employing a household fixed effects specification; the non-cognitive measures of i...

by Jessica Leight | On 26 Jun 2018

Stock Market Trading in the Aftermath of an Accounting Scandal

This paper studies the impact of fraud revelation on trading behaviour of investors. It ask, if investors with direct exposure to stock market fraud (treated investors) are more likely to cash out of...

by Renuka Sane | On 20 Jun 2018

Regulating Infrastructure Development in India

This paper reviews the existing framework for infrastructure development and the associated standards in India, and identifies areas for concern. Rather than deeply analysing any one standard, this pa...

by Sanhita Sapatnekar | On 15 Jun 2018

Financial Inclusion, Financial Literacy, and Financial Education in AZerbaijan

This paper discusses the status of financial inclusion, education, and literacy in Azerbaijan as well as measures to foster the development of SMEs, which currently have inadequate access to financial...

by Gubad Ibadoghlu | On 07 Jun 2018

Financial Inclusion, Regulation, Financial Literacy and Financial Education in Armenia

Financial inclusion has significantly advanced in Armenia during the last decade. Rural and urban areas, however, have benefited unevenly. The high cost of providing financial services, the lack of ph...

by Armen Nurbekyan | On 07 Jun 2018

Overcoming Public Sector Inefficiencies Toward Universal Health Coverage - The Case for National Health Insurance Systems in Asia and the Pacific

This paper uses the Kutzin framework as described in the WHO Bulletin in 2013.20. This version has the advantage of incorporating both health system functions and goals, and will help us in understand...

by Eduardo Banzon | On 05 Jun 2018

Accessing Opportunities: Policy Decisions for Enhancing Urban Mobility

This paper first considers the challenges of urban mobility faced by developing cities, before exploring the role for policy in improving connectivity. In Section 2, this paper looks at options for...

by Paul Collier | On 30 May 2018

National Policy on Biofuels

Biofuels are derived from renewable bio - mass resources and, therefore, provide a strategic advantage to promote sustainable development and to supplement conventional...

by Government of India GOI | On 17 May 2018

Rural Wage Dynamics in India: What Role does Inflation Play?

This paper studies the relationship between rural wage growth and inflation in India to assess the risk of a wage - price spiral to the inflation trajectory. The results...

by Sujata Kundu | On 14 May 2018

Growth, Inequality, Poverty and Urbanization

The focus in this paper is on growth, inequality and poverty, particularly in relation to urbanization. The analysis is pursued at three levels of disaggregation: states, districts and the million-plu...

by Arup Mitra | On 02 May 2018

Engines without Drivers: Cities in India’s Growth Story

It is now almost axiomatic that cities are the engines of growth. Historically, federal support programmes have focused on rural areas, but over the past fifteen years, the need to devise such progra...

by | On 13 Apr 2018

MGNREGS: POLITICAL ECONOMY, LOCAL GOVERNANCE AND ASSET CREATION IN SOUTH INDIA

MGNREGS, the premier centrally-sponsored national rural livelihood scheme, is one of the most elaborately designed and implemented public workfare programmes in India. While a large number of studi...

by Vinoj Abraham | On 05 Apr 2018

Agricultural Productivity Shocks, Labor Reallocation, and Rural-Urban Migration in China

This paper analyses the way households in rural China use rural-urban migration and off-farm work as a response to negative productivity shocks in agriculture. I employ various waves of a longitudin...

by Luigi Minale | On 04 Apr 2018

The Geography of Patenting in India: Patterns and Determinants

This study examines the regional profiles of patenting activities in India. The number of most dynamic sub-national spaces in patent applications is found to be limited to just two to three regions...

by Jaya Prakash Pradhan | On 29 Mar 2018

One Hundred Sixth Report On Demands For Grants 2018-19 (Demand No. 42 ) Of The Department Of Health And Family Welfare

The National Health Mission (NHM) encompasses two sub-missions, the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and the National Urban Health Mission (NUHM).

by Rajya Sabha Secretariat | On 23 Mar 2018

Urbanization and India’s Slum Continuum: Evidence on the Range of Policy Needs and Scope of Mobility

In contrast with historical precedent, urbanization across the Global South is associated with increasing levels of urban poverty. These trends engender unique challenges for practitioners and schola...

by Emily Rains | On 21 Mar 2018

Stories of Empowerment – Case Studies of Empowerment of Rural Workers

With a population nearing 60 million, half of which occupies the two major cities of Karachi and Hyderabad, Sindh is the only province with a rural population in the minority. Research conducted by PI...

by Salman Rashid | On 21 Mar 2018

Estimating Poverty in Pakistan: The Non-food Consumption Share Approach

The paper says that poverty alleviation is the most persistent challenge facing Pakistan since its inception.

by Rashida Haq | On 21 Mar 2018

Modelling Gender Dimensions of the Impact of Economic Reforms on Time Allocation among Market Work, Household Work, and Leisure

The paper says that the gender has been largely ignored at the theoretical, empirical and policy design levels, thereby perpetuating gender biases in the actual working of economies, promoting gender...

by Rizwana Siddiqui | On 20 Mar 2018

Fiscal Policy, as the “Employer of Last Resort”: Impact of MGNREGS on Labour Force Participation Rates in India

The paper examines the impact of conditional fiscal transfers on public employment across gender in India taking the case of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). Th...

by Lekha Chakraborty | On 19 Mar 2018

ICTs as Enabler in Higher Education

The paper aims at examining impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) on higher education and to identifying major impediments that have resulted in slow penetration of ICTs in high...

by Kaushalesh Lal | On 19 Mar 2018

Measuring the Equilibrium Impacts of Credit: Evidence from the Indian Microfinance Crisis

In October 2010, the state government of Andhra Pradesh, India issued an emergency ordinance, bringing microfinance activities in the state to a complete halt and causing a nation-wide shock to the li...

by Emily Breza | On 10 Mar 2018

Prenatal Exposure to Shocks and Early-Life Health: Impact of Terrorism and Flood on Birth Outcomes in Pakistan

The current paper tries to fill this gap by investigating the impact of floods on pregnancy and birth outcomes across conflict-affected and unaffected districts in Pakistan.

by Baishali Goswami | On 08 Mar 2018

Fringe Lives A Study of a Slum in Patna

The research says that urbanisation is considered to be a sign of economic development of a particular country.

by Rahul Jambhulkar | On 23 Feb 2018

Deepening Decentralised Governance in Rural India: Lessons from the People’s Plan Initiative of Kerala

This paper is a critique of this experiment to draw lessons for the other Indian states (which still lag way behind Kerala) and for Kerala State itself to put decentralization and democratic practices...

by M.A. Oommen | On 16 Feb 2018

Kerala - The Land of Development Paradoxes

The paper says that the development experience of Kerala tucked away in the south-western corner of the Indian sub-continent has been rather unique.

by K.K. George | On 14 Feb 2018

The 2018 Budget Speech: Malaysia

Budget speech by Finance Minister of Malaysia.

by Minister of Finance Malaysia | On 09 Feb 2018

Governance Dilemmas of Sustainable Cities

This paper aims to scrutinize the dilemmas involved in governing sustainable cities, and it offers a suggestion for how the challenge might be addressed.

by Joakim Öjendal | On 08 Feb 2018

Gender, Environment and Poverty Interlinks in Rural India

This paper analyses the interrelationships between gender, poverty and environmental change in rural India, focusing especially on variations across regions and shifts over time during the past two...

by Bina Agarwal | On 05 Feb 2018

What Explains Current Account Surplus in Korea?

The paper says that this idiosyncrasy of Korea’s current account surplus seems to be related to increasing saving propensity of households especially among aged people.

by Han Chirok | On 01 Feb 2018

Union Budget 2018: Budget Speech

Speech of Arun Jaitley, Minister of Finance on February 1, 2018

by Arun Jaitley | On 01 Feb 2018

Economic Survey 2017: Volume I, Chapter 5: Is there a “Late Converger Stall” in Economic Development? Can India Escape it?

The first order fact about the developing world today is that this is an era of unprecedented prosperity. And that is true about India too which has been one of the most dynamic economic performers...

by Arun Jaitley | On 31 Jan 2018

Green Paper on Farmers, Farming and Rural Economy: 4 Years… 4 Budgets: What has this Central Government Delivered?

most of the major policy measures promised by this government to the Indian farmers have not seen the light of the day. No social security measures have been taken for farmers above the age of 60 or...

by ASHA Kisan Swaraj Alliance | On 31 Jan 2018

Do Large Agglomerations Lead to Economic Growth ? Evidence from Urban India

The cities and towns of India constitute the world’s second largest urban system besides contributing over 50 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This phenomenon has been neglect...

by Sabyasachi Tripati | On 24 Jan 2018

Federalism and Foreign Direct Investment: How Political Affiliation Determines the Spatial Distribution of FDI – Evidence from India

This paper links the foreign economic engagement of India’s states with the literature on federalism, thereby contributing to an understanding of the political economy of FDI in- flows in a parliame...

by Chanchal Kumar Sharma | On 22 Jan 2018

Selection, Firm Turnover, and Productivity Growth: Do Emerging Cities Speed up the Process?

This paper identifies and estimates the impact of firm entry and exit on plant-level productivity in Ethiopia as part of a selection mechanism that might be driving aggregate productivity growth in ci...

by Patricia Jones | On 16 Jan 2018

India’s Water Challenges

Threats of international water conflicts have garnered headlines in many parts of the world including South Asia. Yet, there are almost no examples of outright water war in history. Instead, national...

by | On 12 Jan 2018

Property Rights, Intersectionality, and Women’s Empowerment in Nepal

Property is widely recognized as an important resource for empowering women. Many development policies worldwide therefore call for strengthening women’s rights to property, especially to physical a...

by Rajendra Pradhan | On 11 Jan 2018

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Amendment) Bill, 2017

A Bill further to amend the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development Act, 1981. Be it enacted by Parliament in the Sixty-eighth Year of the Republic of India as follows: This Act may be ca...

by Lok Sabha Secretariat | On 09 Jan 2018

India’s National Policy on Urban Street Vendors

This Briefing Note describes the process by which India’s National Policy on Urban Street Vendors was developed, the content of the policy, and the ongoing story of its implementation.

by Shalini Sinha | On 05 Jan 2018

Labour, Law and Forced Migration

Shukhrat Berdyev’s story (in Diary of a Gastarbeiter ) is a familiar one of a middle aged Uzbek school teacher who in the post-Soviet era is faced with the prospect of traveling to Moscow to work as a...

by | On 02 Jan 2018

Cities, Rural Migrants and the Urban Poor

This paper tries to lay bare the intertwined histories of rehabilitation of the refugees from East Pakistan and the development of the city of Calcutta in the initial decades after the partition of Br...

by | On 02 Jan 2018

Urban Employment in India: Recent Trends and Patterns

This paper explores trends in urban employment in India, with a focus on urban informal employment (defined as informal wage employment and self-employment in informal enterprises, as well as informal...

by Martha Alter Chen | On 02 Jan 2018

Urban Refugees in Delhi: Self-Reliance can’t be Exclusively Entrepreneurial

Self-reliance is, by definition, about individualised responsibility for social wellbeing and economic security. This idea drives urban refugee livelihood programmes, in India and beyond, as aid organ...

by | On 22 Dec 2017

Financial Literacy in Japan: Determinants and Impacts

Financial literacy is gaining increasing importance as a policy objective in many countries. However, internationally comparable information on financial literacy is still scarce. Recently, the Bank o...

by Naoyuki Yoshino | On 21 Dec 2017

Consumption- and Productivity-Adjusted Dependency Ratio with Household Structure Heterogeneity

This study constructs a new dependency ratio measure by taking into account the consumption needs of the young and elderly people, and the productivity of middle-aged people. Different from the way th...

by Xuehui Han | On 21 Dec 2017

Pollution and Road Infrastructure in Cities of The People's Republic of China

Urban road infrastructure is crucial in determining air pollution. Yet, little is known about the roles played by road width vs. road length. This paper attempts to fill this gap by estimating the eff...

by Zhi Luo | On 18 Dec 2017

Cities and Entrepreneurs over Time: Like a Horse and Carriage?

This paper explores the co-evolution of entrepreneurship and cities. First, it provides a stylized model of development wherein the rise of cities (urbanisation) is the outcome of the activities of en...

by Wim Naudé | On 15 Dec 2017

Outlook for the Philippine Economy and Agro-Industry to 2030: The Role of Productivity Growth

This study provides growth projections for the Philippine agriculture based on growth in productivity differentiated by basic sector, using a computable general equilibrium model.

by Roehlano M. Briones | On 14 Dec 2017

Characterization Of Agricultural Workers In The Philippines

The paper narrates that the inclusive growth requires boosting incomes of workers currently in agriculture, either by shifting them to better-paying jobs outside agriculture or raising wages within ag...

by Roehlano M. Briones | On 13 Dec 2017

Intersecting Weather Variability And Chronic Food Poverty

The report says that despite the government’s various poverty reduction and social protection programs, poverty remains a social problem the country needs to hurdle.

by Connie Bayudan-Dacuycuy | On 13 Dec 2017

Inclusive Urban Planning for the Working Poor: Planning Education Trends and Potential Shifts

The report outlines and critically assesses trends in urban planning education across the globe, specifically in countries of the global South, and the extent to which curricula address issues of incl...

by Vanessa Watson | On 07 Dec 2017

Toward A Common Framework For Informal Employment Across Developed And Developing Countries

This paper addresses the importance of developing a common framework for defining informal employment in developed countries, and highlights issues that arise when applying the definition of informal...

by Françoise Carré | On 06 Dec 2017

Climate induced rural-to-urban migration in Pakistan

The results of this study indicate that climate change acts in combination with many other socioeconomic determinants of migration.

by Fahad Saeed | On 04 Dec 2017

Livelihoods and access to services: An analysis of peri-urban areas of Lahore, Pakistan

This study examines the emerging peri-urbanization in the Punjab (Pakistan) in the context of Lahore.

by Qasim Shah | On 30 Nov 2017

Waiting for Jobs

Employment data in India is far from adequate if policy responses have to be more effective and timely. Most employment surveys suffer from drawbacks such as limited data coverage, infrequent data col...

by Radhicka Kapoor | On 30 Nov 2017

Urban Consumption Inequality in China, 1995–2013

The paper uses 1995, 2002 and 2013 CHIP data to investigate the urban household consumption expenditure inequality. The overall inequality of urban household consumption expenditure measured by Gini c...

by Qingjie Xia | On 20 Nov 2017

Creating Good Employment Opportunities for the Rural Sector

This paper examines the potential for sector-specific productivity growth, human capital, credit markets, and infrastructure to contribute to the development of stable, well-paid employment in rural a...

by | On 20 Nov 2017

Exploring the Trade– Urbanisation Nexus in Developing Economies: Evidence and Implications

Developing countries have seen a rapid rise in population urbanization in the past decades. At the same time, they have participated actively in the process of globalization. However, possible interli...

by | On 20 Nov 2017

The Impact of MGNREGA on Agricultural Outcomes and the Rural Labour Market: A Matched DID Approach

This paper attempts to address the impact of the MGNREGA on the rural agricultural sector, focusing on cropping patterns, irrigated area, crop yields, wages and rural employment. The analysis is based...

by Deepak Varshney | On 06 Nov 2017

Socially Disadvantaged Groups and Micro-finance in India

About two-thirds of microfinance clients in India are reported to be in Self-Help Groups (SHGs). These mostly women’s groups have been promoted by nationalized banks since the early nineties to improv...

by Jean-Marie Baland | On 06 Nov 2017

Building Smart Cities in India - An Opportunity For Strategising Urban Development

The report states that the current urbanisation pattern in many Indian states is skewed with growth concentrating in and around the primate city.

by Sujaya Rathi | On 03 Nov 2017

Inclusive Urbanisation and Cities in the Twenty-First Century

In academic and policy discourse, urbanisation and cities are currently receiving a great deal of attention, and rightly so. Both have been central to the enormous transformation the world has been go...

by | On 01 Nov 2017

Educational Status of De-notified Tribes A Study of Telangana

This paper deals with educational status of De-notified and Nomadic Tribes (DNT-NT) of Telangana vis-à-vis their socioeconomic conditions. The present study is based on primary data collected from Mah...

by Vijay Korra | On 27 Oct 2017

Socio-economic and Environmental Factors Affecting Health in District Bhimber (AJK)

This study evaluates the impact of various socio economic and environmental variables on the incidence of diseases in district Bhimber of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

by Salma Kousar | On 27 Oct 2017

Living Wages Around the World.

This approach helps to publish timely, reasonably accurate and globally comparable estimates.

by Wage Indicator | On 23 Oct 2017

Urban Transport Focus - Small and Medium Sized Cities

The briefs says that the urban population in India is growing and so are motorisation rates.

by Sujaya Rathi | On 13 Oct 2017

Affordable Housing in Urban India

The report narrates that threefold increase in percapita income in urban areas is expected during this period of time.

by S.V. Ranganath | On 12 Oct 2017

Picking the Winner : Measuring Urban Sustainability in India

This study provides a snapshot of the sustainability of selected Indian cities by employing 57 indicators in four dimensions to develop an overall city sustainability index. In recent years, its compl...

by | On 06 Oct 2017

Urban Crisis in India: New Initiatives for Sustainable Cities

India no longer lives in villages. At the dawn of the new millennium, 300 million Indians lived in its nearly 3700 towns and cities, in sharp contrast to only 60 million in 1947 when the country bec...

by | On 03 Oct 2017

The Effects of Energy Price Changes: Heterogeneous Welfare Impacts, Energy Poverty, and CO2 Emissions in Indonesia

The empirical context of our study is Indonesia, a country with a long tradition of regulating consumer energy prices and a recent change in subsidy policies, facilitated by dramatically falling oil p...

by Sebastian Renner | On 29 Sep 2017

Secondary Towns and Poverty Reduction: Refocusing the Urbanization Agenda

This review is framed around the exploration of a central hypothesis: A shift in public investment towards secondary towns from big cities will improve poverty reduction performance.

by Luc Christiaensen | On 27 Sep 2017

Structural Transformation and Income Distribution: Kuznets and Beyond

This paper explores the question of structural transformation and income distribution through the eyes of the pioneer in such analysis, Simon Kuznets.

by Ravi Kanbur | On 27 Sep 2017

Federalism and the Formation of States in India

In recent days, the process of federalization within the Indian Union has become more debatable due to the unequal federal development at various levels. In this context, the issues of state formation...

by Susant Kumar Naik | On 14 Sep 2017

Toilet Access among the Urban Poor – Challenges and Concerns in Bengaluru City Slums

Urban expansion in India over the last few decades has placed cities in a challenging situation with limited infrastructure facilities affecting the quality of life of people who live in low income se...

by Manasi S | On 13 Sep 2017

Usage of Land and Labour under Shifting Cultivation in Manipur

Shifting cultivation remains the main source of employment for large sections of the rural people who depend on agriculture for their livelihood in the hill areas of Manipur. Its inputs continue to be...

by Marchang Reimeingam | On 12 Sep 2017

Estimating Filipinos' Vulnerability to Poverty

Natural disasters, together with other shocks, have contributed to the vulnerability of both poor and nonpoor Filipino households to poverty.

by Christian D. Mina | On 07 Sep 2017

How Inequality Hurts Growth: Revisiting the Galor‐Zeira Model Through a Korean Case

This paper aims to show that the level of inequality increases via the human capital channel with credit market imperfections generating negative effects on economic growth. We expand the model presen...

by Bogang Jun | On 28 Aug 2017

'Urban Bias' in the Flow of Funds and Deposit Mobilisation: Evidence from Karnataka, India

The paper argues that as bankers consider deposits a means for security, easy and attractive deposit schemes should be introduced in rural areas.

by Gagan Bihari Sahu | On 23 Aug 2017

Access & Utilisation of Health Care Services in urban low-income settlements, Surat, India

The report says that the urban poor constitutes nearly one-fourth of India’s urban population and is growing at three times of the national population growth rate.

by Akash Acharya | On 22 Aug 2017

Transitioning Towards a Green Economy in Karnataka

This report focused on agriculture, buildings, industries, transport, and power supply – sectors that account for all the state’s energy requirement and over 70% of its Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission...

by Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy CSTEP | On 14 Aug 2017

India, Climate Change and Security in South Asia

South Asia faces a wide array of social, political, and economic issues that already threaten security in the region. The region has a history of border disputes, sectarian violence, and government co...

by David Antos | On 09 Aug 2017

CAG Report Summary Reproductive and Child Health under National Rural Health Mission

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) released an audit report on the Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) programme under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) on July 21, 2017. The Re...

by PRS Legislative Research | On 07 Aug 2017

What is Causing Radicalism in the MENA?

The emergence of Al-Qaeda as a global terrorist organization carrying out devastating strikes across the USA, Europe, Middle East and Africa shed a spotlight on terrorism, and by extension on radicali...

by Fadi Farasin | On 03 Aug 2017

Approaches to Low Carbon Development in China and India

Low carbon development has gained policy prominence and is a concern of both environment and development policy globally and in China and India. This paper discusses the role of China and India as im...

by Shailly Kedia | On 03 Aug 2017

Urban Development and Rural - Urban Linkages in Six Towns in Bihar

The world is becoming increasingly urbanized. Globally 54 percent population lives in urban areas today (UN 2014). Although Asia is still relatively more rural than the Americas and the Europe, it is...

by Tanuka Endow | On 02 Aug 2017

Can Bihar Break the Clientelist Trap? The Political Effects of Programmatic Development Policy

It is widely recognized that politics affects policy-making, but there is little knowledge about how politics can be made more conducive to effective governance. This study reverses the relationship...

by Jonathan Phillips | On 02 Aug 2017

Cities, Towns, and Poverty: Migration Equilibrium and Income Distribution in a Todaro-type Model with Multiple Destinations

Should public investment be targeted to big cities or to small towns, if the objective is to minimize national poverty? To answer this policy question the basic Todaro-type model of rural-urban migr...

by Luc Christiaensen | On 01 Aug 2017

Jati, Local Public Goods and Village Governance: Private Actions and Public Outcomes

This paper purports to understand whether voting along narrow parochial lines in socially and ethnically fragmented societies has measurable gains. Using data from rural India, we establish that ident...

by Raghbendra Jha | On 31 Jul 2017

Cooking Contests for Healthier Recipes: Impacts on Nutrition Knowledge and Behaviors in Bangladesh

Many poverty alleviation programs aiming to enhance nutrition include behavior change communication (BCC). This study uses a field experiment in Bangladesh to assess the impacts of BCC, focusing on...

by Berber Kramer | On 31 Jul 2017

Nuclear Waste Management

This report may lead other nations to follow suit, but countries which do not have large quantities of SNF may find it difficult to justify geological repositories from economic considerations.

by | On 31 Jul 2017

24x7 Power for All: Strategies for Karnataka

The report concludes with the strategies that Karnataka should focus on in order to achieve the objectives of 24x7 Power for All.

by Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy CSTEP | On 31 Jul 2017

Technology Options for the Sanitation Value Chain

The compendium details the characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of the different technology options, and also describes the different types of systems formed as a combination of the technolog...

by Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy CSTEP | On 28 Jul 2017

Rural Renewable Energy Investments and Their Impact on Employment

his series of project publications aims to capture the tools, methods, and processes developed under the EC and ILO joint project entitled “Strengthening the Impact on Employment of Sector and Trade...

by Internaional Labour Organization [ILO] | On 28 Jul 2017

Are All Shifting Cultivators Poor? Evidence from Sri Lanka’s Dry Zones

Shifting cultivation is one of the main causes of deforestation and forest degradation in Sri Lanka. This study uses household data and satellite images to investigate the determinants of shifting cul...

by Prabath Nishantha Edirisinghe | On 28 Jul 2017

Gender Matters in Economic Empowerment Interventions: A Research Review

The article reviews the recent evaluation evidence on financial services and training interventions designed to increase the productivity and income of the poor; it includes the subset of evaluation...

by Mayra Buvinic | On 28 Jul 2017

Electric Buses in India: Technology, Policy and Benefits

The current policy climate in India is rightly addressing the challenges of electric buses, providing an environment to accelerate their adoption and implementation.

by Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy CSTEP | On 27 Jul 2017

Land Live: Land ownership in Rural India and Intra Household Exchanges

The incidence of parent-child co-residence in India is among the highest in the world. This paper examines the role of intra-household exchanges and potential bequests in creating incentives for adult...

by Sonalde Desai | On 27 Jul 2017

Targeting in Urban Displacement Context

The nature and scale of humanitarian crises are changing. The world is becoming increasingly urbanised – currently, 54 per cent of the world’s population lives in urban environments, which will rise t...

by | On 27 Jul 2017

Taking an Ecosystems Approach: Samarthan’s Work on Rural Poverty in India

Rural poverty continues to be a scourge in India, affecting tens of millions of households despite years of strong economic growth for the country overall. In 2005, the government of India created the...

by Government of India & Employment | On 26 Jul 2017

Gender Equality Results Case Study: India - Urban Water Supply and Environmental Improvement Project

The Urban Water Supply and Environmental Improvement Project sought to provide basic services of water supply, sanitation, and garbage collection and disposal in four cities in Madhya Pradesh, India.

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 26 Jul 2017

Gender Equality Results Case Study: Bangladesh - Second Urban Primary Health Care Project

The project provided preventative and curative services, including access to immunization, reproductive health services, limited curative care, nutrition-related services, community outreach on health...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 25 Jul 2017

Gender Equality Results Case Study: Bangladesh - Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Development Project

The report narrates that in Bangladesh, women-owned SMEs have different characteristics when compared with men-owned SMEs and tend to face specific challenges and obstacles.

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 25 Jul 2017

Gender Equality Results Case Study: Nepal - Community-Based Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Project

The project developed a gender, caste, and ethnicity (GCE) strategy that sought to ensure the participation of women and ethnic minorities in decision-making processes, as well as their increased repr...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 25 Jul 2017

East Asia Department Knowledge Management Initiatives in 2014

This annual publication showcases the results of knowledge management initiatives of the East Asia Department of the Asian Development Bank in 2014.

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 24 Jul 2017

Households' Inflation Expectations in India: Role of Economic Policy Uncertainty and Global Financial Uncertainty Spill-over

Inflation expectations are an important marker for the conduct of monetary policy. Using a Bayesian structural VAR-X model that includes the inflation expectations of general public based on the Infla...

by Taniya Ghosh | On 21 Jul 2017

Asia Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) Finance Monitor 2014

This publication reviews various country aspects of SME finance covering the banking sector, nonbank sector, and capital markets. It is expected to support evidence-based policy making and regulations...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 11 Jul 2017

Sustainable Energy for All Status Report: Tracking Progress in Asia and the Pacific - A Summary Report

This report summarizes the initial activities of the Regional Hub, and contextualizes the challenges in Asia and the Pacific with the global efforts to reach the 2030 targets.

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 06 Jul 2017

Climate Change, Food Security, and Socioeconomic Livelihood in Pacific Islands

The results of the study indicate that climate change will likely have significant negative impacts on agricultural output in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands.

by M.W. Rosegrant | On 05 Jul 2017

Fossil Fuel Subsidies in Indonesia: Trends, Impacts, and Reforms

This study measures the size of fossil fuel subsidies such as underpricing of petroleum products and electricity, tax exemptions, and subsidized credit; examines the potential economic, energy, and en...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 04 Jul 2017

Fossil Fuel Subsidies in Thailand: Trends, Impacts, and Reforms

This study measures the size of fossil fuel subsidies such as tax breaks for diesel and natural gas, market price support for natural gas for vehicles, and free electricity for low-income consumers as...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 04 Jul 2017

Improving Interchanges: Introducing Best Practices on Multimodal Interchange Hub Development in the People’s Republic of China

This report provides an discussion on a range of important issues in the interchange hub design. It also provides a general approach in developing a good interchange hub.

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 04 Jul 2017

Reviving Lakes and Wetlands in the People’s Republic of China, Volume 2: Lessons Learned on Integrated Water Pollution Control from Chao Lake Basin

This publication continues the ADB’s analysis of lake and wetland rehabilitation in the People’s Republic of China and examines how the current situation in the Chao Lake Basin compares with internati...

by All-India Drug Action Network (AIDAN) | On 03 Jul 2017

Travel Demand Management Options in Beijing

This study is part of the Asian Development Bank’s initiative to support greener and more sustainable transport systems that are convenient and lessen carbon dioxide emissions. Read how congestion cha...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 03 Jul 2017

Innovative Strategies in Technical and Vocational Education and Training for Accelerated Human Resource Development in South Asia: Sri Lanka

This publication is part of a series of six country reports on technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and higher education in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Each report presents cur...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 29 Jun 2017

Transforming Towards a High-Income People's Republic of China: Challenges and Recommendations

This report summarizes findings and policy recommendations for the government's 13th Five-Year Plan.

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 29 Jun 2017

Addressing Climate Change Risks, Disasters, and Adaptation in the People’s Republic of China

This study informs decision makers regarding major climate change risks to development and provides feasible policy recommendations for consideration to increase resilience and reduce vulnerability in...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 22 Jun 2017

Fiji: Creating Quality Jobs - Employment Diagnostic Study

This report, a joint effort of the Asian Development Bank and the International Labour Organization, seeks to foster a deeper understanding of the context, constraints, and opportunities for increasin...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 21 Jun 2017

Transitions to K–12 Education Systems: Experiences from Five Case Countries

The paper says that preparing and implementing a K–12 transition absorbs considerable financial and human resources. It follows that the reasons for restructuring must be compelling.

by Jouko Sarvi | On 21 Jun 2017

Sri Lanka: Development Effectiveness Brief

The paper says that Sri Lanka has emerged in recent years as one of the most dynamic countries in South Asia. With a rich cultural heritage, an increasingly sophisticated work force, and a strategic l...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 19 Jun 2017

Innovative Strategies in Higher Education for Accelerated Human Resource Development in South Asia: Nepal

The report herein provide in-depth analysis of the state of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and higher education in Nepal.

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 19 Jun 2017

Disaster-Resilient Microfinance: Learning from Communities Affected by Typhoon Haiyan

The report sets out the experience, analysis and conclusions of VisionFund International and their Philippine microfinance operation Community Economic Ventures Incorporated (CEVI). This analysis foll...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 09 Jun 2017

Enhancing Community-Driven Development through Convergence: A Case Study of Household- and Community-Based Initiatives in Philippine Villages

The study examines the Philippine government’s convergence initiative, and how it relates to community-driven development (CDD) that can impact rural communities in the Philippines.

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 09 Jun 2017

Papua New Guinea: Development Effectiveness Brief

This report narrates that ADB has scaled up its assistance to Papua New Guinea for power infrastructure, with an emphasis on clean energy solutions, in line with the government’s prioritization of pow...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 08 Jun 2017

Gender Equality Results Case Study: Nepal Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women Project

This report presents the case study of that project, whose special features include responsiveness to local contexts and to conditions created by conflict, a well-coordinated system for women collecti...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 06 Jun 2017

Incentives for Reducing Disaster Risk in Urban Areas

The rapid growth of urban areas has often resulted in the siting of poorly designed infrastructure and assets in hazard-prone areas, increasing disaster risk.

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 05 Jun 2017

Myanmar Transport Sector Policy Note: Rural Roads and Access

Rural roads and rural transport services are fundamental to reducing rural poverty and enabling social and economic development. Evidence from Myanmar, and from around the world, makes it clear that a...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 01 Jun 2017

Vital Stats Overview of Road Accidents in India

The report narrates that in 2015, there were about five lakh road accidents in India, which killed about 1.5 lakh people and injured about five lakh people. India, as a signatory to the Brasilia decla...

by Prachee Mishra | On 30 May 2017

Changing Tax Capacity and Tax Effort of Indian States in the Era of High Economic Growth, 2001-2014

Growing demand for public expenditures, limitations in expanding fiscal space and limited scope to deviate from common harmonized tax system under the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime may...

by Sacchidananda Mukherjee | On 25 May 2017

Risk Financing for Rural Climate Resilience in the Greater Mekong Subregion

This report presents the findings of a climate risk financing study conducted by the GMS Core Environment Program in 28 rural communities in Cambodia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, and Viet Na...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 22 May 2017

Rural Medical Practitioners: Who are they? What do they do? Should they be trained for improvement? Evidence from rural West Bengal

The private healthcare sector in rural India is often dominated by unqualified rural medical practitioners (RMPs). However, there is limited evidence on RMPs and potential for an intervention to reduc...

by Subrata Mukherjee | On 19 May 2017

Analysis of Simultaneous Elections : The "What", "Why" and "How"

This paper narrates that elections impact everyone in the entire country – citizens, businesses, administrative machinery, constitutional institutions, political parties, leaders and so on. Eventual i...

by Bibek Debroy | On 18 May 2017

Study Report on Agricultural Marketing and Farmer Friendly Reforms Across Indian States and UTs

An important reason for this dichotomy between agriculture and non agricultural sectors is that the former is a state subject under the Indian Constitution placing the burden of implementation of refo...

by Ramesh Chand | On 18 May 2017

Evaluation Study on Role of Public Distribution System in Shaping Household and Nutritional Security India

It has been observed that even though the Indian economy has achieved remarkable economic growth along with a decline in poverty over the last two decades, improvements in nutritional status have not...

by Niti Aayog GOI | On 18 May 2017

Quick Evaluation Study on Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana (IGMSY)

Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana (IGMSY) is a Conditional Maternity Benefit (CMB) Scheme of the Government of India launched in 2010. The scheme is being implemented by the Ministry of Women and C...

by Niti Aayog GOI | On 17 May 2017

The Emergence of Pacific Urban Villages: Urbanization Trends in the Pacific Islands

The paper narrates that the specific needs of the Pacific in the process of urbanization must be recognized and adequately addressed in the post-2015 development agenda. Key priorities include upgradi...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 15 May 2017

Nature-Based Solutions for Building Resilience in Towns and Cities: Case Studies from the Greater Mekong Subregion

This publication highlights the results of a successful partnership between the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the International Centre for Environmental Management (ICEM) with cofinancing from the...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 10 May 2017

Mongolia: Development Effectiveness Brief

The paper mentions that over the 25 years that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has partnered with Mongolia, the country continues to be defined to a certain extent by its transition to free market re...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 10 May 2017

Bangladesh: Development Effectiveness Brief 2017

The project has dramatically changed the life of Rabeya Sultana, chair of the women-led slum improvement committee formed under the project in Cox's Bazar. "Managing people and money gave me more co...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 08 May 2017

Cities as Engines of Inclusive Development

This paper argues that the recent policy rhetoric towards cities in India has been shaped by their increasing economic importance in national output generation, as well as a series of prominent glob...

by Indian Institute for Human Settlements | On 05 May 2017

Earth Observation for a Transforming Asia and Pacific

This report summarises the main results of the initiative Earth Observation for a Transforming Asia and Pacific (EOTAP) that brought together our two institutions – the European Space Agency (ESA) an...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 05 May 2017

Eradicating Poverty and Promoting Prosperity in a Changing Asia-Pacific

This report explores three entry points to the theme of poverty and prosperity: (i) managing urbanization for inclusive development, (ii) strengthening responses to rural poverty in the context of t...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 04 May 2017

Picking The Winner: Measuring Urban

This study provides a snapshot of the sustainability of selected Indian cities by employing 57 indicators in four dimensions to develop an overall city sustainability index. In recent years, its comp...

by B.Sudhakara Reddy | On 03 May 2017

Income Generation and Inequality in India's Agricultural Sector: The Consequences of Land Fragmentation

This paper is a contribution to understanding income generation and inequality in India's agricultural sector. The paper analyses the National Sample Surveys of agriculture in 2003 and 2013 using desc...

by Sanjoy Chakravorty | On 02 May 2017

Household Expenditure on Higher Education in India: What do we know & What do recent data have to say?

The paper analyse data from two recent NSSO surveys to provide estimates of expenditure on higher education and loans availed for higher education. The average share of expenditure on higher educatio...

by S. Chandrasekhar | On 02 May 2017

The Puzzle of Indian Urbanisation

This paper uses simultaneous equations error component three-stage least squares (EC3SLS) panel data technique to find out both the direct as well as the indirect impact of trade, industrial dissimi...

by Pronab Sen | On 17 Apr 2017

Vital Stats: Overview of Road Accidents in India

In 2015, there were about five lakh road accidents in India, which killed about 1.5 lakh people and injured about five lakh people. India, as a signatory to the Brasilia declaration, intends to reduc...

by Prachee Mishra | On 30 Mar 2017

Cognitive Skills, Noncognitive Skills, and School-to-Work Transitions in Rural China

Economists have long recognized the important role of formal schooling and cognitive skills on labor market participation and wages. More recently, increasing attention has turned to the role of perso...

by | On 16 Mar 2017

Himachal Pradesh Budget 2017-18

The Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, Shri Virbhadra Singh, presented a budget on 10 March 2017 for the financial year 2017-18. The total proposed budget for the FY 2017-18 is Rs. 35,783 crore.

by | On 14 Mar 2017

The Cooperative Pathway of Enhancing Rural Livelihood and Nutrition Security

a major challenge before Indian agriculture is the standardization of methods of providing the power and economy of scale to small producers. A serious problem confronting our agriculture is the di...

by M. S. Swaminathan | On 14 Mar 2017

Delhi Budget: 2017-18

Finance Minister of Delhi Shri Manish Sisodia presented the budget of Delhi.

by Manish Sisodia | On 10 Mar 2017

Poverty Targeting Through Public Goods

In national accounts, government expenditures are used to measure the value of public spending. These expenditures grossly overestimate the value of services received by Indian households because th...

by Anders Kjelsrud | On 01 Mar 2017

Development Planning and 'Urban' Context: Reflections on the Indian Scene

Through a broad portrayal of character of its development, changing urban patterns, nature of urban economic structure and contents of urban development policies, this paper takes a political econom...

by Biswaroop Das | On 17 Feb 2017

Caste Connections and Government Transfers: The Mahadalits of Bihar

The category of Scheduled Castes, created for the purpose of affirmative action in India, is large, heterogeneous and unequal. In 2007, the state of Bihar classified the most disadvantaged among thi...

by Hemanshu Kumar | On 16 Feb 2017

Economic Status and Adult Mortality in India

Research on economic status and adult mortality is often stymied by the reciprocity of this relationship. While financial resources increase access to healthcare and nutrition and reduce mortality, si...

by | On 15 Feb 2017

Family, Community, and Educational Outcomes in South Asia

In this article, we review research on the economics and sociology of education to assess the relationships between family and community variables and children’s educational outcomes in South Asia. At...

by | On 14 Feb 2017

Collective Action on South Asia's 'Wicked Problems'

The problems of water, energy, climate change, and urbanisation, are all intertwined; they are, also, all 'wicked'. There is little consensus on how to effectively navigate these problems, let alone,...

by | On 02 Feb 2017

Bangalore’s Tragedy – A Dead City with Unabated, Unplanned and Untenable Urbanization

Bangalore has been experiencing unprecedented rapid urbanization and sprawl in recent times due to adoption of concentrated developmental path with impetus on industrialization for the economic develo...

by | On 31 Jan 2017

Study of Environment can lead to Human Development

Reveiw of ‘Population, Health and Environment’ Edited by Sayeed Unisa, T.V. Sekher, Chander Shekhar, Abhishek Singh, L.K.Dwivedi and M.R. Pradhan by Rawat Pubslishers.

by Manisha Karne | On 30 Jan 2017

Swachh Bharat Mission - Gramin (SBM-G): GOI, 2016-17

Using government data, this brief reports on trends for SBM-G along the following parameters: • Allocations and expenditures • Physical progress of toilets built • Expenditures incurred under ...

by Avani Kapur | On 27 Jan 2017

Rural - Urban Linkages in South Asia: Contemporary Themes and Policy Directions

The early literature on migrant urban communities emphasized the conditions and employment patterns of squatter residents who have emerged on the urban landscape. Only recently has attention shifted t...

by | On 23 Jan 2017

Jammu and Kashmir Budget Analysis 2017-18

The Finance Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Mr. Haseeb A. Drabu, presented the Budget for Jammu and Kashmir for financial year 2017-18 on January 11, 2017.

by Arvind Gayam | On 17 Jan 2017

Escalating Pollution Threats in Urbanising Indian Cities

Rapid urbanisation with an increase in urban population from 28.3% (in 1950) to 50% (in 2010) is witnessed in megacities in India. Urbanisation is one of the demographic issues in the 21st century and...

by Bharath H. Aithal | On 16 Jan 2017

The Power of Social Pensions

This paper examines the impacts of social pension provision among people of different ages. Utilizing the county-by-county rollout of the New Rural Pension Scheme in rural China, we find that, among t...

by | On 10 Jan 2017

Impact of Internet and Digitisation on SMBs in India

“Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) form the backbone of the Indian economy making large contributions to important economic indicators as well as household incomes. Digital technologies have transfor...

by | On 05 Jan 2017

Solar Energy and Economic Development In India: A Review

Shortage of electricity prompted the countries to give a momentum to renewable energy resources. Renewable energy refers to energy resources that Aries naturally and repeatedly in the environment and...

by | On 04 Jan 2017

Household Expenditure on Higher Education in India: What Do we Know and What do Recent Data Have to say?

Data from two recent NSSO surveys are analysed to provide estimates of expenditure on higher education and loans availed for higher education. The average share of expenditure on higher education out...

by S. Chandrasekhar | On 03 Jan 2017

The Role of Learning in Technology Adoption: Evidence on Hybrid Rice Adoption in Bihar, India

Much empirical research has shown that individuals’ decisions to adopt a new technology are the result of learning–both through personal experimentation through observing the experimentation of others...

by Jared Gars | On 03 Jan 2017

Local Institutional Structure and Clientelistic Access to Employment: The Case of MGNREGS in Three States of India

This work is a contribution, first, toward measuring and characterizing some features of rural clientelistic institutions and then toward exploring its impact on household access to an employment sc...

by Anindya Bhattacharya | On 30 Dec 2016

Financial Inclusion in the Digital Age

The policies needed to promote financial inclusion in the digital age were discussed at an international conference held at the Asian Development Bank Institute. The  event took place on 7–8 April 2...

by Shawn Hunter | On 29 Dec 2016

India’s Sanitation for All: How to Make It Happen

This discussion paper examines the current state of sanitation services in India in relation to two goals—Goal 7 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which calls on countries to halve, by 2015,...

by Asian Bank | On 27 Dec 2016

Costs of Selected Policies to Address Air Pollution in China

Air pollution has been one of the most pernicious consequences of China’s last three decades of economic transformation and growth. Although Chinese governments—federal, provincial, and municipal—have...

by | On 23 Dec 2016

Women, Work, and Employment Outcomes in Rural India

This paper analyses the trends and pattern of women’s employment in rural India using unit data from two types of large scale surveys. It shows that while rural women’s employment has grown over the d...

by | On 20 Dec 2016

Identity, Household Work, and Subjective Well-Being among Rural Women in Bangladesh

Despite increases in women’s employment, significant gender disparity exists in the time men and women spend on household and care work. Understanding how social expectations govern gender roles and c...

by Greg Seymour | On 15 Dec 2016

The Changing Contours of Inter group Disparities and the Role of Preferential Policies in a Globalizing World: Evidence from India

How persistent are traditional socioeconomic hierarchies in the face of marketization, significant structural shifts in the economy, and increased political representation of lower-ranked groups, and...

by Ashwini Deshpande | On 15 Dec 2016

An Analysis of Urban Growth Trends in the Post-Economic Reforms Period in India

Significant changes have been observed since 1991 in the nature and pattern of urban growth in India. Our cities are in the midst of restructuring space, in terms of both use and form. The paper addre...

by | On 14 Dec 2016

Problems and Challenges of Urbanization in India: A Sociological Evaluation

The urbanization is a process which urban social and urban civilization forming gradually. On the way of urbanization, we develop the economy first and improve the quality of people’s life later. Alth...

by | On 14 Dec 2016

The "Discouraged Worker Effect" in Public Works Programs:Evidence from the MGNREGA in India

This study investigates the consequences of poor implementation in public workfare programs, focusing on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in India. Using national...

by Sudha Narayanan | On 29 Nov 2016

Craft Clusters and Work in Rural India: An Exploration

With the farm sector continuing with unimpressive performance in terms of the growth of value of output, agricultural infrastructure and also sustained massive rise in the landless agricultural labo...

by Keshab Das | On 28 Nov 2016

Stranded Migrants: Giving Structure to a Multifaceted Notion

This paper represents a holistic study of the multifaceted notion of stranded migrants, which gained renewed attention by international actors in the past decade, and especially in relation to the 201...

by | On 28 Nov 2016

Burden of Diseases due to Air Pollution in Urban India

Air pollution causes some of the most serious long-term impacts on human health. Unlike other health problems, the diseases caused by air-pollution are likely to affect everyone exposed to polluted...

by Amrita Ghatak | On 25 Nov 2016

China’s Rural-Urban Migration: Structure and Gender Attributes of the Floating Rural Labor Force

This article focuses on Chinese female rural migrant workers. Based on the survey data collected in Anhui and Sichuan provinces of China, the article investigates gender aspects of Chinese rural-urban...

by | On 22 Nov 2016

State of State Finances

Finances of states have been changing due to (i) increased devolution of central taxes, (ii) rationalisation of the Centrally Sponsored Schemes, (iii) the introduction of the UDAY scheme, and (iv) the...

by Arvind Gayam | On 09 Nov 2016

The Impact of Arranged Marital Customs on Women 's Autonomy in Rural India

It will be argued that while modernization in India has allowed for small improvements to women's autonomy, in rural India today the little autonomy women do have is constricted through traditional no...

by | On 02 Nov 2016

Costs and Benefits of Urbanization: The Indian Case

Urbanization has both benefits and costs. In a market economy, the trade-off between benefits and costs determines the level, speed, and place of urbanization. This paper summarizes research finding...

by Kala Seetharam Sridhar | On 28 Oct 2016

Lower in Rank, but Happier: The Complex Relationship between Status and Happiness

Case studies across the social sciences have established a positive relationship between social status and happiness. In observational data, however, identification challenges remain severe. This st...

by Bert Van Landeghem | On 25 Oct 2016

Less Work is More Work: Female Labour Force Participation and Reproduction in India

The puzzling decline in female labour force participation in India in the context of high economic growth has recently generated considerable academic interest. Increasing educational enrolment by wom...

by | On 19 Oct 2016

Water, Megacities and Global Change

Numerous studies have explored urban growth and the emergence of the megapolitan phenomenon through increasing growth in the number of cities with over 10 million inhabitants. Similarly, the processes...

by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultura [UNESCO] | On 19 Oct 2016

MGNREGS: Political Economy, Local Governance and Asset Creation in South India

MGNREGS, the premier centrally-sponsored national rural livelihood scheme, is one of the most elaborately designed and implemented public workfare programmes in India. While a large number of studi...

by Vinoj Abraham | On 10 Oct 2016

Will China’s Demographic Transition Exacerbate Its Income Inequality? A CGE Modeling with Top-down Microsimulation

Demographic transition due to population aging is an emerging trend throughout the developing world, and it is especially acute in China, which has undergone demographic transition more rapidly than...

by Xinxin Wang | On 10 Oct 2016

Concerns of Food Security, Role of Gender, and Intrahousehold Dynamics in Pakistan

The available literature in Pakistan is generally lacking in a critical examination of the issues related to intrahousehold resource allocation. This black box is due largely to the lack of individua...

by Hina Nazli | On 10 Oct 2016

Poor Women in Urban India: Issues and Strategies

It is generally recognised that poverty is experienced differently according to their gender, age, caste, class and ethnicity and within households. Income levels, food security and indeed life choice...

by | On 05 Oct 2016

Remittances and Informal Work

This paper studies the effects of remittances on informal employment in the migrants’ countries of origin, looking both at the remittance-receiving and non-migrant households. Using data from the Soci...

by | On 05 Oct 2016

Interactions between Policy Assumptions and Rural Women's Work - A Case Study

The concern of this paper is limited to the approaches to rural women's development and an understanding of their work roles in the planning strategies. [CWDS Working paper].

by Kumud Sharma | On 30 Sep 2016

Understanding why Black Women are not Working Longer

Black women in current cohorts ages 50 to 72 years have lower employment than similar white women, despite having had higher employment when they were middle-aged and younger. Earlier cohorts of older...

by Joanna Lahey | On 28 Sep 2016

A Study of Government Urdu Primary Schools in Bengaluru

This study provides an overview of Urdu-medium primary schools in the Bengaluru urban district of Karnataka in India. Akshara’s research examined access to government-run Urdu-medium schools and iss...

by Divya Vishawanath | On 23 Sep 2016

A Vision for the Least Developed Countries Fund in a Post-Paris Climate Regime

The 48 Least Developed Countries (LDCs) are the only country grouping to have a dedicated article in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Article 4.9 commits all parties to the conv...

by | On 22 Sep 2016

Zoning and the Economic Geography of Cities

Comprehensive zoning is ubiquitous in U.S. cities, yet surprisingly little is known about its long-run impacts. This paper provides the first attempt to measure the causal effect of land use regulatio...

by Allison Shertzer | On 19 Sep 2016

Improved Source, Improved Quality? Demand for Drinking Water Quality in Rural India

This paper tests the hypothesis that the expansion of improved drinking water supplies in rural India reduced household expenditure on water quality, offsetting some of the quality benefits from sourc...

by | On 16 Sep 2016

Understanding and Applying Primary Pathways and Principles

This brief focuses on the pathway from agricultural income to better diets, health, and nutrition, illustrated in blue in the figure below. However, all of the pathways are interrelated. Agricultural...

by | On 09 Sep 2016

Toward SDG 2: Food Security and Urbanization in the Global South

In light of the United Nations’ SDGs1 and their global hunger directive, in particular Goal 2 to “end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition,” it is clear that food security will be a m...

by | On 09 Sep 2016

Habitat III National Reports for the Asia-Pacific Region

The National Reports received to date were considered during the development of the Regional Report and examples from National Reports have been incorporated into the Regional Report as appropriate T...

by United Nations (UN) | On 07 Sep 2016

The End of Cheap Labour: Are Foreign Investors Leaving China?

China’s government is promoting the shift towards a consumption-based economy since a few years. The explicit goal to significantly raise the percentage of wages in the national household income is in...

by | On 31 Aug 2016

Impacts on International Migration and Remittances Growth

This study provided a brief discussion of the international migration, an age old common phenomenon is an emerging economic development issue and remittances growth. Approach: Each year Bangladesh exp...

by | On 31 Aug 2016

Does Development Aid Undermine Political Accountability? Leader and Constituent Responses to a Large-Scale Intervention

Comprehensive program evaluation requires capturing indirect effects of an intervention, such as changes in leaders’ efforts and constituents’ attitudes towards leaders. We study political economy r...

by | On 30 Aug 2016

Learning and Behavioral Spillovers of Nutritional Information

This paper provides evidence for informational spillovers within urban slums in Chandigarh, India. I identify three groups, a treatment group, a neighboring spillover group, and a nonadjacent pure con...

by | On 30 Aug 2016

Gender Bias in Education during Conflict: Evidence from Assam

Using a large-scale novel panel dataset (2005–14) on schools from the Indian state of Assam, we test for the impact of violent conflict on female students’ enrollment rates. We find that a doubling of...

by | On 30 Aug 2016

Educating the Urban Poor: Case Study of Running Pre-schools in Non-notified Slums of Bengaluru

In the paper, an informal preschool program is described that Akshara Foundation administered over 12 months in a set of non-notified slums in Bengaluru. The intervention is particularly noteworthy be...

by K. Vaijayanti | On 29 Aug 2016

Picking the Winner: Measuring Urban Sustainability in India

This study provides a snapshot of the sustainability of selected Indian cities by employing 57 indicators in four dimensions to develop an overall city sustainability index. In recent years, its comp...

by B.Sudhakara Reddy | On 29 Aug 2016

Impact of Caregiver Incentives on Child Health: Evidence from an Experiment with Anganwadi Workers in India

This paper provides evidence of effectiveness for performance pay among government caregivers to improve child health in India. In a controlled study of 160 daycare centers serving over 4,000 children...

by | On 29 Aug 2016

Urban Governance for Adaptation: Assessing Climate Change Resilience in Ten Asian Cities

This paper examines how to manage urban climate-related impacts by promoting planned and autonomous adaptation to improve climate change resilience. An analytical framework is developed by combining u...

by | On 29 Aug 2016

ABCD of MSME Credit

According to MSME Ministry’s Annual Report for 2015-16, MSME sector in India today is a network of 51 million enterprises providing employment to 117.1 million persons and contributing 37.5 per cent...

by S.S. Mundra | On 29 Aug 2016

Large-Scale Migration and Remittance in Nepal: Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities

Almost half of all households have at least one migrant abroad or a returnee. Estimates of the number of Nepali migrants abroad vary widely, but the most frequently cited estimate, including seasonal...

by World Bank [WB] | On 25 Aug 2016

Education for Rural Development: Towards New Policy Responses

The big challenge of the new century is the reduction of poverty. Virtually all countries and donors agree on the importance of reducing poverty and its attendant problems of inequity, lack of respect...

by Food and Agricultural Organization [FAO] | On 24 Aug 2016

Environmentally Induced Migration from Bangladesh to India

Environmental crisis in the rural areas of developing countries is increasingly becoming an important cause of cross-border migration of population and South Asia is no exception to this phenomenon. S...

by | On 22 Aug 2016

Trends and Patterns in the Triple Burden of Malnutrition in India

This paper brings together recent evidence on what has come to be referred to as the triple burden of malnutrition—consisting of overnutrition, undernutriton, and micronutrient deficiencies—using va...

by Meenakshi J V | On 19 Aug 2016

The State of Food and Agriculture: Social Protection and Agriculture: Breaking the Cycle of Rural Poverty

This edition of The State of Food and Agriculture 2015 reviews the effectiveness of social protection interventions in reducing poverty, raising food consumption, relieving household food insecurity a...

by Food and Agricultural Organization [FAO] | On 16 Aug 2016

The Impact of Sex Ratios before Marriage on Household Saving in Two Asian Countries: The Competitive Saving Motive Revisited

This paper estimates a household saving rate equation for India and the Republic of Korea using longterm time series data for the 1975–2010 period, focusing in particular on the impact of the premari...

by Charles Yuji Horioka | On 16 Aug 2016

How Do Maternity Leave and Discriminatory Social Norms Relate to Women’s Employment in Developing Countries?

Increasing women’s participation in paid employment is a fundamental step towards women’s economic empowerment and improving development outcomes. The benefits of increasing women’s labour force parti...

by Somali Cerise | On 12 Aug 2016

Myanmar Transport Sector Policy Note: Urban Transport

This note presents a review of Myanmar’s urban transport. It focuses on the country’s main cities, Yangon and Mandalay, where issues are most severe, to also help solve similar problems in secondary c...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 12 Aug 2016

Epigenetics as an Interplay between Nutrition and Cardiometabolic Disorders

There is growing unaddressed burden of cardiometabolic disorders particularly in the developing countries that is attributable to urbanization. One of the major life style factors that changes drastic...

by | On 11 Aug 2016

Analyzing the Impact of the World’s Largest Public Works Project on Crime

India started the implementation of a rural public works program in 2006, covering all districts of the country within three years. The program guarantees 100 days of employment per year at minimum wa...

by Satadru Das | On 09 Aug 2016

Universal PDS: Efficiency and Equity Dimensions

India being home to the largest number of poor and malnourished population in the world, the tabling of National Food Security Bill has renewed the public pressure for universalization of PDS in Ind...

by Sowmya Dhanraj | On 03 Aug 2016

Impact of Rural-To-Urban Migration on Family and Gender Values in China

Drawing on data from the 2006 China General Social Survey, propensity score matching was used to investigate the impact of rural-to-urban migration on family and gender values in China at distinct sta...

by | On 25 Jul 2016

Women on the Move Migration, Gender Equality and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

This brief presents an overview and analysis of the opportunities, risks and vulnerabilities for women migrants and refugees. It describes the realities of women migrating around the world, and specif...

by | On 19 Jul 2016

Food Security and the Millennium Development Goal on Hunger in Asia

The MDG on hunger requires that the proportion of people suffering from hunger be halved between 1990 and 2015. Behind this apparently simple statement lies much complexity: the food intake required t...

by | On 19 Jul 2016

Youth Development in India: Does Poverty Matter?

This paper explores the differentials in youth development patterns determined by the economic condition of the household in India. The wealth index is used to glean youth development differentials in...

by Bijaya Kumar Malik | On 15 Jul 2016

Reimagining India’s Urban Future: A Framework for Securing High-Growth, Low-Carbon, Climate-Resilient Urban Development in India

This paper reviews the current state of the literature on Indian urbanization to analyze existing urban development trajectories at the state level in order to understand the challenges Indian cities...

by Meenu Tewari | On 15 Jul 2016

Impact of Community-led Total Sanitation on Women’s Health in Urban Slums: A Case Study from Kalyani Municipality

This Evidence Report seeks to understand the health and other impacts of slum women’s access to sanitation through the Community-led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach. It also examines the process thro...

by | On 15 Jul 2016

Rural Livelihood Diversification and its Measurement Issues: Focus India

The rural structural distinctiveness in terms of resource endowments and factors of production often has bearings on livelihood and well-being of their people, constraining improvement in the economic...

by Rajiv Mehta | On 11 Jul 2016

Old-Age Pension and Extended Families: How is Adult Children’s Internal Migration Affected?

This paper makes use of the most recent social pension reform in rural China to examine whether receipt of the pension payment equips adult children of pensioners to migrate. Employing a regression di...

by Xi Chen | On 11 Jul 2016

Does Social Health Insurance Reduce Financial Burden? Panel Data Evidence from India

Indian government launched the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), a national health insurance scheme, in 2008 that provides cashless health services to poor households in India. The scheme is eval...

by Mehtabul Azam | On 11 Jul 2016

A Study on Effectiveness of Panchayati Raj Institutions in Health Care System in the State of Kerala

The objective of the study is to assess the effectiveness of Panchayati Raj Institutions in Health Care System in the State of Kerala with a special reference to impact of duality and role of bureaucr...

by Jacob John | On 29 Jun 2016

Is Partisan Alignment Electorally Rewarding? Evidence from Village Council Elections in India

Do ruling parties positively discriminate in favour of their own constituencies in allocating public resources? If they do, do they gain electorally in engaging in such a practice? This paper tests wh...

by Subhasish Dey | On 27 Jun 2016

Can Labor Market Imperfections Explain Changes in the Inverse Farm Size–Productivity Relationship? Longitudinal Evidence from Rural India

The existence of an inverse relationship between farm size and output per unit of land is well documented. However, little research focuses on if and how an inverse relationship between farm size and...

by Klaus Deininger | On 27 Jun 2016

National and International Agricultural Research and Rural Poverty: The Case of Rice Research in India and China

The study attempts to measure the total benefits from rice varietal improvement research in China and India using variety adoption and performance data over the last two decades. It then uses informat...

by | On 23 Jun 2016

Ability Tracking and Social Capital in China’s Rural Secondary School System

The goal of this paper is to describe and analyze the relationship between ability tracking and student social capital, in the context of poor students in developing countries. Drawing on the results...

by Fan Li | On 23 Jun 2016

Slum Free India: Myths and Realities- A Status Report on Rajiv Awas Yojana

The present report is a result of efforts that were spread over a period of more than a year (2013 – 2014) and included two national level consultations and sharing meetings held in Delhi, visit to m...

by Simpreet . | On 23 Jun 2016

Towards Increasing Off-Farm Income Opportunities for Farmers

Small land holders dominate Indian agriculture, and need off-farm income for survival. Analysis shows that for sufficient off-farm income opportunities, growth in agriculture, manufacturing, or touri...

by Brajesh Jha | On 22 Jun 2016

Changes in Wage Structure in Urban India 1983-2004: A Quantile Regression Decomposition

This paper examines changes in the wage structure in urban India during the past two decades (1983-2004) across the entire wage distribution using the Machado and Mata (2005) decomposition approach. R...

by Mehtabul Azam | On 22 Jun 2016

Factors Influencing Outcome Expectations and Self-Efficacy in Driving Internet Use in Rural India

This study uses the theory of social capital and social cognition to understand the drivers of Internet use from the perspective of outcome expectations and self-efficacy. The primary research questi...

by Rekha Jain | On 21 Jun 2016

Draft National Forest Policy, 2016

There was a felt to revise the National Forest Policy, 1988 to integrate the vision of sustainable forest management based on the principles of ecosystem approach, landscape level planning and the...

by Indian Institute of Forest Management IIFM | On 21 Jun 2016

India and Afghanistan: A Development Partnership

India’s expanding partnership with Afghanistan has grown into multi-sectoral activities in all parts of Afghanistan. India’s reconstruction and developmental programmes in Afghanistan follow prioritie...

by Ministry of External Affairs, GoI MEA | On 21 Jun 2016

An Analysis of Perceptions of Domestic Violence and Efficacy of the Implementation of the PWDV Act (2005) in Bihar

The present study has been conducted in the rural and urban areas of 9 districts of 9 commissionaries in Bihar. A random sample of 375 families is drawn from different socio-economic backgrounds. The...

by CARE India | On 20 Jun 2016

Book Review: Depoliticising Social Change and the Celebration of Inequality in Rural India

Review of Inside-Outside: Two Views of Social Change in Rural India. Edited by B. S. Baviskar and D. W. Attwood, Sage Publications, New Delh, 2014.

by | On 20 Jun 2016

A Joined-Up Approach to Delivering the Global Goals for Sustainable Development

The sustainable management and restoration of our landscapes – achieving land degradation neutrality - will deliver many co-benefits. From biodiversity conservation and combating climate change to ens...

by | On 17 Jun 2016

Farms, Families, and Markets: New Evidence on the Completeness of Markets in Agricultural Settings

The farm household model has played a central role in improving the understanding of small-scale agricultural households and non-farm enterprises. Under the assumptions that all current and future mar...

by Daniel LaFave | On 17 Jun 2016

Desertification and Land Degradation: Atlas of India

Land degradation and desertification pose an ever - increasing global environmental threat. Human activities such as over cultivation, overgrazing, deforestation and poor irrigation practices, along...

by Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO | On 17 Jun 2016

Urban Water Systems in India: A Way Forward

This paper provides a new presentation of the urban water problem and offers a set of solutions that are sustainable, both in ecological and financial terms, and seek to tackle the deep inequities in...

by Mihir Shah | On 16 Jun 2016

Income Mobility among Social Groups in Indian Rural Households: Findings from the Indian Human Development Survey

The paper analyses income mobility across different social groups in India using data from the Indian Human Development Survey (IHDS) collected in 2004–05 and 2011–12. Indices signifying different n...

by Thiagu Ranganathan | On 16 Jun 2016

Ministry of Finance and Planning Annual Report 2010

This paper contains the annual report 2010 of Ministry of Finance and Planning, Government of Sri Lanka.

by Ministry of Finance and Planning, Govt of Sri Lanka | On 15 Jun 2016

Guidelines for Construction of Anganwadi Centers Under MGNREGS in Convergence with ICDS Scheme of the Ministry of Women and Child Development

The article gives the guidelines for setting up the Anganwadi centres under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS). The Government is committed to repositioning the Anganwadi Centre (AWC) as “...

by Ministry of Rural Development GoI | On 10 Jun 2016

What Future for the Cities Within our Cities?

According to a report from the Mckinsey Global Institute, India is set to witness a leap in urban population by almost 25 crore over the next 20 years. That translates to roughly 35,000 more people in...

by | On 09 Jun 2016

‘Lighting up’ the Lives of the Poor

In India, a majority of rural households meet their energy requirements from traditional fuel sources, such as fuel wood, agricultural residues and kerosene. Statistics shows that 21 percent of villag...

by | On 09 Jun 2016

The Value of Private Schools: Evidence from Pakistan

Using unique data from Pakistan we estimate a model of demand for differentiated products in 112 rural education markets with significant choice among public and private schools. Our model accounts fo...

by | On 09 Jun 2016

Property Rights and Gender Bias: Evidence from Land Reform in West Bengal

While land reforms are typically pursued in order to raise productivity and reduce inequality across households, an unintended consequence may be increased within-household gender inequality. We analy...

by | On 03 Jun 2016

Locked in a Low-Skill Equilibrium? Trends in Labour Supply and Demand in India

This paper analyzes aspects of supply and demand for labour in India using National Sample Survey data for the years 1983, 1993-94, 1999-2000 and 2004-05. With the possibility of a ‘demographic divide...

by Jayan Jose Thomas | On 03 Jun 2016

The Contours and Concerns of Drought-Induced Migration

Umi Daniel is currently working as Head Migration Thematic unit at Aide et Action South Asia. His areas of interests are tribal empowerment, people’s right to food, micro level planning, rights and en...

by Umi Daniel | On 03 Jun 2016

Solar for Powering Health and Education in India

This study, based on analysis of secondary data, assesses the current state of electricity access in PHCs and rural primary schools. Given the increasing policy support for solar energy in India, it a...

by | On 02 Jun 2016

Health Sector Financing by Centre and States/UTs in India: [2013-14 to 2015]

Public expenditure data has been sourced from the State budget documents, detailed demand for grants of MoHFW and other Central Ministries/Departments. This document gives in totality classification...

by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare MoH&FW | On 02 Jun 2016

Identifying Stakeholders in the Land Use Management Process and Related Critical Factors in ASEAN

With growing populations and demand for food, farmers in ASEAN member states (except Singapore) are required to produce more and more food from land that continues to decline due to population growth,...

by | On 31 May 2016

Draft Report on the Implementation of Status of Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014

This report is an outcome of the continuous interaction of YUVA Urban and National Hawkers Federation (NHF) with the street vendors across different states. They have been a part of the struggle of...

by Sadaf Zafar | On 31 May 2016

Indicators for Monitoring the Millennium Development Goals

The present handbook is designed to provide United Nations country teams and national and international stakeholders with guidance on the definitions, rationale, concepts and sources of the data for t...

by United Nations (UN) | On 27 May 2016

Gender Wage Gaps among Regular Employed Persons

The gender wage gaps in Indian states and the wage gaps among educated people are shown.

by Lakshmi Priya | On 27 May 2016

Agriculture and ASEAN Economies: Still Key for Growth

Despite its declining contribution to the GDP of ASEAN economies, agriculture remains a major source of employment for rural populations and provides much value add for agrifood industries. The ASEAN...

by | On 27 May 2016

Poverty in Cambodia - A New Approach: Redefining the Poverty Line

This report presents the results of the new approach to measuring poverty and standards of living, which the Royal Government of Cambodia initiated and carried out through 2011-2012.

by | On 25 May 2016

Degradation and Loss of Peri-Urban Ecosystems

Rapid degradation of peri-urban ecosystems is resulting in a loss of associated ecosystem services. Water provision, storm- and waste-water regulation, along with protection from natural disasters and...

by Rockeffeller Foundation RF | On 25 May 2016

Nutritional Intake in India: 2004-2005

The present report on nutritional intake in India is based on data collected through the 61st round of NSS (July 2004-June 2005). It mainly focuses on intake of nutrients by households in terms of pro...

by Ministry of Statistics and Prog Implementation (MOSPI) | On 20 May 2016

Coastal Road and Mumbai's Development Plan (2014–2034)

Coastal Road and Mumbai's Development Plan (2014–2034), video interview with Shweta Wagh, urban conservationist. Filmed for Hamara Shehar Vikas Niyojan, Mumbai

by | On 20 May 2016

Does Agricultural Credit Play Any Role in Reducing Rural Poverty in Bangladesh?

Since its independence the government of Bangladesh had taken various measures to reduce the intensity of poverty on rural people in Bangladesh. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine wh...

by Mahfuza Akther | On 20 May 2016

Rainwater Harvesting: A Lifeline for Human Well-Being

This publication highlights the link between rainwater harvesting, ecosystems and human wellbeing and draws the attention of readers to both the negative and positive aspects of using this technology...

by | On 18 May 2016

Housing Policy in the Republic of Korea

This paper evaluates housing policy in the Republic of Korea over the past several decades, describes new challenges arising from the changing environment, and draws lessons for other countries. The m...

by Kyung-Hwan Kim | On 18 May 2016

The Relevance of Wetland Conservation in Kerala

Kerala has the largest proportion of land area under wetlands among all the states of India, changes to which can significantly affect ecosystem processes. Compared to other states of the country, wet...

by Sheeba Abraham | On 17 May 2016

The Global Risks Report 2016: 11th Edition

Now in its 11th edition, The Global Risks Report 2016 draws attention to ways that global risks could evolve and interact in the next decade. The year 2016 marks a forceful departure from past finding...

by [WEF] World Economic Forum | On 11 May 2016

High and Dry : Climate Change, Water, and the Economy

The impacts of climate change will be channeled primarily through the water cycle, with consequences that could be large and uneven across the globe. Water-related climate risks cascade through food,...

by World Bank [WB] | On 11 May 2016

Evaluation Study of Targeted Public Distribution System in Selected States

The Ministry of Food, Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs has entrusted a study to the NCAER to assess whether, and to what extent, the weaknesses noted by past evaluation studies on the TPDS ha...

by Sohini Paul | On 09 May 2016

Bill for Compulsory Voting

An analysis of electoral data in local elections shows that rural local bodies have had higher turnouts than their urban counterparts in almost all states of India. Data from 2009-13 of city corporati...

by Bhanu Joshi | On 09 May 2016

Health Training Programme for Adolescent Girls: Lessons from India's NGO Initiative

The paper examines the impact of the initiative taken by an NGO -SelfEmployed Women’s Association (SEWA)-in Ahmedabad, a city in western India to impart knowledge about sexual and reproductive healt...

by Leela Visaria | On 05 May 2016

Educational Attainment of Young Adults in India: Measures, Trends & Determinants

Given the fact that education of young adults plays crucial role from both economic and social point of view, the objective of the study is to analyse the pattern of improvements in their education an...

by Runu Bhakta | On 02 May 2016

Social and Economic Impact Analysis of Vadinar Refinery of Essar Oil: The Case of a Mega Refinery

The paper is a case study of Vadinar refinery in Gujarat. It examines the costs and benefits associated with one of the world's mega refinery projects highlighting the welfare impacts on society. The...

by Sumana Chaudhuri | On 02 May 2016

Employment Structure and Rural-Urban Migration in a Tamil Nadu Village: Focusing on Differences by Economic Class

Since the mid-1990s, migration of workforces from rural to urban areas has accelerated in south India accompanied by remarkable urban-based economic development. To investigate the nature of such rura...

by Keiko Sato | On 29 Apr 2016

A Comparative Study of Living Conditions in Slums of Three Metro Cities in India

A comparative study of representative slums across three largest metro cities in India through primary surveys. It is found that certain characteristics, such as large average household size, poor hou...

by Sugata Bag | On 28 Apr 2016

Tamil Nadu: What Voters Want and How They Rate Government Performance

This report consists the findings of a survey carried out in February 2016 in Tamil Nadu. The purpose of the survey was to find out what voters really want from the Government and how they rate the pe...

by Association for Democratic Reforms ADR | On 28 Apr 2016

Land, Labour and Caste Politics in Rural Tamil Nadu in the 20th Century: Iruvelpattu (1916-2008)

The “Slater” villages of Tamil Nadu that were first surveyed by the University of Madras economist, Gilbert Slater, and his students in 1916, were resurveyed in the 1930s, 1960s and the 1980s. This pa...

by John Harriss | On 27 Apr 2016

Increased Duration of Paid Maternity Leave Lowers Infant Mortality in Low- and MiddleIncome Countries: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Maternity leave reduces neonatal and infant mortality rates in high-income countries. However, the impact of maternity leave on infant health has not been rigorously evaluated in low- and middle-incom...

by Arjit Nandi | On 22 Apr 2016

Multidimensional Measurement of Household Water Poverty in a Mumbai Slum: Looking Beyond Water Quality

In addition to negatively affecting health, the qualitative findings reveal that water service delivery failures have a constellation of other adverse life impacts—on household economy, employment,...

by Ramnath Subbaraman | On 12 Apr 2016

The Redistributive Effects of Political Reservation for Minorities: Evidence from India

We examine the impact of political reservation for disadvantaged minority groups on poverty. To address the concern that political reservation is endogenous in the relationship between poverty and res...

by Nishith Prakash | On 11 Apr 2016

When the Dish Knocked Down the Antenna

A technology switch in television affects different income groups differently. In India the digitization of TV signals is putting an end to the free-to-air telecast regime. This study, the first of it...

by Aloke Thakore | On 07 Apr 2016

Analytical Tools for Measuring Poverty Dynamics: An Application Using Panel Data in the Philippines

This study reviews two methods of measuring poverty dynamics. The components approach uses the longitudinally averaged income to determine whether a household is chronically poor or not. On the othe...

by Arturo Martinez Jr. | On 06 Apr 2016

Education in India: NSS 71st Round

The report gives a detailed account of the education system in India.

by Ministry of Statistics and Prog Implementation (MOSPI) | On 05 Apr 2016

Employment and Earnings in Rural India: 2004-2012

This paper analyzes the changes in employment and earnings of paid workers in rural India from 2004/05 to 2011/12. While the employment rate of adults remained stable at 51 percent during this perio...

by Shantanu Khanna | On 04 Apr 2016

Global Report on Urban health: Equitable, Healthier Cities for Sustainable Development

The Global report on urban health: equitable, healthier cities for sustainable development, 2016 presents new data on the health of urban residents from nearly 100 countries, updating the first joint...

by World Health Organisation (WHO) | On 04 Apr 2016

Budget Speech Delhi: 2016-17

Budget speech by Finance Minister Manish Sisodia.

by Manish Sisodia | On 29 Mar 2016

The Role of Construction as an Employment Provider: A World-Wide Input-Output Analysis

This study shows how important the construction sector has been over the last decade as an employment provider in countries at different levels of development. The analysis also revealed decreasing tr...

by Christoph Ernst | On 23 Mar 2016

Can Iron-Fortified Salt Control Anemia? Evidence from Two Experiments in Rural Bihar

This paper reports on the impact of a potential strategy to address iron deficiency anemia in rural areas: double fortified salt (DFS) — salt fortified with iron and iodine. They conducted a large-sc...

by Abhijit Banerjee | On 23 Mar 2016

Impacts of Rural-Urban Cleavages and Cultural Orientations on Attitudes toward Elements of Democracy: A Cross-National, Within Nation Analysis

This paper follows the lead in substituting variable names for national social systems from the project on “Democratization and Value Change in East Asia.” Specifically, it investigates the associatio...

by Robert Albritton | On 21 Mar 2016

Water Reallocation and Grabbing Processes, Mechanisms and Contributory Factors

The paper attempts to develop a project life-cycle approach to gain insights into the complexities of water reallocation. The paper is able to show that water reallocation and the resultant phenomeno...

by Subodh Wagle | On 21 Mar 2016

Linkages between Dispersed Urbanisation and Rural Industrialisation: A Case Study from West Bengal

In some poor parts of the world, rural areas are known as pastoral folk; for their heavily dependence on agricultural activities; and for having poor infrastructure, limited employment opportunities a...

by Subrata Dutta | On 20 Mar 2016

Outcome and Impact Level Outcome and Impact Level Indicators Indicators Agriculture and Agriculture and Rural Development

This working paper outlines a set of indicators at the outcome and impact level for the agriculture and rural development sector. It does not focus on implementation (e.g. output level indicators such...

by European union | On 20 Mar 2016

Rural-Urban Linkages and Socio-Economic Development: A Case Study Of Two Villages In Gujarat

Rural-urban linkages are both a cause and a consequence of socio-economic development. Though there is a vast volume of literature on this subject, there are quite a few gaps in our knowledge about th...

by RS Pundir | On 20 Mar 2016

Co-operatives and Rural Development in India

This paper characterises and distinguishes co-operatives from other forms of organisations and highlights the important place they occupy in India‘s rural economy. It examines their contribution to ru...

by Katar Singh | On 20 Mar 2016

Changing Wage Structure in India in the Post-Reform Era

This paper documents the changing structure of wages in India over the post-reform era, the roughly two-decade period since 1993. To investigate the factors underlying these changes, a supply-demand f...

by Basab Dasgupta | On 20 Mar 2016

Does Environmental Kuznet’s Curve Exist For Indoor Air Pollution? Evidence From Indian Household Level Data

Existence of Environmental Kuznet’s Curve (EKC) is an empirical issue to analyze as evidence from the literature has been mixed. This study focuses on indoor air pollution generated from the use of fu...

by K.S. Kavi Kumar | On 16 Mar 2016

Do Foreign Banks in India Indulge in Cream Skimming?

Foreign banks in developing countries are often found to indulge in cream skimming, a lending strategy that targets only wealthy segments of the credit market and exclude small and marginal borrowers...

by Mandira Sarma | On 16 Mar 2016

Improving Interchanges Introducing Best practices on Multimodal Interchange Hub Development in the People's Republic of China

This report discusses the experiences and commonly encountered issues when developing railway interchange hubs. It proposes basic design principles as well as research approaches. The report focuses o...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 15 Mar 2016

Results of an Impact Evaluation Study on DepED's School-Based Feeding Program

This paper presents the findings from the impact evaluation of the School Year (SY) 2013–2014 implementation of the program. This is a follow-up on the process evaluation conducted by the PIDS. The st...

by Ana Maria L. Tabunda | On 14 Mar 2016

Liberalizing Lease Market The Andhra Pradesh Land Licensed Cultivators Act

Tenancy has been on the rise in the post economic liberalization period from the decades of 1990s. It was also viewed that freeing the lease market for land may contribute to equity as well as efficie...

by E Revathi | On 14 Mar 2016

Arctic Ambitions: China, India, and the Arctic Council

May 14-15, 2013, the Arctic Council will decide on whether to admit India and China as observers to the organization.India and China consider the Arctic as a region of increasing global importance, an...

by | On 12 Mar 2016

Rebalancing Act: China’s Fiscal Reform Challenge

This policy brief examines China’s inter-connected economic challenges of structural and fiscal reform, arguing that promotion of domestic consumption away from fixed-asset investment could further ex...

by | On 12 Mar 2016

Parent’s Choice Function for Ward’s School Continuation in Rural India: A Case Study in West Bengal

In this paper we present a choice function of a rural household about her/his ward?s schooling. It makes an empirical evaluation on the basis of simple theoretical framework using primary data set, su...

by Debdulal Thakur | On 11 Mar 2016

Analyzing the Water Footprint of Indian Dairy Industry

Water footprint is a multidimensional indicator, showing water consumption volumes by source and by type of pollution; all components of a total water footprint are specified geographically and tempor...

by Zareena Begum Irfan | On 11 Mar 2016

Investigating Household Preferences for Restoring Pallikaranai Marsh

The study examines households’ willingness to pay for the conservation of Pallinkaranai marsh located in the south of Chennai, Tamil Nadu. A stated preference method, namely, Contingent Valuation m...

by Suganya Balakumar | On 10 Mar 2016

The Culmination of the MDG’s: A New Arena of the Sustainable Development

Established in 2000; the Millennium Development Goals had played a major role in bringing back the developmental issues to focus. Nearing the end of the stipulated time when they had to be achieved an...

by Zareena Begum Irfan | On 10 Mar 2016

Female Headed Households And Poverty: Analysis Using Household Level Data

The relationship between gender and poverty is a complex and debatable topic more than ever and thus a potential area for policy makers to focus. The aim of this paper is to review existing literature...

by Sukanya Das | On 10 Mar 2016

Analyzing the Aid Effectiveness on the Living Standard: A Check-up on South East Asian Countries

The present research work aims to analyse the effect that the disaggregated developmental aid has had on the health status and the standard of living in the urban sector after the MDGs were establishe...

by Zareena Begum Irfan | On 10 Mar 2016

Impact of Agricultural Related Technology Adoption on Poverty: A Study of Select Households in Rural India

This paper applies a program evaluation technique to assess the causal effect of adoption of agricultural related technologies on consumption expenditure and poverty measured by different indices. The...

by Santosh K. Sahu | On 10 Mar 2016

Determinants of Child Health: An Empirical Analysis

Infant and child mortality rates in India have fallen by almost half from the time of adoption of millennium development goals to 2012 but there has not been a concurrent decrease in morbidity and und...

by Sowmya Dhanaraj | On 10 Mar 2016

Tariff Reduction and Income Distribution: A CGE-based Analysis for Urban and Rural Households in Pakistan

This paper intends to explore functional and households personal income distribution across four different income groups in both the urban and rural areas. Using Social Accounting framework, Siddiqui...

by A. R. Kemal | On 10 Mar 2016

Nutritional Status in Pakistan

In Pakistan, despite an increase in per capita food availability and resultant rise in per capita calorie and protein intake, the prevalence of malnutrition has not improved over last 20 years [Nation...

by Sarfraz K. Qureshi | On 10 Mar 2016

Poverty and Child Mortality in Pakistan

The present analysis is based on the Pakistan Socio-Economic Survey (PSES) data. The survey was conducted nationwide between April and July, 1999 and collected data on household information, incidence...

by Syed Mubashir Ali | On 10 Mar 2016

An Introduction to the 1998-99 Pakistan Socioeconomic Survey (PSES)

This brief paper is quite focused. It describes the methodology and scope of the household survey carried out by the PIDE between March and July 1999, with an aim to generate nationally representative...

by G. M. Arif | On 10 Mar 2016

Distributional Impact of Structural Adjustment on Income Inequality in Pakistan: A SAM-based Analysis

This study intends to analyze the impact of fiscal policy relating to subsidies (production and consumption subsidies), government current expenditure and expenditure on health and education on income...

by Zafar Iqbal | On 10 Mar 2016

Salient Features of Social Accounting Matrix of Pakistan for 1989-90: Disaggregation of the Households Sector

In the present SAM, the input-output industry classifications have been condensed into five main production accounts namely agriculture, industry, health, education and other sectors. The SAM 1989-90...

by Rizwana Siddiqui | On 10 Mar 2016

Spatial Differences and Socio-economic Determinants of Health Poverty

This study has three objectives: first, to construct a health poverty index (HPI) for Pakistan using household data from Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) survey 2012-13; second,...

by Nasir Iqbal | On 10 Mar 2016

Prevalence and Determinants of Overweight and Obesity Among Adults in Pakistan

The present study ascertains the prevalence and possible causes of overweight and obesity among adult population using Pakistan Panel Household Survey for 2010. The results of the present research sho...

by Maryam Naeem Satti | On 10 Mar 2016

Willingness to Purchase Health Insurance in Pakistan

The aim of this research is to assess the willingness to purchase health insurance in Pakistan and assist the policy makers in formulating a national health insurance programme that meets the needs of...

by Ajmal Jahangeer | On 10 Mar 2016

Health and Economic Consequences of Overweight and Obesity Among Adults in Pakistan

The present study ascertains the possible consequences of overweight and obesity among adult population using Pakistan Panel Household Survey for 2010.

by Maryam Naeem Satti | On 10 Mar 2016

Migration and Health Outcomes: The Case of a High Migration District in South Punjab

Given the importance of health in overall living standard of people, the present study has attempted to probe into the role of migration in affecting health status and outcomes of population. The heal...

by Shujaat Farooq | On 10 Mar 2016

The Transformative Capacity of New Technologies: How Innovations Affect Sectoral Change: Conceptual Considerations

Following up on recent debates about sectoral systems of innovation and production, the paper introduces a heuristic framework for analyzing and explaining distinct patterns of technology-based sector...

by | On 09 Mar 2016

Where Do Prices Come From? Sociological Approaches to Price Formation

The article provides an overview of the state of the art of sociological research on price formation. The dominant trait of the sociological approach to prices is to understand price formation not as...

by Jens Beckert | On 09 Mar 2016

Challenges for Urban Local Governments in India

The findings of this study show that urban local governments in India continue to remain plagued by numerous problems, which affect their performance in the efficient discharge of their duties. These...

by Rumi Aijaz | On 09 Mar 2016

Measuring Women’s Disempowerment in Agriculture in Pakistan

This paper calculates a Women’s Disempowerment Index to examine women’s control over production, resources, income, household decisions, and time burden. The index is based on a slightly modified me...

by Nuzhat Ahmad | On 04 Mar 2016

Exercising the Responsibility to Assist: The Roles Of the International Community And Cambodian Civil Society

This Alert examines the role of intergovernmental and non-governmental stakeholders in promoting human security in Cambodia through transitional justice. It maps out the relations between and among th...

by | On 02 Mar 2016

Enterprise Among Farm Women in India and Understanding their Constraints: An Exploration of NSSOs 55th Round Household Data

Diversification of rural women from traditional crop based agriculture to high valued agricultural, allied and processing activities with emerging prospect merit considerable attention in context of w...

by Nilabja Ghosh | On 02 Mar 2016

Connecting the Dots: An Analysis of Union Budget 2016-17

It presents a comprehensive analysis of the priorities and proposals in Union Budget 2016-17, focusing on social sectors (such as education, health, drinking water and sanitation, food security etc.)...

by Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability CBGA | On 02 Mar 2016

Government Health Financing in India: Challenges in Achieving Ambitious Goals

The Government of India has publicly committed to a doubling or trebling of government health spending by 2012 and launched a major program, the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), to help spend the...

by Peter Berman | On 01 Mar 2016

Madhya Pradesh Budget Analysis 2016-17

The Madhya Pradesh Finance Minister, Mr. Jayant Mallayya, presented the Budget for Madhya Pradesh for the financial year 2016-17 on February 26, 2016.

by Arvind Gayam | On 01 Mar 2016

Multidimensional Poverty and the State of Child Health in India

Using data from the National Family and Health Survey 3, India, this paper measures and validates the extent of multidimensional poverty and examines the linkages of poverty level with child health in...

by Sanjay K. Mohanty | On 01 Mar 2016

Inclusion and Growth in India: Some facts, Some conclusions

In the main, this study uses the large sample National Sample Surveys (NSS) for the years 1983, 1993/94, 1999/2000, and 2004/5. There are two surveys that the NSS conducts in each of the large sample...

by Surjit S. Bhalla | On 01 Mar 2016

Labour Force Participation of Women in India: Some facts, Some Queries

The plan of the paper is as follows. Section 2 describes the data and definitions used in this study. Fertility and labour force participation are affected by broadly the same parameters. Section 3 lo...

by Surjit S. Bhalla | On 01 Mar 2016

Financing Social Policy in the Presence of Informality

We present a framework for the analysis of tax and benefit policy in countries with significant informality. Our framework allows us to jointly analyse the e!ects of various taxes and benefits on ince...

by Ehtisham Ahmad | On 01 Mar 2016

An Enquiry Into Migration and Homelessness - A Developmental Discourse: Evidence From Mumbai City

Existence of structural and social inequality with growing poverty and shrinking livelihoods and other factors forced to people or entire families to migrate towards cities in search of means of survi...

by | On 01 Mar 2016

Non-Farm Diversification and Rural Poverty Decline: A Perspective from Indian Sample Survey and Village Study Data

This paper studies the evolution of the rural non-farm sector in India and its contribution to the decline of poverty. It scrutinizes evidence from a series of nationally representative sample surveys...

by Himanshu Prof | On 29 Feb 2016

Access to Finance: A Functional Approach to Supply and Demand

This paper provides a comprehensive description of the financial environment for households and small businesses in a defined geographical region. It develops a new, functional approach to financial a...

by Greg Fischer | On 29 Feb 2016

Will no One Plant a Tree in Indonesia? Yes, the Poor will, and on Islands not known for Their Forests: One Such is Timor

In this paper we explore an innovative approach to poverty reduction by the introduction of an agro-forestry variant of sustainable agricultural land technology among the rural farming population of a...

by Roger Montgomery | On 29 Feb 2016

Diet and Nutritional Status of Population and Prevalence of Hypertension Among Adults in Rural Areas

The study highlights the need for implementation of developmental programmes in the tribal areas for the overall improvement of nutritional status of the community. There is also a need to carryout in...

by National Institute of Nutrition | On 29 Feb 2016

Prevalence of Vitamin D Deficiency Among preschool Children in Rural Areas

The objective of this paper is to assess the prevalence of clinical forms of vitamin A deficiency (particularly Bitot spots) among the pre-school children in the rural areas of the States covered by N...

by National Institute of Nutrition | On 29 Feb 2016

Diet and Nutritional Status of Tribal Population Report on First Repeat Survey

In this report about 90,885 individuals were covered for nutritional anthropometry and clinical examination from 30,390 households. The results indicated that there was reduction in the prevalence of...

by National Institute of Nutrition | On 29 Feb 2016

Diet and Nutritional Status of Tribal Population and Prevalence of Hypertension among Adults

This report outlines the results of the surveys on diet and nutritional status of the populations. The objective is to assess the food and nutrient intakes of individuals in the rural areas of the sta...

by National Institute of Nutrition | On 29 Feb 2016

Diet and Nutritional Status of Rural Population

Several sporadic studies carried out in the developing countries, including India have been reporting a steady increase in the prevalence of diet related chronic diseases like obesity, hypertension, d...

by National Institute of Nutrition | On 29 Feb 2016

Prevalence of Micro - Nutrient Deficiency

The present survey was carried out to assess the prevalence of common micronutrient deficiencies such as vitamin A deficiency (Bitot spots) among the preschool children (1-<5 years), Iodine deficienc...

by National Institute of Nutrition | On 29 Feb 2016

Combating Low Birth Weight and Intra - Uterine Growth Retardation

Low birth weight is a major public health problem in India. About 30% of all infants born in hospitals are reported to weigh less than 2.5 kg at birth. Studies carried out by ICMR in the late seventie...

by Sarath Gopalan | On 29 Feb 2016

Re¬emerging Infectious Diseases: Time for Renewed Vigilance

Against the trends of increasing global travel, rapid urbanisation and growing population, the threat of infectious diseases looms large on the horizon. In Asia, the series of health crises brought...

by Gianna Gayle Amul | On 27 Feb 2016

Should Asian Cities be Climbing on the ‘Resilience’ Bandwagon?

Providing essential services to Asia’s booming cities is becoming more difficult. With over 100,000 people thought to be moving to the region’s urban spaces every day, the demands on cities are beco...

by J. Ewing | On 27 Feb 2016

Financing of Urban Local Bodies in India

The rising level of urbanisation in India draws attention to inadequate infrastructure levels in urban areas. While many factors play a role in infrastructure development, this paper examines the fina...

by Charan Singh | On 27 Feb 2016

Non Traditional Security Issues: Securitisation of Transnational Crime in Asia

Transnational crime involving all forms of domestic crime that traverse the international boundary with another one or more states have become a concern amongst all peoples of the Asia Pacific region....

by | On 26 Feb 2016

Local Property Taxation and Benefits in Developing Countries - Overcoming political resistance?

While property taxation has existed since ancient times, and the taxation of land has been a mainstay of public finances through the Middle Ages, in both Europe and Asia, it has all but ceased to be a...

by Ehtisham Ahmad | On 26 Feb 2016

Economic Survey 2015-16-Volume I

This year’s Economic Survey comes at a time of unusual volatility in the international economic environment. Markets have begun to swing on fears that the global recovery may be faltering, while ris...

by Arun Jaitley | On 26 Feb 2016

Railway Budget 2016-17: Preliminary Analysis

The Minister of Railways, Mr. Suresh Prabhu, presented the Railway Budget 2016-17 to Parliament on February 25, 2016. In his address, he commented on the performance of Railways in 2015-16 and laid o...

by Prachee Mishra | On 26 Feb 2016

Estimation and Determinants of Chronic Poverty in India: An Alternative Approach

The paper conceptualizes chronic poverty by using the spaces of income and nutrition and estimates its incidence among states and social groups. It also aims to improve our understanding of the determ...

by C.H. Hanumantha Rao | On 25 Feb 2016

Energy and Non-Traditional Security: A Tripartite Approach

Energy supply and price volatility are no longer the only concerns that constitute contemporary energy security problems, which now comprise environmental and socioeconomic issues. Mitigating these no...

by Collin Koh | On 25 Feb 2016

The Hong Kong Declaration and Agriculture: Implications for Bangladesh

The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), established in 1993, is a civil society initiative to promote an ongoing dialogue between the principal partners in the decision-making and implementing process....

by Uttam Kumar Deb | On 24 Feb 2016

Impact of Management Practices on Employee Effectiveness in South Asia

South Asian organizations in countries like Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka are trying to professionalize management practices in recent years. Inspite of such efforts, employees indiscipli...

by Zafar Qureshi | On 24 Feb 2016

Grid – Connect Electricity Supply in India

This paper describes the methodology, data and key assumptions used for the power sector supply-side module of the India Low Carbon Growth study and presents preliminary results. The module is used to...

by World Bank | On 24 Feb 2016

Residential Consumption of Electricity in India – Documentation of Data and Methodology

This paper describes the methodology used for the electricity consumption section of the household module of the India Low Carbon Growth Study and presents preliminary results. The module is used to p...

by World Bank | On 24 Feb 2016

Modi’s Urban Initiatives – a Paradigm-shift?

A number of new initiatives announced by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi now, with the phased goal of transforming the overall quality of life in the country’s urban centres, have been conceptual...

by S Narayan | On 24 Feb 2016

Facing Food Shortages: Urban Food Security in an Age of Constraints

Seventy per cent of the world’s population are expected to live in urban areas by 2050. Food production to feed this larger, more urban and richer population will have to be done in the face of changi...

by | On 23 Feb 2016

Rising Food Prices and Food Security: Impact of the 2008 Food Crisis on Asia

The trend of rising food prices has made this basic human need inaccessible to an increasing number of people. The impact on vulnerable groups, especially the poor, is immense. Food price rise has imp...

by | On 23 Feb 2016

Agricultural Contracts in Mindanao: the Case of Banana and Pineapple

Contract growing has been defined as an agreement between farmers and processing and/or marketing firms under forward agreements, usually at predetermined prices for the production and supply of agric...

by Larry Digal | On 23 Feb 2016

Food Production and Environmental Health in Southeast Asia: The Search for Complementary Strategies

Growing food demands and escalating environmental stresses create a series of challenges throughout Southeast Asia. Projected population and consumption patterns strongly suggest that food production...

by J. Ewing | On 22 Feb 2016

Rural-Urban Migration, Poverty and Child Survival in Urban Banglades

Despite recent decline, infant and child mortality in Bangladesh is still one of the highest among the developing countries with strong urban-rural differentials. Nearly one in ten children in Banglad...

by M. Islam | On 21 Feb 2016

Causes and Consequences of Rural-Urban Migration: A Study of Migrant Street Vendors in Dhaka City

In developing countries like Bangladesh rural-urban migration affects development in both urban and rural areas. As such, this study focuses on establishing the major causes and consequences of the mo...

by Research Institute of Social Welfare and | On 21 Feb 2016

Infrastructure Gap in South Asia Inequality of Access to Infrastructure Services

The South Asia region is home to the largest pool of individuals living under the poverty line, coupled with a fast-growing population. The importance of access to basic infrastructure services on wel...

by Dan Biller | On 21 Feb 2016

Improving Education Outcomes in South Asia Findings from a Decade of Impact Evaluations

There have been many initiatives to improve education outcomes in South Asia. Still, outcomes remain stubbornly resistant to improvements, at least when considered across the region. To collect and sy...

by Salman Asim | On 21 Feb 2016

10 Things Designers Need to Work on

The 10 considerations are based on Christian Werthmann’s five year investigation of numerous small and large scale improvement projects in Latin America as wells as the outcome of two symposia titled...

by Christian Werthmann | On 19 Feb 2016

On compact, Integrated & Connected Cities

The Urban Planning and Design focus area of UN-Habitat aims to support cities, regional and national authorities in adopting improved policies, plans and designs for more compact, socially inclusive,...

by Rafael Tuts | On 19 Feb 2016

From Agropolis to Ecopolis – Heading Towards Regenerative Cities

In this lecture, Stefan Schurig (World Future Council) talks about the vision of regenerative cities as the greening of the urban environment and the protection of nature from urban expansion, and abo...

by Stefan Schurig | On 19 Feb 2016

Does Conservation Agriculture Deliver Climate Change Mitigation Through Soil Carbon Sequestration in Tropical Agro-Ecosystems?

Conservation agriculture (CA), comprising minimum soil disturbance, retention of crop residues and crop diversification, is widely promoted for reducing soil degradation and improving agricultural sus...

by David Powlson | On 19 Feb 2016

Destined for Destitution: Intergenerational Poverty Persistence in Indonesia

We estimate intergenerational poverty persistence in Indonesia using a panel dataset. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first such study looking at the issue in the Indonesian context. Differe...

by Yus Pakpahan | On 19 Feb 2016

Overseas WMotives and Giving Norms Behind Remittances: The Case of Filipinoorkers and their Recipient Households

The literature has focused on motives to explain remittance behavior. But as non-anonymous transfers, remittances are apt to be influenced by giving norms as well. We formula...

by Michael Alba | On 19 Feb 2016

A Rights-Based Approach To Urban Development

Dr Urban Jonsson is the Executive Director of The Owls, an international consultancy company specialized in Human Rights and Development based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. DrJonsson is a leading author...

by | On 19 Feb 2016

Pro-Poor Solid Waste Management

MarijkHuysman bases her lecture on the importance of accessible and effective urban waste collection services for public health, environmental conditions, productivity and aesthetics of cities. Yet ev...

by | On 19 Feb 2016

How Much Do We Know about the Impact of the Economic Downturn on the Employment of Migrants?

The employment shock of late 2008 in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) may have been a product of three different events: (i) the contractionary macroeconomic policies introduced by the government...

by Xin Meng | On 19 Feb 2016

The Notion Of Prosperity

Mohamed Halfani (UN-Habitat) outlines the notion of prosperity as it relates to the work of UN-Habitat. This introduction to the theme of urban prosperity highlights the disjuncture between current de...

by | On 19 Feb 2016

Incremental Housing – The New Site & Services

Informal builders provide the bulk of affordable housing and define large areas of our cities. Originally created for those long considered as poor and unable to house themselves, over time the result...

by Dr. Reinhard Goethert | On 19 Feb 2016

Transforming Cities with Transit

In rapidly urbanizing and motorizing cities of the world, massive investments are being made in high-capacity transit systems to fend off worsening traffic congestion. Most investments have been guide...

by | On 19 Feb 2016

Making Room for a Planet of Cities

The Making Room Paradigm draws on data collected from a sample of 120 cities, extracted from a much larger database, and is based on the realization that rapid urban population growth and its rapid co...

by Shlomo Angel | On 19 Feb 2016

Urbanization & Demographics: The Coordination Problem

The lecture is based on the realization that little attention is being paid to the inexorable increase in urban populations, particularly in very low income countries. Almost all of the world’s next 2...

by | On 19 Feb 2016

Principles of Planned Urbanization

In this opening session for the second season of the Global Urban Lecture Series, Dr. Joan Clos introduces three fundamental principles behind planned urbanization: Rules and Regulations, Urban Design...

by | On 19 Feb 2016

Gender perspectives in urban planning

Ana Falú from the National University of Cordoba – and the Coordinator of the UN-Habitat UNI Gender Hub – in this lecture discusses urban planning from a gender perspective, with emphasis on both who...

by | On 19 Feb 2016

Transforming the City towards Low-Carbon Resilience

Transforming the City towards Low-Carbon Resilience” introduces urban design principles that support the transformation of existing cities towards more resilience regarding the impact of climate chang...

by | On 19 Feb 2016

The Federation Model Of Community Organizing

In the past two decades through a process called “Enumeration” through which the members collect at city level data about slums, Slum Dwellers International have created a mechanism which serves to cr...

by | On 18 Feb 2016

Integrated Farming Systems And Resilient Agricultural Landscapes

Asia’s rapid change across socio-economic and political spheres, amid population growth and rising demand for food, feed and energy supplies, is unprecedented. To strike a balance between economic gro...

by Research Consultative Group on International Agricultural | On 18 Feb 2016

Enhancing Forage Integration And Access For Smallholder Livestock Production

In the upland areas of Southeast Asia, most smallholder farmers keep animals. Buffalo provide a traditional source of draught power for land preparation or transport, and animal manure is often used t...

by Research Consultative Group on International Agricultural | On 18 Feb 2016

A Social Accounting Matrix for Pakistan, 2001-02: Methodology and Results

This paper describes the structure and construction of a social accounting matrix (SAM) for Pakistan for 001-02. A SAM is an internally consistent extended set of national accounts that disaggregates...

by Paul Dorosh | On 17 Feb 2016

The Harris-Todaro Hypothesis

The Harris-Todaro hypothesis replaces the equality of wages by the equality of ‘expected’ wages as the basic equilibrium condition in a segmented but homogeneous labour market, and in so doing it gene...

by M. Ali Khan | On 17 Feb 2016

Power, Violence, Citizenship and Agency: A Review of the Literature

This Working Paper comprises a literature review that was carried out to inform the formulation of a research project on power, violence, citizenship and agency, which addresses how social actors reac...

by | On 17 Feb 2016

Bumpy Road Ahead for Agriculture Sector

Agriculture is important sector for Indian economy. The agricultural growth output and rural income has to increase, only then can we think of an all-inclusive development of the economy. The problems...

by Environmental Management & Policy Research Institute | On 17 Feb 2016

Can Parental Migration Reduce Petty Corruption in Education?

Educational outcomes of children are highly dependent on household and school-level inputs. In poor countries remittances from migrants can provide additional funds for the education of the left behin...

by Lisa Höckel | On 17 Feb 2016

Gender Differences in Climate Change Perception and Adaptation Strategies: The Case of Three Provinces in Vietnam’s Mekong River Delta

This report, which forms part of the PIRCCA project outputs, focuses on the results of the survey conducted in the first half of 2015 on climate change perception and adaptation strategies of male and...

by Michael Sheinkman | On 16 Feb 2016

Delivering Access to Safe Drinking Water and Adequate Sanitation in Pakistan

Water and Sanitation is the neglected sector in Pakistan. Most of the households in Pakistan do not have access to safe drinking water and lack toilets and adequate sanitation systems. These poor peop...

by Faheem Jehangir Khan | On 16 Feb 2016

Health Care Services and Government Spending in Pakistan

The study has been carried out to measure the incidence of government spending on health in Pakistan at provincial, both rural and urban level; using the primary data of the Pakistan Social Standard L...

by Muhammad Akram | On 16 Feb 2016

Impact Assessment of Bangladesh Bank's Re-finance Scheme for Financing Agricultural & Non-farm Rural Borrowers of Bangladesh Krishi Bank and Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank

The main objective of this study report is to find out the impact(s) of the refinance scheme of Bangladesh Bank (BB) through comparing the economic well-being of the target group people who have taken...

by Md. Julhas Uddin | On 15 Feb 2016

Public Provision of Education and Government Spending in Pakistan

The study has been carried out to measure the incidence of government spending on education in Pakistan at the provincial (both rural and urban) level, using the primary data of the Pakistan Social St...

by Muhammad Akram | On 14 Feb 2016

Household Budget Analysis for Pakistan under Varying the Parameter Approach

Using micro-level household data for rural and urban Pakistan, this study estimates Engel equations for 22 commodity groups with quadratic spline specification, in which the number and locations of kn...

by Eatzaz Ahmad | On 14 Feb 2016

Afghanistan’s Displaced People: 2014 and Beyond

Afghanistan is the largest refugee repatriation operation in the world. More than 5.7 million people have returned in the last ten years, representing nearly a quarter of the current population of 28...

by Aidan O'Leary | On 14 Feb 2016

On Measuring the Complexity of Urban Living

This paper explores the concept of city ranking as a way to measure the dynamics and complexities of urban life. These rankings have various dimensions and uses. Both the context in which these rankin...

by Lubna Hasan | On 14 Feb 2016

Trends in Inequality, Welfare, and Growth in Pakistan, 1963-64 to 2004-05

The present study investigates the trends in inequality, welfare, and growth based on per capita household income/consumption in Pakistan, both its rural and urban areas, from 1963-64 to 2004-05. It e...

by Nadia Zakir | On 14 Feb 2016

Living Arrangement: How does it relate to the Health of the Elderly in India?

India has the second largest population of elderly people after China. The living arrangement of the elderly is seen as a parameter of great importance in understanding their plight in developing coun...

by Mitali Sen | On 14 Feb 2016

Private Schooling in India: A New Educational Landscape

Private schooling in India has expanded rapidly in the past decade. However, few studies have looked at its implications for educational quality. Using data from the recently collected India Human Dev...

by Sonalde Desai | On 14 Feb 2016

Negotiated Identities: Male Migration and Left Behind Wives

This paper examines the impact of husbands’ migration on the lives of women left behind. Using data from the India Human Development Survey 2005, we focus on two dimensions of women’s lives: women’s a...

by Sonalde Desai | On 14 Feb 2016

Public Health in india: Challenges Ahead

As the world’s largest democracy and the second most populous country in the world, India has experienced sea change since its independence in various facets of development. However as per public heal...

by Anuj Sabharwal | On 13 Feb 2016

Women’s Empowerment at the Frontline of Adaptation: Emerging Issues, Adaptive Practices, and Priorities in Nepal

The findings of the study reveal that, across Nepal, there has been an increase in rural women’s workload rendering multiple effects on women’s health, income, safety, nutrition, violence against wome...

by Dibya Devi Gurung | On 13 Feb 2016

Social Networks in India: Caste, Tribe and Religious Variation

Using original data from a newly collected nationwide survey for 40,000 households in India, we examine variation in social capital in India across caste, tribe, and religion. Our primary measure uses...

by Reeve Vanneman | On 13 Feb 2016

Disempowered by Whom? Gender vs. Generation in Family Decision making

The now-frequent use of decision-making questions in household surveys has greatly enhanced our understanding of intra-household power relations. While much of the research interest in these questions...

by Mitali Sen | On 13 Feb 2016

Utilization of Maternal Health Care Services in India: Understanding the Regional Differences

There is great regional variation on utilization of maternal health care services across India. While regional differences have long been established, why women in some states are more likely to utili...

by Sonalde Desai | On 12 Feb 2016

Can Conditional Cash Transfers Improve Education and Nutrition Outcomes for Poor Children in Bangladesh?

This paper uses panel data from a pilot project and evaluates the impact of conditional cash transfers on consumption, education, and nutrition outcomes among poor rural families in Bangladesh. Given...

by Céline Ferré | On 12 Feb 2016

There's No Such Thing as a Free Lunch!

The Union Budget falls on February 29- this being a leap year. An online opinion poll on a leading media website reads: “Should Arun Jaitley prefer growth or fiscal deficit?” As India emerges as the...

by Tulsi Jayakumar | On 11 Feb 2016

New Perspectives on Ethnic Segregation over Time and Space: A Domains Approach

The term segregation has a strong connotation with residential neighbourhoods, and most studies investigating ethnic segregation focus on the urban mosaic of ethnic concentrations in residential neigh...

by | On 11 Feb 2016

Myanmar Economy A Comparative View

A stated objective of Myanmar is to become a modern developed nation that will stand shoulder to shoulder – proud, dignified and tall – with the countries of the world. How far has Myanmar come in ach...

by | On 09 Feb 2016

Illegal Heroes and Victimless Crimes Informal Cross-border Migration from Myanmar

This paper highlights the perception of each and everyone involved in the course of cross-border migration from Myanmar in each step they, internationally or unintentionally, maintain the status of il...

by | On 09 Feb 2016

Urbanization, Inequity and Health in India: a Landscape

In India an official definition of the term urban by Census is: over 5000 population; a population density of over 400 persons per sq km; over 75% of male workforce in non-primary activities. This art...

by Organising Team (MFC) | On 09 Feb 2016

Urban Health Programme in Chhattisgarh State: Evolution, Progress and Challenges

A Baseline Study was conducted in 11 cities in early 2012 by the State Health Resource Centre. The survey focused on understanding utilization of maternal and child health services by urban slum popul...

by Priyanka Sahu | On 09 Feb 2016

The Challenges in Urban Planning to Overcome Health Inequities in India

India has 8,928 urban areas or towns as per the Census 2011, 53 are cities or metros having more than 1 million population. Till date, we had taken for granted that several health indicators were wors...

by Dhruv Mankad | On 09 Feb 2016

Notes on Rohith Vemula and the Movement After

This article offers observations to Gopal Guru’s article which highlights the endemic caste discrimination in places of higher learning in India in the wake of the Rohith Vemula suicide in Hyderabad....

by Anveshi Research Centre for Women's Studies | On 09 Feb 2016

Ensuring Identity and Entitlements of India’s Urban Poor

Can we create awareness among the urban poor and create documents for them? What are the steps to be followed for that?

by K.R. Antony | On 09 Feb 2016

Urbanization and Cardiovascular Risk: Moving Forward from Framingham

How relevant are the risk score calculators based on the Framingham study for India? There are certain limitations for the use of this model in India. The relationship of risk factors to cardiac event...

by Anand Zachariah | On 09 Feb 2016

Women and Urban Health Governance: A Study of Empowerment and Entitlement

The ‘theory and practice of change’ that the UHRC has been fortunate to learn from first hand is that organized slum women who are trained, mentored, and supported have a greater capacity to access go...

by Siddharth Agarwal | On 09 Feb 2016

Trade and Sustainable Land Management in Drylands

This publication aims to provide a wide range of perspectives from various stakeholders on how trade policies and processes could contribute to advancing the objectives of sustainable land management...

by International Centre and Sustainable Development | On 08 Feb 2016

Planning Communication for Agricultural Disaster Risk Management: a Field Guide

Reducing risk and increasing resilience to natural disasters and climate change requires access to knowledge, information and the active participation of vulnerable population. Planning Communication...

by Food and Agricultural Organization [FAO] | On 08 Feb 2016

World Program of the Census of Agriculture 2020, Volume I: Programme, concepts and definitions

The census of agriculture is one of the key pillars of a national statistical system, and in many developing countries it is often the only means of producing statistical information on the structure...

by Food and Agricultural Organization [FAO] | On 08 Feb 2016

Low Paid Employment in Britain: Estimating State-Dependence and Stepping Stone Effects

Using 18 waves of the British Household Panel Study, this paper examines state dependence and stepping stone effects of low pay. A distinguishing feature is that five types of transition- not in the l...

by Lixin Cai | On 07 Feb 2016

Remittances and Expenditure Patterns of the Left Behinds in Rural China

This paper investigates how private transfers from internal migration in China affect the expenditure behaviour of families left behind in rural areas. Using data from the Rural-Urban Migration in Chi...

by Sylvie Démurger | On 07 Feb 2016

Subjective Well-being in China, 2005-2010: The Role of Relative Income, Gender and Location

We use data from two rounds of the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) to study the determinants of subjective well-being in China over the period 2005-2010 during which self-reported happiness score...

by M. Niaz Asadullah | On 07 Feb 2016

Determinants of Urban Poverty: The Case of Medium Sized City in Pakistan

Urban poverty, which is distinct from rural poverty due to demographic, economic and political aspects remain hitherto unexplored, at the city level in Pakistan. The determinants of urban poverty in S...

by Masood Sarwar Awan | On 06 Feb 2016

The Persistence and Transition of Rural Poverty in Pakistan: 1998-2004

This study has used two rounds of the two panel data sets to examine the poverty dynamics in rural Pakistan (Sindh and Punjab). The Pakistan SocioEconomic Survey (PSES ) covers two periods, 1998 and 2...

by G. M. Arif | On 06 Feb 2016

Remittances and Poverty Linkages in Pakistan: Evidence and Some Suggestions for Further Analysis

This exercise is envisaged to provide a brief account of the research studies on inter-relationship between remittance inflows from abroad and the poverty levels obtained in the country. This is discu...

by Mohammad Irfan | On 06 Feb 2016

Urban Poverty in Nepal

This research report tracks various aspects of poverty in Nepal across geographical areas and evaluates the rise of squatter settlements. It also looks at various dimensions of poverty, resilience for...

by Shivit Bakrania | On 05 Feb 2016

International Trade and Access to Sustainable Energy: Issues and Lessons from Country Experiences

How can trade policy respond to the needs and concerns of more than a billion people in the developing world that lack access to energy for fulfilling their daily needs such as cooking and lighting? A...

by | On 05 Feb 2016

Explaining the de facto Open-access of Public Property Commons

Public property common pool resources in many developing countries are manage them in a sustainable manner. While this explanation may have some merit, it is certainly inadequate. Instead, we argue th...

by Junaid Memon | On 03 Feb 2016

Urbanization and Inequality in Hypertension Diagnosis and Medication in Indonesia

Urbanization has been progressing quickly in Indonesia and the consequences on health and health inequities are still not well understood. In this paper, new empirical evidence is presented on the dif...

by Matthias Helble | On 02 Feb 2016

Understanding the Transboundary Karakoram-Pamir Landscape

The Karakoram-Pamir Landscape lies at the junction between the black Karakoram mountains, which mostly lie within Pakistan, and the grey Pamir mountains, which mostly lie within China. It is known for...

by Eklabya Sharma | On 02 Feb 2016

The 2014 Arab Opinion Index

The 2014 Arab Opinion Index is the third annual survey of Arab public opinion carried out by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies. In 2011, the survey was carried out in 12 Arab countries,...

by Arab Center for Policy Studies | On 02 Feb 2016

Pesticide Policy

The aggressive media campaigns by pesticide companies do not comply with FAO guidelines for advertising pesticides. Pakistan adopts FAO guidelines on the issues where Pakistani law is silent. The Paki...

by Shahid Zia | On 02 Feb 2016

Rural Transport, Safety and Security

By 2020, road accidents are expected to be the third highest cause of death and disability globally. Transport safety concerns in poor countries have focused mainly on roads and motorised traffic, but...

by International Forum for Rural Transport and Develo IFRTD | On 01 Feb 2016

Making it Safer to Cross Waterways in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has about 120,000 engineered rural waterway crossings (such as bridges) and another 250,000 non-engineered crossings built and maintained by communities. Because of a lack of financial and h...

by Granie Jayalath | On 01 Feb 2016

Understanding The Dimensions And Dynamics Of Poverty In Underserved Settlements In Colombo

Existing measures of urban poverty carried out for national level comparisons portray very low levels of poverty with an average urban household spending an equivalent to the top 20% of national expe...

by Neranjana Gunetilleke | On 01 Feb 2016

The Story of Primary Health Care : from Alma Ata to the Present Day

The idea of primary health care (PHC) emerged in the 1960s, in recognition of the shortcomings of the health systems inherited by developing countries after independence. The urban, centralised and cu...

by Institute of Development Studies IDS | On 01 Feb 2016

Swings and Roundabouts: A narrative on Water Policy Development in Sri Lanka

This paper deals with the ‘swings and roundabouts’ encountered in water policy development in Sri Lanka. In recent decades, policy reforms for water resource management nationally-demanded but designe...

by Rajindra Ariyabandu | On 01 Feb 2016

Research Imperatives for the Indian Banking Sector

In emerging economies like India, banking sector is very important. But banking sector is at 'crossroads'. There are many issues which this sector is facing and research which would generate fresh i...

by S.S. Mundra | On 01 Feb 2016

Forests: the Green and REDD of Climate Change

Forests are crucial for rural development, access to water, agricultural productivity, energy, soil conservation, and flood control. Forests are also home to at least 80 per cent of terrestrial biodiv...

by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs | On 31 Jan 2016

Multidimensional Climate Threats Require New Approaches and More Resources for Adaptation Challenge

Long-term planning and investment are essential to prevent increasing vulnerability to climate change in developing countries. Tackling only the impacts will fail: fragmented action are only partial s...

by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs | On 31 Jan 2016

The Challenges of Adapting to a Warmer Planet for Urban Growth and Development

The United Nations estimates that more than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas. It is expected that the proportion of city dwellers globally will have risen to three quarters by 2050,...

by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs | On 31 Jan 2016

An Integrated Strategy for Sustainable Cities

The multiple challenges that cities face also represent a strategic opportunity to build sustainable cities and reap the benefits of rapid urbanization. Urban development should be understood as a bal...

by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs | On 31 Jan 2016

Integrating Urban Agriculture and Forestry Into Climate Change Action Plans: Lessons From Western Province, Sri Lanka And Rosario, Argentina

Climate change adds to the existing challenges faced by cities. Cities – as net consumers rather than producers of food – are already highly vulnerable to the disruption of critical food and other sup...

by Marielle Dubbeling | On 30 Jan 2016

Founding of IWMI In Sri Lanka

The parliamentary general elections in 1977 was a watershed in the political landscape of Sri Lanka. The government that came into power mid-year sought a more liberalized and open economy, and hence...

by Nanda Abeywickrama | On 30 Jan 2016

Determinants of Cesarean Deliveries in Pakistan

Role of cesarean section (C Section) is acknowledged worldwide to safe maternal and neonatal life, and especially in countries like Pakistan where maternal health care is not satisfactory. But there i...

by Saman Nazir | On 30 Jan 2016

Health Issues of a Branded Community in an Urban Slum of Mumbai

The ‘De-notified Tribes’ are those communities which were notified under the several versions of the Criminal Tribes Act (CTA) enforced during colonial rule in India between 1871 to 1947. After a sev...

by Praveenkumar Katarki | On 30 Jan 2016

A Report on the Status of Pardhis in Mumbai City

Owing to a dearth of government data and research studies on the urban existence of Pardhis, one of the principal aims of this study was to render visibility to the issue.

by Paankhi Agrawal | On 30 Jan 2016

Healing Wounds: How the International Centers of the CGIAR Help Rebuild Agriculture in Countries Affected by Conflicts and Natural Disasters

This study first reviews current thinking on the underlying causes of conflicts and disasters, identifying poverty as a major driver of both. Poverty breeds frustration, compelling the poor to turn to...

by Surendra Varma | On 29 Jan 2016

Making Regional Cooperation Work for South Asia’s Poor

South Asia has attracted global attention because it has experienced rapid GDP growth over the last two decades. What is not so well known is that South Asia is the least integrated region in the worl...

by Ejaz Ghani | On 29 Jan 2016

Tracing Qatar’s Foreign Policy and its Impact on Regional Security

Drawing strongly upon recent International Relations literature on the foreign affairs of small states, this paper elaborates several arguments on the trajectory of Qatar’s foreign policy: (1) An “act...

by | On 29 Jan 2016

Effect of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) on Malnutrition of Infants in Rajasthan, India: A Mixed Methods Study

The paper tries to analyse the effect of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), a wage-for-employment policy of the Indian Government, on infant malnutrition and delinea...

by | On 29 Jan 2016

Spatial Dimensions of Muslim Well-Being in India: A Comparative Study of Indian Districts

The Sachar Commission Report of 2006 on Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India generated widespread awareness of the socioeconomic disparity and exclusion of religiou...

by Riaz Hassan | On 29 Jan 2016

A Legally Binding Agreement (LBA) - Growing Need for Air Pollution Reduction and Control in South Asia

With increasing urbanization and economic growth, air pollution is becoming an urgent concern in South Asian countries. The study upon which this paper is based has been conducted at SDPI, to look int...

by Mahmood Khwaja | On 28 Jan 2016

Earnings and Education among Ethnic Groups in Rural India

In rural India social and cultural norms are deep rooted in society. Access to productive assets, employment opportunities and consequently incomes are to a large extent influenced by these social fac...

by Jeemol Unni | On 28 Jan 2016

TRIPS and Pharmaceutical Industry: Issues of Strategic Importance

Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) brings in uniformity in the standards of intellectual property rights among the member countries of the WTO irrespective of their developmental statu...

by N. Lalitha | On 28 Jan 2016

Urban Health: Policy and Polity

This note examines selected issues in urban health from social perspective. In particular, it brings out the key challenges in targeting and planning for the urban poor; their mobilisation and partici...

by Meera Chatterjee | On 28 Jan 2016

Public Health in Urban India: Lessons from Surat

Surat-a city in the western-most Indian state of Gujarat, is an important case study, especially for those municipalities attempting reform of public health services. This note takes Surat as a case s...

by Rajib Dasgupta | On 28 Jan 2016

Strengthening Public Health in Urban India: The Role of National Urban Health Mission

This note highlights the role of population-based public health; both in preventing disease outbreaks and managing those outbreaks whenever they occur. While its importance is well recognised in devel...

by Monica Das Gupta | On 28 Jan 2016

Institutional Arrangements in Providing Urban Health Services: Current Context and Possible Way Forward

This note looks beyond the parameters of a three-tier public health care system, to the supportive institutional arrangements necessary for provision of effective and accountable services to improve h...

by Shomikho Raha | On 28 Jan 2016

McKinsey's Urban Governance and Planning - Relevance to Health

In April 2010 the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) released a report aimed at ‘awakening India’s cities, building inclusive ones and sustaining economic growth. This policy note summarises the report’s...

by Meera Chatterjee | On 28 Jan 2016

Healthcare Challenges in Urbanizing India

Rapid urbanisation in India, driven by a globalised economy and its accelerated growth, will increasingly demand attention of policy makers. The objective of this policy note is to throw light on heal...

by Rajeev Ahuja | On 28 Jan 2016

Micro Determinants of Human Fertility: Study of Selected Physiological and Behavioural Variables in SC and ST Population

This paper is an attempt to study plausible causal relationship of women’s physiology and behaviour components with fertility in more or less non-industrial rural populations in Orissa, an Eastern Ind...

by Satyajeet Nanda | On 28 Jan 2016

Potable Water for the Rural Poor in Arid Rajasthan: Traditional Water Harvesting as an Option

This paper enquires into the potential of wells (as TWHS) in the Thar Desert area of Rajasthan. Following a detailed analysis of hydrological and structural aspects of the source and quality of water,...

by Keshab Das | On 28 Jan 2016

What’s in a Country Average? Wealth, Gender, and Regional Inequalities in Immunization in India

Recent attention to Millennium Development Goals by the international development community has led to the formation of targets to measure country-level achievements, including achievements on health...

by Abdo Yazbeck | On 28 Jan 2016

Microinsurance Decisions: Gendered Evidence from Rural Bangladesh

This paper draws from a field research experiment to examine the gendered aspects of willingness to pay for index-based insurance in Bangladesh. Participants were presented with risky lotteries and...

by Daniel J. Clarke | On 28 Jan 2016

Financial Inclusion and Livelihood Promotion of Rickshaw Pullers in India

The research study highlights the financial inclusion needs of cycle rickshaw pullers in India. These include access to service sectors; improvement of asset base; employment of their women; increase...

by | On 27 Jan 2016

Samruddhi - The Madhya Pradesh Model of Financial Inclusion

The report assesses the impact of Samruddhi- the Madhya Pradesh model of financial inclusion that aims to improve access of the state’s poor to finance. It examines the current level and pattern of ac...

by | On 27 Jan 2016

Achieving Bangladesh's Tourism Potential: Linkages to Export Diversification, Employment Generation and the "Green Economy"

The objective of this working paper is to critically test the assertion that pro-poor "green" tourism is one of the best development options for the majority of least developed countries (LDCs) -- a c...

by Shoaib Akhtar | On 27 Jan 2016

Same-sex Sexualities, Gender Variance, Economy and Livelihood in Nepal: Exclusions, Subjectivity and Development

This case study explores the relationship between socioeconomic opportunity and exclusion in relation to minority gender and sexualities in Nepal.The study, a component of a wider programme on Sexuali...

by | On 26 Jan 2016

When the Hen Crows: Obstacles that Prevent Indigenous Women from Influencing Health-care Policies – A Case Study of Shillong, Meghalaya, India

Meghalaya is a landlocked and largely agrarian state in northeast India with an approximate population of three million. Various government surveys report that roughly half the state lives below the p...

by | On 26 Jan 2016

Export Quality in Advanced and Developing Economies: Evidence from a New Dataset

This paper develops new estimates of export quality, far more extensive than previous efforts, covering 178 countries and hundreds of products during the period 1962—2010. It finds that quality upgrad...

by Christian Henn | On 26 Jan 2016

Nutritional Deprivation Among Indian Pre-school Children: Does Rural-Urban Disparity Matter?

This paper focuses on a particular aspect of such rural-urban difference, namely nutritional status of children. Over the years it is found that under nutrition among children in India; have declining...

by Rudra Narayan Mishra | On 26 Jan 2016

Best Practices in the Integrated Child Development Services: Some Lessons for its Restructuring and Strengthening

Some innovations within the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) have demonstrated significant improvements in the nutritional status of children. This note discusses four such innovations, as...

by Ashi Kohli Kathuria | On 26 Jan 2016

Overcoming the Challenges of Urban Food and Nutrition Security

Despite the high contribution of urban areas to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), urban poverty and nutrition security in India remains a challenge. Poor infrastructure, high unemployment, poor state...

by M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation | On 26 Jan 2016

Addressing the Unequal Burden of Malnutrition

The poor are not uniformly disadvantaged. For the most health indicators, the status of ‘excluded groups’ such as scheduled caste and scheduled tribes, and Muslims is significantly worse than that of...

by Sukhade Thorat | On 26 Jan 2016

Patterns, Processes of Reproduction, and Policy Imperatives for Poverty in Remote Rural Areas: A Case Study of Southern Orissa in India

The paper examines the spatial pattern of poverty in India and tries to understand how multiple deprivation leads to reproduction of poverty especially in forest-based economies in the central-eastern...

by Amita Shah | On 26 Jan 2016

Drinking Water and Sanitation in Rural Madhya Pradesh: Recent Initiatives and Issues

This paper presents a brief account, based primarily on available secondary sources, of the current status of drinking water supply and sanitation in rural Madhya Pradesh. With a discussion on the lop...

by Keshab Das | On 26 Jan 2016

Agency and Access under Decentralized Governance: Water Supply and Sanitation in Kolkata City

Ensuring sustainable access to basic services in urban India has continued to remain a major challenge for civic bodies. A fast growing urban population has exerted great pressure on the provisioning...

by Keshab Das | On 26 Jan 2016

Agroforestry in Tribal Areas of Gujarat: Move towards Sustainable Agriculture?

This paper examines the agroforestry initiative adopted by the Government of Gujarat with the aim to enhance the incomes of tribal households facing numerous production constraints. The specific objec...

by Jharna Pathak | On 26 Jan 2016

National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) India: Arunachal Pradesh

This report presents the key findings of the NFHS-3 survey in Arunachal Pradesh. The survey provides trend data on key indicators and includes information on several new topics, such as HIV/AIDS-relat...

by | On 25 Jan 2016

National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) India: Andhra Pradesh

This report presents the key findings of the NFHS-3 survey in Andhra Pradesh. The survey provides trend data on key indicators and includes information on several new topics, such as HIV/AIDS-related...

by Arokiasamy Perianayagam | On 25 Jan 2016

Determinants of Farm-level Adaptation Practices to Climate Extremes: A Case Study from Odisha, India

A large number of rural households in the state of Odisha, India are dependent on agriculture for their basic livelihoods, which is affected by the frequent occurrence of climate externalities like cy...

by Chandra Sekhar Bahinipati | On 25 Jan 2016

Changing Livelihoods in Delhi’s Periphery, circa 1930–2012

The understanding of livelihoods in an economy dominated by informality can benefit considerably from correlations between macro data on employment and detailed studies of ‘work’ and ‘non work’ in sel...

by Devesh Vijay | On 24 Jan 2016

Understanding Mountain Poverty in the Hindu Kush-Himalayas

Research suggests that development interventions that do not take mountain specificities into account may threaten rather than facilitate development for the inhabitants in a sustainable mountain envi...

by Brigitte Hoermann | On 23 Jan 2016

Social Cost-Benefit Analysis of Delhi Metro

The growing demand for public transport in mega cities has serious effects on urban ecosystems, especially due to the increased atmospheric pollution and changes in land use patterns. An ecologically...

by Rashmi Singh | On 23 Jan 2016

Rationalizing Food Demand and Supply Estimates: An Exploratory Note

This note examines the current methodology of setting the requirements and availability of food grains used by FPMU and identifies areas where efforts are needed to rationalize demand and supply estim...

by Bangladesh Bank | On 23 Jan 2016

Trend and Characteristics of Recent Inflation in Bangladesh

In the backdrop of recent global developments, this note examines some of the characteristics of inflation in Bangladesh including the contribution of major commodity groups to overall inflation in ru...

by Bangladesh Bank | On 23 Jan 2016

Results of the Methodological Studies, for Agricultural and Rural Statistics

This report summarizes outcomes of collaboration between ADB and implementing agencies of Bhutan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, the Philippines, and Viet Nam to address gaps in the production of a...

by Asian Bank | On 23 Jan 2016

Food Safety And Hygiene Practices Among Street Food Vendors In Delhi, India

A study was done to assess food safety and hygiene practices amongst street food vendors in Delhi, India. findings and observations at the vending site. Data was entered and analyzed with the help of...

by Chander Thakur | On 22 Jan 2016

Community Based Women Empowerment Initiatives in India

Over the years, India has designed and implemented a number of targeted interventions for the poor including putting in place specific reservations for the disadvantaged to ensure equitable access to...

by Global IPE | On 22 Jan 2016

Urban Climate Change Resilience Policy Brief

India is witnessing rapid growth in the urban centers. Urbanization trend is expected to accelerate in coming decades as well. It is projected that the number of cities with a population of more than...

by Urban Climate Change Resilience UCCR | On 21 Jan 2016

Political Commitment In India’s Social Policy Implementation: Shaping The Performance of MGNREGA

This paper contributes to the empirical understanding of the concept of commitment and the role it plays in shaping India’s social policy implementation. Taking the case of the landmark policy, the Ma...

by Deepta Chopra | On 21 Jan 2016

Climate Change and Cities

This paper is a study of climate change discourse in urban India. It suggests that the policies being articulated to deal with climate issues are premised on incremental changes rather than radical re...

by Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay | On 21 Jan 2016

How (well) is Education Measured in Household Surveys?

Household surveys are an important source of information about education systems. International survey programs such as the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and the Multiple Indicator Clusters Sur...

by Education Policy and Data Center EPDC | On 21 Jan 2016

Assessment of the Reliability and Relevance of the Food Data Collected in National Household Consumption and Expenditure Surveys

Food consumption data are collected in most countries through a variety of household surveys. The primary objective of these surveys is usually to measure poverty, to derive consumption patterns neede...

by Lisa C. Smith | On 21 Jan 2016

Demographics and Climate Change: Future Trends And their Policy Implications for Migration

This working paper seeks to explore the potential impact of future demographic and climate change on migration patterns in developing countries, in order to identify policy implications for internatio...

by | On 20 Jan 2016

Identifying Predictors of Childhood Anaemia in North-East India

The objective of this study is to examine the factors that influence the occurrence of childhood anaemia in North-East India by exploring dataset of the Reproductive and Child Health-II Survey (RCH-II...

by S Dey | On 20 Jan 2016

Zinc Status in South Asian Populations—An Update

This article attempts to highlight the prevalence of zinc deficiency and its health and economic consequences in South Asian developing countries and to shed light on possible approaches to combating...

by S Akhtar | On 20 Jan 2016

Rural Sanitation Transformation in Himachal Pradesh

The relationship between poor sanitation, water borne disease, mortality and malnutrition is well documented. Statistics about the number of deaths due to diarrhea as well as stunting caused by malnut...

by Deepak Sanan | On 19 Jan 2016

Dietary Diversity and Women’s BMI among Farm Households in Rural India

The evidence on the link between agriculture and nutrition has so far been tenuous. On the one hand, undernutrition rates are severe and more widespread among those involved in agriculture. This evide...

by R V Bhavani | On 19 Jan 2016

Urbanization, gender and urban poverty: Paid work and unpaid carework in the city

This collaborative working paper, and the shorter technical briefing note derived from it, discuss hidden dimensions of urban poverty, and the different ways in which they impact men and women. This g...

by | On 19 Jan 2016

Impact of Climate Related Shocks and Stresses on Nutrition and Food Security in Selected Areas of Rural Bangladesh

This study attempts to break down ‘climate change’ into ‘climate related shocks and stresses in the course of time’ and conceptualizes the food security and nutrition outcomes as combination of the ad...

by Chris Béné | On 19 Jan 2016

A Critical Review of Selected Time Use Surveys

This paper was prepared as part of the preparatory phase for the UNRISD research project on Political and Social Economy of Care. The overall aim of the project is to examine the way in which care is...

by | On 19 Jan 2016

Determinants of Child Undernutrition in Bangladesh Literature Review

This literature review identifies and summarises existing evidence on the determinants of undernutrition in children under the age of two years in Bangladesh. The review gathers evidence on the immedi...

by Stuart Gillespie | On 19 Jan 2016

Twelfth Plan Working Group on Disadvantaged Farmers, Including Women

This working group on Disadvantaged Farmers, including women is one of the key working groups for defining agricultural policy in the Twelfth Five Year Plan. Eighty-three percent of India’s farmers cu...

by Bina Agarwal | On 19 Jan 2016

Human Trafficking in Southeast Asia: Results from a Pilot Project in Vietnam

Human trafficking is one of the most widely spread and fastest growing crimes in the world. However, despite the scope of the problem, the important human rights issues at stake and the professed inte...

by Ngan Dinh | On 19 Jan 2016

Whose Side Are You On? Identifying The Distributive Preferences of Local Politicians in India

The literature on decentralized public programs suggests that errors in the targeting of anti-poverty programs are rooted in the capture of these programs by local elites or local politicians. Consist...

by Mark Schneider | On 18 Jan 2016

Health Service Inequities as Challenge to Health Security

The paper provides an overview of the inequities in health outcomes and their variation across regional, social, and economic groups. It seeks to explain these variations by focusing on health service...

by | On 18 Jan 2016

Anemia in the Elderly Residing in a South Indian Rural Community

Anemia is defined as a reduction in the body’s red cell mass 1, reflected in a reduced oxygen carrying capacity of the blood. The World Health Organisation criterion for the diagnosis of anemia is a l...

by | On 18 Jan 2016

Household Survey Data for Research on Well-Being and Behavior in Central Asia

This paper summarizes the micro-level survey evidence from Central Asia generated and analyzed between 1991 and 2012. We provide an exhaustive overview over all accessible individual and household-lev...

by Tilman Brück | On 15 Jan 2016

A Profile of the World's Young Developing Country Migrants

Individual level census and household survey data are used to present a rich profile of the young developing migrants around the world. Youth are found to comprise a large share of all migrants, parti...

by David McKenzie | On 14 Jan 2016

Housing Policies in China: Issues and Options

This article consists in three parts. The first part deals with theory. We evaluate the pros and cons of government involvement in urban housing and of renting versus ownership. In the second part, we...

by Yves Zenou | On 14 Jan 2016

Gender and Climate Change Thematic Section

Eldis has brought together an editorially selected range of over 170 research resources from diverse perspectives and publishers. The theme focuses on gender equality and the role that both women and...

by E. Esplen | On 14 Jan 2016

Gender Sensitivity In Disaster Management

It lies at the intersection of two major challenges: disaster, experienced by many of the rural poor as drought, flood and storms; and the continuing issue of gender imbalances in many aspects of soci...

by Janet Robinson | On 14 Jan 2016

Looking Within The Household: A Study On Gender, Food Security, And Resilience In Cocoa-Growing Communities

This study, relying primarily on qualitative data from Côte d’Ivoire, examines how income allocation and intra-household dynamics affect household resilience during the lean season. Its findings indic...

by Elizabeth Kiewisch | On 14 Jan 2016

Public-Private Partnerships for Health Care in Punjab

This study examines the current state of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in health care in Punjab, and possibilities for new kinds of initiatives in this broad category of institutional arrangement...

by | On 14 Jan 2016

Job Search Processes for Tribal People from Jharkhand and West Bengal

Millions of job seekers in South Asia, including many tribals, are forced by lack of local employment opportunities to migrate towards urban areas. This fieldwork-based study aims to understand specif...

by Rajib Dhar | On 13 Jan 2016

Women Migrants and their Mental Health: A Study of Working Women Hostellers in Mumbai

Mental health is an important component of the total positive health and is interwoven closelywith the physical and physiological dynamics of the human body. Migrant population, being a non-native pop...

by Reshmi R S | On 13 Jan 2016

The Deprived, Discriminated & Damned Girl Child: Story of Declining Child Sex Ratios in India

This article traces the different elements that explain and help understand the phenomena of declining child sex ratios in India along with the debates on the subject, with specific focus on urban loc...

by Preet Rustagi | On 13 Jan 2016

Climate Change Impacts in Drought and Flood Affected Areas: Case Studies in India

The focus of this report is on vulnerabilities in natural resources and rural livelihoods, which stand at the front line of climate change impact. The overarching objective of this report is to promot...

by World Bank [WB} | On 12 Jan 2016

Inequality and Environmental Sustainability

This paper synthesizes the evidence of a negative correlation between income inequality and environmental quality. It shows that inequality exerts adverse impact on environmental outcomes through seve...

by | On 11 Jan 2016

Living on the Edge: Immunization Coverage among Children of Nomadic and De-notified Tribes in the Slums of M-East Ward, Mumbai

This study was carried out to assess the immunization status of the NT-DNT children in the 0 to 5 year age group and also to suggest an intervention strategy to immunize the non-immunized children....

by Praveenkumar Katarki | On 11 Jan 2016

The Effect of Childhood Migration on Human Capital Accumulation: Evidence from Rural-Urban Migrants in Indonesia

Developing countries are experiencing unprecedented levels of urbanization. Although most of these movements are motivated by economic reasons, they could affect the human capital accumulation of the...

by | On 11 Jan 2016

Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna

Rural Road connectivity is a key component of rural development by promoting access to economic services and thereby generating increased agricultural incomes and productive employment opportunities i...

by Ministry of Rural Development Government of India | On 11 Jan 2016

The Perils of Counting Caste

While the unpublished findings of the ‘Caste Census’ in India might not receive serious attention if ever made public, some of the socio-economic data, made available by the same Census, can set the m...

by Ronojoy Sen | On 10 Jan 2016

Data-Driven Planning for Solid Waste Management in Chennai

The paper reports the advantages of data-based planning for solid waste management in a major Indian city, which have been demonstrated through three steps undertaken as part of a pilot project in a C...

by | On 09 Jan 2016

Urgency of Understanding Sanitation Drivers in ‘Smaller Cities’ in India: National and International Relevance

The paper emphasises the fact that the fastest growth in India’s urban population is occurring in its smaller cities and towns. They have glaringly inadequate sewerage and public sanitation infrastruc...

by Shubhagato Dasgupta | On 09 Jan 2016

India’s Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme

In this paper, we evaluate India’s flagship rural employment guarantee programme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), by answering questions such as whether the MG...

by | On 09 Jan 2016

Rural Tamil Nadu in the Liberalisation Era: What Do We Learn from Village Studies?

In this paper, the aim is to survey the findings of village studies that have been accomplished over the last two decades the era of economic liberalisation in India together with those of larger-scal...

by J. Jeyaranjan | On 09 Jan 2016

India’s Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme: Has it Reduced Poverty in Chitradurga District of Karnataka?

In this paper, we evaluate India’s flagship rural employment guarantee programme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), by answering questions such as whether the MG...

by Kala Seetharam Sridhar | On 09 Jan 2016

Livelihood Options of Dalit: An Analysis with Reference to Land Resources

Land is regarded as an important source of livelihoods to many people, especially rural people. For those people, access to and control over land resources is the source of livelihoods. Therefore, lan...

by Samana Adhikari | On 08 Jan 2016

Geographic Analysis of Livelihood Strategy in Jagritinagar Squatter Settlement, Kathmandu

The general objective of this study is to analyse the urban poverty issue from the livelihood and vulnerability perspective in Jagritinagar squatter settlement of Kathmandu Metropolitan City. The spec...

by Rajip Adhikari | On 08 Jan 2016

Collapsing ‘Government’, Emerging ‘Governances’

Contrary to widespread belief, the collapse of ‘government’ does not automatically entail the collapse of ‘governance’. In a setting of ‘unstable’ livelihoods, households’ coping strategies, coupled w...

by | On 07 Jan 2016

Household Decision-Making Under Threat of Violence: A Micro Level Study in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh

The rural household livelihood and children’s educational investment decisions are analyzed in a post-conflict setting located in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region of Bangladesh. The study represents...

by | On 07 Jan 2016

Remittances and Labor Supply in Post-Conflict Tajikistan

This paper analyzes the impact of remittances on the labor supply of men and women in post-conflict Tajikistan. It is found that on average men and women from remittance-receiving households are less...

by Olga Shemyakina | On 07 Jan 2016

Development Trajectories, Emission Profile, and Policy Actions:Singapore

Singapore is the most industrialized and urbanized country in Southeast Asia and is totally dependent on oil and natural gas imports to satisfy its energy needs. Its national energy policy framework s...

by Tilak Doshi | On 07 Jan 2016

Internal and International Migration in South East Asia

This chapter examines the key developments and challenges of internal (domestic) and external (international) migration in Southeast Asia by looking at their main features and key drivers. Internal mi...

by | On 07 Jan 2016

Better Hospitals, Better Health Systems: The Urgency of a Hospital Agenda

This paper outlines the nature of the issues surrounding hospitals in emerging markets and makes the case for early action to bridge the abyss of neglected hospital investments and the path needed to...

by | On 06 Jan 2016

Urbanization as “Development” Versus Constitutional Safeguards for the Tribal People

Following are excerpts from Report of a PUCL Fact Finding Team into unrest and repression in the Sundergarh scheduled district of Odisha.

by People's Union of Civil Liberties PUCL | On 06 Jan 2016

Unacknowledged Urbanisation: The New Census Towns of India

The unexpected increase in the number of census towns (CTs) in the last census has thrust them into the spotlight. Using a hitherto unexploited dataset, it is found that many of the new CTs satisfied...

by Kanhu Pradhan | On 05 Jan 2016

Estimates of Urban Infrastructure Financing Requirements in India 2006-2031

The paper describes the estimation exercise, i.e. the Urban Infrastructure Per Capita Investment Cost estimation and projection of urban finance requirements for the period 2006-2031 referred to as th...

by Shubhagato Dasgupta | On 05 Jan 2016

Special Economic Zones: Promise, Performance and Pending Issues

This set of four CPR Occasional Papers addresses different facets of what continues to be a contentious subject. The first paper, by S N Menon and SoumyaKantiMitra, provides an overview of the rationa...

by Centre Research | On 05 Jan 2016

Habitat III Issue Papers : 22 – Informal Settlements

Although some governments acknowledge the existence of slums and informal settlements, many do not. This lack of recognition and subsequent response directly undermines city-wide sustainable developme...

by | On 05 Jan 2016

Journey from Violence to Crime: A Study of Domestic Violence in the City of Mumbai

This section analyses the records maintained at the Special Cell, between 1990-1997, in the city of greater Mumbai. As per the procedural requirements at the Special Cell, women are supposed to sub...

by Anjali Dave | On 05 Jan 2016

Summary of Indonesia's Poverty Analysis

Economic growth averaging 5.8% since 2010 has helped to lift 3.3 million Indonesians out of poverty. Yet 28 million were still living below the government’s poverty line in March 2014. Indonesia’s nat...

by Priasto Aji Aji | On 01 Jan 2016

The Competitive Saving Motive: Concept, Evidence, and Implications

This paper surveys recent literature on the competitive saving motive and its broader economic implications. It introduces the concept of competitive saving, i.e., saving to improve one’s status relat...

by | On 01 Jan 2016

Developing Myanmar’s Information and Communication Technology Sector toward Inclusive Growth

Myanmar is expected to grow at least 6.8% per year in the coming years. Accompanying this growth will be an increase in demand for infrastructure services, including ICT-related services, both for co...

by Kee-Yung Nam | On 01 Jan 2016

Urban Systems and Urban Development in the People’s Republic of China

This paper examines the trends in urbanization in the People’s Republic of China. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is experiencing a trend toward population concentration in its large coastal c...

by Zhao Chen | On 01 Jan 2016

Achieving Environmental Sustainability in Myanmar

With many environmental assets, and industrial pressure only beginning to develop, Myanmar could effectively form policies and regulations that ensure sustainable growth and conservation of key natura...

by Sakiko Tanaka | On 01 Jan 2016

Poverty and Violent Conflict: A Micro Level Perspective on the Causes and Duration of Warfare

This paper discusses how endogenous mechanisms linking processes of violent conflict and the economic well-being of individuals and households in combat areas provide valuable micro foundations to the...

by Patricia Justino | On 30 Dec 2015

On the Links between Violent Conflict and Household Poverty: How Much Do We Really Know?

This paper assesses the usefulness of a new emerging body of work on the micro-level analysis of conflict and violence in advancing our current understanding of the relationship between violent confli...

by Patricia Justino | On 30 Dec 2015

Urban Systems and Urban Development in the People’s Republic of China

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is experiencing a trend toward population concentration in its large coastal cities. However, at the same time, there is also a distortion of city size toward smal...

by Zhao Chen | On 29 Dec 2015

Strengthening Municipal Governance through Performance-based Budget Allocation in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, pourashavas are an alternative destination to large cities. With the influx of urban residents within the next decades, governments and development partners must lead pourashavas toward...

by Norio Saito | On 29 Dec 2015

Myanmar’s Agriculture Sector: Unlocking the Potential for Inclusive Growth

Myanmar’s agriculture sector offers substantial unexploited potential to underpin the country’s inclusive economic development. With extensive land, water, and labor resources, as well as proximity to...

by Jindra Samson | On 29 Dec 2015

Can Social Security Boost Domestic Consumption in the People’s Republic of China?

This paper reviews the development of the social security system and trends in the urban labor market in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Despite its remarkable economic achievement, the PRC face...

by Wang Dewen | On 29 Dec 2015

Public and Private Control and Contestation of Public Space amid Violent Conflict in Karachi

Few cities in South Asia have been affected by violence more than Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and economic centre. This working paper examines the impacts of the city’s declining security situati...

by Noman Ahmed | On 29 Dec 2015

Gender-based Violence and Child Protection among Syrian Refugees in Jordan, with a Focus on Early Marriage

This study was undertaken on behalf of the Child Protection and Gender-Based Violence sub-working groups in Jordan, established in February 2012 to coordinate prevention and response to child protecti...

by UN Women | On 28 Dec 2015

Empowering Women Migrant Workers in Asia: A Briefing Kit

A new feature of international migration for work is the increase in the numbers of overseas women migrant workers, which in countries like the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka exceed the numbe...

by | On 28 Dec 2015

Social Factors Affecting Women's Susceptibility to HIV in India

India is the global epicentre of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Asia. Previousresearch indicates that the majority of HIV-positive women in India were infected by their husbands, their only sexual partner,...

by Priya Lall | On 23 Dec 2015

How does Women’s Time in Reproductive Work and Agriculture Affect Maternal and Child Nutrition? Evidence from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ghana, Mozambique, and Nepal

This paper examines whether an increase in women’s time in agriculture adversely affects maternal and child nutrition, and whether the lack of women’s time in reproductive work leads to poorer nutriti...

by SOPHIE THEIS | On 22 Dec 2015

Urban Development in India in the 21st Century: Policies for Accelerating Urban Growth

This paper traces urban development in India in the 20th century. It studies urbanisation projections made by different scholars in the past, and speculates on a set of economic policy choice reasons...

by Shubhagato Dasgupta | On 21 Dec 2015

The Smart City Obsession: A Critique

Pune does not need a skewed smart city plan. The government needs to come up with a comprehensive white paper on the city's problems, and an integrated plan to tackle these problems, keeping the inte...

by Neeraj Jain | On 21 Dec 2015

Adaptation Activities In India

Highlights lessons learned from implementing development schemes and policies, which have incorporated adaptation due to the increasing incidence of extreme weather events.

by | On 21 Dec 2015

Water-Related Disasters and Disaster Risk Management in the People’s Republic of China

Disaster risk now presents one of the most serious threats to inclusive and sustainable socioeconomic development. Coupled with anticipated increases in the frequency and intensity of weather-related...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 21 Dec 2015

Transitions to K-12 Education Systems Experiences from Five Case Countries

Preparing and implementing a K–12 transition absorbs considerable financial and human resources. It follows that the reasons for restructuring must be compelling. It follows that the reasons for restr...

by | On 21 Dec 2015

Study on Conditions and Needs of Women Workers in Delhi

Study on the needs and conditions of women workers in Delhi must begin its enquiry with the initial problem of poor availability of employment or access to economic activity/work for women in the cap...

by Neetha N | On 21 Dec 2015

Parental Education and Infant Mortality in India: Understanding the Regional Differences

This study examines the effect of parental education in the regional variation of infant mortality in India. The results are very robust to different potential confounding factors including socio-econ...

by Pradeep Choudhury | On 18 Dec 2015

Transforming the economic lives of the ultra-poor

This brief describes key findings from a rigorous seven-year evaluation of the first of these livelihood programmes, BRAC’s ‘Targeting the Ultra-Poor’ programme in rural Bangladesh. Targeted household...

by Clare Balboni | On 18 Dec 2015

The Value of Sustainable Protocol to Address Uterine Prolapse in Nepal: Health Camp, Awareness Education, and Employment Strategy

Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) is a global women’s health concern; uterine prolapse (UP), one of the five types of POP, has significant prevalence in Nepal. Studies indicate that over 600,000 women in Ne...

by Sherrie Palm | On 18 Dec 2015

Can Improved Cooking Stoves Work? The Nepal Chulo Experience

What motivates rural households to switch from older cooking methods to newer, more improved, ones? Improved cooking stoves (ICS) technology has demonstrated capacity to reduce health hazards from smo...

by Dipika Gawande | On 18 Dec 2015

Farm Household Typologies and Mechanization Patterns in Nepal Terai

Although Nepal formulated an agricultural mechanization promotion policy in 2014, there is still much to learn about tailoring mechanization policies to different types of farm households. The Terai b...

by | On 18 Dec 2015

Channelling Household Savings to Productive uses Through the Capital Markets

Savings provides the means for investments. Typically, investments are primarily funded through domestic savings and the rest through foreign capital inflows. Domestic savings are from three sources -...

by Vardhana Pawaskar | On 17 Dec 2015

Urbanisation, rural–urban migration and urban poverty

Rural-urban migration continues to attract much interest, but also growing concern. Migrants are often blamed for increasing urban poverty, but not all migrants are poor. In many cities, however, migr...

by David Satterthwaite | On 17 Dec 2015

Achieving the Malaria MDG Target: Reversing the Incidence of Malaria 2000–2015

In this joint publication, UNICEF and the World Health Organization report that between 2000 and 2015, malaria mortality rates among children under age 5 fell by 65 per cent, saving an estimated 5.9 m...

by United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF | On 17 Dec 2015

Strategic Framework 2013–2017 Global Programme Food Security

Food security and nutrition is a major global challenge. SDC’s Global Programme Food Security(GPFS) represents an innovative initiative of Switzerland in addressing food security and nutrition challen...

by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC | On 17 Dec 2015

Children of Migrants: The Impact of Parental Migration on Their Children's Education and Health Outcomes

This paper examines how parental migration affects children’s health and education outcomes. Using the Rural-Urban Migration Survey in China data we are able to measure the share of children’s lifetim...

by Xin Meng | On 17 Dec 2015

MQSUN Determinants of Child Undernutrition in Bangladesh Literature Review

The DFID Programme to Accelerate Improved Nutrition for the Extreme Poor in Bangladesh aims to improve nutrition outcomes for children, mothers and adolescent girls by integrating the delivery of a nu...

by Ahmed F. | On 16 Dec 2015

Enabling war and peace: Drugs, logs, gems, and wildlife in Thailand and Burma

In this policy paper, Vanda Felbab-Brown explores the relationship between conflict, peace dynamics, and drugs and other illicit economies in Thailand and Myanmar/Burma since the 1960s through...

by Vanda Felbab-Brown | On 16 Dec 2015

Is Access to Loan Adequate for Financing Capital Expenditure? A Household-level Analysis on Some Selected States of India

This paper attempts to identify the factors that determine access to credit for financing capital expenditures across selected developed, less developed and middle performing states in India. Using a...

by Meenakshi Rajeev | On 16 Dec 2015

How Can Food Subsidies Work Better? Answers from India and the Philippines

This study explores the outcomes of food subsidies to the poor in the case of India and the Philippines. Both countries operate in-kind food subsidy programs with similar mandates, commonalities in...

by Shikha Jha | On 15 Dec 2015

A Proposal for an Open University of Nepal for Providing Higher Education to the Rural and Marginalized People

The disadvantaged and marginalized groups in Nepal, and particularly women and Dalits, face grave hurdles to acquire post secondary education. Lack of educational access has deprived the rural and m...

by Pramod Dhakal | On 15 Dec 2015

Human Development Report 2015- Work for Human Development

From a human development perspective, work, rather than jobs oremployment is the relevant concept. A job is a narrow concept with a set of pre-determined time-bound assigned tasks or activities, in an...

by United Nations Development Programme [UNDP] | On 15 Dec 2015

The Exposure, Vulnerability, and Ability to Respond of Poor Households to Recurrent Floods in Mumbai

This paper examines poor households in the city of Mumbai and their exposure, vulnerability, and ability to respond to recurrent floods. The paper discusses policy implications for future adaptive cap...

by | On 14 Dec 2015

Does the Rise of Middle Class Lock in Good Government in the Developing World?

The current size of the income-secure middle class and its likely future growth, suggest that optimism is indeed warranted for many of today’s middle-income countries. But it is not warranted for all...

by Nancy Birdsall | On 14 Dec 2015

Climate-Smart Agriculture: Smallholder Adoption and Implications for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation

There are a wide range of agriculture-based practices and technologies that have the potential to increase food production and the adaptive capacity of the food production system, as well as reduce em...

by | On 09 Dec 2015

National Strategy Day on India: Delivering Growth in the New Context

The World Economic Forum along with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) convened the National Strategy Day on India on 3rd and 4th of November to provide a platform to boost economic growth and...

by | On 09 Dec 2015

Impact of Labour Migration to the Construction Sector on Poverty: Evidence from India

Seasonal and circular migration is an important livelihood strategy for workers in developing countries and the construction industry is one of the largest recipients of such labour. The impact of lab...

by RPC Migrating out of Poverty | On 08 Dec 2015

Sustainable Urbanization in Asia

Rapid urbanization together with climate change is emerging as the most challenging issue of the twenty-first century. As the region with the highest percentage increase in urban population over the l...

by UN-HABITAT UNHABITAT | On 07 Dec 2015

Book Review:Development Urbanism, International Expertise, and Solutions to the Crises of India’s Urban Transition

Review of India: The Urban Transition - A Case Study of Development by Henrik Valeur, Copenhagen: Arkitektur B, 2014. Illus- trations, graphs. 344 pp. $44.50 (paper), ISBN 978-87-92700-09-4.

by Preeti Chopra | On 06 Dec 2015

Book Review: India: The Urban Transition - A Case Study of Development

Review of India: The Urban Transition - A Case Study of Development. Copenhagen Arkitektur B, 2014. Illustrations, graphs. 344 pp. $44.50 (paper), ISBN 978-87-92700-09-4.

by | On 03 Dec 2015

A Behaviour-based Approach to the Estimation of Poverty in India

Almost a sixth of the world’s population and a large fraction of its poorest people live in India. Until recently, national poverty estimates were widely criticized because they relied on aggregate pr...

by | On 02 Dec 2015

Gender, Headship, and the Life Cycle: Landownership in Four Asian Countries

To inform the formulation of policies and interventions to strengthen women’s land rights, this paper analyzes nationally representative data from Bangladesh, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam to...

by Kathryn Sproule | On 02 Dec 2015

HIV/AIDS Epidemic in India: An Economic Perspective

In thinking about the implications of HIV/AIDS, considerable attention was initially drawn to its clinical aspects. More recently, other dimensions of HIV, including economic, have been explored. The...

by | On 01 Dec 2015

Socio-Economic Impact of HIV and AIDS in India

HIV and AIDS are a serious challenge for the developing as well as the developed world. India, with an estimated 5.206 million people living with HIV in 2005, accounts for nearly 69 percent of the HIV...

by | On 01 Dec 2015

The Socio-Economic Impact of HIV at the Household Level in Asia: A Regional Analysis of the Impact on Women and Girls

An important element of the socio-economic impact of HIV is how it disproportionately affects women and girls, in terms of their vulnerability to infection, constrained access to services and the a...

by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) | On 01 Dec 2015

Loss Aversion and Willingness to Pay for New Products

This paper reports and models the discrepancy between the full bidding and endow and upgrade findings from a willingness-to-pay (WTP) elicitation Becker-Degroot-Marschak (BDM) experiment for an improv...

by Banerji A | On 30 Nov 2015

Access to Clean Energy

The development and utilization of renewable energy sources has been accorded high priority by the Government of India. The policies and programmes implemented by the Ministry of New and Renewable Ene...

by | On 27 Nov 2015

A Review of Issues Pertaining to Distribution of Liquefied Petroleum Gas and Superior Kerosene Oil in Bhutan

LPG and Superior Kerosene Oil (SKO), are not only important sources of fuel, but also commodities whose price is subsidized to benefit the people of Bhutan. Therefore, it is important to ensure smooth...

by National Council Economic Affairs Committee | On 27 Nov 2015

Indonesia’s Missing Millions: Erasing Discrimination in Birth Certification in Indonesia’s Missing Millions

Indonesia’s rate of birth registration is imprecisely measured but is low, especially among the poorer, rural, population. At the same time, the country has developed a system of population registrati...

by Cate Sumner | On 20 Nov 2015

Requiring Indian Utilities to Report: Harnessing Disclosure Legislation to Improve Water and Sanitation Services

The paper argues for a regular public reporting of key performance indicators by the WatSan utilities in India. It elaborates on how the policy behind these reforms could be operationalized.

by Premila Nazareth Satyanand | On 18 Nov 2015

Sanitation in India: Progress, Differentials, Correlates, and Challenges

Communicable diseases constitute a significant portion of the overall disease burden in India. Improving access to sanitation in India will, similarly, reduce the communicable disease burden and chil...

by Sekhar Bonu | On 18 Nov 2015

Evaluation of Multipurpose Community Learning Centres of BRAC in Rural Areas of Bangladesh

This study aimed to evaluate the Multipurpose Learning Centres or Gonokendros (GK) operated by BRAC jointly with the local community in rural areas of Bangladesh. Two main goals were process evaluatio...

by | On 09 Nov 2015

The Sector Reforms Process in Rural Drinking Water and Sanitation: A Review of the Role of WASMO in Gujarat

This paper provides an assessment of the interventions in reforming the drinking water and sanitation sector in Gujarat as through the Water and Sanitation Management Organisation (WASMO) from a sup...

by Keshab Das | On 06 Nov 2015

Upgrading a Piped Water Supply from Intermittent to Continuous Delivery and Association with Waterborne Illness: A Matched Cohort Study in Urban India

Intermittent delivery of piped water can lead to waterborne illness through contamination in the pipelines or during household storage, use of unsafe water sources during intermittencies, and limite...

by Ayse Ercumen | On 05 Nov 2015

Trends and Patterns in Consumption Expenditure: A Review of Class and Rural-Urban Disparities

This paper primarily aims to capture the changing patterns of consumption expenditure of three broad classes, namely, the ‘upper’ ‘middle’ and ‘bottom’ classes in the rural and urban India. In contras...

by | On 05 Nov 2015

Gender and Land Tenure Security: Challenges and Barriers to Women’s Entitlement to Land in India

Given the importance of securing women’s rights to land as India grows and develops and recognizing the dearth of available data to guide the design of gender-sensitive interventions, this study provi...

by | On 04 Nov 2015

Performance of Targeted Public Distribution System in Kerala

Targeted Public Distribution System was introduced in the country following the failure of the Universal PDS to serve below the poverty line and poorest of the poor households.It is being implemente...

by T Jayan | On 04 Nov 2015

Highlights of Recent IFPRI Food Policy Research in India: Reducing Poverty and Hunger through Food Policy Research

IFPRI and India’s partnership played a particularly important role following the Green Revolution when that partnership analyzed the necessary policies to both promote domestic food production and to...

by International Food Policy Research Institute | On 03 Nov 2015

Top Ten Urban Innovations

Humanity faces the mammoth task of adding over 2 billion people to the urban population before 2050. This is the equivalent of creating a city the size of London or San Francisco every month for the n...

by | On 03 Nov 2015

Internal Migration, Remittances and Poverty: Evidence from Ghana and India

Drawing on data from population censuses and recent household surveys for India and Ghana, this paper demonstrates the importance of internal migration in comparison to international migration, showin...

by | On 02 Nov 2015

Costs of Providing Sustainable Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Services in Rural and Peri-Urban India

Water, sanitation and hygiene services are central to addressing poverty, livelihoods and health. They are also critical in addressing the needs of poor communities and in achieving the Millennium Dev...

by M.V. Ramachandrudu | On 29 Oct 2015

State Food Provisioning as Social Protection: Debating India’s National Food Security Law

This report provides an overview on the main issues debated during the development and passage of the India’s National Food Security Act (2013), which legally binds national and state governments to e...

by Harsh Mander | On 20 Oct 2015

Post Conflict Face of Poverty and Society: Understanding a Gandhian Initiative against Pauperization and Violence in Mushahari (Muzaffarpur, Bihar)

This is an analytical narrative about post-conflict dynamics of poverty in a block of villages in north Bihar known as ‘the Mushahari Project’. It is related with the socio-economic and political cons...

by Anand Kumar | On 20 Oct 2015

An Exploratory Analysis of Deprivation and Ill-Health led Poverty in Urban India: A Case Study of Delhi

This paper examines the multi-dimensional nature of urban poverty with special emphasis on ill-health led deprivation. As a driver of poverty, ill-health reduces the income earning potential and incre...

by Samik Chowdhury | On 20 Oct 2015

Impact of Migration on Poverty and Development

This paper reviews the literature on migration in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Southern Africa, East Africa and West Africa in order to highlight the complexity of migration patterns and impacts. It is...

by Tasneem Siddiqui | On 19 Oct 2015

Aspirations and the Role of Social Protection: Evidence from a Natural Disaster in Rural Pakistan

This article uses Pakistan’s 2010 floods to identify the effects of a natural disaster on citizens’ aspirations. Aspirations were significantly reduced—especially among the poorest and most vulnerab...

by Katrina Kosec | On 19 Oct 2015

Gender Equality Results Case Study: Sri Lanka - Improving Connectivity to Support Livelihoods and Gender Equality

This case study documents key gender equality issues as well as key achievements and lessons from a project carried out in post conflict Sri Lanka as part of urgently needed reconstruction. The Improv...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 16 Oct 2015

Cultural Impact of Television on Urban Youth - An Empirical Study

Intentionally or unintentionally the globalised television has brought about significant changes in people’s attitude, lifestyle, behaviour, etc, the various elements of culture. Thus globalised TV ha...

by Dr. B K Ravi | On 14 Oct 2015

A Voice for the Voiceless: The Role of Community Radio in the Development of the Rural Poor

More than 850 million people in developing countries are excluded from a wide range of information and knowledge, with the rural poor in particular remaining isolated from both traditional media and...

by | On 14 Oct 2015

Investment in Agricultural Marketing and Market Infrastructure – A Case Study of Bihar

Bihar has lowest per capita income amongst the major states of India and high rate of persistent poverty with social structure fragmented based on caste lines. Therefore present study has been underta...

by | On 14 Oct 2015

Labour Force Participation in Rural Bihar: A Thirty-Year Perspective Based on Village Surveys

This paper focuses on the economic activity and the work status of men, women and children in rural Bihar. It uses data from surveys carried out in 36 villages under the research programme, Aiming at...

by | On 13 Oct 2015

Landscaping Women’s Empowerment through Learning and Education in India

India is the world’s second largest country in terms of total inhabitants. Further, out of a total population exceeding one billion, approximately 120 million are women living in poverty. India is one...

by | On 13 Oct 2015

Panchayats and Household Vulnerability in Rural India

This paper tries to assess the impact of coping strategies on household welfare. The paper tries to identify the components of vulnerability to better focus policy. India, particularly rural India, h...

by Raghbendra Jha | On 12 Oct 2015

Social and Economic Change in Rural Bihar and the Emerging Policy Framework

This document presents a summary of the initial findings from a research programme on inclusive growth in Bihar, carried out by the Institute for Human Development, New Delhi. The study aims to unde...

by | On 12 Oct 2015

Urban Poverty in Asia

This paper on Urban Poverty in Asia looks at the different dimensions of poverty in Asia, both income and nonincome, its two main regions, including a brief account of who and what class of people are...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 09 Oct 2015

Determination of Farm-Level Adaption Diversity to Cyclone and Flood: Insights from a Household-Level Survey in Eastern India

The present study aims to assess determinants of adaptation diversity (i.e., a number of adaptation mechanisms undertaken by the farm households). For empirical assessment, a farm household-level s...

by Chandra Sekhar Bahinipati | On 09 Oct 2015

Migration and Social Networks: Evidence from Bangladesh

This paper explores the role of social networks in the migration process in Bangladesh. Migration can be costly and can also involve considerable risks around finding adequate housing and employment....

by | On 08 Oct 2015

The Interaction Between Social Protection and Agriculture - A Review of Evidence

This study explores the interaction between formal social protection and agriculture by proposing a theory of change and conducting an empirical review that identifies how social protection impacts ag...

by Nyasha Tirivayi | On 07 Oct 2015

Strategies for Safe Motherhood in Tamil Nadu: A Note

While most states in India are grappling with the problem of high MMR, states such as Tamil Nadu have managed to reduce MMR levels to 79 deaths per 100,000 live births (SRS 2011–13). This review also...

by William Joe | On 06 Oct 2015

User Perceptions of Shared Sanitation among Rural Households in Indonesia and Bangladesh

The practice of sharing sanitation facilities does not meet the current World Health Organization/UNICEF definition for what is considered improved sanitation. Recommendations have been made to catego...

by | On 30 Sep 2015

Rural Poverty Reduction Strategy for South Asia

Roughly 40 percent of the world’s poor live in South Asia, where poverty is basically a rural problem. Therefore, a significant gain in rural poverty reduction in this sub-region will be crucial to re...

by | On 30 Sep 2015

Maternal Mortality in India: A Review of Trends and Patterns

This paper discusses the trends and patterns in reduction in maternal mortality in India, and focuses on highlighting inter- and intra-state disparities. We find that the trends in the maternal mortal...

by William Joe | On 29 Sep 2015

Safe Cities and Gender Budgeting

Women in the communities make efforts to seek allocation under appropriate budget heads to identify streams of revenue, available revenue and the required expenditure. Town planners, policy makers and...

by Vibhuti Patel | On 28 Sep 2015

Poverty and Social Protection in Urban India

This paper, highlights the need for provisioning adequate social protection coverage to the vulnerable sections of population in urban India, assesses the role of the TPDS in reaching out to the depri...

by R. Radhakrishna | On 28 Sep 2015

Role and Effectiveness of Public Distribution System in Assuring Food Security in India: An Appraisal

This paper tries to identify food insecure population of the country, analyse the availability, storage, procurement of food grain , assess the effectiveness of PDS, identify the discrepancies in the...

by Ishita Aditya Ray | On 28 Sep 2015

REDD+ Impacts: Evidence from Nepal

This paper discusses the findings from one of the first rigorous quasi-experimental studies using a ‘before-after-control intervention’ design that encompass all major aspects of REDD+: forest carbon...

by Bishnu Prasad Sharma | On 25 Sep 2015

Leveraging Urbanization in South Asia

Urbanization provides South Asian countries with the potential to transform their economies to join the ranks of richer nations in both prosperity and livability, but a new World Bank report finds the...

by World Bank | On 25 Sep 2015

Housing Finance Mechanisms in India

India is home to over 1.1 billion people. With about one in every sixth person in the world living in India, housing perforce assumes significant importance. Successive Indian governments have regarde...

by UN-HABITAT | On 25 Sep 2015

Planning and Design for Sustainable Urban Mobility: Global Report on Human Settlements 2013

Planning and Design for Sustainable Urban Mobility argues that the development of sustainable urban transport systems requires a conceptual leap. The purpose 'transportation' and 'mobility' is to gain...

by UN-HABITAT | On 25 Sep 2015

Health of Muslims in Maharashtra

This report is an effort to understand the health status of Muslims in Maharashtra. The report is based on analysis of National Family Health Surveys (NFHS), District Level Household Surveys (DLHS)...

by Sana Contractor | On 25 Sep 2015

Global Nutrition Report Actions and Accountability to Advance Nutrition and Sustainable Development

The Global Nutrition Report 2015 is a report card on the world’s nutrition globally, regionally, and country by country and on efforts to improve it. It assesses countries’ progress in meeting global...

by International Food Policy Research Institute | On 24 Sep 2015

Demand for Piped Drinking Water and a formal Sewer System in Bhutan

In this study, it is estimate the demand for sewage connections and piped drinking water in Bhutan. To estimate household willingness to pay for these services, the data is used from a sample of 18,76...

by | On 24 Sep 2015

Disadvantage and Discrimination in Self-Employment: Caste Gaps in Earnings in Indian Small Businesses

Using the 2004-05 India Human Development Survey data, The paper aims to estimate and decompose the earnings of household businesses owned by historically marginalized social groups known as Scheduled...

by Ashwini Deshpande | On 24 Sep 2015

The Challenge of Slums - Global Report on Human Settlements 2003

The Challenge of Slums presents the first global assessment of slums, emphasizing their problems and prospects. It presents estimates of the numbers of urban slum dwellers and examines the factors tha...

by United Nations Human Settlements Programme UN-Habitat | On 23 Sep 2015

India’s Worlds of Waste

The sheer magnitude of the social, political and technological challenges in implementing India’s new national priority of waste management, set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has attracted global a...

by | On 23 Sep 2015

The Nexus between Agriculture and Nutrition: Do Growth Patterns and Conditional Factors Matter?

This paper seeks to provide an overview of the complex and dynamic relationship between nutrition and growth, examine how different growth patterns lead to different nutritional outcomes, and identif...

by | On 22 Sep 2015

Mobile Phones: The Next Step towards Healthcare Delivery in Rural India?

Given the ubiquity of mobile phones, their use to support healthcare in the Indian context is inevitable. It is however necessary to assess end-user perceptions regarding mobile health interventions e...

by | On 22 Sep 2015

Urban informal settlers displaced by disasters: challenges to housing responses

The growing frequency of urban disasters and the lessons learned from mega-events such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti have spurred the development of human rights gu...

by Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre | On 22 Sep 2015

Rural Health System in India: A Review

Rural Health is one of vital elements of rural life. India being a nation of villages requires an intensive approach towards rural health. Nearly 75 per cent of health infrastructure and other health...

by | On 22 Sep 2015

Unemployment in an Era of Jobless Growth

This paper focuses on the nature and characteristics of unemployment using the five-yearly surveys of the NSSO. The dominant narrative in the literature has been that the rate of unemployment, whichev...

by | On 18 Sep 2015

Economic Growth and Employment Linkages: The Indian Experience

Conventional growth models incorporate capital but not labour as the determining variable. An alternative way to look at growth is to treat it a function of growth of employment and productivity: grow...

by | On 18 Sep 2015

Social Protection, Growth and Employment: Evidence from India, Kenya, Malawi, Mexico and Tajikistan

The paper addresses the issue of growth and development by looking at evidence from six country case studies to assess how to enhance the employment impact of social protection programmes by improving...

by United Nations Development Programme UNDP | On 16 Sep 2015

Migration, Gender, and Farming Systems in Asia: Evidence, Data, and Knowledge Gaps

Limited statistics on internal migration, international migration, and remittances worldwide prohibit understanding of migration’s role in the agricultural transformation process. Insights from the qu...

by Valerie Mueller | On 16 Sep 2015

Rights-based Legal Guarantee as Development Policy: The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act

This paper analyses the legal framework and policy innovations undertaken towards achieving the stated objectives of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. This paper seeks to cri...

by | On 15 Sep 2015

Addressing the Employment Challenge: India's MGNREGA

This paper examines, in particular, the effects of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) programme on employment, wages and incomes of the rural poor. It also considers its effect on...

by | On 14 Sep 2015

Women's Participation in the History of Ideas and Reconstruction of Knowledge

"The problems of knowledge are central to feminist theorizing which has sought to destabilize androcentric, mainstream thinking in the humanities and in the social and natural sciences". The feminist...

by | On 14 Sep 2015

Steel's a Steal

Steel is a basic input for the entire engineering industry (cars, household goods, machinery of all kinds), and for the infrastructure sector (roads, railways, power, real estate, etc). Raise the cost...

by T.N. Ninan | On 12 Sep 2015

Addressing Gender Concerns in India’s Urban Renewal Mission

The paper seeks to mainstream a gender perspective in the Jawaharlal National Rural Urban Renewal Mission through a set of guidelines for integrating gender issues in the urban renewal and reform agen...

by | On 11 Sep 2015

Report of Working Group on Nutrition for the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17)

This report details the vision for 12th Five Year Plan on Nutrition which is to move towards Nutrition Security- especially the more vulnerable infants and young children, adolescent, girls and women,...

by Planning Commission | On 10 Sep 2015

Debt-Bondage Slavery in India

There have been numerous investigations in recent years to determine the incidence and prevalence of modern slavery worldwide, and debt bondage in India has been found to be the most extensive form of...

by Sarah Knight | On 10 Sep 2015

The Impact of Conditional Cash Transfers on the Matriculation of Junior High School Students into Rural China’s High Schools

The goal of this study is to examine whether promising a Conditional Cash Transfer (conditional on matriculation) at the start of junior high increases the rate at which disadvantaged students matricu...

by Fan Li | On 09 Sep 2015

Sanitation in Maharashtra: A Policy Note

More than half of Rural Maharashtra defecates in the open. The main issue to understand is the nexus between the access to water and adoption of sanitation practices. It is also interesting to underst...

by Parliamentarian's Group for Children PGC | On 09 Sep 2015

Organising Rural Labour Process and Experiences, Vol. 2

Problems and challenges faced by the rural labour in India are many both in terms of their magnitude and impact on the rural economy in general and rural labourers in particular. The magnitude and the...

by | On 09 Sep 2015

Organising Rural Labour: Process and Experiences, Vol. 1

Problems and challenges faced by the rural labour in India are many both in terms of their magnitude and impact on the rural economy in general and rural labourers in particular. The magnitude and the...

by | On 09 Sep 2015

Socio-Demographic Factors Associated with Domestic Violence in Urban Slums, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Domestic violence is identified as a public health problem. It is associated with adverse maternal health. This study examined the prevalence and determinants of domestic violence among women in urban...

by C.P. Prakasam | On 09 Sep 2015

Implementation of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 - Case Study of India

This paper takes a look at the efforts made by the Government of India since the enactment of the Act to improve the relevance of minimum wages, its impact in bringing the workers out of the poverty l...

by | On 07 Sep 2015

A Review of Data on Nutrition in India: Preliminary Findings

This paper summarizes the preliminary findings of Global Nutrition Report (GNR), which we shared at the GNR stakeholder roundtable in New Delhi. The primary recommendations suggested are a set of core...

by | On 04 Sep 2015

Kerala Perspective Plan 2030

The Kerala Perspective Plan 2030 (KPP) is a Government of Kerala initiative that will serve as the basis for implementation of a series of initiatives aimed at fostering sustainable and inclusive grow...

by Government of Kerala Govt | On 04 Sep 2015

Why do Migrants do Better Than Non-Migrants at Destination? Migration, Class and Inequality Dynamics in India

This paper explores why migrants at their destination fare better than nonmigrants, across different socio-economic classes in India, while the general perception of migrants is that they are less end...

by Vamsi Vakulabharanam | On 03 Sep 2015

Globalization, Liberalization and Income Inequality: The Case of China

This paper studies the mutual effects of globalization, liberalization and income inequality using a case study of China. Comparing the trends of economic growth and income distribution, it found that...

by Jinjun Xue | On 03 Sep 2015

Institutional Constraints to Innovation: Artisan Clusters in Rural India

The paper offers a ctitical understanding of the policy approaches for rural industrialization by underscoring inadequate understanding of the dynamics understanding of the dynamics or specificities...

by Keshab Das | On 03 Sep 2015

Reconceptualising Smart Cities: A Reference Framework for India

This CSTEP study describes the UN’s four guidance principles and defines a Smart City Reference Framework that should provide the overarching principles and guidance to smart city programmes. The rep...

by | On 02 Sep 2015

Gender Dimensions of Agricultural and Rural Employment: Differentiated Pathways out of Poverty

This paper examines the links between gender equality and rural employment for poverty reduction by constructing a gender analytical framework to interpret differentiated patterns and conditions of wo...

by Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN UN | On 02 Sep 2015

Internal Migration and the Development Nexus: The Case of Bangladesh

Over the last decade, the landscape of Bangladesh has changed remarkably. Persistent mobility of people questions existing development strategies, which are largely based on sectoral approaches that...

by Rita Afsar | On 31 Aug 2015

Specialist Services in the Indian Rural Public Health System for Maternal and Child Healthcare – A Study of Four States

The present study attempts to examine the role of specialist services in rural public health system of India in the areas of maternal and child healthcare. The study uses primary data collected throug...

by Shreekant Iyengar | On 31 Aug 2015

Addressing Urban Poverty: Relevance of Conditional Cash Transfers

This paper from a two-day conference in New Delhi explores the relevance of CCTs in addressing entrenched issues of urban poverty even as across Asia there remain few social protection measures that p...

by United Nations Development Programme UNDP | On 31 Aug 2015

Poverty Eradication in India by 2015

This paper highlights a strategic framework to eradicate rural poverty by 2015 with the rural household as the central unit. It is based on the premise that the livelihoods of rural households depend...

by Ministry of Rural Development Government of India | On 31 Aug 2015

Lessons for South Asia from the Industrial Cluster Development Experience of the Republic of Korea

This report presents the industrial cluster development policy of the Republic of Korea and draws lessons from that experience for South Asia. It briefly reviews Korean industrial policy since the 196...

by Jong-il Kim | On 31 Aug 2015

Global Wage Report 2014/15: Wages and Income Inequality

The Global Wage Report 2014/15 presents both the latest trends in average wages and an analysis of the role of wages in income inequality. The first part of the report shows that global wage growth in...

by International Labour Organisation ILO | On 26 Aug 2015

Women in NREGA: Issues of Child Care

The present study on evaluation of the NREGA Scheme is intended to assess the impact of this scheme on the status of child care services at worksites of the NREGA, status of facilities available to wo...

by Madhuri Karak | On 25 Aug 2015

Employment and Inequality Outcomes in India

The report takes into account present scenario of urban poverty in India. Incidence of urban poverty can be attributed to lack of development as also to the nature and pattern of development. Importa...

by | On 25 Aug 2015

Greening Rural Development in India

Poverty reduction and economic growth can be sustained only if natural resources are managed on a sustainable basis. Greening rural development can stimulate rural economies, create jobs and help main...

by United Nations Development Programme UNDP | On 24 Aug 2015

Understanding Children’s Risk and Agency in Urban Areas and their Implications for Child-centred Urban Disaster Risk Reduction in Asia: Insights From Dhaka, Kathmandu, Manila and Jakarta

This paper presents the findings of a study undertaken by IIED in partnership with Plan International on urban children’s risk and agency in four large Asian cities: Dhaka (Bangladesh), Kathmandu (Nep...

by | On 24 Aug 2015

Analysis of Fish Consumption and Poverty in Bangladesh

Aquaculture has grown in leaps and bounds in the last couple of decades in Bangladesh. This is welcomed by most as increasing fish production is expected to contribute to enhancing food security in a...

by Kazi Ali Toufique | On 21 Aug 2015

China: Case study on Human Development Progress towards the Millennium Developmental Goals at the Sub-National Level

This paper analyses an overview of china human development in Time and Space. The paper covers themes like regional inequality in China Since 1952 and Urban-Rural Inequality, 1980-2000. The paper is a...

by | On 21 Aug 2015

How Migration into Urban Construction Work Impacts on Rural Households in Nepal

The research draws on interviews with rural-urban migrant construction workers in Kathmandu as well as with families of construction workers, other migrant labourers and non-migrants in two contrastin...

by | On 21 Aug 2015

Poverty Reduction in China and India: Policy Implications of Recent Trends

This paper compares the experience of poverty reduction in China and India. It finds that more than economic growth per se, what has mattered crucially is the nature of the growth: whether it is assoc...

by Jayati Ghosh | On 21 Aug 2015

Short-term Migration and Intergenerational Persistence of Industry in Rural India

One of the well-known barriers to development is persistence of disadvantage among communities. The lack of occupational and therefore upward social mobility continues to restrain households from achi...

by | On 20 Aug 2015

Addressing Long-term Challenges to Food Security and Rural Livelihoods in South Asia

Notwithstanding its impressive economic growth, food insecurity in South Asia continues to be a stark reality for a large number of households. Despite several successful policy interventions by Gover...

by K. S. Kavi Kumar | On 19 Aug 2015

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act: A Catalyst for Rural Transformation

This report examines changes in the lives of rural households and in the rural economy against the backdrop of changes brought about by the programme. This research report addresses such challenging q...

by Sonalde Desai | On 13 Aug 2015

Measuring ‘Subjective Resilience’ – Using People’s Perceptions to Quantify Household Resilience

This paper advocates for the use of one such alternative: the measurement of ‘subjective’ resilience at the household level. The concept of subjective resilience stems from the premise that people hav...

by Thomas Tanner | On 12 Aug 2015

The Rising Cost of a Healthy Diet – Changing Relative prices of Foods in High- Income and Emerging Economies

In 2014 our previous study ‘Future Diets’ (Keats and Wiggins 2014) described how across the world an increasing share of the population is overweight and obese, with the rate of increase particularly...

by Rafael Moreira Claro | On 12 Aug 2015

Urban India 2011: Evidence

India’s urban transition has the potential to shift the country’s social, environmental, political and economic trajectory. Urbanisation will interact with the country’s ongoing demographic evolution...

by Indian Institute for Human Settlements | On 12 Aug 2015

Urban Policies and the Right to the City in India: Rights, Responsibilities and Citizenship

This publication highlights the relevance in India and the multiplicity of entry points of the right to the city as a vehicle for social inclusion and sustainable social development for Indian cities....

by Centre de Sciences Humaines CSH | On 12 Aug 2015

Place of Poor in Urban Space

Through a case study of Mumbai city and LC resettlement colony, this paper highlights the tribulations of the poor in urban space. The experiences of recurring and multiple marginalities and vulnerabi...

by Manish K Jha | On 11 Aug 2015

Children’s Work Activities in a Peasant Household: Epitome of Neo-Classical Rationality or Else?

This paper reflects upon a simple micro-economic model of a small peasant household economy has been formulated to derive the conditions for optimum labour time allocation among different gainful acti...

by Arup Maharatna | On 10 Aug 2015

Prevention of Loss or Decline of Vernacular and Indigenous Languages in the Indian Sub-Continent

Asian Societies with linguistic diversity have faced serious problems of loss or decline of vernacular and indigenous languages in modern times. Globalisation and urbanisation have brought a sea chang...

by P. Ishwara Bhat | On 10 Aug 2015

Mobile Labour and the New Urban

This set of three papers explores new urban spaces and accumulation under post-colonial capitalism, through the themes of infrastructure and the new urban political subject, migrant labour, and commun...

by Mithilesh Kumar | On 04 Aug 2015

Annual Status of Higher Education of States and UTs in India 2014

The report aims to provide an overview of the higher education status in India, the key challenges it faces and reforms which are at various stages of conceptualization or implementation. In this vers...

by Confederation of Indian Industry | On 04 Aug 2015

Energy Sources of Indian Households for Cooking and Lighting

This report is by the National Sample Survey Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India is part of the series on household consumer expenditure on utilisation of...

by National Sample Survey Office NSSO | On 31 Jul 2015

Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment

This Policy note on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment is central to the attainment of the overarching goal of enabling poor rural women and men to improve their food security and nutrition, rais...

by International Fund for Agricultural Development IFAD | On 29 Jul 2015

Household Recombination, Retrospective Evaluation, and the Effects of a Health and Family Planning Intervention

This paper examines, in particular, the effects on educational mobility of a well-known maternal and child health and family planning program in Matlab Bangladesh. Results suggest that the program res...

by Andrew Foster | On 29 Jul 2015

Future and New Thoughts on Co-operative Banks

The co-operative movement in India is more than a century old; regulation thereof is also more than a century old with the first major impetus provided by the passage of the Co-operative Society Act i...

by R. Gandhi | On 29 Jul 2015

Forgotten Voices: The World of Urban Children in India

This report discusses how the major urban development schemes in India do not adequately take into account issues related to children’s health, education, growth, safety and participation. The rising...

by Save Children | On 28 Jul 2015

Performance of Flagship Programmes in Tamil Nadu

This study aims to provide a mid-term appraisal of the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-12), focusing on the performance of flagship programmes in Tamil Nadu. In this paper, a brief note on the Eleventh...

by K. R. Shanmugam | On 27 Jul 2015

The Income Mobility in Rural India: Evidence From ARIS/ REDS Surveys

Economic mobility is a significant consequence of income inequality and growth. In this paper, authors have used a unique ARIS/ REDS surveys data set for rural India spanning three decades to determin...

by Kailash Chandra Pradhan | On 21 Jul 2015

Household Recombination, Retrospective Evaluation, and the Effects of a Health and Family Planning Intervention

Analysis of the long term effects of social and public health programs using household survey data requires an understanding of patterns of household recombination–that is the processes by which house...

by Andrew Foster | On 16 Jul 2015

Indonesia’s Missing Millions: Erasing Discrimination in Birth Certification in Indonesia

Indonesia’s rate of birth registration is imprecisely measured but is low, especially among the poorer, rural, population. At the same time, the country has developed a system of population regist...

by Cate Sumner | On 16 Jul 2015

Predicted Increases in Heat related Mortality under Climate Change in Urban India

Mapping mortality impacts of the projected climate in urban areas of developing countries will play a crucial role in instituting planned adaptation measures to protect public health. A comprehensive...

by Hem H Dholakia | On 14 Jul 2015

Regional Balanced Urbanization for Inclusive Cities Development: Urban–Rural Poverty Linkages in Secondary Cities Development in Southeast Asia

The impact of urbanization on growth and equality, and on urban and rural poverty are well-documented but do not discuss alternative models of urbanization. While the relationship between urbanizat...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 13 Jul 2015

Urbanisation and Urban Poverty: A Gender Analysis

Urbanisation and urban growth have accelerated in many developing countries in the past few years. While natural population growth has been the major contributor to urbanisation, rural-urban migration...

by Rachel Masika | On 10 Jul 2015

Welfare Comparisons with Multidimensional Well-Being Indicators: An Indian Illustration

This paper attempts a welfare comparison of population where only ordinal information is available at the micro level in terms of multi-dimensional discrete well-being indicators. This does not involv...

by Udaya S. Mishra | On 08 Jul 2015

The Urban Disadvantage: State of the World's Mothers 2015

This report focuses on our rapidly urbanizing world and the poorest mothers and children who must struggle to survive despite overall urban progress. This report presents analysis of health disparit...

by Save the Children | On 07 Jul 2015

The Hidden Workforce: A Study on Child Labour in the Garment Industry in Delhi

Over 168 million children across the world are trapped in the vicious cycle of child labour. Deprived of their basic right to survival, protection, development and participation, these children, betwe...

by Save the Children | On 07 Jul 2015

A Commons Story in the Rain Shadow of Green Revolution

The study is an attempt to bring to the fore a Commons perspective of agriculture, livestock and rural livelihoods in the dryland and tribal areas of India. Would agriculture, livestock and rural live...

by Foundation for Ecological Security FES | On 07 Jul 2015

Structural Conditions and Agency in Migrant Decision-Making: A Case of Domestic and Construction Workers from Java, Indonesia

This working paper examines the migration drivers into the two low-paid and insecure occupations of domestic work and construction work from rural areas in Indonesia. While the ideas of migration exis...

by Khoo Choon Yen | On 06 Jul 2015

National Land Use Policy: Protecting Prime Agricultural Lands

With only less than 10 million hectares of agricultural land that is threatened by a rapidly urbanizing economy, how would the Philippines be able to meet its growing demand for food, and continue pro...

by Senate Economic Planning Office SEPO | On 06 Jul 2015

Status of Rural Water Supply in Rural Maharashtra

This report is an outcome of the field study conducted to assess the rural water supply schemes In rural Maharashtra. The aims of the study are to understand the water supply systems and their functio...

by S. Ramesh Sakthivel | On 26 Jun 2015

Relaxing Migration Constraints for Rural Households

There are an estimated 750 million internal migrants in the world, yet the effects of access to internal migration for rural households are not well understood. Internal migrants may provide wealth tr...

by Cynthia Kinnan | On 25 Jun 2015

Policy Issues on Street Vending: An Overview of Studies in Thailand, Cambodia and Mongolia

Street vending and urban space for micro enterprises constitute an important policy theme that needs to be advanced further in development literature and policy. In many countries, urban space tends t...

by Kyoko Kusakabe | On 24 Jun 2015

Urban Informal Workers: Representative Voice & Economic Rights

he purpose of this paper is to provide a summary analysis of five case studies prepared for the 2013 World Development Report team that illustrate why and how the representative voice and economic rig...

by Martha Chen | On 24 Jun 2015

Emerging Pattern of Urbanization and the Contribution of Migration to Urban Growth in India

As India has embarked upon economic reforms during the 1990s, published data from the 2001 Census provides an opportunity to study the country's urbanization process with reference to regional inequal...

by R. B. Bhagat | On 23 Jun 2015

Does Migration for Domestic Work Reduce Poverty? A Review of the Literature and an Agenda for Research

This review of the published academic literature on internal and regional migration for domestic work shows a dearth of studies on internal migration for domestic work in South Asia. The existing lite...

by Priya Deshingkar | On 23 Jun 2015

Street Vending in Ten Cities in India

For most street vendors, trading from the pavements is full of uncertainties. They are constantly harassed by the authorities. The local bodies conduct eviction drives to clear the pavements of these...

by Sharit Bhowmik | On 22 Jun 2015

Does Higher Economic Growth Reduce Poverty and Increase Inequality? Evidence from Urban India

This paper calculates select urban inequality and poverty indices and finds out their policy linkages. In addition, the determinants of urban poverty and inequality are estimated by using data of 52 l...

by | On 22 Jun 2015

Financing for Health Coverage in India: Issues and Concerns

The paper explores the trends, composition, and incidence of out-of-pocket health expenditure (OOPHE) in India, which has been the predominant means of financing its health care needs. Unit-level data...

by Indrani Gupta | On 19 Jun 2015

Farm to Non-Farm: Are India’s Villages “Rurbanising”?

The process of urbanization in terms of workforce patterns is largely considered to be unidirectional – increasing engagement of the workforce in non-agricultural occupational pursuits. Using a unique...

by | On 16 Jun 2015

Thimphu’s Growing Pains: Thimphu’s Growing Pains

This study analyses the urban planning efforts of the government for an explanation of some unintended outcomes. A popular perception is that development in Thimphu city could do with better planning....

by Manka Bajaj | On 16 Jun 2015

Budget FY11: Report on the Implementation Status, Income and Expenditure Trend and Macroeconomic Analysis (up to December 2010)

Budget FY11 contains Speech of the Bangladesh Finance Minister on the implementation status and macroeconomic analysis up to second quarter (July-December).

by | On 12 Jun 2015

Child Labour & Educational Disadvantage – Breaking the Link, Building Opportunity

Compulsory education has a vital role to play in eradicating child labour. Getting children out of work and into school could provide an impetus for poverty reduction and the development of skills nee...

by Gordon Brown | On 12 Jun 2015

Islamic Republic of Afghanistan 1390 Citizens Budget

The Government’s main budgetary objective is to allocate fiscal resources in line with Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS). In this way, it will be assured that resources are allocated to...

by Ministry of Finance Afghanistan | On 11 Jun 2015

Policy Note 2014–2015 on Housing and Urban Development Department of Tamil Nadu Government

The Department of Housing and Urban Development works with dedication to implement the schemes prescribed in "Vision 2023", provide developed infrastructure, create self-sufficient urban life, encour...

by Tamil Nadu Government | On 10 Jun 2015

The Bangladesh Gender Gap in Education: Biased Intra-household Educational Expenditures

By investigating the educational expenditure of children over the ten years (2000 to 2010), it evaluates whether there exists any gender specific discrepancy at the household level and the trend of su...

by Abu S. Shonchoy | On 10 Jun 2015

Smart Urban Mobility: Road Less Travelled

The study attempts to analyse congestion problem with emphasis on having a policy incorporating realistic solution for having affordable, accessible, reliable and acceptable mobility. It has been fou...

by Tarun Mittal | On 09 Jun 2015

Gender and Migration: Negotiating Rights - A Women's Movement Perspective

This research responds to the growing demand by mass organizations, for better documentation of women’s migration in India amid reports from activists of great increases in and new and more vulnerable...

by Indu Agnihotri | On 08 Jun 2015

Financing Healthcare for All in India: Towards a Common Goal

India continues to have among the lowest public health budgets in the world at just over 1% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and it gets reflected in the performance of the public healthcare delivery s...

by Oommen C. Kurian | On 08 Jun 2015

Book Review: Tokyo Void: Possibilities in Absence

Review of Tokyo Void: Possibilities in Absence by Marieluise Jonas and Heike Rahmann. Berlin: Jovis, 2014. pp 192. Rs. 2,100.00/- , ISBN-13: 978-3868592726.

by Milica Muminovic | On 05 Jun 2015

Women and Work in South Asia: Changes and Challenges

This paper examines a number of questions that have a bearing on women’s employment in South Asia. The characteristic features of the region such as the predominantly rural, agrarian economy; patriarc...

by | On 04 Jun 2015

Flawed Urban Development Policies in Pakistan

History and civilisation move in cities. All major scientific, social, political, economic and technological innovations have happened in human agglomerations known as cities. Great civilisations and...

by | On 04 Jun 2015

Making Indian Cities Liveable: the Challenges of India’s Urban Transformation

India’s urbanisation is a paradox of sorts. The country’s urban population is undoubtedly vast at 377 million (2011 Census). In international terms, however, India’s urban growth can hardly be describ...

by | On 03 Jun 2015

Performance Audit of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme

This report of comptroller and auditor general of India containing the results of performance audit of the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) hig...

by Ministry of Rural Development GOI | On 02 Jun 2015

Fourteenth Report on Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and Empowerment of Women in Rural Areas

The primary objective of the Act is augmenting wage employment. In this regard, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 provides for the enhancement of livelihood security of the...

by Committee on Empowerment of Women GOI | On 01 Jun 2015

Land Markets, Government Interventions, and Housing Affordability

Urban population growth and economic growth require cities to expand into the agricultural land on their periphery. How much land is required for this extension? How much planning and direct intervent...

by Alain Bertaud | On 01 Jun 2015

Socio-Economic Problems of Transgender in Workplace

Transgender is also a part of the society and they have equal right to everything in the world that is available to all other persons. The presence of such transgender is not new, but their presence...

by | On 28 May 2015

Employment, Planning and Policy for the Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-2017)

The Working Group has taken cognisance to the issues of inclusive growth. It lays emphasis on the view that employment generation should be focused on different segments of labour force – organized, u...

by Planning Commission | On 21 May 2015

Report of the High Level Committee on Socio-Economic, Health and Educational Status of Tribal Communities of India

The Committee is mandated to prepare a position paper on the present socioeconomic, health and educational status of Schedule Tribes, and is expected to suggest policy initiatives as well as effective...

by Ministry of Tribal Affairs GOI | On 20 May 2015

Household Consumer Expenditure across Socio-Economic Groups, 2011-12

The Household Consumer Expenditure Surveys of the National Sample Survey (NSS) are the primary source of data on various indicators of level of living of different segments of the population at nation...

by Ministry of Statistics and Prog Implementation (MOSPI) | On 20 May 2015

Key Indicators of Situation of Agricultural Households in India

This document brings out the key results of Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households of NSS 70th round within a year of completion of the field work for the use in decision support, poli...

by Ministry of Statistics and Prog Implementation (MOSPI) | On 18 May 2015

Youth Participation in Civil Society and Political Life in Andhra Pradesh

This policy brief documents the participation of youth in Andhra Pradesh in civil society, the extent to which they uphold secular attitudes and their perceptions about and participation in political...

by Population Council | On 12 May 2015

Draft State Sports Policy-2010

In order to achieve excellence in sports, government of Assam aims to adaopt a uniform policy so that sports activities in the state are spread over the year. Assam sports policy aims to provide sport...

by Government of Assam | On 12 May 2015

YOJANA Volume 58, Issue 1- January 2014

The January 2014 issue of YOJANA contains the following articles - Tribal and Marginalized Communities, Constitutional Provisions, Laws and Tribes, Actualising Adivasi Self-Rule, The Food Bill, Wild F...

by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting MIB | On 11 May 2015

Socio-economic Impact of Implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in India

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005 which is a rights-based flagship scheme of the Government of India with effect from 2 February, 2006, guarantees at least 100...

by | On 06 May 2015

Report on the State of Food Insecurity in Rural India

This Report is an update of the Rural Food Insecurity Atlas of 2001 released by the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) and the World Food Programme (WFP). Since then, numerous new programmes...

by V B Athreya | On 06 May 2015

Key Indicators of Employment and Unemployment in India, 2009-10

The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) during the period July 2009 - June 2010 carried out an all-India household survey on the subject of employment and unemployment in India as a part of 66th roun...

by National Sample Survey Office NSSO | On 05 May 2015

Nutritional Intake in India (July 2009 - June 2010)

This report presents the information on nutritional intake by the Indian population. Among the different nutrients only three nutrients – viz, calorie, protein and fat – are discussed in this report....

by National Sample Survey Office NSSO | On 05 May 2015

MGNREGA and Empowerment of Women in Rural Areas by Parliamentary Committee on Empowerment of Women (2011-12), Fourteenth Report

The primary objective of the Act is augmenting wage employment. In this regard, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 provides for the enhancement of livelihood security of the...

by Committee on Empowerment of Women GOI | On 28 Apr 2015

Report of the Expert Group to Recommend the Detailed Methodology for Identification of Families Living Below Poverty Line in the Urban Areas

The paper focuses on the objective of putting in place a uniform criteria to identify the BPL households in urban areas so that objectivity and transparency is ensured in delivery of benefits to the t...

by Planning Commission | On 27 Apr 2015

Growing through Cities in Developing Countries

This paper examines the effects of urbanization on development and growth. It begins with a labor market perspective and emphasizes the importance of agglomeration economies, both static and dynamic....

by | On 24 Apr 2015

Report of the Committee for Evolving a Composite Development Index of States

This report however, also takes a step forward in trying to draw a balance between “needs” and “performance”. Given that poor administration or weak institutions in a recipient state can fritter away...

by Ministry of Finance | On 23 Apr 2015

Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012–2017) Economic Sectors

This Five Year Plan document focuses on Economic Sectors which provides plans for Agriculture, Industry, Energy, Transport, Communication, Rural Development, Urban Development and Other Priority Secto...

by Planning Commission | On 23 Apr 2015

Compendium of State Policies from the Perspective of Climate Change Mitigation

The report documents compendium of state policies from perspective of climate change mitigation with findings such as many states endowed with rich natural resources are naturally very environment fri...

by | On 21 Apr 2015

The Continual Breakdown of Democracy in Thailand: A Case Study on the Role of Elite Competition, Modernization and Political Institutions in the Democratization Process of Thailand

The paper provides an in-depth empirical analysis of Thai political history in an attempt to understand why democracy has failed to consolidate since the 1932 revolution that ended the absolute monarc...

by | On 08 Apr 2015

World Urbanization Prospects 2014

This report presents the highlights of the 2014 Revision of World Urbanization Prospects, which contains the latest estimates of the urban and rural populations of 233 countries or areas from 1950 to...

by UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs UNDESA | On 01 Apr 2015

Asian Development Outlook 2015 Financing Asia’s Future Growth

According to the Asian Development Outlook 2015, India is forecast to overtake China in terms of economic growth as the initial phase of government efforts to remove structural bottlenecks is lifting...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 01 Apr 2015

Women’s Autonomy and Experience of Physical Violence Within Marriage in Rural India: Evidence From a Prospective Study

Evidence regarding the relationship between married women’s autonomy and risk of marital violence remains mixed. Moreover, studies examining the contribution of specific aspects of women’s autonomy in...

by | On 26 Mar 2015

Bhutan: Making Progress on the Path to Prosperity

his country brief highlights how ADB operations have helped support Bhutan’s efforts in advancing socioeconomic development. Since Bhutan became a member in 1982, ADB has provided $486.29 million i...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 17 Mar 2015

Regional Disparities in Growth and Human Development in India

This paper argues that that per capita income in all states in India increased in the past four decades but in fact no sign of convergence could be visible as it was expected in the context of liberal...

by | On 13 Mar 2015

The Fiscal and Welfare Impacts of Reforming Fuel Subsidies in India

This paper evaluates the fiscal and welfare implications of fuel subsidy reform in India. Fuel subsidies are found to be badly targeted, with the richest ten percent of households receiving seven time...

by | On 11 Mar 2015

Citizens Charter on Drinking Water and Sanitation before Union Budget

Ahead of the Union Budget, Civil Society Organizations ask for policy strategies to support drinking water and sanitation for vulnerable sections. Civil society budget groups, collectively as a networ...

by Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability | On 26 Feb 2015

India Matters: Demanding Toilets

Sanitation is a big challenge in the rural India. Through this you will be taken to to five villages in Sehore district, Madhya Pradesh, to meet families that do not have a toilet at home. Nearly 65 p...

by Sutapa Deb | On 21 Feb 2015

A New Banking Landscape for New India

There are many contours that would define the Indian banking sector in the coming days. It would be important for the banks to keep track of emerging trends and be prepared not only to negotiate thro...

by S.S. Mundra | On 12 Feb 2015

(Un)Settling the City Analysing Displacement in Delhi from 1990 to 2007

The experience of displacement - of single and multiple evictions and resultant resettlement or homelessness - has defined the process of inhabitation for a vast majority of the poor in Delhi. Analyse...

by | On 09 Feb 2015

Urban Water Crisis in Delhi: Stakeholders Responses and Potential Scenarios of Evolution

This paper proposes to question this conventional diagnosis with a case study of the capital city of India, Delhi. Based on this case study, the paper shows that the scenario of convergence towards un...

by | On 06 Feb 2015

Migration and Informality

This paper outlines the trends and patterns of migrants . It also discusses the impact and socioeconomic characteristics of migration in Delhi.

by | On 05 Feb 2015

Hurdles in Rural e-Government Projects in India: Lessons for Developing Countries

Rural Electronic Government (e-government) projects are aimed at providing government services and information to rural public. The e-government initiatives have not been very successful in developing...

by | On 04 Feb 2015

The Questions We Should be Asking Frequently about the Land Acquisition Act -And Answers From an Expert

A look at Land Acquisition Act, 2013, and the amendments to it from the perspective to those who live close to the land.

by Usha Ramanathan | On 02 Feb 2015

Surge in Solar-Powered Homes: Experience in Off-Grid Rural Bangladesh

The studies broad aim is to access the welfare impact of solar home systems (SHS) on households and to evaluate the present institutional structure and financing mechanisms. Also it accesses the direc...

by Shahidur R. Khandker | On 27 Jan 2015

Afghanistan National Youth Policy

Youth in Afghanistan have benefited from national laws and policies in the sectors of education, culture, sport, rural development and reconstruction, but three decades of civil unrest deprived a gene...

by Government of Republic of Afghanistan | On 16 Jan 2015

Annual Status of Education Report (Rural) 2014

ASAR report has made a great contribution to the discussions on our primary education policy. On a few parameters, these surveys show that the overall learning levels have deteriorated over the years....

by PRATHAM | On 15 Jan 2015

Report of the High Level Committee on Socioeconomic, Health and Educational Status of Tribal Communities of India

In keeping with the special status accorded to Scheduled Tribes (STs) in the constitution of India, the Union Government has affirmed its commitment to improving their socio-economic status and has ta...

by | On 29 Dec 2014

Recommendations for High Level Committee on Status of Tribal in India

Keeping the present status of the tribal community and government commitment to improve their socio-economic status there have been various policy, programmatic and legislative interventions from time...

by Natural Resource Knowldge Activist Hub | On 29 Dec 2014

Support to Rural Pension Reform and Administration in the People’s Republic of China

The lack of social protection for the elderly in rural areas of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has, since the 1990s, been seen by the government as a critical issue. The central government intro...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 23 Dec 2014

Urban Governance in Bangladesh: The Post-Independence Scenario

Urbanization worldwide has been found to be an effective engine of economic growth and socio-cultural development. In pure economic terms, urbanization contributes significantly to the national econ...

by | On 17 Dec 2014

Adoption and Use of Improved Stoves and Biogas Plants in Rural India

Household air pollution remains a dominant health risk, particularly in South Asia. Increasing international attention has focused on improved cookstoves (ICS) as a vehicle for reducing household air...

by Somnath Hazra | On 16 Dec 2014

Impediments to Contract Enforcement in Day Labour Markets: A Perspective from India

This paper focuses on one such setting in India's urban informal economy: the 'day labour' market for casual labour. We survey seven such markets in Navi Mumbai (a city on the outskirts of Mumbai),...

by Karthikeya Naraparaju | On 12 Dec 2014

Dietary Intake and Rural-Urban Migration in India: A Cross-Sectional Study

Migration from rural areas of India contributes to urbanisation and lifestyle change, and dietary changes may increase the risk of obesity and chronic diseases. It tests the hypothesis that rural-to-u...

by Shah Ebrahim | On 02 Dec 2014

Multidimensional Poverty and Child Survival in India

Though the concept of multidimensional poverty has been acknowledged cutting across the disciplines (among economists, public health professionals, development thinkers, social scientists, policy make...

by Sanjay K. Mohanty | On 02 Dec 2014

The Impact of India's Rural Employment Guarantee on Demand for Agricultural Technology

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is approaching eight years of implementation. Since 2006, it has offered up to 100 days per year of guaranteed public works employm...

by Anil K. Bhargava | On 28 Nov 2014

Will Indian Farmers Respond to the Call for Increased Biofuel Production-Evidence from Northeastern India

In India, biofuel has gained in popularity in recent years because of its potential as a clean energy source and a means to stimulate rural development. Yet, growth in Jatropha, a key bio-fuel crop,...

by Kishor Goswami | On 27 Nov 2014

Need for and Access to Health Care and Medicines: Are There Gender Inequities?

Differences between women and men in political and economic empowerment, education, and health risks are well-documented. Similar gender inequities in access to care and medicines have been hypothesiz...

by Anita K. Wagner | On 26 Nov 2014

Consequences of Unequal Urbanization on Development

Historically, urbanization has been a great force of economic transformation, modernization and social change in the developed world. On the flip side, migration has been blamed for the woes of modern...

by Ram Bhagat | On 21 Nov 2014

Pathways of Economic Inequalities in Maternal and Child Health in Urban India: A Decomposition Analysis

Children and women comprise vulnerable populations in terms of health and are gravely affected by the impact of economic inequalities through multi-dimensional channels. Urban areas are believed to ha...

by Srinivas Goli | On 19 Nov 2014

Trends in Child Immunization across Geographical Regions in India: Focus on Urban-Rural and Gender Differentials

Although child immunization is regarded as a highly cost-effective lifesaver, about fifty percent of the eligible children aged 12–23 months in India are without essential immunization coverage. Despi...

by Prashant Kumar Singh | On 13 Nov 2014

What are the Headwaters of Formal Savings? Experimental Evidence from Sri Lanka

When households increase their deposits in formal bank savings accounts, what is the source of the money? High-frequency surveys are combined with an experiment in which a Sri Lankan bank used mobil...

by Michael Callen | On 13 Nov 2014

Migration and Urbanisation in India in the Context of Poverty Alleviation

Migration and urbanization are direct manifestations of the process of economic development in space, particularly in the contemporary phase of globalization. Understanding the causes and consequences...

by Amitabh Kundu | On 11 Nov 2014

Urbanization

Urbanisation in India is neither unique nor exclusive but is similar to a world-wide phenomenon. Indian urbanisation has proceeded as it has elsewhere in the world as a part and product of economic ch...

by K.C. Sivaramakrishnan | On 11 Nov 2014

Urban Water and Sanitation in Maharashtra

Measuring service levels of urban bodies implies measuring outcomes, and indirectly also reflects on institutional capacity, financial performance and other parameters. In addition, to facilitate comp...

by All India Local Self Government | On 11 Nov 2014

Making Sense of Green Building Rating

It is time to go beyond just lip service to push green reforms in building standards. On analysing reports from the Indian Green Building Council, researchers at the Centre for Science and Environment...

by Sunita Narain | On 11 Nov 2014

Female Literacy: A Success Story of Maharashtra

This paper makes in-depth study of the level of literacy among females and the extent of gender disparity in literacy in different districts of rural and urban Maharashtra. This paper also shows imp...

by Asha A. Jindal | On 11 Nov 2014

Mortality Burden and Socioeconomic Status in India

The dimensions along which mortality is patterned in India remains unclear. We examined the specific contribution of social castes, household income, assets, and monthly per capita consumption to mort...

by Y. T. Po June | On 07 Nov 2014

Economic Inequalities in Maternal Health Care: Prenatal Care and Skilled Birth Attendance in India

The use of maternal health care is limited in India despite several programmatic efforts for its improvement since the late 1980's. The use of maternal health care is typically patterned on socioecono...

by Praveen Kumar Pathak | On 06 Nov 2014

Structural Transformation and the Rural-Urban Divide

Development of an economy goes hand in hand with a declining importance of agriculture in output and employment. Given the primarily rural population in developing countries and their concentration in...

by Amartya Lahiri | On 06 Nov 2014

Socioeconomic Dynamics of Gender Disparity in Childhood Immunization in India

Recent evidence indicated that gender disparity in child health is minimal and narrowed over time in India. However, considering the geographical and socio-cultural diversity in India, the gender gap...

by Ranjan Kumar Prusty | On 03 Nov 2014

Decomposing the Gap in Childhood Undernutrition between Poor and Non–Poor in Urban India, 2005–06

Despite the growing evidence from other developing countries, intra-urban inequality in childhood undernutrition is poorly researched in India. Additionally, the factors contributing to the poor/non-p...

by Abhishek Kumar | On 03 Nov 2014

Is the NREGS a Safety Net for Children? Studying the access to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme for Young Lives families, and its impact on child outcomes in Andhra Pradesh

The NREGS is an ambitious public works program intended to provide a basic safety net to the rural poor in India. This paper attempts to study two aspects of the program’s functioning using data from...

by Vinayak Uppal | On 31 Oct 2014

Information, Access and Targeting: The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in India

In this paper, the relationship is assessed between possessing information on, gaining access to and the efficacy of delivery of India's national rural employment guarantee scheme (NREGA) in three sta...

by Shylashri Shankar | On 28 Oct 2014

From Poverty to Empowerment: India’s Imperative for Jobs, Growth, and Effective Basic Services

More than two decades have passed since India embarked on major economic reforms—and although official poverty rates have declined sharply since then, millions of Indians continue to face significant...

by Rajat Gupta | On 28 Oct 2014

Report on the State Of Food Insecurity in Urban India

This report maps food insecurity in urban India. It captures the changes in the urban scenario from updated statistics like NFHS, NSSO etc. and highlight the parameters that would lead to improved foo...

by World Food Programme | On 16 Oct 2014

Analytics of Food Inflation in India

Food inflation in India has remained stubborn in recent years. A number of proximate factors such as increasing demand particularly arising from higher rural wages, rising agricultural cost of produ...

by Thangzason Sonna | On 14 Oct 2014

The Myth of Green Building

There is no question that India and other parts of the still-under-construction world must build green. The building sector is a major contributor to climate change and local environmental destruction...

by Sunita Narain | On 14 Oct 2014

Global Hunger Index 2014: The Challenge of Hidden Hunger

A staggering 2 billion people get so little essential vitamins and minerals from the foods they eat that they remain undernourished, according to the 2014 Global Hunger Index (GHI) being released toda...

by International Food Policy Research Institute | On 14 Oct 2014

Role of Financial Sector in Spurring Growth and Expanding Financial Inclusion in North Eastern Region

The present speech analyses the significant role which can be played by the financial sector in spurring growth and expanding financial inclusion in NER. [CII Banking Collagium in Kolkata].

by P. Vijaya Bhaskar | On 13 Oct 2014

Revealed Preference for Open Defecation: Evidence from a New Survey in Rural North India

Despite economic growth, government latrine construction, and increasing recognition among policymakers that open defecation constitutes a health and human capital crisis, it remains stubbornly widesp...

by Diane Coffey | On 07 Oct 2014

Does Parental Education Affect the Impact of Provision of Health Care on Health Status of Children? - Evidence from India

The objective of the study is to analyse the impact of provision of health care facilities on the child health status taking into account the utilization of these available facilities. The study offer...

by Runu Bhatka | On 19 Sep 2014

SEWA: Supporting Village-Level Organizations to Improve Rural Livelihoods

In spite of the rapid growth of the Indian economy, the fraction of the rural population living in poverty has declined only modestly. Increasing indebtedness, rises in input prices, and rapid commerc...

by Raj M. Desai | On 17 Sep 2014

Scaling up Agricultural Supply Chains in the Private Sector

This brief is one of series on scaling up in agriculture, rural development, and nutrition. PepsiCo is a global business operating in more than 200 countries and territories and rooted in creating and...

by Beth Sauerhaft | On 17 Sep 2014

A Handbook of Statistical Indicators of Indian Women

The Handbook is intended to provide a bird's eye view of the present status of Indian women. The various tables indicate the primary data sources and the key facts are presented in bullet points at th...

by Government of India Ministry of Women and Child Development | On 15 Sep 2014

Rural-Urban Migration and Urban Informal Sector in India

Migration is a process that gets intensified with the process of economic development. Population mobility from rural to urban areas is a common feature in India. Interestingly, this rural-urban migra...

by Debasis Chakraborty | On 11 Sep 2014

Scaling up Rural Sanitation in India

The WHO-UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) for Water and Sanitation, which tracks progress towards the water and sanitation targets of the Millennium Development Goals, estimates that 36% of the wo...

by Clarissa Brocklehurst | On 10 Sep 2014

Fostering a Digitally Inclusive Aging Society in China: The Potential of Public Libraries

Over the past 40 years, China’s population has been aging at a rate that took more than 100 years in developed countries. In 2010, the number of people over 60 years old reached 178 million in China,...

by World Bank | On 09 Sep 2014

Background Paper on Issues related to Land Economics - Urbanisation, Development and Housing Requirements in the National Capital Region (NCR)

The mechanism adopted to keep the rise in property prices under check until 2000 was the active participation of the public sector in keeping supply ahead of demand. This seems to have worked well in...

by Jatinder S. Bedi | On 08 Sep 2014

Book Review: Ethnographies of Schooling in Contemporary India

Ethnographies of Schooling in Contemporary India explores the schooling experience in India today, and seeks to understand the impact of peer interaction in a variety of environments. Through the book...

by Maithreyi Krishnaraj | On 04 Sep 2014

Annual Status of Education Report (Rural) 2013 (Provisional)

This report on the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2013 prepared by the non-profit Pratham Education Foundation recently pointed out that the quality of learning—as measured by reading, writi...

by PRATHAM | On 02 Sep 2014

Mapping the Health Indicators of Chhattisgarh: A Public Health Perspective

The state of Chhattisgarh today faces several challenges in improving the health status of its people. The on-going problems of maternal and child mortality, communicable diseases, and HIV/AIDS pandem...

by Nitin M. Nagarkar | On 27 Aug 2014

Food Stamps: A Model for India

About 4.5 lakh fair price shops in India sell 10-20 lakh tons of rice and wheat at the subsidized rate per month. Majority of the ration shops are in urban areas, they are hardly ever open and only a...

by Parth Shah | On 27 Aug 2014

Employment Guarantee for Women in India Evidence on Participation and Rationing in the MGNREGA from the National Sample Survey

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which guarantees employment of every rural household for 100 days, has different progressive provisions which incentivise higher p...

by Sudha Narayanan | On 25 Aug 2014

Comprehensive Nutrition Survey in Maharashtra

The Maharashtra Comprehensive Nutrition Survey 2012 is the first ever state-specific nutrition survey with a focus on infants and children undertwo and their mothers. A representative sample of child...

by United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF | On 23 Aug 2014

How Smart is a Smart City?

Smart is as smart does. The NDA government’s proposal to build 100 “smart” cities will work only if it can reinvent the very idea of urban growth in a country like India. Smart thinking will require t...

by Sunita Narain | On 21 Aug 2014

World Economic and Social Survey 2013: Sustainable Development Challenges

New strategies are needed to address the impacts of rapid urbanisation around the world, including increasing demands for energy, water, sanitation, public services, education and health, according to...

by UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs UNDESA | On 21 Aug 2014

Budget 2014-15: The Continuing Neglect of the 'Rural'

The Union Budget remains significant for the agricultural sector in the country for at least the following two reasons. First, the budget comes in the background of an agrarian crisis in the country,...

by Arindam Banerjee | On 04 Aug 2014

Union Budget 2014: New Government, Same Ol'Budget

If the Union Budget 2014 is anything to go by , the fiscal policy of the new government shows no change. In fact, there is an amazing continuity with the previous few Budgets. Significantly however,...

by Ravi Duggal | On 23 Jul 2014

India's Public Distribution System: A National and International Perspective

This study examines the impact of India's Public Distribution System (PDS) on poor households in terms of income gains, reductions in the incidence and severity of poverty, as well as nutritional impr...

by R. Radhakrishna | On 07 Jul 2014

Impact of Private Tutoring on Learning Levels: Evidence from India

Despite widespread and substantial private expenditure on private tutoring outside the formal school system in many developing countries, not much is known about their effects on learning outcomes....

by Ambrish Dongre | On 05 Jul 2014

State of the Urban Youth India 2012: Employment, Livelihoods, Skills.

The State of the Urban Youth India 2012: Employment, Livelihoods, Skills is a first attempt to pull together a data and knowledge base on and of youth in urban India. The focus of the Report is youth...

by IRIS Knowledge Foundation IKF | On 25 Jun 2014

Three Decades of Human Development across Indian States: Inclusive Growth or Perpetual Disparity?

The importance of strengthening the human development (HD) achievements in a country to augment its growth potential is well known in development literature. Several initiatives to enhance the HD leve...

by Sacchidananda Mukherjee | On 24 Jun 2014

Inter-Regional Report on Labour Migration and Social Protection

Since the 1970s in particular, the countries of Western Asia and those of the Asia-Pacific region have been closely linked to each other through highly extensive movements of people. Opportunities cre...

by United Nations Economic and Social Commission (UNESCAP) | On 17 Jun 2014

Urbanization and Spatial Patterns of Internal Migration in India

With an urbanization level of 31.16 percent in 2011, India is the least urbanized country among the top 10 economies of the world. In addition, unlike other countries, the transition of workforce out...

by Ajay Sharma | On 26 May 2014

Growth of the Urban Shadow, Spatial Distribution of Economic Activities and Commuting by Workers in Rural and Urban India

Unlike migration, scant attention has been paid to the phenomenon of commuting by workers in developing countries. This paper fills this gap by using a nationally representative data set from India t...

by Ajay Sharma | On 20 May 2014

Position Paper on Education Post-2015

This position paper identifies that there is a strong need for a new and forward-looking education agenda that completes unfinished business while going beyond the current goals in terms of depth and...

by UNESCO UNESCO | On 16 May 2014

World Youth Report 2007 Young People’s Transition to Adulthood: Progress and Challenges

The Report highlights the unique aspects of youth development in various regions but emphasizes that young people the world over are ultimately constrained in their efforts to contribute to their own...

by United Nations UN | On 16 May 2014

Barnaparichay – a mall in progress, a street in transition

This paper examines the politics of the changing spatial order in Indian cities, post-liberalisation, with particular reference to College Street. The spatial reconstruction of College Street is large...

by Anurag Mazumdar | On 13 May 2014

World Atlas of Gender Equality in Education

Gender equality is one of the six goals of the global Education for All campaign that UNESCO leads. This was launched in 2000, when the countries of the world agreed to “eliminate gender disparities i...

by Edward B. Fiske | On 12 May 2014

Indoor Air Pollution and Child Health in India

Indoor air pollution, associated with using biomass cooking fuels, causes an estimated 871,500 child deaths globally every year from respiratory related complications. Children are particularly vulner...

by Meena Sehgal | On 02 May 2014

Dynamic Effects of Microcredit in Bangladesh

This paper uses long panel survey data spanning over 20 years to examine the dynamics of microcredit programs in Bangladesh. With the phenomenal growth of microfinance institutions representing...

by Shahidur R. Khandker | On 26 Apr 2014

Features of Urban Food and Nutrition Security and Considerations for Successful Urban Programming

This paper discusses the wide disparities that exist in childhood malnutrition, food insecurity and livelihoods within urban areas which, when combined with the mobility of urban residents,add to the...

by Marie T. Ruel | On 22 Apr 2014

Psychology, Cyclicality or Social Programs: Rural Wage and Inflation Dynamics in India

The paper analyzes causes of movements in Indian wages for rural unskilled male laborers, and assesses their impact on inflation. Theoretical priors derived from an analytical framework based on the ...

by Ashima Goyal | On 10 Apr 2014

Report on the State of Food Insecurity In Urban India

The concept of food insecurity is multidimensional in nature and is determined by a whole range of issues such as domestic production of food, import and export of food, purchasing power of people to...

by V. B. Athreya | On 03 Apr 2014

Aggregate Fertility and Household Savings: A General Equilibrium Analysis using Micro Data

This study uses micro data and an OLG model to show that general equi- librium forces are critical for understanding the relationship between aggregate fertility and household savings. [BREAD WP No....

by Abhijit Banerjee | On 03 Apr 2014

Revival of Rural PDS: Expansion and Outreach

Using the recent rounds of NSS data, this paper evaluates the performance and outreach of India's public distribution system (PDS) in the rural areas. The results suggest a significant improvement in...

by Andaleeb Rahman | On 02 Apr 2014

Short-term Migration and Consumption Expenditure of Households in Rural India

In 2007-08, short-term migrants constituted 4.35 per cent of the rural workforce. A total of 9.25 million households in rural India had short-term migrants.Using a nationally representative data for...

by S. Chandrasekhar | On 27 Mar 2014

Is Self-Employment the Answer to Caste Discrimination? Decomposing the Earnings Gap in Indian Household Nonfarm Businesses

Using the India Human Development Survey data for 2004-05, two methodologies are used to estimate the earnings structure of household nonfarm businesses owned by Scheduled Castes and Tribes (SCSTs)...

by Ashwini Deshpande | On 20 Mar 2014

Incorporating Public Good Availability into the Measurement of Poverty

This paper makes an attempt to incorporate bene ts from unpaid public services into consumption decisions to arrive at more accurate measures of poverty and inequality. The analysis is based on prim...

by Anders Kjelsrud | On 14 Mar 2014

Informal Sector: Definitions and its Implications for Growth

This paper discusses the importance of the informal sector in supporting livelihoods and contributing to production and consumption activities of developing countries is widely evident. However, lack...

by Niru Yadav | On 10 Mar 2014

Debating Poverty

The first of a series of eSSays dossiers on issues of public concern. Guest editor: M.H. Suryanarayana. Contents: Poverty Line: Pursuit of an Elusive Minimum by M.H. Suryanarayana Fixing Poverty...

by eSocialSciences eSS | On 08 Mar 2014

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005

MGNREGA, which is the largest work guarantee programme in the world, was enacted in 2005 with the primary objective of guaranteeing 100 days of wage employment per year to rural households. It aims at...

by Ministry of Rural Development GOI | On 05 Mar 2014

Examining the Structure of Opportunity and Social Mobility in India: Who Becomes an Engineering Student?

Rising inequality alongside rapid economic growth reinforces the need to examine patterns of social mobility in India. Are children from less well-off sections also able to rise to higher-paying posit...

by Anirudh Krishna | On 04 Mar 2014

One Illness Away: Why People Become Poor and How They Escape Poverty

Why does poverty persist? A critical, but so far ignored, part of the answer lies in the fact that poverty is regularly created. Large numbers of people are escaping poverty, but large numbers are con...

by Anirudh Krishna | On 04 Mar 2014

Neo-Liberal Policy and Food Security in India: Impact on the Public Distribution System

This paper studies the problem of chronic hunger and malnutrition in India. The government of India introduced the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) in 1997 replacing the Universal Public Dis...

by Madhura Swaminathan | On 03 Mar 2014

Implementing Integrated Natural Resources Management Projects

The Government of India recently enacted the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act(NREGA) 2005.1 The NREGA guarantees onehundred days of wage employment every year to every rural household whose adu...

by G.M. Antony | On 28 Feb 2014

What Census 2011 Reveals about Our Growers and Their Land

To gain a better understanding of the changes in the numbers of cultivators and Agricultural labor (marginal or main), it is useful to read them with the change in the number of agricultural holdings...

by Rahul Goswami | On 28 Feb 2014

Urban Growth and Rural Poverty in India

Analysis of time series data on poverty in India has revealed a clearly discernable link between urban poverty decline and rural poverty decline. Previous analysis, focusing on the pre-reform period,...

by Peter Lanjouw | On 27 Feb 2014

Measuring Urbanization around a Regional Capital: The Case of Bhopal District

The starting point of this study is the observation that many villages in India seem to possess urban characteristics. As compared to definitions of urbanization adopted by other countries, the Indi...

by Anima Gupta | On 21 Feb 2014

Is Self-Employment the Answer to Caste Discrimination? Decomposing the Earnings Gap in Indian Household NonFarm Business

Using the India Human Development Survey data for 2004-05, two methodologies are employed to estimate the earnings structure of household nonfarm businesses owned by Scheduled Castes and Tribes (SCS...

by Ashwini Deshpande | On 17 Feb 2014

Can Government-Allocated Land Contribute to Food Security? Intrahousehold Analysis of West Bengal’s Microplot Allocation Program

Secure land rights are a critical, but often overlooked, factor in achieving household food security and improved nutritional status in rural areas of developing countries. This study evaluates the im...

by Florence Santos | On 17 Feb 2014

Land, Politics, Work and Home-Life in a City Slum: Reconstructing History from Oral Narratives

This paper is a limited attempt at sketching the history of a prominent slum in the city of Thiruvananthapuram, using mainly the memories of residents collected as oral narratives. [CDS Working pape...

by J Devika | On 07 Feb 2014

How Do Intrahousehold Dynamics Change When Assets are Transferred to Women? Evidence from BRAC’s Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction—Targeting the Ultra Poor Program in Bangladesh

BRAC’s Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction—Targeting the Ultra Poor (CFPR-TUP) program in Bangladesh are studied, which targets asset transfer (primarily livestock) and training to rural wo...

by Narayan Das | On 05 Feb 2014

Are Women’s Issues Synonymous with Gender in India? Looking Across Geographic Space

This paper attempts to shift the focus from ‘women’ to the significance of the gender equation by assessing the intensity of gender disparity across geographic space, and enquiring into the reasons...

by Nira Ramachandran | On 04 Feb 2014

Urbanization beyond Municipal Boundaries: Nurturing Metropolitan Economies and Connecting Peri-Urban Areas in India

This study identifies three priority areas for India's policymakers as they try to harness economic efficiency and manage spatial equity associated with urbanization. First, to enhance productivity, i...

by World Bank | On 28 Jan 2014

The State of India’s Cities and Towns

This Paper tries to paint a numbers- and chart-based picture of the current scenario of India’s Cities and Towns by taking five states into consideration- NCT Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatti...

by prashant kumar | On 21 Jan 2014

Obituary: Prof. Ila Pathak (1933-2014): A Feminist Crusader

Ila Pathak was a dedicated social activist who stood by socially excluded sections of society, especially brutalized women. She tirelessly supported women survivors of dowry harassment, rape victims,...

by Vibhuti Patel | On 21 Jan 2014

Growth and Redistribution: Is there 'Trickle Down' Effect in the Philippines?

The aim of this research is to explore the determinants of household income and expenditure growth, and assess whether the poor are benefitting from economic development. Using regression analysis,...

by Danileen Kristel C Parel | On 17 Jan 2014

Community Resilience and Critical Urban Infrastructure: Where Adaptive Capacities Meet Vulnerabilities

In many of Southeast Asia’s cities, critical infrastructure development is concentrated in affluent areas; and poor communities, lacking access to basic services, often resort to alternatives that may...

by Sofiah Jamil | On 15 Jan 2014

Women's Migration, Urban Poverty and Child Health in Rajasthan

The paper is concerned with the high levels of infant and child illness and death amongst poor urban slum communities in Rajasthan, a state with one of the highest infant mortality rates in India. Ur...

by Maya Unnithan Kumar | On 15 Jan 2014

Rainfall Forecasts, Weather and Wages over the Agricultural Production Cycle

The effects of rainfall forecasts and realized rainfall on equilibrium agricultural wages are analysed over the course of the agricultural production cycle. It is shown theoretically that a forecast o...

by Mark Rosenzweig | On 13 Jan 2014

Television as a public health awareness tool to reduce tobacco use in India

Tobacco continues to be a major social and health menace across the globe. It is estimated that by 2030, it would account for the death of about 10 million people per year; half of them aged between 3...

by Dr. Pragati Hebber | On 09 Jan 2014

India’s Watershed Development Boosts Food Security, Improves Livelihoods

India struggles with water scarcity, a problem that poses especially huge implications for the country’s food security and rural livelihoods. While watershed development has been employed in communit...

by Erin Gray | On 09 Jan 2014

Report of the Expert Group on Estimation of Proportion and Number of Poor

The Planning Commission constituted, in September 1989, an 'Expert Group' to consider methodological and computational aspects of estimation of proportion and number of poor in India. [Planning Comm...

by Planning Commission | On 07 Jan 2014

How to Evaluate Rural Development Schemes

In 2000-01, almost Rs 10,000 crore was spent on rural development schemes. The central government has almost a dozen major schemes in operation. But how is the success or failure of these schemes to b...

by Arpita Bedekar | On 31 Dec 2013

Child Work and Schooling in Rural North India: What do Time Use Data Say about Tradeoffs and Drivers of Human Capital Investment?

This study examines time use data for 1244 children in the age-group 6-12 years in 274 villages in eight states in rural north India to understand the tradeoffs between time spent in school, time sp...

by Sudha Narayanan | On 02 Dec 2013

Left-Behind Children and Return Decisions of Rural Migrants in China

This paper examines how left-behind children influence return migration in China. A simple illustrative model based on Dustmann (2003) is presented that incorporates economic and non-economic motive...

by Sylvie Démurger | On 13 Nov 2013

Arresting Child Mortality Rates: What Do the Report Cards Say?

The issue of child mortality in India has been under the scanner in several research publications in recent times. All the reviews acknowledge that India will not achieve the required reductions of un...

by Shambhu Ghatak | On 28 Oct 2013

Democratic Politics and Legal Rights: Employment Guarantee and Food Security in India

This paper focusses on two Indian laws that seek to guarantee socioeconomic rights: the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), an important example of India’s recent history of legislation...

by Reetika Khera | On 25 Oct 2013

Taming Food Inflation in India

High food inflation, which has averaged 10% during FY 2008-09 to December 2012, has been a major concern for policy makers in India. This is all the more important as an average household in India sti...

by Ashok Gulati | On 21 Oct 2013

Rural Development in India: State level Experiences

Rural development reflects in the improvements in the economic well being of people living in villages. In someway, it reflects in the increase in the purchasing power of the rural inhabitants. This...

by Ch.Sambasiva Rao | On 18 Oct 2013

Global Hunger Index 2013 - The Challenge of Hunger: Building Resilience to Achieve Food and Nutrition Security

The 2013 Global Hunger Index (GHI), which reflects data from the period 2008–2012, shows that global hunger has improved since 1990, falling by one-third. Despite the progress made the level of hunger...

by International Food Policy Research Institute | On 16 Oct 2013

Comparing Urbanization in India and China: A Study

China and India are in the vanguard of a wave of urban expansion that is restoring the global prominence that Asia enjoyed before the European and North American industrial revolution. Never before i...

by Richard Dobbs | On 15 Oct 2013

Welfare and Poverty Impacts of India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme: Evidence from Andhra Pradesh

India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) is one of the largest public works programs globally. Understanding the impacts of NREGS and the pathway through which its impacts are realiz...

by Songqing Jin | On 14 Oct 2013

The Case of Slum Rehabilitation in Delhi

Delhi Master Plan 2021 introduced the "In-situ rehabilitation" approach to slum redevelopment, in which slum residents transit to temporary housing while the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) reconstr...

by Anubhab Pattanayak | On 10 Oct 2013

Model State Affordable Housing Policy for Urban Areas

The aim of this policy is to create an enabling environment for providing “affordable housing for all” with special emphasis on EWS and LIG and other vulnerable sections of society such as Scheduled c...

by Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation MOHUPA | On 09 Oct 2013

Decentralized Provisioning of Supplementary Nutrition for the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) in Mumbai

This study is an attempt to examine the decentralized production of supplementary nutrition which has been instituted for the Integrated Child Development Services in urban Maharashtra, specifically,...

by Natasha S. K. | On 04 Oct 2013

Learning and Earning: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation in India

This paper estimates the short-and-medium-run effects of participating in a sub- sidized vocational training program aimed at improving labor market outcomes of women residing in low-income househol...

by Pushkar Maitra | On 30 Sep 2013

Rural Poverty and the Public Distribution System

Presented are estimates of the impact of India’s Public Distribution System on rural poverty, using National Sample Survey data for 2009-10 and official poverty lines. At the all India level, the PD...

by Jean Dreze | On 27 Sep 2013

A Social Accounting Matrix for India 2007-08

The present study attempts to build a SAM for India for 2007–08. This SAM consists of 78 sectors and nine categories of households which are based on occupation and location (i.e. rural and urban)....

by Basanta K. Pradhan | On 26 Sep 2013

The National Food Security Act, 2013

Our public distribution system has been severely criticized for its gaping lacunae. To fill in these gaps, a new Act was originally conceived by the National Advisory Council headed by Congress Presid...

by Ministry of Law, Justice and Company Affairs GOI | On 17 Sep 2013

Climate Variability and Internal Migration: A Test on Indian Inter-State Migration

Migration data is matched from the Indian census with climate data to test the hypothesis of climate variability as a push factor for internal migration. The main contribution of the analysis is to...

by Ingrid Dallmann | On 06 Sep 2013

Preliminary Evidence on Internal Migration, Remittances, and Teen Schooling in India

Migration can serve as an outlet for employment, higher earnings, and reduced income risk for households in developing countries. The 2004–2005 Human Development Profile of India survey is used to exa...

by Valerie Mueller | On 06 Sep 2013

Statement by Dr. Raghuram Rajan

Statement by Dr. Raghuram Rajan on taking office on September 4, 2013. [RBI Press release].

by Sabeeta Badkar | On 05 Sep 2013

Migration and Poverty in India: A Multi-Patterned and Complex Reality

The paper reviews the existing evidence on migration-poverty interface in the light of the macro and micro level studies in India. It also discusses the extent, patterns, and correlates of short term...

by Amita Shah | On 03 Sep 2013

Employment and Unemployment Situation among Major Religious Groups in India

This report is based on the eighth quinquennial survey on employment and unemployment conducted in the 66th round of NSS during July 2009 to June 2010. The survey was spread over 7402 villages and 5...

by National Sample Survey Office NSSO | On 19 Aug 2013

The Changing Pattern of Internal Migration in India: Issues and Challenges

This paper is an attempt to understand the emerging migration patterns in India and issues underlying it. With globalisation, urbanisation and accompanying changes in socio-economic conditions, migran...

by Sandhya Rani Mahapatro | On 07 Aug 2013

Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Poverty Line

Interview on the recent released poverty line.

by Planning Commission | On 05 Aug 2013

Basic Household Amenities in India: A Progress Report

The present paper makes an attempt to analyse the progress of India in three important ‘basic human needs’ essential for a human life. These are access to latrine facility, safe drinking water and ele...

by Udaya S. Mishra | On 01 Aug 2013

Patterns of Migration, Water Scarcity and Caste in Rural Northern Gujarat

Patterns of rural-urban migration and employment shifts in a region that is facing ongoing depletion of groundwater resources in Northern Gujarat, India is discussed. Given that migration typically d...

by Ram Fishman | On 30 Jul 2013

Report of the Expert Group to Recommend the Detailed Methodology for Identification of Families Living Below Poverty Line in Urban Areas

The report deals with the estimation of poverty and identification of poor – differences in approach. It also describes the characteristics and trends of urban poverty. The vulnerability of urban poor...

by Planning Commission, India | On 29 Jul 2013

Nutritional Norms for Poverty: Issues and Implications

This study raises some relevant issues and examines them from an economic perspective. To begin with, it would examine how did the Indian approach, official in particular, to defining and measuring po...

by Suryanarayana M H | On 26 Jul 2013

Breaking New Ground: Enacting a National Land Use Policy

With only a total land area of 30 million hectares and a population of 92.3 million growing at an average rate of 2.12 percent, how should the Philippines allocate a very scarce and important resource...

by Senate Economic Planning Office SEPO | On 24 Jul 2013

Why Is Mobility in India So Low? Social Insurance, Inequality, and Growth

This paper examines the hypothesis that the persistence of low spatial and marital mobility in rural India, despite increased growth rates and rising inequality in recent years, is due to the existenc...

by Kaivan Munshi | On 22 Jul 2013

Mapping Budget Processes in the Public Health Sector in Maharashtra

This study looked at budget processes related to health in two districts of Maharashtra and found that there was a significant variation in the way budget estimation was practiced at the level of Prim...

by Prashant Raymus | On 17 Jul 2013

The Health Effects of Motorization

The decisions taken by countries will determine the levels of physical activity, vehicular emissions, and crash risks, and thus influence Non-Commucable Diseases (NCD) and injury rates for future gene...

by Kavi Bhalla | On 12 Jul 2013

An Explanatory Analysis of Deprivation and Ill Health Led Poverty in Urban India: A Case Study of Delhi

This paper examines the multi-dimensional nature of urban poverty with special emphasis on ill-health led deprivation. As a driver of poverty, ill-health reduces the income earning potential and incre...

by Samik Chowdhury | On 28 Jun 2013

Land Degradation and Migration in a Dry Land Region in India

Migration literature has always considered environmental constraints as one of the prime movers of populations, especially from dry regions, where water rather than land is the primary limiting factor...

by Amita Shah | On 28 Jun 2013

Agrarian Distress and Rural Livelihoods: A Study in Upputhara Panchayat, Idukki District, Kerala

This study examines the impact of agrarian distress on the different socio-economic groups, the strategies of livelihood adopted by households and the local institution in shaping these strategies. Th...

by K.N. Nair | On 28 Jun 2013

The Caloric Costs of Culture: Evidence from Indian Migrants

Can culture constrain caloric intake and contribute to malnutrition? Inter-state migrants within India consume fewer calories per Rupee of food expenditure compared to their non-migrant neighbors, ev...

by David Atkin | On 27 Jun 2013

Recession and Child Labour: A Theoritical Analysis

This paper provides a theoretical model of the impact of recession (income shock) on household's child labor (CL) decision. Parental altruism is endogenized; as their choice of substituting child lab...

by Sahana Roy Chowdhury | On 25 Jun 2013

Agriculture’s Role in the Indian Enigma

In recent decades India has achieved one of the fastest economic growth rates in the world, yet its progress against both child and adult under-nutrition has been sluggish at best. While this Indian v...

by Derek Headey | On 12 Jun 2013

Weather and Migration in India: Evidence from NSS Data

The present study attempts to, (a) analyse the broad patterns of temporary and permanent migration in India; and (b) explore the determinants of temporary and permanent migration with special focus...

by K S Kavi Kumar | On 06 Jun 2013

National Urban Health Mission

The Union Cabinet gave its approval to launch a National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) as a new sub-mission under the over-arching National Health Mission (NHM).

by Anonymous | On 27 May 2013

National Urban Livelihoods Mission

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation has proposed to launch a “National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM)” in 12th Five Year Plan.

by Anonymous | On 27 May 2013

Issue of Declining Child Sex Ratio

As per the Census, the child sex ratio (0-6 years) has shown a sharp decline from 927 females per thousand males in 2001 to 914 females per thousand males in 2011.

by Anonymous | On 27 May 2013

Malnutrition in India & Steps Taken To Reduce It

According to Food Agriculture Organization (FAO) “The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2012” report, there is a reduction of 34.9 percent in prevalence of undernourishment from 1990-1992 to 2010-...

by Anonymous | On 27 May 2013

Addressing Long - term Challenges to Food Security and Rural Livelihoods in South Asia

Notwithstanding its impressive economic growth, food insecurity in South Asia continues to be a stark reality for a large number of households. Despite several successful policy interventions by Gover...

by K.S. Kavi Kumar | On 23 May 2013

Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 in Rural India

This booklet explains the SECC,2011, as it relates to rural India, and details the entire process in simple language. [Ministry of Rural Development]. URL:[http://rural.nic.in/sites/downloads/general...

by Ministry of Rural Development GOI | On 02 May 2013

Water in India: Situation and Prospects

This report attempts to provide a comprehensive analysis of the state of water resource development and management in India, based on secondary information. It maps the current challenges and sugg...

by Anjal Prakash | On 30 Apr 2013

Understanding the Dynamics of Socio-Economic Mobility: Tales from Two Indian Villages

The study takes a comparative approach by examining household livelihood mobility within two very different villages, in the same district administration of Madhya Pradesh (MP), India. [ODI Working Pa...

by Caroline Wilson | On 26 Apr 2013

Circular Migration in India

This brief explores circular migration in India and the policy response, and impact of this policy response, on the welfare of migrants and more broadly, on regional inequality. [ODI Policy Brief No....

by Kate Bird | On 24 Apr 2013

The Impact of NREGA on Rural-Urban Migration: Field survey of Villupuram District, Tamil Nadu

Migration can act as a negative force. It can lead to distress migration, which is what happens when people have to go to cities to find work because they cannot survive on what they can earn in thei...

by Naomi Jacob | On 17 Apr 2013

Motivating Knowledge Agents: Can Incentive Pay Overcome Social Distance?

This paper studies the interaction of incentive pay and social distance in the dissemination of information. BREAD Working Paper No. 380. URL: [http://ipl.econ.duke.edu/bread/papers/working/380.pdf].

by Erlend Berg | On 16 Apr 2013

Push and Pull Factors of Migration: A Case Study of Brick Kiln Migrant Workers in Punjab

The present study is concerned with the migrant who has changed his/her place of residence from a state other than Punjab and is working in brick-kiln industry as worker. [Repec]. URL:[http://mpra.ub...

by Gursharan Singh Kainth | On 15 Apr 2013

India Migration Bibliography

The India Migration Bibliography covers over 3,000 books, research articles and reports written on the subject of internal migration, international migration and diaspora, related to India. The biblio...

by Chinmay Tumbe | On 15 Apr 2013

State of the Urban Youth India 2012: Executive Summary

The State of the Urban Youth India 2012: Employment, Livelihoods, Skills developed and produced by IRIS Knowledge Foundation, Mumbai on a commission from the UN-HABITAT Global Urban Youth Research Net...

by Padma Prakash | On 14 Apr 2013

State of the Urban Youth India 2012: Employment, Livelihoods, Skills

The State of the Urban Youth India 2012: Employment, Livelihoods, Skills is a first attempt to pull together a data and knowledge base on and of youth in urban India. The focus of the Report is youth...

by IRIS Knowledge Foundation IKF | On 11 Apr 2013

Living Rough: Surviving City Streets

This paper records the findings of a small investigation into a fragment of experiences of people living on streets and into the social, economic, nutritional situation of urban homeless men, women, b...

by Harsh Mander | On 10 Apr 2013

Explaining Access to Credit by Rural Households: Results based on a Study of Several States in India

Against the backdrop of evolution of rural credit system in India as well as its observed failure to be inclusive in character, this paper makes use of a fairly large data set of the Center for Manage...

by Saugandh Datta | On 07 Mar 2013

Inequalities Reinforced? Social Groups, Gender and Employment

Based on the last four rounds of NSS data the study explores some dimensions of women’s labour market participation across social groups. [CWDS Occasional Paper No.59]. URL:[http://www.cwds.ac.in/OCPa...

by Neetha N | On 01 Mar 2013

Focus on Rural India

The budget has come with schemes for rural India. It has got schemes for women, youth and poor.

by Sunil Duggal | On 28 Feb 2013

Budget Speech 2013-2014

Budget Speech by Chidambaram.

by P Chidambaram | On 28 Feb 2013

The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Bill, 2012

A bill to protect the rights of urban street vendors and to regulate street vending activities and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto [PRS India]. URL:[http://www.prsindia.obill, rg...

by Parliamentary Research Service PRS | On 27 Feb 2013

Labour Market and Household Behaviour: A Case of Unorganised Saleswomen

The present study is an attempt to analyse the labour market of unorganized saleswomen (working in the registered as well as unregistered shops) in Ernakulam District, Kerala.

by Martin Patrick | On 25 Feb 2013

Neutral Expectations from Automobile Sector

Budget expectations for automobile sector. [IRIS India].

by IRIS India IRIS | On 19 Feb 2013

Self-Employment in China: Are Rural Migrant Workers and Urban Residents Alike?

This paper studies differences in the motivation to be self-employed between rural migrants and urban residents in modern China. Estimates of the wage differential between selfemployment and paid-empl...

by Yuling Cui | On 13 Feb 2013

Connecting the Dots: The Urban Informal Sector and Climate Vulnerabilities in Southeast Asia’s Megacities

In the megacities of developing Southeast Asia, the informal sector plays an important role in supporting economic development. Yet, in discussions of the ramifications of climaterelated natural haz...

by Sofiah Jamil | On 13 Feb 2013

Metabolism Of Mumbai- Expectations, Impasse and the Need For a New Beginning

As population and human activities expand they exert heavy environmental pressure through the resource requirement, their production and consumption. Hence, it is important to understand the resource...

by B. Sudhakara Reddy | On 12 Feb 2013

The Changing Perspective of Mental Health of Children and Adolescents

Review of the book 'Child and Adolescent Mental Health' edited by Usha Nayar, United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children; February 2013; pp 363; Rs 115...

by Aarti Salve | On 07 Feb 2013

Property Tax System in India: Problems and Prospects of Reform

This paper analyses the property tax system in India, examines the reasons for its low revenue productivity, reviews the recent reform initiatives and identifies further reform areas. [NIPFP Working P...

by M. Govinda Rao | On 06 Feb 2013

Firewood Collections and Economic Growth in Rural Nepal 1995-2010: Evidence from a Household Panel

A longitudinal household survey from World Bank Living Standards Measurement Survey (LSMS) was used for the study. A relatively small (but representative) sample of households residing in the mountain...

by Jean-Marie Baland | On 28 Jan 2013

Political Clientelism and Capture: Theory and Evidence from West Bengal, India

There are relatively few theoretical models or empirical analyses of clientelism which analyse the sources and consequences of clientelism. Data from household surveys in rural West Bengal are used t...

by Pranab Bardhan | On 14 Jan 2013

Social Fragmentation, Public Goods and Elections: Evidence from China

This study examines how the economic effects of elections in rural China depend on voter heterogeneity, for which religious fractionalization is taken as a proxy. [BREAD Working No. 366]. URL:[http:/...

by Gerard Padro-i- Miquel | On 09 Jan 2013

Building a Knowledge Base on Population Ageing in India: Report on the Status of Elderly in Select States of India, 2011

To understand the ageing in India, a primary survey was carried out in seven states – Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal – having a higher percentage of...

by United Nations Population Fund UNFPA | On 08 Jan 2013

How to Tackle Food Insecurity in Asia

Review of the book Food Security in Asia, by Amitava Mukherjee Sage Publications India 2011 pp. xix+392, Rs 895/-.

by Rudra Narayan Mishra | On 04 Jan 2013

An Assessment of Livelihood and Educational Status of Sanitation Workers in Ahmedabad, Gujarat

This study was conducted in 25 neighborhoods and 5 zones of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC). A total of 50 sanitation workers were interviewed and through them the condition of their famil...

by Ashish Mishra | On 05 Dec 2012

It’s a Boy! Women and Non-Monetary Benefits from a Son in India

Son preference is widespread in a number of developing countries. Anecdotal evidence suggests that women may contribute to the persistence of this phenomenon because they derive substantial long-run...

by Laura Zimmermann | On 19 Nov 2012

Analyzing Intersectoral Convergence to Improve Child Undernutrition in India: Development and Application of a Framework to Examine Policies in Agriculture, Health, and Nutrition

To reduce child under nutrition in India, convergence from various sectors are required. The framework notes that issues related to convergence must be resolved in relation to three major steps in the...

by Rajani Ved | On 16 Nov 2012

Tackling Urban and Rural Food Wastage in Southeast Asia: Issues and Interventions

Food wastage is prevalent in Southeast Asia and has significant implications for the region’s food, environmental and economic security. It is likely that the region wastes approximately 33 per cent o...

by Paul S Teng | On 08 Oct 2012

Legislative Brief: The National Food Security Bill, 2011

The National Food Security Bill, 2011 was introduced in the Lok Sabha by the Minister of Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution on December 22, 2011. The Bill was referred to the Stand...

by Sakshi Balani | On 28 Sep 2012

Poverty, Human Development and Health Financing in India

This study aims at analyzing the differentials across rich and poor states and across rich and poorer strata and rural urban segments of 19 major Indian states. The study indicates that besides ind...

by Brijesh C Purohit | On 28 Sep 2012

On the Internal Mobility of Indians: Knowledge Gaps and Emerging Concerns

This paper identifies key knowledge gaps on the issue of migration and commuting workers in India. [WP-2012-023]. URL:[http://www.igidr.ac.in/pdf/publication/WP-2012-023.pdf].

by S. Chandrasekhar | On 27 Sep 2012

Examining the Effect of Household Wealth and Migration Status on Safe Delivery Care in Urban India, 1992–2006

Although the urban health issue has been of long-standing interest to public health researchers, majority of the studies have looked upon the urban poor and migrants as distinct subgroups. Another co...

by Prashant Kumar Singh | On 24 Sep 2012

Property Rights and Intra-Household Bargaining

This paper examines whether an individual-level transfer of property rights increases the individual's bargaining power within the household. The question is analyzed in the context of a housing ref...

by Shing-Yi Wang | On 18 Sep 2012

Costly Posturing: Relative Status, Ceremonies, and Early Child Development in China

A primary census-type panel household survey is show that in 18 villages in rural China, child health status has barely improved in the past decades despite more than double digit of annual per capita...

by Xi Chen | On 07 Sep 2012

Health Policy Processes in Gujarat: A Case Study of the Policy for Independent Nurse Practitioners in Midwifery

The policy processes of the policy on ‘Nurse practitioners in midwifery’ (NPM) are described. The policy aims to educate and create a new cadre of competent midwives in the government hospitals as an...

by Sharma Bharati | On 03 Sep 2012

The Air that We Breathe: Addressing the Risks of Global Urbanization on Health

The Editors examine the lack of correlation between the size of a city and its air quality, noting that the strength of environmental laws and the accountability of the country's government have a gre...

by PLoS Medicine Editors | On 30 Aug 2012

Network Structure and the Aggregation of Information: Theory and Evidence from Indonesia

A unique data-set from Indonesia is analysed to understand what individuals know about the income distribution in their village to test theories such as Jackson and Rogers (2007) that link informatio...

by Vivi Alatas | On 23 Aug 2012

Situating Conflict and Poverty in Manipur

What is the relationship between social conflict and poverty in the context of Manipur? There is a need to recognize togetherness of the imperatives of economic well being, socio-cultural identity a...

by Anand Kumar | On 22 Aug 2012

Coordinating Healthcare and Pension Policies: An Exploratory Study

Rapid ageing of the population globally represents an unprecedented historical trend. As pension and healthcare costs are positively correlated with rising incomes, ageing, urbanization, and a shift f...

by Azad Singh Bali | On 20 Aug 2012

Food Security: Cities As Part of the Solution and Not the Problem

As the world becomes increasingly urban, food demand will come mainly from people living in cities while there will be fewer rural farmers producing food on less land with less water. Cities can play...

by Paul S Teng | On 16 Aug 2012

Mango Travellers Stealing Rural Jobs

Mangoes from Andhra Pradesh reach everywhere in India. This has caused the conversion of large tracts of paddy fields into mango farms in Andhra. It affects the rural employment. Use of chemicals to r...

by Alex George | On 14 Aug 2012

Pilot Intervention of Improved Cook Stoves in Rural Areas: Assessment of Effects on Fuel Use, Smoke Emission and Health

This study aims to explore the impact of improved cook stoves (ICS) on fuel expenditure (consumption), smoke emission, and health of women (cook) in rural households of Bangladesh. In the follow-up...

by Nepal C. Dey | On 06 Aug 2012

Consequences of Gestational Diabetes in an Urban Hospital in Viet Nam: A Prospective Cohort Study

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is increasing and is a risk for type 2 diabetes. Evidence supporting screening comes mostly from high-income countries. Prevalence and outcomes in urban Viet Nam ar...

by Jane E Hirst | On 03 Aug 2012

Agricultural Credit - Accomplishments and Challenges

Agriculture’s share in GDP is less than 15 per cent but it still remains the direct domain of over half of the population whose economic prospects are linked to the performance of agriculture. There a...

by Duvvuri Subbarao | On 03 Aug 2012

Suicide and Property Rights in India

Is there an impact of female property rights on male and female suicide rates in India. Using state level variation in legal changes to women's property rights, it is shown that better property righ...

by Siwan Anderson | On 02 Aug 2012

‘The Education Question’ from the Perspective of Adivasis: Conditions, Policies and Structures

Drawing on secondary data, insights and ideas from an all-India consultation meet at NIAS, four regional / zonal consultations, data from a project in Chamarajanagar district (Karnataka), and select...

by P Veerbhadranaika | On 01 Aug 2012

Determinants of On-the-job Search in India: Macro and Micro Evidences

The main aim of this paper is to examine two core features of on-the-job search in India. First, based on National Sample Survey (NSS) 66th round unit level data, we identify the factors influencing t...

by Krishna M | On 27 Jul 2012

Water, City and Urban Planning: Assessing the Role of Groundwater in Urban Development and Planning in Delhi

The paper examines the stages and patterns of urban evolution in the Delhi metropolis and its peri-urban areas and links the role of groundwater in urban development from the past to the present. Wi...

by Suresh Kumar Rohilla | On 20 Jul 2012

Conserving, Augmenting and Sharing Water

There is a huge crisis for water all around the world, certainly in India with groundwater table going down and drinking water selling almost at the rate of toned milk. That also shows that country ha...

by Anil K Gupta | On 20 Jul 2012

Child Malnutrition in Pakistan: Trends and Determinants

The major objective of this paper to examine the determinants of child malnutrition, based on the Pakistan Panel Household Survey (PPHS-2010). The study has focused on individual (child), household an...

by G M Arif | On 16 Jul 2012

How Close Does the Apple Fall to the Tree? Some Evidence on Intergenerational Occupational Mobility from India

Using data from the India Human Development Survey (IHDS) 2005, intergenerational occupational mobility in India is examined, an issue on which very few systematic and rigorous studies exist. Individ...

by Sripad Motiram | On 12 Jul 2012

Patients as People

Review of Putting Women First: Women and Health in a Rural Community Rani Bang with Sunanda Khorgade and Rupa Chinai; Stree, Kolkata, India; November 2010; pp 650; Rs 350.

by Anuja Jayaraman | On 11 Jul 2012

Does Access to Secondary Education Affect Primary Schooling? Evidence from India

This paper investigates if better access to secondary education increases enrolment in primary schools among children in the 6–10 age group. A household-level longitudinal survey is also done coveri...

by Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay | On 10 Jul 2012

State Health Insurance and Out-of-Pocket Health Expenditures in Andhra Pradesh, India

In 2007, the state of Andhra Pradesh in southern India began rolling out the Aarogyasri health insurance to reduce catastrophic health expenditures in households “below the poverty line.” The program...

by Victoria Fan | On 05 Jul 2012

National Budget of Bhutan: Financial Year 2012-13

Budget of Bhutan 2012-13. URL:[http://www.mof.gov.bt/downloads/BudgetReport2012.pdf].

by Minister of Finance Bhutan | On 04 Jul 2012

Determinants of Child Morbidity and Factors Governing Utilisation of Child Health Care: Evidence from Rural India

The objective in this paper is to estimate the role played by such factors in determining the utilisation of formal health care to cure diarrhoea and certain respiratory illnesses plaguing young ch...

by Anindita Chakrabarti | On 02 Jul 2012

Income Related Inequality in Financial Inclusion and Role of Banks: Evidence on Financial Exclusion in India

This paper analyzes income related inequality in financial inclusion in India using a representative household level survey data, linked to State-level factors. This paper also provides estimates of...

by Rama Pal | On 27 Jun 2012

The Effects of Democratization on Public Goods and Redistribution: Evidence from China

This study investigates the effects of introducing elections on public goods and redistribution in rural China. A large and unique survey was collected to document the history of political reforms and...

by Yang Yao | On 05 Jun 2012

Analysis of Gender Wage Differential in China’s Urban Labor Market

This paper estimates the gender wage gap and its composition in China’s urban labor market using the 2009 survey data from the Chinese Family Panel Studies. Several estimation and decomposition meth...

by Biwei Su | On 01 Jun 2012

The Impact of Indian Job Guarantee Scheme on Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

Public works programs, aimed at building a strong social safety net through redistribution of wealth and generation of meaningful employment, are becoming increasingly popular in developing countries....

by Mehtabul Azam | On 29 May 2012

Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture and Food Security

This paper takes a broader view and explores the multiple effects that global warming and climate change could have on food production and food security. Dealing with climate change would require stre...

by S. Richa | On 24 May 2012

The Impact of Infrastructure on Agricultural Productivity

This paper provides an empirical basis for the perceived link between rural infrastructure and agricultural productivity. It validates the hypothesis that deficiencies in rural infrastructure e.g.,...

by Gilberto M Llanto | On 24 May 2012

Agricultural Growth and Rural Incomes: Rural Performance Indicators and Consumption Patterns

The present paper is part of a larger study on agricultural growth and rural incomes in the Philippines. This study examines the farm-nonfarm linkages of agricultural growth and the mechanisms by w...

by Arsenio M. Balisacan | On 24 May 2012

Group Norms and the BRAC Village Organization – Enhancing Social Capital Baseline

This study used social capital as an organizing framework to capture VO members’ group behaviour, and their current status along programme activities. The study compared the status of intervention...

by Nayma Qayum | On 22 May 2012

One Planet to Share: Sustaining Human Progress in a Changing Climate

In the run-up to Rio+20, this Asia-Pacific Human Development Report takes a bold look at climate change and what can be done about it. Tackling head-on the issue of poverty reduction and human deve...

by United Nations Development Programme UNDP | On 21 May 2012

Integrating Urban Datasets: The Path to Effective Socio-Economic Planning in Urban Pakistan

Effective urban policy making and implementation in Pakistan is impeded by the problem of integrating data containing incompatible spatial references. There is great heterogeneity across spatial units...

by Sohaib Khan | On 16 May 2012

Hate Crimes in India: An Economic Analysis of Violence and Atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes

Crimes against the historically marginalized Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) by the upper castes in India represent an extreme form of prejudice and discrimination. In this paper, the ef...

by Smriti Sharma | On 16 May 2012

Internal vs. International Migration: Impacts of Remittances on Child Well-Being in Vietnam

This paper focuses on the effects of domestic and international remittances on children’s well-being. Using data from the 1992/93 and 1997/98 Vietnam Living Standards Surveys, an investigation of the...

by Michele Binci | On 11 May 2012

Inter-Party Competition and Electoral Campaigning in Rural Malaysia: The Pendang and Anak Bukit By-Elections of 2002

The Pendang parliamentary and Anak Bukit by-elections for the Kedah state legislative assembly were among the most contentious of by-elections in recent Malaysian politics. Held simultaneously on 18...

by K Ramanathan | On 10 May 2012

Environmental Migrants: A Myth?

This brief reviews recent evidence, examines main research challenges in identifying migration–climate links and discusses the policy options for formalizing migration as an adaptation mechanism to cl...

by Jean-François Maystadt | On 09 May 2012

Up in Smoke: The Influence of Household Behavior on the Long-Run Impact of Improved Cooking Stoves

It is conventional wisdom that it is possible to reduce exposure to indoor air pollution, improve health outcomes, and decrease greenhouse gas emissions in the rural areas of developing countries thro...

by Rema Hanna | On 03 May 2012

NAC Working Group on Gender and the Sex Ratio Draft Recommendations

The NAC Working Group held three national consultations on different aspects of the issue of declining child sex ratio. The Working Group conveners also separately met with Ministry of Women and Child...

by Farah Naqvi | On 25 Apr 2012

Behavior of Remittance Inflows and its Determinants in Bangladesh

The paper examines the determinants of remittance inflow by applying ordinary least square method (OLS). The model include the weighted average GDP of the six (Saudi Arabia (KSA), United Arab Emirat...

by Mst. Nurnaher Begum | On 24 Apr 2012

The Negative Consequences of Overambitious Curricula in Developing Countries

Learning profiles that track changes in student skills per year of schooling often find shockingly low learning gains. Using data from three recent studies in South Asia and Africa, it is shown that ...

by Lant Pritchett | On 23 Apr 2012

Urban Policies: Political Gimmicks?

Review of the book 'Re-visioning Indian Cities: The Urban Renewal Mission' by Christopher Manickam. Author of the book: K. C. Sivaramakrishnan, published by Sage, New Delhi.

by Christopher Manickam | On 23 Apr 2012

Research Study on Women’s Empowerment, Good-governance and Decentralisation : Assuring Women’s Participation in Panchayats of Two Backward Districts of Northern Part of West Bengal

The study focused on the factors and forces behind the participation of women in Panchayat Structure specially after the seventy third Constitution Amendment Act. The role performance, role awarenes...

by Dilip Kumar Sarkar | On 20 Apr 2012

Rural Labor and Rural Nonagricultural Activities in the Philippines

The study examines the different aspects of labor in the rural household economy. It identifies the factors that significantly determine the rural households' labor allocation decisions. Moreover, i...

by Maria Teresa C Sanchez | On 18 Apr 2012

Voices from the Margin: Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Northeast Thailand: Pak Mun Dam

The protests against the Pak Mun Dam are amongst the longest running in the world. The dam is also one of the most studied, in part because it had all the features of a failed development policy: no...

by Katie Jenkins | On 18 Apr 2012

What is the Role of Social Pensions in Asia?

The main objective of this paper is to explore the potential role of social pensions and other noncontributory schemes in Asia, informed by insights from theory and international experience. The paper...

by Armando Barrientos | On 13 Apr 2012

Assessment of Community-Based Systems Monitoring Household Welfare

The analysis of micro impacts of macroeconomic adjustment policies (MIMAP) is a relatively new discipline. It has spawned out of the concern that adjustment policies aimed to correct macroeconomic imb...

by Celia M Reyes | On 04 Apr 2012

Patterns of Labour Market Insecurity in Rural India: A Multidimensional and Multivariate Analysis

Labour market insecurity, recognised as pervasive in rural India, is multi-faceted. This study attempts to fill a gap in the research on key dimensions of labour market insecurity by using the Natio...

by Padmini Desikachar | On 02 Apr 2012

The 2012 Budget Speech: Malaysia

Budget speech by Finance Minister. [Ministry of Finance, Malaysia]. URL:[http://www.treasury.gov.my/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2008%3Abajet-2012&catid=87%3Acatbajet-tahunan&Itemid=19...

by Minister of Finance Malaysia | On 29 Mar 2012

Care Seeking for Neonatal Illness in Low- and Middle- Income Countries: A Systematic Review

Despite recent achievements to reduce child mortality, neonatal deaths continue to remain high, accounting for 41% of all deaths in children under five years of age worldwide, of which over 90% occur...

by Hadley K Herbert | On 29 Mar 2012

The Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2010

A bill further to amend the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 and the Special Marriage Act, 1954. [PRS]. URL:[http://www.prsindia.org/uploads/media/Marriage%20Laws/Marriage%20Laws%20Bill%202010.pdf].

by Parliamentary Research Service PRS | On 26 Mar 2012

Janam: Narratives of Urban Theatre

Review of A History of the Jana Natya Manch: Plays for the People By Arjun Ghosh Sage, New Delhi; 2012, pp 328, Rs. 695.

by Nikhil Govind | On 25 Mar 2012

Is Community Forest Management Good for the Environment and the Poor? – A Review

Over the last two decades, community-based forest management has graduated from being an experimental strategy to becoming a much more mainstream approach. In developing countries, an estimated 22 p...

by Priya Shyamsundar | On 19 Mar 2012

Prevalence, Distribution, and Impact of Mild Cognitive Impairment in Latin America, China, and India: A 10/66 Population-Based Study

Rapid demographic ageing is a growing public health issue in many low- and middle-income countries (LAMICs). Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a construct frequently used to define groups of people...

by Ana Luisa Sosa | On 19 Mar 2012

Report of the Expert Group for Modernizaion of Indian Railways

There is in urgent need for modernization and generational Change need to be done in the Indian railways to assure safety, improve productivity, take advantage of advanced technology, respond to ever...

by Ministry of Railways | On 14 Mar 2012

Towards Building A Happy, Prosperous and Caring Bangladesh: Budget Speech 2011-12

Budget speech 2011-12 by Finance minister. URL:[http://www.mof.gov.bd/en/budget/11_12/budget_speech/speech_en.pdf].

by Abul Maal Abdul Muhith | On 14 Mar 2012

Forty Eighth Report on The Lok Pal Bill, 2011

The report includes a specific recommendation to categorically have a statutory provision imparting genuine independence to the CBI by declaring, for the first time, that it shall not be subject, on...

by Rajya Sabha | On 14 Mar 2012

Services-led Growth, Employment and Job Quality: A Study of Manufacturing and Service-sector in Urban India

This is a study of employment growth, structure, and job quality outcomes in manufacturing and service-sector in urban India spanning the period 1999-2000 to 2009-10. The context is that of dynamic...

by K.V. Ramaswamy | On 12 Mar 2012

Final Report-Water Security and Climate Change: Challenges and Strategies

The main objectives of this seminar has been to contribute to the understanding of the development processes and problems related to water security and climate change; to focus on studies relating t...

by Gursharan Singh Kainth | On 12 Mar 2012

Time Poverty, Work Status and Gender: The Case of Pakistan

Time is an important economic resource that can be spent in a variety of ways. Diverse demands on a person’s time may reach a point where the individual may be categorized as time poor. Time poverty...

by Najam us Saqib | On 09 Mar 2012

Parents’ Economic Support of Young-Adult Children: Do Socioeconomic Circumstances Matter?

This paper assesses how the economic support provided by parents to young adults as they complete their education and enter the labor market is related to the family’s socioeconomic circumstances. W...

by Deborah Cobb clark | On 07 Mar 2012

Asia’s Wicked Environmental Problems

The developing economies of Asia are confronted by serious environmental problems that threaten to undermine future growth, food security, and regional stability. This study considers four major envir...

by Stephen Howes | On 06 Mar 2012

Report of the Sub-Groups on Child Rights for 12th Five Year Plan

A Working Group on Child Rights was constituted by the Planning Commission to recommend priorities and strategies for children in the 12th Five year Plan 2012-17. Five Sub Groups of the Working group...

by Government of India Ministry of Women and Child Development | On 06 Mar 2012

Socioeconomic Factors and All Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality among Older People in Latin America, India, and China: A Population-Based Cohort Study

The vital status of 12,373 people aged 65 years and over was determined 3–5 years after baseline survey in sites in Latin America, India, and China. Crude and standardised mortality rates are reporte...

by Cleusa P Ferri | On 05 Mar 2012

The State of the World's Children 2012: Children in an Urban World

The experience of childhood is increasingly urban. Over half the world’s people – including more than a billion children – now live in cities and towns. This report adds to the growing body of eviden...

by United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF | On 01 Mar 2012

Subsidizing the National Food Authority: Is It a Good Policy?

National Food Authority's (NFA) twin mandate of price stabilization and food security has cost the government billions of pesos in losses over the past few decades. As such, there is a need to ...

by Senate Economic Planning Office SEPO | On 28 Feb 2012

Study on Impact of Micro Finance in Reduction of Domestic Violence Against Women

The main objective of the study is to investigate whether there is any evidence to support the view that the disbursement of micro finance to women reduces the incidence of domestic violence, and if...

by Institute of Social Studies Trust ISST | On 23 Feb 2012

Saving Mumbai

What Mumbai needs as a starting point is a city administration that is accountable to the city's residents, and a directly elected mayor, as in all great cities of the world. [BS Weekend Ruminations]....

by T.N. Ninan | On 22 Feb 2012

In Remembrance: Girish Sant, Energy Expert, Activist

Girish Sant, co-founder of Prayas Energy Group, a pro-people's thin tank on energy issues, an inspiration to many, suffered a fatal heart attack on February3, 2012. A short note on his life and work.

by Anonymous | On 20 Feb 2012

Girish Sant on India's Energy Challenges

This interview with Girish Sant, head of Prayas Energy Group and one of India's foremost energy experts, was made during COP17 in Durban. Girish died on February 2, 2012. This interview was published...

by Marian M | On 20 Feb 2012

Towards a Model for Analyzing the Impact of Macroeconomic Adjustment Policies on Households: A Review of Empirical Household Models in the Philippines

The paper has two objectives, namely: (a) determine and assess how existing empirical household models are able to capture the effects of changes in the macroeconomic variables on the welfare of the...

by Aniceto C. Orbeta Jr. | On 17 Feb 2012

Formalizing the Informal Economy: Women’s Autonomous Self-Employment in Rural South India

This paper considers the effects of contemporary restructuring of women and men’s employment in rural south India alongside ongoing efforts to recast India’s poor rural women as entrepreneurs. This s...

by Samantha Watson | On 15 Feb 2012

Myanmar Economy: A Comparative View

A stated objective of Myanmar is to become a modern developed nation that will stand shoulder to shoulder – proud, dignified and tall – with the countries of the world. How far has Myanmar come in a...

by U Myint | On 15 Feb 2012

Whither Human Capital? The Woeful Tale of Transition to Tertiary Education in India

In this paper the issue of high dropout rates in India is examined which has adverse implications for human capital formation, and hence for the country’s long term growth potential. Using the 2004-0...

by Manisha Chakrabarty | On 14 Feb 2012

The Financial Structure and Performance of Philippine Credit Cooperatives

This study is an attempt to assess the importance and potential impact of any further development of the credit cooperative sector; identify development interventions that will result in a strong Fil...

by Gilberto M Llanto | On 13 Feb 2012

Selling Formal Insurance to the Informally Insured

Unpredictable rainfall is an important risk for agricultural activity, and farmers in developing countries often receive incomplete insurance from informal risk-sharing networks. The demand for, and...

by A. Mushfiq Mobarak | On 10 Feb 2012

Causal Relationship between Saving, Investment and Economic Growth for India – What does the Relation Imply?

This study investigates the relationship between saving, investment and economic growth for India over the period 1950-51 to 2007-08. The literature on the role of saving in promoting economic growt...

by Ramesh Jangili | On 09 Feb 2012

Is Caste Destiny? Occupational Diversification among Dalits in Rural India

he caste system – a system of elaborately stratified social hierarchy – distinguishes India from most other societies. Among the most distinctive factors of the caste system is the close link betwee...

by Ira Gang | On 07 Feb 2012

Reviewing National Rural Health Mission

Review of Improving Access and Efficiency in Public Health Services: Mid- term Evaluation of India's National Rural Health Mission by Nirupam Bajpai, Jeffrey Sachs and Ravindra Dholakiya; Sage Pub...

by Shyam Ashtekar | On 07 Feb 2012

Estimating the Middle Class in Pakistan

Using the Pakistan Social and Living Measurement Survey (PSLM), conducted in 2007-08, the paper measures the magnitude of the middle class (definition given by Thurow (1987); Birdsall, Graham and Pe...

by Durr-e- Nayab | On 06 Feb 2012

Consumer Responses to Incentives to Reduce Plastic Bag Use: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Urban India

In this paper a test for appropriate policies is done that could help control the use of plastic bags in Delhi. In January 2009, the Government of Delhi introduced a wide-ranging ban on the use of p...

by Kanupriya Gupta | On 03 Feb 2012

Shaking Embedded Gender Roles and Relations: An Impact Assessment of Gender Quality Action Learning Programme

The Gender Quality Action Learning programme initiated a village level intervention in 2007 in 10 districts to increase knowledge, change perception, attitudes, and practice/behaviour of the villagers...

by Md. Abdul Alim | On 03 Feb 2012

The Complexity of Immigrant Generations: Implications for Assessing the Socioeconomic Integration of Hispanics and Asians

Much of the socioeconomic mobility achieved by U.S. immigrant families takes place across rather than within generations. When assessing the long-term integration of immigrants, it is therefore impo...

by Brian Duncan | On 31 Jan 2012

Global Health and the New Bottom Billion: How Funders Should Respond to Shifts in Global Poverty and Disease Burden

After a decade of rapid economic growth, many developing countries have attained middle-income status. But poverty reduction in these countries has not kept pace with economic growth. As a result, mos...

by Amanda Glassman | On 31 Jan 2012

Child Gender And Parental Investments In India: Are Boys And Girls Treated Differently?

Although previous research has not always found that boys and girls are treated differently in rural India, son-biased stopping rules imply that estimates of the effect of gender on parental investmen...

by Silvia H. Barcellos | On 30 Jan 2012

Intentions vs. Implementation of Philippine Economic Reforms Under Aquino, 1986-92

This paper explains the gaps between official objectives and the actual accomplishments of the Aquino government, with an emphasis on the implementation record of agricultural-based strategies. Summar...

by V. Bruce J Tolentino | On 30 Jan 2012

India’s Food Security Bill: A Waste or Win for the Hungry?

Home to over 25 per cent of the world’s hungry poor, India faces major food security challenges and the situation has barely improved in two decades. Will the National Food Security Bill that the Indi...

by Sally Trethewie | On 27 Jan 2012

Chinese Commodity Imports in Ghana and Senegal: Demystifying Chinese Business Strength in Urban West Africa

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, independent entrepreneurial migrants from China have been increasingly flocking to Africa in search of “greener pastures.” This paper scrutinizes the...

by Laurence Marfaing | On 25 Jan 2012

Total Sanitation Campaign - Progress and Issues: Situational Analysis of Andhra Pradesh with reference to Total Sanitation Campaign

This paper has tried to address some key research questions like will India and Andhra Pradesh achieve the Millennium Development Goal of Sanitation ? Are the TSC targets realistic? What is coverage...

by M Snehalatha | On 25 Jan 2012

Rural to Urban Migration in Pakistan: The Gender Perspective

This paper analyses gender dimensions in rural to urban migration (age 10 years and above) in Pakistan. The study is based on Labour Force Surveys 1996-2006. The findings of the study show that over...

by Shahnaz Hamid | On 20 Jan 2012

Energy in the Development Strategy of Indian Households-The Missing Half

The present paper explores the nexus between gender-energy-poverty, highlights areas of gender concern, and suggests actions. It is analyzed how women from rural areas and low income households are...

by B. Sudhakara Reddy | On 19 Jan 2012

The HUNGaMA Survey Report – 2011

The HUNGaMA (Hunger and M alnutrition) S urvey conducted across 112 rural districts of India in 2011 provides r eliable estimates of c hild n utrition covering nearly 20% of Indian children. The H...

by HUNGaMa for Change HUNGaMa | On 12 Jan 2012

Peer Effects, Risk Pooling, and Status Seeking: What Explains Gift Spending Escalation in Rural China?

It has been widely documented that the poor spend a significant proportion of their income on gifts even at the expense of basic consumption. We test three competing explanations of this phenomenon—pe...

by Xi Chen | On 10 Jan 2012

Can Lease Hold Forestry in Nepal Benefit People and the Environment?

In Nepal an innovative form of forestry management, known as the Leasehold Forestry (LHF) Programme, is being introduced to protect forest land and help it regenerate. A new SANDEE study analyzes th...

by South Asian Network for Development SANDEE | On 10 Jan 2012

What Makes Food Processing Firms Clean Up their Waste? – A Case Study from Sri Lanka

Many Sri Lankan companies, particularly in the food processing sector, do not have adequate management systems in place to control and dispose solid waste. In order to address this challenge, a new...

by South Asian Network for Development SANDEE | On 09 Jan 2012

Are All Migrants Really Worse Off in Urban Labour Markets? New Empirical Evidence from China

The rapid and massive increase of rural-to-urban migration in China has drawn attention to the welfare of migrant workers, particularly to their working conditions and pay. This paper uses data from...

by Jason Gagnon | On 06 Jan 2012

Can the Bill Bring Desired Outcomes?

The Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill (LARR) is considered to be a flawed piece of legislation. An alternative method based on auction based pricing mechanism is suggested here.

by Maitreesh Ghatak | On 05 Jan 2012

Turning the Tide: Improving Water Resource Management in the Philippines

Water is arguably the most important natural resource and because it is scarce, its optimal usage and proper management must be ensured. Water governance in the Philippines, however, has becom...

by Senate Economic Planning Office SEPO | On 03 Jan 2012

Right to Food Security Bill: Challenges and Opportunities

The financial implications of the food security bill can be questioned. But the Bill proposes to protect the citizens from hunger and improve the nutritional intake of women and children.

by Rudra Narayan Mishra | On 30 Dec 2011

Changes in the Use of Safe Water and Water Safety Measures in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Intervention Areas of Bangladesh: A Midline Assessment

The BRAC Water, Sanitation and Hygiene programme reached 150 upazilas in collaboration with the Government of Bangladesh since 2006. This study assessed the changes in the use of tubewell water and w...

by Nepal C. Dey | On 28 Dec 2011

Twenty Years of CRC: A Balance Sheet- Volume 1

The report is a rich source with qualitative and quantitative data on the status of children in India from authentic and established sources. [HAQCRC report]. URL:[http://www.haqcrc.org/sites/default/...

by HAQ Centre for Child Rights HAQCRC | On 28 Dec 2011

Will Neoliberal Policies Resolve Water Sector Dilemmas? Learnings from Maharashtra and Gujarat

This paper examines how the neoliberal policies have influenced the water sector reform policies and interventions in India, particularly, in the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. In doing so, the...

by Viswanathan P K | On 26 Dec 2011

Realising Decent Work

A commentary on final report of the task force on domestic workers

by G.D Bino Paul | On 26 Dec 2011

Poverty Dynamics of Female-headed Households in Pakistan: Evidence from PIHS 2000-01 and PSLM 2004-05

The paper attempts to empirically test a naïve version of what is rather stylistically termed as “feminisation of poverty”, using the sub-sample of female -headed households (FHHs) from two househol...

by Umer Khalid | On 21 Dec 2011

Durban Climate Agreement: The Morning After

The Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (DPEA) initiated at the Conference of Parties (CoP 17) mandated to finalise by 2015 a new legal structure to govern greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of nations c...

by D.Raghunandan | On 20 Dec 2011

Seasonal Migration and Risk Aversion

Pre-harvest lean seasons are widespread in the agrarian areas of Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Every year, these seasonal famines force millions of people to succumb to poverty and hunger. An incentive...

by Gharad Bryan | On 20 Dec 2011

The Welfare Impacts of Leasehold Forestry in Nepal

The study analyzes the role of the leasehold forestry (LHF) program in improving household welfare in Nepal. Both the time saved in biomass collection and the addition to income through increases in b...

by Bishnu Prasad Sharma | On 15 Dec 2011

Exposing the Plight of Farmers in Punjab

Review of the book 'Debt and Death in Rural India: The Punjab Story' by Aman Sidhu and Inderjit Singh Jaijee Sage Publications India, New Delhi, 2011, Rs 750/-, pp 360.

by Gursharan Singh Kainth | On 13 Dec 2011

Monetary and Fiscal Policy in the Presence of Informal Labour Markets

How does informality in emerging economies affect the conduct of monetary and fiscal policy? To answer this question two-sector, formal-informal new Keynesian closed-economy is constructed. The inf...

by Nicoletta Batini | On 02 Dec 2011

National Urban Transport Policy

The objective of this policy is to ensure safe, affordable, quick, comfortable, reliable and sustainable access for the growing number of city residents to jobs, education, recreation and such other...

by Ministry of Urban Development GOI | On 30 Nov 2011

Impact of the Retail FDI Policy on Indian Consumers and the Way Forward

This paper analyses the impact of the retail FDI policy on Indian consumers and make policy recommendations for the Indian government. Based on a primary survey of Indian consumers, the paper examines...

by Arpita Mukherjee | On 28 Nov 2011

Draft of combined Fourth and Fifth Periodic Reports of India to CEDAW

This Report covers developments in implementation of the Convention in India from 2006 to 2011. The harmonised guidelines for preparation of Common Core Document and the reporting Guidelines of the...

by Government of India Ministry of Women and Child Development | On 25 Nov 2011

How Prudent are Rural Households in Developing Transition Economies: Evidence from Zhejiang, China

Rural households in developing economies frequently use precautionary saving to cope with income risk. Such prudent behavior can be strengthened in transition economies where more risks are typically...

by Ling Jin | On 23 Nov 2011

Policies for Increasing Non-Farm Employment for Farm Households in India

The present paper adopts a diagnostic approach; problems of non-farm employment in rural sector are identified by studying pattern and process of rural employment using data from the NSS quinquennia...

by Brajesh Jha | On 22 Nov 2011

Final Report of the Task Force on Domestic Workers: Realising Decent Work

This report presents the results of the deliberations of the Task Force. Section one provides the background. Section two presents the status of the implementation of March 2010 recomme...

by Ministry of Labour and Employment MoL&E | On 18 Nov 2011

Equity in the Time of Recession: Mumbai Youth Struggle to Bridge Yawning Opportunity Gap

Mumbai is the capital of Maharashtra, a large highly industrialised, progressive state that until a decade ago, reported remarkable progress on social and economic indices. Today, it is still a leadi...

by eSocialSciences eSS | On 11 Nov 2011

Consumption and Social Identity: Evidence from India

Spending on consumption items is examined which have signaling value in social interactions across groups with distinctive social identities in India, where social identities are defined by caste an...

by Melanie Khamis | On 10 Nov 2011

The Determinants of Export Performance of China's Township-Village Enterprises

The rapid export growth of China's township-village enterprises (TVEs) has not been well understood and explained. Using a simple analytical model and exploring a unique dataset on China's TVEs the...

by Changqi Wu | On 08 Nov 2011

Does Greater Autonomy Improve Performance? Evidence from Water Service Providers in Indian Cities?

The efficiency of urban water supply in 27 Indian cities are analyzed using data envelopment analysis (DEA). Cities are grouped by the management structure of their water utilities. Utilities with g...

by Shreekant Gupta | On 24 Oct 2011

Report of the Expert Group to Review the Methodology for Estimation of Poverty

There has been a growing concern on the official estimates of poverty released by the Planning commission. The official poverty estimates have been severely criticised on various counts. In view of...

by Planning Commission | On 21 Oct 2011

What is driving the Indian middle class towards electoral politics? Evidence from Delhi

Neighborhood Associations have assumed an important role in public policy decision making as the principal voice of the middle class across urban India. In recent years, these associations have sought...

by Poulomi Chakrabarti | On 20 Oct 2011

Institutional and Procedural Challenges to Generic Production in India: Antiretrovirals in Focus

With a review of the historic role of India as a supplier of Antiretrovirals (ARV) medicines the paper outlines some of the key rulings in Indian courts as the interpretation of the new patent laws ar...

by Cassandra Sweet | On 19 Oct 2011

Report on Socio Economic Status of the Women Domestic Workers- A Diagnostic Study in Five Major Townships: Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Berhmpur, Ssmbslpur and Rourkela of Orissa

Women workers In India constitute one third of the total workforce. Majority of these women are engaged in the un-organized sectors such as agriculture, construction, domestic services etc. The over...

by Bharat Jyoti BJ | On 18 Oct 2011

Voice and Accountability: The Role of Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health Committee

The study aims to explore how the MNCH committee encouraged community participation and how its communication activities empowered the community people to ensure the healthcare needs of the poor and...

by Margaret Leppard | On 17 Oct 2011

Evaluation of Value-Added Agricultural Advisory Services: Case Study of Agriclinics in Southern India

The Indian national program of agriclinics and agribusiness centers, started in 2002, aims to provide farmers with a reliable alternative to the private input dealer by subsidizing technically trained...

by Claire J Glendenning | On 14 Oct 2011

Gender Dimensions: Employment Trends in India, 1993-94 to 2009-10

This paper examines some of the explicit as well as not so explicit trends in relation to women’s employment in India from 1993-94 till 2009-10 and argues that they indicate a grave and continuing...

by Indrani Mazumdar | On 10 Oct 2011

Populations at Risk: Other End of Youth Bulge

While there is much written on the youth bulge in developing countries, little is being done to address the problems of the elderly. And yet demographically, it is this section that is showing high gr...

by Lakshmi Priya | On 10 Oct 2011

Urban Transport Sustainability Indicators – Application of Multi-view Black-box (MVBB) Framework

In a recent work Nathan and Reddy (2011a) have proposed a Multi-view Black-box (MVBB) framework for development of sustainable development indicators (SDIs) for an urban setup. The framework is flex...

by Hippu Salk Kristle Nathan | On 10 Oct 2011

Labour Market in Urban Agglomerations: A case from an Indian Global City

The study explores different aspects of employment and labour market prevalent in large in UAs, in particular global cities. To capture the role of labour market in urban agglomeration, particularly...

by G.D Bino Paul | On 27 Sep 2011

Estimating Urban and Rural Incomes in Gujarat: 1993-94 to 2004-05

Income originating within geographical boundaries of urban and rural areas of Gujarat is estimated for three benchmark years – 1993-94, 1999-00 and 2004-05 - at current prices following the broad me...

by Ravindra H Dholakia | On 26 Sep 2011

Estimates of Workers Commuting from Rural to Urban and Urban to Rural India: A Note

The paper provides estimates of workers residing in rural (urban) India and commuting to urban (rural) areas for work. These estimates are based on National Sample Survey Organisation’s survey of Emp...

by S. Chandrasekhar | On 19 Sep 2011

National Policy for Senior Citizens: 2011

The foundation of the new policy, known as the “National Policy for Senior Citizens 2011” is based on several factors. These include the demographic explosion among the elderly, the changing economy a...

by Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment GOI | On 19 Sep 2011

Report of the Expert Committee on Licensing New Urban Co-operative Banks

With a view to increasing the coverage of banking services amongst local communities, it was proposed in the Annual Policy Statement for the year 2010-11 to set up a Committee comprising of all stakeh...

by Reserve Bank of India RBI | On 15 Sep 2011

Household Level Pollution in India: Patterns and Projections

This study analyses the pollution-income relationship (for both local and global pollution), separately across rural and urban households in India based on unit record data on fuel consumption obta...

by K S Kavi Kumar | On 14 Sep 2011

The Land Acquisition Bill: A Critique and a Proposal

The new Bill on land acquisition recently tabled in Parliament is well intentioned but seriously flawed. Its principal defect is that it attaches an arbitrary mark-up to the historical market price to...

by Maitreesh Ghatak | On 12 Sep 2011

Faster, Sustainable and More Inclusive Growth: An Approach to the 12th Five Year Plan

In preparing the Approach Paper, the Planning Commission has consulted much more widely than ever before recognising the fact that citizens are now much better informed and also keen to engage. Over...

by Planning Commission, India | On 12 Sep 2011

Fertility Regulation in an Economic Crisis

Substantial international aid is spent reducing the cost of contraception in developing countries, as part of a larger effort to reduce global fertility and increase investment per child worldwide....

by Christopher McKelvey | On 09 Sep 2011

The Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011

A bill to ensure a humane, participatory, informed consultative and transparent process for land acquisition for industrialisation, development of essential infrastructural facilities and urbanisa...

by Parliamentary Research Service PRS | On 08 Sep 2011

Returns to Education in India: Some Recent Evidence

This paper estimates returns to education in India using a nationally representative survey. The standard Mincerian wage equation separately for rural and urban sectors is estimated. To account for th...

by Tushar Agrawal | On 06 Sep 2011

Mortality, the Family and the Indian Ocean Tsunami

Over 160,000 people died in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The correlates of survival are examined using data from the Study of the Tsunami Aftermath and Recovery (STAR), a population-representative...

by Elizabeth Frankenberg | On 06 Sep 2011

Research Study on Role of Tribal Women Wage Earner in Ensuring Family Food Security in Scheduled Areas of Rajasthan in Changing Environmental and Economic Scenario

The project aimed to find the reasons for bottlenecks in the present system that deprive the tribal community of the benefit of schemes. Five villages from each block have been selected to make tot...

by Maharana Pratap Adhyayan Evam Jan Kalyan Sansthan Jaipur | On 02 Sep 2011

Agricultural Practice and its Relation to Poverty and Food Security in Selected River Basins in Bangladesh: A Situation Analysis

Poverty and food security in the context of Bangladesh has become a major concern over time. While efforts have been intensified to increase crop yield through increased land use, using inorganic fe...

by Shyamal C Ghosh | On 30 Aug 2011

Drivers of Agricultural Diversification in India, Haryana and the Greenbelt Farms of India

The present study discusses factors responsible for agricultural diversification at different levels: country (India), state (Haryana) and farms of Kurukshetra district in Haryana. The study regress...

by Brajesh Jha | On 29 Aug 2011

Institutional Innovations and Models in the Development of Agro-Food Industries in India: Strengths, Weaknesses and Lessons

Agro-industries are given high priority in India particularly because of their great potential for contributing to development. The emphasis on village-based agro-industries was introduced almost a...

by Vasant P Gandhi | On 29 Aug 2011

The Gender Implications of Large-Scale Land Deals

Whether viewed as “land grabs” or as agricultural investment for development, large-scale land deals by investors in developing countries are generating considerable attention. However, investors,...

by Julia Behrman | On 29 Aug 2011

Policy Dilemmas in India: The Impact of Changes in Agricultural Prices on Rural and Urban Poverty

Trade policy reforms which lead to changes in world prices of agricultural commodities or domestic policies aimed at affecting agricultural prices are often seen as causing a policy dilemma: a fall...

by Sandra Polaski | On 26 Aug 2011

Child Health and Nutritional Status of Children: The Role of Sex Differentials

The main objective of this paper is to examine the patterns of gender differences for children in the north state of Haryana in India for health outcomes. Specifically it addresses the incidence, and...

by Suresh Sharma | On 23 Aug 2011

Risks, Farmers’ Suicides and Agrarian Crisis in India: Is There A Way Out?

Poor returns to cultivation and absence of non-farm opportunities are indicative of the larger socio-economic malaise in rural India. This is accentuated by the multiple risks that the farmer faces...

by Srijit Mishra | On 23 Aug 2011

Technology in Banking- In Pursuit of Excellence

The contribution of technology to the Indian banking industry, the role played by IDRBT and the significance of banking technology awards, in fostering the technological developments of banks. Issues...

by Anand Sinha | On 23 Aug 2011

Reforms in Indian Agro-processing and Agriculture Sectors in the Context of Unilateral and Multilateral Trade Agreements

In this paper, the potential impacts of trade and investment-related policy reforms on India’s agro-processing sector is explored. The direct effects of policy reforms within the processing sector, an...

by A. Ganesh-Kumar | On 22 Aug 2011

National Policy for Farmers

There is a need to focus more on the economic well-being of the farmers, rather than just on production. Socio-economic well-being must be a prime consideration of agricultural policy, besides pr...

by Ministry of Agriculture GOI | On 19 Aug 2011

The Costs of Achieving the Millennium Development Goals through Adopting Organic Agriculture

This paper provides estimates of the costs of organic agriculture (OA) programs, and sets them in the context of the costs of attaining the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It anal...

by Anil Markandya | On 19 Aug 2011

Urbanization in India: Evidence on Agglomeration Economies

The paper examines the urbanization pattern with context of India. The paper deals with various demographic aspects of urbanization. Also the paper focuses on characteristics and classes of cities, an...

by Arup Mitra | On 19 Aug 2011

Does Land Reform Matter? An Empirical Analysis of Indian States

This article looks into the role of land reform in comparison to concentric ef fort to augment agricultural GDP. Redistribut ive land reform policy aims to improve land endowments of poor, though va...

by Debdatta Pal | On 18 Aug 2011

Poverty Estimates in India: Old and New Methods, 2004-05

This paper provides estimates of poverty and inequality across states as also for different sub-groups of population for 2004-05 by using the old and new methods of the Planning Commission. The new m...

by Durgesh C Pathak | On 17 Aug 2011

Climate Change, Rural Livelihoods and Agriculture (focus on Food Security) in Asia-Pacific Region

The objective of this paper is to identify climate change related threats and vulnerabilities associated with agriculture as a sector and agriculture as people’s livelihoods (exposure, sensitivity, a...

by S. Mahendra Dev | On 17 Aug 2011

High-Value Agriculture in India: Past Trends and Future Prospects

Given the declining share of traditional agricultural commodities in production, consumption and trade, horticulture and other non-traditional high-value agriculture represent an important area of p...

by Vijay Paul Sharma | On 09 Aug 2011

Working and Living Conditions of Women Domestic Workers: Evidences from Mumbai

This paper, exploring primary data collected from 1510 women domestic workers in Mumbai, evidently brings out that domestic work as a feminine occupation in a global city like Mumbai is a epitome of...

by G.D Bino Paul | On 08 Aug 2011

Distress Situation in Dryland Areas Impacts on Livelihood Pattern and the Coping Strategies: A Review

This paper is a review of the different coping mechanisms adopted by the households in different dryland area of India. The primary focus of the present paper is to understand the coping mechanisms...

by Nikhil Govind | On 05 Aug 2011

Treatment of Valuables as Capital Formation in India: Some Issues and Perspectives

As per UNSNA recommendations, valuables as a separate item had been introduced in the expenditure side of GDP. Since India is one of largest importer and user of gold for various purposes, this trea...

by Rakesh Kumar | On 04 Aug 2011

Financial Inclusion in India: A case-study of West Bengal

The study seeks to examine the extent of financial inclusion in West Bengal. It is observed from the study that although there has been an improvement in outreach activity in the banking sector, the...

by Sadhan Kumar Chattopadhyay | On 03 Aug 2011

Transfer Paths and Academic Performance: The Primary School Merger Program in China

In this paper, the overall goal is to examine the impact of the Rural Primary School Merger Program on academic performance of students using a dataset from a survey that we designed to reflect tran...

by Alexis Medina | On 27 Jul 2011

Government Mediated Program on Intensifying Industry-Academia Linkages for Human Resource Development; Experinces of an Innovative Model from TIFAC

The importance of academia- industry linkages for development of an economy is well recognized. With a view to make the higher technical education relevant, by forging and catalyzing functional link...

by Jancy Ayyaswamy | On 26 Jul 2011

Provisional Population Totals: Rural Urban Distribution India: Series I

The rural-urban distribution of the population is shown. URL:[http://censusindia.gov.in/2011-prov-results/paper2/data_files/india/paper2_1.pdf].

by | On 21 Jul 2011

"Why do I have to Clean Teeth Regularly?”: Perceptions and State of Oral and Dental Health in a Low-income Rural Community in Bangladesh

The general perception that dentistry is expensive keeps many people away from seeking treatment from registered professionals and make them hostage to the services of non-registered lay practitione...

by Syed Masud Ahmed | On 20 Jul 2011

EGoM cleared the Draft National Food Security Bill

The empowered group of ministers on food on Monday approved the draft National Food Security Bill, bringing the ambitious social security programme that guarantees highly subsidized food grains to abo...

by Economic Times ET | On 12 Jul 2011

Poverty, RCH-Care Utilization and Fertility in India: A District Level Analysis

The study highlights interlinkages amongst district level poverty, socioeconomic developmental indices, RCH-care utilization and fertility. Thereby the study formulates a recursive model to highlight...

by S C Gulati | On 11 Jul 2011

Socio-Economic Characteristics of the Tall and not so Tall Women of India

New studies are increasingly appearing based on historical data across the world that better socio-economic status is associated with taller men and women. This study based on a recent Indian data ana...

by Brinda Viswanathan | On 08 Jul 2011

Barriers to Household Risk Management: Evidence from India

Why do many households remain exposed to large exogenous sources of non-systematic income risk? Why don’t financial markets develop to pool these risks? This paper uses a series of randomized field...

by Shawn Cole | On 06 Jul 2011

A Study on Gender Based Violence in Kerala

The paper presents gender-based violence and theories its causes and correlates; it then reviews global information on the prevalence of gender-based violence against women and its health consequences...

by SAKHI Women's Resource Centre SAKHI | On 05 Jul 2011

Commons And Community: Evidence From Southwestern Tribal Belt Of Madhya Pradesh

Sah and Shah (2003) have shown that the incidence of poverty in the South-Western tribal belt of Madhya Pradesh is alarmingly high. About three fifths of the households in this tribal belt were catego...

by D.C. Sah | On 04 Jul 2011

Private Health Sector in Maharashtra: A Study of Private Hospitals

The study was conducted across 261 private hospitals from 10 districts of Maharashtra, Nashik, Nandurbar, Pune, Satara, Thane, Ratnagiri, Osmanabad, Aurangabad, Amravati and Gadchiroli. Greater Mum...

by Padma Deosthali | On 01 Jul 2011

Spatial Inequality in Rural India: Do Initial Conditions Matter?

Disparities in income and living standards across countries and between regions within countries (spatial inequality) have been the subject of much debate and research in recent years. Spatial inequal...

by Hari Nagarajan | On 01 Jul 2011

Poverty and Natural Resources: Understanding the Dynamics in the Content of Dryland Regions in Western India

The interface between environment and poverty is a complex phenomenon. Poverty reduction needs will be enabled if the poor are allowed access to natural capital, such as land, water, forest and minera...

by Amita Shah | On 23 Jun 2011

India's Drylands and Emerging Challenges

In order to tackle the issues of desertification, land degradation and droughts, 22 major programmes are being implemented in the country, including, the “Mission for Green India”, one of the Missio...

by Ministry of Environment and Forests GOI | On 21 Jun 2011

Poverty Reduction in China: Is High Growth Enough?

The slowdown and in some years reversal of poverty reduction in China forcefully demonstrates that growth is not sufficient for combating poverty even if that growth is of unprecedented magnitude. Pol...

by Guanghua Wan | On 16 Jun 2011

Drivers of Escape and Descent: Changing Household Fortunes in Rural Bangladesh

This paper analyses a panel dataset on 379 rural households in Bangladesh interviewed in 1987/88 and 2000. Using a ‘livelihoods’ framework it contrasts the fortunes of ascending households (which es...

by Binayak Sen | On 16 Jun 2011

Report of the Working Group on Human Resource Policy for Short-Term Cooperative Credit Structure

For the revival of rural cooperative credit institutions, a Working Group was constituted by NABARD to formulate and suggest comprehensive human resource guidelines for the State Cooperative Bank (...

by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Devt NABARD | On 15 Jun 2011

Rising Spatial Disparities and Development

The UNU-WIDER project on 'Spatial Disparities in Human Development' has collected and analysed evidence on the extent of spatial inequalities within developing countries. The studies find that spatial...

by Ravi Kanbur | On 15 Jun 2011

Demand or Supply for Schooling in Rural India?

Is the poor human capital investment by rural Indian families primarily a supply side or a demand side issue? This paper examines school attendance and total human capital investment time (time in sc...

by Sripad Motiram | On 13 Jun 2011

Polarization, Inequality and Growth: The Indian Experience

Polarization in India is analysed roughly in the past two and half decades using consumption expenditure data. It is seen that polarization has increased sharply since the 1990s, reversing the earlie...

by Sripad Motiram | On 13 Jun 2011

Access to Land and Land Policy Reforms

The objective of this research and policy brief is to analyse different mechanisms of access to land for the rural poor in an era when redistribution through expropriative land reform is largely incon...

by Alain de Janvry | On 10 Jun 2011

Evolution of Land Distribution in West Bengal 1967-2004

This paper uses data from a household survey to estimate changes in land distribution in rural West Bengal between 1967-2004 and decompose these into contributions of different factors. There was a...

by Pranab Bardhan | On 09 Jun 2011

Natural Disasters, Risks, Vulnerability and Persistence of Poverty: An Analysis of Household Level Data

The paper explores the vulnerability and persistence of poverty amongst the rural households in the disaster-prone areas of Bangladesh. It draws upon some of the factors and processes that have prev...

by Quazi Shahabuddin | On 08 Jun 2011

Analysis of Technical Options for Mitigating Environmental Emissions from the Urban Transport System in Selected Asian Countries: Case Study of Delhi and Mumbai

India has been facing rapid urbanization. There is a two-fold increase in urban population during 1971-2001, registering a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.8%. Among all the problems caus...

by Sudhakar Yedla | On 03 Jun 2011

Do Child Labourers Come from the Poorest?

This paper explores whether child labourers come from, not only the poor, but also the poorest households in Bangladesh or not. The paper also tries to explain what determines the participation of c...

by Zulfiqar Ali | On 03 Jun 2011

Demand or Supply for Schooling in Rural India?

Is the poor human capital investment by rural Indian families primarily a supply side or a demand side issue? School attendance and total human capital investment time (time in school plus travel ti...

by Sripad Motiram | On 01 Jun 2011

Agriculture’s Role in the Indian Enigma: Help or Hindrance to the Undernutrition Crisis?

In recent decades India has achieved one of the fastest economic growth rates in the world, yet its progress against both child and adult undernutrition has been sluggish at best. While this Indian...

by Derek Headey | On 27 May 2011

Ensuring Health Services for the Ultra Poor in Bangladesh: BRAC Experience

Bangladesh is a poor country with nearly half (48%) of the population living on the wrong side of the poverty line. The health status of the population has remained poor. The socioeconomic inequality...

by Abdullahel Hadi | On 25 May 2011

Tank Degradation and Poverty Reduction-The Importance of Common Property Resources in Sustaining the Rural Poor

This study reveals the importance of tank irrigation in the lives of poor households and suggests that the poor may bear the bulk of the burden from tank deterioration. Tank-based agricultural income...

by South Asian Network for Development and Environmen Economics | On 19 May 2011

Hedonic Demand for Rented House in Kohima, Nagaland

The objective of this study is to show how the demand for a rentable house can be quantitatively expressed. The data set is obtained by a primary (sample) survey of 209 households randomly selecte...

by S.K. Mishra | On 18 May 2011

Awareness of Urban Poor Customer for Malls

“Sell to the poor if you want to be rich” were the words spoken by the experts in rural marketing. Every marketer loves to reach out to the fat wallets where the selling is obvious, easy and conspicuo...

by Kusum Dharamshi | On 09 May 2011

Deregulation of Savings Bank Deposit Interest Rate: A Discussion Paper

The paper is an attempt to deal with pros and cons of deregulating savings deposit interest rate and take on board the suggestions of various stakeholders for either maintaining the status quo or dere...

by Reserve Bank of India RBI | On 02 May 2011

The Quality of Medical Care in Low-Income Countries: From Providers to Markets

The excellent systematic review in this week’s PLoS Medicine by Paul Garner and colleagues focuses discussion on this critical issue. Their finding of poor quality in both the public and private s...

by Jishnu Das | On 29 Apr 2011

Van Panchayats in Three Villages: Dependency and Access

This particular field study is concerned with Van Panchayats, which can be seen as a variant of Common Property Resources. A comparison of the efficacy of this specific CPR across three villages in U...

by Chandana Anusha | On 27 Apr 2011

Characteristics and Patterns of Intergenerational Poverty Traps and Escapes in Rural North India

The paper examines the poverty status of 4,198 households resident in 18 villages of Rajasthan, India, at four points of time between 1977 to 2010 using retrospective methodology known as Stages of Pr...

by Anirudh Krishna | On 20 Apr 2011

Targeting and Distribution of Post-Tsunami Aid in Sri Lanka : A Critical Appraisal

In this study, two types of aid transfers - boats and houses are examined- that were made to rehabilitate tsunami-affected fishery households in Sri Lanka. The goal is to investigate the distributio...

by Asha Gunawardena | On 20 Apr 2011

Maharashtra Budget 2011-2012 Part I

Part I of the Budget speech by Finance Minister

by Maharashtra Government | On 18 Apr 2011

Do Local Elections in Non-Democracies Increase Accountability? Evidence from Rural China

Unique survey data is used to study whether the introduction of local elections in China made local leaders more accountable towards local constituents. A simple model is developed to predict the e...

by Monica Martinez Bravo | On 18 Apr 2011

Is Economic Growth Associated with Reduction in Child Undernutrition in India?

Economic growth is widely perceived as a major policy instrument in reducing childhood undernutrition in India. The association between changes in state per capita income and the risk of undernutriti...

by Malavika A Subramanyam | On 13 Apr 2011

Our Tahrir Square

The government has alienated the public through months of scandal on a scale not seen till now. URL:[http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/t-n-ninan-our-tahrir-square/431532/]

by T.N. Ninan | On 13 Apr 2011

Micro-loans, Insecticide-Treated Bednets and Malaria:Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Orissa (India)

Many severe health risks in developing countries could be substantially reduced with access to appropriate preventive measures. However, the associated costs are often high enough to restrict access...

by Alessandro Tarozzi | On 12 Apr 2011

Socio-Economic and Ecological Benefits of Mangrove Plantation: A Study of Community Based Mangrove Restoration Activities in Gujarat

A comprehensive assessment of the multiple benefits of mangrove ecosystems and their restoration efforts in Gujarat is made. The study is important and contextual as there are very limited empirical...

by P.K. Viswanathan | On 29 Mar 2011

Out of World Crisis through Innovations

The paper examines the situation of financial crisis prevailing in the world economy and its impact on urbanization and development. URL: [http://www.fgks.in/event/Pardos.pdf]

by Françoise Pardos | On 24 Mar 2011

The Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2011

A BILL further to amend the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1970 and the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertak...

by Parliamentary Research Service PRS | On 23 Mar 2011

Economic Survey, 2010-11, Maharashtra

State income, public finances, agriculture and animal husbandry, education, health, population etc are given importance in the economic survey. URL: [http://mahades.maharashtra.gov.in/files/publicatio...

by Maharashtra Government | On 23 Mar 2011

‘Spatial Poverty Traps: What Are They and What Can Be Done About Them?'

This paper demonstrates how urban spatial poverty traps exist in developing countries and makes the case for including an urban focus to spatial poverty analysis and policy responses. It frames this w...

by Ursula Grant | On 23 Mar 2011

Unfavourable Environment and Chronic Poverty: Some Preliminary Findings

Poverty has different and varying manifestations. In fact, Hulme et al (2001) proposes a five-tiered categorisation of poverty. This identifies the always poor, usually poor, churning poor, occasional...

by Quazi Shahabuddin | On 22 Mar 2011

Trends in Diversion of PDS Grain

This article estimates the proportion of grain "diverted" from the Public Distribution System (PDS) to the open market, using the well-established method of matching state offtake figures published by...

by Reetika Khera | On 21 Mar 2011

The New Bottom Billion: What If Most of the World’s Poor Live in Middle-Income Countries?

Most of the world’s poor no longer live in low-income countries. An estimated 960 million poor people—a new bottom billion—live in middle-income countries, a result of the graduation of several populo...

by Andy Sumner | On 21 Mar 2011

Managing Common Pool Resources for Poverty Reduction in Tribal Areas of Eastern India

The main objectives of the study were to analyze the role of non-timber forest products in poverty alleviation in Chhattisgarh; to examine the system of governance, institutional framework and prog...

by R S Deshpande | On 17 Mar 2011

Where are Food Prices Heading?

This paper aims to review the main considerations around food price movements. It includes a discussion on the impact of speculation. URL:[https://www.dbresearch.com/PROD/DBR_INTERNET_EN-PROD/PROD00...

by Claire Schaffnit Chatterjee | On 16 Mar 2011

Multiple Dimension of Urban Well-Being: Evidence from India

This paper addresses differences in outcomes across households residing in slums and non-slum urban areas of India. Using a nationally representative household data set, they undertake a robust mult...

by S. Chandrasekhar | On 16 Mar 2011

Poverty and Fertility: Evidence and Agenda

This paper explores how poverty affects childbearing patterns in the contemporary developing world. In considering the association between poverty and fertility, we explore one measure of economic s...

by Sajeda Amin | On 14 Mar 2011

Health and Human Rights in Chin State, Western Burma: A Population-Based Assessment Using Multistaged Household Cluster Sampling

The Chin State of Burma (also known as Myanmar) is an isolated ethnic minority area with poor health outcomes and reports of food insecurity and human rights violations. A report on a population-base...

by Richard Sollom | On 09 Mar 2011

Support by Migrants to their Elderly Parents in Rural Cambodia and Thailand: A Comparative Study

Internal migration in Southeast Asia raises questions about strains upon traditional systems of support for older adults. While remittances to parents’ households play a role in rural household econ...

by Zachary Zimmer | On 08 Mar 2011

Preservation of Lakes in the City of Bangalore

The Karnataka High Court, while hearing a public interest litigation on the state of lakes and waterbodies in and around Bangalore, constituted a ten-member commitee under the chair of the high court...

by N. K Patil | On 04 Mar 2011

Budget 2011-2012

Budget speech 2011-2012 by Pranab Mukherjee.

by Pranab Mukherjee | On 01 Mar 2011

Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP): Non-Communicable Disease Risk Factors Survey

The overall objective of the Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) risk factors survey was to improve the information available to the Government health services and care providers on a set of high-priority...

by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare H & FW | On 24 Feb 2011

Family Suicide in Kerala : An Explorative Study into Pattern , Determinants and Consequences

The paper is a study of the family suicide cases in Kerala. The aim of the study is to gather information about demographic details, method adopted and causes of suicides that happened in Kerala durin...

by K Praveenlal | On 16 Feb 2011

Poverty, marriage timing, and transitions to adulthood in Nepal: A longitudinal analysis using the Nepal Living Standards Survey

This study examines the influence of household poverty experienced during early childhood on early marriage and outcomes in schooling and workforce participation for girls during adolescence in Nepa...

by Ashish Bajracharya | On 14 Feb 2011

Rural Poverty Dynamics 2005/2006: Evidence from 64-Village Census Plus

This report addresses the recent dynamics of poverty in rural Bangladesh with particular focus on two groups of the poorest - the chronically poor and the extreme poor - based on the 64-village census...

by Zulfiqar Ali | On 14 Feb 2011

An Agenda for Research on Urbanization in Developing Countries: A Summary of Findings from a Scoping Exercise

This paper assesses the state of research and examines priorities for future work in the area of urbanization and growth. This is done by reviewing and summarizing the findings of five scoping papers...

by Patricia Clarke Annez | On 09 Feb 2011

Ageing, Socio-economic Disparities and Health Outcomes: Some Evidence from Rural India

Employing data from Census 2001and the NSS 52nd and 60th rounds, this study examines the following: (i) inter-state variations in the distribution of rural aged by three broad social groups and a host...

by Moneer Alam | On 02 Feb 2011

Annual Status of Education Report (Rural) 2010 (Provisional)

Since 2005, every year the ASER report presents estimates of enrollment and basic reading and arithmetic learning outcomes for every district in rural India. Every year the core set of questions rega...

by Pratham Pratham | On 02 Feb 2011

Broadening Poverty Definitions in India: Basic Needs in Urban Housing

This paper considers how the official poverty line in India would have to change, if it were to be set at a level that allowed urban households to afford minimally adequate accommodation. It discusses...

by S. Chandrashekar | On 02 Feb 2011

Resource Booklet CFPR-II Evaluation

Bangladesh is making consistent progress in poverty reduction since early 1990s. According to Household Income-Expenditure Surveys, poverty rate has declined from more than 60% in 1990- 91 to just a...

by Munshi Sulaiman | On 01 Feb 2011

Poverty Eradication / Alleviation in North East India : An Approach

The NEC Shillong has assigned the National Institute of Rural Development, North Eastern Regional Centre (NIRD-NERC), Guwahati to prepare a report on “Poverty Eradication in the North Eastern Region...

by Ministry for Development of the North East (DONER) | On 28 Jan 2011

Nutritional Situation and Related Factors in MNCH Project Area at Baseline

Objective of this survey was to establish a baseline nutritional profile to assess the impact of the MNCH programme interventions at the end of the project duration. Nutritional status and related f...

by Farhana Haseen | On 27 Jan 2011

Revisiting Jamuna Bridge Resettlement Areas: Exploring Livelihood Status of the Affected People

Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge (JMB) project was the first of its kind which incorporated resettlement activities facilitating livelihood restoration of the project affected people (PAP). This study was...

by Shyamal C Ghosh | On 21 Jan 2011

Combining Health and Social Protection Measures to Reach the Ultra Poor: Experiences of BRAC

Life expectancy and other indicators of health status have, on average, increased markedly across the world during the last century. At the same time, however, health inequities within and between pop...

by Syed Masud Ahmed | On 20 Jan 2011

Poverty Alleviation and Empowerment: The Second Impact Assessment Study of BRAC’s Rural Development Programme

BRAC has been working since early 1990’s to evolve an impact assessment system (IAS) for its rural development programme (RDP). The first impact assessment study was conducted in 1993-94. Assessing th...

by (Ed.) A. M. Muazzam Husain | On 19 Jan 2011

Two Studies on Healthcare Seeking Behaviour and Household Sanitation Practices of BRAC Member and Nonmember Households in Matlab, Bangladesh

Understanding the morbidity profile and healthcare seeking behaviour of different socioeconomic strata of the community is important for planning and delivery of appropriate health services, especia...

by Syed Masud Ahmed | On 14 Jan 2011

Revisiting Matlab: Repeat Survey 1999

Linkage between socioeconomic development and improved health and well-being has been a matter of growing interest among social scientists and development practitioners, especially the processes and...

by Syed Masud Ahmed | On 14 Jan 2011

Globalization and the Urban Poor

The focus of this paper is the effect of contemporary globalization on poverty and inequality in cities of the ‘global south’. Specifically it addresses the impact of globalization on marginalize...

by Janice E. Perlman | On 13 Jan 2011

Self-perceived Health of Ultra Poor Women: The Effect of an Inclusive Development Intervention

In 2002, BRAC launched a targeted and comprehensive development programme called Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction: Targeting the Ultra Poor (CFPR/TUP) aimed at the poorest of the poor,...

by Vivek A. Prakash | On 07 Jan 2011

An Inventory of the Development Programmes by Government and Non-Government Organizations in Selected Unions of Matlab (Excluding BRAC & ICDDR,B)

Endemic poverty is the stark reality that one confronts immediately about rural Bangladesh. Almost 50% of the rural households are now bereft of any visible resources, which could enable them to eke ...

by Monirul Islam Khan | On 06 Jan 2011

Does Involvement of Women in BRAC Influence Sex Bias in Intra-household Food Distribution?

This study assessed the sex preferences in intra-household food distribution among school going siblings in a rural area of Bangladesh. The study also examines the effect of women's involvement in BR...

by Rita Das Roy | On 06 Jan 2011

Unbelievable but True — Improved Cook-stoves are not Helpful in Reducing Firewood Demand in Nepal

This paper analyzes the effect of different types of cook-stoves on firewood demand at the household level. Nationally representative household data from Nepal is used for the study. [SANDEE Working...

by Mani Nepal | On 05 Jan 2011

Dynamics of Urban Mobility: A Comparative Analysis of Megacities of India

This paper aims to analyse urban mobility patterns and consequent impacts on energy and environment in India. We investigate the quantity of energy use in 23 metropolitan regions for the period 1981–...

by B. Sudhakara Reddy | On 03 Jan 2011

Estimating the Level and Distribution of Global Household Wealth

In this paper they provide the first estimate of the level and distribution of global household wealth. Mean assets and debts within countries are measured, partly or wholly, for 38 countries using...

by James B. Davies | On 03 Jan 2011

Assessing Change in Women’s Lives: A Conceptual Framework

In 1992, BRAC extended its comprehensive Rural Development Programme (RDP) to 100 villages of Matlab thana (sub-district) where the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (...

by Marty Chen | On 30 Dec 2010

Does Women’s Status Matter for Food Security? Evidence from Bangladesh

Using data from a survey of Bangladeshi households, this paper investigates the link between female status and food security. Employing three different indicators of female status – husband’s an...

by Mohammad A. Razzaque | On 29 Dec 2010

Effects of Socio-economic Development on Health Status and Human Well-being

Bangladesh is popularly described in the literature as a ‘test case for development’ in view of the complex nature of its socioeconomic and cultural problems, coupled with severe resource constraints...

by Mushtaque Chowdhury | On 29 Dec 2010

Problems of the Women Headed Households

The objective of this study was to identify and understand the problems faced by women-headed households. The study was undertaken with two assumptions: (1) a support system is in place which ensure...

by Naomi Hossain | On 28 Dec 2010

Domestic Violence Against Women: Its Determinants and Implications for Gender Resource Allocation

Using data from a survey of Bangladeshi households, this paper explores the determinants of domestic violence against women as well as its implications for the resources allocated to women. The fi...

by Mohammad Mokammel Karim Toufique | On 27 Dec 2010

Changes in the Distribution of Wealth in China, 1995-2002

This paper investigates some major changes in the wealth distribution in China using the data from two national household surveys conducted in 1995 and 2002. The surveys collected rich informatio...

by Shi Li | On 27 Dec 2010

Psychological Well-being Of Rural Women: Developing Measurement Tools

The study was designed with the intention of developing a viable scale, for measuring psychological well-being as an indicator of the quality of life of rural women. A scale was prepared and finalised...

by Mohsina Khatun | On 27 Dec 2010

Poverty and BRAC’s Microcredit Programme: Exploring Some Linkages

This paper looks at BRAC’s Rural Development Programmes’ (RDP) interventions and consumption based poverty using household expenditure data collected from 3518 households in fourteen villages in Mat...

by Hassan Zaman | On 24 Dec 2010

Three Studies on the Effect of BRAC Interventions on the Lives of the Poor Women

This paper addressed two current debates within the female empowerment literature using data from BRAC-ICDDR,B Joint research project at Matlab collected during April-July 1995. The first part explore...

by Hassan Zaman | On 24 Dec 2010

Women’s Involvement in BRAC Development Activities and Child Nutrition

This study explores the effect of women’s involvement in BRAC’s income and health development activities on the nutritional status of their children aged 6-72 months. MUAC measurements of 1,518 chil...

by Masuma Khatun | On 23 Dec 2010

Exploring Changes in the Lives of BRAC Women: A Gender Perspective

In Bangladesh, patriarchal norms, ideology and social institutions shape women's role and status in the society. Within this patriarchal system, some forces like NGOs may affect the relationship bet...

by Amina Mahbub | On 23 Dec 2010

The Economy of Thiruvananthapuram

The major objectives of the paper is to:- * to locate the Thiruvananthapuram district in the economic map of the State; *to document the structural and sectoral transformation of the district; *to...

by Oommen M A | On 22 Dec 2010

Sifting, Selecting, Relocating: Citizenship at the Commencement of Republic

The date of the enforcement of the Constitution, 26th January 1950, marked a crucial change in the legal status of the people of India. They were no longer British subjects, but citizens of the Repu...

by Anupama Roy | On 22 Dec 2010

From Invalidation and Segregation to Recognition and Integration: Contemporary State Responses to Disability in India

This paper traces the engagement of the Indian state with the issue of disability over the past three decades as a discourse of charity and welfare gives way to one of equality and human rights. Using...

by Renu Addlakha | On 22 Dec 2010

The Political Economy of Urban Poverty in Developing Countries: Theories, Issues, and an Agenda for Research

The implications of urban development for overall economic prosperity are well known. Employment, housing, policing, infrastructure and social policies in cities have been shaped and institutionalized...

by Raj M. Desai | On 21 Dec 2010

Urban Poverty in Developing Countries: A Scoping Study for Future Research

This paper is a scoping exercise to explore options for research on urban poverty in developing countries. Based on a review of the literature and experience, the first part of the paper reviews the c...

by Johannes F. Linn | On 21 Dec 2010

Women’s Status and Child Labour in Nepal

This paper uses data from the Nepal Living Standards Survey 2 (2003/2004) to find evidence to whether children are less likely to work and more likely to attend school in a household where the mothe...

by Milla Nyyssölä | On 20 Dec 2010

Low birth weight in offspring of women with depressive and anxiety symptoms during pregnancy: results from a population based study in Bangladesh

There is a high prevalence of antepartum depression and low birth weight (LBW) in Bangladesh. In high- and low-income countries, prior evidence linking maternal depressive and anxiety symptoms with i...

by Hashima E Nasreen | On 14 Dec 2010

Access to Utilities by the Poor

This paper presents a global perspective on infrastructure coverage and the poor that many people will think they have seen before but they have not. In this paper they introduce a new data source for...

by Kristin Komives | On 08 Dec 2010

ICT and e-Governance for Rural Development

Rural e-Governance applications in the recent past have demonstrated the important role the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) play in the realm of rural development. Several e-Governa...

by T.P. Rama Rao | On 07 Dec 2010

Decline in Birth rate in Kerala

The rapid decline in mortality rates, rendered possible by the spread of modern medicine and public health services, and the high and unchanging fertility rates are generally considered portents...

by P R Gopinathan Nair | On 07 Dec 2010

The World Distribution of Household Wealth

There has been much recent research on the world distribution of income, but also growing recognition of the importance of other contributions to well-being, including those of household wealth. W...

by James B. Davies | On 25 Nov 2010

Issues in Real Estate and Urban Management – A Note

This note raise many policy issues related to real estate and the urban sector. Urban issues and the very high cost of real estate in India have deep rooted problems that have their origin in the po...

by Sebastian Morris | On 22 Nov 2010

Asian Fertility Transition: Is Gender Equity in Formal Occupations An Explanatory Factor?

Early writers on fertility decline (Thompson 1929; Davis 1945 1955 1963; Notestein 1945; Feemdman 1961 -62) emphasized broad forces of modernization, such as urbanization, industrialization...

by D. Narayana | On 15 Nov 2010

Temptations of power

China is not only on the path to Great Power status, it also means to exercise its newfound muscle. What is difficult to understand is why it wants to behave like a rogue power when the world would wa...

by T.N. Ninan | On 05 Nov 2010

Socioeconomic Impacts of Cross-Border Transport Infrastructure Development in South Asia

Although the overall economic performance of economies in South Asia in recent years has been impressive, there is concern that an aging and increasingly inadequate infrastructure may limit the potent...

by John Gilbert | On 01 Nov 2010

Understanding NREGA: A Simple Theory and Some Facts

A developing economy like India is often characterised by a labour market with demand and supply of labour and a wage that even if competitively determined may not be adequate for the poor household t...

by Diganta Mukherjee | On 29 Oct 2010

New Agriculture Technology, Skill Formation, Food Security and Poverty Reduction in Rural Asia: A Comparison of Three Projects from India, China and Bangladesh

The present paper compares the strategies, capacity building processes and outcomes/impacts of three projects during the period 2005-10. The project area covered by the study are located as follows: ...

by Neela Mukherjee | On 29 Oct 2010

External Economic Situation In India - Recent Trends and Policy Implications

This paper reviews the status of the external sector of the Indian economy. It is divided into 5 broad sections. Section I gives the trends of imports and exports, as well as the composition and dire...

by Archana S Mathur | On 26 Oct 2010

Perception of Muslim Women of Their Rights and Status in the State of Andhra Pradesh

Mail questions addressed in this paper are: What is the cognitive perception of Muslim women on their own status in their community? How do the Muslim women perceive their status when compared to the...

by Government of India Ministry of Women and Child Development | On 20 Oct 2010

Consultation Paper on Certain Issues Relating to Telecom Tariffs

This consultation paper brings out various issues that have a bearing on telecom tariff offers. In line with established practice, the Authority seeks the views of all stakeholders by 15th November,...

by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India TRAI | On 20 Oct 2010

Understanding China’s Consumers

China’s consumers are better understood when looked at as two distinct classes: urban consumers and rural consumers. The urban households are much richer than their rural counterparts and consume thre...

by Syetarn Hansakul | On 12 Oct 2010

The Syrian Christians of Kerala: Demographic and Socioeconomic Transition in the Twentieth Century

The twentieth century has witnessed a process of significant transition of the Syrian Christian community in Kerala in terms of its demographic and socio-economic status. In this paper, the transitio...

by K.C. Zachariah | On 05 Oct 2010

Dynamics of Chronic Poverty: Variations in Factors Influencing Entry and Exit of the Chronic Poor

India experienced high economic growth in the 1990s. Some earlier studies, which attempted to identify the influence of growth on poverty dynamics in the country by including growth variables among th...

by Nidhi Dhamija | On 04 Oct 2010

Beyond Population: Everyone Counts in Development

This essay reviews important demographic trends expected to occur between 2010 and 2050, indicates some of their implications for economic and global development, and suggests some possible policies t...

by Joel E. Cohen | On 29 Sep 2010

Women in the Urban Industrial Labour Force in India

This paper takes a look at the women urban industrial labour force in India. [Working Paper No. 127]

by Leela Gulati | On 24 Sep 2010

Structural Estimates of the Intergenerational Education Correlation

Using a structural dynamic programming model, we investigate the relative importance of family background variables and individual specific abilities in explaining cross-sectional differences in...

by Christian Belzil | On 23 Sep 2010

Poverty and Vulnerability in Rural China: Effects of Taxation

This paper studies the impact of taxation on poverty and ex ante vulnerability of households in rural China based on national household survey data in 1988, 1995 and 2002. It has been confirmed that...

by Katsushi S. Imai | On 21 Sep 2010

Is Gender Equity In Formal Occupations an Explanatory Factor?

Early writers on fertility decline (Thompson 1929; Davis 1945 1955 1963; Notestein 1945; Feedman 1961-62) emphasized broad forces of modernization, such as urbanization, industridiization, shi...

by D. Narayana | On 21 Sep 2010

Living Environment and Prevalence of Diseases among Women and Children in Selected Metropolitan Cities in India

This study makes an attempt to examine living environment and health status of women and children in slum and non-slum areas of selected metropolitan cities in India. The selected metropolitan cities...

by Chandra Sekhar | On 17 Sep 2010

Socio-Economic Determinants of School Attendance in India

This paper investigates the socio-economic determinants of school attendance in India, and the possible causes of disadvantage faced by the girl child. Based on Census data for 1981 and 1991, the de...

by Usha Jayachandran | On 17 Sep 2010

An Ethnography of Associational Life: Caste and Politics in India

In 1956 Susanne Rudolph and I arrived in India for the first of many research years there. We were among the second batch of Ford Foundation Foreign Area Training Fellows. As area scholars we were com...

by Lloyd I. Rudolf | On 15 Sep 2010

If Only We Had Listened

The state of a nation is nowhere better mirrored than in its architecture.Our buildings reflect our economic and social strength, our values, our concern for environment, art, culture and beauty. Arch...

by Gautam Patel | On 15 Sep 2010

Constitutional Guarantees: The Unequal Sex

Long before Independence, the theme on which Gandhiji wrote repeatedly, was the need to improve the status of Indian women. He drew attention to the fact that the woman was ‘not only.... condemned t...

by Lotika Sarkar | On 14 Sep 2010

On Backwardness and Fair Access to Higher Education in India: Some Results from NSS 55th Round Surveys 1999-2000

Against the backdrop of policy of reservation of seats in Higher Education for the Other Backward Castes in India, this paper examines two inter-related yet distinct issues: (i) the use of economi...

by K. Sundaram | On 14 Sep 2010

Seasonality and Wage-responsiveness in Nonclearing Labour Markets: Evidence from Indian Agriculture

Labour income is often a major source of income not only for landless rural households but also for the 'small' farmers in Asian agriculture. Fluctuations in labour income can be quite marked, owing t...

by Sunil Kanwar | On 10 Sep 2010

Rural Non-Ahricultural Employment in India:The Residual Sector Hypothesis Revisited

The literature on Rural Non-Agricultural Employment (RNAE) in India is replete with references as to its nature - whether or not it is residual. Vaidyanathan (1986) advanced the view that for the se...

by C. S. Murty | On 08 Sep 2010

ICTs and Urban Microenterprises: Identifying and Maximizing Opportunities for Economic Development

The research reported here was guided by three questions: (1) What are the current and potential patterns of mobile phone, landline, PC, and Internet café use among urban microentrepreneurs? (2) Are m...

by Vigneswara Ilavarasan | On 06 Sep 2010

Private-Public Mix in Woman and Child Health in Low-Income Countries: An Analysis of Demographic and Health Surveys

This paper provides an analysis of demographic and health surveys of Private-Public Mix in Women and Health in Low-Income countries. As always the Demographic and Health Survey is a very valuable sour...

by Supon Limwattananon | On 31 Aug 2010

Structural Shift in Demand for Food: Projections for 2020

Knowledge of demand structure and consumer behaviour is essential for a wide range of development policy questions like improvement in nutritional status, food subsidy, sectoral and macroeconomic poli...

by Surabhi Mittal | On 25 Aug 2010

Do Labor Intensive Industries Generate Employment? Evidence from firm level survey in India

This study attempts to address the issue of declining labour intensity in India’s organized manufacturing in order to understand the constraints on employment generation in the labour intensive sect...

by Deb Kusum Das | On 13 Aug 2010

Exploring Feasibility of Alternate Channels of Information Dissemination: Study of Rural Consumers Information Needs

Information plays a vital role in lives of individuals/groups for development and growth. Just information does not serve the purpose, but accurate information does. The sources/tools/techniques used...

by Rajanish Dass | On 06 Aug 2010

Roof above the head - A qualitative assessment of rural housing in India

This paper is based on a set of village visits carried out by the authors as part of a study on rural housing sponsored by Holcim Limited. The views expressed here are those of the authors. [Working...

by Shashanka Bhide | On 03 Aug 2010

Role of Universal Service Obligation Fund in Rural Telecom Services: Lessons from the Indian Experience

Despite the tremendous growth of mobile services in most developing countries, these have largely remained limited to urban areas. This has further aggravated the existing urban and rural divide....

by Rekha Jain | On 26 Jul 2010

The Employment-Unemployment Situation in India in the Nineteen Nineties: Some Results from the NSS 55th Round Survey (July 1999-June 2000)

The National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) has recently released the report containing key results of the NSS 55th Round Employment-Unemployment Survey covering the period July 1999 thru June 2...

by K. Sundaram | On 26 Jul 2010

Poverty and the Environment: Exploring the Relationship between Household Incomes, Private Assets, and Natural Assets

The paper is a study of the relationship between poverty and environment by using a purpose-collected survey data from 535 households in 60 different villages of the Jhabua district of India. The meth...

by Shreekant Gupta | On 26 Jul 2010

Radio drug advertisement situation and regulation in Thailand

Drug consumption in Thailand is high in comparison with other countries. A key factor influencing this over consumption is advertising. Radio is the media that can easily reach a lot of people, in...

by Tanattha Kittisopee | On 23 Jul 2010

The Question of Land and Infrastructure Development in India: Urgently Required Reforms for Fairness and Infrastructural Development

In this paper an analytical critique of the law and restrictions as also of the framework of urban planning and a justification for why major change is required in the approach to land markets, lan...

by Sebastian Morris | On 29 Jun 2010

Municipal Finance of Urban Infrastructure: Knowns and Unknowns

Various trends, including an increasing emphasis on fiscal decentralization; political democratization in many areas; globalization and the financial liberalization that often accompanies it; growing...

by James Alm | On 18 Jun 2010

Unlocking Public Entrepreneurship and Public Economies

Unlocking human potential requires a rich network of institutional arrangements in both private and public spheres. Opening the private sphere to entrepreneurship and complex market organization i...

by Elinor Ostrom | On 17 Jun 2010

Customized Development Interventions for the Ultra Poor: Preliminary Change Assessments of Health and Health-seeking Behaviour (CFPR/TUP 2002 to 2004)

A mid-term survey of the CFPR/TUP programme participants (at the end of 1st cycle of 18 months intervention) on health and related issues was done during July-September 2004. The survey involved re-in...

by Syed Masud Ahmed | On 16 Jun 2010

Impact Assessment of CFPR/TUP: A Descriptive Analysis Based on 2002-2005 Panel Data

This paper looks at the overall performance of the CFPR/TUP programme using the 2002 baseline survey and 2005 repeat survey. All the topics covered in this study could be analysed more deeply, but tha...

by Mehnaz Rabbani | On 15 Jun 2010

Street Vendors: Exploitation by the State

Street vendors are those millions of people who come to cities as economic refugees hoping to provide basic necessities for their families.They are the main distribution channels for a large variety...

by Shailly Arora | On 15 Jun 2010

Provoking Thought, Changing Talk: Discussing Inequality

This occasional publication series is part of the Social Equity and Opportunity Forum in the Dean’s Office of the College of Urban and Public Affairs. Directed by Janet Hammer, Ph.D., the Forum emph...

by Joseph Grady | On 10 Jun 2010

Do Child Labourers Come from The Poorest?

This paper explores whether child labourers come from, not only the poor, but also the poorest households in Bangladesh or not. The paper also tries to explain what determines the participation of chi...

by | On 04 Jun 2010

Diversity and Endangerment of Languages in Nepal

The purpose of this paper is to disseminate among a wider public insights gained from the UNESCO Language Survey Report (2002) for Nepal. The emphasis is put on the linguistic diversity of Nepal o...

by Sueyoshi Toba | On 03 Jun 2010

The Importance of Being Wanted

We identify birth wantedness as a source of better child outcomes. In Vietnam, the year of birth is widely believed to determine success. As a result, cohorts born in auspicious years are 12 percent l...

by Quy-Toan Do | On 02 Jun 2010

The Economics of Adaptation to Extreme Weather Events in Developing Countries

Without a better understanding of the interactions between international players, households and public sector, it will be difficult for climate negotiators and donor institutions to determine the...

by Brian Blankespoor | On 01 Jun 2010

Urban Governance and Finance in India

Over 330 million people live in India’s cities; 35 cities have a population of over a million and three (Mumbai, Delhi, and Kolkata) of the 10 largest metropolises in the world are in India. India’s...

by M. Govinda Rao | On 21 May 2010

External Assistance for Urban Development: A Scoping Study for Further Research

Analysis of developing country cities indicates that neither policy frameworks nor infrastructural investments have kept up with urban growth, that the wrong choices with long-term consequences are be...

by Homi Kharas | On 20 May 2010

Can Social Security Boost Domestic Consumption in the People’s Republic of China?

This paper reviews the development of the social security system and trends in the urban labor market in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Despite its remarkable economic achievement, the PRC face...

by Wang Dewen | On 20 May 2010

Grassroot Empowerment (1975-1990): A Discussion Paper

The discussion focusses on women in poverty their concentration in rural and urban areas, and the organisational approach for their mobilization and empowerment. Maximum emphasis has been placed on...

by Narayana K Banerjee | On 17 May 2010

Women Safety in Delhi

This paper attempts to question the state of ‘women community” at large with situation depicting the growing rate of crime, oppression and subjugation which is historically unprecedented and its re-...

by Chitra Mishra | On 03 May 2010

Improving Newborn Survival in Low-Income Countries: Community-Based Approaches and Lessons from South Asia

Obstacles to improving survival include: many newborn infants are invisible to health services; care-seeking for maternal and newborn ailments is limited; health workers are often not skilled and co...

by Nirmala Nair | On 03 May 2010

Rural Women Empowerment and Entrepreneurship Development

Empowerment of women has emerged as an important issue in recent times. The economic empowerment of women is being regarded these days as a Sine-quo-non of progress for a country; hence, the issue of...

by Sathiabama K | On 19 Apr 2010

Commonwealth Games 2010: Displacement of Persons

This research paper analyses Government policy with regard to Jhuggi-Jhopri clusters- a particular type of housing present in Delhi. These colonies are perceived to be illegal by the Government. Wit...

by Eshaan Puri | On 13 Apr 2010

Vulnerability and Coping to Disasters: A Study of Household Behaviour in Flood Prone Region of India

This paper attempts to understand the various risks faced by households living in disaster prone regions of rural India and specifically examine the effectiveness of coping mechanisms adopted by ho...

by Unmesh Patnaik | On 12 Apr 2010

The Impact of the Commonwealth Games 2010 on Urban Development of Delhi -An Analysis with a Historical Perspective from Worldwide Experiences and the 1982 Asian Games

The paper raises some hard questions that need to be answered before one can conclude that events such as Common Wealth Games has a positive effect on the host community. Can the financial requirement...

by Vinayak Uppal | On 23 Mar 2010

Planning for Human Settlements in India-Spatial Perspective

This paper examines the basis upon which rural and urban areas are classified as such. It looks into various criteria for the above all over the world and re-iterates the Indian definition of an ‘urba...

by V.K. Dhar | On 22 Mar 2010

Quietly They Die: A Study of Malnourishment Related Deaths in Mumbai City

The attention of the media and planners has been focussed almost exclusively on rural and tribal malnutrition. However, malnutrition among urban children, particularly the economically vulnerable slum...

by Neeraj Hatekar | On 22 Mar 2010

Privatisation of Urban Transport in Delhi

This paper seeks to analyse the present situation of the bus transport system in Delhi and addresses the question of how privatising bus transport system in Delhi would make the present scenario of De...

by Shailly Arora | On 17 Mar 2010

Karnataka Budget 2010-11

Budget speech by finance minister of Karnataka

by Government of Karnataka GoK | On 05 Mar 2010

Budget 2010-2011

Budget speech 2010-2011 by Pranab Mukherjee

by Pranab Mukherjee | On 26 Feb 2010

Female Work Participation and Gender Differential in Earning in West Bengal

Female work participation in West Bengal is one of the lowest among all the states in India. However, it varies widely across the state’s 341 blocks. An analysis of some block level characteristics...

by Indrani Chakraborty | On 26 Feb 2010

Prevalence and Costs of Childhood Diarrhoea in the Slums of Dhaka

This study seeks to identify the engineering, behavioural and socio-economic determinants of childhood diarrhoea and its duration and to compute the resulting costs borne by slum dwellers. The study...

by M. Jahangir Alam | On 22 Feb 2010

What Determines the Success and Failure of ‘100 Days Work’ at the Panchayat Level? A Study of Birbhum District in West Bengal

West Bengal is not among the best performing states with regard to NREGA. The performance of all districts in the state is not equally discouraging. Some districts, in fact, have done well in gener...

by Subrata Mukherjee | On 19 Feb 2010

The Impact of Slum Resettlement on Urban Integration in Mumbai: The Case of the Chandivali Project

The paper studies the socio-economic impact of the shift of slum dwellers to new rehabilitation site of Chandivali. It also discuses the issue of availability and choice of employment as a key driver...

by Damien Vaquier | On 18 Feb 2010

Escaping Chronic Poverty Through Economic Growth

The paper discusses the participation of poor participate in growth, and how different forms of growth connect to poverty. Also the paper discusses important policy levers, in relation to agriculture,...

by Chronic Poverty Research Centre CPRC | On 18 Feb 2010

Analysing Catastrophic OOP Health Expenditure in India: Concepts, Determinants and Policy Implications

The present paper attempts to modify definition of catastrophic out-of-pocket health expenditure by characterising it based on consumption of necessities. Catastrophic health expenditure is defined as...

by Rama Pal | On 11 Feb 2010

Transport Infrastructure and Poverty Infrastructure

The main issues surrounding this concern and provides a range of policy, regulatory, and institutional measures that could help strengthen the impact of transport infrastructure on poverty reduction...

by Sununtar Setboonsarng | On 10 Feb 2010

Transparency and Accountability in Employment Programmes The case of NREGA in Andhra Pradesh

Based upon several field visits to the state of Andhra Pradesh to observe and analyse the social audit process initiated by the Government of Andhra Pradesh under the National Rural Employment Guaran...

by Neera Burra | On 04 Feb 2010

Snakes, Ladders and Traps: Changing Lives and Livelihoods in Rural Bangladesh (1994-2001)

This paper examines national-level explanations for poverty decline in Bangladesh in micro-level detail, in order to better understand the nature of the causalities at work and why some households h...

by Naila Kabeer | On 28 Jan 2010

Can Mangroves Minimize Property Loss during Big Storms? An Analysis of House Damage due to the Super Cyclone in Orissa

This paper estimates the storm protection benefits due to mangroves during the super cyclone of 1999 in Orissa. By combining GIS data with census information, the paper examines the mangrove mediate...

by Saudamini Das | On 25 Jan 2010

Productivity of Pesticides in Vegetable Farming in Nepal

This paper examines the effectiveness of damage control mechanisms to reduce crop losses from agricultural pests. It uses data from a sample of Cole crop (Cauliflower and Cabbage) growing households...

by Ratna Kumar Jha | On 22 Jan 2010

Annual Status of Education Report (Rural) 2009 (Provisional)

The purpose of the ASER 2009’s rapid assessment survey in rural areas is twofold: (i) to get reliable estimates of the status of children’s schooling and basic learning (reading and arithmetic level)...

by Pratham Pratham | On 21 Jan 2010

Market-Based Approaches to Environmental Management: A Review of Lessons from Payment for Environmental Services in Asia

Market-based approaches to environmental management, such as payment for environmental services (PES), have attracted unprecedented attention during the past decade. PES policies, in particular, hav...

by Bhim Adhikari | On 20 Jan 2010

Book Review: Microfinance-Is it a means of Empowering Women?

Multiple Meanings of Money: How Women See Microfinance by Smita Premchander, V. Prameela, M. Chidambaranathan, L. JeyaseelanSage publication, 2009, Pp 264, Rs. 595/-

by Sanchita Das | On 20 Jan 2010

Mortality, Human Capital and Persistent Inequality

Available evidence suggests high intergenerational correlation of economic status, and persistent disparities in health status between the rich and the poor. This paper proposes a novel mechanism li...

by Shankha Chakraborty | On 19 Jan 2010

The Nature of Rural Infrastructure: Problems and Prospects

This paper looks at rural infrastructure facilities in India, the lack of which is demonstrated to be an impediment to sustained economic development. It is argued that problems of rural infrastruct...

by Suman Bery | On 15 Jan 2010

Many Poverties

Discusses about the different poverty measuements.

by T.N. Ninan | On 22 Dec 2009

Fuel for the Clean Energy Debate – A Study of Fuelwood Collection and Purchase in Rural India

In many parts of rural India the use of wood for fuel is the cause of significant environmental and health problems. Efforts to help people switch to cleaner fuels have not been effective and fuelwood...

by ARABINDA MISHRA | On 18 Dec 2009

Rethinking Food Security Policies: IDSAsr Declaration

Declaration made at the end of two days national seminar on Food security and Sustainability in India held on November 7-8, 2009 organized by GAD Institute of Development Studies, PO Naushera, Amritsa...

by Gursharan Singh Kainth | On 14 Dec 2009

Poverty Dynamics in Rural Sindh, Pakistan

This paper focuses on poverty dynamics and their determinants, using panel survey data for rural Sindh, Pakistan. Households interviewed by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) d...

by Hari Ram Lohano | On 10 Dec 2009

Women’s Experience in New Panchayats: The Emerging Leadership of Rural Women

This paper presents some of the findings of our recent study on women’s representation and participation in panchayats. Some of the findings of the study (Buch; 1999) of women in panchayats after the...

by Nirmala Buch | On 04 Dec 2009

Poverty and Livelihood among Tribals in Gujarat: Status, Opportunities, and Strategies

This paper tries to look into the status of poverty and multiple deprivations among tribal communities in the state and explores policy options for strengthening their livelihoods through a combinatio...

by Amita Shah | On 27 Nov 2009

Urban Issues, Reforms and Way Forward in India

The Government has launched a reform-linked urban investment programme, JNNURM. The paper has analysed urban trends, projected population, service delivery, institutional arrangements, municipal finan...

by Chetan Vaidya | On 26 Nov 2009

Access and Mobility for the Urban Poor in India: Bridging the Gap Between Policy and Needs

Indian cities are characterised by rapid growth in human as well as motor vehicle populations. Although the poor benefit the least from motor vehicle activity, they bear the brunt of its impacts. The...

by Madhav Badami | On 26 Nov 2009

Delivering (sustainable) Services on Scale : Anywhere

This paper addresses issues related to public private partnerships that can enable delivery of comprehensive health care to rural communities.

by Prachi Shukla | On 25 Nov 2009

VIllage Economics and the Structure of Extended Family Networks

This paper documents how the structure of extended family networks in rural Mexico relates to the poverty and inequality of the village of residence. Using the Hispanic naming convention, within-villa...

by Manuela Angelucci | On 23 Nov 2009

Low Income Shelter Financing in Slum Upgrading: India Urban Initiatives

This report summarises findings from the USAID-sponsored project on models of financing for slum upgrading in India, undertaken on behalf of SPARC,a Mumbai-based NGO involved in slum upgrading and th...

by Sally Merrill | On 19 Nov 2009

Sustainable Urban Development In India: Some Issues

This paper aims at discussing some of the important issues relating to sustainable urban form that would lead to sustainable urban development with possible references to India. The paper is based on...

by Basudha Chattopadhyay | On 17 Nov 2009

From Income to Urban Contest in Global Settings: Chronic Poverty in Bangalore

The paper is a research which studies the government policies and agendas that affect the poor in India. For the research 8 to 10 families, who had been intervened several years ago were re-interviewe...

by Solomon Benjamin | On 16 Nov 2009

Migration and Urban Poverty in India Some Preliminary Observations

Migration decisions to urban areas that are backed by economic rationale and attempts to understand gains accruing to individuals from migration, in terms of poverty outcomes are analysed. The analy...

by William Joe | On 16 Nov 2009

Women in Self Help Groups and Panchayti Raj Institutions: Suggesting Synergistic Linkages

Questions about the processes of empowerment generated under each of these interventions and also suggests synergistic linkages between the two are raised.

by Joy Deshmukh Ranadive | On 13 Nov 2009

The Socio-Economic Determinants Behind Infant Mortality and Maternal Mortality

A qualitative study was conducted in the six states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Haryana to understand the socio-economic, cultural and demographic features a...

by Indian Trust for Innovation and Social Change ITISC | On 12 Nov 2009

A Profession on the Margins: Status Issues in Indian Nursing

This joint paper attempts an unusual collaborative approach that offers an understanding of the problems that registered nurses of India have faced. Through this paper, the problem of ‘social status’...

by Sreelekha Nair | On 10 Nov 2009

Political Sociology of Poverty In India: Between Politics of Poverty and Poverty of Politics

This paper on political sociology of poverty in India is based upon the assumption that a) the caste system and economic inequality complement each other in the case of the poorer sections of Indian...

by Anand Kumar | On 10 Nov 2009

Engaging Communities to Improve Health and Nutrition Outcomes: The Role of Community Volunteers in INHP

INHP adopted a multiple volunteer per village model, with one volunteer serving the immediate neighborhood of about 20-30 households to rationalize volunteer workloads and to ensure cultural compatibi...

by CARE India | On 09 Nov 2009

The Deluge of Debt: Understanding the Financial Needs of Poor Households

This paper is about the financial lives of poor households. It examines the different sources of income and expenditure of the poor households residing in a coastal settlement in Kerala. The method...

by B. S. Suran | On 29 Oct 2009

Poverty and Agrarian Distress in Orissa

The relatively lower reduction of poverty in Orissa, 0.2 percentage points per annum from 48.6 per cent in 1993-94 to 46.4 per cent in 2004-05, has been a matter of concern. The current exercise attem...

by Srijit Mishra | On 27 Oct 2009

Coping with Rising Food Prices: Policy Dilemmas in the Developing World

Rising food prices cause considerable policy dilemmas for developing country governments. Letting domestic prices adjust to reflect the full change in international prices generates inflationary pres...

by Nora Lustig | On 09 Oct 2009

Rural Health Services at Cross-Roads: Insights from Gujarat

The objective of the paper is to i) understand and document the morbidity profile, ii) examine utilisation of health services, and iii) estimate approximate expenses on health care by th...

by Ratnawali Sinha | On 07 Oct 2009

Concept Paper on Child Labour in India

This concept papers aims at demystifying some of these social, economic and political myths, and stimulate discussion, debate and deliberation on various aspects of child labour. This paper, further...

by Child Rights and You CRY | On 07 Oct 2009

The Place of Nature in Economic Development

Review of the most salient issues in ecological economics when the subject is applied to the field of economic development. The aim here has not been to be scholastic but to examine the lives of the...

by Partha Dasgupta | On 06 Oct 2009

Emerging Asia's Middle Class-A Force to be Reckoned With

The emergence of a large and dynamic middle class raises Asia’s profile as an attractive market destination for products ranging from consumer goods to financial services. There are even hopes that th...

by Steffen Dyck | On 06 Oct 2009

Rural Nonfarm Employment and Incomes in the Himalayas

This paper analyzes the determinants of participation in nonfarm activities and of nonfarm incomes across rural households. A unique data set collected in the Himalayan region of India allows us to...

by Maja Micevska | On 30 Sep 2009

Chronic Poverty and Development Policy in Sri Lanka: Overview Study

The present study attempts to capture chronic poverty in Sri Lanka by examining general information on poverty and drawing conclusions on those who are likely to be among the chronic poor. Certain p...

by Indra Tudawe | On 17 Sep 2009

Food Consumption and Nutritional Status in India: Emerging Trends and Perspectives

The paper reviews the trends over three decades in the consumption of cereals, calories and micronutrients and nutritional status based on anthropometric measures using the data sets of NSS, NNMB and...

by Radhakrishna R | On 15 Sep 2009

UCLG Policy Paper on Local Finance

The Policy Paper seeks to give voice to a local government vision on financing and stems from a shared understanding of the challenges we face. The Policy Paper contains 25 concrete recom- mendations...

by UCLG Committee on Local Finance and Development UCLG | On 12 Sep 2009

WCD Thematic Review V.2:Contributing Paper: Environmental and Social Impact Assessment for Large Dams -Thematic Review from the Point of View of Developing Countries

It presents an overview of the theme based on the author’s experience on EIA in developing countries. In many of these countries, a holistic approach has been adopted to EIA requiring the consideratio...

by Iara Verocai | On 31 Aug 2009

An Analysis of Household's Tobacco Consumption Decisions: Evidence from India

The consumption patterns, socio-economic distribution and the household choice of a variety of tobacco products across rural and urban India are analyzed. Using a Multinomial Logit Model, the choice...

by Rijo M John | On 19 Aug 2009

Employment and Income in India: Case of a City Economy

This paper analyses the pattern of growth observed in the city economy of Ahmedabad, a metropolitan city in the industrially developed state of Gujarat. The growth of this city is placed in the cont...

by Jeemol Unni | On 17 Aug 2009

School Exclusion as Social Exclusion: The Practices And Effects of Conditional Cash Transfer Programme for the Poor in Bangladesh

This paper explores the efforts of government to interrupt the intergenerational transmission of poverty. It focuses on the practices and effects of the Primary Education Stipend Programme, a conditio...

by Naomi Hossain | On 17 Aug 2009

Morbidity Patterns In Kerala: Levels and Determinants

This paper examines the levels, patterns, and determinants of morbidity in Kerala. This study is based on a community survey conducted in 2004, in three districts of the state namely Thiruvananthap...

by Navaneetham K | On 14 Aug 2009

Developing The Indian Debt Capital Markets: Small Investor Perspectives

This paper argues that with the recent economic reforms, an efficient and active debt market, particularly in long-term private debt instruments, is essential for the country to realize the full bene...

by Pronab Sen | On 13 Aug 2009

Technology, Financial Inclusion and Role of Urban Cooperative Banks

The focus should be to simplify the technology which can operate on any platform. The technology solution to the business needs should be user-friendly without much third-party or IT vendor interventi...

by Chakrabarty K C | On 11 Aug 2009

Assets and Poverty Traps in Rural Bangladesh

This paper applies Carter and Barrett’s theory of assets poverty traps to a unique longitudinal survey from rural Bangladesh. Non-parametric and parametric methods are used to examine the shape of the...

by Agnes Quisumbing | On 06 Aug 2009

Village Development Boards (VDBs) in Nagaland

The article describes the constitution and functions of Village Development Boards (VDBs) in NAGALAND where VDBs are considered as “Financial Intermediaries” or “Non-Banking Financial Intermediaries”....

by Karmakar K G | On 06 Aug 2009

Peasant Classes, Farm Incomes and Rural Indebtedness: An Analysis of Household Production Data from Two States

The paper attempts to appraise the extent of the constraint of credit relations on agricultural production and its differential impact across peasant classes. Additionally, the analysis of the structu...

by Arindam Banerjee | On 04 Aug 2009

Determinants of Fuelwood Use in Rural Orissa: Implications for Energy Transition

This study examines household behaviour related to fuelwood collection and use. The focus is on identifying the behavioral transition of fuelwood-using households from collection to purchase. The st...

by ARABINDA MISHRA | On 29 Jul 2009

Migration and Chronic Poverty

This paper provides an overview of conceptual understandings of, and methodological research issues on, the relationship between chronic, or long-term, poverty and processes of migration. The paper...

by Uma Kothari | On 13 Jul 2009

Budget Reactions

Budget reactions from various sectors and by various people in the industry

by Leena Chandan | On 10 Jul 2009

Union Budget-First Cut Analysis 2009-2010

The thrust of this budget on the expenditure side is twofold. Continue with the fiscal stimulus measures and extend these for another six months or one years as the case maybe. Significant among these...

by IRIS India IRIS | On 09 Jul 2009

Human Development Index for Andhra Pradesh

The method used to measure Human Development are reviewed in order to measure Human Development Index for rural AP by considering indicators such as economic attainment, longevity and education. The e...

by Jatinder S Bedi | On 07 Jul 2009

What Rachna Has Done So Far: Program Description

This paper provides an overview of the background, objectives, interventions and impact hypotheses of Integrated Nutrition and Health Project (INHP-II) and Chayan rural, the implementation approaches...

by Rachna Program | On 07 Jul 2009

Methods used for Assessments in the Rachna Program

Over the life of RACHNA, three sets of population based surveys were conducted: 1. Program wide baseline and endline surveys for INHP-II and Chayan to assess program performance; 2.Rapid Assessments S...

by Rachna Program | On 07 Jul 2009

Inflation in Bangladesh: Does the Changing Consumption Pattern Affect its Measurement ?

The paper analyzes the effects of changes in consumption factor on the calculation of inflation calculation in Bangladesh. This is important as there might exist some volatile and non-trend components...

by Md. Habibour Rahman | On 27 Jun 2009

Estimates of BPL-households in Rural Gujarat: Measurement, Spatial Pattern and Policy Imperatives

The poverty scenario in Gujarat is marked by three features: (1) low incidence of poverty (2) spatial concentration and (3) adoption of targeted policy for poverty reduction. One of the important high...

by Amita Shah | On 16 Jun 2009

India’s Population: Past, Present and Future

This paper presents a lecture delivered by the author under The Pravin Visaria Public Lecture in GIDR. India has made considerable demographic progress since 1947; however it seems that the country’s...

by Tim Dyson | On 16 Jun 2009

Women, Paid Work and Empowerment in India: A Review of Evidence and Issues

The paper is an attempt to review critically the association between women’s paid work and empowerment in India. As a prelude, the author seek to assess the extent of women’s participation in paid wor...

by Sunny Jose | On 15 Jun 2009

Adding Insecurity to Live: Erratum Annual Report and Accounts: Unilever

The aim of this Erratum to the Annual report and Accounts, is to inform Unilever shareholders and other interested parties of the full story behind the good revenues and efficient restructuring pr...

by FNV Mondiaal FNV | On 12 Jun 2009

The Water and Sanitation Scenario in Indian Metropolitan Cities: Resources and Management in Delhi, Calcutta, Chennai, Mumbai

This paper reviews the urban water and sanitation scenario in metropolitan cities. Section 1 focuses on the institutional and organizational structure of the service providers by looking at the level...

by Joel Ruet | On 04 Jun 2009

Corruption Dynamics: The Golden Goose Effect

Development scholars view corruption as a leading cause of persistent poverty in less development countries. The paper mainly studies dynamic incentives for corruption in one of the world’s largest pu...

by Paul Niehaus | On 03 Jun 2009

Women’s Work in the Post Reform Period: An Exploration of Macro Data

An important aspect that is often highlighted in the context of economic reforms, is the translation of labour market changes into defining or redefining gender relations and empowerment of women. In...

by Neetha N | On 03 Jun 2009

Interactions between Policy Assumptions and Rural Women’s Work –A Case Study

This paper is mainly concerned about the approaches to rural women’s development and an understanding of their work roles in the planning strategies. Changes in the economic and social participation o...

by Kumud Sharma | On 03 Jun 2009

A Primary Evaluation of Service Delivery under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM): Findings from a Study in Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan

This paper seeks to evaluate quantity and quality of service delivery in rural public health facilities under NRHM. On appropriate and feasible measures, the former is assessed on the static and dynam...

by Kaveri Gill | On 02 Jun 2009

Gender and Modern Supply Chains in Developing Countries

The rapid spread of modern supply chains in developing countries is profoundly changing the way food is produced and traded. In this paper we examine the gender implications in modern supply chains. W...

by Miet Maertens | On 29 May 2009

Measures of Labour Force Participation and Utilization

The choice of the best measures of labour force, work force and unemployment has been the subject of intense debate in the formulation of employment strategies and preparation of plan documents. A new...

by J Krishnamurty | On 28 May 2009

Labor Force Participation among Indian Elderly: Does Health Matter?

The paper analyzes the effect of health status on labour force participation for aged Indians. The potential endogeneity in health and labour force participation has been taken care of by using full i...

by Manoj K Pandey | On 27 May 2009

Effect of Mobiles on Socio-economic Life of Urban Poor

Using a survey of 1774 users and non-users in 84 slums in three metropolitan cities (Delhi, Ahmedabad and Kolkata), we try to understand the impact of mobiles on their social and economic lives. Urban...

by Ankur Sarin | On 27 May 2009

Measurement of Employment And Unemployment in India : Some Issues

This paper offers a review of the concepts and definitions used in the NSS Employment-Unemployment Surveys (EUS, for short) which have remained virtually unchanged since they were introduced in the NS...

by K. Sundaram | On 15 May 2009

No Through Road: The Limitations of Food Miles

The focus of this paper is on food miles issues associated with the import of products from developing countries. As the concept of food miles has been an issue in organic agriculture since before the...

by Els Wynen | On 14 May 2009

The Two Waves of Service-Sector Growth

This paper will hopefully provide an important methodological tool for all researchers who may be attempting to analyze and explain the growth of the service sector and its share in the Indian GDP o...

by Barry Eichengreen | On 08 May 2009

Gender and Innovation in South Asia

To understand how gender, women’s rights and citizenship intersect with innovation in SouthAsia, one must begin by considering some of the main features of life for South Asian women, about a half of...

by Sujata Byravan | On 06 May 2009

You Can Get There From Here..

This inaugural piece addresses a fundamental problem of communication – how to effectively talk about an issue. It’s not as simple as it seems. Its always known that people did not always “hear” what...

by Joseph Grady | On 05 May 2009

Nutritional Deprivation Among Indian Pre-School Children: Does Rural-Urban Disparity Matter ?

The rural-urban disparities are a reality in developing countries like India. Post reform, there are lot of empirical studies which has focused on this aspect of development experience in India. The v...

by Rudra Narayan Mishra | On 01 May 2009

Perinatal and Neonatal Mortality in Rural Punjab A Community Based Case-Control Study

The study aimed at identifying social and biomedical risk factors attributable to perinatal and neonatal mortality (PN, NNM) in rural Punjab.

by Rohina Joshi | On 30 Apr 2009

Poverty, Undernutrition and Vulnerability in Rural India: Public Works versus Food Subsidy

This paper analyses the effects of access to Rural Public Works (RPW) and the Public Distribution System (PDS), a public food subsidy programme, on consumption poverty, vulnerability and undernutrit...

by Raghbendra Jha | On 27 Apr 2009

Making the Politician and the Bureaucrat Deliver: Employment Guarantee in India

The paper examines the division of tasks required between politicians and bureaucrats to run an effective rural employment guarantee scheme (EGS) in India, in the context of Indian history and habits.

by Ashima Goyal | On 21 Apr 2009

Report of The National Children’s Consultation on Their Right To Housing

A consultation with about 40 children who have faced violations of their housing rights in some form or the other was organized on 13th November 2006 from 9 – 12 am on the National platform of India S...

by India Social Forum ISF | On 14 Apr 2009

Karnataka Budget 2009-10

Budget speech by finance minister of Karnataka

by Government of Karnataka GoK | On 24 Feb 2009

Andhra Pradesh Budget Speech 2009-10

Speech of Sri K. Rosaiah

by Government Andhra Pradesh | On 23 Feb 2009

Cities with Suburbs: Evidence from India

For a country like India that contains a large number of Urban Agglomerations (UAs), suburbanisation has drawn little attention of the literature. I focus on this sparsely studied issue in this work....

by Kala Seetharam Sridhar | On 20 Feb 2009

Beyond Industrialization New Approaches to Development Strategy Based on the Service Sector

This paper argues that it is becoming increasingly difficult for most developing countries to achieve rapid growth through industrialization, and especially through export oriented activities. But th...

by Peter Sheehan | On 03 Feb 2009

Does Organic Agriculture Lead to Better Health among Organic and Conventional Farmers in Thailand? An Investigation of Health Expenditure among Organic and Conventional Farmers in Thailand

The study attempts to empirically examine whether the adoption of organic farming practices leads to better health. As a proxy for health status, a comparison of the health expenditure patterns of or...

by Sunantar Setboonsarng | On 22 Jan 2009

Thinking 'Small' and the Understanding of Poverty: Maymana and Mofizul's Story

Much recent thinking on poverty and poverty reduction is ‘big’ in terms of its ideas, units of analysis, datasets, plans and ambitions. While recognising some of the benefits of such approaches this p...

by David Hulme | On 21 Jan 2009

Health Damage Cost of Automotive Air Pollution: Cost Benefit Analysis of Fuel Quality Upgradation for Indian Cities

An analysis of the economic implication of judicial activism of the apex court of India in the regulation of automotive air pollution is analysed. It estimates the health damage cost of urban air po...

by Ramprasad Sengupta | On 16 Jan 2009

Costs of Basic Services in Kerala, 2007, Education, Health, Childbirth and Finance (Loans)

The focus of this study is to analyze the pattern and costs of services in four areas, which critically affect most households in Kerala . The major concerns of this paper include answers to questio...

by Zachariah KC | On 12 Jan 2009

Women's Contribution to the Economy Through Their Unpaid Household Work

An attempt has been made to discuss various aspects of unpaid household work such as its treatment in the system of National Accounts, and the methodologies of its valuation. With the help relevant da...

by R N Pandey | On 09 Jan 2009

Employment Growth in Rural India: Distress Driven?

The 61st round of NSS shows that there is a turnaround in employment growth in rural India after a phase of ‘jobless growth’. Paradoxically, this employment growth occurred during a period of wide ...

by Vinoj Abraham | On 05 Jan 2009

Child Labour in Kerala's Coir Industry-Study of Few Selected Villages

The objective of this study is to report on the extent and nature of involvement of children in the coir industry. For this purpose, it was decided to study only those operations of the industry in w...

by Leela Gulati | On 24 Dec 2008

A Case-Control Study to Assess the Relationship Between Poverty and Visual Impairment from Cataract in Kenya, Philippines and Bangladesh

The aim of this study was to examine the association between visual impairment from cataract and poverty in adults in Kenya, Bangladesh, and the Philippines. A population-based case–control study was...

by Hannah Kuper | On 18 Dec 2008

Annual Status of Education Report (Rural) 2007

The purpose of the ASER 2007’s rapid assessment survey in rural areas is twofold: (i) to get reliable estimates of the status of children’s schooling and basic learning (reading and arithmetic level)...

by Pratham Pratham | On 12 Dec 2008

Educational Reforms in India: Universalisation of Primary Education in Kerala

The history and evolution and the factors underlying the success of primary education in Kerala. [CDS WP 189].

by P R Gopinathan Nair | On 10 Dec 2008

Changing Interface Between Agriculture and Livestock: A Study of Livelihood Options under Dry Land Farming Systems in Gujarat

The present paper tries to empirically examine the changing profile of distribution and ownership of livestock across different regions of India and specifically for Gujarat. Besides, primary data col...

by Amita Shah | On 21 Nov 2008

Implementing the Employment Guarantee Act- A Survey in Chitradurga District, Karnataka

The paper is a report of a survey done in Chitradurga District, Karnataka to know the functioning of NREGA and awarness of people about this Act.

by Centre for Budget and Policy Studies CBPS | On 19 Nov 2008

Changes in Poverty Profile in China

This study presents a comprehensive picture of poverty chnages in China in the period of 1978-95. Using two micro data sets from Household Income Surverys of 1988 and 1995, the author examines poverty...

by Li Shi | On 18 Nov 2008

Untold Stories: The Human Face of Poverty Dynamics

The policy brief describes the life stories of five people, to show the face of human face of chronic poverty. It also suggests that such life history material can be an important source of data for p...

by Martin Prowse | On 11 Nov 2008

Sustaining Rural Livelihoods in Fragile Environments : Resource Endowments or Policy Interventions? (A Study in the Context of Participatory Watershed Development in AP)

This paper primarily assesses the status of rural livelihoods in fragile environments with diverse resource endowments and policy interventions. Livelihood assessment was carried out using the sustai...

by V Ratna Reddy | On 07 Nov 2008

Electricity and Rural Development Linkages

This paper discusses the criticality of electricity the vital modern economic infrastucture concerning its role in and nexus with rural development. Introducing broad issues in rural infrastructure an...

by Keshab Das | On 06 Nov 2008

Agflation and the PDS: Some Issues

In the context of the current public policy focus on rising food prices and their implications for food security, this paper examines two major issues raised: (i) Universalization of the public distri...

by Suryanarayana M H | On 04 Nov 2008

World Urban Youth Forum, Nanjing: Concept Note

The Fourth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF4) will be held in China, Nanjing 03-06 November 2008. The forum is convened pursuant to the resolution of 18th session of the Commission on Human Set...

by UN-HABITAT UNHABITAT | On 31 Oct 2008

Dynamics of Rural Water Supply in Coastal Kerala: A Sustainable Development View

This paper examines empirically within sustainable development framework the dynamics of coverage in rural drinking water supply of 180 demand-driven schemes from Malappuram, predominantly a coastal...

by K Pushpangadan | On 27 Oct 2008

Poverty, Private Property and Common Pool Resource Management: The Case of Irrigation Tanks in South India

This study tries to understand the main causes of tank degradation and the complex interrelationships among poverty, private coping mechanisms and community coping mechanisms that affect tank performa...

by Balasubramanian R | On 17 Oct 2008

Impact of Urban Growth on Water Bodies The Case of Hyderabad

This study makes an attempt to analyse the transformation of common property resources (the lakes) into private property. [WP No. 60].

by Ramachandraiah C | On 17 Oct 2008

Hobbes, Coase and Baliraja: Equity and Equality in Surface Water Distribution

It is attempted to understand the implications of equality in water distribution on social welfare with a simple abstract analysis using Leontief-type fixed production function.

by Sashi Sivramakrishna | On 16 Oct 2008

Gender Differentials in Adult Mortality in India- With Notes on Rural-Urban Contrast

This paper is preliminary exploration of the trends and spatial variation in gender differentials in adult mortality in India, as also of the related rural-urban differentials.

by N. Krishnaji | On 08 Oct 2008

Aspirations, Segregation and Occupational Choice

This paper examines steady states of an overlapping generations economy with a given distribution of household locations over a one-dimensional interval. Parents decide whether or not to educate the...

by Dilip Mookherjee | On 06 Oct 2008

Traditional Water Harvesting for Domestic Use: Potential and Relevance of Village Tanks in Gujarat's Desert Region

Recognising the dearth of detailed analyses of economic and environmental performance of traditional water harvesting systems (TWHS) meant exclusively for domestic use, this paper enquires into the re...

by Keshab Das | On 26 Sep 2008

Pluralism, Tenancy and Poverty: Cultivating Open-Mindedness in Poverty Studies

This paper applies theoretical pluralism to studies of poverty. However in order to be more specific it takes as a case study some competing studies of Indian rural tenancy relations. In the paper, sp...

by Wendy Olsen | On 25 Sep 2008

Persistent Inequality: An Explanation Based on Limited Parental Altruism

This paper provides an explanation for the observed persistence in income inequality across households in terms limited parental altruism. It is postulated that the degree of parental altruism is ‘lim...

by Mausumi Das | On 24 Sep 2008

Rising Inequality With High Growth Isn't This Trend Worrisome? Analysis of Kerala Experience

The relation between growth, inequality and poverty is the central theme of the paper. While the fast economic growth under the neo-liberal policy regime helps reduce poverty, it increases inequality...

by KK Subrahmanian | On 16 Sep 2008

Can Insurance Reduce Catastrophic Out-of-Pocket Health Expenditure

It is argued that for households below poverty line any expenditure on health is catastrophic as they are unable to attain the subsistence level of consumption. Thus, zero percent is taken as a thres...

by Rama Joglekar | On 15 Sep 2008

Willingness to Pay for Improved Sanitation Services and its Implication on Demand Responsive Approach of BRAC Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Programme

This study aimed to provide some insights into sanitation-related strategies taken by the BRAC Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Programme from an economic point of view. The aim of this report i...

by Kazi Faisal Bin Seraj | On 06 Aug 2008

Banking Sector Reforms and Equity a Sub-Regional Analysis in Andhra Pradesh

In this study an attempt is made to examine the equity aspect due to reforms in the banking sector at sub-regional level in the state of Andhra Pradesh covering the period 1985 to 2004. [CESS WP 68]...

by K S Reddy | On 04 Aug 2008

Distress Debt and Suicides among Agrarian Households: Findings from Three Villages in Kerala

The factors and process underlying agrarian distress in Kerala by undertaking the case studies of three villages situated in Wayanad and Idukki districts namely, Cherumad, Kappikkunnu and Upputhara. T...

by K.N. Nair | On 31 Jul 2008

Equity in Financing Healthcare: Impact of Universal Access to Healthcare in Thailand

This paper exploited five different data sets of the national household survey in pre- (years 2000 and 2001) and post- (years 2002 and 2004) universal health care coverage (UC) periods to analyse tren...

by Supon Limwattananon | On 26 Jul 2008

Andhra Pradesh State Policy on Organic Farming

The objectives of the policy on organic farming, the strategies of the policy are explained here.

by Centre for Sustainable Agriculture CSA | On 26 Jul 2008

Between Citizens and Institutions: The Dyamics of the Integration of Water Supply and Sanitation Services in Hyderabad

The purpose of this study is to review the changes that have taken place recently in water supply and sanitation services and examine the role of various stakeholders involved in urban governance in...

by Agnes Huchon | On 15 Jul 2008

The Unqualified Medical Practitioners Methods of Practice and Nexus with the Qualified Doctors

The presence of a large number of unqualified medical practitioners in the rural areas and urban slums indicate that they provide most of the outpatient services in the private sector. Given the huge...

by Naryana K V | On 08 Jul 2008

Process, People, Power and Conflict: Some Lessons from a Participatory Policy Process in Andhra Pradesh, India

A large body of empirical literature highlights the need for stakeholder participation within the context of policy change and democratic governance. This makes intuitive sense and may appear to be a...

by Vinod Ahuja | On 19 Jun 2008

Poverty targeting in public programs: A Comparison of Some Nonparametric Tests and their Application to Indian Microfinance

Many popular social programmes have limited coverage among households at the very bottom of the income and wealth distribution. If a programme reaches the poor, but neglects the destitute, the (pre-...

by Isha Dewan | On 12 Jun 2008

Differential Impact of Development Interventions on Multiple Ethnic Groups

This paper looks at the effects on livestock of silvi-pasture development on common lands in relation to (a) ruminant systems and (b) livestock numbers and ownership patterns in Rajasthan, India. [SDC...

by Czech Conroy | On 14 May 2008

Action Plan to Address Agrarian Distress in India

The government of India has appointed many committees to look into the issue of agrarian distress in India. An Expert Panel was constituted by the National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development...

by Satish Chander | On 12 May 2008

Innovation and Growth: Role of the Financial Sector

A brief overview is provided about India’s long-term growth performance. Then an attempt is made to set out the conditions for successful innovations. To assess the role of innovations in the Indian...

by Rakesh Mohan | On 03 Apr 2008

A Comparative Study on Private Consumption Expenditure Estimates in India

Traditionally private consumption expenditure estimated by the two agencies differed. Factors attributed to the differences include coverage, reference time frames and concepts and methods of estimati...

by Joice John | On 20 Mar 2008

Inclusive Growth - The Role of Banks in Emerging Economies

Speech describes India’s experiences on ‘Inclusive Growth’ - a topic which is both current and close to the hearts of public policymakers and central bankers of emerging economies. [Independence Comme...

by Usha Thorat | On 14 Mar 2008

Access and Utilisation of Health Care Services in Urban Low-income Settlements in Surat, India

This paper investigates a range of aspects including socio economic status,morality, morbidity requiring inpatient as well as outpatient care, health care-seeking behavior etc.

by Akash Acharya | On 10 Mar 2008

Budget 2008-09 and Children A First Glance

Budget for Children (BfC) is not a separate budget. It is merely an attempt to disaggregate from the overall budget, the allocations made specifically for programmes that benefit children. From 2000-0...

by HAQ Centre for Child Rights HAQCRC | On 04 Mar 2008

Key Features of Budget 2008-2009

Budget presented by Finance Minister

by P Chidambaram | On 29 Feb 2008

Introducing the Railway Budget 2008-2009

Speech of Lalu Prasad

by Lalu Prasad | On 27 Feb 2008

A Quick Look at Orissa Budget 2008-09

Quick findings for feedback as well as further analysis. [Contact Pravas Ranjan Mishra CYSD, E-1, Institutional Area, RRL PO., Bhubaneswar India - 751 013 Tel. +91-674-2300774, 2301725 Fax: +91-674-...

by Orissa Government | On 22 Feb 2008

Women’s Economic Empowerment as the “Magic Potion” of Development?

Boosting women’s relative control of income and other economic resources has so many consequences that positively enhance both gender equality and development that female economic empowerment may be c...

by Rae Lesser Blumberg | On 20 Feb 2008

Estimating the Economic Benefits of Arsenic Removal in India: A Case Study from West Bengal

People living in almost fifty percent of the districts in West Bengal are exposed to arsenic contaminated water. The economic costs imposed by arsenic-related health problems are estimated. Data from...

by Joyashree Roy | On 08 Feb 2008

Health and Millennium Development Goal 1: Reducing Out-of-pocket Expenditures to Reduce Income Poverty - Evidence from India

The first of the eight Millennium Development Goals is to halve extreme poverty and hunger by 2015. In India, thirty two and a half million people fall below the national poverty line by making out-of...

by Charu C. Garg | On 07 Feb 2008

Transport: Then, now, and Tomorrow

A historical survey of transport to demonstrate that transport has always been recognised as of paramount importance for the wellbeing of the whole community, that a combination of collective and indi...

by Ralph Harrington | On 01 Feb 2008

Municipal Finance in India:An Assessment

This study, entitled “Municipal Finance in India – An Assessment”, undertaken for the Development Research Group (DRG), Reserve Bank of India examines the performance of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in I...

by P K Mohanty | On 29 Jan 2008

Toward an Economic Sociology of Chronic Poverty: Enhancing the Rigor and Relevance of Social Theory

This paper focuses on both expanding and refining the analytical scope of the “social” (or non-economic) aspects of chronic poverty, and thereby, to enhance efforts to respond more effectively to it....

by Michael Woolcock | On 25 Jan 2008

An Analysis of Fertility Differentials among Caste Groups in Andhra Pradesh

The fertility differentials among caste groups in Andhra Pradesh are examined in the context of characteristics and interaction hypotheses, using the second National Family Health Survey data. Multiva...

by P Ramesh | On 21 Jan 2008

The Changing Pattern of Undernutrition in India: A Comparative Analysis across Regions

This study analyses the changes in prevalence of undernutrition between the 1980s and 1990s at the national and sub-national levels in India and focuses on the rural-urban comparisons. The study explo...

by Meenakshi J V | On 17 Jan 2008

Intergrated Energy Policy

The report of the Expert Committee provides a broad overarching framework for guiding the policies governing the production and use of different forms of energy from various sources. It makes specific...

by Planning Commission, India | On 10 Jan 2008

Agrarian Distress and Rural Livelihoods A Study in Upputhara Panchayat Idukki District, Kerala

This study examines the impact of agrarian distress on the different socio-economic groups, the strategies of livelihood adopted by households and the local institution in shaping these strategies. Th...

by K.N. Nair | On 02 Jan 2008

Equitable Society : A New Concern For Social Work

Trained Social Workers must be very well aware of Equitable Society philosophy and implementation programmes. They must find opportunity of working with extremely marginalized people.

by Manish Dwivedi | On 27 Dec 2007

Determinants of RTIs/STIs Prevalence among Women in Haryana

An increase in HIV infection has contributed to the problem of RTIs/STIs in India. This paper finds a high prevalence of RTI/STI among the rural women in Haryana. Half of the rural women have no knowl...

by Sanjay Rode | On 18 Dec 2007

Urbanisation and Globalisation in the Twenty First Century: Emerging Challenges

The speech mainly gives insights into aspects like what is globalisation, urban growth in the next 30 years, new challenges of Globalisation for Cities, the poor that emerges along with the cities, th...

by Rakesh Mohan | On 06 Dec 2007

Using Family Histories to Understand the Intergenerational Transmission of Chronic Poverty

A method of collecting family histories that would act as a means of linking households from the panel studies with individual life histories is proposed. The procedure used to construct a three-gener...

by Robert Miller | On 07 Nov 2007

Enhancing Rural Livelihoods

The Overseas Development Institute in the UK recently carried out a study on ICT for rural livelihoods, commissioned by InfoDev. The study included a literature and donor review in collaboration with...

by Paul Matthews | On 26 Oct 2007

Newsletter on Regional Economy: A bi-monthly four-state update

A monthly compilation by IRIS.

by IRIS India IRIS | On 22 Oct 2007

Why do Indian Children Work, and is it Bad for Them?

The causes and consequences of child labour are examined theoretically and empirically within a household decision framework, with endogenous fertility and mortality. The data come from a nationally r...

by Alessandro Cigno | On 16 Oct 2007

The New Mumbai: Defining Systemic Reforms for the Governance of Mumbai City and Mumbai Metropolitan Region

The 73rd and 74th Amendments to the Constitution of India were made with an express objective or purpose of restoring power back to people by legally encouraging “local self-governance”. At the same...

by A.K. Shende | On 08 Oct 2007

Model Nagara Raj Bill

Model bill to amend the laws relating to the Municipalities and to institutionalise citizens’ participation in municipal functions, e.g. setting priorities, budgeting provisions, etc. by setting up of...

by Ministry of Urban Development MoUD | On 08 Oct 2007

Periurbanisation in Tamil Nadu: A Quantitative Approach

This paper is an attempt to measure the extent of peri-urbanisation that has taken place in TamilNadu. Geographical data is used based on the 1991 census for TamilNadu and Pondicherry. A systematic e...

by Sébastien Oliveau | On 04 Oct 2007

Groundwater Management and Ownership: Report of Expert Group

It is time India recognises its dependency on groundwater resources, which is only going to increase in the coming years, partly because of growing urbanisation and industrialisation. In view of the g...

by Kirit Parikh | On 03 Oct 2007

Food Consumption and Calorie Intake in Contemporary India

This paper examines how the patterns of India’s food consumption have been changing in recent times as a consequence of its faster economic growth and generally rising affluence levels. The study, als...

by Srikanta Chatterjee | On 30 Sep 2007

Review of Rural Non-farm Sector in India: Recent Evidence

During the period 1972-73 to 2004-05 in rural India, the total number of workers expanded more in the non-farm sector than the farm sector with the rise in male workers being sharper than that of fema...

by Sharad Ranjan | On 30 Sep 2007

Interactive Workshop on Qualitative Research: From Data Collection to Data Presentation

Hands-on training in qualitative research in the context of health, nutrition and development. The training included all major steps in qualitative research: deciding objectives, designing tools, data...

by Shubhada Kanani | On 28 Sep 2007

Tracking Functional Devolution by States to Panchayats

The Eleventh Schedule added to the Constitution by the Seventy-third Amendment lists twenty-nine functions devolvable by States to Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). States were free to set the sp...

by Indira Rajaraman | On 28 Sep 2007

Cities, Gender Budgeting and Civic Governance

The Budget is an important tool in the hands of the state for affirmative action for improvement of gender relations through reduction of gender gap in the development process. It can help to reduce e...

by Vibhuti Patel | On 03 Aug 2007

Indian Elderly Among Marginal Sections Programmes and Policies in the Era of Globalisation

This paper is an attempt to bring out different needs of elders from different backgrounds and socio-economic groups. The main aim of the paper is to help policy makers in identifying these difference...

by Habibullah Ansari | On 02 Aug 2007

Employment and Poverty in India: 2000-2005

This paper is principally focused on the changes in the size and structure of work force and the changes in labour productivity, wages and poverty in India in the first quinquennuim of the 21st centur...

by K. Sundaram | On 30 Jul 2007

Social Affiliation and the Demand for Health Services: Caste and Child Health in South India

The roles of social affiliation, measured by caste, in shaping investments in child health are assessed. The special setting that is chosen for the analysis – tea estates in the South Indian High Rang...

by Nancy Luke | On 23 Jul 2007

Economic and Social Dynamics of Migration in Kerala, 1999-2004 Analysis of Panel Data

Panel studies based on the same set of sample households or individuals at two points of time 5 or 10 years apart are time consuming and are relatively rare in social science research. Such a method,...

by Zachariah KC | On 23 Jul 2007

Report of the Task Force on Medical Education for the National Rural Health Mission

Some of the major problems in primary healthcare relate to training and capacity building of health service providers in foreseeable future. It is in this background that government set up a Task Fo...

by Task Force on Medical Education | On 21 Jul 2007

Trade Policy and Urban-Rural Inequalities In LDCS: A Simulation Experiment With A New Economic Geography Model

This paper follows the new economic geography approach to model the relationships between trade policy and spatial agglomeration of production in the context of a small open developing economy. It c...

by Ayele Gelan | On 13 Jul 2007

Personal Well-Being During Growth

This paper considers the relative importance of improvements in economic status in explaining improvements in non-monetary measures of well-being during Vietnam's economic boom in the 1990s.

by Eric Edmonds | On 26 Jun 2007

Building an International Financial Centre in Mumbai

Earlier this year, the Indian government’s High Powered Expert Committee (HPEC) put forward its recommendations on how Mumbai could be made into an International Financial Center. The HPEC’s report co...

by Sanjeev Sanyal | On 19 Jun 2007

Health Domain of the Ultra Poor: An Exploration

Relatively small proportion of literature has focused upon health behaviours and types of health services used by the poor in rural Bangladesh, particularly ultra poor households.This study aimed to e...

by Shahaduz Zaman | On 14 Jun 2007

Productivity of Rural Credit: A Review of Issues and Some Recent Literature

It is argued that Indian agriculture is undergoing fundamental change wherein the technology and inputs are moving out of the hands of the farmers to external suppliers. This, over a period of time ma...

by M S Sriram | On 13 Jun 2007

Book Review: Growth, Justice and Globalisation

Review of: Globalizing Rural Development: Competing Paradigms and Emerging Realities by M. C. Behera; Sage Publications, 2006.

by Mohan Kanda | On 12 Jun 2007

Social Capital and Economic Well-being

The proposition that social capital expands household welfare is tested by estimating the effects of social interactions on per capita expenditure among a sample of 810 households in northern Banglade...

by Farhad Ameen | On 30 May 2007

Peri-Urban Dynamics: Case studies in Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai

Selected case studies of peri-urban dynamics are detailed, drawing from the experiences of Chennai (Pushpa Arabindoo), Hyderabad (Eric Leclerc and Camille Bourguignon) and Mumbai (Himanshu Burte and M...

by Veronique Dupont | On 16 May 2007

Determinants of Maternal Health Care Utilisation in India: Evidence from a Recent Household Survey

The reasons for the low levels of utilization of basic health services may be household income, high illiteracy and ignorance, and a host of traditional factors. An attempt is made to discuss the issu...

by Abusaleh Shariff | On 17 Apr 2007

Levels and Differentials in Maternal Mortality in Rural India: New Evidence from Sisterhood Data

Policy initiatives for reproductive health are often based on judgments made on the basis of a small, selective cross-section of the population. The Human Development Profile Survey (HDPS) conducted b...

by P. N. Mari Bhat | On 13 Apr 2007

Child health inequities in developing countries: differences across urban and rural areas

The urban advantage in health masks enormous disparities between the poor and the non-poor in urban areas of Sub Saharan Africa. Specific policies geared at preferentially improving the health and nu...

by Jean-Christophe Fotso | On 23 Feb 2007

Reforming Delivery of Urban Services in Developing Countries: Evidence from a Case Study in India

Given the importance of urban public services in attracting firm location, increasing employment and facilitating economic growth, in this paper, the author examines the following questions: Is there...

by Kala Seetharam Sreedhar | On 17 Feb 2007

Poverty Begins at Home? Questioning some (Mis)conceptions about Children, Poverty and Privation in Female-Headed Households

Grounded in a popular stereotype that female-headed households are the ‘poorest of the poor’, it is often assumed that women and children suffer greater poverty than in households which conform with a...

by Sylvia Chant | On 30 Jan 2007

Singapore: The Art of Building a Global City

This article discusses the art of deliberately creating a global city for Asiain Singapore. Twnty-first century cities exist in order to allow human interaction and enhance lifestyle. Such clusters...

by Sanjeev Sanyal | On 09 Jan 2007

Implications of Market and Coordination Failures for Rural Development in Least Developed Countries

This paper examines core features of poor rural areas, the nature of coordination problems faced by different potential economic actors, the impacts of these problems on markets and economic developme...

by Jonathan Kydd | On 22 Dec 2006

Interlinked Agrarian Credit Markets in a Developing Economy: A Case Study of Indian Punjab

This paper attempts to analyse the various aspects of informal rural credit market of which interlinked contracts occupy the central place. In particular, the nature and extent of interlinked credit...

by Anita Gill | On 22 Dec 2006

Change in Food and Nutrient Consumption Among the Ultra Poor: Is the CFPR/TUP Programme Making a Difference?

This study aims to investigate the impact of CFPR/TUP programme on the food and nutrient consumption. The report is presented in two parts- the first part is based on the comparison of food and energy...

by Farhana Haseen | On 19 Dec 2006

Organisational Morphology of Rural Industries in Liberalised India: A Study of West Bengal

Recent interest on rural industries derives from recognition of the limits of agriculture and organised manufacturing sector in employment generation especially during the post-liberalisation period...

by Dibyendu S. Maiti | On 19 Dec 2006

Liberalisation of Rural Poverty: The Indian Experience

A price rise signifies a fall in purchasing power, if there is no commensurate increase in income. Thus the pertinent question in the face of the phenomenal rise during the 1990s in the prices of th...

by N. Vijayamohanan Pillai | On 19 Dec 2006

Emerging Megalopolis: Bangalore, From ‘Boiled Beans’ Town to Advanced IT City

Historically, Bangalore’s growth and physical spread had been dictated by the location decisions of certain important industrial, institutional and residential activities, rather than as an outcome...

by G.S. Sastry | On 04 Dec 2006

Economic Causes of Tropical Deforestation - A Global Empirical Application

The paper investigates the complex system of causes affecting tropical deforestation at a worldwide level. There is no generally accepted theory in the deforestation literature to indicate which varia...

by Silviu S. Scrieciu | On 27 Nov 2006

Urban Studies: An Exploration in Theory and Practices

What is the character of our cities? What are the attributes of inequalities and social exclusions in towns, metropolises and mega cities? How do urban structures and forms characteristic of pre capit...

by Sujata Patel | On 18 Nov 2006

Prospective Study of One Million Deaths in India: Rationale, Design, and Validation Results

Over 75% of the annual estimated 9.5 million deaths in India occur in the home, and the large majority of these do not have a certified cause. India and other developing countries urgently need reliab...

by Prabhat Jha | On 31 Oct 2006

Targeting the Poorest in Microfinance: Poverty Outreach of BDP Ultra Poor Programme

Despite the general consensus that microfinance does not reach the poorest; recent evidence suggests that nearly 15% of microfinance clients in Bangladesh are among the poorest. It is from the realiza...

by Proloy Barua | On 25 Oct 2006

Chinese Rural Industrialisation in the Context of the East Asian Miracle

This paper synthesises the different explanations and presents an overview of the development and characteristics of the Chinese rural enterprises (REs). The rural industrialization history of the Chi...

by Justin Yifu Lin | On 18 Oct 2006

Sexualised Economics, Divorce and Division of Farming Property in Australia

The purpose of the paper is to ask how family law texts, as regards rural divorce, have obtained there own particular structure and form. The author concentrates on the rural divorce cases.The purpose...

by Malcolm Voyce | On 29 Aug 2006

Freedom of Expression, Marginality and the Right to Livelihood

By tracking adivasi protest movements on threat of eviction and loss of livelihood, since 2000 and situation of the urban slum dwellers in one city – Delhi the paper analyses legislative and judicia...

by Seema Misra | On 29 Aug 2006

Report of the third Session of the World Urban Forum

The quest for innovative ideas and practical solutions – rare for a meeting convened by the United Nations – was underscored in the six Dialogues, 13 Roundtables and more than 160 Networking Events. M...

by UN-HABITAT | On 13 Jul 2006

Our Future: Sustainable Cities--Turning Ideas into Action

In convening the third session of the World Urban Forum in Vancouver, the United Nations Human Settlements Program has asked us to focus our attention on the Sustainable City and consider critical cha...

by Patricia L. McCarney | On 13 Jul 2006

Keynote Address on Social Inclusion and Cohesion

A central challenge facing us here – how do we ensure that the issue of the urban poor, in particular, is given as much attention by the international community, beyond speaking about it?

by L.N. Sisulu | On 13 Jul 2006

Business Roundtable on Corporate Leadership for Sustainable Urbanization: Discussion Paper

The reality of urban development is that commerce and industry are two of its core drivers. Without the full participation of the private sector in efforts towards sustainable human settlements, the p...

by Rob Sinclair | On 13 Jul 2006

Mumbai/Shanghai: Prospects/Problems--Imitating Global, Failing Local

Do we aspire to be a ‘global’ city like Shanghai, with all the spit and polish to attract foreign investors by the drove? Or can we aim to be a city with a sustainable plan for its development – one t...

by Kalpana Sharma | On 13 Jul 2006

The Wealth of Cities: Towards an Assets-based Development of Newly Urbanizing Regions

The argument in this paper is in four parts: First, the author suggests that we can no longer treat cities apart from the regions surrounding them with which they are intensively entwined. Second, t...

by John Freidman | On 13 Jul 2006

Tomorrow's Cities, Today's Youth: Perspectives from UN World Youth Forum

The cities of tomorrow are in poor countries, where the largest proportion of the population is below 25 years old and where young women are becoming particularly vulnerable. It is youth who will inhe...

by Kaveri Prakash | On 09 Jul 2006

MDGs : Millennium or Moving Development Goals?Health Sector Starved of Funds

The budget 2006-07 proposals in health care fell well short of India’s march towards achieving Millennium Development Goals(MDGs), the National Health Policy (NHP) goals and fully operationalising the...

by Vinish Kathuria | On 09 May 2006

Two Kinds of Activism: Reflections on Citizenship in Globalizing Delhi

The paper examines two of the most pressing concerns in Delhi: housing and the environment. The paper reviews the activities of Resident Welfare Associations, Sajha Manch, and Delhi Janwadi Adhikar Ma...

by Sanjeev K. Routray | On 14 Jun 2013

Coping with Risk or Courting More Risk?report on changing rural livelihoods during agrarian distress in Kerala

This paper deals with the agrarian distress experienced in parts of rural Kerala from the latter half of the 1990s, and the ways in which the distress affected the livelihoods of cultivating household...

by R. Ramakumar | On 26 Mar 2006

Union Budget 2006-07: Speech

The bulk of the resources must go to the UPA Government’s eight flagship programmes: Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, Mid-day Meal Scheme, Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Water Mission, Total Sanitation Campaign, National...

by Ministry of Finance | On 28 Feb 2006

Can Firm Clusters Foster Non-Farm Jobs? Policy Issues for Rural India

The present paper argues that a comprehensive rural industrialisation/cluster development strategy has to be designed within a broader regional development perspective that does not fail to include...

by Keshab Das | On 20 Feb 2006

Elementary Education: Rising Expenditure, Poor Quality: Book Review

Review of 'The Economics of Elementary Education in India: The Challenge of Public Finance, Private Provision and Household Costs' edited by Santosh Mehrotra; Sage, New Delhi; 2005, pp.328.

by P. Geetha Rani . | On 20 Jan 2006

A test of Governance: Education, Health and Family Planning in Areas Annexxed toKarnataka, Maharashtra and AP from Hyderabad State

At the time of reorganization of states on the basis of the linguistic formula, the territory that belonged to erstwhile state of Hyderabad was broken down to three parts and annexed to Andhra Prade...

by P. N. Mari Bhat | On 19 Jan 2006

Karnataka Yeshasvini Health Insurance Scheme: Towards Comprehensive Health Insurance Coverage in Karnataka?

This is a case study of the Yeshasvini Health Insurance Scheme for rural farmers and peasants in Karnataka. The scheme, now in its second year of operation, covers 2.2 million farmers and peasants w...

by Sarosh Kuruvilla | On 13 Jan 2006

Agrarian Reform for a Liberal Pattern of Society? Karnataka's Land Policy and the New Dispensation

It is puzzling how much the discourse of development has backed away from the seemingly central question of rural poverty: land. Elaborate rules concerning its distribution, rights, regulation, prot...

by Ronald Herring | On 12 Jan 2006

Institutionalising Citizen Participaion in Urban Governance

The twin concepts of a federal arrangement – a structure for a multi-tiered form of government with clearly defined roles and responsibilities, as well as active citizenship are like the two strands...

by Ramesh Ramanathan | On 12 Jan 2006

‘Urban Bias’ in the Flow of Funds and Deposit Mobilisation:Evidence from Karnataka, India

Until banking sector reforms were introduced in India in 1991, the emphasis in the credit provision through formal banking system was to meet the targets at the expense of the quality of credit and vi...

by Gagan Bihari Sahu | On 08 Dec 2005

Poverty Knowledge and Poverty Action: Evidence from Three States in India

Even as some households are coming out of poverty, other households are concurrently falling into poverty. Poverty creation and poverty destruction are proceeding alongside. A bottom-up methodology...

by Anirudh Krishna | On 08 Dec 2005

Mental Health And Reproductive Health Of Urban Poor Women In Delhi

This study looked at the intersection of reproductive health and mental health of women among the urban poor in Delhi, India. It is part of a larger study that seeks to understand how differences in e...

by Ranendra Das | On 17 Sep 2005

Central Transfers To States And Centrally Sponsored Schemes

The Indian Constitution assigns specific tax and expenditure responsibilities to the Centre and States. In practice, however, the Centre often operates in the sphere of the States. For instance, it...

by Naresh C. Saxena | On 09 Sep 2005

Uncertainity And Discrimination: Family Structure And Declining Sex Ratios In Rural India

This article builds upon the recognition that the declining child sex ratios are a result of an ongoing process of societal change. Looking at areas both in the north and in the south which have shown...

by Mattias Larsen | On 03 Sep 2005

Singapore: Asia's Global City?

The dynamics of a 21st century city are very different from those that created the urban agglomerations of the past. The economics of post-industrial cities are driven are driven by lifestyle, consump...

by Sanjeev Sanyal | On 27 Aug 2005

Alice Thorner: A Personal Tribute

She will always remain a role model for many of us--- a competent professional and a compassionate thinker who believed in ushering in social change that can reorganise inequalities in India.

by Sujata Patel | On 26 Aug 2005

Medico Friend Circle Bulletin 310, April-May 2005

Medico Friend Circle, April-May 2005, featuring Background papers for annual Theme Meet on Quality and Cost of Health Care

by Anonymous | On 24 Aug 2005

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill, 2004

A Bill to provide for the enhancement of livelihood security of the poor households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in every financia...

by Anonymous | On 19 Aug 2005

Water Quality and Health Status In Kollam Municipality

In the context of outbreaks of a number of water borne diseases in the thickly populated district of Kollam, especially duing the monsoons, this study was undertaken to assess the quality of drinking...

by M K P Roy | On 16 Aug 2005

Gender, Caste, Class, and Health Care Access

The research discussed in the report revisits the notion of access to health care in Koppal, an economically disadvantaged district in northern Karnataka. This issue is important to households experie...

by Aditi Iyer | On 08 Aug 2005

Towards Bank Financing of Urban Infrastructure

Provision of quality urban infrastructure is an area of major concern for the Indian Economy. The financing of this component of infrastructure may turn out to be a somewhat tractable problem, even in...

by Abhay Pethe | On 05 Aug 2005

Issues of Pricing Urban Water

With urban expansion and the growth of population, Indian cities are not able to supply water services that are adequate both quantitatively and qualitatively. Most urban water supply authorities pref...

by Rajan Padwal | On 05 Aug 2005

From Governments To Markets: Funding Urban Infrastructure

Provision of quality urban infrastructure is an area of major concern forthe Indian Economy. The environment defined by the context of globalisation and privatisation has implied fiscal compression an...

by Abhay Pethe | On 05 Aug 2005

MBOPs and the case of Northeast Brazil The Rural Poverty Reduction Program

MBOPs and the case of Northeast Brazil The Rural Poverty Reduction Program

by Edward Bresnyan, Jr | On 30 Mar 2005