This paper assesses the feasibility of India achieving its stated goal of net zero by 2070 and presents a medium-term strategy for what would be required over the next decade to achieve this objective.

This paper argues that India must prioritise the development of multimodal transportation infrastructure beyond coastal areas to bridge the current gap between maritime and land-based initiatives around the Bay of Bengal and spur the creation of sub regional, regional, and inter-regional economic corridors.

Considering experiences across various states, the paper advises caution in prescribing the IBDF model as a “standard” policy solution for loss reduction.

This study reviews the strategic aspects and related ramifications of existing and potential surface trading routes between India and the three South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries: Nepal, Bangladesh, and Bhutan, and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) member country Myanmar.

In this paper, Jaimini Bhagwati and Shalini Chauhan trace the legacy of India's railway system, its expansive growth, and ongoing challenges.

Daljit Singh's working paper examines the regulatory framework of the Indian power sector, often criticised for contributing to the financial strain of electricity distribution companies.

India must significantly increase its public spending on health and education, and ensure its effective targeting. This would reduce people’s out-of-pocket expenses, allowing them to allocate funds to their other crucial needs and strengthen the interlinkages between human development and economic growth.

The study argues for the need to consider multiple factors, including efficiency, equity, sustainability, institutional considerations, and the possibility of reducing expenditures on non-essential goods.

This research specifically focuses on the uncertainties surrounding the potential impact of CBAM on trade-exposed sectors with high energy intensity, particularly in developing countries like India.

Madhurima Nundy and Pankhuri Bhatt's paper presents a detailed review and analysis of India’s health insurance landscape, with a focus on voluntary health insurance (VHI).

Shishir Gupta, Nandini Agnihotri and Annie George shed light on the state and dynamics of house prices in India by leveraging a unique dataset that gives house prices over the past 30 years.

Laveesh Bhandari and Aasheerwad Dwivedi study growth in electricity consumption, the key factors affecting it, and its link with economic activity.

The paper highlights the economic importance of mining activities and the need to be environmentally responsible and safeguard the welfare and livelihoods of the local communities.

Rahul Tongia, Aarushi Dave and Utkarsh Dalal study the impacts of times-of-day and seasons on the different types of fuels for generation electricity, their output ramp (swing up or down) rates, daily swings between maximum and minimum output, and relative contributions of each fuel type.

Nikhil Tyagi and Rahul Tongia's paper attempts to examine the structure and legacy of electricity distribution in the state with a lens to examine how that impacts the future viability of the distribution companies (DisComs)

Gulzar Natarajan and V Anantha Nageswaran make the case that poverty alleviation, growth, and climate-related transition, which require both public and private funds, need to be pursued in parallel.

Renu Kohli, Honey Karun and Saumya analyse the non-price policy measures that aim to lower carbon emissions across the G20 countries.

The paper argues for a rethink of the existing regulatory and policy requirements pertaining to setting up and, more importantly, scaling up medical colleges, in order to ensure a greater number of seats per college, and for a more equitable distribution of seats.

Rahul Tongia highlights the complexities of green supply and green consumption. More RE is inevitable and welcome. Better accounting and signalling (such as time-of-day and congestion pricing) can help grow RE at lower overall system costs.

Abhishek Kumar and Divya Srinivasan use data from India (the second-largest steel producer in the world) to estimate the effect of large movements in metal prices during 2011-16.

Shruti Gupta and Kevin James examine the regulatory framework and institutional gaps surrounding off-budget borrowings in India.

This Working Paper examines the key aspects of the relationship between economic growth (EG) and human development (HD) at the all-India and the state-levels.

The paper demonstrates that a mandatory disclosure law on housing projects can have important, pro-efficiency effects in a developing country, and suggests that such laws may be efficient in a regime of low-state capacity.

An extension of an earlier study with a focus on 43 select critical minerals that emphasizes the need for a national strategy to ensure resilient critical minerals supply chains.

Shishir Gupta and Rishita Sachdeva analyse growth performance over a period of 26 years to understand the drivers behind India's economic growth.

Karthik Bansal and Ishita Kapoor's paper discusses three case studies on Jharkhand, Odisha and Karnataka to highlight procedural problems with obtaining licenses and permits for mining.

The paper finds that the availability of greater data makes it possible to assess a large set of crops over a long period of time, and therefore, greater data points can yield highly robust results.

Health systems in Thailand have been frequently researched since its reforms in early 2000s, especially in the context of  health coverage (UHC).

Sandhya Venkateswaran and Alok Kumar Singh traces the trajectory of health system reform in Brazil, from 1990 to 2019, and analyses the contextual factors that drove the reform process.

Madhurima Nundy and Pankhuri Bhatt analyse systemic transformations and studies the achievements and challenges in reforming health services in Indonesia over the years to the present.

Laveesh Bhandari and Aasheerwad Dwivedi's paper studies three of the many challenges that state governments will face as India transitions away from a fossil fuel–driven economy.

This paper examines the political trajectory of health in five Indian states, in terms of the sociopolitical determinants of attention to health, to understand differences in health status and investments, as well as to gain insights into how health came to be prioritised in some of them, which might be instructive across ...

Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Utkarsh Patel's paper attempts to quantify the scale and possible composition of international financial assistance that might be required to help developing countries fulfil the commitments undertaken in COP26.

The Health System Reforms and Transformation: Insights from Country Studies is a series of six case studies from China, Turkey, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, and Thailand that trace the trajectory of health reforms and draw lessons in understanding key instruments that led to these shifts.

Rajat Verma and Ganesh Sivamani's paper seeks to measure the impact of this cess on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the gross domestic product (GDP) at both the sectoral and national levels.

Abhishek Kumar, Rakesh Mohan and Divya Srinivasan show that nonperforming assets in the banking sector and profit ratios in commodity-sensitive non-financial sectors are highly correlated with global commodity prices.

Alok Kumar Singh and Sandhya Venkateswaran trace the trajectory of health system reforms, including and prior to Seguro Popular (SP), from 2003 until 2019, and analyses the contextual factors that were instrumental in the reform process.

Sandhya Venkateswaran and Alok Kumar Singh trace the trajectory of health system reform in Turkey, from 2003 to 2019, and analyses the contextual factors that drove the reform process.

Madhurima Nundy and Sandhya Venkateswaran's paper outlines the salient features of health reforms in China and their impact in terms of access, utilisation and equity through a systems framework.

Laveesh Bhandari and Aasheerwad Dwivedi's paper looks at India’s expected energy transition towards a low-carbon future, and studies how government revenues from fossil fuels will be affected over the next two decades.

Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Utkarsh Patel's study shows that there is considerable scope for reducing the volume of emissions through a combination of actions aimed at increasing energy efficiency and shifting progressively to renewable energy to meet the electricity demand.

Streamlining a scattered PFM framework in the country by drawing from other countries and proposing reforms in the existing system.

The paper projects India’s mineral needs for green technologies, including renewable electricity generation and electric vehicle manufacturing, in line with the country’s various climate change mitigation objectives over the next two decades.

This paper aims to comprehensively analyse and understand sub-national fiscal marksmanship, with a particular focus on capital expenditure in the social sector.

Political motivation does not always arise by itself, but it is often driven by external factors and stakeholders who contribute to creating or strengthening incentives for political attention, writes Sandhya Venkateswaran, Shruti Slaria and Sampriti Mukherjee.

This paper highlights some of the specificities of other countries and their electricity prices in order to better direct regulatory attention to measures that could be relevant for India, and to gauge where India’s position is when it comes to global electricity prices.

Rajesh Chadha and Ganesh Sivamani's paper details the construction of India’s hybrid Energy Input-Output Table 2015-16, which has information on the monetary, energy, and emission flows of the economy.

While the first amendments to the Indian Constitution were made to enable the State to redistribute land more equitably, this was followed by land acquisition for developmental projects that displaced Adivasis, Dalits and other vulnerable groups. Read the paper by Kaveri Thara and Ajey Sangai for deeper insights into land and property ...

The paper highlights the gaps in the Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas (SVAMITVA) scheme and suggests ways to address them along with proposing an evaluation system to be set in place.

India has experienced considerable progress in health, in outcomes as also infrastructure. However, the task of addressing the health of India’s citizens remains an unfinished task.

Is media reporting linked to readers' interest? We revisit a paper by Shishir Gupta, Nandini Agnihotri and Sikim Chakraborty on what drives media reporting in India.

While the pandemic and some of the associated policy measures could reverse the recent downward trends in NPAs temporarily, more durable policy initiatives like bankruptcy reforms are expected to make significant positive changes in the NPA situation of Indian banks.

The paper attempts to take stock of what has been achieved in the COP-26 meetings held in Glasgow in November 2021 and suggest the course of action that developed countries should follow in subsequent negotiations.

Jaimini Bhagwati examines the effectiveness of the 2016 Insolvency and Bankruptcy Act (IBC) as the most recent legislation to enable quicker resolution of disputes between borrowers and lenders thus encouraging higher volumes of long-term lending.

Shivshankar Menon suggests crucial domestic factors which have driven China’s path and examines some implications of the role in shaping China’s policy choices.

With a predominantly family health and infectious disease focus, India’s health system is not well geared to deal with the increasing burden of noncommunicable diseases.

It is important that the approach used in India for setting and implementation of targets pays attention to, not only environmental impacts, but also the affordability of electricity, and reliability of the power system.

India of 2030 will look very different from an institutional setting and that will perhaps be the core driver of all the surface changes that we will encounter.

Shaonlee Patranabis and Sahil Gandhi analyse slum laws from three states, studying two approaches to improvement of slums—redevelopment, and provision of property rights.

The best short-term target India could offer would be a planned phasing out of coal based power generation.

Becoming zero is important, but “date of net-zero” is incomplete, lacking any measure of what the date should be. “Sooner is better” remains a motherhood statement.

The 2015 MMDR amendment introduced the auctions regime, ending first come, first serve allocations, but the system needs a review

Is the experience of borders and boundaries in South Asia different from other regions of the world?

How India’s Integrated Check Posts at its borders with Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar and Pakistan facilitate regional connectivity

Rakesh Mohan discusses the role of Reserve Bank of India in fighting the economic impact of Covid-19 and the ensuing lockdown.

This paper introduces the concept of a Sustainable Mining Attractiveness Index to evaluate the mining sustainability in the districts of the Indian state of Jharkhand.

As large parts of Bengaluru remain under water, we revisit a paper by Shishir Gupta and Rishita Sachdeva on the role of funding in delivering better urban services. Using SWM as an example, the authors argue that service delivery levels can increase significantly without spending (much) more.

This paper examines the possibilities for natural gas in India’s energy mix, both through the lens of competitive economic viability as well as the impact its use might have, notably, on carbon emissions.

The third generation of economic reforms must direct attention to improving the government’s own competence, at all levels.

How rent control and weak contract enforcement produce unoccupied units and a housing shortage at the same time.

The world is on the cusp of an epochal change in global economic power, not seen since the start of the Industrial Revolution.

The Odisha Input-Output Transactions Table for 2015-16 depicts intersectoral intermediate transactions across 76 sectors of the state’s economy, the final demand for consumption and investment, and trade flows.

Over the past decade, India's mining sector, including the non-fuel mineral sector, has been marred by countless controversies.

In March 2020, the Government of India passed the Mineral Laws Amendment Bill 2020, which amends the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 (MMDR Act), alongside the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015 (CMSP Act). For the non-coal mining sector, a key reason for this move is to ensure ‘ease ...

This paper considers the impact that the shrinking rental sector has had on the opportunities for Indians to migrate.

Pollution in any form, whether it be air or water, poses an environmental risk to the health of the exposed population. Literature from both developing and developed nations indicates the adverse health effects that air (Soo and Pattnayak, 2019 & Chay and Greenstone, 2003) and water pollution (Brainerd and Menon, 2014) have ...

India is urbanising and putting increasing pressure on urban land and there is growing impetus to convert land from agriculture to non-agriculture use. According to the United Nations (2015), India will see the largest increase of all countries in urban population by 2050. Efficient functioning of urban land markets will be critical ...

India sits at the nub of the crisis of the current high carbon model of development. It is not responsible for this crisis and it can legitimately argue that it must not bear the costs of adapting and mitigating its consequences. However, it cannot escape the reality that it is amongst the ...

Abstract The issue of missing women, which is excess mortality of females as seen in low population ratio of women to men, in developing countries was first highlighted in a landmark mark paper by Sen in 1990 and again in 2003. Anderson and Ray estimate suggests that among the stock of women alive ...

Until 2015, the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) was seen as a game-changer in the evolving international trade regulatory regime. It was evident, as expressed by India’s Foreign Trade Policy 2015-2020, that it would not be possible for the country to accept the emerging agreement. The future of TPP is now uncertain, with ...

Free and fair elections are cornerstones of democracy. In India, electronic voting machines (EVMs) were introduced with the objective of reducing electoral fraud. We exploit the phased roll-out of the EVMs in state assembly elections to study its impact on electoral fraud, democracy, and development. Our main findings are: Introductions of EVMs ...

SUMMARY: This paper discusses India’s trade policy reform since 1991, providing quantitative information and qualitative insights regarding the evolution of trade policy in the past 25 years. The Finance Minister in his 1991 Union Budget speech explicitly stated that trade policy reform was an important part of the economic reform initiated by ...

This paper traces the story of Indian financial sector over the period 1950-2015. In identifying the trends and turns of Indian financial sector, the paper adopts a three period classification viz., the 1950s and 1960s, which exhibited some elements of instability associated with laissez faire but underdeveloped banking; the 1970s and 1980s ...

Although the role of the emerging economic powers is increasing, their soft power is not rising at the same pace, explores Brookings India Distinguished Fellow Dr Rakesh Mohan in this policy brief. KEY POLICY HIGHLIGHTS: The centre of gravity of the global economy is shifting back towards Asia from the North Atlantic. This ...

One of India’s fundamental failings as a modern nation has been our inability to get successive governments to prioritize and deal with public goods. Public goods (as against private goods) have non-rival and non-excludable consumption which makes pricing difficult. This in turn makes their provision through the market mechanism tricky and hence ...

Santosh Harish and Rahul Tongia examine inequities in supply of household electricity in India, using minute-level data for every feeder across a major utility.  Their model and results indicate disparities in load-shedding equate to a welfare transfer, from the rural areas to metropolitan areas or big cities, in the order of thousands ...

Introduction: The Women’s Reservation Bill – which proposes to reserve 33 per cent of seats in Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies for women – has been doing the rounds of the Indian Parliament in various forms since it was first introduced by the Deve Gowda government in 1996, failing each time, to ...