India

More from the Series

Blog Post
Beyond ID: Using Digital Identification to Transform Governance
September 20, 2018
It's Financial Inclusion Week. Read up on how digital ID can be used to promote financial inclusion and transform governance.
Blog Post
Does Digital ID Improve Governance? Answers—and Questions—from the State of Aadhaar Report
July 12, 2018
India’s digital ID system has become ubiquitous and is rapidly being incorporated into service delivery. With more heat than light so far in the Aadhaar debate, the State of Aadhaar report is a major step forward in understanding the world’s largest ongoing transition to digital governan...
WORKING PAPERS
Digital Governance in Developing Countries: Beneficiary Experience and Perceptions of System Reform in Rajasthan, India - Working Paper 489
July 10, 2018
India is at the forefront of the use of digital technology to transform the way in which citizens interact with states. This paper provides a picture of the perceived impact of digitization reforms in Rajasthan, based on a survey of beneficiaries of several benefit programs. We find that, on balance...
Blog Post
Do Fish Need Bicycles? When It Comes to Welfare and Aadhaar, Maybe They Do.
May 25, 2018
With few systematic studies of its impact on program beneficiaries, the debate on Aadhaar has, so far, seen more heat than light, but this is changing. The State of Aadhaar Report looks into many dimensions, including beneficiaries’ views of the new digital delivery systems, and the impact of ...
WORKING PAPERS
Guaranteed Employment or Guaranteed Income? - Working Paper 482
April 30, 2018
The paper critically reviews the arguments for and against both employment guarantees and income guarantees when viewed as rights-based policy instruments for poverty reduction in a developing economy, with special reference to India. Evidence on India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act...
Blog Post
The Aadhaar Debate: Where Do We Go from Here?
April 13, 2018
Aadhaar, the world’s largest biometric ID program, is at a crossroads. After a remarkable effort to enroll almost the entire Indian population of 1.25 billion in just over half a decade, its impact on privacy and distribution public benefits are being called into question. ...
Blog Post
Wrong Criticisms of Doing Business
February 09, 2018
While I welcome criticism and comments on the Doing Business (DB) report—or any other data and research product of the World Bank, for that matter—I find Justin Sandefur’s and Divyanshi Wadhwa’s recent blog posts on DB in Chile and India neither enlightening nor useful....