A number of cross-national studies find that democratic rule has beneficial effects on the health of nations. These studies, however, sidestep the key role of state governments—especially in federal systems like India—in providing those public goods and services that have an impact...

In the recent past, the developing countries, in particular the Newly Industrialising Countries (NICs), Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China and India, have become a major player in the global market of manufactured goods. It had been argued that this changing composition in the...

While some analysts fear that regional parties in federal democracies are narrow in orientation, Indian experience has shown that regional parties can sometimes improve both voter turnout and human development (HD) in their region. Based on the experience of the South Indian states of Kerala and...

Violence against women (VAW) has traditionally been of concern to feminists and cultural sociologists, and in recent decades, has also begun to be diagnosed and understood as a development problem. However, 20 women practitioners and scholars of development in Delhi have raised this issue...

We assess old age financial security in a sample of sex workers in India. Our analysis, based on primary data for 240 former sex workers and 340 current sex workers in the states of Karnataka and Maharashtra, highlights three features of their economic situation. First, former sex workers...

This article examines the importance of a range of types of social relationships, characterised by differing levels of privilege, power, obligation and reciprocity, to rural Afghan livelihood security. Specifically, it explores how rural Afghan households in Kandahar and Badakhshan provinces...

Community development organisations employ a group approach, arguing that it strengthens the empowering capacity of local communities. Drawing on the experiences of two major NGOs in Bangladesh, this study argues that in community development greater attention is usually paid to the effects of...

On the basis of electoral data and other inputs from the grassroots, the article attempts to comprehend the poll reversal of the Left Front in West Bengal in 2011 state assembly election. The article further argues that the 2011 poll victory of the Trinamul Congress-alliance is the culmination...

Enclave based policies to promote exports, and consequently economic growth, are not new to India. India’s first export zone started in 1964 and six more central government zones were operational by the mid 1990s. However, these zones explain only a fraction of export growth rates in...

Despite the pursuit of similar industrial policies during the post-1990s, Indian states have revealed divergent outcomes in industrial growth. Such divergence suggests different levels of policy implementation which itself is a result of the interplay of formal and informal institutions,...