Do incidents of ethnic polarization influence voter behavior? I address this question through the case study of India, the world's largest functional democracy. Specifically, I test whether prior events of Hindu-Muslim riots electorally benefit Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), a prominent Hindu...

Theory and extensive evidence connect poverty and underdevelopment to civil conflict, yet evidence on the impact of development programs on violence is surprisingly mixed. To break this impasse, we exploit a within-country policy experiment to examine the conditions under which anti-poverty...

This paper discusses the nature, determinants and extent of alcoholism with its burden on the society. The logit and multi-logit models are used for the data analysis based on a qualitative survey method. Findings suggest that standard of living index and education will help to reduce alcoholism...

The GDP growth rates recorded during the first 15 years of Indian planning are far higher than those recorded during the colonial era. The prevalent view amongst economists, therefore, is that the introduction of central economic planning caused a significant improvement in India's economic...

This paper analyzes the legal possibility of Geographical Indications status to the culinary products of the Awadh region of the State of Uttar Pradesh, India. The state of Uttar Pradesh is one of the most backward regions of India but has a rich cultural heritage that can be harnessed for...

Even before the onset of the 2008 global financial crisis and ongoing European debt crisis, much attention has been given to the re-emergence of the Asian giants, the People's Republic of China (PRC) and India. Both countries have attained unprecedented growth and economic development-PRC and...

Even before the onset of the 2008 global financial crisis and ongoing European debt crisis, much attention has been given to the re-emergence of the Asian giants, the People's Republic of China (PRC) and India. Both countries have attained unprecedented growth and economic development — PRC...

This paper examines the current state of economic reforms in India and the phenomenon of policy paralysis leading to almost complete lack of progress on reforms. It studies the qualitative aspects of reforms in India over the last couple of decades and explains how these have changed over time....

We investigate the impact of community power on the practice of untouchability - the avoidance of physical contact – engaged in by upper and intermediate caste (OBC) Hindus vis-à-vis ‘scheduled’ castes (SCs) in rural India. Despite legal prohibition, the practice remains common, limiting...

We investigate the impact of community power on the practice of untouchability in rural India. We model two-dimensional simultaneous group conflict over social norms, wherein an upper and backward (OBC) caste Hindu bloc contests the ‘scheduled’ castes (SCs) over the extent to which...