This paper studies the productivity impact of a contract change. The setting is a tea plantation in India. The activity in question is tea-plucking, the output from which is measurable and contractible. Payments to pluckers consist of a baseline wage, along with piece rates per kilogram of...

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).

This paper makes a first pass at evaluating embankments. Using two years or more of data from 504 households in 28 villages in the floodplain of the Kosi river in north Bihar, a comparison of the agricultural output, wage incomes, unemployment, and other indicators of well-being between villages...

Budget speech by 2014-15.

Justice Usha Mehra report on Delhi gang rape case, Railway Budget, Union Budget were the important highlights on this months. [PRS]. URL:[http://www.prsindia.org/announcements/monthly-policy-review-2662/],

An 'Energy Index', which is aggregated from energy indicators is a rich source of information and is helpful in providing an assessment of a country's performance. This has, however, resulted in mushrooming of a plethora of indices, which claim to quantify the performance of a country in...

Farm workers incur various occupational related risks. The question is whether they are adequately compensated for facing these risks? This paper attempts to measure the wage premiums that farm workers in India receive for health risks associated with their jobs, using a primary survey data...

This policy study seeks to move the debate on labour standards beyond the present stalemate onto a more constructive plane. While closely examining the economic arguments in this controversy, it is also concerned with the broader political and moral dimensions. The authors suggest that...

Healthcare in developing countries is often unreliable and of poor quality, thus reducing individuals incentives to use quality health services. This paper examines an innovative approach to access to and demand for quality health care from the poor. Using data from a field experiment in India,...

The ambitious development plans for the Lancang-Mekong River Basin (LMRB) could have serious environmental, social, cultural and even geopolitical ramifications that could in turn destabilise the Mekong Subregion (MS). On the premise that frameworks for regional cooperation offer a viable route...