This workshop will discuss the findings from a two year long project on ‘Newly created states and Inclusive Development: The subnational political settlements of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh’. The research study is part of the Effective States Inclusive Development (ESID) research cluster at the University of Manchester and was conducted in partnership with Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi and the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi.
Given the changing territorial map of India and the increased focus on smaller states to promote accountable governance, superior political representation and improved administrative and fiscal efficiency, this research aims to answer an increasingly urgent question: have newly created Indian states, in fact, promoted inclusive development? It studies Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, which gained statehood concurrently in November 2000, and are comparable for their high incidences of poverty, poor tribal populations, and vast reserves of mineral wealth.
In order to critically examine the politics of inclusive development in the two states, the research study characterizes the ‘sub-national political settlement’ in each. It then seeks to understand how the political settlement of each state explains the trajectories of development in two domains: mining and the provision of food subsidies through the Public Distribution System. By studying extraction with welfare in an interrelated manner, the study offers insights into the nature and extent of inclusive development that is possible within each political settlement.
The presentations will be followed by the following panel discussions:
Panel 1: New states and inclusive development: What can a sub-national political settlement approach tells us?
- Dr Pratap Bhanu Mehta: President, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi
- Dr Rathin Roy: Director, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy
- Prof Kunal Sen: Professor of Development Economics and Policy and Joint Research Director of the ESID research centre
- Dr Louise Tillin: Senior Lecturer in Politics and Deputy Director, King’s India Institute
Panel 2: The sub-national political settlement and inclusive development: Insights from welfare and extraction
- Prof Nandini Sundar: Professor of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University.
- Nitin Sethi: Senior Associate Editor, Business Standard
- Yamini Aiyar: Senior Fellow, CPR and Director, Accountability Initiative
- Biraj Patnaik: Principal Adviser to the Supreme Court Commissioners on the Right to Food
Research team:
- Dr Vasudha Chhotray: Senior Lecturer, School of International Development, University of East Anglia
- Vidushi Bahuguna: Research Associate, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi
- Anindita Adhikari: Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Sociology, Brown University
This workshop will be followed by lunch. Please rsvp to vbahuguna@cprindia.org
