Archives: Journal Articles

Is the BJP’s rise a result of piggy-backing on Narendra Modi’s unique appeal or did Modi fast-forward a historical process that was imagined and set in motion by the Bharatiya Janata Party and its predecessors almost a century ago? We argue that a long-term political realignment was perhaps made inevitable by the ideological shift along with the structural makeup of the Indian society and Modi can be more pointedly credited with quickening the pace of history. We also suggest that Modi’s leadership, in no small part, has helped contain the emerging contradictions within the BJP system. However, it is unlikely that the departure of Modi would represent an abrupt end to the BJP-dominant system, rather the increasing electoral expansion of the BJP indicates further shifting of India’s ideological space in the party’s favour.

The total expenditure on central schemes for the poor and on the major subsidies exceeds the states’ share of central taxes. These schemes are chronic bad performers due to a culture of immunity in public administration and weakened local governments. Arguing that the poor should be trusted to use these resources better than the state, a radical redirection with substantial direct transfers to individuals and complementary decentralisation to local governments is proposed. The benefits, risks and associated reinforcement of institutions and accountability are outlined.

The Cancun Agreements, hailed by Patricia Espinosa, Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs and President of the Cancun Conference, as launching ‘a new era of international cooperation on climate change,’ were concluded on 11 December 2010 to widespread acclaim. These agreements that will guide the climate negotiations for the foreseeable future represent another twist in the tale of the ongoing negotiations.

International and Comparative Law Quarterly Volume 60, Issue 2, pages: 499-519 (May 2011)

Five aspects of the BJP’s election campaign contributed to its success in 2019. The first is the personal appeal of the prime minister, which again played a major role, like it did in 2014, as Narendra Modi led a hyper-personalized campaign. Second, this campaign focused on security-related themes which were especially relevant in the context of the India-Pakistan tensions. Third, the BJP campaign strategy was backed by the most formidable election campaign machinery assembled by any party in India since Independence. Fourth, the BJP saturated the public space with the prime minister’s image, adroitly using the traditional mainstream media as well as social media. The party used religious appeal to address its core base of supporters while projecting the prime minister’s image as a protector and sentinel. Fifth, the latter three aspects of the BJP’s campaign were fuelled by unprecedented levels of campaign expenditure and by the opacity of political funding in India, which the BJP had made more impenetrable through the introduction of electoral bonds. The combination of these factors show that the 2019 elections were not business as usual; their singularity largely due to the decline of institutions regulating the electoral process, including the Election Commission of India.

It is expected that in the coming years, most Asian countries will undergo a similar fast-paced urbanisation that Latin America experienced in the last half century. Despite the ills that have accompanied this process of urbanisation, the world, as this article argues, appears to have coped relatively well with the large-scale increase in urban population of recent years; it is equally possible for urbanising economies in Asia to replicate the experience of developed economies. For this to happen, it is essential that all aspects of city management, including the fostering of a professionalised workforce, are strengthened. This, in turn, would increase the creditworthiness of city governments and help attract the investment necessary for vital urban infrastructure projects. In an increasingly interconnected world, decentralised governance would ideally assist the practice of prudent macroeconomic and trade policies essential for ensuring a continuous access to international capital markets.

The 2015 Paris Agreement, a product of a deeply discordant political context rife with fundamental and seemingly irresolvable differences between Parties, is an unusual Agreement. It contains a mix of hard, soft and non-obligations, the boundaries between which are blurred, but each of which plays a distinct and valuable role. This article identifies various defining elements of legal character and tabulates the core provisions of the Paris Agreement across a spectrum from those that conform most closely to hard obligations to those that are best characterized as ‘non-obligations’. It explores political drivers for the carefully calibrated mix of hard, soft and non-obligations in the Paris Agreement, as well as the dynamic interplay between them, and their critical importance in delivering an agreement acceptable to all.

There are several policy lessons offered by the Communitisation Initiative in Nagaland, an ongoing experiment in co-governance in which the government and the community work as partners to share development activities and responsibilities. As the initiative completes a decade of implementation this year, we review the performance of the programme against its own stated goals of working towards the three Ts, namely trust, train and transfer. Here, we explore its potential for forging multi-actor interactions, creative ways of power sharing as well as institutional learning and adaptation to produce socially inclusive development outcomes. This policy note concludes by identifying five possible policy pathways to raise the accountbility bar and create opportunity structures for adaptive governance.SIID Policy Options- No.3, September 2012

Using data from Pakistan, we show that existing methods produce unbiased and reliable estimates of teacher value added (TVA) despite significant differences in context. Although effective teachers increase learning substantially, observed teacher characteristics account for less than 5 percent of the variation in TVA. The first two years of tenure and content knowledge correlate with TVA in our sample. Wages for public sector teachers do not correlate with TVA, although they do in the private sector. Finally, teachers newly entering on temporary contracts with 35 percent lower wages have similar distributions of TVA to the permanent teaching workforce.

A commentary on the papal encyclical and the role of common but differentiated responsibilities in the international climate change negotiations.

With an increased policy emphasis on slum surveys, the story of such surveys in Delhi assumes importance, including the “power to survey” vested in the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board. There is a need to closely analyse the way in which such surveys are carried out, the data that are collected, and the purposes for which they might be used. A review of the legal frameworks on slum surveying and the case of Delhi reveal that there is much variation in the process of data collection. Surveys that determine the mode of rehabilitation of a slum have life-changing implications for residents, and survey processes have to be accurate and participative.