27 January 2017: Who does affirmative action better? China or India?

Abhinav Anand
University College Dublin

Abstract:
We analyze the affirmative action policy implemented in India, the Quota Policy, in which preference is given to the disadvantaged section of the populace by reserving a certain fraction of positions for them. We compare it to a hypothetical policy called the Handicap Policy in which the performance index of the disadvantaged is given an artificial boost instead, by means of an additive handicap.
We conclude that if the degree of asymmetry between the disadvantaged and the rest is not too high, on many important metrics of performance of affirmative action policies, Quotas and Handicaps can be shown to be equivalent to each other.

Date: January 27, 2017
Time: 11:30 P.M.

Venue:
Seminar Room No. 2
Indian Statistical Institute Delhi Centre,
7, S. J. S. Sansanwal Marg,
New Delhi-110016 (INDIA)

Location:

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24 January 2017: Incidence of Indirect Taxes: Who really pays taxes in India?

Frederico Gil Sander
and
Urmila Chatterjee
World Bank

Chair:
Hisham Abdo, World Bank

Abstract:
The Indian government has embarked on an ambitious and historic tax reform with the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). By encompassing multiple state and federal indirect taxes into a single value added tax, the GST promises to create a single market for goods and services in India. While the efficiency gains from this reform are widely studied, little attention has been paid to its distributional implications. In fact, the incidence of the current tax policies is not well documented either. How is the burden of taxation distributed among income groups? Are the current indirect tax policies progressive or regressive in nature? How will the GST change the current distribution of tax burdens, and will it lead to greater or lesser equity? This BBL aims to provide answers to these questions by presenting preliminary results from the ‘Incidence of indirect taxes in India’ research project.

Date: January 24, 2017
Time: 01:30 P.M.

Venue:
The World Bank,
70 Lodi Estate,
New Delhi-110003(INDIA)

Location:

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Note:
Please confirm your attendance by email to Sapna John (sjohn4@worldbank.org).

24 January 2017: Reflections on Europe and UK after Brexit

Timothy Garton Ash
University of Oxford

Date: January 24, 2017
Time: 11:30 A.M.

Venue:
Conference Hall
Centre for Policy Research,
Dharma Marg, Chanakyapuri,
New Delhi–110021(INDIA)

Location:

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24 January 2017: Reassessing the Impact of Demonetization on Agriculture and Informal Sector: the Right Way to Study Data and Early Leads from the States

Nishant Chadha
and
Arijit Das
India Development Foundation (IDF)

Moderator:
Shubhashis Gangopadhyay, India Development Foundation (IDF)

Discussant:
Bibek Debroy, NITI Aayog

Abstract:
While the economic, political and social impact of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bold gambit on demonetization continues to be hotly debated and various macro-level estimates on GDP growth, employment, NREGA demand and impact on black money have been put out by government agencies and researchers, there has been very little ground-up district-level granular analysis on its impact. For instance, how has this initiative impacted the two domains that still employ most Indians: the informal sector and agriculture? To fill this gap in our understanding of how the Indian economy and polity is shifting, in the first such study of its kind, IDF is conducting research across 60 districts in 10 states (Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Haryana, Bihar), to analyze exactly how demonetization has changed people’s lives. This is an ongoing research project – combining district-level analyses of data across multiple indicators and primary perception surveys in each of these districts. Preliminary observations from this exercise will be presented by IDF at this seminar.

Date: January 24, 2017
Time: 05:45 P.M.

Venue:
Conference Hall 2,
India International Centre,
40, Max Mueller Marg,
New Delhi-110003(INDIA)

Location:

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Note:
Please confirm your participation to Iqbal Shariff at ishariff@idfresearch.org

24 January 2017: The Vidhi Dialogues on "India's role in the global struggle over free speech"

Timothy Garton Ash
University of Oxford
and
Gautam Bhatia
Delhi based lawyer and legal academic

Date: January 24, 2017
Time: 07:00 P.M.

Venue:
Lecture Hall I,
India International Centre Annexe
40, Max Mueller Marg,
New Delhi - 110003(INDIA)

Location:

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Note:
Tea will be served at 6:30 p.m. Please RSVP at vclp@vidhilegalpolicy.in or register at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/indias-role-in-the-global-struggle-over-free-speech-tickets-31247126998

17 January 2017: Book Launch of 'The Other One Percent: Indians in America'

Sanjoy Chakravorty, Devesh Kapur & Nirvikar Singh

Organised by:
Centre for Policy Research (CPR) and Oxford University Press (OUP)

Abstract:
One of the most remarkable stories of immigration in the last half century is that of Indians to the United States. People of Indian origin make up a little over one percent of the American population now, up from barely half a percent at the turn of the millennium. Not only has its recent growth been extraordinary, but this population from a developing nation with low human capital is now the most-educated and highest-income group in the world's most advanced nation.

The Other One Percent is a careful, data-driven, and comprehensive account of the three core processes - selection, assimilation, and entrepreneurship - that have led to this rapid rise. This unique phenomenon is driven by - and, in turn, has influenced - wide-ranging changes, especially the ongoing revolution in information technology and its impact on economic globalization, immigration policies in the U.S., higher education policies in India, and foreign policies of both nations. If the overall picture is one of economic success, the details reveal the critical issues faced by the immigrants stemming from the social, linguistic, and class structure in India, the professional and geographic distribution in the U.S., the simultaneous expressions of pan-Indian and regional identities and simultaneous leadership in high-skill industries (like computers and medicine) and low-skill industries (like hospitality and retail trade), and the multi-generational challenges of a diverse group from the world's largest democracy fitting into its oldest.

Date: January 17, 2017
Time: 06:30 P.M.

Venue:
Lecture Room II, Annexe,
India International Centre
40, Max Mueller Marg,
New Delhi-110003(INDIA)

Location:

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Note:
Please join us for tea at 6:00 p.m. RSVP at GAIMarketing.in@oup.com; 011-43600144.

27 January 2017: The 5th C D Desmukh Memorial Lecture 2017 on "Reflections on the Art and Science of Policymaking"

Organised by:
National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER)

Vijay Kelkar
Chairman, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy,
India Development Foundation & President, Indian Statistical Institute

Guest of Honour:
Bimal Jalan, Former Governor RBI & President NCAER

Date: January 27, 2017
Time: 07:00 P.M.

Venue:
Nehru Memorial Library Auditorium,
Teen Murthi House
New Delhi-110011(INDIA)

Location:

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Note:
By Invitation only. Please RSVP and register with Ms Sudesh Bala on sbala@ncaer.org or 91-11-2345-2722

19 January 2017: Barking Up the Wrong Tree: Retrospective Voting, Natural Disasters, and Electoral Backlash

Johannes Urplelainen
Columbia University

Abstract:
While scholarship on “retrospective voting” has found that incumbent politicians can be punished for a range of events outside their control, such as natural disasters, the literature does not consider the ability of politicians to respond to disasters and the impact of this response on voters. We argue that retrospective voters punish only opposition incumbents (candidates in office but not aligned with the government leader), who have limited access to government resources for relief, for natural disasters. We use monthly data on precipitation and evaporation to capture droughts and floods in India’s four thousand State Assembly electoral constituencies over the years 1977-2007. Consistent with our hypothesis, we find that Members of State Assembly from the party of the Prime or Chief Minister do not face an electoral backlash under bad weather conditions during the summer harvest season, whereas opposition politicians face major losses. Using household survey data, we next demonstrate that this punishment is meted by people who do not benefit from government relief. These results not only refine theories of retrospective voting by considering the role of political alignment, but also raise troubling questions about democratic politics in India and other developing countries.

Date: January 19, 2017
Time: 03:00 P.M.

Venue:
Seminar Room (First Floor) 
Department of Economics,
Delhi School of Economics,
New Delhi-110007(INDIA)

Location:

16 January 2017: Civil Wars: A History in Ideas

David Armitage
Harvard University

Abstract:
For much of recorded history, the most frequent, horrific, destructive and yet strangely overshadowed form of collective human violence has been civil war. It has shattered communities and scarred imaginations as much as it has shaped nations and staged pivotal moments in world history. Nor has such carnage been confined to the distant past: in the last fifty years almost half the world's countries, especially its poorest, have suffered civil war, with their impact being estimated at about $100 billion per annum, or roughly twice what is spent annually on aid to developing countries. Civil war is also big business. Economists, political scientists, aid agencies, development strategists and governments put major resources into examining the factors that cause civil war, what determines its intensity and duration, how civil wars end, and why they seem so often to recur. In other words it is a global scourge and one that shows no signs of disappearing any time soon.

Date: January 16, 2017
Time: 03:00 P.M.

Venue:
Multipurpose Hall, Kamladevi Complex,
India International Centre,
Max Mueller Marg,
New Delhi - 110003(INDIA)

Location:

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Note:
Please join for tea at 2.30 p.m. RSVP at president.cpr@cprindia.org

20 January 2017: Environmental Challenges in India

E. Somanathan
Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi

Discussant:
Ajay Mathur, TERI

Abstract:
Environmental problems including climate change, air pollution and forest degradation have reduced incomes and worsened health in India. Prof Somanathan will examine the evidence on some of these findings. The weaknesses in our institutions that permitted this to happen will be highlighted. Some of these challenges, climate change in particular, are going to become more severe over time. The speaker will analyse some likely future technological, economic and climate scenarios that can emerge from this, and will examine the political and social reactions to these. Further, he will discuss the changes in the Indian institutions and policies that are required to address these challenges.

Followed by a keynote address by Shri Ajay Narayan Jha, Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India.

Organised by:
Brookings India

Date: January 20, 2017
Time: 03:00 P.M.

Venue:
Lecture Theatre
Brookings India
No. 6, 2nd Floor,
Dr. Jose P Rizal Marg,
Chanakyapuri,
New Delhi-110021

Location:


Note:
Please RSVP shamika.ravi@brookingsindia.org to reserve a seat for you.