Researchers Publication

As India hosts the AI Summit this week, the event must be viewed not as a technology showcase, but as a development inflection point. Artificial Intelligence is rapidly becoming foundational infrastructure — comparable to electricity, highways, or digital payments. The central question before India is whether AI will remain a private efficiency tool or evolve...   Read More

Using data from a primary survey conducted in rural India, this paper examines how two key survey design features—respondent identity and question framing—affect employment estimates. First, it estimates the causal impact of (a) replacing a single weekly employment question with a set of detailed activity-specific questions, and (b) changing the reference period from a week to individual...   Read More

While the India-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (FTA) strengthens India’s position in the Asia-Pacific, the India-Oman Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) deepens economic ties with the Middle East. The proliferation of trade deals in 2025, amid rising geopolitical tensions, is an attempt to recalibrate India’s strategic diplomacy with its trade partners. The path-dependency component adds...   Read More

India today finds itself at an unusual and potentially transformative juncture in the global economic order. On one side lies the long-negotiated India–EU agreement — often described as the mother of all deals — impenetrable with market access, regulatory standards, and long-term discipline. On the other is the rapidly deepening India–US economic engagement — increasingly...   Read More

The oil shocks taught India a painful lesson: management without measurement is a vulnerable idea. Minerals now occupy the same position that oil once did, but across more sectors. The oil crises of the 1970s have never quite left India’s collective memory. What tends to get lost, however, is that the real failure of that...   Read More

Summary Large dams remain central to India’s irrigation and food security strategy Evidence shows command areas outperform non-command regions in agricultural income Nearly one-third of total benefits arise from indirect impacts such as health and education Governance gaps and inequitable distribution dilute potential gains In India, large dams evoke strong and often irreconcilable emotions. To...   Read More

NCAER, in collaboration with the International Labour Organization (ILO), organised a one-day roundtable titled Building Inclusive Economies: Gender, Financial Inclusion, and the Platform Workforce on 08 December 2025 at the NCAER campus in New Delhi. The event brought together a diverse group of stakeholders, including senior government and RBI officials, representatives of the ILO and...   Read More

When work is exhaustive, commutes are long, and phones are an easy distraction, leisure reading becomes a luxury. India has long nurtured the image of a “reading society”, a civilisation rooted in the written word. We celebrate the chaos of book fairs, obsess over the rigours of curriculum reform, and fret incessantly over the learning...   Read More

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Invited as the Guest Speaker at the Investor Education and Protection Seminar organized by Department of Economics, Jadavpur University, Kolkata on the theme “Digital Financial Literacy and Data Protection” on February 16th, 2026. Moderator and Speaker at the IEPFA- NCAER Investor Education and Protection Workshop organized in collaboration with Jaipuria Institute of Management, Jaipur on the...   Read More

The IHDS Forum is a monthly update of socio-economic developments in India by the IHDS research community, based on the India Human Development Survey, jointly conducted by NCAER and the University of Maryland. While two earlier rounds of the survey were completed in 2004-05 and 2011-12, respectively. Fieldwork for the third round was undertaken in...   Read More

India has a framework of policies and programmes aimed at supporting older persons, but these are under-utilised and under-resourced relative to the scale of need. At 101 and 92, the two sisters lived alone in a senior citizen housing complex in Pune, a bustling city. Former freedom fighters and fiercely independent, they were determined to...   Read More