Quid Pro Quo: Builders, Politicians, and Election Finance in India- Working Paper 276

In developing countries where elections are costly and accountability mechanisms weak, politicians often turn to illicit means of financing campaigns. This paper examines one such channel of illicit campaign finance: India’s real estate sector. Politicians and builders allegedly engage in a quid pro quo, whereby the former park their illicit assets with the latter, and the latter rely on the former for favorable dispensation. At election time, however, builders need to re-route funds to politicians as a form of indirect election finance. One observable implication is that the demand for cement, the indispensible raw material used in the sector, should contract during elections since builders need to inject funds into campaigns. Using a novel monthly-level data set, we demonstrate that cement consumption does exhibit a political business cycle consistent with our hypothesis. Additional tests provide confidence in the robustness and interpretation of our findings.elections, election finance, corruption, political economy, India

Modi's Reform Agenda: Change You Can Believe In? Asia Policy Brief 2015/04, November 2015

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi entered office with a historic political mandate. For the first time in thirty years, a single party won a majority of seats in the lower house of Parliament (Lok Sabha). However, Modi faces skyhigh expectations to fulfill his campaign promises of getting India’s economy back on track. Eighteen months into his government’s term and in the wake of electoral defeats in the states of Delhi and Bihar, questions are being raised about its economic performance. While the Modi government has stabilized India’s macroeconomy and announced a series of incremental economic reforms, more sweeping changes have fallen victim to India’s nettlesome domestic politics, including roadblocks within the ruling alliance

Why do voters back corrupt and dishonest politicians? Interview with Milan Vaishnav

A candidate with criminal allegations hanging over them will repel voters – or will they? Not necessarily. In India, a third of the MPs elected in 2014 faced an ongoing criminal case. Milan Vaishnav, the author of a new book about the nexus of crime and democracy in India, talks to Ros Taylor about the appeal of a strongman who can ‘get things done’, even if it means breaking the law – and considers whether some US voters share the same instincts

Assessment of ground water quality in and around of Madhyabharat paper mills, Janjgir-Champa, C.G, India

Water is the most abundant precious and essential compound to sustain the life on the earth. Analytical studies of some selected physicochemical parameter with metallic elements were made on the underground water bodies of Paper mills industrial areas Janjgir-Champa Chhattisgarh. Water samples were collected from four different selected spot in the month of Oct'2012 to Dec'2012. Temperature, pH, E.C, Turbidity, TDS and D.O were analyzed instantly at the sampling spot while T.S, TSS, TH, Total Alkalinity, BOD, COD, Cl−, F−,SO42−, NO3−, PO43−, Na, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Cu, Zn, Mn and Phenol by the standard method as per IS procedure.  The statistical parameters like mean, SD, SE, %CV and Correlation coefficient(r) and WQI were systematically calculated. Around 60% of these parameters were above the maximum permissible limit of IS: 10500 and WHO standard of drinking water. The elevated values of these parameters are of great concern to public health when the water from these bore wells are consumed by people without treatment

The Merits of Money and "Muscle": Essays on Criminality, Elections and Democracy in India

This dissertation seeks to understand how democratic elections can coexist with a significant number of politicians implicated in criminal wrongdoing. Specifically, it seeks answers to three questions. Why do parties nominate candidates with criminal backgrounds? Why do voters vote for them? And what does their proliferation mean for democratic accountability? To address these questions, I draw on a wide body of quantitative and qualitative evidence from India, the world's largest democracy. I argue that parties are attracted to criminal politicians because they have access to financial resources that allow them to function as self-financing candidates. Whereas the prevailing consensus in political economy suggests that voters support "bad politicians" because they lack adequate information on candidate quality, I develop an alternate theory that suggests well-informed voters can display rational behavior by voting for such candidates. Specifically, in contexts where social divisions are highly salient, voters often desire a representative who they perceive can protect group-based interests most credibly. In such settings, criminality can serve as a useful signal of a candidate's credibility. As a result, parties selectively field criminal candidates in those areas where social divisions are most pronounced. The implications of this study are far reaching because they suggest that information about a candidate's criminality is not only available, but actually is central to understanding the viability of his candidacy. Thus, there are circumstances in which "bad politicians" can in fact be compatible with democratic accountability. Empirically, this dissertation makes use of a unique, author-constructed database of affidavits submitted by more than 60,000 candidates contesting state and national elections between 2003 and 2009. This dataset contains detailed information on candidates' financial and criminal records from 37 elections, which I analyze using state-of-the-art quantitative methods. I complement these quantitative analyses with qualitative fieldwork conducted in three states, including an in-depth exploration of the case of Bihar, a state in north India

The Three Faces of the Indian State

For more than seven decades, India’s Constitution has provided a framework for liberal democracy to flourish in one of the world’s most diverse societies. Legal changes and shifts in bureaucratic practices, however, have undermined central tenets of the prevailing order. In today’s India, the assent of the people is both necessary and sufficient to justify all forms of state action. This article outlines three manifestations of India’s new constitutionalism — the “ethnic state,” the “absolute state,” and the “opaque state.” These distinct, yet overlapping faces of the Indian state have undermined the rule of law, equal citizenship, checks and balances, and democratic accountability

The Three Faces of the Indian State

For more than seven decades, India’s Constitution has provided a framework for liberal democracy to flourish in one of the world’s most diverse societies. Legal changes and shifts in bureaucratic practices, however, have undermined central tenets of the prevailing order. In today’s India, the assent of the people is both necessary and sufficient to justify all forms of state action. This article outlines three manifestations of India’s new constitutionalism — the “ethnic state,” the “absolute state,” and the “opaque state.” These distinct, yet overlapping faces of the Indian state have undermined the rule of law, equal citizenship, checks and balances, and democratic accountability

Poverty and the Social Sectors: The World Bank in Pakistan 1990-2003.

Over the past decade, the World Bank has consistently emphasized the importance of reducing poverty and improving the delivery of basic social services in Pakistan. Indeed, its resolve to do just that is evident in dozens of official and unofficial studies and assessments, in the Bank’s country assistance strategies, and in the content of its loans. However, a simple fact remains: since the early 1990s, no measurable progress has been made in reducing poverty in Pakistan. In fact, Pakistan remains among the worst countries in the world for a child (and particularly a girl) to be born into. That is so despite its relatively auspicious geographic position, its reasonably good colonial legacy in terms of a professional civil service and the existence of core infrastructure, and the world-class accomplishments of its educated citizens in politics, the arts, and academia