Events

CHAIRPERSON

Prof Prasenjit Duara, Asia Research Institute and Office of Deputy President (Research and Technology), National University of Singapore. 

ABSTRACT

The state of Andhra Pradesh is one of the success stories in NREGS implementation, which is one of the world’s largest employment guarantee schemes being implemented all over India. The program is hobbled by rampant corruption in many Indian states. Andhra Pradesh is different. The poor are demanding and obtaining work through the scheme. And, targeting resources to the poor is effectively implemented in the state. Women, scheduled caste groups and tribal people, the most oppressed section of society, are freely participating in a programme that is alleviating the misery of citizens. Successful programs such as this highlight the triumph of citizen formation over patron client politics, aided by democratic politics. The paper argues that the success of the right to employment in Andhra Pradesh depended heavily on the capacity of the sub-national state, especially in the ability of chief minister Reddy to insulate a committed rural development bureaucracy from powerful farmers with a clear interest in thwarting the program. This paper highlights the role of state capacity in working out an architecture that checked corruption – nay even exploited actors in society strategically to achieve ends. It argues that elections in a democracy have the propensity to elevate citizen concern over particularistic populism driven by ethnic considerations that have characterized large parts of India.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Rahul Mukherji is Associate Professor in the South Asian Studies Programme, National University of Singapore, where he teaches courses on the political economy of India’s and South Asia’s development. He has earlier taught at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi), the Hunter College – City University of New York and the University of Vermont (Burlington). He serves on the editorial board of Pacific Affairs, is a contributing editor of India Review and is on the NUS Advisory Board of International Studies Review. His research has appeared in the Journal of Asian Studies, Review of International Political Economy, Journal of Development Studies, Pacific Affairs, India Review and Economic and Political Weekly. He has edited India’s Economic Transition (Oxford University Press 2007, paperback 2010, 2011) and co-authored with Sumit Ganguly India Since 1980 (Cambridge University Press, 2011), which is being translated into Portuguese. His two forthcoming volumes with Oxford University Press include: The Oxford India Short Introduction to the Political Economy of Reforms in India, and, Globalization and Deregulation: Ideas, Interests and Institutional Change in India.

Himanshu Jha is a doctoral candidate in the South Asian Studies Programme at the National University of Singapore. Jha’s current research interest is to explore the processes of institutional change by looking in-depth at the evolution of Right to Information Act in India. As a part of his doctoral work he wishes to trace the institutional journey of ideas taking shape of norms, being adopted as rights and finally as concrete policies. Jha holds a Bachelor with Honors in History from University of Delhi, Masters in Political Science from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and an M. Phil in Public Policy from Australian National University (ANU), Canberra. Prior to his doctoral engagement he was working in developmental sector in India. Jha’s most recent work is a blend of academic and social research with active advocacy at various policy levels.

REGISTRATION

Admission is free. We would greatly appreciate if you RSVP Mr Jonathan Lee via email: jonathan.lee@nus.edu.sg