S Chandrasekhar

S Chandrasekhar

Office Telephone : +91-22-69096551
Email id : chandra@igidr.ac.in
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Urban Poverty.

  • S Chandrasekhar and A Mukhopadhyay "Poverty and Well-being in Indian Cities during the Reforms Era" Poverty and Public Policy, The Berkeley Electronic Press, Vol. 2: Iss. 2, Article 7, 2010 |Working Paper| |Journal|
  • S Chandrasekhar and A Mukhopadhyay "Multiple Dimensions of Urban Well-Being: Evidence from India", in Asian Population Studies, Volume 8, Issue 2, 2012 |Working Paper| |Journal|
  • S Chandrasekhar and A Mukhopadhyay "Socioeconomic Heterogeneity in Urban India" , in George Martine, Gordon McGranahan, Mark R Montgomery, and Rogelio Fernandez-Castilla edited, New Global Frontier: Urbanization, Poverty and Environment in the 21st Century, Earthscan, 2008 |Google Books|
  • S Chandrasekhar and Tesfayi Gebreselassie "Exploring Intra Urban Differences in Economic Well Being in India" , in R Radhakrishna, edited, India Development Report 2008, Oxford University Press, 2008
  • S Chandrasekhar "Improving Demographic Outcomes in Slums" , in Parth J Shah and Makarand Bakore, edited, Ward Power: Decentralised Urban Governance, Centre for Civil Society, 2006

 

Urban Housing.

  • S Chandrasekhar "Home Based Workers and Multiple Uses of Dwellings in Urban India" , Environment and Urbanisation Asia, Vol 5(2), September 2014
  • S Chandrasekhar and Mark R. Montgomery "Broadening Poverty Definitions in India: Basic needs in Urban Housing" , Working paper, International Institute for Environment and Development, U.K. |Working Paper|

 

Urbanisation.

  • S Chandrasekhar and Ajay Sharma "On the Spatial Concentration of Employment in India", Economic and Political Weekly, Vol 49 No 21, pp.16-18, May 2014 |Working Paper|
  • S Chandrasekhar "Urbanization in a Decade of near Jobless Growth", Chapter 5, "Subaltern Urbanization in India. An Introduction to Ordinary Towns' Dynamics" , Edited by: Eric Denis and Marie-Helene Zerah, Springer (forthcoming)
  • S Chandrasekhar and Niharika Venkatesh "Planning for Smart Cities: Where to Start?", Yojana, September 2014
  • S Chandrasekhar "Urban Growth Patterns and its Implications for Future Economic, Social, Demographic and Environmental Scenarios in India", Draft Paper prepared for State of World Population 2007 Report, United Nations Population Fund |Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth |

 

Rural-Urban Disparities.

  • Vijay Laxmi Pandey and S Chandrasekhar "Rural-Urban Disparities in Maharashtra", Serial Publishers, 2009

 

Mobility.

  • S Chandrasekhar and Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay "The Changing Nature of Rurality: Reframing the Discourse on Migration and Commuting" , Chapter 9, Rural Labour Mobility in Times of Structural Transformation Dynamics and Perspectives from Asian Economies, edited by D Narasimha Reddy and Kailash Sarap, Palgrave Macmillan
  • S Chandrasekhar and Ajay Sharma "On the Internal Mobility of Indians: Knowledge Gaps and Emerging Concerns", in S Mahendra Dev, edited, India Development Report 2012, Oxford University Press, 2012 |Working Paper|

 

Mobility: Migration.

  • S Chandrasekhar "Migration and Commuting by Individuals in India: Estimates, Welfare Implications, and Knowledge Gaps" , Background Paper for "The State of Food and Agriculture 2018", Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
  • S Chandrasekhar and Leena Bhattacharya "Education of Children from Migrant Rural Households in India: Moving Towards a Coherent Policy Framework" , Background Paper for "Global Education Monitoring Report 2019", UNESCO
  • S Chandrasekhar, Mukta Naik and Shamindra Nath Roy "On the Importance of Triangulating Datasets to Examine Indians on the Move" , Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 52, Issue No. 47, 25 November 2017 |Working Paper|
  • S Chandrasekhar and Soham Sahoo "Short-term Migration in Rural India: The Impact of Nature and Extent of Participation in Agriculture" |Working Paper|
  • S Chandrasekhar and Ajay Sharma "Urbanization and Spatial Patterns of Internal Migration in India", Spatial Demography, Volume 3: No 1, 2015 |Journal|
  • Tushar Agrawal and S Chandrasekhar "Labour Market Outcomes of the Itinerant Worker in Rural India" , Journal of International Development, |<ahref="http: onlinelibrary.wiley.com="" doi="" 10.1002="" jid.3126="" abstract"="" target="_blank">Journal| |Working Paper|
  • S Chandrasekhar, Mousumi Das and Ajay Sharma "Short Term Migration and Consumption Expenditure in Rural India", Oxford Development Studies, Vol 43, No 1, pp. 105-122, 2015 |Working Paper| |Journal|
  • S Chandrasekhar and Ajay Sharma "Internal Migration for Education and Employment among Youth", Chapter 9 in State of the Urban Youth, India 2012: Employment, Livelihoods, Skills, Report Commissioned by UN-HABITAT's Global Urban Youth Research Network |Report|

 

Mobility: Commuting.

  • S Chandrasekhar "Workers Commuting between the Rural and Urban: Estimates from NSSO Data", Economic and Political Weekly, November 2011, Vol XLVL no 46, P. 22-25
  • Ajay Sharma and S Chandrasekhar "The Growth of the Urban Shadow, Spatial Distribution of Economic Activities and Commuting by Workers in Rural and Urban India", World Development, Volume 61, pp. 154-166, Sept 2014 |Working Paper|
  • Ajay Sharma and S Chandrasekhar " Impact of Commuting by Workers on Household Dietary Diversity in Rural India", Food Policy, Vol 59, pp. 34-43, February 2016

 

Labour Markets, Employment.

  • S Chandrasekhar and Ajay Sharma "On the Spatial Concentration of Employment in India", Economic and Political Weekly, Vol 49 No 21, pp.16-18, May 2014
  • Hema Swaminathan and S Chandrasekhar "Womens Willingness to Work: Evidence from Rural India"
  • Hema Swaminathan and S Chandrasekhar "Gender Differences in Time Disposition in Rural India"

 

India Development.

  • S Chandrasekhar "By Chance or By Design: India's Makeover since 2001", in S Mahendra Dev, edited, India Development Report 2015, Oxford University Press, 2015
  • S Chandrasekhar "Macroeconomic Overview", in D M Nachane, edited, India Development Report 2011, Oxford University Press, 2011
  • S Chandrasekhar "Factors Affecting Age at Marriage and Age at First Birth in India" , Journal of Quantitative Economics, Vol 8, No.2, July 2010
  • Jayanti Ravi and S Chandrasekhar "Transforming Public System Governance: A Way Forward" in H S Shylendra, edited, New Governance and Development - Challenges of Addressing Poverty and Inequality, Academic Foundation 2009
  • R Radhakrishna and S Chandrasekhar "Overview - Growth: Achievements and Distress" , in R Radhakrishna, edited, India Development Report 2008, Oxford University Press, 2008
  • S Chandrasekhar "Willingness to Contribute to Sanitation Projects - Evidence from India" , Journal of Quantitative Economics, Vol 5 No.2, July 2007
  • S Chandrasekhar and Priyodorshi Banerjee "Access to Water and Sanitation and the Willingness to Pay for Projects: Evidence from Female and Male-Headed Households in Rural India" , in Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt, edited, Fluid Bonds: Views on Gender and Water, The National Institute of Environment, The Australian National University, Canberra, 2006

 

Incomes and Livelihoods in Rural India.

  • Sanjoy Chakravorty, S Chandrasekhar and Karthikeya Naraparaju "Income Generation and Inequality in India's Agricultural Sector: The Consequences of Land Fragmentation" |Working Paper|
  • S Chandrasekhar, Vijay Laxmi Pandey and Soham Sahoo "Crop Choice Patterns and Dynamics in Indian Agriculture"
  • S Chandrasekhar and Nirupam Mehrotra "Doubling of Income of Farmers by 2022: How Feasible & What would it take?", Economic and Political Weekly, Vol 51 No 18, pp. 10-13, April 2016

 

Food Security & Nutrition .

  • S Chandrasekhar, Victor M. Aguayo, Vandana Krishna, and Rajlakshmi Nair "Household Food Insecurity and Children's Dietary Diversity and Nutrition in India. Evidence from the Comprehensive Nutrition Survey in Maharashtra", Maternal & Child Nutrition, 2017 |Journal|
  • S Chandrasekhar, S Mahendra Dev and Vijay Laxmi Pandey "Pathways from Agriculture to Nutrition: Implications of the Occupation Structure in Rural India", Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Volume 58, Issue 4, 529-543, December 2015
  • S Chandrasekhar and Vijay Laxmi Pandey "Food Sufficiency in India: Addressing the Data Gaps", Economic and Political Weekly, Vol 50 No. 9, February 28, 2015

 

Financial Inclusion.

  • S Chandrasekhar, Geetha Rani, Soham Sahoo "Household Expenditure on Higher Education and Borrowing for Higher Education: What do recent data have to say?" |Working Paper|
  • S Chandrasekhar "Reading the Tea Leaves on Financial Inclusion: The Case of Rural Labour Households", Economic and Political Weekly, Vol 49, No 3, pp 43-51, Jan 2014 |Working Paper|

 

Education.

  • S Chandrasekhar, Geetha Rani, Soham Sahoo "Household Expenditure on Higher Education and Borrowing for Higher Education: What do recent data have to say?" |Working Paper|
  • S Chandrasekhar and M. H. Suryanarayana "Education for All in India: Issues, Policies and Imperatives", Chapter 7 in "Indian Economy in Transition: Emerging Issues and Challenges-Essays in Honor of C.T. Kurien", edited by S. Janakarajan, L. Venkatachalam, and R. Maria Saleth, Sage Publications India Limited
  • Sajeda Amin and S. Chandrasekhar "Looking beyond Universal Primary Education: Gender differences in time use among children in rural Bangladesh", Asian Population Studies, 8:1, pp. 23-38, 2012 |Working Paper|
  • S Chandrasekhar and Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay "Primary Education as a Fundamental Right: Cost Implications", Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 41, No. 35, pp. 3797-3804, Sept 2006

 

Conflict.

  • S Chandrasekhar, T Gebreselassie and Anuja Jayaraman "Maternal Health Care Seeking Behavior in a Post-Conflict HIPC: The Case of Rwanda", Population Research and Policy Review, Vol 30 (1), pp-25-41, Feb 2011 |Working Paper|
  • Anuja Jayaraman, T Gebreselassie and S Chandrasekhar "Effect of Conflict on Age at Marriage and Age at First Birth in Rwanda", Population Research and Policy Review, Vol 28 (5), pp- 551-567, Oct 2009 |Working Paper|

 

Research Projects Completed.

  • "Strengthen and Harmonize Research and Action on Migration in the Indian Context (SHRAMIC)"

The initiative seeks to improve our understanding of livelihood strategies of migrants, migrant workers and their families, suggest evidence based policy prescriptions for protection of the rights of migrants and create a conducive environment for migrants and recognize the contribution of migrants while formulating poverty reduction and employment strategies. As part of this initiative we have conceptualized SHRAM as a Research Portal and Data Repository. It will serve as an online knowledge community on migration in South Asia with a specific focus on India |SHRAM|. SHRAMIC which is supported by a grant from Tata Trusts seeks to address the following four questions:
1. What are the various types of migration flows captured by nationally representative data and localized studies in order to trace the source of apparent disconnect in the estimates of migration rates and number of migrants based on nationally representative data (lower) and localized studies (higher)?
2. What are the legal and structural impediments to migration?
3. Given that India is becoming increasingly urban, what is the nature of urban livelihoods and what determines the ability of migrants to access livelihoods?
4. How effective is migration as a livelihood strategy?

  • "India: Urban Rural Boundaries and Basic Services"

The IND-URBBS is constructed around understanding how outcomes in urban settlements like structure of occupation, delivery of basic services, and broader aspects of citizenship are affected by the interaction between citizens and state governance mechanisms in three types of sites, viz.: (i) census towns vis-a-vis small statutory towns (ii) informal settlements in large cities vis-a-vis formal settlements of similar nature and (iii) peripheral settlements inside the municipal boundary of the city vis-a-vis settlements outside the municipal city boundary, thereby assessing the effect of differences in public policies according to the extent to which these sites are acknowledged by the state. The University of Burdwan, West Bengal and Indira Gandhi Institute for Development Research, Mumbai are partners in this intiative, which is housed in Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi.

  • "The Commuting Worker: An Overlooked Aspect of Rural-Urban Interaction: Evidence from India" , Japanese Award for Outstanding Research on Development (First Prize),The Global Development Awards and Medals Competition 2011.

With Indian cities unwelcoming of migrants and lack of employment growth in rural India, an alternative, albeit effective livelihood strategy is commuting daily from rural to urban areas for work. Nearly 12.5 million workers cross the rural-urban boundary everyday while 12.2 million workers report not having a fixed place of work. Such movement of workers is fast developing as an important and new channel of interaction between the rural and urban economy. The goal of this study is to improve our understanding of the commuting worker and highlight the importance of rural-urban commuting as an important feature of the interaction between rural and urban sectors of the Indian economy. Unlike migration, the increase in the number of commuting workers across rural-urban boundaries is relatively under researched. It is expected that this study can help nudge the policy debates away from a primarily migration centric discussion.

  • "Subaltern Urbanisation in India |SUBURBIN|

The SUBURBIN project positions itself in opposition to a vision of urbanisation reduced to metropolitanization and competition between global cities and that tends to consider the urban world only through the prism of very large cities-even though half of the world's city dwellers do not reside there. The project aims to offer alternative perspectives on 'urban transition' from different disciplines, and linking the macro and micro analysis levels. Beyond a scientific aim, it also strives to actively contribute to the debates about the plurality of development models.

  • "Background Paper for Reports"

1. S Chandrasekhar (2018) "Migration and Commuting by Individuals in India: Estimates, Welfare Implications, and Knowledge Gaps", Background Paper for "The State of Food and Agriculture 2018", Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
2. S Chandrasekhar and Leena Bhattacharya (2018) "Education of Children from Migrant Rural Households in India: Moving Towards a Coherent Policy Framework", Background Paper for "Global Education Monitoring Report 2019", UNESCO
3. S Chandrasekhar (2007) "Urban Growth Patterns and its Implications for Future Economic, Social, Demographic and Environmental Scenarios in India", Background paper for the "State of World Population 2007 Report, Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth", United Nations Population Fund

  • "Construction of Composite Index for Household Amenities", Study Commissioned by Planning Commission, Government of India, 2007.

The terms of reference of the study were the following
1. Determining the principles governing the formation of an index of different amenities used by the households, viz. type of housing, source of drinking water, type of sanitation, source of lighting and type of cooking fuels from human health and general well-being point of view.
2. Giving both intra amenity and inter-amenity quantitative weights.
3. Giving rationale / justification for assigning such weights.
4. Testing the proposed indices on the information available from 2001 census on the basis of relevant social indicators

  • "Poverty Hotspots in Rural India", Report Submitted to United Nations Development Programme as part of the National Research Programme on Growth and Human Development, 2005, (with Shovan Ray).

By focusing on the geographical concentration of poor assetless households, our objective is to identify poverty hotspots in rural India. We take a different approach in two respects. First, the objective is not to generate an estimate of the number of poor people. Instead, we try to identify the poorest regions of India; by region the reference is to a geographical area (for instance-district or at the sub-district level (tehsil, mandal, block etc)). Such characterization, we argue, not only helps uncover the extent of heterogeneity within each state but could also prove useful for the purposes of geographical targeting of government programmes. Secondly, instead of using NSS data on consumption expenditure of households, we use data on ownership of assets collected as part of Census 2001.

  • "Lessons from Akshaya E-literacy Project in Malappuram, Kerala", Report submitted to the Gender Caucus, World Summit on Information Society, 2005, (with Anuja Jayaraman).

There exist a plethora of initiatives using ICT for improving the delivery of government services and developmental programmes focussing on rural areas in particular. One ambitious programme is the public-private partnership, Akshaya, the state wide e-literacy programme launched by the Kerala State Government. The pilot project was introduced in Malappuram district, Kerala in November 2002. The e-literacy of the entire district was completed within a short span of two years. What are the important lessons to be learnt from the pilot phase of Akshaya in Malappuram?

  • "Rural-Urban Disparities in Maharashtra", Research Study Undertaken for National Institute of Rural Development, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, 2005, (with Vijay Laxmi Pandey)

The focus of the project was on improving our understanding of "Growing Rural-Urban Disparities in Maharashtra".

  • Big Data and Machine Learning for Economists (Jan-Apr 2023)
  • Indian Economy (Aug-Dec 2020, Aug-Dec 2021, Aug-Dec 2022, Aug-Dec 2023)
  • Introduction to Python for Economists (Aug-Dec 2022, Aug-Dec 2023)
  • Development Economics (Jan-Apr 2005, Jan-Apr 2006, Jan-Apr 2007, Jan-Apr 2013, Jan-June 2020)
  • Structural Transformation (Jan-Apr 2018, Jan-Apr 2019)
  • Econometrics-I (Aug-Dec 2015, Aug-Dec 2016, Aug-Dec 2017)
  • Econometrics-II (Jan-Apr 2009, Jan-Apr 2010, Jan-Apr 2011, Jan-Apr 2012, Jan-Apr 2018)
  • International Trade (Aug-Dec 2005)
  • Microeconomics-I (Aug-Dec 2005, Aug-Dec 2006)

Available on Request