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In this introductory paper of the Special Issue, we explore how India's political economy is moving in a new direction by focusing on three key political economy issues: development, welfare, and governance. India has undergone a substantial political transformation in recent years, especially since Bharatiya Janata Party led by Narendra Modi formed the first majoritarian government in three decades in 2014. In this paper, we first demonstrate that this political transformation has a significant impact on the Indian political economy, given that the country is witnessing the rise of a new developmentalism, a new welfarism, and the new modes of governance. After that, we summarize the collections of articles of the Special Issue and situate them in relation to our central theme, new directions in the Indian political economy. This paper, and this Special Issue more broadly, seeks to contribute to the existing literature by introducing new analytical frameworks to understand recent changes in the Indian political economy and providing new empirical evidence on this topic drawing on content analysis and field research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explains the potential implications of digital interventions for social accountability through the Smart Cities Mission (SCM) in India. The SCM represents India's transition to a new political economy based on rapid urbanization and wide-scale application of digital technology to reform public service delivery while simultaneously creating new markets for urban transformation. Within this wider context, the paper considers the future of democratic practices in urban governance. We argue that while citizen-led accountability practices were trialed by civil society organizations since 1990s, the SCM presented unique opportunity and challenge to institutionalize these tools within the framework of multi-scalar governance — between central-, state- and local-level institutions and between communities, private vendors and public bodies. Zooming into the four smart city projects — Indore, Kakinada, Panaji and Ranchi — we explain how each city engaged with citizen groups, communities and civil society and what their experiences tell us about the prospects and challenges of democratizing digital urban futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under what conditions do policy paradigms succeed in historically weak states? To answer these questions, this paper examines the subnational case of Bihar in India. The existing literature portrays Bihar as lacking capacity. Yet, between 2005 and 2010, astounding improvements have taken place in sectors of transparency and accountability and law & order. How do we explain this? This paper shows that ideas are consequential in initiating changes in policy paradigms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

America's Indo-Pacific strategy is essentially a combination of its Asia-Pacific and Indian strategies: through the consolidation of its strategic alliances, it can deepen its relations with Asia-Pacific allies, and through its "wedging strategy" it can pull India into its orbit to become a strategic "fulcrum" bridging the region. India was both a key member and leader of the non-aligned movement, while also previously forming a "quasi-alliance" with the Soviet Union. At present, it has responded to the US Indo-Pacific strategy with cautious initiative. From the vantage point of a state targeted vis-à-vis a wedging strategy, India's strategic behavior is shaped by the strategic environment, its primary strategic objectives, and the relations between allies within the context of a unique strategic environment. This paper identifies two types of strategic environments: the general strategic environment and the specialized strategic environment; it further identifies primary strategic objectives as economic development, sovereign integrity and independence, national security and great state status (especially with respect to that of regional or global major powers); meanwhile, the alliance relationship is defined according to the extent to which there are divisions across state interests and the capacity of states to act autonomously vis-à-vis the alliance. Through an analysis of India's diplomatic experiences, this paper argues that against the backdrop of America's "Indo-Pacific" strategy and a lose general strategic environment, the primary strategic objective of achieving major state status and a "large divide over interests and a major space for autonomous action" shape India's cautious initiative with respect to its alliance relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of global economy has pushed up the importance of insurance industry in the growth of an economy. This paper intends to study the non-life insurance sector with an objective to identify the macro-economic factors that influence its growth. Time series data of 37 years is considered using Johansen & Engle Granger Cointegration and Ordinary Least Square method. It was found that Final Consumption Expenditure plays a negatively significant role in influencing non-life insurance sector in India. The practical implication of this study lies in controlling the responsible factors through appropriate policy measures to ensure a sustainable growth of the non-life Insurance sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic growth in India has been impressive in the last few decades, yet it continues to be a home for millions of poor. The poverty measures debate across the developing world has generated more heat than light as there is no consensus on constructing the poverty line. Characterization of poverty and heterogeneity of the poor needs more profound understanding and investigation. This paper attempts to provide an alternative framework to track Chronic and Transient poverty through decile density analysis and the Chronic-Transient Poverty Ratio by applying the Kernel Density function for the National Sample Survey Organisation's consumer expenditure distribution in 55th, 61st, 66th, and 68th quinquennial rounds. An increase and a stagnant CTP ratio for urban and rural India implies that poverty reduction interventions are less impactful in rural India. A renewed thrust on poverty alleviation programmes is required in Urban India. Other developing and underdeveloped countries can emulate the proposed framework to analyze chronic and transient poverty conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do political determinants affect economic outcomes? How have neoliberal ideas been materialized in promoting foreign direct investment (FDI) under the Narendra Modi government in India? This study explains how the political determinants have affected FDI inflows facilitating the risk-minimizing environment for investors, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. It investigates Modi's political beliefs in governance, which promoted neoliberal ideas and FDI deregulation. It further explores how Modi's political ideas have accelerated the institutional change in the FDI regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the state and governance of India's food security, with a specific focus on developments under the Modi/BJP administrations since 2014. Whilst the discourse of Modi/BJP administrations suggests a significant departure from previous administrations' governance approaches, I find that the governance of both macro-level and micro-level food security in India has remained broadly unchanged over the past few decades. Macro-level aspects of food security, food availability and food stability, continue to be governed through the framework of the Public Distribution System (PDS) and Minimum Support Prices paid out to farmers for the cultivation of rice and wheat. Micro-level aspects of food security, food access and food utilization, remain managed through a network of social programs, primarily the PDS, the Integrated Child Development Services, and the Mid-Day Meals Scheme. One key difference has been a greater success of the Modi administrations in tying the programs' achievements, even if modest, directly to Modi and the BJP, giving the BJP an electoral boost. The focus on short-term political gains has, however, undermined India's governance effectiveness and with it its ability to implement policies capable of addressing India's longer-term structural food-security challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) are instrumental in enabling the economic empowerment of women. We examine the efficiency and performance of 84 Indian MFIs from 2016 to 2018 using a two-stage double bootstrap approach. Our results show that MFIs with increased outreach and actively target female borrowers achieve higher efficiency. Furthermore, we find larger MFIs and higher leverage intensity to be positively associated with efficiency. Government policies should be encouraged to support current MFIs to grow larger, actively target female borrowers and increase outreach to the poor to support India's financial inclusion agenda and facilitate the economic empowerment of women whist revitalizing less efficient MFIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]