Pranav Sidhwani

In most parts of the world there is a direct relation between economic and social well-being and political participation. India, though, is among the exceptions to this tendency. The poor in India vote more than the rich. This paper, using the case of Delhi, shows that neighbourhoods have a significant influence in voting patterns. The rich in poor neighbourhoods vote more than the rich in affluent neighbourhoods and the poor in rich neighbourhoods vote less than the poor in underprivileged neighbourhoods. This paper uses property tax and property categories to arrive at Delhi's wealth parameters and then tries to match them with voting patterns.

Read more about Urban Voting and Party Choices in Delhi

Spatial Inequalities in Big Indian Cities

Vol. 50, Issue No. 22, 30 May, 2015

Pranav Sidhwani

Using ward-level data released by the census, the paper carries out a study of residential segregation in the 10 most populated Indian cities. It finds that there is significant residential segregation by caste and also by access to in-house drinking water, a basic public good, and access to in-house latrines, a basic private good. Further, in the case of some cities covered in the study, the proportion of Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes in wards is highly correlated with access to public, private, and luxury goods.