Accelerating India’s Development: A State-Led Roadmap for Effective Governance

CASI Seminar

A CASI Book Talk in partnership with Penn Economics and the South Asia Center

Karthik Muralidharan
Tata Chancellor’s Professor of Economics, University of California San Diego
Center for the Advanced Study of India
Ronald O. Perelman Center for Political Science & Economics
133 South 36th Street, Suite 230
Philadelphia PA 19104-6215




About the Book:
Accelerating India’s Development: A State-Led Roadmap for Effective Governance (Penguin, 2024) systematically analyses India’s governance challenges, especially in delivering essential public services, and highlights how these are limiting India’s development. Drawing on a wealth of research and practical insights, it provides actionable, evidence-based strategies, emphasizing state-level reforms as critical for India’s advancement. The book is addressed to all Indians—leaders, officials, entrepreneurs, teachers, students, citizens, and civil society—and provides an urgent call to action. It argues that building a more effective state is the great unfinished task of Indian democracy, because quality public services are key to translating the political equality of “one person, one vote” into greater equality of opportunity for all Indians.

About the Author:
Karthik Muralidharan is the Tata Chancellor’s Professor of Economics at the University of California San Diego, and the co-founder and scientific director of the Centre for Effective Governance of Indian States, a non-profit organization that works with multiple state governments across India to improve state capacity, governance, and service delivery.

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The Nand & Jeet Khemka Distinguished Lecture Series is an endowed public program of the Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI). Launched in the 2007-08 academic year, and made possible through the generous support of the Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation, the series brings renowned India specialists to the Penn community and serves as a critical forum for analyzing and understanding the complex economic, political, social, and cultural changes that the world’s largest democracy is experiencing, as well as the challenges that lie ahead.
The Saluja Global Fellows Program has been made possible by the generous gift from Vishal Saluja ENG’89 W’89. CASI was excited to launch the program during the 2022–23 academic year, coinciding with the Center’s 30th Anniversary. This new program enables CASI to invite eminent leaders and rising experts on contemporary India preferably from the fields of media, culture, law, and contemporary history to be in residence for one to two weeks at CASI.