This project attempts to analyse the factors behind the duration of state governments in India, including defections and splits of parties in Indian state assemblies, and develop an “opportunism” score for state assemblies and state-level parties, and then try to relate opportunism to duration and state-level economic performance by various indicators. The project is being undertaken in collaboration with the Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi, led by Prof. Bhaskar Dutta, with participation from Dr. Sugata Dasgupta, Jawaharlal Nehru University.