Abhishek Waghmare

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Selected by the author to showcase their most insightful analyses

Work

A higher education is seen as a pathway to better jobs and wages. We examine the work that India's 140 million graduates do, and whether having a higher education is a guarantee of better employment.

Abhishek Waghmare

Economy

Household spending in India

Consumption expenditure, an important indicator of living standards, has risen steadily, and the share of spending on food has declined sharply.

Abhishek Waghmare

Measurement

Changes in the World Bank's measurement of poverty in India

In the absence of Indian poverty estimates for over a decade, the World Bank's estimates have become the key source of data for India. We track the methodological changes that underpin the Bank's new estimates, and their impact on Indian data.

Abhishek Waghmare

All articles

Read the author's full set of work across key socio-economic themes

Work Employment

Salaried jobs in India

As countries grow and develop and their workers gain more skills, most jobs become salaried or regular wage jobs. While the share of salaried jobs in India is growing, salaried workers remain a minority, and many do not have the benefits typically associated with such work.

Abhishek Waghmare

Measurement Poverty

Changes in the World Bank's measurement of poverty in India

Abhishek Waghmare

Economy Economic growth

The World Bank's estimates of poverty in India

In June 2025, the World Bank revised its global poverty lines, producing new estimates for the levels of poverty in India and the rest of the world. In this piece, we look at the different poverty lines, their impact on poverty numbers for India, and how they were constructed.

Abhishek Waghmare

The World Bank's estimates of poverty in India

Work Higher education

What do India's graduates do?

A higher education is seen as a pathway to better jobs and wages. We examine the work that India's 140 million graduates do, and whether having a higher education is a guarantee of better employment.

Abhishek Waghmare

Economy Industry

Unorganised manufacturing

Most of India's manufacturing workforce is in the unorganised sector, working in small, family-run units. In this piece we look at the size and scale of unorganised manufacturing in the country, what these units make and whom they employ.

Abhishek Waghmare

Economy Industry

India's manufacturing hubs

Factories in India are concentrated regionally. While food products, textile and apparel are the biggest employers, the manufacture of metals drives value added. Each of these industries has its own regional hubs.

Ishan Deodhar • Abhishek Waghmare

Living Conditions Technology

Computer ownership and usage

Household ownership of computers in India remains low, particularly in rural India. The share of Indian adults who report being able to use a computer is also growing very slowly.

Abhishek Waghmare

Economy Industry

India’s factories

India's 200,000 factories employ 18.5 million workers and are significant contributors to the economy. We look at where they are, what they produce and whom them employ.

Abhishek Waghmare

Economy Economic growth

Inflation

Inflation in India - the rate at which the general prices of goods and services rise - is now relatively low and steady. However, parts of the household budget are sometimes affected by price spikes, which can dent the purchasing power of families.

Abhishek Waghmare

Economy Banking

Retail payments in India

Over the last two decades, India has seen a decline in the use of traditional modes of payments, like cash and cheques, and an explosion in the use of digital modes of payments. However, inequities in access remain a concern.

Abhishek Waghmare

Work Employment

Self-employment

The self-employed make up the majority of the Indian workforce. But self-employment plays out in different ways among men and women, and between rural and urban India.

Abhishek Waghmare

Living Conditions Economic growth

Households assets in India

The ownership of assets is one way to understand living standards in a country. In India, TVs are the most commonly owned of four key assets.

Abhishek Waghmare

Economy Banking

Access to banking

Nearly everyone in India now has a bank account. However, some gender gaps remain, and not everyone with an account uses it.

Abhishek Waghmare

Work Female employment

Why has female labour force participation in India changed?

After being low by global standards for decades, and falling further since the mid 2000s, the share of Indian women who are in the labour force has increased. We examine the parts of the workforce and the economy where these changes have occurred.

Abhishek Waghmare

Why has female labour force participation in India changed?

Measurement Education

How India measures literacy

Literacy rates are rising fast in India. But how literacy is defined matters, as does the manner in which surveys on literacy are conducted, resulting in some illiterate people being missed from official statistics.

Abhishek Waghmare

Living Conditions Technology

ICT skills

Most Indians can send messages, but far fewer have the information and communications technology (ICT) skills needed to do calculations, make presentations or write code. There are large gaps between rural and urban Indians, and between men and women.

Abhishek Waghmare

Economy Economic growth

The economies of Indian states

India's states differ from each other not only in the sizes of their populations, but also in the sizes of their economies. While all states are growing, the rate of growth varies significantly between regions.

Abhishek Waghmare

Living Conditions Assets

Vehicle ownership in India

Two-wheeler ownership has become more widespread in India, but car ownership is relatively low and concentrated among some groups.

Abhishek Waghmare

Economy Household spending

Household spending in India

Consumption expenditure, an important indicator of living standards, has risen steadily, and the share of spending on food has declined sharply.

Abhishek Waghmare

Measurement Household spending

Measuring consumption expenditure

Consumption expenditure data is vital to the understanding of living standards in India. The latest official data offers a new window, but has also seen key changes in methodology.

Abhishek Waghmare

Living Conditions Education

Higher education

Enrolment in higher education has grown relatively slowly in India, and large regional and gender gaps persist.

Abhishek Waghmare

Living Conditions Education

Education levels in India

Over time, the share of the population that is illiterate has declined sharply. But few Indians go on to get a higher education.

Abhishek Waghmare

Living Conditions Education

Literacy in India

India is nearing universal literacy, and historic gaps between socio-economic groups are narrowing.

Abhishek Waghmare

Living Conditions Education

Enrolment in education

Independent India has brought almost every Indian child into school. But there's still a long way to go with higher education.

Abhishek Waghmare

Economy Economic growth

Trade

Software service exports in particular have transformed the nature of international trade between India and the world.

Abhishek Waghmare

Work Employment

Employment in India

Who is in India’s labour force, who is out of it, what work people in the labour force do, and who is unemployed.

Abhishek Waghmare

Economy Agriculture

The move away from agriculture

As countries industrialise and grow, the contribution of agriculture to the economy starts to fall. But the pathways from there on are diverse, and India is in some ways unique.

Abhishek Waghmare

Measurement Employment

Measuring employment and unemployment

What is work in Indian statistics, how is work captured, and who is defined as unemployed.

Abhishek Waghmare

Economy Economic growth

GDP and per capita income

India's economy is now the fifth largest in the world and is growing faster than most comparable countries. At the individual level, however, it is some distance from the world's richest countries.

Abhishek Waghmare

Work Employment

Women and work in India

Many women are out of India's paid workforce. But they're working - just not in the same ways as men.

Abhishek Waghmare

Living Conditions Technology

Access to phones and the internet

The last two decades have seen a massive increase in the number of mobile phone connections in India. But not everyone uses phones and the internet in the same way.

Abhishek Waghmare

Population • 8 articles

Health • 10 articles

Economy • 12 articles

Living Conditions • 13 articles

Work • 9 articles

Law • 2 articles

Climate • 1 article

Measurement • 15 articles

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