eSocialSciences Newsletter

May 2007

Selection of Recent Posts

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Civil Liberties and Human Rights

Humanism: The Essence of Civil Liberties by J. S. Verma. The essence of civil liberties is humanism, which must be the lodestar in all related issues. The Supreme Court of India was guided by it in its exercise to humanize the stringent anti-terrorism laws, in developing the doctrine of Constitutional tort, and in giving benefit of Articles 14 and 21 even to non-citizens. [ PUCL Memorial Lectures] http://www.esocialsciences.com/Articles/displayArticles.asp?Article_ID=977

Monetary Policy

The Challenges of Financial Liberalisation for emerging market economies by Christian Noyer, the Governor of the Bank de France points out that the two key conditions that applied to France when it undertook financial liberalisation measures are still valid to emerging market economies today: Building a resilient domestic financial system while or before opening the capital account; and shaping appropriate institutions and policies.

http://www.esocialsciences.com/Articles/displayArticles.asp?Article_ID=1000

Health Studies

Limits of Modern Epidemiological Models: What are the Alternatives? by Vijay Kumar Yadavendu argues that modern epidemiology has, by and large, been based on a narrow model of biomedicine and behaviour modification. The theory of social capital that is being hailed in influential public health circles as a resurgence of holism and provides a sociological explanation for health inequalities. http://www.esocialsciences.com/Articles/displayArticles.asp?Article_ID=971

Climate Change

Last Chance to Save the Planet! IPCC Report and After D. Raghunandan The message from the IPCC Reports is simple: climate change must be tackled immediately in order to save the planet. And it will not cost the earth to do so. In the months to come all nations will be put to test. Will they do what needs to be done? [eSS Commentary] http://www.esocialsciences.com/Articles/displayArticles.asp?Article_ID=994

Book Reviews

Janani: Mothers, Daughters, Motherhood edited by Rinki Bhattacharya reviewed by P. Princy Yesudian

Review of Syed Farid Alatas’ Alternative Discourses in Asian Social Science: Responses to Eurocentricism by Vedapushpa SageIndia.

S.Chandrasekhar reviews India’s Long-Term Growth Experience: Lessons and Prospects by Sadiq Ahmed. Sage India , New Delhi , February 2007.

Sharit Bhowmik reviews Ela Bhat’s We are Poor, But so Many, Oxford University Press.

http://www.esocialsciences.com/commentaries/CommentariesDetails.asp?commentaryid=12

Micro-initiatives

Time to Mainstream Micro-Pensions in India Mukul Asher points out that to expand coverage of micro-pensions, social entrepreneurship will be needed by the financial sector. Such entrepreneurship should aim to drastically reduce overall transaction costs, including fund management costs.[eSS WP] http://www.esocialsciences.com/Articles/displayArticles.asp?Article_ID=964

Kala Rao In Conversation with Mohammed Yunus. In Mumbai to open an office of the Grameen Foundation, Professor Yunus spoke on the challenges the microfinance sector faces in moving from the informal to formal sector, the need for regulation and the role that governments can play. [eSS Commentary] http://www.esocialsciences.com/Articles/displayArticles.asp?Article_ID=970

Terrorism

Three Essays on the Economics and Finance of Terrorism by Siddhartha Mitra. A framework for the analytical treatment of terrorist problems is suggested bringing out the importance of financial and socio-economic factors. The framework classifies the various causes of terrorism into necessary, precipitating, facilitating and perpetuating factors. http://www.esocialsciences.com/Articles/displayArticles.asp?Article_ID=986

Industry and Manufacturing

Prabhakaran Nair analyses the Determinants of Fixed Investment in the Indian Private Corporate Manufacturing sector for 1973-2002. Constructing a Financial Liberalisation Index is for India, an attempt is made to analyse whether the traditional factors or the economic policy variables plays a major role in determining investment behaviour. http://www.esocialsciences.com/Articles/displayArticles.asp?Article_ID=982

A Review of Literature on Ethics in Organizations: The Case of Tata Steel by Sunil Kumar Maheshwari in the context of the current concern in the aftermath of the failure of prominent business organisations like Shell and Enron. http://www.esocialsciences.com/Articles/displayArticles.asp?Article_ID=983

Determinants of Entry in the Indian Manufacturing Sector. Rakesh Basant identifies key factors that determine entry into the manufacturing sector and explores the difference in the factors that determine entry of different types of entrants and different modes of entry. http://www.esocialsciences.com/Articles/displayArticles.asp?Article_ID=985

In Impact of Liberalisation on Wages and Employment in Indian Manufacturing Industries. Rashmi Banga examines the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI), trade and technology on wages and employment in Indian organised manufacturing industries in the post reforms period http://www.esocialsciences.com/Articles/displayArticles.asp?Article_ID=989

Services and Infrastructure

Implications of the Growing Role of Services in Asia by Mukul Asher . This article analyses the importance of international commercial service transactions relating to both trade and investment, which form an essential element of analyzing production fragmentation and economic integration in Asia.[eSS WP] http://www.esocialsciences.com/Articles/displayArticles.asp?Article_ID=951

Infrastructure Development in India An Appraisal by P. Nayak. A strong correlation exists between per capita GDP and availability of certain services. With the rise in per capita GDP, composition of infrastructure changes significantly. http://www.esocialsciences.com/Articles/displayArticles.asp?Article_ID=980

International Trade

Ensuring Adequate Flexibility through Special Products: A Case Study of India by Linu Mathew Philip. The stalemate in agricultural negotiations at the WTO has persisted with a continued lack of convergence on the most important issues. This paper makes an attempt to designate and categorise the agricultural tariff lines for being earmarked as SPs in India based on development criteria and suggests future options in a scenario of possible tariff reductions. http://www.esocialsciences.com/Articles/displayArticles.asp?Article_ID=967

Welfare and Equity

Social Capital and Economic Well-being by Farhad Ameen. The proposition that social capital expands household welfare is tested by estimating the effects of social interactions on per capita expenditure among a sample of 810 households in northern Bangladesh. http://www.esocialsciences.com/Articles/displayArticles.asp?Article_ID=984

Child Labour by Eric Edmonds. A descriptive overview of how children spend their time in low income countries, the most common type of work, influence of local labour market, policy options, and the resarch questions arising http://www.esocialsciences.com/Articles/displayArticles.asp?Article_ID=988

Civil Liberties and Human Rights

Economic Philosophy

In Reading Sraffa: The Philosophical Underpinnings of Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities by Ajit Sinha argues that both the Sraffians’ interpretation based on the classical notion of centre of gravitation as well as the neoclassical interpretation based on the supposedly implicit assumption of constant returns to scale are incorrect.

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Editorial Team: Padma Prakash (Editor), Lakshmi Priya and Savita Kulkarni.

[ editor@esocialsciences.com]

eSocialSciences, IRIS, International Infotech Park, Tower 1, third floor, Vashi, Mumbai 400703.