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Model Nagar Raj Bill: Taking Democracy to the Grassroots

Participation of citizen in local governance is a key component for good governance. It extends the citizens’ role beyond that of a voter . It ensures a more equal distribution of power and resources...

by Kedar Diwan | On 21 Feb 2021

eSS Sunday Edit: Waiting for a Vaccine! Fault lines in Medical Science and Governance Exposed

People’s ability to respond to this crisis is coloured by class, caste, gender and religion and the government’s failure to respond adequately to the needs of its citizens, exposing the ugly underside...

by Ravi Duggal | On 26 Oct 2020

Impact of Covid-19 on the Indian Economy: An Analysis of Fiscal Scenarios

Amidst the economic slowdown triggered by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in India there have been many demands for the government to announce a large fiscal stimulus to support the economy. E...

by Ila Patnaik | On 08 Oct 2020

It is not enough to have a strong govt; you need a strong country

While the govt has done many things right, it has also made mistakes that have weakened India. It should acknowledge challenges, reverse economic slide, and build national cohesion.

by T.N. Ninan | On 27 Jul 2020

Containment Strategies and Support for Vulnerable Households

Policymakers across the developing world are facing the need to make rapid decisions on their COVID-19 response with little available data or guidance. Policies that help deal with the economic cri...

by Jonathan Leape | On 18 May 2020

Post Covid-19: Recovering and Sustaining India’s Growth

The paper discusses past virtuous growth cycles in India and argues that the post Covid-19 macro-financial package is an opportunity to trigger another such cycle, by raising marginal propensities t...

by Ashima Goyal | On 14 May 2020

Inter-Governmental Fiscal Transfers in the Presence of Revenue Uncertainty: The Case of Goods and Services Tax (GST) in India

A comprehensive multistage Value Added Tax (VAT) system, viz., Goods and Services Tax (GST), is introduced in India since 1 July 2017. GST encompasses various taxes from Union and State indirect tax b...

by Sacchidananda Mukherjee | On 02 Apr 2019

The Political Economy of Gender Budgeting: Empirical Evidence from India

Gender budgeting is a public policy innovation to transform the gender commitments into budgetary commitments. The political economy process of gender budgeting in India has encompassed four distinct...

by Lekha Chakraborty | On 02 Apr 2019

Price Discovery in Indian Government Securities Market, Monetary Management and the Cost of Government Borrowing

Over 2017-18 there was a sharp rise in Indian government securities (G-Secs) interest rates unrelated to fundamentals. Examining each of the standard explanatory variables shows them to be inadequate...

by Ashima Goyal | On 29 Mar 2019

Environmental Governance and Environmental Performance

Along with the continuous development of the global economy, environmental deterioration has been widely recognized as a pressing issue nowadays, bringing environmental governance to the forefront of...

by Chun-Ping Chang | On 28 Mar 2019

Guidance Note of the Secretary-General : The United Nations and Land and Conflict

Over the coming decades, competition and conflict over land is likely to intensify with the growing pressures of climate change, population growth, increased food insecurity, migration and urbanizatio...

by Secretary-General United Nations | On 21 Mar 2019

Rebalancing the Economy and Reforming the Fiscal System of the People’s Republic of China

The goal of the note is to lay out and discuss a package of reforms that could be consistent with the objectives of the government. The fiscal instruments that we consider here include the division of...

by Roy Bahl | On 07 Mar 2019

Improving Subnational Government Development Finance in Emerging and Developing Economies: Towards a Strategic Approach

This paper reviews the rationale and potential for improving subnational development finance, outlines the overall landscape of institutional arrangements available for this purpose, and considers bro...

by Paul Smoke | On 18 Feb 2019

The Anomaly of Women’s Work and Education in India

This paper utilizes a large cross-section of data sets such as the ILOSTAT, NSSO Quinquennial Employment and Unemployment Survey, Labour Bureau Annual Employment and Unemployment Survey, National Fami...

by Surbhi Ghai | On 03 Feb 2019

Impact of Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfers on Gender Equality in India: An Empirical Analysis

Intergovernmental fiscal transfers (IGFT) are, in theory, neither good nor bad for tackling gender inequalities. Fiscal federalism with asymmetry in revenue and expenditure assignments inevitably lead...

by Janet G. Stotsky | On 14 Jan 2019

Data Localisation in India: Questioning the Means and Ends

This paper classifies the arguments around data localisation into three broad categories - the civil liberties perspective; the government functions perspective and the economic perspective. It examin...

by Rishab Bailey | On 12 Jan 2019

UDAY Power Debt in Retrospect and Prospects: Analyzing the Efficiency Parameters

The Government of India launched the Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY), in November 2015, with an objective of “Power for All”. Under the UDAY scheme, selected States agreed to convert 75 per cent...

by Amandeep Kaur | On 11 Jan 2019

The Impact of Trade Conflict on Developing Asia

This paper analyzes the effects of the current trade conflict on developing Asia using the Asian Development Bank’s Multiregional Input–Output Table (MRIOT), allowing us to calculate the impact on ind...

by Abdul Abiad | On 21 Dec 2018

Investment in Research and Development for Basmati Rice in Pakistan

Basmati rice is Pakistan’s celebrated export. After years of growth, Pakistan’s production and export of basmati has slipped and is on a downward trend. The absence of a strong research and developmen...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 13 Dec 2018

Identifying the Costs of a Public Health Success: Arsenic Well Water Contamination and Productivity in Bangladesh

This paper exploits the recent molecular genetics evidence on the genetic basis of arsenic excretion and unique information on family links among respondents living in different environments from a la...

by Mark M. Pitt | On 22 Nov 2018

An Assessment of the Fiscal Features of the PDP Laban Model of Philippine Federalism 1.0 and the Gonzales-De Vera Federal Model

The paper highlights the importance of the design of the fiscal features of the federal system of government in ensuring that the potential benefits from its adoption are realized. The economic litera...

by Rosario G. Manasan | On 03 Oct 2018

Sectoral Labor Income Share Dynamics: Cross – Country Evidence from a Novel Dataset

This paper overcomes the constraint and provides some preliminary outcomes from a novel dataset that the authors compile at the sectoral level (10 sectors) for 53 countries, including 20 developing co...

by Yoko Oishi | On 01 Oct 2018

Infrastructure Financing in South Asia

This paper discusses public and private sector financing of infrastructure, and examines the factors driving infrastructure investment in this subregion. Using a panel of three large South Asian count...

by Shikha Jha | On 26 Sep 2018

Determinants of Public–Private Partnerships in Infrastructure in Asia: Implications for Capital Market Development

This study attempts to understand the role of greater access to finance, i.e., stocks, bonds, and bank loans, in public–private partnership (PPP) investment in developing countries. Most developing co...

by Suk Hyun | On 10 Aug 2018

Alternate Instruments to Manage the Capital Flow Conundrum: A Study of Selected Asian Economies

The paper analyses a nationally representative data set from India for the year 2013 in order to provide evidence on how short term migration is affected by household's ownership of land, and particip...

by Rajeswari Sengupta | On 25 Jul 2018

Fiscal policy Conditions for Government Budget Stability and Economic Recovery: Comparative Analysis of Japan and Greece

This paper first shows that the Domar condition is obtained only from the government budget constraint (namely the supply of government bonds) and does not take into account the demand for government...

by Naoyuki Yoshino | On 19 Jul 2018

Financial Inclusion, Financial Regulation, Financial Literacy, and Financial education in the Kyrgyz Republic

This paper discusses recent developments in financial inclusion and financial literacy in Kyrgyz Republic. While financial inclusion is considered one of the key drivers of today’s development, it is...

by Savia Hasanova | On 19 Jul 2018

Macroeconomic Overview of the Philippines and the New Industrial Policy

This short paper has two main sections. The first section presents a more detailed picture and overview of the macroeconomic performance of the Philippines behind the Philippines’ remarkable growth. T...

by Maureen Ane D. Rosellon | On 06 Jul 2018

Mainstreaming SMEs: Promoting Inclusive Growth in APEC

SME development as a major domestic policy objective that is consistent and reinforced within APEC would not only engender inclusive growth, but also enable SMEs to become drivers of growth for the do...

by Erlinda M. Medalla | On 06 Jul 2018

Assessment of the BUB Program: Improving Access of Local Communities to Basic Services and Strengthening Social Capital

The Aquino administration through the Human Development and Poverty Reduction Cluster (HDPRC) and Good Governance and Anti-Corruption Cluster (GGACC) launched the Bottom-up Budgeting (BUB) exercise in...

by Rosario G. Manasan | On 05 Jul 2018

Designing the Fiscal Features of a Federal Form of Government: Autonomy, Accountability, and Equity Considerations

The paper provides estimates of the cost of shifting to a federal form of government under different scenarios in terms of the number of regions. Finally, it concludes with the discussion of why adopt...

by Rosario G. Manasan | On 03 Jul 2018

Decentralization and Health in the Philippines: A Systematic Review of Empirical Evidences

This study provides a systematic review and summary of the extant knowledge on the impacts of decentralization on health in the Philippines. Despite the country’s twenty-five years of experience in de...

by Michael R.M. Abrigo | On 03 Jul 2018

Cash Holdings and Tax Evaded Incomes in India – A Discussion

The paper makes an analysis of cash holdings in India and attempts to test its association with tax effort and government spending. The finding arrived is that the ratio of Cash holding to Nominal GDP...

by R. Mohan | On 21 Jun 2018

The Rise of Government-Funded Health Insurance in India

India has experienced a remarkable proliferation of 48 Government Funded Health Insurance Schemes (GFHIS) from 1997 to 2018. The paper places the rise of this policy pathway in historical perspective....

by Ila Patnaik | On 15 Jun 2018

Cross- Border Portfolio Investment and Financial Integration in Asia and the Pacific Region

This paper examines the developments of cross-border portfolio assets and liabilities in the Asia and Pacific region over the periods of 2001–2017. Rapid increases in both portfolio foreign assets and...

by Sayuri Shirai | On 07 Jun 2018

Financial Inclusion, Regulation, Financial Literacy and Financial Education in Armenia

Financial inclusion has significantly advanced in Armenia during the last decade. Rural and urban areas, however, have benefited unevenly. The high cost of providing financial services, the lack of ph...

by Armen Nurbekyan | On 07 Jun 2018

Do Information and Communication Technologies Empower Female Workers? Firm-Level Evidence from Viet Nam

This paper studies the effects of firms’ investments in information and communication technologies (ICT) on their demand for female and skilled workers. Using the gradual liberalization of the broadba...

by Natalie Chun | On 31 May 2018

Gender and Intersecting Inequalities in Local Government in South Asia

This paper is an evidence review of how intersecting forms of inequalities influence women’s political participation and representation at the local level in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. The r...

by | On 11 May 2018

EJF View on the Global Compact on Migration

The report says that investment in climate change adaptation and mitigation are listed as key ways of minimizing the drivers that force people from their country of origin – one of the GCM’s central o...

by Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) | On 09 Apr 2018

Performance Trends and Policy Recommendations An Evaluation of the Mass Health Insurance Scheme of Government of India

India’s health sector is characterized by modest health indicators, a paucity of medical financing schemes that have successfully scaled, high per capita out-of-pocket health expenditure, and very l...

by | On 06 Apr 2018

Trade Rules in E-commerce: WTO and India

Electronic commerce (e-commerce) is an integral part of business activities, and various models of e-commerce have emerged with liberalisation and technological developments. Global e-commerce trade...

by | On 28 Mar 2018

The Education Sector in Pakistan

The report says that the education scene in Pakistan, during the past four decades, has been characterized by substantial quantitative expansion at all levels.

by Khwaja Sarmad | On 28 Mar 2018

Understanding Gendered Empowerment Through a Government-run Microfinance Programme: The case of Stree Shakti in Karnataka

The report indicated a widespread stagnation of women’s work participation in poorer districts, a narrowing of their work, income, prospects and opportunities, growing wage differentials between men a...

by Centre for Budget and Policy Studies CBPS | On 23 Mar 2018

The Water Gap – The State of the World’s Water 2018

In a startling reminder that our world’s most precious resource is becoming increasingly scarce for too much of the population, reminding us of the need for better and fairer management of Earth’s...

by Water Aid NGO | On 22 Mar 2018

Stories of Empowerment – Case Studies of Empowerment of Rural Workers

With a population nearing 60 million, half of which occupies the two major cities of Karachi and Hyderabad, Sindh is the only province with a rural population in the minority. Research conducted by PI...

by Salman Rashid | On 21 Mar 2018

Cash Holding and Tax Evaded Incomes in India – A Discussion

The paper makes an analysis of cash holdings in India and attempts to test its association with tax effort and government spending. The finding arrived is that the ratio of Cash holding to Nominal GDP...

by R. Mohan | On 14 Mar 2018

Dynamics of Employment of Children and Socio-Economic Reality: A Study of Children in Hazardous Occupations in East and West Jaintia Hills Districts of Meghalaya

The paper says that children working in the Mines from an early age are likely to burn themselves out by the time they reach 30 or 35 years.

by Helen Sekar | On 13 Mar 2018

Rehabilitation of Child Labour in India Lessons Learnt from the Evaluation of NCLPs

The paper says that the children continue to form a sizeable section of the labour force in several fields of employment around the world.

by | On 13 Mar 2018

State of Child Workers in India: Mapping Trends

The present report begins with a background on child labour, with a discussion on different terms associated with ‘child labour’, followed by child labour policies and legislation implemented by the g...

by Ellina Samantroy | On 12 Mar 2018

Measuring the Equilibrium Impacts of Credit: Evidence from the Indian Microfinance Crisis

In October 2010, the state government of Andhra Pradesh, India issued an emergency ordinance, bringing microfinance activities in the state to a complete halt and causing a nation-wide shock to the li...

by Emily Breza | On 10 Mar 2018

Prenatal Exposure to Shocks and Early-Life Health: Impact of Terrorism and Flood on Birth Outcomes in Pakistan

The current paper tries to fill this gap by investigating the impact of floods on pregnancy and birth outcomes across conflict-affected and unaffected districts in Pakistan.

by Baishali Goswami | On 08 Mar 2018

Women Rights in Conflict Zones: A Focus on India

Through these studies it has been shown how often the plight of women and the impact of war on their lives had been ignored.

by Sona Drahonovská | On 22 Feb 2018

Focus: Women, Gender and Armed Conflict

The end of the Cold War in 1989 did not, as had been expected, bring about a reduction in armed conflicts. More than two thirds of the poorest countries in the world are in conflict regions. The natur...

by Austrian Development Agency (ADA) | On 21 Feb 2018

War on the Female Body: Rape and Sexual Violence during Conflict

This article focuses on rape as a weapon of war, the sociological impacts of which can be widespread and long-lasting. This is especially due to the ensuing terror and disruption to livelihoods, relat...

by AMSA Global Health | On 21 Feb 2018

Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict: Understanding the Motivations

The paper talks about the unequal power relations, discrimination and misogyny in patriarchal societies are exacerbated by the promotion of aggression and violence during war.

by E.J. Wood | On 21 Feb 2018

Sexual Violence in the “People’s War” – The Impact of Armed Conflict on Women and Girls in Nepal

The report described the level and cases of gender based sexual violence during the armed conflict and proved that both the warring parties were involved in such heinous acts. It also showed the letha...

by Institute of Human Rights Communication, Nepal (IHRICON | On 21 Feb 2018

Militarisation and Armed Conflict

India's claim that all human rights violations are redressed stands sharply refuted by the report of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) which in its report to UPR2 stated that AFSPA remains i...

by Working Group on Human Rights (WGHR) | On 21 Feb 2018

Conflict-Related Sexual Violence: A Cross-National Comparison of Circumstances Related to State Forces’ Use of Sexual Violence in Armed Conflicts

This study aims to explore and identify circumstances related to the use of sexual violence by armed groups, and by state forces in particular. The overall purpose is to contribute to an understandi...

by Matilda Carlsson | On 20 Feb 2018

What Evidence Exists for Initiatives to Reduce Risk and Incidence of Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict and Other Humanitarian Crises? A Systematic Review

This systematic paper aimed to canvas the extent and impact of initiatives to reduce incidence, risk and harm from sexual violence in conflict, post-conflict and other humanitarian crises, in low and...

by Jo Spangaro | On 20 Feb 2018

Casualties of War Women’s Bodies, Women’s Lives

The paper says that the term “violence against women” means any act of gender-based violence that leads to physical, sexual or psychological harm to women and girls

by Amnesty International AI, | On 20 Feb 2018

Sexual Violence and The Culture of Impunity in Nagaland

The paper says that perpetrators of sexual violence escape justice, while their victims are trapped between exhortations by women's advocacy groups not to ‘suffer quietly' and the social stigma attach...

by Dolly Kikon | On 20 Feb 2018

National Unity Government in Sri Lanka: An Assessment

At the close of two years, the National Unity Government (NUG) of Sri Lanka has failed to maintain the confidence and trust of the people it enjoyed during the first three months of its tenure. Having...

by | On 16 Feb 2018

Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) in North East India

The report says that the ISI has been equally thorough and ruthless in repressing political opponents to the military regimes that have ruled over Pakistan for more than half of its fiftyseven years o...

by Harinder Sekhon | On 12 Feb 2018

Choice, Recognition and the Democracy Effects of Decentralization

The report says that many democratic decentralization reforms are well-crafted.

by James Manor | On 07 Feb 2018

Economic Survey 2017: Volume II, Chapter 2: Review of Fiscal Developments

Sound public financial management has been one of the pillars of India’s macro-economic stability in the last three years. Based on this firm footing, the Government, in partnership with the States,...

by Arun Jaitley | On 31 Jan 2018

Economic Survey 2017: Volume I: Chapter 9: Ease of Doing Business’ Next Frontier: Timely Justice

The government’s efforts to make business and commerce easy have been widely acknowledged. The next frontier on the ease of doing business is addressing pendency, delays and backlogs in the appellat...

by Arun Jaitley | On 31 Jan 2018

Economic Survey 2017: Volume I, Chapter 4: Reconciling Fiscal Federalism and Accountability: Is there a Low Equilibrium Trap?

Long-run institutional development co-evolves with fiscal accountability involving, perhaps requiring, a low and declining dependence on devolved resources and a high and rising share of direct taxe...

by Arun Jaitley | On 31 Jan 2018

Green Paper on Farmers, Farming and Rural Economy: 4 Years… 4 Budgets: What has this Central Government Delivered?

most of the major policy measures promised by this government to the Indian farmers have not seen the light of the day. No social security measures have been taken for farmers above the age of 60 or...

by ASHA Kisan Swaraj Alliance | On 31 Jan 2018

Levels and Trends in Child Malnutrition

UNICEF, WHO, World Bank global and regional child malnutrition estimates from 1990 to 2017 reveal that we are still far from a world without malnutrition. The joint estimates, published in May 2017,...

by United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF | On 25 Jan 2018

Livelihoods, Conservation and Forest Rights Act in a National Park: An Oxymoron ?

National Parks in India are highly vulnerable due to excessive pressure on their ecosystems as a result of growing population and high dependency of forest dwellers on these resources. This has led...

by Syed Ajmal Pasha | On 24 Jan 2018

Conflict and Education in Manipur: A Comparative Analysis

Conflict, violence and social upheaval have been the greatest threats to mankind since the dawn of civilisation. Poorest communities, children and education sector are among the most severely affect...

by Komol Singha | On 24 Jan 2018

Federalism and Foreign Direct Investment: How Political Affiliation Determines the Spatial Distribution of FDI – Evidence from India

This paper links the foreign economic engagement of India’s states with the literature on federalism, thereby contributing to an understanding of the political economy of FDI in- flows in a parliame...

by Chanchal Kumar Sharma | On 22 Jan 2018

Mitigating Threats to Girls's Education in Conflict Affected Contexts: Current Practice

Conflict amplifies existing power dynamics and inequalities in families and societies because of the insecurity and fear caused by the upheaval of support structures. Conflicts generally result in the...

by | On 22 Jan 2018

Nuclear Weapon: Issues, Threat and Consequence Management

The brief says that invention of nuclear weapons, the ultimate among the three weapons of mass destruction, has given rise to completely novel conditions that have fundamentally affected the concept o...

by Animesh Roul | On 22 Jan 2018

A Guide to Using Budget Analysis

Budget analysis entails analysis and assessment of budget from the lens of marginalised sections of population with the objective of prioritisation of public expenditures and collection of revenues...

by Happy Pant | On 17 Jan 2018

The Politics of Institutional Reform and Post-Conflict Violence in Nepal

How does the reform of state institutions shape prospects for peace after war? Existing re- search on the institutional causes of peace focuses on how institutional designs, as the out- comes of ref...

by Julia Strasheim | On 17 Jan 2018

Northeast India: The Emerging Scenarios

The paper narrates that in today’s age of globalization and trans-border connectivity, the Northeast is fast emerging as the potential gateway for India to Southeast and East Asia through Myanmar.

by Namrata Goswami | On 17 Jan 2018

Strategic Roadmap for Implementation of UDAY Scheme

This study analyses the concerns/challenges in executing the operational targets set under the UDAY scheme for two DISCOMs in Karnataka, namely, Mangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (MESCOM)...

by Rishu Garg | On 11 Jan 2018

Military Courts in Pakistan: Will they return? What are the implications?

This paper narrates that during the first week of January 2017, many in Pakistan were surprised, when the government allowed the earlier Parliamentary legislation on the military courts to elapse.

by D. Chandran | On 09 Jan 2018

Contesting Ideas on Peace : A Report & Some Reflections

Inter-state conflicts dominated the world for the better part of the twentieth century with the rivalry of two superpower blocs threatening nuclear doomsday in its second half. By contrast, the post-C...

by | On 02 Jan 2018

Exploring Components and Elements of Sui Generis Systems for Plant Variety Protection and Traditional Knowledge in Asia

The main objective of this paper is to outline components and elements of sui generis Plant Variety Protection (PVP) systems and measures to protect traditional knowledge (TK) based on recent experien...

by Daniel Robinson | On 27 Dec 2017

Fossil Fuel Subsidies Reduction and the World Trade Organization

his paper develops the contours of an ambitious approach to fossil fuel subsidy reform using the multilateral trade system.

by Joel Trachtman | On 26 Dec 2017

Cities and Entrepreneurs over Time: Like a Horse and Carriage?

This paper explores the co-evolution of entrepreneurship and cities. First, it provides a stylized model of development wherein the rise of cities (urbanisation) is the outcome of the activities of en...

by Wim Naudé | On 15 Dec 2017

Access To Medicines In The Philippines: Overcoming The Barriers

The study says that the said passage has led to the decline of medicine prices since 2009, primarily through the efforts of the Department of Health (DOH) to implement the law using measures on maximu...

by Ramon Clarete | On 12 Dec 2017

Role of Government in Public Health: Current Scenario in India and Future Scope

The new agenda for Public Health in India includes the epidemiological transition, demographical transition, environmental changes and social determinants of health. Based on the principles outlined a...

by | On 12 Dec 2017

PIDS Calls For ‘Intelligent’ Discourse On Federalism

The study says that the policymakers should see merit in examining whether federalism can indeed address the sociopolitical and economic problems that hamper the country’s growth.

by PIDS Information Staff | On 11 Dec 2017

Evaluation and Assessment of the Effectiveness of the DSWD Internal and External Convergence as Operationalized by the Regional, Provincial, and City/Municipality Action Teams

This study aims to describe and examine organizational structures, business processes, and capacity development, as they relate to the design of DSWD’s Convergence Strategy.

by Jose Ramon G. Albert | On 11 Dec 2017

Socio-economic and Cultural Factors of Violence against Women in Pakistan

This study discusses the socio-economic, cultural, religious and institutional factors that sustain abuse conducted against women.

by Ayesha Qaisrani | On 24 Nov 2017

Revitalizing economy by balancing defence & development

In this context, a government that is in doubt regarding re-election will give a popular or election-oriented budget and go on a spending spree.

by Dr. Abid Suleri | On 20 Nov 2017

Electronic filing System, Bureaucratic Efficiency and Public Service Delivery: Evidence from Bangladesh

A look into the effect of an e-Governance initiative in Bangladesh is on efficiency in the public sector. The electronic Filing (e-Filing) system was introduced to all the Deputy Commissioners' (DC)...

by Wahid Abdallah | On 15 Nov 2017

So That a Nuclear Weapon Free World can Come to Be: Putting Nuclear Weapons to Politico-Diplomatic Use

Existing initiatives and proposals for nuclear disarmament, both inter-Governmental and unofficial ones, are appraised vis-a-vis the Indian approach, with a view to identifying possibilities of synerg...

by | On 09 Nov 2017

Building Smart Cities in India - An Opportunity For Strategising Urban Development

The report states that the current urbanisation pattern in many Indian states is skewed with growth concentrating in and around the primate city.

by Sujaya Rathi | On 03 Nov 2017

State-level Policy Analysis for PV Module Manufacturing in India

This analysis has identified three major challenges, which need to be addressed to make module manufacturing competitive in India

by Bhupesh Verma | On 02 Nov 2017

Governance Interventions in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Countries

The paper reviews an emerging body of literature on the design and evaluation of current or recent governance interventions in countries with ongoing violent conflict, recovering from conflict or at s...

by Patricia Justino | On 31 Oct 2017

Remittances for Growth: Initiatives for Remitters and Remittances

This paper argues that by some monetary and fiscal reforms, the investable part of remittances could be diverted to labour intensive and development projects, creating hundreds of thousands employment...

by Atiq Rehman | On 30 Oct 2017

Migration, Agriculture And Rural Development: Addressing the root causes of migration and harnessing its potential for development

The report says that conflicts, violence and natural disasters are among the root causes of migration and forced displacement.

by Food and Agricultural Organization [FAO] | On 16 Oct 2017

Measuring Competition in the Banking Sector of Pakistan: An Application of Boone Indicator

The banking sector of Pakistan has witnessed a notable transformation in its structure and business activities following the implementation of financial sector reforms since the early 1990s. Specific...

by Mahmood ul Hasan Khan | On 09 Oct 2017

Resource requirements for Right to Education (RTE): Normative and the Real

The paper examines the issue of resource adequacy for Right to Education (RTE) by estimating the resource requirement for universalization of elementary education across twelve Indian States. Using RT...

by Sukanya Bose | On 05 Oct 2017

DRRM's Design and Implementation Need to Be Beefed Up

This, according to researchers Sonny Domingo and Ma. Divina Olaguera from the state think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), is the problem the government needs to address to re...

by Philippine Institute Studies (PIDS) | On 03 Oct 2017

Measure and determinants of chronic and transient poverty in the Philippines

This Policy Note addresses this lack of a measure of chronic and transient poverty in the Philippines.

by Connie Bayudan-Dacuycuy | On 29 Sep 2017

An Assessment of the Community Mortgage Program Implementation Strategy

The study also provides recommendations on how the identified issues can be addressed.

by Marife M. Ballesteros | On 29 Sep 2017

Working Group on Education: Digital Skills for Life and Work

The reports says that the question of how digital skills and competencies can be developed by all people — young and old, girls and boys, rich and poor — on a sustainable basis is an ongoing challenge...

by Broadband Commission Development | On 26 Sep 2017

Improving Data on Missing Migrants

The reports discuss the methodological challenges of gathering data on missing migrants.

by Frank Laczko | On 25 Sep 2017

Monetary Transmission in India: Working of Price and Quantum Channels

The paper examines the strength and efficacy of transmission from the policy rate and liquidity provision to market rates in India, using event window regression analysis. The paper finds the interest...

by Ashima Goyal | On 15 Sep 2017

Electricity Consumption and Economic Growth in Karnataka

The paper aims to study the trend and pattern of electricity consumption in Karnataka, to investigate the direction of causality between electricity consumption and economic growth, and to forecast th...

by Laxmi Rajkumari | On 11 Sep 2017

Understanding the principles underlying the Philippine competition law

The culture of competition cultivates flexibility and adaptability that enable the economy to cope better with a constantly changing environment.

by Erlinda M. Medalla | On 07 Sep 2017

Livelihoods, Conservation and Forest Rights Act in a National Park: An Oxymoron?

The paper suggests certain measures to reduce the conflicts across conservation, livelihoods and forest rights. National Parks in India are highly vulnerable due to excessive pressure on their ecosyst...

by Subhashree Banerjee | On 07 Sep 2017

Chronic and Transient Poverty and Weather Variability in the Philippines: Evidence Using Components Approach

The paper narrates that the weather is an integral part of our life and weather shocks can have severe implications on income and on household consumption.

by Connie Bayudan-Dacuycuy | On 06 Sep 2017

Preventing chilhood stunting: Why and how?

This Policy Note analyzes the factors contributing to child stunting in the country and finds that mothers' nutrition and health status during pregnancy remain crucial aspects that can influence birth...

by Alejandro Herrin | On 04 Sep 2017

How Inequality Hurts Growth: Revisiting the Galor‐Zeira Model Through a Korean Case

This paper aims to show that the level of inequality increases via the human capital channel with credit market imperfections generating negative effects on economic growth. We expand the model presen...

by Bogang Jun | On 28 Aug 2017

Indian Defence Budget 2016-17: A Curtain Raiser

The report narrates about, should India’s national defence budget be discussed and deliberated in public domain?

by Deba Mohanty | On 28 Aug 2017

Strengthening India’s External Intelligence Infrastructure: An Assessment

This paper attempts to outline a number of points, which would help to develop a more superior external intelligence infrastructure.

by Shantanu Bansal | On 28 Aug 2017

Is There Enough Public Resource for School Education? Examining the Available Evidences

The enactment of RTE Act, 2009 imposes a duty on the Indian states to fulfill every child's right to elementary education. Education is also a stand-alone goal among SDGs, which India is one of the si...

by Protiva Kundu | On 22 Aug 2017

World Trade Statistical Review

The report provides a detailed analysis of the latest developments in world trade.

by World Trade Organisation WTO | On 17 Aug 2017

Human Development Report 2016 - Human Development for Everyone

The Report explores who has been left out in the progress in human development and why.

by Selim Jahan | On 16 Aug 2017

Local government in South Africa: Can the objectives of the developmental state be achieved through the current model of decentralised governance?

This study examines the notions of decentralisation and developmentalism, and shows how they have become two of the most significant defining features of South African local government.

by Andrew Siddle | On 11 Aug 2017

Making Rapid Strides Agriculture in Madhya Pradesh: Sources, Drivers, and Policy Lessons

This paper study the composition, sources and drivers of agricultural growth in Madhya Pradesh to identify the factors that have contributed to robust agricultural growth in the state and discuss the...

by Ashok Gulati | On 11 Aug 2017

Strengthening Local Governance in Africa: Beyond Donor-Driven Approaches

The paper argues, in line with other recent studies that time has come to rethink concepts and practices used to promote local governance in African countries.

by Göran Hydén | On 10 Aug 2017

Positive Peace Report 2016

This report introduces new thinking and evidence about Positive Peace.

by Institute for Economics and Peace | On 04 Aug 2017

Making Women Count for Peace: Gender, Empowerment and Conflict in South Asia

With a focus on Northeast Indian experiences and a comparative look at Nepal, this project addresses the role of women in local governance and politics, particularly within the context of peace and se...

by Calcutta Group | On 04 Aug 2017

Achieving Universal Literacy in Andhra Pradesh: Status and Prospects

The main objective of the present paper is to assess the prospects of achieving universal adult literacy with a policy intervention factor through adult literacy programmes that target different age g...

by Motkuri Venkatanarayana | On 02 Aug 2017

A Situational Theory of Pork Barrel Politics: The Shifting Logic of Discretionary Allocations in India

A rich panel dataset on Indian states is used to propose a situational theory of distributive politics which states that incentives for exclusive targeting of affiliated states in dominant party syst...

by | On 02 Aug 2017

Aid for Trade in Action

The case stories show clear results of how aid for trade programmes are helping developing countries to build human, institutional and infrastructure capacity to integrate into regional and global ma...

by World Trade Organisation WTO | On 02 Aug 2017

Strengthening the Governance for Effective Tobacco Control in India

One of the key components in achieving a substantial reduction in tobacco use and associated disease, economic and ecologic burden in India is to strengthen the governance for tobacco control. In the...

by Dr. Upendra Bhojani | On 01 Aug 2017

Tracking Change Islamabad in Livelihoods, Service Delivery and Governance: Evidence from a 2012-2015 Panel Survey in Pakistan

The subject of this study is the relationship between the delivery of services, social protection and livelihoods assistance, and state legitimacy (measured here using perceptions of government perfor...

by Babar Shahbaz | On 01 Aug 2017

Does Government Borrowing Crowd out Private Sector Credit in Pakistan

An analysis of the impact of government borrowing from the scheduled banks on the credit to private sector in Pakistan, using monthly data from 1998:M6 to 2015:M12. We find that a one percentage poi...

by Sajjad Zaheer | On 31 Jul 2017

Concepts and Realities of Family Farming in Asia and the Pacific

The Asia and the Pacific region has the largest number of family farms in the world. It is home to 60 per cent of the world’s population and to 74 per cent of the world’s family farmers, with China al...

by Jingzhong Ye | On 30 Jul 2017

Fuel Blending in India: Learnings and Way Forward

The expert paper further estimates significant potential for an overall improvement in balance of trade with increased blending in the context of an expected recovery in global crude oil prices.

by Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy CSTEP | On 27 Jul 2017

Valuation of Subsoil Minerals: Application of SEEA for Bangladesh

The present paper is an attempt to conduct a valuation of the three most important exhaustible natural resources, viz., natural gas, coal and hard rock, via the System of Environmental-Economic Accou...

by Mahfuz Kabir | On 27 Jul 2017

Taking an Ecosystems Approach: Support for Advocacy Training Initiatives’ (SATHI) Public Health Work in India

Delivering accessible, inclusive and high-quality health services in India is both technically challenging and politically complex. India’s public health services have been highly decentralized for mo...

by Brendan Halloran | On 26 Jul 2017

Gender Equality Results Case Study: Bangladesh - Second Urban Primary Health Care Project

The project provided preventative and curative services, including access to immunization, reproductive health services, limited curative care, nutrition-related services, community outreach on health...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 25 Jul 2017

Sustainable Energy Access Planning: A Framework

This report presents a framework for sustainable energy access planning that planners and policy makers can use to design cost-effective clean energy supply systems that both poor and nonpoor can sust...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 24 Jul 2017

Making Money Work: Financing a Sustainable Future in Asia and the Pacific

This report explores some of the ways forward. It highlights not just the need to inject more money into investments that contribute to sustainable development, but also to attract funds toward them—t...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 21 Jul 2017

Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2017 Supplement: Cautious Optimism for Asia's Outlook

With export demand stronger than expected in the first quarter of 2017, the region’s GDP is forecast to expand somewhat faster than forecast in April in Asian Development Outlook 2017.

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 20 Jul 2017

A Region at Risk: The Human Dimensions of Climate Change in Asia and the Pacific

The report discusses the most recent projections pertaining to climate change and climate change impacts in Asia and the Pacific, and the consequences of these changes to human systems, particularly f...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 14 Jul 2017

Assessing Financial Protection against Disasters: A Guidance Note on Conducting a Disaster Risk Finance Diagnostic

The purpose of this note is to help development practitioners gather relevant information, conduct analysis, and present both in a standardized diagnostic framework. In addition to the guidance note i...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 14 Jul 2017

Financial Soundness Indicators for Financial Sector Stability in Viet Nam

The results of this study can be used to strengthen the institutional and statistical capacities of Viet Nam to routinely collect, compile, analyze, and disseminate internationally comparable FSIs tha...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 07 Jul 2017

Sustainable Energy for All Status Report: Tracking Progress in Asia and the Pacific - A Summary Report

This report summarizes the initial activities of the Regional Hub, and contextualizes the challenges in Asia and the Pacific with the global efforts to reach the 2030 targets.

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 06 Jul 2017

Gender Mainstreaming Case Study: Sri Lanka - North East Coastal Community Development Project and Tsunami-Affected Areas Rebuilding Project

This case study looks at the gender dimensions of two projects that focus on the community development component that advocated community participation, social inclusion, and gender equality in commun...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 05 Jul 2017

Fossil Fuel Subsidies in Indonesia: Trends, Impacts, and Reforms

This study measures the size of fossil fuel subsidies such as underpricing of petroleum products and electricity, tax exemptions, and subsidized credit; examines the potential economic, energy, and en...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 04 Jul 2017

Fossil Fuel Subsidies in Thailand: Trends, Impacts, and Reforms

This study measures the size of fossil fuel subsidies such as tax breaks for diesel and natural gas, market price support for natural gas for vehicles, and free electricity for low-income consumers as...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 04 Jul 2017

Timor-Leste: Development Effectiveness Brief

The report narrates that the related technical assistance has focused on infrastructure management, financial and private sector development, preparations for regional economic integration, and region...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 23 Jun 2017

Statement on the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict

The report says Mother Earth cleanses us from violent pollution and her waters renew us as we recover from violent penetration. The ancestors strengthen us and elders give insights on strategies for...

by Documentation and Information Sustainability (DINIPS) | On 20 Jun 2017

Sri Lanka: Development Effectiveness Brief

The paper says that Sri Lanka has emerged in recent years as one of the most dynamic countries in South Asia. With a rich cultural heritage, an increasingly sophisticated work force, and a strategic l...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 19 Jun 2017

Toward Mainstreaming and Sustaining CDD in Indonesia: Understanding Local Initiatives and the Transition from PNPM-Rural to the Villlage Law

The report summarizes important lessons learned and policy implications from the first year of Village Law implementation.

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 16 Jun 2017

Southwest Area Integrated Water Resources Planning and Management Project in Bangladesh: Sharing Knowledge on Community-Driven Development

This report describes how applying community-driven development principles to managing the water resource can both expand livelihood opportunities available to beneficiaries at no additional cost to t...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 16 Jun 2017

Asia Bond Monitor - March 2016

The report narrates that the yields of local currency bonds in most emerging East Asian markets remained on a downward trajectory in the first month and a half of 2016, pressured by worries over globa...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 15 Jun 2017

Enhancing Community-Driven Development through Convergence: A Case Study of Household- and Community-Based Initiatives in Philippine Villages

The study examines the Philippine government’s convergence initiative, and how it relates to community-driven development (CDD) that can impact rural communities in the Philippines.

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 09 Jun 2017

Reviving Lakes and Wetlands in the People's Republic of China, Volume 3: Best Practices and Prospects for the Sanjiang Plain Wetlands

The report narrates that the Sanjiang Plain wetlands are among the most important wetlands in the People’s Republic of China with unique habitats, species, and ecology. There is a considerable body of...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 08 Jun 2017

Asia Bond Monitor - June 2016

The report says that the global economic environment also affects the region’s bond yields, emphasizing the importance of domestic macroeconomic stability and bond market resilience in the face of glo...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 06 Jun 2017

From Toilets to Rivers: Experiences, New Opportunities, and Innovative Solutions: Volume 2

The project briefs are culled from case studies of good practices, new approaches, and working models on sanitation and wastewater management from different countries, and demonstrate solution options...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 05 Jun 2017

A Comparative Analysis of Tax Administration in Asia and the Pacific: 2016

The analysis and practical guidance provided in this report are based on surveys of revenue bodies conducted in 2014 and 2015, along with accompanying research of revenue bodies’ corporate documents,...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 22 May 2017

Mapping Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations in Asia and the Pacific: The ADB Experience

ADB recognizes four types of fragile and conflict-affected situations (FCAS)—conflict-affected, fragile,transitional, and subnational—and each situation has its own unique set of characteristics, and...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 12 May 2017

Sanitation and Sustainable Development in Japan

The paper outlines that the sanitation has long been “beneath the radar” on the development agendas of governments worldwide. Aside from the massive investment requirements for putting in place sanita...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 12 May 2017

ASEAN+3 Bond Market Guide 2016: Hong Kong, China

The paper narrates that the bond market in Hong Kong, China has for some time been a significant market place for issuers and investors in both domestic and foreign currencies. The range of product of...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 11 May 2017

Philippines: Public-Private Partnerships by Local Government Units

The paper narrates that as local government units (LGUs) have strived to carry out the responsibilities and activities devolved to them by the 1991 Local Government Code, they have explored and availe...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 11 May 2017

Asia Bond Monitor - November 2016

This issue of the Asia Bond Monitor includes Local currency (LCY) government bond yields in advancedeconomies and emerging East Asia climbed between 31 October and 18 November due to increased concern...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 11 May 2017

Asian Economic Integration Report 2016

The reports notes the regional cooperation and integration (RCI) in Asia and the Pacific continues to evolve, creating an important source for the region’s dynamic growth. This report assesses the RCI...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 10 May 2017

Accelerating Financial Inclusion in South-East Asia with Digital Finance

The research focuses on financial exclusion in three segments: base of pyramid (BoP); women; and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). From our research, we estimate that addressing this oppor...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 09 May 2017

Reinventing Mutual Recognition Arrangements: Lessons from International Experiences and Insights for the ASEAN Region

This report aims to support ASEAN policymakers and regulatory bodies by examining MRAs signed in other regions to see how well they have functioned on the ground. It focuses on the following issues: D...

by Dovelyn Rannveig Mendoza | On 08 May 2017

The Long Road Ahead: Status Report on the Implementation of the ASEAN Mutual Recognition Arrangements on Professional Services

In the report there has been progress primarily in two areas: (1) the creation of implementing offices and bodies at the regional and national levels as outlined in the MRAs; and (2) the incorporation...

by Dovelyn Rannveig Mendoza | On 05 May 2017

Smart Cities Movement in BRICS

BRICS nations are today cooperating on numerous matters of mutual concern. The cooperation is the result of years of deliberation, hard work and commitment. Since the formation of the grouping in the...

by | On 14 Apr 2017

An Interview with Anand Patwardhan

For over 40 years Anand Patwardhan’s documentary films have stood for freedom of expression. He faced censorship on numerous occasions, took the government to court, and won each time. Anand is not ju...

by Vidya Bhushan Rawat | On 10 Apr 2017

Opportunities for Women: Challenging Harmful Social Norms and Gender Stereotypes to Unlock Women’s Potential

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, shaped by both public and private sectors and the voices of civil society, was adopted by world leaders two years ago as a blueprint for making our world m...

by | On 16 Mar 2017

India Skills Report 2017

India Skills Report 2017 is an report that aims to support this initiative; by providing a stock of the talent landscape of India and supporting in charting the future direction of matchmaking. Curren...

by United Nations Development Programme [UNDP] | On 15 Mar 2017

Prostitution and the Ends of Empire: Scale, Governmentalities, and Interwar India. Durham: Duke University Press, Review

The book is an important exploration of late colonial preoccupations with the brothel, a "scandalous" space fueling the archival accretions that sustain contemporary historical inquiry. 2015; xi...

by Tara Suri | On 23 Feb 2017

The Case Against Weaponising Water

With growing water scarcity across many parts of the world, competition over access to this vital resource has been known to spark conflict. Following the September 2016 Uri attack in India, the gover...

by | On 14 Feb 2017

‘GOING DARK’ in India: The Legal and Security Dimensions of Encryption

Encrypting communications enhances privacy and the security of information services. This, in turn, incentivises innovation in the ICT sector and contributes significantly to the growth of the interne...

by | On 02 Feb 2017

Debating the World in the Asian Century

As Asia finds itself in the limelight, whether in terms of major power relations, rising insecurity and potential for conflict, or economic governance, it is worth asking, even before broaching the re...

by | On 02 Feb 2017

Vital Stats: Participation of Members of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly (2012-2017)

The Election Commission recently announced the poll schedule for the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. In this context, data on the composition of the 16th Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly (2012-...

by Jhalak Kakkar | On 10 Jan 2017

Modelling Corporate Sector Distress in India

The paper attempts to formulate a model to predict corporate financial distress of non-government non-financial public limited companies and estimate distressed bank debt due to the sample companies...

by Manjusha Senapathi | On 27 Dec 2016

The State of India's Pulses Sector

Pulses in India have recently become a topic of concern among policymakers. Members of the Opposition, for instance, have pointed to the 'exceptionally high' cost of certain pulses as an indication of...

by | On 15 Dec 2016

The Changing Contours of Inter group Disparities and the Role of Preferential Policies in a Globalizing World: Evidence from India

How persistent are traditional socioeconomic hierarchies in the face of marketization, significant structural shifts in the economy, and increased political representation of lower-ranked groups, and...

by Ashwini Deshpande | On 15 Dec 2016

Resilient and Responsive Health Systems for a Changing World

A health system should be responsive, resilient, self-regulating. It should be able to respond to health emergencies and changing development scenarios. Governments all over the world should see to it...

by Rajeev B.R. | On 14 Dec 2016

Government’s Role in India’s Ailing Cold Storage Sector

Every year, India wastes about 18 per cent of fruits and vegetables, due to lack of post-harvest storage facilities. The cold storage sector has been one of the most undermined sectors in India, devo...

by Madhu Sivaraman | On 05 Dec 2016

Technology for Transformation

India is committed to solve many problems that it is facing today. the human condition can improve more here in the next two decades than anywhere in the world. And the benefit, to India and to the...

by Bill Gates | On 30 Nov 2016

Stranded Migrants: Giving Structure to a Multifaceted Notion

This paper represents a holistic study of the multifaceted notion of stranded migrants, which gained renewed attention by international actors in the past decade, and especially in relation to the 201...

by | On 28 Nov 2016

Demonetisation: Impact on the Economy

The argument posited in favour of demonetisation is that the cash that would be extinguished would be “black money” and hence, should be rightfully extinguished to set right the perverse incentive s...

by | On 17 Nov 2016

Endogenous Leadership in a Federal Transfer Game

Conventional wisdom suggests that, to negate fiscal externalities imposed by provinces which spend too much and raise lower local resources, central authority should always be a first mover in the t...

by Bodhisattva Sengupta | On 14 Nov 2016

Black Money, Corruption and Demonetisation

The demonetisation of currency after a long period of 38 years was a welcome and bold step taken by the Government of India on November 8, 2016. The last demonetisation was implemented in 1978 by wi...

by Martin Patrick | On 11 Nov 2016

A Stagnant Agriculture in Kerala: The Role of the State

The paper shows that disincentives generated by the successive governments in Kerala through imposing artificial barriers on the freedom of farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs resulted in the coll...

by Lekshmi R Nair | On 08 Nov 2016

Rehabilitating Children in Conflict with the Law: Opportunities and Challenges

While discussing about the problems and issues faced by children in India, we have overlooked a category of children that are almost always overlooked are the ‘Children in Conflict with the Law’. Man...

by HAQ Centre for Child Rights HAQCRC | On 24 Oct 2016

Rail Revolution-2025

This policy brief proposes reorganisation of current industry structure and proposes a new organizational structure for the railways to meet the needs of the 21st century . [CPPR Policy Brief Series...

by Centre for Public Policy Research CPPR | On 21 Oct 2016

Mainstreaming an Effective Intervention: Evidence from Randomized Evaluations of “Teaching at the Right Level” in India

Previous randomized studies have shown that addressing children’s current learning gaps, rather than following an over-ambitious uniform curriculum, can lead to significant learning gains. In this stu...

by Esther Duflo | On 18 Oct 2016

Problem of Food Security: A Brief Analysis of Tribal Area in India

The right to food is about freedom from hunger. The narrow meaning at hunger may be understood as the right to have two square meals a day, while in its broader meaning would include under nutrition....

by Johani Xaxa | On 17 Oct 2016

The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016

To provide for protection of rights of transgender persons and their welfare and for matters connected therewith and incidental thereto. [Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment unde...

by Parliamentary Research Service PRS | On 13 Oct 2016

Trade Shocks and the Provision of Local Public Goods

We analyze the impact of trade-induced income shocks on the size of local government, and the provision of public services. Areas in the US with declining labor demand and incomes due to increasing im...

by | On 10 Oct 2016

Book Review: ‘Native places’ and Journeys Beyond

Review of Almost Home: Finding a Place in the World from Kashmir to New York by Githa Hariharan; Restless Books (Originally published by Fourth Estate, 2014), New York; 2016, 304 pages, $16.99.

by Dhanwanti Nayak | On 07 Oct 2016

Recent Changes in the Fiscal Architecture in India and Implications for Financing Climate Change Interventions

The recent changes in the institutional and fiscal architecture of the country following the constitution of NITI Aayog and release of report of the Fourteenth Finance Commission, have implications...

by Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability CBGA | On 04 Oct 2016

Let's Play - An Action Plan to achieve 50 Olympic Medals

NITI Aayog presents a 20 point action plan that highlights some key areas in sports that require improvement. These action points have been divided to a short term vision (4 to 8 years) and a medium...

by Niti Aayog GOI | On 27 Sep 2016

Water and Identity: An Analysis of the Cauvery River Water Dispute

This paper focuses on the dispute over river Cauvery in Southern India. Among the causes of river water disputes are contested property rights, difficulty in enforcing such rights, conflict of uses an...

by | On 20 Sep 2016

The Power of Sport Values

The social and physical roles of sport are especially relevant today, in a global context deeply challenged by discrimination, insecurity and violence. We believe in the unique potential of physica...

by UNESCO UNESCO | On 20 Sep 2016

Does Government Spending on Social Sector Impacts Growth? An Analysis Across Indian States for the Last Two Decades

This paper attempts to examine the impact of government expenditure in social sector on economic growth at the state level for 15 major states. The study reveals that the share of social sector expend...

by | On 07 Sep 2016

Who Takes a Call on Price Stability, the Government or the RBI?

The question here is, whether it’s the responsibility of the Government or the Central Bank to ensure price stability in an economy? For instance, what was the role of the RBI when the prices of pulse...

by Deepthi Mary Mathew | On 07 Sep 2016

Should Countries Be More Like Shopping Malls? A Proposal for Service Performance Guarantees

Many developing countries have made progress in political openness and economic management but still struggle to attract private sector investments, at least outside of narrow, resource-based enclaves...

by Alan Gelb | On 01 Sep 2016

Learning and Behavioral Spillovers of Nutritional Information

This paper provides evidence for informational spillovers within urban slums in Chandigarh, India. I identify three groups, a treatment group, a neighboring spillover group, and a nonadjacent pure con...

by | On 30 Aug 2016

Gender Bias in Education during Conflict: Evidence from Assam

Using a large-scale novel panel dataset (2005–14) on schools from the Indian state of Assam, we test for the impact of violent conflict on female students’ enrollment rates. We find that a doubling of...

by | On 30 Aug 2016

Educating the Urban Poor: Case Study of Running Pre-schools in Non-notified Slums of Bengaluru

In the paper, an informal preschool program is described that Akshara Foundation administered over 12 months in a set of non-notified slums in Bengaluru. The intervention is particularly noteworthy be...

by K. Vaijayanti | On 29 Aug 2016

Impact of Caregiver Incentives on Child Health: Evidence from an Experiment with Anganwadi Workers in India

This paper provides evidence of effectiveness for performance pay among government caregivers to improve child health in India. In a controlled study of 160 daycare centers serving over 4,000 children...

by | On 29 Aug 2016

The Externalities of Civil Strife: Refugees as a Source of International Conflict

Domestic strife and civil war frequently produce large population dislocations and refugee flows across national boundaries. Mass refugee flows often entail negative consequences for receiving states,...

by | On 23 Aug 2016

Combating Haze: Holding One’s Breath A Year On

Indonesia’s efforts to combat forest fires have thus far shown some signs of progress. Doubts over Indonesia’s commitment and the effectiveness of its measures however seem to remain.

by | On 19 Aug 2016

The History of Humanitarian Action in East and Southeast Asia: Asian Perspectives

ASEAN assumed different roles in responding to humanitarian crises in Cambodia (in the 1970s) and Myanmar (Cyclone Nargis in 2008). For the Cambodia situation, ASEAN was playing the role of ‘antagonis...

by | On 19 Aug 2016

The Dominant Borrower Syndrome: The Case of Pakistan

The pressure fiscal expansion exerts on the economy via credit markets in Pakistan is analysed. Melina and Villa (2014) is extended by allowing government to compete with the private borrowers (firms...

by Sajawal Khan | On 16 Aug 2016

Global Forest Watch Climate: Summary of Methods and Data

The Global Forest Watch (GFW) Climate online platform catalyzes action on climate change by providing timely and credible answers to questions about the impacts of tropical deforestation on global...

by nancy Harris | On 12 Aug 2016

Signing away Sovereignty: How Investment Agreements Threaten Regulation of the Mining Industry in the Philippines

In the last decade, the resource-rich Philippines has bet heavily on the mining industry as a development strategy, an approach that has come under growing scrutiny. With 47 large-scale mines in oper...

by Cecilia Olivet | On 10 Aug 2016

GST in India: Chasing a Mirage or Reality?

India is moving towards introducing a Goods and Services Tax (GST). The GST would be a multistage comprehensive value added tax (VAT) encompassing both goods and services. Given the federal structur...

by Sacchidananda Mukherjee | On 09 Aug 2016

First Discussion Paper on Goods and Services Tax in India

If the Value Added Tax (VAT) is considered to be a major improvement over the pre-existing Central excise duty at the national level and the sales tax system at the State level, then the Goods and Ser...

by Government of India | On 05 Aug 2016

Subsidies to Coal Production in China

A further subsidy in the form of credit support was estimated to be between CNY 3.5 and 35.7 billion (USD 0.57 billion and USD 5.8 billion). The major subsidies included tax relief, investment in asse...

by | On 02 Aug 2016

Do Government Audits Reduce Corruption: Estimating the Impacts of Exposing Corrupt Politicians

This paper examines the extent to which government audits of public resources can reduce corruption by enhancing political and judiciary accountability. It does so in the context of Brazil’s anti-corr...

by Eric Avis | On 29 Jul 2016

Evaluation of Government Interventions in Khadi Sector

Khadi sector is an over-regulated one in India, where the entire production process, sales, distribution, and marketing is fully regulated by the government. The paper examines the growth of Khadi sec...

by Lekshmi R Nair | On 25 Jul 2016

Finders, Keepers?

Natural resource taxation and investment often exhibit cyclical behaviour, associated with shifts in political power. Why do finders get to keep more of their discoveries in some periods than others?...

by Niko Jaakkola | On 22 Jul 2016

Estimating Local Fiscal Multipliers

This paper proposes a new source of cross-sectional variation that may identify causal impacts of Government spending on the economy. It uses the fact that a large number of federal spending programs...

by Juan Serrato | On 20 Jul 2016

A Systematic Review of Cross-Country Data Initiatives on Agricultural Public Expenditures in Developing Countries

A number of data initiatives exist that assemble and make available public expenditure data on agriculture, in addition to other variables. Several of these data initiatives overlap in terms of which...

by Richard Anson | On 20 Jul 2016

A Study on Financial Literacy and its Determinants among Gen Y Employees in Coimbatore City

Financial literacy is the mix of one’s knowledge, skill and attitude towards financial matters. It helps to make informed decisions and well-being of an individual. Research has been conducted globall...

by | On 18 Jul 2016

Labour Law and Governance Reforms in India: A Partial and Misguided View of Employment Relations

Labour regulation in India has engaged the attention of not only policy makers but also social actors, researchers and practioners. Policy measures have started rolling out from the state governments...

by Shyam Sundar | On 11 Jul 2016

Does Social Health Insurance Reduce Financial Burden? Panel Data Evidence from India

Indian government launched the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), a national health insurance scheme, in 2008 that provides cashless health services to poor households in India. The scheme is eval...

by Mehtabul Azam | On 11 Jul 2016

The Case for Cyber and Cyber-Physical Weapons: India’s Grand Strategy and Diplomatic Goals

This briefing document articulates a grand strategy for India to pursue the development of cyber and cyber-physical weapons, with a view to manage conflicts and the future balance of power in Asia.Ind...

by | On 07 Jul 2016

Vital Stats: Overview of Central Government Employees

The central government periodically constitutes a Pay Commission, to evaluate and recommend revisions of salaries and pensions, for its employees. Recently, the Seventh Central Pay Commission has mad...

by Vatsal Khullar | On 07 Jul 2016

The Effect of Pollution on Worker Productivity: Evidence from Call-Center Workers in China

The paper investigates the effect of pollution on worker productivity in the service sector by focusing on two call centers in China. Using precise measures of each worker’s daily output linked to dai...

by Tom Chang | On 30 Jun 2016

Best Practices in Regulation of Private Education

Current paper aims to understand how the governments in different parts of the world have leveraged upon the private sector to achieve specific educational goals. The idea here is not to recommend o...

by Centre for Civil Society CCS | On 29 Jun 2016

Decentralisation and Interventions in Health Sector: A Critical Inquiry into the Experience of Local Self Governments in Kerala

This paper attempts to analyse the transition in the healthcare sector during the last two decades linking it to the interventions of Local Self Governments (LSGs). It was found that decentralisation...

by | On 29 Jun 2016

Is Partisan Alignment Electorally Rewarding? Evidence from Village Council Elections in India

Do ruling parties positively discriminate in favour of their own constituencies in allocating public resources? If they do, do they gain electorally in engaging in such a practice? This paper tests wh...

by Subhasish Dey | On 27 Jun 2016

Peace, Terrorism, or Civil Conflict? Understanding the Decision of an Opposition Group

This paper models an opposition group’s choice between peace, terrorism, and open conflict. Terrorism emerges if executive constraints are intermediate and rents are sizeable. Open conflict is predict...

by Michael Jetter | On 27 Jun 2016

Can War Foster Cooperation?

In the past decade, nearly 20 studies have found a strong, persistent pattern in surveys and behavioral experiments from over 40 countries: individual exposure to war violence tends to increase social...

by Michal Bauer | On 24 Jun 2016

Talent Management Systems in Indian Pharmaceutical Firms: Exploring an Emerging Typology

This study has explored the implementation of talent management process in pharmaceutical industry in India through a case study approach. Data was collected from top management and senior managers in...

by Kirti Sharda | On 24 Jun 2016

Right to Food in India: Mitigating amidst Challenges

What are the policies that Indian government has implemented to alleviate poverty and hunger? Can we say that these are implemented in the right way? What lies in future?

by Aarti Salve | On 24 Jun 2016

An Analysis of Perceptions of Domestic Violence and Efficacy of the Implementation of the PWDV Act (2005) in Bihar

The present study has been conducted in the rural and urban areas of 9 districts of 9 commissionaries in Bihar. A random sample of 375 families is drawn from different socio-economic backgrounds. The...

by CARE India | On 20 Jun 2016

Case Study on AID Effectiveness in Tajikistan

This case study aims at presenting Tajikistan’s perspective of, experiences with, and challenges to foreign aid. The objective of the study is to raise awareness about different dimensions of aid f...

by Rustam Aminjanov | On 20 Jun 2016

Optimal Unemployment Benefit Policy and the Firm Productivity Distribution

This paper provides a novel justification for a declining time profile of unemployment benefits that does not rely on moral hazard or consumption-smoothing considerations. It considers a simple search...

by Tomer Blumkin | On 15 Jun 2016

Internal Displacement : Global Overview of Trends and Developments in 2008

Internal displacement continued in many countries to result from failures by parties to armed conflicts to respect the rights of civilian populations, including by taking necessary steps to prevent di...

by United Nations Development Programme [UNDP] | On 14 Jun 2016

Inter-Regional Comparisons of Humanitarian Action

Throughout the conference it became clear that there are two emerging trends in humanitarian action across the Asia–Pacific. The first is the increasing activity of selected Asia-Pacific states engage...

by | On 09 Jun 2016

Shifting Diets for a Sustainable Food Future

The role of one consumption-based solution: shifting the diets of populations who consume high amounts of calories, protein, and animal-based foods are analysed. Specifically, we consider three in...

by Janet Ranganathan | On 06 Jun 2016

The Contours and Concerns of Drought-Induced Migration

Umi Daniel is currently working as Head Migration Thematic unit at Aide et Action South Asia. His areas of interests are tribal empowerment, people’s right to food, micro level planning, rights and en...

by Umi Daniel | On 03 Jun 2016

Righting the Wrong Strengthening Local Humanitarian Leadership to Save Lives and Strengthen Communities

The international humanitarian system—the vast UN-led network in which Oxfam and other international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs), the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement, and others play key rol...

by Oxfam India | On 02 Jun 2016

How Forced Displacements Caused by a Violent Conflict Affect Wages in Colombia

In this paper, we analyze how forced displacements caused by violent conflicts affect the wages of displaced workers in Colombia, a country characterized by a long historical prevalence of violent con...

by | On 02 Jun 2016

Addressing the Role of Natural Resources in Conflict and Peacebuilding: A Summary of Progress

This report highlights both the progress and results that the ECP programme has achieved in the field of environmental peacebuilding from 2008 to 2015. The report also shares some of the key lessons l...

by United Nations Environment Programme UNEP | On 02 Jun 2016

Global Slavery Index 2016

The Global Slavery Index (‘the Index’) provides an estimate of the number of people in modern slavery, the factors that make individuals vulnerable to this crime, and an assessment of government actio...

by | On 01 Jun 2016

Identifying Stakeholders in the Land Use Management Process and Related Critical Factors in ASEAN

With growing populations and demand for food, farmers in ASEAN member states (except Singapore) are required to produce more and more food from land that continues to decline due to population growth,...

by | On 31 May 2016

Minimum Wage Comparison: Asian Countries Minimum Wage Fixing

For countries which have a minimum wage, the minimum wage fixing system differs according to objectives and criteria, machinery and procedures, coverage, and subsequent adjustment as well as the opera...

by Sanjana Singh | On 31 May 2016

Aid and Conflict in Afghanistan

This report examines the international community’s assistance to Afghanistan, with particular focus on U.S. efforts. It assesses the impact of the U.S.-devised counter-insurgency strategy on Afghans’...

by International Crisis Group | On 26 May 2016

Women and Conflict in Afghanistan

This report assesses the status of women in present-day Afghanistan, including the gains achieved with international support after the U.S.-led intervention in 2001. It examines gaps and challenges to...

by International Crisis Group | On 26 May 2016

Afghanistan’s Political Transition

This report reviews Afghanistan’s 2014 presidential election and the related political contests. Drawing on interviews in Kabul and the work of researchers in several provinces, this study does not se...

by International Crisis Group | On 26 May 2016

Youth and Labour Reforms in India

On account of May 1st being the Labour Day, India Youth Fund interviewed Professor Arup Mitra from the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi on a number of labour rights and reforms related issues in In...

by Arup Mitra | On 26 May 2016

On the Road to Universal Health Coverage: Every Person Matters

In modern society, the possession of a personal official identification (ID) is critical to an individual’s access to government services, and social and economic programs. From voting to receipt of s...

by Michael Stahl | On 26 May 2016

Women, Land and Law in Vietnam

The study collected information about farmers’ ability to access land, and their attitudes and knowledge of land law, particularly women’s land rights and farmers’ ability to solve land-related confli...

by Gina Alvarado | On 24 May 2016

Stop Stunting in South Asia: A Common Narrative on Maternal and Child Nutrition

Governments in South Asia are progressively acknowledging that child stunting is both a marker and a maker of poor development. UNICEF regional and country offices in South Asia work with regional bo...

by United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF | On 24 May 2016

Institutionalising Civilian Control of the Military in New Democracies: Theory and Evidence from South Korea

This paper aims to answer the question of how and under what circumstances civilian control can be established in newly democratised nations. To do this, the paper proposes a new theoretical argument...

by | On 23 May 2016

Report by the Fact Finding Team on Violence in Bastar Division between State Forces and Maoist Insurgents

A delegation comprising of Sanjay Parate, Secretary State CPI-M, Vineet Tiwari, Joshi-Adhikari Institute, New Delhi, Archana Prasad, Jawaharlal Nehru University and CC member AIDWA, and Nandini Sundar...

by | On 19 May 2016

Building a Design Economy in India

The interministerial group will rework its strategy on labour laws and tweak it in such a manner that it maximises benefits for both workers and employers. In this paper, we outline the manner in whi...

by Shamika Ravi | On 18 May 2016

Does Size Matter? The Productivity of Government Expenditures and the Size of States: Evidence from India

Some politicians argue for the splitting and combining of states to increase government productivity, but there is a dearth of empirical evidence on the optimal size of a state. Using data from Indian...

by Cornelis Haasnoot | On 18 May 2016

Game Theoretical Approach to Regulate the Public-Owned River Water Utilities: A Case Study of Cauvery River

Management of regulated water systems has become increasingly complex due to rapid socio-economic growth and environmental changes in river basins over recent decades. This paper focusses on the publ...

by Zareena Begum Irfan | On 17 May 2016

Plan vs. Performance Budget Session – February 23 to May 13, 2016

The Budget Session was originally planned to be held in two parts: from February 23 to March 16 and April 25 to May 13. However, at the end of March, the government decided to convert these into two...

by Kusum Malik | On 17 May 2016

Water Rights in India and Water Sector Reforms in Andhra Pradesh

Water rights in India in a formal, legal manner are still under formulation. Rights based on centuries old customs and conventions currently prevail. In recent years, reforms have sought to introduce...

by | On 12 May 2016

Advancing the Interests of Bangladesh’s Migrant Workers: Issues of Financial Inclusion and Social Protection

The study is expected to contribute to stimulating debate around the broader issues of safeguarding the interests of migrant workers through financial mainstreaming of their income, raising efficacy o...

by | On 11 May 2016

The Trade Marks Act, 1999

Indian trademark law statutorily protects trademarks as per the Trademark Act, 1999 and also under the common law remedy of passing off. Statutory protection of trademark is administered by the Contro...

by Ministry of Commerce and Industry GOI | On 09 May 2016

Faltering UDF, Rising LDF and the Unknown Factor of the Third Front in Kerala Elections 2016

The ruling United Democratic Front's chances of coming back to power in the forthcoming elections in Kerala seem bleak, while a resurgent Left Democratic Front is gearing up to form the government. Ho...

by N Rajendran | On 09 May 2016

The Federation Model of Community Organising

In the past two decades through a process called “Enumeration” through which the members collect at city level data about slums, Slum Dwellers International have created a mechanism which serves to cr...

by Sheela Patel | On 06 May 2016

Understanding the Election in Assam (Part 1)

The mainstream narrative on Assam is defined by an excessive focus on linguistic, ethnic, and religious strife, but many of the voters speak of development and economic growth, not social conflict, as...

by | On 05 May 2016

The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation Amendment Bill, 2015)

A bill further to amend the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957.

by Lok Sabha Secretariat | On 03 May 2016

The Indian Insolvency Regime in Practice-An Analysis of Insolvency and Debt Recovery Proceedings

This paper analyses 45 cases of insolvency and bankruptcy resolution in order to measure the efficiency and problems of the present laws for firm bankruptcy in India.

by | On 02 May 2016

Public Financing of Education in Pakistan: Analysis of Federal, Provincial and District Budgets

Although significant, the share of education in total provincial budgets is declining except for Balochistan. This year, the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has allocated the highest share of its p...

by Institute of Social and Policy Sciences I-SAPS | On 29 Apr 2016

Tamil Nadu: What Voters Want and How They Rate Government Performance

This report consists the findings of a survey carried out in February 2016 in Tamil Nadu. The purpose of the survey was to find out what voters really want from the Government and how they rate the pe...

by Association for Democratic Reforms ADR | On 28 Apr 2016

Kerala: Education Report on Schools

Annual Status of Education Report is the largest annual household survey of children in rural India that focuses on the status of schooling and basic learning to find out whether children in rural Ind...

by Annual status of education report ASER | On 27 Apr 2016

Designs (Amendment) Rules, 2014

The Designs (Amendment) Rules, 2014 has been published by the Government of India, Ministry of Commerce and Industry (Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion) by notification in Part-II, Section...

by Ministry of Commerce and Industry GOI | On 26 Apr 2016

Elderly in India

Population ageing has profound social, economic and political implications for a country. The increasing number of older persons put a strain on health care and social care systems in the country. O...

by Ministry of Statistics and Prog Implementation (MOSPI) | On 25 Apr 2016

Action vs Planning

Can the targets of achieving high economic growth be achieved without planning?

by T.N. Ninan | On 24 Apr 2016

Maritime Failures

India's trade infrastructure is in a bad shape. India's imports are very high than its exports. The government has promised some investments and policies in this sector.

by T.N. Ninan | On 16 Apr 2016

PAISA for Panchayats - Tracking Fiscal Devolution toLocal Goverments: A case study from Kolar district, Karnataka

The PAISA for Panchayats research project extends AI’s PAISA methodology to track fund flows and implementations processes at the Panchayat level. By focusing on understanding the state of fiscal devo...

by | On 13 Apr 2016

Distortions in Land Markets and their Implications to Credit Generation in India

Land and buildings are a preferred collateral for lenders in India due to its ease of valuation and disposal in the event of default. Yet several distortions afflict Indian land markets that make thi...

by K.P. Krishnan | On 12 Apr 2016

Global Report on Diabetes

Diabetes is a serious, chronic disease that occurs either when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin (a hormone that regulates blood sugar, or glucose), or when the body cannot effectively use...

by World Health Organisation (WHO) | On 07 Apr 2016

Agriculture-Nutrition Linkages and Child Health in the Presence of Conflict in Nepal

This paper focuses on this agriculture-nutrition link in Nepal in the context of the country’s decade-long civil conflict. Using panel household data from the Nepal Living Standards Survey (NLSS), co...

by Elizabeth Bageant | On 30 Mar 2016

Can Iron-Fortified Salt Control Anemia? Evidence from Two Experiments in Rural Bihar

This paper reports on the impact of a potential strategy to address iron deficiency anemia in rural areas: double fortified salt (DFS) — salt fortified with iron and iodine. They conducted a large-sc...

by Abhijit Banerjee | On 23 Mar 2016

Budget Speech Uttar Pradesh: 2016-17

Budget speech of the finance minister of Uttar Pradesh.

by Uttar Pradesh Government UP | On 22 Mar 2016

The Conceit of Reason the Cunning of History versus - Modernity and Caste in India

This paper addresses the central question as to how and why caste still survives under conditions of democracy and modernity and what do we make of it. I try to explain this phenomenon by viewing it i...

by Sanjeeb Mukherjee | On 21 Mar 2016

Impact of JNNURM and UIDSSMT/ IHSDP Programmes on Infrastructure and Governance Outcomes in Cities/ Towns in India

The paper is based on a review of the available official data and the existing literature on the Missions. It is divided into three broad sections. The first analyzes data available from the official...

by Lalitha Kamath | On 21 Mar 2016

Review and Compendium of Environmental Policies and Laws in Bhutan

This review and compendium of our country’s environmental laws, policies, and regulations aims to enhance the accessibility to information by judges, lawyers, government officials, and stakeholders in...

by Antonia Gawel | On 18 Mar 2016

Budget Speech Maharashtra: 2016-17-Part I

Budget Speech by Finance Minister of Maharashtra

by Sudhir Mungamtiwar | On 18 Mar 2016

Money Matters Local Government Finance in the People's Republic of China

Public finance systems in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have evolved substantially over the last three decades. The evolution is continuing, with wide-ranging reforms in budget and debt managem...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 18 Mar 2016

Budget Speech Andhra Pradesh 2016-17

Budget Speech of Yanamala Ramakrishnudu Minister of Finance.

by Yanamala Ramakrishnudu | On 16 Mar 2016

Environmental Policy in a Federation with Special Interest Politics and Inter-governmental Grants

The paper explores the potential effect of intergovernmental grants (IGG) on sub-national (local) environmental policy in a federal structure. In the model, a politically-inclined local government rec...

by Divya Datt | On 15 Mar 2016

Diffusion of Bt Cotton in India: Impact of Seed Prices and Technological Development

Recent studies have analyzed the adoption of Bt cotton in the light of government seed price interventions. According to one view, reduction in seed prices enabled the farmers to buy seeds at lower pr...

by | On 15 Mar 2016

Improving Interchanges Introducing Best practices on Multimodal Interchange Hub Development in the People's Republic of China

This report discusses the experiences and commonly encountered issues when developing railway interchange hubs. It proposes basic design principles as well as research approaches. The report focuses o...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 15 Mar 2016

After the Death of Kim Jong Il: Everything and Nothing has Changed

The death of Kim Jong Il has sent shivers down the spine of many leaders in Asia and the world. In South Korea, the armed forces have been put on alert and Seoul has asked the U.S. to increase surveil...

by | On 14 Mar 2016

The End of Japan’s Nuclear Renaissance? Not Just Yet.

The 9.0 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami that severally damaged the Fukushima nuclear plant have been described as ending the ‘nuclear renaissance’ in Japan. The government is in a hard pla...

by | On 14 Mar 2016

Japan’s ODA Still Going Strong

In the 1990s, Japan was the world’s top donor. This position was lost in 2001, after a prolonged economic slump, a deteriorating fiscal situation, and increasingly critical public view of ODA made the...

by | On 14 Mar 2016

North Korean Economic Reform: New Changes or Old, Empty Promises?

In June, North Korean authorities announced agricultural reforms called the “6.28 policy,” which promises to recalculate the ratio of distributed planned products (70 percent to the country, 30 percen...

by | On 14 Mar 2016

The Housing Market and Housing Policies in Japan

Housing policies in Japan after World War II were focused on the quantitative supply of houses with a wide range of targeted groups and public rental houses. The Japan Housing Corporation (now the Urb...

by Masahiro Kobayashi | On 14 Mar 2016

Debt Dynamics, Fiscal Deficit, and Stability in Government Borrowing in India: A Dynamic Panel Analysis

Despite the initiatives of the Finance Commission of India, fiscal performance has been deteriorating and increasingly diverging across Indian states. Given that the state governments are endowed with...

by Panchanan Das | On 14 Mar 2016

US-WTO Shadow on India’s Solar Power Plans

With last week’s WTO ruling against India on a complaint by the US in early 2013 that India’s Domestic Content Requirement (DCR) for some solar power projects violating WTO prohibitions, it is incumbe...

by D Raghunandan | On 14 Mar 2016

North Korea: Nukes, Nationalism & Negotiations

As South Korea this month takes up the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council, concerns over North Korea’s nuclear program grow. Pyongyang’s recent rocket tests, its anticipated th...

by Sangsoo Lee | On 12 Mar 2016

Shale Gas: The Key in the US’ Asia Pivot?

The “shale gas revolution” in the US could provide significant leverage in the US “pivot” to Asia. As China looks to absorb the technological know-how of shale gas extraction from North America, great...

by | On 12 Mar 2016

China and North Korea: A Relationship in Transition?

Military tensions on the Korean Peninsula have been escalating for several months now. The latest events with the missile launches and newly released reports on the abduction of Chinese fishermen by N...

by | On 12 Mar 2016

China and Vietnam: Managing Tensions in Troubled Waters

In spite of competing claims over the Spratly and Paracel Archipelagoes and maritime areas in the South China Sea, China and Vietnam have sought, with some degree of success, to manage their tensions...

by Ramses Amer | On 12 Mar 2016

Desecuritizing the Kurdish Question and Emerging Regional Dynamics

Desecuritizing the Kurdish question has become a priority for Turkey’s AKP government as it seeks to enter into a domestic “solution process” with the PKK. However, emerging dynamics in Iraq and Syria...

by | On 12 Mar 2016

Missiles and Reunions: Thaw or Freeze on the Korean Peninsula?

Family reunions between North and South Korea may be an encouraging sign of a thaw in tensions on the Korean Peninsula, which could lead to further trust-building activities and economic cooperation....

by | On 12 Mar 2016

China's Stakes in the Ukraine Crisis

The crisis in the Ukraine and Russia’s intervention in the Crimea throws an important spotlight on China’s position and stakes regarding the issue. While it has refrained from openly critcizing Russia...

by | On 12 Mar 2016

Tensions in Cyberspace: Toward a Code of Conduct

The row between the United States and China, caused by the indictment of five Chinese military officers on account of cyberespionage against private companies in the U.S., illustrates the importance o...

by | On 12 Mar 2016

People's or Party's Army in Vietnam?

While the Vietnam Communist Party’s grip over the army remains strong, Zachary Abuza examines the growing calls challenging the Vietnam People’s Army’s duty to defend the ruling party over national in...

by | On 11 Mar 2016

Empowering Tamil Women: Recovery in Post-conflict Sri Lanka

More than five years after the Sri Lankan government’s victory over the LTTE insurgency, billions of dollars have been invested in infrastructure development projects in war-ravaged northern Sri Lanka...

by | On 11 Mar 2016

China's Myanmar Policy: Dilemma or Strategic Ambiguity?

Enmeshed directly and indirectly in Myanmar’s ethnic conflicts, Beijing is facing a dilemma in how to deal with ethnic Chinese irredentist groups amidst ongoing fighting in northern Shan State. Failur...

by | On 11 Mar 2016

Biofuel Feedstock Cultivation in India: Implications for Food Security and Rural Livelihoods

Biofuels are acquiring importance due to their potential to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. The two most important biofuels – viz., bioethanol and bio-diesel, are largely considered supplementary t...

by K.S. Kavi Kumar | On 11 Mar 2016

Efficiency in Education Sector: A Case of Rajasthan State (India)

In this paper, considering the district level variations in literacy and other pertinent socio-economic variables we explore whether efficiency in education in district level enrolments is merely a re...

by Brijesh C. Purohit | On 11 Mar 2016

Analyzing the Water Footprint of Indian Dairy Industry

Water footprint is a multidimensional indicator, showing water consumption volumes by source and by type of pollution; all components of a total water footprint are specified geographically and tempor...

by Zareena Begum Irfan | On 11 Mar 2016

Effect of Macroeconomic News Releases on Bond Yields in India China and Japan

This paper studies the effect of domestic macroeconomic news releases on the change in the bond yields of India, China and Japan. We apply event study method to observe whether the large set of new in...

by Sreejata Banerjee | On 10 Mar 2016

Remorse and Reform: Abe's Stormy Spring

From apologizing for Japan’s wartime past to collective defense and FTA negotiations with the United States, Japan faces a number of contentious issues in the coming months that call into question Pri...

by | On 10 Mar 2016

Politicking and the Philippine Peace Process

Three months after a deadly clash in Mamasapano, the Philippine peace process is in danger. The hard-won gains of negotiations over the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL)—the implementing piece of le...

by | On 10 Mar 2016

Myanmar’s Fragile Ceasefire

Resolving Myanmar’s protracted civil war is the country’s defining challenge. With declarations of support signed for a National Ceasefire Agreement, there is much optimism that Myanmar is finally on...

by | On 10 Mar 2016

Mitigating Militancy in Northwest Pakistan

Nearly three months on from the launch of Operation Zarb e Azb by Pakistan’s armed forces, this policy brief explores the problem of militancy in North Waziristan in northwest Pakistan. The author arg...

by | On 10 Mar 2016

Myanmar and the Case for UN Resolution 1325

From sexual violence to socio-economic hardships, women have borne a disproportionate share of the burden in Myanmar’s decades-long civil war. As the country undergoes a protracted peace process, more...

by | On 10 Mar 2016

Power Crisis in Pakistan: A Crisis in Governance?

The objective in this study is to examine the issues and constraints faced by the power sector in Pakistan. The paper will try to evaluate the reasons behind the current energy crisis despite present...

by Afia Malik | On 10 Mar 2016

The Transcending Power of Goods: Imaginative Value in the Economy

What do we value? For markets to operate and for economies to grow, producers must attract purchasers to the products they offer. In advanced capitalist economies, market saturation and decline of dem...

by Jens Beckert | On 09 Mar 2016

Challenges for Urban Local Governments in India

The findings of this study show that urban local governments in India continue to remain plagued by numerous problems, which affect their performance in the efficient discharge of their duties. These...

by Rumi Aijaz | On 09 Mar 2016

India’s Union Budget: Changing Scope and the Evolving Content

The paper reflects on the changing scope of the Union Budget and the Finance Minister’s speech and assesses the evolving content of these policy instruments in recent years. The analysis undertaken...

by | On 08 Mar 2016

Poverty and Diseases: A Dangerous Liasion?

In the second issue of the NTS Alert for February, we turn our attention towards the complex interactions between poverty and diseases. We briefly summarise the state of the world's health, identify l...

by S. Rajaratnam International Studies | On 06 Mar 2016

Nuclear-Public Relations Management In Southeast Asia

Due to the pragmatic need for ensuring energy security, governments of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have to date emphasised the potential economic and technological benefits of n...

by S. Rajaratnam International Studies | On 06 Mar 2016

Fighting Corruption: A Test Case for Indonesia ... and Southeast Asia

Recent anti-corruption efforts by Indonesia have once again brought attention to the longstanding issue of corruption. Indonesia established the Corruption Eradication Commission or the KomisiPemberan...

by S. Rajaratnam International Studies | On 05 Mar 2016

Voluntary Compliance: Better Governance with Lesser Government

Analysed from various perspectives, the success of a recent experiment of regulating car traffic on the streets of India’s capital city of Delhi – in order to control air pollution – shows the possibl...

by Vinod Rai | On 04 Mar 2016

Transparency International Releases Its Corruption Perceptions Index 2010

The 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index reveals that nearly three quarters of the 178 countries in the index have a score of below five, on a scale of 10 (highly clean) to 0 (highly corrupt). Denmark, N...

by S. Rajaratnam International Studies | On 03 Mar 2016

Thai- Cambodian Border Clashes Resume

Fighting resumed along the disputed Thai-Cambodian border, covering Thailand’s Si SaKet province and Cambodia’s PreahVihear province, following the start of gunfire and artillery duels on 4 February 2...

by S. Rajaratnam International Studies | On 03 Mar 2016

Debating Geo-Engineering Governance: How It Matters to the Asia- ¬Pacific Region

The debate on the risks and opportunities of geoengineering is currently gaining momentum. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is, for the first time, assessing the scientific basis as well...

by | On 03 Mar 2016

Enhancing Early Warning Systems for Disaster Management

A recent report by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) noted that Indonesia faces the highest risk from tsunamis worldwide. The evaluation was based on the number...

by S. Rajaratnam International Studies | On 02 Mar 2016

An Asia Prepared for the Monsoon Season?

Several Asian countries have experienced flooding in recent weeks. While the monsoon rains – amplified by the La Nina effect -have been taking place as expected from the second to the third quarter o...

by S. Rajaratnam International Studies | On 02 Mar 2016

ENGOs’ Bitter Pill: Adapting to Incremental Climate (Governance) Change

Environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs) have often been depicted as a section of civil society that is highly critical of the lack of political will in addressing environmental issues. Th...

by Sofiah Jamil | On 02 Mar 2016

Myanmar’s National Reconciliation Process: A Positive for the Region?

Since taking office in March 2011, Myanmar’s new government has implemented a host of reforms. These include the release of some political prisoners,a lifting of restrictions on media freedoms, the...

by S. Rajaratnam International Studies | On 02 Mar 2016

Situation of Children in Bhutan An Anthropological Perspective

The field study has comprised of survey visits covering all districts except Samtse and Dagana; while visits of longer duration and repeated revisits, have been made in Paro; Punakha; Phobjikha and Ru...

by | On 02 Mar 2016

Government Health Financing in India: Challenges in Achieving Ambitious Goals

The Government of India has publicly committed to a doubling or trebling of government health spending by 2012 and launched a major program, the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), to help spend the...

by Peter Berman | On 01 Mar 2016

Japanese-Chinese Territorial Disputes in the East China Sea – Between Military Confrontation and Economic Cooperation.

This paper analyses the various legal, political, military and economic circumstances of the two territorial disputes in the ECS, and it evaluates the approaches by both sides to turn the ECS from a `...

by Reinhard Drifte | On 01 Mar 2016

Fiscal Policy Instruments and the Political Economy of Designing Programs to Reach the Poorest

This paper examines the fiscal instruments available to different levels of government and their interactions to enhance the effectiveness of public policies for the poorest and hungry groups. Address...

by Ehtisham Ahmad | On 01 Mar 2016

Decentralization and Local Service Provision : What Do We Know?

What do we know about the results of decentralized service delivery? Verifying outcomes and results of decentralized policies is a very challenging exercise, given the large number of stakeholders inv...

by Ehtisham Ahmad | On 01 Mar 2016

Budget Speech of Madhya Pradesh 2016

Budget Speech of Finance Minister of Madhya Pradesh.

by Finance Minister of MP Govt of MP | On 01 Mar 2016

Ontological Security and India-China Relations: From Border War to “News War”

This paper joins the growing scholarship on the ontological security needs of states in international relations (IR) literature and explores its relevance to India-China relations. Ontological securit...

by | On 01 Mar 2016

Comparative Analysis of Indonesian and Korean Governance

This paper overviews governance issues in Indonesia and Korea from a comparative perspective. To do so, the WGI (World Governance Index) developed by the World Bank is employed for a more objective an...

by Prof. Yunwon Hwang | On 01 Mar 2016

Vital Stats: Union Budget 2016-17

Trends regarding the central government’s sources of financing including tax revenue, disinvestments, and its revenue and capital expenditure, including subsidies. Estimates are presented in the 2016-...

by Mandira Kala | On 01 Mar 2016

Financing Social Policy in the Presence of Informality

We present a framework for the analysis of tax and benefit policy in countries with significant informality. Our framework allows us to jointly analyse the e!ects of various taxes and benefits on ince...

by Ehtisham Ahmad | On 01 Mar 2016

Environment And The Aging Experience Among South Indian Hunter-Gatherers

There has been much discussion on aging and peoples’ concerns for old age. However, few studies have been done on the aging experience from an emic perspective. This geroanthropological paper makes an...

by Seetha Kakkoth | On 01 Mar 2016

Should China Revisit the 1994 Fiscal Reforms?

The 1994 Fiscal Reforms in China were spectacularly successful in meeting the immediate challenges that the economy faced at that time—a sharply dropping tax/GDP ratio, and limited ability of the cent...

by Ehtisham Ahmad | On 01 Mar 2016

Will no One Plant a Tree in Indonesia? Yes, the Poor will, and on Islands not known for Their Forests: One Such is Timor

In this paper we explore an innovative approach to poverty reduction by the introduction of an agro-forestry variant of sustainable agricultural land technology among the rural farming population of a...

by Roger Montgomery | On 29 Feb 2016

India First Biennial Update Report to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

The government recognizes the urgency and importance of the actions that need to be taken collectively to meet the ultimate objective of the Convention i.e. stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations i...

by Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Chang GOI | On 29 Feb 2016

Narendra Modi, Mark II

Has Narendra Modi re-set his political sights? What's there in the Budget?

by T.N. Ninan | On 29 Feb 2016

Traditional Security as a Source of Non¬traditional Insecurities – The Case of Okinawa

Tensions over the US military bases in Okinawa are rooted in the conception of the state as the only referent of security, with national security being defined in military terms. Under this tradition...

by Lina Gong | On 27 Feb 2016

Nuclear and safety: Can the Two Ever Meet?

In September, the Japanese government announced that it would phase out nuclear energy by 2040. Just one week later, it stepped back from specifying an explicit timeframe. The about-turn illustrates J...

by Lina Gong | On 27 Feb 2016

In conversation with Ibrahim Gambari: The practice of peacemaking

On 18 June 2013, Dr J. Jackson Ewing sat down with Professor Ibrahim Gambari to discuss his views on resolving conflicts and building sustainable peace in the 21st century. Professor Gambari’s famil...

by Lina Gong | On 27 Feb 2016

Can Indonesia advance the peace process in Mindanao?

In light of the recent violence that shook Zamboanga city in Mindanao in the southern Philippines, Indonesia’s offer to act as a peace broker between Manila and the Misuari¬led Moro National Liberat...

by S. Rajaratnam International Studies | On 27 Feb 2016

20 Years of Human Security: A special focus on food security

This year is the 20th anniversary of the release of the 1994 United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Human Development Report, which defined the concept of human security and brought it to int...

by S. Rajaratnam International Studies | On 27 Feb 2016

20 Years of Human Security: A Special Focus on Political Security

Security used to be defined in military terms with the state as the referent of security. From this state-centric lens, political security means the stability of the state’s political regime and socia...

by S. Rajaratnam International Studies | On 27 Feb 2016

Protection of Civilians (POC): A Human Security Perspective

Armed conflicts always have disproportionate consequences on civilian populations. Civilians accounted for 74 per cent of the fatalities in Israel’s bombing of Gaza in the summer of 2014. The high civ...

by S. Rajaratnam International Studies | On 27 Feb 2016

2015: A Year for Reflection

2015 is a critical year for global and regional institutions, and for the international community as a whole, as it represents a milestone in the big push for achieving global goals of peace, human se...

by S. Rajaratnam International Studies | On 27 Feb 2016

Adapting to Emerging Challenges of Food Insecurity Post-2015

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) defines food security as a “situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to suf...

by S. Rajaratnam International Studies | On 27 Feb 2016

Recalibrating the ASEAN Security Community

Against the recent conflicts and crises facing the region, the spotlight is once again directed at ASEAN’s plans for an ASEAN Security Community (ASC). What is significant in this slew of crises that...

by Mely Caballero-Anthony | On 26 Feb 2016

Rohingya Muslims:Myanmar’s Forgotten People

The stateless Rohingya Muslims of Myanmar have been discriminated and excluded by consecutive governments since the 1960s, causing an exodus to Bangladesh, Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia and other count...

by | On 26 Feb 2016

The Myanmar Nargis Aftermath: A Disaster in Governance

Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, which made headline news across the globe, triggered denunciations of the military regime in delaying the international humanitarian relief efforts. The cyclone-struck count...

by | On 26 Feb 2016

Whither Civil Society in Thailand?

Civil activism is looming over the Samak government. Although the Royal Thai army has remained in the barracks since the 2007 elections, they may become restive again. What is the position of civil so...

by | On 26 Feb 2016

Governance and Institutions: The role of multilevel fiscal institutions in generating sustainable and inclusive growth

Differences in political ideology might lead to different views about the role of the state in the provision of public services across countries, or even in the same country over time.2 At the same ti...

by Ehtisham Ahmad | On 26 Feb 2016

Involving the Private Sector and PPPs in Financing Public Investments: Some Opportunities and Challenges

Given that public investment requirements far exceed available resources in most developing countries, there is a need to both channel public resources wisely and also best leverage the opportunities...

by Ehtisham Ahmad | On 26 Feb 2016

Mapping the Discipline of the Olympic Games An AuthorCocitation Analysis

An established method for identifying the different components of a discipline is author cocitation analysis (ACA). ACA is a bibiometric technique that enables a map of the discipline, over a finite t...

by Peter Warning | On 25 Feb 2016

Protest Culture in Thailand

As the current anti-government demonstrations in Thailand enter a critical stage, the trend in Thai protests against the establishment, set since 1932, has been reinforced. The protesters are seeking...

by | On 25 Feb 2016

Post-Kyoto Protocol: Changing a Climate of Denial?

As governments gear up to meet in Copenhagen later this year to formulate a post-Kyoto Protocol framework on climate change, governments have been slow in translating scientific knowledge into policy...

by | On 25 Feb 2016

Resolving Internal Conflict in Myanmar: A Human Security Approach

National security in Myanmar has always been equated with state security by the ruling military junta. However, the drive to protect the state has led to insecurities for its people. This paper argues...

by | On 25 Feb 2016

Government Debt

The present Status Paper for 2015-16 is fifth in this series and reinforces the Government’s commitment to keep the level of public debt within sustainable limits and follow prudent debt management pr...

by Ministry of Finance GOI | On 25 Feb 2016

Nongovernment Reforestation in the Philippines: Review, Analysis, and Ways Forward

The study reviewed and assessed nongovernment reforestation in the Philippines vis-a-vis government and total reforestation using primary and secondary data. The end purpose was to identify issues and...

by Danilo C. Israel | On 25 Feb 2016

Combed Cotton Yarn Exports of Pakistan to the US: A Dispute Settlement Case

On December 24, 1998 the Government of Pakistan (GOP) received a Call Notice from the US Government for consultation regarding the establishment of quantitative restraints on Pakistani exports of Comb...

by S. M. Hussain | On 25 Feb 2016

Recent Trends in China’s Trade

Who would have thought thirty years ago China could become one of the world’s most influential trading nations? At that time the Chinese government was reluctant to open up its door for foreigners and...

by Alice Wang | On 24 Feb 2016

Lifting the Lid Off Xinjiang’s Insecurities

The recent riots and attacks in China’s western province of Xinjiang have brought to the forefront the long simmering tensions between the Han Chinese and Uyghur communities. What have often been capt...

by | On 24 Feb 2016

Ketsana and its Aftermath: Lessons on Social Resilience

Typhoon Ketsana in the Philippines has exposed both the weaknesses of government-led disaster preparations and the strengths of civil society in responding to the crisis. Clearly planning for disaster...

by | On 24 Feb 2016

Human Security: A Response to the Climate Security Debates

Debates about climate change as a threat to international peace have focused on conflict, civil unrest, and the consequences for states. Human security offers an alternative, people-centred approach t...

by Lorraine Elliot | On 24 Feb 2016

Improving the Business Climate in NTT: The Case of Agriculture Trade in West Timor

Efforts to improve the business climate in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Province are still facing significant obstacles. Moreover, a healthy business climate is needed to create conditions conducive to ha...

by Widjajanti Suharyo | On 24 Feb 2016

Regional Cooperation towards Multilateral Arrangements on Agriculture, Labour, and Environment in the Context of Globalisation: The Case of Indonesia

This study looks at Indonesia’s commitments to multilateral trade agreements, and assesses policies adopted by the government to meet the criteria set by those agreements. Particularly, three sectors...

by Titik Anas | On 24 Feb 2016

A Critical Analysis of Purchasing of Health Services in the Philippines: A Case Study of PhilHealth

This study is a critical analysis of health services purchasing undertaken by Phil Health which implements the National Health Insurance Program of the Philippines. Purchasing is about how an institut...

by Oscar F. Picazo | On 24 Feb 2016

Why Inequality Matters in Poverty Reduction and Why the Middle Class Needs Policy Attention

While the Philippines has had a new economic growth trajectory in recent years, the country has had little progress in reducing poverty and in making growth more inclusive. In this paper, the authors...

by Jose Ramon G. Albert | On 24 Feb 2016

Gajah Securing the Future for the Elephants in India

Despite best efforts of the government, the society and the people at large, elephant conservation still remains an uphill task. This report makes a number of useful recommendations for institutionali...

by Ministry of Environment and Forests | On 24 Feb 2016

Cost Effectiveness Assessment of Green House Gas Mitigation Options: A Proposed Methodology

The World Bank has been requested by the government of India to undertake a study, “Strategies for Low Carbon Growth.” The study considers different options for low-carbon growth trajectories to fisca...

by Ministry of Environment and Forests GOI | On 24 Feb 2016

Growth and CO2 Emissions: How Does India Compare to Other Countries?

The key question therefore is what India, as a member of the global community which is to collectively address the global challenge of climate change, can be expected to do?and what it has been alread...

by World Bank | On 24 Feb 2016

Clean Coal Power Generation Technology Review: World Wide Experience and Implications for India

The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the clean coal technologies (CCT) used in power generation worldwide and draw preliminary recommendations regarding the utilization of CCT optio...

by World Bank | On 24 Feb 2016

Compensating the Loss of Ecosystem Services Due to Pollution in Noyyal River Basin, Tamil Nadu

The loss of ecosystem services due to industrial pollution in the Noyyal River Basin was estimated through physical research studies of water and soil quality and bio-mapping followed by economic valu...

by Paul Appasamy | On 23 Feb 2016

Report on “Dealing with Energy Vulnerabilities: Case Studies of Cooperation and Collaboration in East Asia”

Much literature on East Asia’s energy security has focused on the dynamics of competition over resources and how potential conflicts could arise from this. While this analytical perspective identifies...

by S. Rajaratnam International Studies | On 23 Feb 2016

Powering Growth: The Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Perspective on the Energy Security Policies in Singapore

The Singapore government treats energy security as a means towards achieving sustainable economic growth. It is on that note that the Economic Strategies Committee (ESC) and National Energy Policy (NE...

by | On 23 Feb 2016

Beyond Petroleum: Limits of Risk Management

The cost of the BP oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico has now surpassed the US$3bn mark. That may prove to be a drop in the ocean compared to what will come if governments, businesses and civil-society gr...

by | On 23 Feb 2016

Pakistan’s Floods: How Not to be Caught Off Guard

The Pakistani government and the international community’s response to the recent floods has been heavily criticised for being woefully inadequate. While a national disaster management framework is in...

by | On 23 Feb 2016

Indonesia’s National Defence Forces: Recent Strategic Changes and Implications

Following President SusiloBambangYudhoyono’s re-election in November 2009, the Indonesian National Defence Forces (TNI) have been undergoing several significant structural changes. What are the implic...

by | On 23 Feb 2016

Arsenic Poisoning of Water in Bangladesh

Arsenic poisoning of water is a serious problem in Bangladesh. It has significantly negative physical and social impact. There is an urgent need for the government to take effective steps to salvage t...

by | On 23 Feb 2016

Post-Crisis Investment Performance Of ASEAN Countries: Impact Of FDI

The paper studies the post-Asian crisis investment performance of crisis affected countries in ASEAN. The empirical evidence clearly indicates that the ASEAN and East Asian countries are emerging from...

by Aekapol Chongvilaivan | On 23 Feb 2016

Civil Society from the BRICS: Emerging Roles in the New International Development Landscape

There is a burgeoning literature on the (re)emergence of the BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – as significant actors in international development. To date, however, mos...

by Adele Poskitt | On 23 Feb 2016

Crafting Energy Security Cooperation in East Asia

Existing work on energy security tends to over-emphasise the prospect of competition and conflict over resources while under-exploring the promise of cooperation. This policy brief provides a framewor...

by | On 22 Feb 2016

Security Sector Governance and Conflict Management in Southeast Asia

Security sector governance (SSG) poses a huge challenge to states transitioning to democracy, particularly in cases where the military and other components of the security sector had been very influen...

by | On 22 Feb 2016

Report on “Inter-State Water Conflicts in Southern Asia”

Water conflicts are a subject of intense debate and discussion in Southern Asia, which comprises India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and China. Factors such as the history of partiti...

by S. Rajaratnam International Studies | On 22 Feb 2016

Differentiated Policies: Indonesia’s International Leadership and Internal Challenges

Indonesia’s position as a regional champion of democracy and human rights has become prominent in international forums since the resignation of President Suharto in 1998 and the subsequent period of i...

by Alistair D.B. Cook | On 22 Feb 2016

Tamil Nadu Interim Budget Speech 2016-2017

Budget speech by the Hon’ble Minister for Finance and Public Works, Government of Tamil Nadu

by O Panneerselvam | On 22 Feb 2016

Asymmetry In Government Bond Returns

Is there asymmetry in the distribution of government bond returns in developed countries? Can asymmetries be predicted using financial and macroeconomic variables? To answer the first question, we pro...

by Ippei Fuijwara | On 21 Feb 2016

An Examination of the Least Developed Countries in the IPCC AR5 WGII

The Fifth Assessment Report of Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR5 WGII), on Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, was released in March 2014. In providing the...

by Clare Stott | On 21 Feb 2016

Infrastructure Gap in South Asia Inequality of Access to Infrastructure Services

The South Asia region is home to the largest pool of individuals living under the poverty line, coupled with a fast-growing population. The importance of access to basic infrastructure services on wel...

by Dan Biller | On 21 Feb 2016

The Economic Effects of a Borrower Bailout Evidence from an Emerging Market

This paper studies the credit market implications and real effects of one the largest borrower bailout programs in history, enacted by the government of India against the backdrop of the 2008–2009 fin...

by Xavier Giné | On 21 Feb 2016

China and Its Southern Neighbours: Issues in Power Connectivity

Myanmar’s recent suspension of a China-funded dam project draws attention to cross-border electricity inter- connectivity between China and its southern neighbours Vietnam, Thailand and Laos, apart fr...

by | On 20 Feb 2016

Pakistan, India and Kashmir: Will Nature force an Aceh Effect?

A recent seismic study has raised questions about the possibility of a “big earthquake” in the Kashmir region, “anytime”. Should one occur with the magnitude that caused the massive Indian Ocean tsuna...

by | On 20 Feb 2016

The US and Myanmar: Need for Rapprochement

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s ground-breaking visit to Myanmar signals a shift in US attitude towards that country. Quicker rapprochement could benefit both countries as well as Southeast Asia.

by | On 20 Feb 2016

After Rio+20: What is ‘The Future We Want’?

The world’s biggest summit on environment and development in 20 years wrapped up last Friday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Has the outcome of Rio+20 managed to meet its promise?

by | On 20 Feb 2016

Myanmar: Learning from the Philippines’ Democratic Transition

In pursuing democratic reforms, Myanmar may take a leaf from the experience of the Philippines’ difficult transition from authoritarianism to democracy. But as demonstrated by the Philippine case, dem...

by | On 20 Feb 2016

Role of Experts in Policy Advice: Lessons of Experience

The policymaking in modern states is highly complex and requires a high degree of expertise and knowledge, which was not the case even 10, let alone 25 years ago. Partly in view of limited capacity in...

by Nurul Islam | On 20 Feb 2016

Reducing Indonesia’s Health Risks: Filtering a Smoke-Free ASEAN?

Despite a tobacco control bill, the holding of a tobacco exposition in Jakarta this week 19-21 September thwarts the Indonesian government’s smoke-free initiatives. The expo has the effect of making t...

by | On 19 Feb 2016

Fostering Resilience Through Community Based Innovation

Based on her work experience in post-Katrina New Orleans and post-Sandy New York City, the Municipal Art Society of New York’s Director of Urban Resilience and Livability, Mary Rowe, discusses the rol...

by Mary Rowe | On 19 Feb 2016

A Comparative Study Of Mergers And Acquisitions By Privately- And State-Owned Enterprises

Governments have become much more welcoming towards foreign investors over the past several decades. The widespread use of screening, performance requirements, and outright restrictions on foreign own...

by Michael Gestrin | On 19 Feb 2016

How Much Do We Know about the Impact of the Economic Downturn on the Employment of Migrants?

The employment shock of late 2008 in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) may have been a product of three different events: (i) the contractionary macroeconomic policies introduced by the government...

by Xin Meng | On 19 Feb 2016

Street-led city-wide slum upgrading

This lecture proposes a fundamental shift in addressing the problems of slums, and suggests an approach that focuses on streets as the engine for urban transformation. The strategy brought forward by...

by | On 19 Feb 2016

Densification in consolidated informal settlements

The lecture will present data drawn from a multi-country/city collaborative study to examine self-built housing in old established low-income neighborhoods. The location of many of these consolidated...

by | On 19 Feb 2016

Too Pressed To Wait

Jane Weru in this lecture highlights the plight of women and girls living in informal settlements in Nairobi, with special regard to the poor sanitation conditions prevalent in informal settlements in...

by | On 19 Feb 2016

A Strategic Analysis of The Australian Foreign Investment Regime and The Prospect of Reform

This paper uses a strategic framework developed by Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government to assess whether Australia’s foreign investment regime is sufficiently delivering on its four main objectives...

by Alan Fels | On 19 Feb 2016

Civil Servants’ Salary Structure

The paper looks at the trends in nominal and real salaries of the Federal Government employees over the period 1990-2006. It examines the structural defects in the existing salary structure and the an...

by Faiz Bilquees | On 18 Feb 2016

The Federation Model Of Community Organizing

In the past two decades through a process called “Enumeration” through which the members collect at city level data about slums, Slum Dwellers International have created a mechanism which serves to cr...

by | On 18 Feb 2016

Nuclear Energy in Southeast Asia: Public Engagement before Policies

Three years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster several Southeast Asian governments have revived their nuclear plans, with Vietnam leading the way for six nuclear plants. The moves have been galvanis...

by | On 17 Feb 2016

Power, Violence, Citizenship and Agency: A Review of the Literature

This Working Paper comprises a literature review that was carried out to inform the formulation of a research project on power, violence, citizenship and agency, which addresses how social actors reac...

by | On 17 Feb 2016

Smart Content For Smart People : Best Practices of Sri Lankan e-Content and Applications of 2014

This book is a review of 49 white papers which were selected through e-Swabhimani 2014, Best e-Content and Application award of Sri Lanka. White papers are normally used in two main spheres, governm...

by org eldis. | On 17 Feb 2016

A New Series – Indonesia’s Haze and Disaster Governance Deficit

The current Southeast Asian haze problem is not a function of the lack of commitment on the part of President Jokowi’s government. The ineffectiveness of forest fire prevention and response lies deepe...

by | On 16 Feb 2016

UN Development Goals: Sustaining the Southeast Asian Fisherman

The UN Sustainable Development Goals highlight the need to protect the oceans, coastlines and small-scale fishermen. However, this may be in conflict with ASEAN’s bid to reach the targets set out in t...

by | On 16 Feb 2016

Women, Peace and Security: Impact of UNSCR 1325 on Indo-Pacific

On the 15th anniversary of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, how far have countries in the Indo-Pacific region come to implement its peace and security agenda?

by | On 16 Feb 2016

Citizen-Led Accountability and Inclusivity in Pakistan

This ‘theory in practice’ paper examines the experiences of citizens groups seeking to hold Pakistan’s elected representatives and governance institutions accountable. A sustained period of democracy,...

by | On 16 Feb 2016

Impact of Export Subsidies on Pakistan’s Exports

Throughout Pakistan’s history, policy has sought to promote exports through government support and incentives. The government machinery is geared to export promotion especially through direct and indi...

by Nadeem Ul Haque | On 16 Feb 2016

Entrepreneurship in Pakistan

In Pakistan innovation and risk taking is severely inhibited by the intrusive role of government in the marketplace. From the early days of planning when protection and subsidy policies determined win...

by Nadeem Ul Haque | On 16 Feb 2016

Health Care Services and Government Spending in Pakistan

The study has been carried out to measure the incidence of government spending on health in Pakistan at provincial, both rural and urban level; using the primary data of the Pakistan Social Standard L...

by Muhammad Akram | On 16 Feb 2016

National Finance Commission Awards in Pakistan: A Historical Perspective

This study explores the evolution of fiscal resource distribution in Pakistan. Pakistan is a federation comprising four provinces, federally administered areas, and the Islamabad Capital Territory. Be...

by Iftikhar Ahmed | On 16 Feb 2016

Thailand’s Economic Integration with Neighboring Countries and Possible Connectivity with South Asia

Thailand’s increasing importance as a regional co-production base and as an intra-regional trade and border trade hub is due mainly to recent changes in its economic structure, namely, the lack of ope...

by Suthiphand Chirathivat | On 16 Feb 2016

Mainstreaming Children in the Union Budget 2016-17: The ‘Mantra’ of Inclusive Development

in order to ensure the inclusion and social security of children, the Central government must pay attention to the concerns raised by Sates and the upcoming Union Budget must include some of the point...

by Kumar Shailabh | On 15 Feb 2016

Tax Expenditures in Bangladesh: An Introductory Analysis

This policy note attempts to introduce the concept and size of tax expenditures in the context of Bangladesh with special references to experiences of India and Pakistan. It shows that the amount of t...

by M. Golam Mortaza | On 15 Feb 2016

Monetary Policy and Capital Market Development in Bangladesh

Bangladesh Bank (BB) adjusted its monetary policy stance during 2005 in order to contain inflationary pressures and facilitate stability in the foreign exchange market. At the end of 2005, interest ra...

by Shubhasish Barua | On 15 Feb 2016

Judicial Accountability and Discipline

The judiciary needs to be independent of outside influence, particularly of political and economic entities such as government agencies or industry associations. But judicial independence does not mea...

by Transparency International TI | On 14 Feb 2016

Public Provision of Education and Government Spending in Pakistan

The study has been carried out to measure the incidence of government spending on education in Pakistan at the provincial (both rural and urban) level, using the primary data of the Pakistan Social St...

by Muhammad Akram | On 14 Feb 2016

Income, Public Social Services, and Capability Development: A Cross-district Analysis of Pakistan

Is household income enough for human development or should government direct resources towards the provision of social services to improve capabilities of individuals? The former is emphasised by the...

by Rizwana Siddiqui | On 14 Feb 2016

Pakistan Seeks Control of Its Afghanistan Endgame

Encouraging Taliban attacks on NATO, leaders of the Pakistan military and its intelligence service are impatient for the US to abandon the war in Afghanistan. The Pakistani goal is to prevent a pro-In...

by Bruce Riedel | On 14 Feb 2016

The Afghanistan–Pakistan Challenge: Meeting Humanitarian Needs

For Campaign 2012, Bruce Riedel and Michael O’Hanlon wrote a policy brief proposing ideas for the next president on America’s foreign policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan. The following paper is a r...

by Elizabeth Ferris | On 14 Feb 2016

Fragile States: A Donor-Serving Concept? Issues with Interpretations of Fragile Statehood in Afghanistan

Current conceptions and models of fragile statehood in conflict-affected contexts can serve the purposes of international donor governments over and above reconstruction and statebuilding. First, desp...

by Sultan Barakat | On 14 Feb 2016

Crime-War Battlefields

In her new article, “Crime-War Battlefields,” published in the June-July issue of Survival, Vanda Felbab-Brown discusses the evolution of war since the end of the Cold War and the eventual rise of pol...

by Vanda Felbab-Brown | On 14 Feb 2016

The Political Games in the Taliban Negotiations

That the Taliban has agreed to negotiations is not surprising. It has much to gain from participating in negotiations – yet almost no incentives to agree to any sort of a deal before 2015. Nor should...

by Vanda Felbab-Brown | On 14 Feb 2016

A Deadly Triangle: Afghanistan, Pakistan and India

The hostility between India and Pakistan lies at the heart of the current war in Afghanistan. Most observers in the West view the Afghanistan conflict as a battle between the U.S. and the NATO-led Int...

by William Dalrymple | On 14 Feb 2016

Afghanistan After ISAF

Summer 2013 brought one of the most violent fighting seasons in Afghanistan since the US military and state-building effort began in 2001. On the cusp of the momentous 2014 presidential elections and...

by Vanda Felbab-Brown | On 14 Feb 2016

Afghanistan’s Deep Challenges and Transition Opportunities

The continued withdrawal of ISAF forces and the handover of responsibilities to Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) along with a strong Taliban military push dominated the security realm. The ANSF...

by Vanda Felbab-Brown | On 14 Feb 2016

Afghanistan’s Displaced People: 2014 and Beyond

Afghanistan is the largest refugee repatriation operation in the world. More than 5.7 million people have returned in the last ten years, representing nearly a quarter of the current population of 28...

by Aidan O'Leary | On 14 Feb 2016

Calibrating Law Enforcement and Its Purpose

In “Calibrating Law Enforcement and Its Purpose,” published by Addiction on November 10, 2014, Vanda Felbab-Brown comments on Harold Pollack and Peter Reuter’s article “Does tougher enforcement make d...

by Vanda Felbab-Brown | On 14 Feb 2016

Blood and Hope in Afghanistan : A June 2015 Update

As the United States tries to wind down its military participation in Afghanistan’s counterinsurgency after more than a decade of struggles against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, Afghanistan’s future remai...

by Vanda Felbab-Brown | On 14 Feb 2016

Changing forms of violence: Struggles in non-marital intimate relationships: A study of the experiences of intervention at the Special Cells in Mumbai

Intimate partner relationships which are self-arranged, non-marital and non-cohabiting have rarely been a part of the violence against women (VAW) discourse. Such violence comes into the limelight esp...

by Anjali Dave | On 14 Feb 2016

Let Them Fly - A Multi-Agency Response to Child Marriages in Haryana

The Prohibition of Child Marriages Act (PCMA), 2006 came into effect on 1 November, 2007 replacing the Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929. PCMA is a social re-engineering mechanism which mandates St...

by Trupti Jhaveri Panchal | On 14 Feb 2016

Human Capital vs. Physical Capital: A Cross-Country Analysis of Human Development Strategies

This study estimates a small simultaneous equation model using panel data from sixty-four countries for the years 1996 and 2004. The model is estimated by various techniques—OLS, TSLS, dummy variable...

by Rizwana Siddiqui | On 14 Feb 2016

Private Schooling in India: A New Educational Landscape

Private schooling in India has expanded rapidly in the past decade. However, few studies have looked at its implications for educational quality. Using data from the recently collected India Human Dev...

by Sonalde Desai | On 14 Feb 2016

Dietary Diversity in the Everyday Lives of Children in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, India

This paper investigates young people’s and their caregivers’ experiences of food insecurity, diet and eating practices in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. It also provides original child-focused evidence...

by Elisabetta Aurino | On 13 Feb 2016

Social Networks in India: Caste, Tribe and Religious Variation

Using original data from a newly collected nationwide survey for 40,000 households in India, we examine variation in social capital in India across caste, tribe, and religion. Our primary measure uses...

by Reeve Vanneman | On 13 Feb 2016

Global Corruption Barometer 2009

Transparency International’s (TI) 2009 Global Corruption Barometer (the Barometer) presents the main findings of a public opinion survey that explores the general public’s views of corruption, as well...

by Transparency International TI | On 12 Feb 2016

After the Conflict: Nation-Building and Corruption

Globally, there are 26 ongoing armed conflicts and nearly one sixth of the world’s population lives in so-called ‘weak governance’ zones.1 In 2009 alone, the United Nations estimated that 42 million p...

by Transparency International TI | On 12 Feb 2016

Regulating the Revolving Door

The increased interaction between business and government – as result of privatisations, lobbying and public contracting - has meant increased opportunities for corruption. Conflicts of interest, and...

by Transparency International TI | On 12 Feb 2016

Corruption and Public Procurement

Public procurement impacts people’s lives and accounts for a big share government budgets. The large monetary transactions involved make the risk of abuse high and the need for anti-corruption safegua...

by Transparency International TI | On 12 Feb 2016

Rice Seed Production and Use in Bangladesh and India Need for Bilateral Cooperation

Rice seed production, marketing, distribution situation in Bangladesh and India is not considered to be efficient. This has led to low availability and accessibility of modern varieties (MV) rice seed...

by Mahfuz Kabir | On 11 Feb 2016

Towards Fiscal Consolidation and a Simplified Tax Structure?

The forthcoming union budget 2016-17 faces several fiscal challenges and it will be tough task for the government to provide positive signals to revive the private investment while pursuing the fiscal...

by Pratap Jena | On 11 Feb 2016

Fast-tracking Green Patent Applications: An Empirical Analysis

In recent years, innovation has topped the agenda of policymakers worldwide as they seek to promote green growth and advance sustainable development. As a result, several countries - including Austral...

by | On 10 Feb 2016

Bangladesh: Bangladesh: The Adolescence of an Ancient Land Ancient Land

On January 11, 2007, a state of emergency was declared in Bangladesh. A new caretaker government which condoned greater military involvement in the governing of Bangladesh was installed. This is the t...

by | On 09 Feb 2016

Indonesia: Development Scenarios 2020–2030

This report provides a background and analysis of trends of some of the most pressing issues facing Indonesia and outlines scenarios for 2020–2030. In thus doing, the report’s focus is thematically or...

by | On 09 Feb 2016

To Manage Conflict in South Asia: China’s Stakes, Perceptions and Inputs

For Chinese researchers of international relations, to see a security challenge through the lens of conflict prevention and management represents a relatively fresh exploration that has begun to recei...

by | On 09 Feb 2016

Life and Work in Jeedimetla: A Montage

The workers have to put up with poor housing and living conditions that cramp and disrupt their family lives. There is no government plan to house these workers when industrial areas like in Jeedimetl...

by Mithun Som | On 09 Feb 2016

Addressing Health Inequities through Community-led Advocacy in Bangalore: Experiences, Successes and Challenges

Like other cities, Bangalore suffers from fragmentation of government health services, with institutions and outreach services run by BBMP, the State Health Department, the State Medical Education d...

by Sudha Nagavarapu | On 09 Feb 2016

China’s Rising Military Power & Its Implications

China’s rising military power and its implications is of significant concern that has been widely discussed in the international community and among political elites across the globe. This paper explo...

by | On 08 Feb 2016

Representative versus Responsible Government

The changing circumstances in which parties compete in contemporary democracies, coupled with the changing circumstances in which governments now govern, have led to a widening of the traditional gap...

by | On 08 Feb 2016

An Index of Fiscal Democracy

Over the past four decades, the accumulation of policy legacies and public debt has led to a decline in fiscal flexibility in Germany and the United States. By applying an index of fiscal democracy to...

by | On 08 Feb 2016

Addressing Barriers to Digital Trade

This paper addresses the question of whether it is possible to balance the need for a free flow of information across borders with legitimate government concerns related to public order, consumer priv...

by | On 08 Feb 2016

Statement 22: Recognition of Budget for Children in India

This paper traces the process of recognition of children’s budget and the introduction of Statement 22- Budget Provisions for Schemes for the Welfare of Children in the Expenditure Budget Volume 1. I...

by HAQ Centre for Child Rights HAQCRC | On 08 Feb 2016

Leader Networks and Transaction Costs: A Chinese Experiment in Interjurisdictional Contracting

Do leader networks promote efficient intergovernmental contracts? We examine a groundbreaking policy in China where subprovincial governments freely traded land conversion quotas and investigate the r...

by Nancy H. Chau | On 07 Feb 2016

Pakistan’s Trade Policy, 1999–2008: An Assessment

Employing the Annual Trade Policy issued each year by the Ministry of Commerce as a simplified case study, this paper examines the reasons for the ineffectiveness of this policy instrument and the inh...

by Mirza Qamar Baig | On 07 Feb 2016

Making Aid Effective: An Anti-Corruption Agenda

While aid flows topped US$ 128 billion in 2010, they have not always been good at achieving results due to corruption and mismanagement that arise from low levels of transparency, accountability and i...

by Transparency International TI | On 06 Feb 2016

Daily Lives And Corruption: Public Opinion In South Asia

Between 2010 and 2011, more than 7500 people were interviewed in six South Asian countries – Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – on their views of corruption levels in their c...

by Transparency International TI | On 06 Feb 2016

Tackling Forestry Corruption Risks In Asia Pacific

This report is based on research carried out in five Asia Pacific countries – China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. This document should serve as an instrument to help...

by Transparency International TI | On 06 Feb 2016

Looking Beyond 2015: A Role For Governance

The year 2015 signals the end date for development commitments that global leaders first made at the United Nations (UN) in 2000: the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). As the world looks beyond 201...

by Transparency International TI | On 06 Feb 2016

A Dynamic Macroeconometric Model of Pakistan’s Economy

In this study, an attempt has been made of develop a dynamic macroeconometric model of Pakistan’s economy to examine the behaviour of major macroeconomic variables such as output, consumption, investm...

by Muhammad Arshad Khan | On 06 Feb 2016

An Empirical Investigation of the Relationship between Food Insecurity, Landlessness, and Violent Conflict in Pakistan

This study is an attempt to examine empirically the association between socio-economic measures of deprivation—such as food insecurity, landlessness, unemployment, and human under-development—and the...

by Sadia Mariam Malik | On 06 Feb 2016

Urban Poverty in Nepal

This research report tracks various aspects of poverty in Nepal across geographical areas and evaluates the rise of squatter settlements. It also looks at various dimensions of poverty, resilience for...

by Shivit Bakrania | On 05 Feb 2016

Bangladesh National Integrity System Assessment 2014

One of the key strategic areas of Transparency International Bangladesh's research has always been the institutions of democracy and specialized pillars of governance and accountability, which constit...

by Transparency International TI | On 05 Feb 2016

Fighting Corruption in South Asia: Building Accountability

Hardly a speech is delivered in South Asia without mention of the need to fight corruption in the region. Yet despite the lofty promises, corruption is on the rise. This report shows how a serious lac...

by Transparency International TI | On 05 Feb 2016

How to Successfully Manage Conflicts and Prevent Dispute Adjudication in International Trade

The growing body of WTO jurisprudence can help facilitate rules-based negotiations as a way of avoiding formal litigation more than ever before, and developing countries are now in a position to reap...

by | On 05 Feb 2016

Preventing Corruption in Humanitarian Operations

Transparency International has long held that the most directly damaging impact of corruption is the diversion of basic resources from poor people. Corruption in humanitarian aid is most egregious for...

by Transparency International TI | On 05 Feb 2016

Transparency in Corporate Reporting: Assessing the World’s Largest Telecommunications Companies 2015

With currently more than 7 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide and 3.2 billion internet users, the growth of the telecoms sector has enabled unprecedented opportunities for social and economic deve...

by Transparency International | On 03 Feb 2016

People and Corruption: Africa Survey 2015 – Global Corruption Barometer

For the latest African edition of the Global Corruption Barometer, we partnered with the Afrobarometer, which spoke to 43,143 respondents across 28 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa between March 2014 a...

by Transparency International | On 03 Feb 2016

Assessment of the Bhutan Anti-Corruption Commission 2015

The assessment of Bhutan's Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) represents the first time Transparency International has conducted an independent assessment of this sort. The tool will be applied to other...

by Transparency International | On 03 Feb 2016

The Process of National Security Decision-Making in Israel and the Influence of the Military Establishment

This study researches the decision-making process in national security matters in Israel; and examines the influence and role of the military establishment in this process. To achieve this purpose, th...

by | On 03 Feb 2016

The European Union’s position toward the Palestinian cause: 1993-2009

The study discusses the European position toward the peace process since the Oslo Accords in 1993, up to the Israeli onslaught against the Gaza Strip in 2009. The aim is to elucidate the European role...

by | On 03 Feb 2016

Institutional Quality, Conflict and Aid Dependency

This study attempts to explore the impact of foreign aid on the quality of governance and how conflicts, whether internal or external affect the overall situation. Conflicts affect governance directly...

by Unbreen Qayyum | On 03 Feb 2016

Foreign Aid and the Fiscal Behaviour of Government of Pakistan

This study examines the effect of foreign aid on the fiscal behaviour of the Government of Pakistan. It applies the Autoregressive Distributed Lag model to analyse the relationship that prevailed betw...

by Rabia Butt | On 03 Feb 2016

Does the Rise of the Middle Class Lock in Good Government in the Developing World?

The current size of the income-secure middle class and its likely future growth, suggest that optimism is indeed warranted for many of today’s middle-income countries. But it is not warranted for all...

by Nancy Birdsall | On 03 Feb 2016

Food Security Post-2015: What Countries Need to Do So That Regional Collaboration Can Be Effective

Attempts to explain why ending hunger has been so hard, so here the focus is on four main themes: the complex role of markets, the importance of government policies, the historical process of structur...

by C. Peter Timmer | On 03 Feb 2016

Islam Versus Economics

The paper shows that fundamental Islamic principles regarding organisation of economic affairs are directly and strongly in conflict with teachings of conventional economic theories.

by Asad Zaman | On 03 Feb 2016

Explaining the de facto Open-access of Public Property Commons

Public property common pool resources in many developing countries are manage them in a sustainable manner. While this explanation may have some merit, it is certainly inadequate. Instead, we argue th...

by Junaid Memon | On 03 Feb 2016

Financial Incentives to Industry

This paper provides details of the decisions made by the Environment Standards Committee (ESC) on Financial Incentives to industry. It also documents the progress made so far in the implementation of...

by Abdul Khan | On 02 Feb 2016

The Copts of Egypt: "State Discrimination and Exclusion"

This paper looks the factors which gave birth to a common Coptic identity in opposition to the state. Have the Copts been compelled to adopt this common identification to resist the state's policies t...

by | On 02 Feb 2016

The Bush II Years In the Middle East (2000-2008):Morals and Interests

Based on the results of a research covering the eight years of the Bush administration (2000-2008), we may from the outset assert that whenever the materialistic interests engaged in fierce conflict w...

by | On 02 Feb 2016

Children Affected by Armed Conflict in South Asia: A Review of Trends and Issues Identified Through Secondary Research

‘Armed conflict’ is defined in this report as the use of armed violence to resolve local, national and/or international disputes between individuals and groups that have a political, economic, cultura...

by | On 02 Feb 2016

The Role of NGOs In Conflict and Peace-Building

Non-government organisations (NGOs) have become increasingly involved in the international response to armed conflict, some aiming to mitigate the effects of war and others to help end the violence. B...

by Jonathan Goodhand | On 01 Feb 2016

Making it Safer to Cross Waterways in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has about 120,000 engineered rural waterway crossings (such as bridges) and another 250,000 non-engineered crossings built and maintained by communities. Because of a lack of financial and h...

by Granie Jayalath | On 01 Feb 2016

The Armed Syrian Opposition: Common Aim but No Vision

In response to the dearth of academic studies written on the Syrian opposition, this study reviews the various Syrian military organizations that are currently active against the Syrian regime, and di...

by | On 01 Feb 2016

Developing Technologies for Sustainable Fisheries in Asia

Governments in Asia must prioritise technologies that improve fishery productivity to meet the growing local and international demand for fish. This increased productivity must be sustainable, however...

by The WorldFish Center TWC | On 01 Feb 2016

Sri Lanka’s North : The Denial of Minority Rights

Deepening militarisation and the lack of accountable governance in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province are preventing a return to normal life and threaten future violence. Scene of the most bitter fighting...

by International Crisis Group | On 01 Feb 2016

The Israeli Policy of Nuclear Ambiguity

The Israeli policy of nuclear ambiguity was developed in the 1960s, and is still followed by the Israeli government. This study seeks to uncover the origins of this policy and the domestic and externa...

by | On 01 Feb 2016

A Taste of Success: Examples of the Budget Work of NGOs

This report is a compilation of examples of the budget work undertaken by nongovernmental organizations from around the world. Although many of these organizations are new to budget analysis, they h...

by International Budget Partnership IBP | On 01 Feb 2016

Sri Lanka’s North : The Denial Of Minority Rights

Deepening militarisation and the lack of accountable governance in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province are preventing a return to normal life and threaten future violence. Scene of the most bitter fighting...

by International Crisis Group | On 31 Jan 2016

A Global Green New Deal for Sustainable Development

Seventy-six years ago, in the midst of the Great Depression, the United States government introduced the New Deal. The New Deal effectively harnessed the fiscal stimulus for environmental as well as d...

by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs | On 31 Jan 2016

The Challenges of Adapting to a Warmer Planet for Urban Growth and Development

The United Nations estimates that more than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas. It is expected that the proportion of city dwellers globally will have risen to three quarters by 2050,...

by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs | On 31 Jan 2016

Governments Need to Push for More Energy Efficient End-Use Technologies

About 2.7 billion people do not have access to modern energy. Without it, they have little chance of achieving a decent living standard. Much more economic progress is needed to lift the living standa...

by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs | On 31 Jan 2016

Policies for Industrial Learning in China and Mexico

In this paper a comparative analysis of the role of government policies in industrial learning and the development of capabilities of indigenous firms in Mexico and China in order to shed light on why...

by Kevin P. Gallagher | On 31 Jan 2016

Towards an ICT Enabled Farming Community

This paper presents a proposed use of virtual community for farmers in Sri Lanka by reviewing Information and communication technology perspective with reference to past and present political strategi...

by Devaka Punchihewa | On 31 Jan 2016

Sri Lanka and the 13th Amendment: Tamil Disenchantment

In order to understand the policies and programmes of the present Government, it is necessary to highlight the basic transformation that has taken place in the Island Republic. Chandrika Kumaratunga a...

by Suryanarayan V. | On 31 Jan 2016

Parliamentary Oversight and Social Accountability

Parliamentary oversight is one of the cornerstones of democracy. John Stuart Mill asserted that the most appropriate tasks of a representative body are to : oversee and clarify the government actions,...

by BRAC University | On 30 Jan 2016

Organizational and Institutional Issues in Climate Change Adaptation and Risk Management

This report provides some reflections and insights on the level of awareness, practices, and organizational and institutional issues being faced by countries as they adapt to climate change, based on...

by Catherine Ragasa | On 30 Jan 2016

The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index

The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) is a new survey-based index designed to measure the empowerment, agency, and inclusion of women in the agricultural sector. The WEAI was initially d...

by Sabina Alkire | On 30 Jan 2016

Voice And Accountability In The Health Sector

The study was carried out in the Mbarali District of Tanzania. A qualitative study design was used. In-depth interviews and focus group discussion were conducted among members of the district health t...

by Health & Education Advice & Research Team HEART | On 30 Jan 2016

Does Governance Matter for Enhancing Trade? Empirical Evidence from Asia

The primary objective of this paper is to find whether or not the governance and institutions matter for enhancing Asia’s trade. In this study, we have performed a comprehensive empirical analysis of...

by Prabir De | On 30 Jan 2016

A Practical Guideline to Successful Bottom up Development: Resettling the Indus

This case study examines the bottom-up development management process of Resettling the Indus by highlighting the key aspects for successful relief and rehabilitation in certain flood and war affected...

by Abdus Subhan | On 30 Jan 2016

A Report on the Status of Pardhis in Mumbai City

Owing to a dearth of government data and research studies on the urban existence of Pardhis, one of the principal aims of this study was to render visibility to the issue.

by Paankhi Agrawal | On 30 Jan 2016

Strengthening Community Engagement of Higher Education Institutions

It was expected that education would address these problems to a large extent. However, inspite of enhanced investment on expenditure, leading to increased enrolment, these issues remain largely unatt...

by (Field Action Project on Homelessness and Destitut Koshish | On 30 Jan 2016

Shelters for the Homeless in Delhi Report on the Assessment of Permanent Shelters in New Delhi

Homelessness can often lead to a vicious circle of suffering which gets exaggerated with the question of their identity / or rather the lack of it. This further makes them vulnerable to abuses of many...

by (Field Action Project on Homelessness and Destitut Koshish | On 30 Jan 2016

Shelters for the Homeless in Delhi - Report on the Assessment of Permanent Shelters in New Delhi

Homelessness can often lead to a vicious circle of suffering which gets exaggerated with the question of their identity / or rather the lack of it. This further makes them vulnerable to abuses of many...

by (Field Action Project on Homelessness and Destitut Koshish | On 30 Jan 2016

Poverty-Environment Nexus An Investigation of Linkage and Policy Implications

The present paper titled Poverty-Environment Nexus: An Investigation of Linkage and Policy Implications has been prepared under the CPD-UNDP collaboration programme on Pro-Poor Macroeconomic Policies...

by Centre for Policy Dialogue CPD | On 29 Jan 2016

Hamas: Between Efforts to Politicize the Court and Demands of Justice

For the two contending sides in any conflict, the give-and-take of pain-inducing blows is somewhat a given. Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, has suffered a good many such blows over the course...

by | On 29 Jan 2016

Russian Intervention in Syria: Geostrategy is Paramount

Russia’s military intervention in Syria is the only direct military intervention there by a state from outside the region. Iran was there first, but its intervention took different forms. No state, be...

by | On 29 Jan 2016

Climate Change in the Himalayas Current State of Knowledge

This paper reviews the literature on the potential biophysical and economic impacts of climate change in the Himalayas. Existing observations indicate that the temperature is rising at a higher rate i...

by Kumud Acharya | On 28 Jan 2016

The Evolving International Investment Law and Policy Regime: Ways Forward

International investment needs are tremendous. This requires that the international investment regime constitutes a framework for increased flows of sustainable foreign direct investment for sustainab...

by | On 28 Jan 2016

Between China, India and the Refugees Understanding Bhutan’s National Security Scenario

The implications of an agreement between Bhutan and China would be substantial for India. The border conflict between India and China would be the last to be resolved by Beijing. This might result in...

by Marian Gallenkamp | On 28 Jan 2016

A Legally Binding Agreement (LBA) - Growing Need for Air Pollution Reduction and Control in South Asia

With increasing urbanization and economic growth, air pollution is becoming an urgent concern in South Asian countries. The study upon which this paper is based has been conducted at SDPI, to look int...

by Mahmood Khwaja | On 28 Jan 2016

Economic Rationale, Subsidy and Cost Sharing for Watershed Projects: Imperatives for Institutions and Market Development

This paper seeks to examine the experiences with respect to subsidies and cost-sharing in the light of the various watershed programmes supported by the state as well as donor agencies and other non-g...

by Amita Shah | On 28 Jan 2016

Infrastructure and Growth in a Regional Context: Indian States since the 1980s

The central focus of this paper is to underscore emerging patterns and issues in the availability of and access to physical infrastructure in major Indian states during the two decades since the 1980s...

by Keshab Das | On 28 Jan 2016

Can Mandated Political Representation Increase Policy Influence for Disadvantaged Minorities? Theory and Evidence from India

A basic premise of representative democracy is that all those subject to policy should have a voice in its making. However, policies enacted by electorally accountable governments often fail to refle...

by Rohini Pande | On 28 Jan 2016

When the Hen Crows: Obstacles that Prevent Indigenous Women from Influencing Health-care Policies – A Case Study of Shillong, Meghalaya, India

Meghalaya is a landlocked and largely agrarian state in northeast India with an approximate population of three million. Various government surveys report that roughly half the state lives below the p...

by | On 26 Jan 2016

Does War Empower Women? Evidence from Timor Leste

Conflicts may change the material conditions and the incentives individuals face through death, displacement and other consequences of violence. Being a victim of a war can also profoundly change indi...

by | On 26 Jan 2016

The Relationship Between Services Trade And Government Procurement Commitments: Insights From Relevant WTO Agreements And Recent RTAS

To date, government procurement has been effectively carved out of the main multilateral rules of the WTO system. This paper examines the systemic and other ramifications of this exclusion, from both...

by Robert Anderson | On 26 Jan 2016

Infrastructure Provision , Trade And Development Prospects: Potential Role And Relevance Of The WTO Agreement On Government Procurement (GPA)

The paper, nonetheless, acknowledges that delivering these benefits would involve significant practical and political challenges. It concludes that if the challenges can be overcome and the mutual ben...

by Kodjo Osei-Lah | On 26 Jan 2016

Covered or not Covered: That is The Question - Services Classification and Its Implications for Specific Commitments under the GATS

This paper attempts to make contribution by providing an overview of services classification and highlighting its relevance to both trade negotiations and WTO dispute settlement. It consists of four s...

by Ruosi Zhang | On 26 Jan 2016

Government Intervention and Prices of Medicines: Lessons from Tamil Nadu

This paper looks at the approach adopted by the government of Tamil Nadu where drug procurement and supply is done through an autonomous agency. The paper emphasises the need for such goverment interv...

by N. Lalitha | On 26 Jan 2016

Power to Women through Finance: Revisiting the Microfinance Promise

The relationship between women’s access to credit and their empowerment is a theme that seems to have lost much of its sheen and sharpness during the phase of commercialization of microfinance in Indi...

by Tara Nair | On 26 Jan 2016

China in Afghanistan: Balancing Power Projection and Minimal Intervention

As it was foreseen, the initial months following the start of the Northern Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s (NATO) withdrawal from Afghanistan were harsh for the Afghan government and civilians. 2 In Ap...

by | On 25 Jan 2016

Contemporary Myanmar: Challenges to Political Process and Reconciliation

This paper outlines the political reforms and reconciliation process presently underway in Myanmar and the challenges posed to it. A detailed analysis of changing power dynamics in Myanmar, and the re...

by | On 25 Jan 2016

Regulating Microfinance through Codes of Conduct: A Critical Review of the Indian Experience

The paper critically reviews the course of events that led to the development of codes of conduct for the microfinance industry in the country and examines their effectiveness in motivating microfinan...

by Tara S Nair | On 25 Jan 2016

Climate Change and Vulnerability in Bangladesh

It is predicted that climate change will aggravate the presence of sudden (e.g. cyclones, floods etc.) and chronic (e.g. drought, erosion) hazards to agrarian communities in Bangladesh. According to t...

by Md Maniruzzaman | On 23 Jan 2016

Climate and Development Outlook

This publication summarises CDKN’s partnership work with Bangladesh to date, highlighting key achievements and signposting further information. We are involved at many levels, by investing in policy-r...

by Climate and Development Outlook CDO | On 23 Jan 2016

From The Ground Up Changing The Conversation About Climate Change

The survey had two main aims – to provide a replicable baseline that could be measured over time and to inform the development of communication strategies in the future. The project has also developed...

by Stephan Faris | On 23 Jan 2016

Institutional Lending and Financing Policy for SMEs in Bangladesh

Over the last few years, the government has taken a number of initiatives in terms of financial, fiscal, and related policies; adopted strategies; and implemented actions for promoting SME-led economi...

by Naima Nazneen Rikta | On 23 Jan 2016

Inflation Accounting Across Income Groups: Does Inflation Hurt the Poor More in Bangladesh?

This note provides estimates of the contribution of food prices to inflation in Bangladesh. The results suggest that the current inflation takes a bigger toll on the poor because they spend more of th...

by M. Golam Mortaza | On 23 Jan 2016

Prospects and Challenges of Bond Market Development in Bangladesh

The thin bond market in Bangladesh faces manifold challenges emanating from several sources including excessive reliance on bank credit, government debt instruments dominated by primary auction based...

by Md. Akhtaruzzaman | On 23 Jan 2016

Enhancing Disaster Management Capacity in South Asia

As the Himalayan ecosystem is susceptible to natural disasters due to the global climatechange patterns, the earthquake that struck Nepal recently might not be the last or the deadliest. An important...

by | On 23 Jan 2016

Sri Lanka’s Transformational Election

Maithripala Sirisena’s unexpected victory against his former boss and the incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Sri Lanka’s presidential election held on 8 January 2015 signifies a major political...

by | On 23 Jan 2016

Better Ask the Parrot

It may be time to look at the market forecasts that pundits had made earlier.

by T.N. Ninan | On 23 Jan 2016

Ensuring Access for the Climate Vulnerable in Bangladesh

Drawing on secondary literature and interviews and discussions with community members, local government officials, and various experts, the report proposes a mechanism through which LGIs could provide...

by International Centre for Climate Change and Develo ICCCAD | On 23 Jan 2016

Bilateral Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) Opportunities and Challenges for Bangladesh - Framework Issues

In the backdrop of rise in Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) in developing countries, particularly after the global financial and economic crisis, Bangladesh is still ambivalent in setting its strategies r...

by Khondaker Moazzem | On 23 Jan 2016

Impact of Climate Change on Least Developed Countries: Are The SDGs Possible?

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will define the priorities of the UN’s development agendabeyond 2015. But the reality of climate change impacts will render these aspirational goals almost imp...

by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC | On 23 Jan 2016

Social Cost-Benefit Analysis of Delhi Metro

The growing demand for public transport in mega cities has serious effects on urban ecosystems, especially due to the increased atmospheric pollution and changes in land use patterns. An ecologically...

by Rashmi Singh | On 23 Jan 2016

Navigating the Global Financial Storm: Challenges for Bangladesh

The present global financial crisis shows that there is no substitute of prudent government intervention and careful regulation even when market determined incentive structures operate. The pursuit of...

by Bangladesh Bank | On 23 Jan 2016

Building Mutual Understanding for Effective Development

In recent years a number of countries, referred to collectively as the rising powers, have achieved rapid economic growth and increased political influence. In many cases their experience challenges r...

by Institute of Development Studies IDS | On 23 Jan 2016

Scenarios of Waste and Resource Management: for Cities in India and Elsewhere

The report identifies four future scenarios of this complex waste/resource management landscape using tools from Foresight methods and political economy analysis. We also identify the dynamics within...

by Ashish Chaturvedi | On 23 Jan 2016

PDS ‘To Go’? ‘Portability’ of Rights through Real-time Monitoring: the Centralised Online Real-time Electronic PDS in Chhattisgarh, India

Information and communications technology (ICT)-based reforms are increasingly being used to improve the delivery of public services. The main question which the research reported here addressed is th...

by Anuradha Joshi | On 23 Jan 2016

Do Government Transfers Reduce Conflict?

Social conflicts have been solved through fiscal policy and the provision of public goods and services over the centuries. Data from India, too, show government expenditure on social services has had...

by Institute of Development Studies IDS | On 23 Jan 2016

Community Based Women Empowerment Initiatives in India

Over the years, India has designed and implemented a number of targeted interventions for the poor including putting in place specific reservations for the disadvantaged to ensure equitable access to...

by Global IPE | On 22 Jan 2016

India's Intended Nationally Determined Contributions

This document outlines one component of India’s INDC submission to the UNFCCC focussing on the renewable energy contribution to its future electricity mix. So far, the Government of India has articula...

by Sudatta Ray | On 22 Jan 2016

Fostering Synergy between Health and ICDS for Advancing Child Survival and Development

This case study was undertaken to understand and document the experiences of the Valsad district. The researchers spent two weeks in Valsad collecting data. Interviews were conducted with functionarie...

by Climate Modelling Forum CMF | On 22 Jan 2016

INDIA’S GHG Emissions Profile: Results of Five Climate Modelling Studies

The effort has been to ensure that these studies are fact-based and objective and are not seen as a “government study”. We believe that the debates and negotiations on climate change are best served b...

by Climate Modelling Forum CMF | On 22 Jan 2016

Access, Equity and Inclusion : Ethical Norms and S&T Policy Outcomes

In our research on science policy and inclusion and ethics in S&T policy we identified that in the Indian context Access, Equity and Inclusion (AEI) can be the norms to assess the policy outcomes and...

by Krishna Ravi Srinivas | On 21 Jan 2016

Accelerating Reductions in Undernutrition: What can nutrition governance tell us?

In order to accelerate progress on undernutrition reduction we need to understand how the governance of nutrition programmes leads to successful outcomes. Based on evidence from six countries: Banglad...

by Institute of Development Studies IDS | On 21 Jan 2016

Balancing State and Community Participation in Development Partnership Projects: Emerging Evidence from Indian SDPs in Nepal

This paper evaluates the impact and potential of development programmes known as Small Development Projects (SDPs), introduced by India as part of its development cooperation portfolio in Nepal. Throu...

by Sachin Chaturvedi | On 21 Jan 2016

Demographic Change, Brain Drain, and Human Capital: Development Potentials in Services-Driven South Asia

This discussion paper seeks to understand the nature of the ongoing demographic transition in South Asia and the challenges faced by the countries of the region to augment their future supply of skill...

by Biswajit Dhar | On 21 Jan 2016

On Migration and the Policy Process

Accepting that virtually any policy can have some impact on the movement of people, one can also recognize that a series of policies exist that have been developed specifically to deal with migration...

by | On 20 Jan 2016

Disability and the Millennium Development Goals

Over one billion people around the world live with a disability. However, disability issues are not included in any of the Millennium Development Goals, targets or indicators, thereby representing a l...

by UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs UNDESA | On 20 Jan 2016

Rural Sanitation Transformation in Himachal Pradesh

The relationship between poor sanitation, water borne disease, mortality and malnutrition is well documented. Statistics about the number of deaths due to diarrhea as well as stunting caused by malnut...

by Deepak Sanan | On 19 Jan 2016

United Nations E-Government Survey 2014

E-government—digital interactions between governments and people—varies greatly among and within regions, but most countries are making progress on providing greater access, according to the 2014 UN E...

by United Nations (UN) | On 19 Jan 2016

Designing Nutrition-Sensitive Agriculture Investments

The present document is designed to serve as a tool to guide programme planners who are aiming to apply these recommendations in the design of agricultural investments and programmes. The persistence...

by Anna Lartey | On 19 Jan 2016

“If we eat well, we can study” Dietary Diversity in the Everyday Lives of Children in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, India

This paper investigates young people’s and their caregivers’ experiences of food insecurity, diet and eating practices in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. It also provides original child-focused evidence...

by Elisabetta Aurino | On 19 Jan 2016

Illegal Bangladeshi Migration: Evaluating India-Bangladesh Approaches

The issue of Bangladeshi migration in India has become a major concern for policy makers in recent years. Indeed, India’s eastern border is facing major illegal activities viz. the influx of illegal...

by | On 19 Jan 2016

Delhi’s Traffic Nightmare: Lessons from Global Practices

Delhi's traffic management is based on a system designed long before motor vehicle ownership in the city had reached its current mammoth size. This system is immensely inadequate to respond to the gro...

by prashant kumar | On 19 Jan 2016

Human Trafficking in Southeast Asia: Results from a Pilot Project in Vietnam

Human trafficking is one of the most widely spread and fastest growing crimes in the world. However, despite the scope of the problem, the important human rights issues at stake and the professed inte...

by Ngan Dinh | On 19 Jan 2016

Group Violence, Ethnic Diversity, and Citizen Participation: Evidence from Indonesia

This paper addresses the impact of violent conflict on social capital, as measured by citizen participation in community groups defined for four activity types: governance, social service, infrastruct...

by | On 18 Jan 2016

Reappraising the Greed and Grievance Explanations for Violent Internal Conflict

Two phenomena have been recently utilised to explain conflict onset among rational choice analysts: greed and grievance. The former reflects elite competition over valuable natural resource rents. The...

by | On 18 Jan 2016

The Utility of Mixed Methods in the Study of Violence

This paper examines how qualitative and quantitative research methods may best be integrated in the study of violence, providing and critiquing examples from previous work on different forms of violen...

by | On 18 Jan 2016

Housing Policies in China: Issues and Options

This article consists in three parts. The first part deals with theory. We evaluate the pros and cons of government involvement in urban housing and of renting versus ownership. In the second part, we...

by Yves Zenou | On 14 Jan 2016

Broken Lives and Deserted Homes: Report on Exodus of Muslim Families from Atali

The following is a report based on PUDR’s repeated visits to Atali and its interactions with Muslim and Jat families over the last four months.

by PUDR Peoples Union for Democratic Rights | On 13 Jan 2016

An Aspirational ‘new wave’ of India-Pakistan Dialogue

The success of the new “comprehensive bilateral dialogue”, between India and Pakistan on terrorist strike at an Indian military installation if launched by mid-January 2016 as anticipated, is not ass...

by P S Suryanarayana | On 09 Jan 2016

India-Myanmar Ties: New Hope, Old Despair

India’s current trade negotiations have three agreements as top priorities. Two of these the India ASEAN services agreement and the bilateral trade and investment agreement with the European Union (EU...

by Laldinkima Sailo | On 09 Jan 2016

Indian Military Diplomacy: Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief

The paper focuses on India’s approach to collaboration on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief with major powers and within various regional initiatives. This paper begins with a brief review o...

by C. Raja Mohan | On 09 Jan 2016

Is India Making Waves in South China Sea?

The South China Sea (SCS) disputes are regarded as one of the most difficult regional conflicts in the Asia-Pacific, in an ‘arena of escalating contention. This paper looks at India’s interests and st...

by Rajeev Ranjan Chaturvedy | On 09 Jan 2016

The Afghanistan Conflict in its Historical Context

Afghanistan has long been used as a battleground for strategic wars by larger external powers. This is in part due to its geographic position between the Middle East, Central Asia and South Asia. Acco...

by Riaz Hassan | On 09 Jan 2016

The Indian Bond Market

This paper tries to explain the main characteristics of the Indian government and corporate bond markets and what has contributed to the poor development of the latter. It goes on to show that an oppo...

by Chandrani Sarma | On 09 Jan 2016

A Tortured History : Federalism and Democracy in Pakistan

The Pakistan Army’s ideological hegemony, especially in the country’s Punjabi-speaking heartland, the continuing focus on the state’s narrative of a religion-based unitary identity which is under a co...

by Aasim Akhtar | On 08 Jan 2016

Indian agricultural development in the context of economic reforms. Causes of change and issues for a future reform agenda.

This work examines the influence of reforms in the 1990s regarding the agricultural development in India. Many studies have analysed the impact of these reforms but most of them focused on foreign tra...

by Marion Künzler | On 08 Jan 2016

Double Bubble Trouble

Sustaining anything in the region of 7% growth should be good enough in a troubled and risk-laden world.

by T.N. Ninan | On 08 Jan 2016

Natural Resources Contested in Autonomous Councils: Assessing the Causes of Ethnic Conflict in North-East India

Constitutional arrangements for peripheral areas in India reflect the national government’s instrumentalist attempts at decentralising bureaucratic and administrative control in far-flung (essentially...

by Sanjay Barbora | On 08 Jan 2016

Food Insecurity, Conflict and Livelihood Threats in Nepal

This chapter examines the food security situation in Nepal and the impact of the recent armed conflict on the food security situation. It argues that food security is understood in different ways and...

by Bishnu Upreti | On 07 Jan 2016

Institutions for Asian Integration: Innovation and Reform

The formation of regional production networks in East Asia has occurred mainly through market forces, without much help from regional institutions in promoting the creation of a single Asian market. W...

by Masahiro Kawai | On 07 Jan 2016

A Report on Fluorosis mitigation in Dhar District (M.P.)

Vasudha Vikas Sansthan with the help of Peoples’ Science Institute, Dehra Doon undertook fluoride testing and fluorosis mitigation in Tirala, Dharampuri and Umarban bloks of Dhar district. The program...

by People's Science Institute PSI | On 07 Jan 2016

Collapsing ‘Government’, Emerging ‘Governances’

Contrary to widespread belief, the collapse of ‘government’ does not automatically entail the collapse of ‘governance’. In a setting of ‘unstable’ livelihoods, households’ coping strategies, coupled w...

by | On 07 Jan 2016

Conflict through a Gender Lens

This brief suggests that those seeking an in-depth understanding of the social and political world need to apply a feminist curiosity – that is, a curiosity about the roles gender plays at all levels...

by | On 07 Jan 2016

Household Decision-Making Under Threat of Violence: A Micro Level Study in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh

The rural household livelihood and children’s educational investment decisions are analyzed in a post-conflict setting located in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region of Bangladesh. The study represents...

by | On 07 Jan 2016

Remittances and Labor Supply in Post-Conflict Tajikistan

This paper analyzes the impact of remittances on the labor supply of men and women in post-conflict Tajikistan. It is found that on average men and women from remittance-receiving households are less...

by Olga Shemyakina | On 07 Jan 2016

Socio-Economic Uncertainty and Violent Conflicts

This paper, with reference to the literature on research on violent conflicts, discusses socio-economic uncertainty and characteristics of coping with it in the context of violent mass conflicts. Rese...

by Gyöngyvér Demény | On 07 Jan 2016

A Tortured History: Federalism and Democracy in Pakistan

This paper looks at the Pakistan Army’s ideological hegemony, especially in the country’s Punjabi-speaking heartland, the continuing focus on the state’s narrative of a religion-based unitary identity...

by | On 07 Jan 2016

Negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement: Evaluation and Implications for East Asian Regionalism

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement seems to have reached a crossroads: it could either be a building block toward achieving economic integration in Asia and the Pacific, or trigger the form...

by Inkyo Cheong | On 07 Jan 2016

Banking Crises and 'Japanization': Origins and Implications

Japan’s “two lost decades” perhaps represent an extreme example of a weak recovery from a financial crisis, and are now referred to as “Japanization.” More recently, widespread stagnation in advanced...

by Masahiro Kawai | On 07 Jan 2016

Special Study on Sustainable Fisheries Management and International Trade in the Southeast Asia and Pacific Region

This paper analyzes the current status of fisheries and aquaculture in Southeast Asia and international trade. Analysis concludes that a policy of sustainable management for both capture fisheries and...

by Masayuki Komatsu | On 07 Jan 2016

Contracting out the Last-Mile of Service Delivery: Subsidized Food Distribution in Indonesia

The paper examines these issues by conducting a randomized field experiment in 572 Indonesian localities in which a procurement process was introduced that allowed citizens to bid to take over the imp...

by Abhijit Banerjee | On 07 Jan 2016

The Single Best Health Policy in the World: Tobacco Taxes

The single most cost-effective way to save lives in developing countries is in the hands of developing countries themselves: raising tobacco taxes.

by | On 06 Jan 2016

Results and Analysis of the Perception Survey: Unemployed Youth of Bhutan

This paper presents results and findings from a survey aimed at understanding perceptions among Bhutan’s unemployed youth. It also provides analysis of the results and concludes with an eight point pl...

by | On 06 Jan 2016

Internal Migration, Poverty and Development in Asia

This article explores the relationship between internal migration and economic growth and development in Asia, concentrating on four countries: China, India, Vietnam and Indonesia. Levels of internal...

by | On 05 Jan 2016

The Nature of Violence Faced by Lesbian Women in India

This study examines the nature of violence faced by lesbians in Indian society. Although there has been substantial theoretical and practical work on violence against women in India, the manifestation...

by Bina Fernandez | On 05 Jan 2016

Summary of Indonesia's Education Sector Assessment

The Indonesian school system is one of the largest and most diverse in the world, with more than 50 million students, 4 million teachers and more than 250,000 schools. Over the past 15 years, the gove...

by Norman LaRocque | On 01 Jan 2016

Local Funds and Political Competition: Evidence from the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in India

This paper examines how local politics affects public fund allocations. It uses the context of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in India which was introduced by the Indian National Congr...

by Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay | On 01 Jan 2016

Developing Myanmar’s Information and Communication Technology Sector toward Inclusive Growth

Myanmar is expected to grow at least 6.8% per year in the coming years. Accompanying this growth will be an increase in demand for infrastructure services, including ICT-related services, both for co...

by Kee-Yung Nam | On 01 Jan 2016

Open Educational Resources: Enhancing Education Provision and Practice

Open educational resources made their appearance in early 2002 as a promising tool for enhancing the quality of and access to education and were perceived to have the potential to reduce costs by reus...

by Jouko Sarvi | On 01 Jan 2016

Public–Private Partnerships in Information and Communication Technology for Education

A study of how PPPs have been employed by ADB developing member countries in Asia and the Pacific identified seven initiatives that adopted the underlying principles of PPP in developing and deliverin...

by Jouko Sarvi | On 01 Jan 2016

Poverty and Violent Conflict: A Micro Level Perspective on the Causes and Duration of Warfare

This paper discusses how endogenous mechanisms linking processes of violent conflict and the economic well-being of individuals and households in combat areas provide valuable micro foundations to the...

by Patricia Justino | On 30 Dec 2015

Carrot or Stick? Redistributive Transfers Versus Policing in Contexts of Civil Unrest

Recurrent episodes of civil unrest significantly reduce the potential for economic growth and poverty reduction. Yet the economics literature offers little understanding of what triggers civil unrest...

by Patricia Justino | On 30 Dec 2015

On the Links between Violent Conflict and Household Poverty: How Much Do We Really Know?

This paper assesses the usefulness of a new emerging body of work on the micro-level analysis of conflict and violence in advancing our current understanding of the relationship between violent confli...

by Patricia Justino | On 30 Dec 2015

Mental Health Effects of Climate Change

Changes in climate and global warming may require population to migrate, which can lead to acculturation stress. It can also lead to increased rates of physical illnesses, which secondarily would be a...

by | On 30 Dec 2015

Water and People: A National Perspective Mitti Aur Pani Mein Sona Hai

The failures of water management have been extensively studied and reviewed and the shortcomings are listed.

by Ravi Chopra | On 29 Dec 2015

Global Increase in Climate-Related Disasters

Intense climate-related natural disasters—floods, storms, as well as droughts and heat waves—have been on the rise worldwide. Is there an ominous link between the global increase of these hydrometeoro...

by Ramón López | On 29 Dec 2015

ASEAN 2030: Challenges of Building a Mature Political and Security Community

The paper examines ASEAN’s political and security challenges and prospects in the coming two decades. The challenges facing ASEAN could be classified into six broad categories: (1) the shifting balanc...

by Amitav Acharya | On 29 Dec 2015

Women and Water

This article on women and water discusses gender perspectives of a growing water crisis and the evolution of the international policy on water. It stresses the importance of integrating gender perspec...

by UN Women | On 29 Dec 2015

Women 2000 and Beyond: The Role of Men and Boys in Achieving Gender Equality

Gender equality is not a women's issue; it concerns men and boys as well as women and girls. Garnering sufficient support for the profound social changes required by the gender equality agenda cannot...

by UN Women | On 29 Dec 2015

Public and Private Control and Contestation of Public Space amid Violent Conflict in Karachi

Few cities in South Asia have been affected by violence more than Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and economic centre. This working paper examines the impacts of the city’s declining security situati...

by Noman Ahmed | On 29 Dec 2015

Gender-based Violence and Child Protection among Syrian Refugees in Jordan, with a Focus on Early Marriage

This study was undertaken on behalf of the Child Protection and Gender-Based Violence sub-working groups in Jordan, established in February 2012 to coordinate prevention and response to child protecti...

by UN Women | On 28 Dec 2015

Evaluation on the Contribution of UN Women to Prevent Violence against Women and Expand Access to Services

During 2012-2013, the UN Women Independent Evaluation Office undertook a corporate thematic evaluation of the UN Women contribution to preventing violence against women (VAW) and expanding access to r...

by UN Women | On 28 Dec 2015

Afghanistan in 2014: A Survey of the Afghan People

This report puts out findings from The Asia Foundation's tenth survey in Afghanistan - the broadest public opinion poll in the country, surveying 9,271 Afghan citizens across all 34 provinces.

by Zach Warren | On 26 Dec 2015

Connecting South Asia and Southeast Asia: A Bangladesh Country Study

Economic integration is being inhibited by the poor state of transport connectivity between Bangladesh, and South Asia and Southeast Asia. This study reviews connectivity initiatives of Bangladesh and...

by Mustafizur Rahman | On 23 Dec 2015

The Political Economy of Transitions: Governance Assessments and Measurements

This discussion paper examines existing methods for measuring aspects of political transitions. The paper canvasses and examines existing measurement tools that focus on some, but not all, relevant di...

by United Nations Development Programme [UNDP] | On 23 Dec 2015

Fiscal Decentralization And Tax Incentives In The Developing world

Many developing countries use tax incentives to attract foreign direct investment, sacrificing immediate revenue from foreign capital, even though the effects of tax incentives on investment, growth,...

by Quan Li | On 23 Dec 2015

Oil and State Capitalism: Government-Firm Coopetition in China and India

This paper examines the domestic sources of the internationalization of national oil companies (NOCs) in China and India. It argues that – counter to notions of state-led internationalization – the go...

by Jonas Mecklinga | On 23 Dec 2015

Mobile Financial Services in Bangladesh: An Overview of Market Development

The objective of this report is to share a market level overview of the early stage progress of MFS in Bangladesh up through the first quarter of 2012. With this goal in mind Bangladesh...

by Bangladesh Bank | On 22 Dec 2015

Endangering the Investment Climate

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will require high levels of productive private and public sector investment, which in turn requires a suitable investment climate. This paper provide...

by | On 22 Dec 2015

National Refugee Law for India: Benefits and Roadblocks

This paper intends to ascertain whether a uniform national law would be beneficial to the interests of the three main parties involved with refugee policy in India, namely the Government of India, the...

by Arjun Nair | On 22 Dec 2015

Tension in the Rolling Hills: Burmese Population and Border Trade in Mizoram

This paper first describes Mizoram’s Burmese population and its integration in Mizo society. It then examines border trade and its implications, with a particular focus on Aizawl’s central market, Bar...

by Julien Levesque | On 22 Dec 2015

Climate Change and India: A 4 X4 Assessment a Sectoral and Regional Analysis for 2030

This report is a step in this direction. In particular, the knowledge and understanding of impacts as deduced from the Global Circulation Models and Regional Climate Models are not adequate to assess...

by Government of India GOI | On 22 Dec 2015

Transitions to K-12 Education Systems Experiences from Five Case Countries

Preparing and implementing a K–12 transition absorbs considerable financial and human resources. It follows that the reasons for restructuring must be compelling. It follows that the reasons for restr...

by | On 21 Dec 2015

Challenges to School Edupreneurs in the Existing Policy Environment: Case Study of Delhi and Gujarat

The Indian education ecosystem today consists of the government, private sector, and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) that have helped provide education to millions of children. The enactment of t...

by Meril Antony | On 21 Dec 2015

Teacher Incentives: Evidence from Schools in Delhi

The paper reports on existing incentive structures in a sample of government and private schools in Delhi and elicits teachers’ perspectives on factors which motivate them. It is found that performanc...

by | On 21 Dec 2015

Missed Opportunities in Global Health: Identifying New Strategies to Improve Mental Health in LMICs

Countries like South Africa and India are putting new mental health policies in place. There is now a clear agenda of “what to deliver” to make this deplorable reality better, and indeed a nascent adv...

by Victoria Menil | On 19 Dec 2015

Study of the Regulatory and Operational Structure of the Higher Education Sector in India

This project will study and document these barriers in a carefully chosen sample. Privately-managed higher education institutions have been chosen for the study. This will include a study of the three...

by Parth Shah | On 18 Dec 2015

Exchange Rate Reform in South Sudan

This paper considers the role of the exchange rate in the economy and its importance as a macroeconomic instrument, and outlines the policy choices that are available to governments in general, and th...

by Keith Jefferis | On 18 Dec 2015

Can Improved Cooking Stoves Work? The Nepal Chulo Experience

What motivates rural households to switch from older cooking methods to newer, more improved, ones? Improved cooking stoves (ICS) technology has demonstrated capacity to reduce health hazards from smo...

by Dipika Gawande | On 18 Dec 2015

India's Sri Lanka Policy: Towards Economic Engagement

India's Sri Lanka policy has built upon economic engagement to cooperate on initiatives of strategic importance. The lesson one can learn from this is the potential of economic linkages to overcome a...

by | On 18 Dec 2015

Meta-Study of Literature on Budget Private Schools in India

Budget Private Schools (BPS) are privately-run schools that charge very low fees, operating among the poorer sections of the society and have become relevant to the education discourse of India. This...

by Centre for Civil Society CCS | On 18 Dec 2015

Pakistan: Politics, Religion & Extremism

The study attempts to investigate whether it is relative deprivation as Ted Gurr suggests or the element of fear that pushed the Muslim majority Pakistan into a cycle of religious violence due to the...

by | On 17 Dec 2015

Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding in Post-Conflict Environments: A Critical Analysis of the UN Approach in Timor-Leste, Liberia and Nepal

This paper looks at possible alternatives to UN peacekeeping and peacebuilding missions with a view to establishing if there are organizations or other interested parties, which may be more effective...

by | On 17 Dec 2015

Politics of UNSC Sanctions: The Issue of Nuclear Weapons Development

The paper tries to explain the imposition of sanctions by the UNSC on Iran and North Korea and the absence of UNSC sanctions on India and Pakistan. Although there are aspects in the sanctions on Iran...

by | On 17 Dec 2015

China and Myanmar: Strategic Interests, Strategies and the Road Ahead

This research paper is divided into two parts to provide a more complete view of how both countries think in term of their ambitions and the methods they deem important to achieve them. This paper arg...

by | On 17 Dec 2015

Contemporary Naxal Movement in India: New Trends, State Responses and Recommendations

This paper makes an attempt to map the Maoist conflict in its present state of affairs and while describing its present manifestations, the past links have always been revisited. The paper also attemp...

by | On 17 Dec 2015

Sri Lanka: Rising Sectarian Schism

Sri Lanka, home to a plethora of ethnically diverse communities, saw horrific communal bloodshed in July 1983. Over three decades down the line, history seems to be repeating itself as hordes of Budd...

by Chaarvi Modi | On 17 Dec 2015

Hidden in Plain Sight: A Statistical Analysis of Violence against Children

The report sheds light on the prevalence of different forms of violence against children, with global figures and data from 190 countries. Where relevant, data are disaggregated by age and sex, to pro...

by United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF | On 17 Dec 2015

The Challenges of Climate Change: Children on the Front Line

The challenge of climate change is huge; it requires an urgent response from all generations. As the effects of climate change become more visible and extreme, they are likely to affect adversely the...

by United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF | On 17 Dec 2015

Building Tax Capacity in Developing Countries

The agenda for the Third International Conference on Financing for Development suggests there will be less focus on aid, and more on how developing countries can generate their own financial resources...

by Mick Moore | On 16 Dec 2015

Engaging with Health Markets in Low and Middle-Income Countries

Many low and middle-income countries have pluralistic health systems with a variety of providers of health-related goods and services in terms of their level of training, their ownership (public or pr...

by Henry Lucas | On 16 Dec 2015

China's Fitful Economic Reforms

Back in 2004, when I ran the Chinadesk at the International Monetary Fund, my team some written questions to Beijing ahead of our meetings with Chinese officials. China’s central bank had claimed that...

by Eswar Prasad | On 16 Dec 2015

Merchants of Labor: Agents of the Evolving Migration Infrastructure

The special focus of this paper are the merchants of labour, the public and private agents who move workers over borders. The ILO Convention 97 (1949) recommended that migrants move over borders with...

by Philip Martin | On 15 Dec 2015

Global Increase in Climate - Related Disasters

Is there an ominous link between the global increase of the hydrometeorological and climatological events on the one side and anthropogenic climate change on the other? This paper considers three main...

by Vinod Thomas | On 15 Dec 2015

A Community Based Micro Hydro: A Promising Technology for Rural Development in Nepal

The study finds that micro hydro (MH) has significant impact on reduction in fuel wood consumption. Communities are more inclined to harvest fuel wood from government forest. These led to the promotio...

by Bishwa Koirala | On 15 Dec 2015

Does the Rise of Middle Class Lock in Good Government in the Developing World?

The current size of the income-secure middle class and its likely future growth, suggest that optimism is indeed warranted for many of today’s middle-income countries. But it is not warranted for all...

by Nancy Birdsall | On 14 Dec 2015

Peaceful Coexistence? The Role of Religious Schools and NGOs in the Growth of Female Secondary Schooling in Bangladesh

In this paper, documents a positive spillover effect of BRAC schools on female secondary enrollment in registered madrasas. Drawing upon school enrollment data aggregated at the region level, It first...

by Mohammad Niaz Asadullah | On 11 Dec 2015

Overview of Central Government Employees

The central government periodically constitutes a Pay Commission, to evaluate and recommend revisions of salaries and pensions, for its employees. Recently, the Seventh Central Pay Commission has mad...

by Vatsal Khullar | On 10 Dec 2015

National Strategy Day on India: Delivering Growth in the New Context

The World Economic Forum along with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) convened the National Strategy Day on India on 3rd and 4th of November to provide a platform to boost economic growth and...

by | On 09 Dec 2015

Budget for Children in Meghalaya 2015-16

Budgets are the most solid expression of a government’s priorities, performances, decisions and intentions both at the national as well as the level of the states. This budget for children (BfC) in Me...

by HAQ Centre for Child Rights HAQCRC | On 08 Dec 2015

The Sun Gets Bigger

The government should encourage the use of solar energy.

by T.N. Ninan | On 04 Dec 2015

Regional Inequality and ‘Inclusive Growth’ in India under Globalization: Identification of Lagging States for Strategic Intervention

This paper analyses the trends and patterns of economic inequality across Indian states since the early 1990s. The inter-state inequality in per capita income and consumption expenditure show a clear...

by | On 04 Dec 2015

Follow-up and Review of the SDGs: Fulfilling our Commitments

This paper considers the challenge of establishing a robust follow-up and review mechanism to support such implementation. The paper underscores the importance of the follow-up and review process taki...

by | On 04 Dec 2015

Look to the Forests: How Performance Payments can Slow Climate Change

This report argues that what is urgently needed is a tested but far from fully exploited approach to funding forest conservation: pay-for-performance transfers, under which public (and private) funder...

by Nancy Birdsall | On 03 Dec 2015

Socially Sustainable Development and Participatory Governance: Legal and Political Aspects

This paper explores the notion of “sustainable development” which has progressively evolved over the recent years from the environmental field in which it originated, to the social sphere and has been...

by | On 02 Dec 2015

Global Increase in Climate-Related Disasters

Intense climate-related disasters—floods, storms, droughts, and heat waves—have been on the rise worldwide. At the same time and coupled with an increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atm...

by Vinod Thomas | On 30 Nov 2015

Narendra Modi’s Eighteen Months

What is the preogress report of Modi Government? Well, there are some good and bad reports. There are some good projects but the implementation part of it is slow.

by T.N. Ninan | On 28 Nov 2015

Youth Vulnerabilities in Life Course Transitions

This paper examines youth vulnerabilities, with a particular emphasis on low- and middle-income countries. It touches on the challenges confronted by young people exposed to extreme, life threatening...

by | On 26 Nov 2015

The Indian Insolvency Regime in Practice – An Analysis of Insolvency and Debt

This paper analyses 45 cases of insolvency and bankruptcy resolution in order to measure the efficiency and problems of the present laws for firm bankruptcy in India. These cases have been selected t...

by Aparna Ravi | On 25 Nov 2015

How Much is Enough?

Post-7th Pay Commission recommendations, the pay being offered now should not be a disincentive for public-spirited people with ability. Can the government afford this hike?

by T.N. Ninan | On 21 Nov 2015

State Policy for Transgenders in Kerala, 2015

The documents states the Government's policy on Transgenders (TGs) its goals, objectives, approaches, implementation processes and highlights selected area of focus in Kerala' s socio-economic context...

by Social Justice Department Kerala | On 13 Nov 2015

Are Juveniles Really Responsible fo Making Delhi the Rape Capital?

Statistics have been the most important criteria for the Central Government in changing the juvenile justice law and introducing treatment of 16-18 year old juveniles committing such offences as adult...

by HAQ Centre for Child Rights HAQCRC | On 13 Nov 2015

Convergence of Social Security Schemes for Elimination of Child Labour

Child labour is a complex problem rooted in poverty, illiteracy and social inequality. The National Child Labour Policy has identified ‘focusing of general development programmes for benefiting child...

by Helen Sekar | On 10 Nov 2015

Now Focus on the Economy

What the government should is to concentrate on economic issues with diversionary issues being put back in the cupboard.

by T.N. Ninan | On 07 Nov 2015

Meta - Study of Literature on Budget Private Schools in India

Despite lack of infrastructure and facilities, studies over the past decade has shown that learning outcomes in these schools are equal to or better than those of far more resourcefu...

by Centre for Civil Society CCS | On 29 Oct 2015

Quality of Government and the Relationship between Natural Disasters and Child Poverty A Comparative Analysis

This paper explores the degree to which exposure to reoccurring natural disasters of various kinds explains seven dimensions of severe child poverty in 67 middle- and low-income countries. It also ana...

by Adel Daoud | On 28 Oct 2015

Mr Modi and Dr Singh

There must be a way of combining sensible policy, based on a certain worldview and an agenda, with a bias for action.

by T.N. Ninan | On 26 Oct 2015

Infrastructure in India: Challenges and the Way Ahead

This study compares the levels of development of the social and physical infrastructure in India with those in other major emerging countries as well as developed countries. The study finds that India...

by Pradeep Agrawal | On 26 Oct 2015

Post Conflict Face of Poverty and Society: Understanding a Gandhian Initiative against Pauperization and Violence in Mushahari (Muzaffarpur, Bihar)

This is an analytical narrative about post-conflict dynamics of poverty in a block of villages in north Bihar known as ‘the Mushahari Project’. It is related with the socio-economic and political cons...

by Anand Kumar | On 20 Oct 2015

Child Labours in India

Even after a hundred years of child labour legislation and fifty years of independence, child labour is a common occurrence in India. Today, their numbers exceed those of any other country. The urgent...

by | On 19 Oct 2015

Military Build-up in the Indian Ocean: Implications for Regional Stability

As the Indian Ocean region increasingly becomes a more important geopolitical space, global powers and smaller states are laying down their stakes. This paper examines the military build-up of major I...

by | On 15 Oct 2015

Report on Evaluation of the Impact of the Scheme for Mega Food Park of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries

This scheme was rolled-out in 2008-09 and at present is in its fourth phase. The objective includes a comparative analysis of the scheme with similar schemes of the government, an evaluation of select...

by Indian Council for Research on International Econo ICRIER | On 13 Oct 2015

Social and Economic Change in Rural Bihar and the Emerging Policy Framework

This document presents a summary of the initial findings from a research programme on inclusive growth in Bihar, carried out by the Institute for Human Development, New Delhi. The study aims to unde...

by | On 12 Oct 2015

Now for the Reality Play

What the government needs to do, perhaps, is to spell out an action agenda for the next four months, in the run-up to the 2016 Budget.

by T.N. Ninan | On 02 Oct 2015

Strategies for Tobacco Control in India: A Systematic Review

Tobacco control needs in India are large and complex. Evaluation of outcomes to date has been limited. The aim of this paper is to review the extent of tobacco control measures, and the outcomes of as...

by | On 30 Sep 2015

The Hunger and Nutrition Commitment Index (HANCI 2014): Measuring the Political Commitment to Reduce Hunger and Undernutrition in Developing Countries

This report presents the Hunger And Nutrition Commitment Index (HANCI) 2014. It seeks to: Rank governments on their political commitment to tackling hunger and undernutrition; Measure what governments...

by Rajith Lakshman | On 30 Sep 2015

State, Ideas and Economic Reform in India

This paper argues that the state is an important institution for initiating economic reforms in India. Ideas held within the state are especially important. When the state reposed faith in a closed ec...

by | On 28 Sep 2015

Report of the Fact Finding Mission to Rampal, Bangladesh

The objective of the mission was to evaluate the impact of the power plant on the livelihoods of the people and ecology of the region, examine the legal framework governing its and assess if the propo...

by South Asians for Human Rights SAHR | On 28 Sep 2015

REDD+ Impacts: Evidence from Nepal

This paper discusses the findings from one of the first rigorous quasi-experimental studies using a ‘before-after-control intervention’ design that encompass all major aspects of REDD+: forest carbon...

by Bishnu Prasad Sharma | On 25 Sep 2015

The National Health Profile 2015

The National Health Profile 2015 prepared by the Central Bureau for Health Intelligence (CBHI) has revealed some disturbing facts about India’s healthcare sector. It shows the poor patient to bed rati...

by Central Bureau for Health Intelligence (CBHI) | On 25 Sep 2015

The Troubled Democracy of Bangladesh: ‘Muddling Through’ or ‘a Political Settlement’?

Is democracy in Bangladesh on a reverse course? Is there a culture of intolerance being engendered by deliberate design? Will creeping extremisms create an inevitable schism within the nation? The pap...

by | On 23 Sep 2015

Book Review: Gender, Ideology and Conflict

Review of Women in Terrorism: Case of the LTTE by Tamara Herath. Sage Publications 2015. pp. 264. Rs. 533/- ISBN-13: 978-8132106951.

by Ilina Sen | On 21 Sep 2015

Reducing all Forms of Child Poverty: The Need for Comprehensive Measurement

Despite widespread investments in child poverty reduction, the way in which child poverty is measured presents a narrow and partial picture. Current practice is still biased towards measuring static a...

by | On 17 Sep 2015

Political and Economic Analysis of State Business Relations in Andhra Pradesh: Impact on the Performance of Manufacturing Sector

The central objective of this paper is to enquire into the politics of the government and business relation and how it affected the industrial development in Andhra Pradesh.

by Alivelu G | On 17 Sep 2015

Strengthening Existing Systems for Prevention of Child Marriage: Investing in a Model with Potential to Affect Reduction in Child Marriage

Child marriage can be prevented and children protected by activating the mandated government structures. A two-pronged approach – working with specific community groups, as well as with representativ...

by HAQ Centre for Child Rights HAQCRC | On 14 Sep 2015

Report of the National Consultation on Prevention of Child Marriage

The purpose of the national consultation was to bring together initiatives from across the country to share experience and challenges. This report is the final draft of the discussions and a common ag...

by HAQ Centre for Child Rights HAQCRC | On 14 Sep 2015

Deep Shift Technology Tipping Points and Societal Impact

Digital connectivity enabled by the software technologies is changing the society fundamentally. The scale of the impact and the speed of the changes taking place have made the shift so different from...

by | On 10 Sep 2015

Education For All Towards Quality with Equity

India has made significant progress towards the goal of Education for All during the past few years. Keeping in view the pace of progress achieved till 2000, several programmes have been formulated an...

by Ministry of Human Resource Development, GOI | On 08 Sep 2015

Pirates and Slaves: How Overfishing in Thailand Fuels Human Trafficking and the Plundering of Our Oceans

The report calls for overfishing, pirate fishing and modern-day slavery in the Thai fishing industry to be addressed as interconnected issues. It examines the complex and multi-faceted problems in Tha...

by Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) | On 08 Sep 2015

Civil Society Briefs: Sri Lanka

This brief provides an overview of civil society in Sri Lanka. With a view to strengthening ADB cooperation with civil society organizations, the NGO and Civil Society Center periodically prepares rep...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 07 Sep 2015

Civil Society Briefs: Myanmar

This brief provides an overview of civil society in Myanmar. With a view to strengthening ADB cooperation with civil society organizations, the NGO and Civil Society Center periodically prepares repor...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 07 Sep 2015

Indonesia: Concerted Efforts Needed to Find Solutions for Protracted IDPs

IDMC estimates that as of July 2015 at least 31,400 people are internally displaced as a result of conflict and violence in Indonesia. Nearly all are protracted internally displaced persons (IDPs) who...

by Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre | On 03 Sep 2015

Income Inequality, Poverty and Labor Migration in Thailand

This paper explores the dynamics of economic growth, poverty, inequality and migration in Thailand, and evaluates the relevance of Lewis model to Thailand’s long-term development. Thai economy seems t...

by Somchai Jitsuchon | On 03 Sep 2015

The Permanent People’s Tribunals and Indigenous People’s Struggles in Mexico: Between Coloniality and Epistemic Justice?

On 21 October 2011, hundreds of Mexican civil society organizations formally submitted a petition to the Lelio e Lisli Basso Foundation in Rome to justify the opening of a Mexican Chapter of the Perma...

by Rosalba Icaza | On 02 Sep 2015

Public Views Of Health System Issues In Four Asian Countries

To elicit the public’s views on health system issues, the study conducted an opinion poll survey in Bangladesh, Mongolia, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. The study focused on health inequalities. The results sh...

by Bhatia Mrigesh | On 01 Sep 2015

Needs vs Expediency - Poverty Reduction and Social Development in Post-Conflict Countries

Conflict depletes all forms of human and social capital, as well as supporting institutions. The scale of the human damage can overwhelm public action, as there are many competing priorities and resou...

by Tony Addison | On 01 Sep 2015

Poverty Eradication in India by 2015

This paper highlights a strategic framework to eradicate rural poverty by 2015 with the rural household as the central unit. It is based on the premise that the livelihoods of rural households depend...

by Ministry of Rural Development Government of India | On 31 Aug 2015

Efficacy of New Monetary Framework and Determining Inflation in India: An Empirical Analysis of Financially Deregulated Regime

Against the backdrop of the new monetary policy framework, this paper analyses the determinants of inflation in the deregulated financial regime. The paper upfront has been kept free from adherence to...

by Lekha Chakraborty | On 25 Aug 2015

Curbing Militancy: Regulating Pakistan's Madrassas

Thousands of madrassas in Pakistan remain completely unregulated by the government and their sources of funding unknown while many more thousands offer an education to their students with bleak employ...

by | On 25 Aug 2015

The New ‘MASVAW Men’: Strategies, Dynamics and Deepening Engagements. A Case Study of a Networked Approach to Challenging Patriarchy Across Institutions in Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh is ranked second among Indian states in ‘crimes against women’, which includes rape, abduction, dowry-related deaths, mental and physical torture and sexual harassment (Government of Utt...

by Jerker Edström | On 25 Aug 2015

Strong Sustainable Growth for the Indian Economy

How is the RBI helping the government to create the conditions for a sustainable growth? Structural reforms will help strengthen this growth – two weeks ago, the Government announced Indradhanush, la...

by Raghuram G. Rajan | On 25 Aug 2015

Introduction to "Governing Marriage Migrations: Perspectives from Mainland China and Taiwan"

Cross-border migration for the purpose of marriage is on the rise, and at present it constitutes one of the most common forms of long-term international mobility in East Asia. The articles included he...

by | On 20 Aug 2015

Don’t Target the Media

It is not correct to blame the media when effective communication suffer. The government will have to recheck its media policies and the distance it has to keep the media.

by T.N. Ninan | On 15 Aug 2015

National Policy for Children, 2013

To affirm the Government of India commitment to the rights based approach in addressing the continuing and emerging challenges in the situation of children, the government hereby adopts this resolutio...

by Government of India Ministry of Women and Child Development | On 13 Aug 2015

Public Debt Management in India and Related Issues

This study focuses on the marketable domestic public debt of the Government of India (GoI) in terms of size, magnitude, policy and approach followed and also discusses issues and challenges on debt m...

by Lakshmanan L | On 13 Aug 2015

The Socially Responsible Company as a Strategic Second-Order Observer: An Indian Case

The emergence of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a global component of business-society relationships has triggered many controversial debates in which CSR is either advocated as a source of...

by Damien Krichewsky | On 07 Aug 2015

Social Sector and Economic Reforms (With Special Reference to Public Health)

Social Sector performs an effective function in human resource development and hence it is very important to study how the economic reforms are influencing social sector expenditures. Any economic re...

by Runa Paul | On 03 Aug 2015

A Reality Check on Suicides in India

In this paper, we study the data from the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) of India and disaggregate across demographic and leading causes of suicides. We find that mental and physical health are t...

by Shamika Ravi | On 02 Aug 2015

India Labour and Employment Report 2014

This report provides an overview of the labour market and employment outcomes that the Indian economy has delivered as it globalized. It concludes that structural changes are slow and difficult, and t...

by | On 29 Jul 2015

Forgotten Voices: The World of Urban Children in India

This report discusses how the major urban development schemes in India do not adequately take into account issues related to children’s health, education, growth, safety and participation. The rising...

by Save Children | On 28 Jul 2015

Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Ordinance 2014: A Process Perspective

This paper captures the policy processes leading to the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (RFCTLARR) Ordinance, 2014. It maps the role an...

by G. Raghuram | On 28 Jul 2015

Juvenile Justice in India: Policy and Implementation Dilemmas

The article tells us about what are the positive aspects of Juvenile Justice bill what it is lacking.

by Bharti Ali | On 23 Jul 2015

India: Trade in Healthcare Services

During the last two decades international trade in healthcare services has expanded under the GATS. Increasingly it has acquired new dimensions with application of advanced information and communicati...

by T.P. Bhat | On 23 Jul 2015

Public Economics and Sustainable Developments Policy

The domain of public economics is increasing as governments‘ policy goal is shifting from economic development to sustainable development. The government has to act as a trustee representing future ge...

by U. Sankar | On 22 Jul 2015

Banking on Non-solutions

Can state owned banks revive Indian economy? Let's see what the managerial solutions to revive banks show us.

by T.N. Ninan | On 18 Jul 2015

Safeguard Implementation: How Can We Make It More Meaningful?

The report presents the (i) safeguard systems of Bhutan, India and Nepal; (ii) differences in national safeguard laws and institutional processes with the Asian Development Bank’s safeguards policy; (...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 13 Jul 2015

Nepal Earthquake 2015: Post Disaster Needs Assessment - Executive Summary

The Government of Nepal officially launched a Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) to determine the impacts of the devastating earthquake on April 25, 2015 and a series of aftershocks since, includin...

by National planning commission Government of Nepal | On 07 Jul 2015

National Land Use Policy: Protecting Prime Agricultural Lands

With only less than 10 million hectares of agricultural land that is threatened by a rapidly urbanizing economy, how would the Philippines be able to meet its growing demand for food, and continue pro...

by Senate Economic Planning Office SEPO | On 06 Jul 2015

Waste Pickers in Pune, India

Recent statistics show the majority of workers in developing countries earn their livelihoods in the informal sector. For this paper, a sample of 150 was randomly drawn from the membership database of...

by Poornima Chikarmane | On 06 Jul 2015

State and Economic Development: The Need for a Reappraisal of the Current Literature

This essay tries to bring out some of the complexities that are overlooked in the usual treatment of the state in the institutional economics literature and supplement the latter with a discussion of...

by Pranab Bardhan | On 29 Jun 2015

Wrong Target for Benign Neglect

The school education system needs a desperate overhaul. The human resource development minister in New Delhi be focusing on it too, in the middle of her other pressing concerns.

by T.N. Ninan | On 27 Jun 2015

Reprioritizing Government Spending on Health: Pushing an Elephant up the Stairs?

Countries vary widely with respect to the share of government spending on health, a metric that can serve as a proxy for the extent to which health is prioritized by governments. World Health Organiza...

by Ajay Tandon | On 25 Jun 2015

Relaxing Migration Constraints for Rural Households

There are an estimated 750 million internal migrants in the world, yet the effects of access to internal migration for rural households are not well understood. Internal migrants may provide wealth tr...

by Cynthia Kinnan | On 25 Jun 2015

Street Vendors and the Dynamics of the Informal Economy: Evidence from Vung Tau, Vietnam

The role of the informal economy in promoting genuine economic development remains a contested one: optimists believe potential entrepreneurs are capable of supporting themselves and their families, p...

by John Walsh | On 25 Jun 2015

The Hunger and Nutrition Commitment Index (HANCI 2012): Measuring the Political Commitment to Reduce Hunger and Undernutrition in Developing Countries

The Hunger and Nutrition Commitment Index (HANCI 2012) measure what governments achieve and where they fail in addressing hunger and undernutrition providing greater transparency and public accountabi...

by | On 23 Jun 2015

The Frenemy of the People

Politicians have continued taking people for granted and managed to stay above the law.

by T.N. Ninan | On 22 Jun 2015

Fourteenth Report on Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme

The audit report on ICDS has revealed that the policy of universalization of ICDS Scheme remained unattained and the Scheme could not achieve the desired goals. Hence, controller and auditor general d...

by Lok Sabha Secretariat | On 22 Jun 2015

Mining Without Consent: Chromite Mining in Manipur

The recent identification of chromite deposits in two districts of Manipur, Ukhrul and Chandel, has led the government to grant mining clearances disregarding constitutional provisions. While environm...

by Franky Varah | On 21 Jun 2015

Policy Note 2014–2015 on Agriculture Department of Tamil Nadu Government

Agriculture sector covers largest segment of livelihood and plays a significant role in the overall socioeconomic fabric of the nation.Tamil Nadu, through the Second Green Revolution, has initiated ma...

by | On 12 Jun 2015

Policy Note 2014–2015 on Labour and Employment Department of Tamil Nadu Government

The labour policy of the Government seeks the overall growth and development of the industry and the individual worker who equally contributes to the success of the industry. Labour management relatio...

by | On 12 Jun 2015

Policy Note 2014–2015 on Industries Department of Tamil Nadu Government

This policy note emphasis on the growth and development of industries. The note aims to give an impetus to industrial development and to create an Industry - friendly environment to enable the State t...

by | On 12 Jun 2015

Bangladesh Budget 2010-11: Budget Speech

Budgetary speech presents an outline of the the Budget Implementation Progress report for FY 2010-11. The speech discuss briefly budget framework of bangladesh government and also analyse macroeconomi...

by Ministry of Finance Bangladesh | On 12 Jun 2015

Policy Note 2014–2015 on Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department of Tamil Nadu Government

The prime objective of this Government is accelerated growth and sustainable development of Adi Dravidar and Tribal population in Tamil Nadu. It also aims to ensure socio-economic and educational deve...

by | On 10 Jun 2015

Gujarat Ecology Commission Annual Report 2013-14

This report of Gujarat Ecology Commission (GEC) provides information and other inputs which are needed to develop policy and provide the right approach for ecological conservation and sustainable deve...

by Gujarat Ecology Commission Government of Gujarat | On 08 Jun 2015

The Economics of Peace: A Nepalese Perspective

Understanding the importance of peace has been accorded high priority in many religions, such as Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism. In recent years, many economists have realized the monetary va...

by Hari Bansh Jha | On 05 Jun 2015

Universal Food Security Program and Nutritional Intake: Evidence from the Hunger Prone KBK Districts in Odisha

This article provides evidence on the role of consumer food subsidies in improving nutritional intake and diet quality by evaluating the expansion of the government food assistance program coverage i...

by Andaleeb Rahman | On 05 Jun 2015

Renewable Energy: Market and Policy Environment in India

India's significant economic growth over the last decade has led to an inexorable rise in energy demand. Currently, India faces a challenging energy shortage. To grow at 9 per cent over the next 20 ye...

by Vivan Sharan | On 05 Jun 2015

Nepal's Continuing Quest for Federalism and Peace

Nepal is currently experiencing perhaps one of the most turbulent phases in its contemporary political history. In 2008, the 240-year-old institution of monarchy—for long seen as a symbol of unity, in...

by Akanshya Shah | On 05 Jun 2015

'Look East through Northeast': Challenges and Prospects for India

This paper focuses on the considerable hurdles and limitations encountered in carrying forward India's 'Look East' through Northeast—problems caused by the nature of physical terrain, the history of v...

by Subir Bhaumik | On 04 Jun 2015

The Dance of the Elephant and the Dragon: The Promise and Perils of Sino-Indian Relations

India and China, two of the world's oldest civilisations, have had little historically relevant interactions with one other. Separated by the world's highest mountain range, the Himalayas, neither of...

by Himanil Raina | On 04 Jun 2015

E-Waste in India

Like hazardous waste, the problem of e-waste has become an immediate and long term concern as its unregulated accumulation and recycling can lead to major environmental problems endangering human heal...

by Rajya Sabha | On 04 Jun 2015

Child Marriage in India: A Study of Situation, Causes and Enforcement of Prohibition of Child Marriage Act

The present study has been carried out in 10 states of India to assess the current situation and causes of child marriages and also to examine the implementation of Prohibition of Child Marriage Act....

by Pt. G.B. Pant Institute of Studies in Rural Develo Lucknow | On 02 Jun 2015

Performance Audit of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme

This report of comptroller and auditor general of India containing the results of performance audit of the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) hig...

by Ministry of Rural Development GOI | On 02 Jun 2015

Land Markets, Government Interventions, and Housing Affordability

Urban population growth and economic growth require cities to expand into the agricultural land on their periphery. How much land is required for this extension? How much planning and direct intervent...

by Alain Bertaud | On 01 Jun 2015

Report of the Working Group on Agricultural Research and Education for the Twelfth Five Year Plan 2012-17

This report mainly focuses on agricultural research and education so as to make the system demand-driven, enhance technology flow to farmers and bring transformational changes in Indian agriculture. T...

by Planning Commission | On 28 May 2015

The Working Group on Health Research for XII Plan

Health research is the key to a well functioning and effective health sector in the country. The focus of the report is to identify major issues, areas for policy research in health sector for 12th Fi...

by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare H & FW | On 22 May 2015

Report of the Working Group on Drugs & Food Regulations

Strengthening of Drugs Regulatory Mechanisms is one of the major public health interventions. This ensures that safe, efficacious and quality drugs are made available to the people. Keeping in view th...

by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare H & FW | On 21 May 2015

GST Reforms and Intergovernmental Considerations in India

This paper reviews the replacement of the state sales taxes by the Value Added Tax in 2005 marked a significant step forward in the reform of domestic trade taxes in India. Implemented under the leade...

by | On 19 May 2015

State of Indian Farmers: A Report

The present study is based on primary survey across 18 states of India by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi conducted between December 2013 and January 2014. The survey wa...

by | On 18 May 2015

Globalisation and Child Labour: Evidence from India

Child labour is a complex problem basically rooted in poverty. The Government of India has formulated policies since the economic reforms of the early 1990s. Children under fourteen comprise 3.6 per c...

by Mita Bhattacharya | On 14 May 2015

The Coal Mines (Conservation & Development) Amendment Bill, 2012: Standing Committee on Coal and Steel (2012-2013)

Standing Committee on Coal and Steel present this Thirty-Seventh Report (Fifteenth Lok Sabha) on "The Coal Mines (Conservation & Development) Amendment Bill, 2012" relating to the Ministry of Coal. Th...

by Lok Sabha Secretariat | On 14 May 2015

Accountability of Local and State Governments in India: An Overview of Recent Research

The paper discusses the notion of accountability, followed by an introduction to the Downsian theory of electoral competition. This serves as a point for classifying different sources of accountabilit...

by Dilip Mookherjee | On 14 May 2015

Twenty Second Report on Action Taken on the Recommendations on ‘Small and Mini Hydel Projects

This report of the Standing Committee on Energy deals with the action taken by the Government on the Observations/Recommendations contained in their Sixteenth Report (Fifteenth Lok Sabha) on ‘Small an...

by Lok Sabha Secretariat | On 13 May 2015

ASEAN and Conflict Management: The Need for a High Council

This year the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will formally establish the ASEAN Community, which is set to enhance regional community building among its member states. Ramses Amer makes...

by | On 13 May 2015

Indian Youth: Ignored Constituency Report on the Renewal of Youth Agenda in India

This report look at various youth issues and then suggest changes that can be targeted at redressing the same. There is an opportunity in which hard hitting reforms can be instituted to strengthen you...

by | On 12 May 2015

Punjab Youth Policy 2012

The policy covers all key issues of youth and has provided a framework that promises social, economic and political empowerment of youth. The central theme of the policy is integrated youth developmen...

by | On 12 May 2015

Draft State Sports Policy-2010

In order to achieve excellence in sports, government of Assam aims to adaopt a uniform policy so that sports activities in the state are spread over the year. Assam sports policy aims to provide sport...

by Government of Assam | On 12 May 2015

Inter Linking of Rivers: Action taken in the Eleventh Report (14th Lok Sabha) of the Standing Committee on Water Resources

This Report of the Standing Committee on Water Resources deals with the action taken by the Government on the recommendations / observations contained in their Eleventh Report on Water Resources (2008...

by Lok Sabha Secretariat | On 11 May 2015

Water pollution in India: Eighth report of the (Sixteenth Lok Sabha) Public Accounts Committee (2014-15)

Public Accounts Committee (2014-15) present this Eighth report (Sixteenth Lok Sabha) on water pollution in India based on C&AG Report No. 21 of 2011-12, Union Government for the year ended March 2012...

by Lok Sabha Secretariat | On 11 May 2015

Fifth Report on National Auto Fuel Policy

The Policy aims to holistically address the issues of vehicular emissions, vehicular technologies and auto fuel quality in a cost efficient manner, while ensuring the security of fuel supply.

by Lok Sabha Secretariat | On 07 May 2015

Twenty-sixth Report on Review of Representation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Senior Positions of Government of India

This Report of the Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes deals with the action taken by the Government on the recommendations contained in their Twenty-sixth Report (Fifte...

by Lok Sabha Secretariat | On 05 May 2015

Assamese Language, Narrative and the Making of the North East Frontier of India: Beyond Regional Indian Literary Studies

This paper is divided into two broad sections. The first section deals with the Brahmaputra Valley in Assam (north east India) and its transformation into a frontier in the nineteenth century. The sec...

by Manjeet Baruah | On 05 May 2015

Southern Thailand: From Conflict to Negotiations?

It has been a decade since the outbreak of one of Asia’s most serious insurgencies, the conflict between Malay Muslims and the Thai state in Southern Thailand. Often ignored and unremarked upon by the...

by Duncan McCargo | On 30 Apr 2015

Thailand: The Evolving Conflict in the South

After a decade of separatist violence in Thailand’s Malay/Muslim-majority southern provinces, insurgent capabilities are outpacing state counter-measures that are mired in complacency and political co...

by International Crisis Group | On 30 Apr 2015

MGNREGA Sameeksha: An Anthology of Research Studies on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (2005) Act 2006–2012

This report by Ministry of Rural Development is an analytical anthology of all major research studies done on Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act (MGNREGA) that were published in various acad...

by | On 29 Apr 2015

Book Review: Civil Wars in South Asia: State, Sovereignty, Development

Review of Civil Wars in South Asia: State, Sovereignty, Development ed. Aparna Sundar and Nandini Sundar. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2014. pp. 273. Rs. 850/-, ISBN: 9789351500407.

by Pramod K. Nayar | On 28 Apr 2015

MGNREGA and Empowerment of Women in Rural Areas by Parliamentary Committee on Empowerment of Women (2011-12), Fourteenth Report

The primary objective of the Act is augmenting wage employment. In this regard, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 provides for the enhancement of livelihood security of the...

by Committee on Empowerment of Women GOI | On 28 Apr 2015

Report of the Expert Group to Recommend the Detailed Methodology for Identification of Families Living Below Poverty Line in the Urban Areas

The paper focuses on the objective of putting in place a uniform criteria to identify the BPL households in urban areas so that objectivity and transparency is ensured in delivery of benefits to the t...

by Planning Commission | On 27 Apr 2015

Guide on Right to Information Act, 2005

The present guide is an updated and consolidated guide for the use of all stakeholders. This guide contains five parts. Part I of the guide discusses some aspects of the Act which all the stake-holder...

by Government of India GOI | On 27 Apr 2015

Why Democracy Struggles: Thailand’s Elite Coup Culture

Since the revolution of 1932 that ended absolute monarchy, Thailand has experienced sporadic military interventions, with 19 coups and coup attempts over those decades. This article explains these mil...

by | On 27 Apr 2015

Return of the Kashmiri Pandits: Need for Inclusive Dialogue

In context of contemporary debates about the government’s plan to rehabilitate Kashmiri Pandits, this paper presents perspectives on the creation of separate townships, grounding these in the historic...

by Sheetal Munshi | On 21 Apr 2015

Network Neutrality: A Thematic Analysis of Policy Perspectives Across the Globe

This policy review looks at four types of Internet traffic management policies across the globe: legal regulation, transparency, non-neutrality, and government control. Each of these has been employed...

by Christine Stover | On 16 Apr 2015

Their lives on the line: Women rights defenders under attack in Afghanistan

Based on interviews with more than 50 rights defenders and their families, the 71-page document titled, "Their lives on the line: Women rights defenders under attack in Afghanistan," illustrates the r...

by Amnesty International AI, | On 14 Apr 2015

Budget 2015 - What's In It For the Common Man ?

This is analysis of this year's Union Budget in Hindi. This video discusses on how the government categories budget and how the budget document should be viewed.

by | On 13 Apr 2015

Women, Violence and Conflict in Pakistan

This report presents an overview of both legal frameworks that have institutionalised discrimination and fuelled religious intolerance and violence against women and a dysfunctional criminal justice s...

by International Crisis Group | On 13 Apr 2015

Economic Survey of Maharashtra 2014-15

Maharashra Government, State Economy, Population, State income, Prices & Public Distribution System, Public Finance, Institutional Finance & Capital Market, Agriculture & Allied Activities, infrastru...

by Government of Maharashtra | On 09 Apr 2015

Women’s Autonomy and Experience of Physical Violence Within Marriage in Rural India: Evidence From a Prospective Study

Evidence regarding the relationship between married women’s autonomy and risk of marital violence remains mixed. Moreover, studies examining the contribution of specific aspects of women’s autonomy in...

by | On 26 Mar 2015

IMI Konnect Volume 4 Issue 2 - February 2015

The February 2015 issue of IMI Konnect (Volume 4, Issue 2) has the following articles - Reinventing India as an Innovation Nation? by Raghunath Anand Mashelkar; Understanding the Underpricing of IPOs...

by IMI Konnect | On 25 Mar 2015

Budget for Children in India 2008-09 to 2013-14: A Summary

Budget for children is not a separate budget. It is merely an attempt to disaggregate from the overall allocations made, those made specifically for programmes that benefit children. This enables us t...

by HAQ Centre for Child Rights HAQCRC | On 24 Mar 2015

On Government-Industry Nexus and Indigenous Armed Resistance

This paper proposes a simple game-theoretic framework for analyzing the relationship between the government, industry and indigenous community, especially in the context of mounting violence surroundi...

by Soumyanetra Munshi | On 23 Mar 2015

Make in India: Re-chanting the Mantra with a Difference

The paper attempts to trace the origin and idea of Make in India through time and identifies what needs to be done to turn the Make in India mantra into a reality. Free market is the engine of growth...

by Satish Y Deodhar | On 13 Mar 2015

Finance Commission of India’s Assessments: A Political Economy Contention between Expectations and Outcomes

The objective of this study is to examine the structural basis on which Finance Commissions make their awards rather than examining the predictability of the forecasts. The story of Finance Commission...

by | On 12 Mar 2015

Are Schools Safe and Equal Places for Girls and Boys in Asia?

Research findings point to the need for focusing on gender equality in education and the need for a multi-level approach addressing barriers at the individual, community, school and policy levels if...

by | On 11 Mar 2015

An Agenda for the New Government: Policy Options for India in Maldives

According to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs’ (MEA) brief on ‘India-Maldives Relations’: “India and Maldives share ethnic, linguistic, cultural, religious and commercial links steeped in antiq...

by | On 10 Mar 2015

The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabitation and Resettlement Act, 2013

The Act aims to ensure a humane, participative, informed and transparent process for Land acquisition, industrialisation, development of essential infrastructural facilities and urbanisation with leas...

by | On 09 Mar 2015

India's Union Budget: Changing Scope and the Evolving Content

The paper reflects on the changing scope of the Union Budget and the Finance Minister’s speech and assesses the evolving content of these policy instruments in recent years. The analysis undertaken is...

by | On 27 Feb 2015

Citizens Charter on Drinking Water and Sanitation before Union Budget

Ahead of the Union Budget, Civil Society Organizations ask for policy strategies to support drinking water and sanitation for vulnerable sections. Civil society budget groups, collectively as a networ...

by Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability | On 26 Feb 2015

The Land Acquisition Ordinance

The ruling government’s Land Acquisition Ordinance is viewed with suspicion by most politically active groups, as well as the industry. Consent, compensation, relief and rehabilitation are some of the...

by Maitreesh Ghatak | On 25 Feb 2015

Hunger, Undernutrition and Food Security in India

In spite of an increase in the number of government schemes to address the problem of undernutrition, the situation has improved only marginally. A number of factors such as spaces, ethnicities, incom...

by Rudra Narayan Mishra | On 25 Feb 2015

Road Infrastructure: Issues in Financing

Equity and efficiency are two issues that arise again and again the area of infrastructure finance. If the financing of infrastructure projects is to be sustainable the private sector must be entruste...

by Sudakshina Gupta | On 25 Feb 2015

Cleanliness and Sanitation: Underlying Constraints in India

Open defecation and improper garbage disposal are a reality of public spaces in India, not just due to poverty or a lack of initiative on the government, but social acceptance of attitudes which disr...

by Poorva Awasthi | On 24 Feb 2015

Policy Asks and Expectations from Union Budget 2015-16

Important processes relating to government budgets in India have been constrained by some widely-acknowledged challenges in governance in the country. These challenges pertain to lack of adequate tran...

by Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability | On 20 Feb 2015

Budgeting for Improved Nutritional Status of Tribal Children through the Tribal Sub Plan Strategy

Nutritional deprivation is the highest among tribal children in india. However, fiscal policy strategy to improve nutritional status for this section of the population depends a lot on the implementat...

by Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability | On 20 Feb 2015

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, GOI 2014-15

This brief uses government reported data to analyse Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) performance.

by Accountability Initiative | On 18 Feb 2015

The Paradox of Gender Responsive Budgeting

Despite the steps towards gender responsive budgeting, the budgetary allocations for promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment show a decline. Not only has the magnitude of the gender budget a...

by | On 17 Feb 2015

Financial Inclusion: Need for Differentiation between Access and Use

With no financial capacity to save and invest, a dismal record of use of bank accounts and the severe lack of trust in the current model of using business correspondents, it is extremely difficult to...

by | On 16 Feb 2015

Determinants of Regional Patterns of Manufacturing Exports: Indian Firms since the Mid-1990s

A preliminary analysis of the spatial determinants of firms’ export activities by Indian states has been undertaken in this study. Thus, the present study attempts to fill the gap by focusing on issue...

by Jaya Prakash Pradhan | On 06 Feb 2015

Hurdles in Rural e-Government Projects in India: Lessons for Developing Countries

Rural Electronic Government (e-government) projects are aimed at providing government services and information to rural public. The e-government initiatives have not been very successful in developing...

by | On 04 Feb 2015

Sri Lanka’s Presidential Election: Risks and Opportunities

This briefing discusses Sri Lanka’s presidential election promises. It promises more competition than was initially anticipated but with that comes a great risk of violence. Long-term stability and po...

by Crisis Group | On 02 Feb 2015

Special Financial Incentive Schemes for the Girl Child in India: A Review

In order to improve the survival and welfare of girls and to reverse the distorted sex ratio at birth, both the national and state governments have launched special financial incentive schemes for gir...

by T.V Sekher | On 23 Jan 2015

Militancy and Identity Politics in Assam

With the state getting tougher and the public turning against them, the militants in Assam are clearly on the defensive today. Militancy in Assam is not a mere law and order problem but a reflection o...

by | On 29 Dec 2014

Recommendations for High Level Committee on Status of Tribal in India

Keeping the present status of the tribal community and government commitment to improve their socio-economic status there have been various policy, programmatic and legislative interventions from time...

by Natural Resource Knowldge Activist Hub | On 29 Dec 2014

Understanding Healthcare Access in India

Expanding healthcare access is a critical priority for the Government of India and the private sector. Efforts to date have addressed numerous issues and much progress can be reported. Yet the gap bet...

by IMS for HealthCare Infomatics | On 24 Dec 2014

Freedom of Religion and Anti-Conversion Laws in India: An Overview

Indian constitution stands on the bedrock of secularism though nowhere in the original constitution the word secularism‘ was mentioned. Indian political circuit, in recent times has seen the dirtiest...

by Saadiya Suleman | On 23 Dec 2014

Labour Migration in South Asia: A Review of Issues, Policies and Practices

This paper reviews migration policy frameworks in South Asia and their implications for governance of migration, protection of migrant workers and maximizing development benefits of migration. The pap...

by Piyasiri Wickramasekara | On 19 Dec 2014

Pakistan and Afghanistan: Understanding Islamabad’s Objectives and Strategies

Pakistan plays a vital role in Afghanistan and is its most prominent neighbor given its strategic location, geographical proximity, historical and cultural ties with the exception of political influen...

by | On 18 Dec 2014

Local Governments and the Inclusion of the Excluded: Towards a Strategic Methodology with Empirical Illustration

This paper tries to argue that local governments constitutionally mandated to ‘plan for economic development and social justice’ at the local level are eminently qualified to take up the task of wor...

by Oommen M A | On 17 Dec 2014

Empowerment of Women through Participation in Local Government: A case of Maharashtra

There is reservation for women in Maharashtra in the local governments. But their number is less. A case study is given.

by Ruby Ojha | On 12 Dec 2014

Regionalization of Labour Reform Process: The Fabian strategy

The President of India signed a revised set of labour laws from Rajasthan into state law. The Rajasthan government has revised the Factories Act, the Industrial Disputes Act and the Contract Labour Ac...

by K.R. Shyam Sundar | On 02 Dec 2014

Food Security in India-Some Issues and Challenges

Food security has emerged as a fundamental issue at global level since the global food crisis of 2008. Now, investment in agriculture, food, and nutritional security is a prime concern for every natio...

by Palwinder Kaur | On 27 Nov 2014

Global Report on Trafficking in Persons

The exploitation of one human being by another is the basest crime. And yet trafficking in persons remains all too common, with all too few consequences for the perpetrators. Trafficking happens every...

by United Nations Drugs and Crime | On 26 Nov 2014

Global Slavery Index 2014

This is the second edition of the Global Slavery Index (‘the Index’) which provides estimates the number of people in modern slavery in 167 countries. The Index estimates there are 35.8 million people...

by Walk Free Foundation | On 18 Nov 2014

Labour Market Transitions of Young Women and Men in Bangladesh

During the last decade, Bangladesh maintained a stable growth rate of around 6 per cent, and gross domestic product (GDP) doubled in the period 2000–12. Unfortunately, economic growth has not translat...

by Kazi Ali Toufique | On 31 Oct 2014

Is the NREGS a Safety Net for Children? Studying the access to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme for Young Lives families, and its impact on child outcomes in Andhra Pradesh

The NREGS is an ambitious public works program intended to provide a basic safety net to the rural poor in India. This paper attempts to study two aspects of the program’s functioning using data from...

by Vinayak Uppal | On 31 Oct 2014

Information, Access and Targeting: The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in India

In this paper, the relationship is assessed between possessing information on, gaining access to and the efficacy of delivery of India's national rural employment guarantee scheme (NREGA) in three sta...

by Shylashri Shankar | On 28 Oct 2014

Currency Undervaluation and Sovereign Wealth Funds: A New Role for the World Trade Organization

Two aspects of global imbalances - undervalued exchange rates and sovereign wealth funds - require a multilateral response. This paper proposes new rules in the World Trade Organization to discipline...

by Prachi Mishra | On 22 Oct 2014

From “Hindu Growth” to Productivity Surge: The Mystery of the Indian Growth Transition

Most conventional accounts of India’s recent economic performance associate the pick-up in economic growth with the liberalisation of 1991. This paper demonstrates that the transition to high growth o...

by Dani Rodrik | On 21 Oct 2014

Social Change and Public Policy

A public policy is basically a law or rule that is enforced by any level of government, whether central, state, or local. When making policy, the government often fall into the conceit that they are i...

by Parth Shah | On 15 Oct 2014

Political Economy of Transition from Manmohanomics to Modinomics

The inaugural budget of the NDA led government has been a cause of some surprise and disappointment amongst those who were eagerly expecting a new radical dose of neo-liberal reforms. It appeared that...

by Surajit Mazumdar | On 22 Sep 2014

Green clearance test for NDA

Environmentalists are rightly alarmed that the NDA government is busy dismantling the environmental regulatory system in the country. Over the past two months, the media has reported that clearances f...

by Sunita Narain | On 22 Sep 2014

Civil Society, Indian Elections and Democracy Today

Civil society in Independent India has perhaps never been as active as it is today, except in the years before and during the emergency. The author explores the role it has played in strengthening and...

by Trilochan Sastry | On 18 Sep 2014

SEWA: Supporting Village-Level Organizations to Improve Rural Livelihoods

In spite of the rapid growth of the Indian economy, the fraction of the rural population living in poverty has declined only modestly. Increasing indebtedness, rises in input prices, and rapid commerc...

by Raj M. Desai | On 17 Sep 2014

India: Third and Fourth Combined Periodic Report on the Convention on the Rights of the Child

‘India: Third and Fourth Combined Periodic Report on the Convention on the Rights of the Child’ is a product of extensive consultations with all stakeholders. The Report has been prepared after consul...

by Government of India Ministry of Women and Child Development | On 15 Sep 2014

National Population Policy

The National Population Policy, 2000 (NPP 2000) affirms the commitment of government towards voluntary and informed choice and consent of citizens while availing of reproductive health care services,...

by Government of Odisha | On 09 Sep 2014

Food Stamps: A Model for India

About 4.5 lakh fair price shops in India sell 10-20 lakh tons of rice and wheat at the subsidized rate per month. Majority of the ration shops are in urban areas, they are hardly ever open and only a...

by Parth Shah | On 27 Aug 2014

Doing more than Lip-service to the Backward Sections

The Scheduled Castes form 16 percent of the population yet their issues have largely remained silent. It’s high time to bring into line the discord between election commitments and budgetary allocatio...

by P.S Krishnan | On 19 Aug 2014

Debt Sustainability at the State Level in India

The debt position of the state governments in India, which deteriorated sharply between 1997-98 and 2003-04, has witnessed significant improvement since 2004-05, reflecting the impact of both favourab...

by Atri Mukherjee | On 19 Aug 2014

Government of India's Resolution setting up the Planning Commission

Problems of planning were reviewed towards the end of 1949 by the Advisory Planning Board which was appointed by the Interim Government of India, an important recommendation of the Board being the app...

by Government of India GOI | On 18 Aug 2014

Integrated Health and Microfinance in India, Volume II: The Way Forward

Integrated Health and Microfinance in India: The Way Forward is a follow-up report that highlights the context of integration of health and microfinance in light of India’s journey towards universal h...

by Somen Saha | On 11 Aug 2014

Creative Budgeting or Actual Deficit Reduction? The case of FRBM Act

The FRBM Act was reflective of the shared commitment across political parties towards fiscal conservatism. A decade later, the picture, as reflected in the Union Budget, is yet to change for the bette...

by Surajit Mazumdar | On 07 Aug 2014

Science Education and Research in India

Many aspects of the Indian scientific development are extremely unsatisfactory, lacking in both quality and quantity. Although the outreach of teaching and research programmes has increased considerab...

by Gautam Desiraju | On 29 Jul 2014

Marching towards Inclusive Education: Are we Prepared for Inclusive Science Education?

The paper reports the historical background of inclusion in education and the status of inclusion in education in India. The article concludes that in spite of several efforts by the Government and ot...

by Amit Sharma | On 28 Jul 2014

Reading the Malappuram Debate: Postcolonial State and the Ethics of Place

The district of Malappuram was formed on the 16th demographics and led to intense debates and agitation in the state, with each side accusing the other of communalism and partisanship. This paper is a...

by Mohamed Shafeeq K | On 24 Jul 2014

India – National Youth Policy 2014 (NYP-2014)

The Government of India (GoI) currently invests more than Rs 90,000 crores per annum on youth development programmes or approximately Rs 2,710 per young individual per year, through youth-targeted (hi...

by Ministry of Youth and Sports Affairs YAS | On 21 Jul 2014

No Shortage of Money

The new government wants to increase investment in various sectors. The government has funds but the Finance Minister has said about lack of funds in the Budget. Public private partnerships (PPPs) can...

by T.N. Ninan | On 17 Jul 2014

Article 2 and Government Budgets

Governments’ budgets are fundamentally about people’s human rights. Budgets are the central means by which governments can help realize their people’s access to quality education, decent health care s...

by International Budget Partnership IBP | On 10 Jul 2014

Impact of Private Tutoring on Learning Levels: Evidence from India

Despite widespread and substantial private expenditure on private tutoring outside the formal school system in many developing countries, not much is known about their effects on learning outcomes....

by Ambrish Dongre | On 05 Jul 2014

Gujarat Gender Budget Statement 2014-15

As per census 2011, there are 289.48 lakh women and girls in the state of Gujarat, comprising 47.90 per cent of total population. “Gender Budget 2014-15” shows financial allocations for women in vario...

by Ministry of Finance Government of Gujarat | On 03 Jul 2014

Repeal and re-enactment of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, (JJ Act)

The Ministry of Women and Child Development invites comments and suggestions to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act of 2000, which is also known as the JJ Act.

by Government of India Ministry of Women and Child Development | On 02 Jul 2014

The Role of Mineral Fertilizers in Transforming Philippine Agriculture

Fertilizer policy in the country has evolved from pervasive interventionism in the 1970s to today's market-oriented regime. Government has abandoned price policies and subsidies, focusing rather on...

by Roehlano M. Briones | On 20 Jun 2014

Quality Healthcare and Health Insurance Retention: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in the Kolkata Slums

Healthcare in developing countries is often unreliable and of poor quality, thus reducing individuals incentives to use quality health services. This paper examines an innovative approach to access to...

by Clara Delavallade | On 12 Jun 2014

Police and the Rule of Law: Recent Developments in India

This paper examines some of the recent pronouncements of the Supreme Court and other High Courts and tries to analyse them vis-à-vis the understanding of the rule of law in India. [IIMA W.P. No.2014-0...

by Anurag K Agarwal | On 11 Jun 2014

Workers in the Shadows: Abuse and Exploitation of Child Domestic Workers in Indonesia

This report documents how hundreds of thousands of girls in Indonesia, some as young as 11, are employed as domestic workers in other people’s households, performing tasks such as cooking, cleaning, l...

by Human Rights Watch | On 09 Jun 2014

Marking Progress Against Child Labour

New estimates presented by International Labour Organization (ILO) indicate that 168 million children worldwide are in child labour, accounting for almost 11 per cent of the child population as a whol...

by International Labour Organisation ILO | On 27 May 2014

The Role of Agriculture in Poverty Reduction: The Indian Experience

Poverty alleviation has been a pre-eminent goal of India’s development efforts since its Independence. Though there has been a significant decline in the incidence of poverty at the national level in...

by Alakh Sharma | On 29 Apr 2014

National Manufacturing Policy (2011)

The concern about the stagnant and low share of the manufacturing sector in India‘s GDP necessitated a dedicated policy for the sector with a view to accelerated development, inclusive growth and prov...

by Ministry of Commerce and Industry GOI | On 01 Apr 2014

Problems and Prospects of Small-Scale Industries in India

The decade of the 1990s was marked by considerable deregulation of the industrial economy through delicensing and dereservations. The problem of sickness in small-scale industries is due to under-uti...

by Reddy . Koti | On 11 Mar 2014

Report of the Steering Committee on Rapid Poverty Reduction And Local Area Development for the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-2012)

The report examines the data on the poor, their characteristics and attempts to profile the poor. It addresses the need to devise a vision for the Eleventh Plan, which derives from the Approach Paper...

by Planning Commission | On 04 Mar 2014

Neo-Liberal Policy and Food Security in India: Impact on the Public Distribution System

This paper studies the problem of chronic hunger and malnutrition in India. The government of India introduced the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) in 1997 replacing the Universal Public Dis...

by Madhura Swaminathan | On 03 Mar 2014

Implementing Integrated Natural Resources Management Projects

The Government of India recently enacted the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act(NREGA) 2005.1 The NREGA guarantees onehundred days of wage employment every year to every rural household whose adu...

by G.M. Antony | On 28 Feb 2014

Education vital for social mobility

Analysis on correlation between parental education levels and students' achievements; impact of government and social mobility strategies on multi-structural problems which inhibit children from achie...

by Economic and Social Council | On 28 Feb 2014

Ending Newborn Deaths: Ensuring every baby survives

This report looks at the progress made in neo-natal care across the world, and also ranks countries in the order of infant mortality rates. The causes of stillbirths, newborn and maternal deaths are e...

by Simon Wright | On 28 Feb 2014

Land, Politics, Work and Home-Life at Adimalathura: Towards a Local History

This paper focuses on the fishing hamlet of Adimalathura located on the coast of the Thiruvananthapuram district in Kerala, which has been identified as an area of extreme developmental disadvantage...

by J. Devika | On 11 Feb 2014

Urbanization beyond Municipal Boundaries: Nurturing Metropolitan Economies and Connecting Peri-Urban Areas in India

This study identifies three priority areas for India's policymakers as they try to harness economic efficiency and manage spatial equity associated with urbanization. First, to enhance productivity, i...

by World Bank | On 28 Jan 2014

Do Indian States have the Power to Devise their Own Policies? A Study on Fiscal Space

With the decentralization process of the 1990s, linked to economic liberalization, there emerged new decisional scope for regional governments to shape their own policies. But the decentralization pro...

by Kim Robin | On 24 Jan 2014

Conflicts in South Asia: Causes, Consequences, Prospects

Studying conflicts is a big intellectual enterprise. More than 60 per cent of the top 100 think-tanks listed in the University Pennsylvania survey (2012) study conflicts and issues related to conflict...

by S. D. Muni | On 22 Jan 2014

The Impact of Fiscal and Political Decentralization on Local Public Investments in Indonesia

The effects of the Indonesian decentralization and democratization process on budget allocation at the sub-national level is analyzed. Based on panel data for 271 Indonesian districts for the years...

by Krisztina Kis Katos | On 17 Jan 2014

Television as a public health awareness tool to reduce tobacco use in India

Tobacco continues to be a major social and health menace across the globe. It is estimated that by 2030, it would account for the death of about 10 million people per year; half of them aged between 3...

by Dr. Pragati Hebber | On 09 Jan 2014

A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Aadhaar

This study estimates the costs and benefi ts of Aadhaar. The analysis takes into account the costs of developing and main- taining Aadhaar, and of integrating Aadhaar with the schemes over the next t...

by National Institute of Public Finance and Policy NIPFP | On 11 Dec 2013

Review of the Institutional Arrangements for Labour Market Information and Skills Anticipation in India

Determining the characteristics of the labour market is one of the fundamental tasks faced by those with responsibility for policy on skills and employment. There is, therefore, a need to identify the...

by International Labour Organisation ILO | On 09 Dec 2013

Asia's Rising Power and America's Continued Purpose

This paper examines a range of possible outcomes in strategic Asia and evaluates the likelihood of each outcome based on the prospective performance of the U.S and the Chinese economies, potential pol...

by Aaron Friedberg | On 26 Nov 2013

Subnational-level Fiscal Health: Stability and Sustainability Implications for Kerala, Punjab, and West Bengal

The Government of India has recently announced that Kerala, Punjab, and West Bengal are fiscally unsound at the level of general category states. The study reviews this projection and assesses their...

by Nimai Das | On 26 Nov 2013

Justice and State-Building in Afghanistan: State vs. Society vs. Taliban: Reflections on a Survey of the Afghan People

In Afghanistan, the process of creating a state judiciary has developed slowly, first through the gradual assertion of state control over sharia courts starting from the reign of Abdur Rahman (1880-19...

by Antonio Giustozzi | On 22 Nov 2013

Strengthening Democracy in Bangladesh

The paper describes of some of the critical challenges to democratization in Bangladesh. While electoral challenges are included, the paper looks beyond elections and describe other factors that can h...

by ASIA FOUNDATION | On 14 Nov 2013

Dishonesty and Selection into Public Service

In this paper, it is demonstrated that university students who cheat on a simple task in a laboratory setting are more likely to state a preference for entering public service. Importantly, it is also...

by Rema Hanna | On 11 Nov 2013

E – Mission Failed

The Central government evolved a computerization policy in 2007 to speed up the cases in the courts, hitherto proceeding at a ‘tortoise pace’. It was called ‘E-Courts Mission Mode Project’. Its object...

by Lawyers Collective | On 25 Oct 2013

Rationalism Rationed

The gruesome murder of Dabolkar, who had been spearheading a movement against superstitions in Maharashtra, has plunged all people of rationalist disposition in shock. Voices are rising that laws sho...

by Oscar F Picazo | On 22 Oct 2013

Identity Politics and Statehood Movements in India

The paper has explored into the reasons behind political mobilization of minority ethnic groups in support of smaller states. In accordance with the above hypothesis, the paper has tried to arrive at...

by Rajat Ganguly | On 11 Oct 2013

Does Economic Growth Reduce Corruption? Theory and Evidence from Vietnam

Government corruption is more prevalent in poor countries than in rich countries. This paper uses cross-industry heterogeneity in growth rates within Vietnam to test empirically whether growth leads...

by Jie Bai | On 03 Oct 2013

A Study on Fiscal Space

In the study states’ finances is analysed to see whether all states have been able to create a fiscal space and whether their fiscal capacities have increased over time. Then the states’ spending is l...

by Kim Robin | On 23 Sep 2013

Improving Public Financial Management in India: Opportunities to Move Forward

In recent years the role of a sound PFM system to achieve the objectives of fiscal discipline, strategic planning, and improved service delivery has been getting increasing public attention in India....

by Pratap Ranjan Jena | On 12 Sep 2013

Crystallizing Fault-lines: Turkey’s Democratic Durability at Risk

In the aftermath of the anti-governmental Gezi demonstrations of May-June and the conclusion of the Ergenekon trial earlier this month, clear fault-lines are crystallizing in the Turkish political lan...

by Ozan Serdaroglu | On 05 Sep 2013

Statement by Dr. Raghuram Rajan

Statement by Dr. Raghuram Rajan on taking office on September 4, 2013. [RBI Press release].

by Sabeeta Badkar | On 05 Sep 2013

Malaysia: Recent Developments in Agricultural Research

Main issues of concern looking to the future include ongoing maintenance of capacity and infrastructure given government funding cuts, and the training and mentoring of junior staff needed to replace...

by Kathleen Flaherty | On 04 Sep 2013

Hungama - Fighting Hunger and Malnutrition

Despite India’s remarkable economic growth over the last decade, many children still struggle to meet their most basic needs, including access to sufficient food and health c are. According to the 2 0...

by Hungama - Citizen's Alliance Against Malnutrition | On 30 Aug 2013

Anti-Superstition Legislation

After a long and gruelling campaign by ANS for the past eight years to enact a Law against Superstition which harm the citizens, the Maharashtra State Government under the leadership of the new Chie...

by Maharashtra Andhshraddha Nirmoolan Samiti MANS | On 22 Aug 2013

The Mental Health Care Bill, 2013

A bill to provide for mental health care and services for persons with mental illness and to protect, promote and fulfil the rights of such persons during delivery of mental health care and services a...

by Lok Sabha | On 21 Aug 2013

On Calling a Revolution, a Revolution and a Coup, a Coup

It is a sad thing for an academic to have to explain the difference between a revolution and a coup d'état to other academics, especially those who have described the Egyptian military coup against it...

by Amr Othman | On 18 Aug 2013

The Effects of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

When American troops arrived in Nagasaki and stumbled upon one of the cameramen, from the legendary film company Nippon Eiga Sha, shooting amidst the rubble, they promptly arrested him and confiscated...

by Motherboard TV MotherboardTV | On 10 Aug 2013

The Father's Role in Breastfeeding

It is a lucky baby that has a close, loving relationship with both of his parents! Babies need lots of physical contact, and when not nursing, a father's loving arms are a wonderful place for a baby t...

by BPNI Maharashtra | On 05 Aug 2013

Cyberwarfare: Logged and Loaded, but Wither Asia?

Cyber operations could have as devastating an impact on populations as conventional military weapons. With militaries already in the process of developing cyberwarfare as a means of battle, there is a...

by Elina Noor | On 26 Jul 2013

Fuel Price Hike and Indonesia’s Energy Insecurity

Fuel price hikes have always been unpopular in Indonesia, largely because of their wide-ranging impact on the population. Yet, it is undeniable that the current high subsidies are unsustainable. To mo...

by Margareth Sembiring | On 26 Jul 2013

An Explanatory Analysis of Deprivation and Ill Health Led Poverty in Urban India: A Case Study of Delhi

This paper examines the multi-dimensional nature of urban poverty with special emphasis on ill-health led deprivation. As a driver of poverty, ill-health reduces the income earning potential and incre...

by Samik Chowdhury | On 28 Jun 2013

The National Policy for Children, 2013

To affirm the Government’s commitment to the rights based approach in addressing the continuing and emerging challenges in the situation of children, the Government of India hereby adopts this Resol...

by Government of India Ministry of Women and Child Development | On 13 Jun 2013

Driving Force: Labour Struggles and Violation of Rights in Maruti Suzuki India Limited

As reports of severe harassment of Maruti workers and their families trickled in in late July 2012, Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) undertook a fact finding investigation into the inciden...

by PUDR Peoples Union for Democratic Rights | On 07 Jun 2013

Disability and Gender: The Case of the Philippines

Addressing gender gaps is a major development objective anywhere in the world. This paper aims to illustrate that this is far more critical in the presence of another social layer –disability. Among p...

by Christian Mina | On 24 May 2013

Media monitoring on Corruption in Indian print Media

To explore how much coverage is given by Leading Indian newspaper to 2G Scam and Common Wealth Games during the period of study. To explore what kind of image of India is famed by all four newspape...

by Daniel Drache | On 25 Apr 2013

Land Acquisition Bill: Past and Present

Land acquisition, which refers to the process of a government forcibly acquiring private property for public purpose, has been the cause of over a third of the legal conflicts in India in the past dec...

by iGovernment. in | On 19 Apr 2013

Reach out to Peasant Women: A Study from Punjab

Review of the book Those who did not die: Impact of Agarian Crisis on Women in Punjab by Gursharan Singh Kainth.

by Gursharan Singh Kainth | On 15 Apr 2013

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Amendment) Bill, 2013

A bill further to amend the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992. [PRS]. URL:[http://www.prsindia.org/uploads/media//SEBI%20(A)%20Bill,%202013/The%20Securities%20and%20Exchange%20Board%20...

by Parliamentary Research Service PRS | On 19 Mar 2013

Gambling on the Private Sector at the Cost of the Working Class: NTUI Statement

The budget offers no programme for job creation or any substantive policy measures to contain inflation that continues to erode the real wage while it commits itself to cash transfers and cuts in subs...

by Gautam Mody | On 01 Mar 2013

Nine years later…

Is the Finance Minister going to do a salvage operation? [BS week end ruminations].

by T.N. Ninan | On 27 Feb 2013

Open Budget Survey 2012: India

India's Open Budget score is 68 out of 100. India's budget documents have been found to be informative and as providing substantial relevant information to people.

by MINISTRY OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DIST GOI | On 15 Feb 2013

Nutrition Policies in Developing Countries: Challenges and Highlights

There are many nutrition policies in developing countries. What are the challenges faced by these malnutrition policies? There are many countries which have successfully included nutrition in their d...

by Olivier Ecker | On 12 Feb 2013

BMC Budget Speech-Education, 2013-14

estimates of receipts and expenditure for the financial year 2013-14 with respect to the primary education. [BMC]. URL:[http://www.mcgm.gov.in/irj/go/km/docs/documents/MCGM%20Department%20List/Chief%...

by Municipal Commissioner BMC | On 11 Feb 2013

Domestic Violence Prevention Bill, 2012, Bhutan

Recognizing that the domestic violence is a serious social evil; that there is incidence of domestic violence within Bhutanese Society; that victims of domestic violence are the most vulnerable membe...

by National Assembly of Bhutan | On 11 Feb 2013

Property Tax System in India: Problems and Prospects of Reform

This paper analyses the property tax system in India, examines the reasons for its low revenue productivity, reviews the recent reform initiatives and identifies further reform areas. [NIPFP Working P...

by M. Govinda Rao | On 06 Feb 2013

Positive and Normative Aspects of Food Policy and the Market in Indian Agriculture-An Empirical Analysis of Government Policy Interventions in Food Management

There are discussions about food management and food policy issues in India in the backdrop of largely unchanging dynamics of slow growth of the farm sector in India. First we deal with the manner in...

by Munish Alagh | On 30 Jan 2013

Land Acquisition for Industrialization and Compensation of Displaced Farmers

This paper addresses the question of how farmers displaced by acquisition of agricultural land for the purpose of industrialization ought to be compensated. Prior to acquisition, the farmers are leasi...

by Maitreesh Ghatak | On 22 Jan 2013

The New Great Walls: A New Guide to China's Overseas Dam Industry, Second Edition

Chinese hydropower companies and banks are now the largest dam builders in the world. Chinese banks have stepped in to fill the gap left by traditional dam funders such as the World Bank. The Chines...

by International Rivers Network IRN | On 15 Jan 2013

Political Clientelism and Capture: Theory and Evidence from West Bengal, India

There are relatively few theoretical models or empirical analyses of clientelism which analyse the sources and consequences of clientelism. Data from household surveys in rural West Bengal are used t...

by Pranab Bardhan | On 14 Jan 2013

Corruption Perceptions Index 2012

The Corruption Perceptions Index is constructed by the Transparency International. The Corruption Perceptions Index measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption in countries worldwide. Ba...

by Transparency International TI | On 07 Dec 2012

Provide Human Security through Human Development

Review of the book 'Peace is Everybody's Business: Strategy for Conflict Prevention' by Arjun Ray. Number of pages: 264, Price Rs. 495/-.

by Irfan Engineer | On 03 Dec 2012

Security Sector Governance (SSG) and Conflict Management in Indonesia: The Aceh Case

This paper examines the evolution of security sector governance (SSG) in Indonesia, focusing in particular on the effects of security sector reform (SSR) on the management of the secessionist conflict...

by Rizal Sukma | On 26 Oct 2012

Renewable Resource Shocks and Conflict in India’s Maoist Belt

A rigorous econometric analysis of a civil conflict is conducted that the Indian Prime Minister has called the single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by his country, the so-called Mao...

by Davesh Kapur | On 13 Oct 2012

The Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development Bill, 2011

To declare the institution known as the Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development, to be an institution of National importance and to provide for its incorporation and for matters connected...

by Ministry of Youth and Sports Affairs YAS | On 05 Oct 2012

The Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority Bill, 2011

A bill to establish an Authority and such other regulatory bodies for regulation of radiation safety or nuclear safety and achieving highest standards of such safety based on scientific approach, op...

by Parliamentary Research Service PRS | On 01 Oct 2012

The Sexual Harrasment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Bill, 2012: Commentary

The Lok Sabha (the Lower House of the Parliament) has, on 3 September 2012, passed the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Bill, 2012 (Bill). The Bill now r...

by Trilegal Bulletin | On 01 Oct 2012

What Do Teachers Do? Teacher Quality Vis-a-vis Teacher Quantity in a Model of Public Education and Growth

This paper analyses the contribution of teachers in a public education system and its implication for growth. Focus is given exclusively on two teacher-specfi?c inputs (teacher quality and teacher q...

by Mausumi Das | On 21 Sep 2012

Exposure Draft National Youth Policy 2012

The NYP 2012 is a step forward from the earlier Policy formulated in 1988 and, later, in 2003. It reaffirms commitment of the nation to the rights and holistic development of the young people of the c...

by Ministry of Youth and Sports Affairs YAS | On 12 Sep 2012

Vital Stats: Parliament in Monsoon Session 2012

Little business was transacted in the Monsoon Session of Parliament as protests over the CAG audit of coal block allocations regularly disrupted proceedings. Both houses fell significantly short of t...

by Devika Malik | On 12 Sep 2012

Health Policy Processes in Gujarat: A Case Study of the Policy for Independent Nurse Practitioners in Midwifery

The policy processes of the policy on ‘Nurse practitioners in midwifery’ (NPM) are described. The policy aims to educate and create a new cadre of competent midwives in the government hospitals as an...

by Sharma Bharati | On 03 Sep 2012

MTNL: Why the Slow Death?

What is the cause of deteriorating services from MTNL? Suggestions are given to improve its services.

by Alex George | On 03 Sep 2012

The Air that We Breathe: Addressing the Risks of Global Urbanization on Health

The Editors examine the lack of correlation between the size of a city and its air quality, noting that the strength of environmental laws and the accountability of the country's government have a gre...

by PLoS Medicine Editors | On 30 Aug 2012

Recent Developments in Kerala State Finances

This paper covers recent trends in a series of broad indicators of the financial health of the Government of Kerala with its developmental policy as the backdrop. It examines fiscal balances in Kerala...

by Tapas K. Sen | On 30 Aug 2012

Revisiting the Devolution of ENR Functions

The devolution of environment and natural resource functions to local government units was a bold move in the history of environmental Management in the Philippines. However, the implementation of the...

by Senate Economic Planning Office SEPO | On 28 Aug 2012

Japan’s Post-Triple-Disaster Growth Strategy

This paper discusses the scope of the many challenges and sets out a long-term strategy for overcoming them and putting the Japanese economy on a stable growth path. [Working Paper No. 376]. URL:[http...

by Masahiro Kawai | On 24 Aug 2012

Capital Market Bank Funding: (Not such a) Brave New World …

What degree the financial crisis and the resulting developments have impacted and will impact long-term, capital market bank funding. [DB research] URL:[http://www.dbresearch.com/PROD/DBR_INTERNET_EN-...

by Meta Zähres | On 23 Aug 2012

Situating Conflict and Poverty in Manipur

What is the relationship between social conflict and poverty in the context of Manipur? There is a need to recognize togetherness of the imperatives of economic well being, socio-cultural identity a...

by Anand Kumar | On 22 Aug 2012

Under-Nutrition in Maharashtra: Is ICDS effective?

Malnutrition and under nutrition are critical issues in Maharashtra. In spite of being a high growth state in the country, it has occasionally remained in the news due to deaths caused by under nutrit...

by Manisha Karne | On 21 Aug 2012

The Public Interest Disclosure and Protection to Persons Making the Disclosures Bill, 2010

Commonly known as the Whistleblower's Bill, it seeks to establish a mechanism to register complaints on any allegations of corruption or wilful misuse of power against a public servant. The Bill also...

by Parliamentary Research Service PRS | On 17 Aug 2012

Environmental Changes and Ripples for Water Security in Southern States

Environmental change is regarded by many geopolitical experts as one of the biggest threats to international security in the coming years. In Southern Asia, its impact on rivers, and thus water secur...

by Dhanasree Jayaram | On 07 Aug 2012

The Quality of Governance How Have Indian States Performed?

What is ‘good’ governance? Can the quality of governance be measured? And how do state governments in India measure up by such a measure? [Working Paper no. 104]. URL:[http://www.nipfp.org.in/neww...

by Sudipto Mundle | On 02 Aug 2012

Suicide and Property Rights in India

Is there an impact of female property rights on male and female suicide rates in India. Using state level variation in legal changes to women's property rights, it is shown that better property righ...

by Siwan Anderson | On 02 Aug 2012

Structuring the Dedicated Freight Corridor Project a Lost Opportunity

This paper explores the evolution of two dedicated freight corridors in India (covering a distance of around 3300 kilometers), and critique them from the perspective of delivering the intended rail...

by Sobhesh Kumar Agarwalla | On 31 Jul 2012

The Draft National Policy for Children, 2012

To affirm the Government’s commitment to the rights based approach in addressing the continuing and emerging challenges in the situation of children, the Government of India adopted this Resolution...

by Government of India Ministry of Women and Child Development | On 30 Jul 2012

Review of Philippine Migration Laws and Regulations Gains, Gaps, Prospects

The Philippines has often been cited as the global model in managing international labor migration. Despite the complexity of our management infrastructure, however, some gaps still remain. This pap...

by Julyn S Ambito | On 12 Jul 2012

Recommendations on the Proposed Disability Rights Legislation

Estimates of persons with disabilities (PWDs) in India vary greatly depending on the source. The 2001 census found 21.91 million disabled persons (2.13 % of the population), but there are serious cons...

by National Advisory Council NAC | On 11 Jul 2012

Domestic Violence Prevention Bill 2012: Bhutan

This Act ensures a prompt and just legal remedy for the victims of domestic violence; facilitate access to remedies for immediate and effective assistance, shelter homes and protection to the victims...

by National Assembly of Bhutan | On 11 Jul 2012

Political Strongholds and Budget Allocation for Developmental Expenditure: Evidence from Indian States, 1971-2005

This paper examines the effects of political factors on allocation of revenue budget for developmental expenditure by the sub-national governments, using data from 15 major states in India during the...

by Arun Kaushik | On 10 Jul 2012

Nagaland's Demographic Somersault

This study examines the reliability of the Census of Nagaland between 1981 and 2011 by testing the internal consistency of Census population estimates. It also tries to validate the Census estimates...

by Ankush Agrawal | On 06 Jul 2012

The Limits to Sustainability Science: Ecological Constraints or Endless Innovation?

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) takes place in Rio de Janeiro on 20–22 June 2012. Twenty years after the 1992 Earth Summit that led to the establishment of two m...

by Georgina M Mace | On 02 Jul 2012

The Military along the Security Development Frontrier: Implications for Non-Traditional Security in the Philippines and Thailand

This paper focuses on development missions carried out by the armed forces of the Philippines and Thailand in and out of conflict zones, and provides an analysis of the causes behind the re-emergence...

by Aries A Arugay | On 20 Jun 2012

Has India Emerged? Business Cycle Stylized Facts from a Transitioning Economy

A comprehense documentation - using both annual and quarterly data - an exhaustive set of stylized facts for the Indian business cycle in the pre and post reform period, the data is used to report...

by Chetan Ghate | On 19 Jun 2012

Are Drone Strikes Effective in Afghanistan and Pakistan? On the Dynamics of Violence between the United States and the Taliban

Strikes by unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, have been the primary weapon used by the United States to combat the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This paper examines the dynamic...

by David A. Jaeger | On 01 Jun 2012

Cambodia’s Hydropower Development and China’s Involvement

The research was undertaken to better understand the current policy and plans of the Cambodian government for the electricity sector; map the decision-making process; develop a greater understanding...

by Carl Middleton | On 25 May 2012

Trafficking in Persons: Singapore's Evolving Responses

For a long time, sending countries have been the focus of efforts to combat trafficking in persons (TIP). However, in recent years, destination countries such as Singapore have also stepped up their e...

by Pau Khan Khup Hangzo | On 23 May 2012

Integrating Urban Datasets: The Path to Effective Socio-Economic Planning in Urban Pakistan

Effective urban policy making and implementation in Pakistan is impeded by the problem of integrating data containing incompatible spatial references. There is great heterogeneity across spatial units...

by Sohaib Khan | On 16 May 2012

Role of Communication in Stigma and Discrimination

The objective of the study was to review media coverage (print ) related to HIV/AIDS in three states (Gujarat, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh) in order to determine the gaps in reporting. [CCMG Working Pa...

by Biswajit Das | On 10 May 2012

China’s Rising Military Power and Its Implications

The aim of this paper is to examine the driving forces behind China’s military modernization efforts followed by an assessment of the goals and foci of China’s military modernization at present and...

by Jiao Liang | On 08 May 2012

Nepal: Elusive Democracy and Uncertain Political System

Persistence and breakdowns of democracy are the dominant features of Nepali politics.Democracy continues to be attractive amidst setbacks and discontinuity. So it remains perennially elusive, desp...

by Lok Raj Baral | On 23 Apr 2012

Journalism in Democracies During Times of War: Examining the Role of Indian and US Media

This paper examines the larger issue of how a ‘free’ media performs during times of war with particular reference to US and India using case studies. It focuses on ‘national security’ becoming a maj...

by Aradhana Sharma | On 20 Apr 2012

Draft National Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Policy

The National Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Policy reaffirms the commitment of the Government of India to provide integrated services for holistic development of all children, along the con...

by Government of India Ministry of Women and Child Development | On 20 Apr 2012

Innovative Approaches to Managing Longevity Risk in Asia: Lessons from the West

This paper discusses what is longevity risk, why it is important, approaches used by the West to manage longevity risk and what lessons can be learnt by Asian countries from the experiences of the Wes...

by Amlan Roy | On 18 Apr 2012

Signpost for Community Policing

Review of the book Community Policing: Misnomer or Fact? Author: Veerendra Mishra Sage, New Delhi.

by Vijay Raghavan | On 16 Apr 2012

1391 National Budget of Afghanistan

According to M Mustafa Mastoor, the Deputy Minister of Finance, “The national budget is more than just a financial document. It is government’s plan for the development of Afghanistan. We are committ...

by Ministry of Finance Afghanistan | On 28 Mar 2012

Tamil Nadu Budget Speech: 2012-13

Speech of Thiru O. Panneerselvam, Hon’ble Minister for Finance, Government of Tamil Nadu, presenting the Budget for the year 2012-2013 to the Legislative Assembly on 26th March, 2012. [Government...

by Tamil Nadu Government | On 27 Mar 2012

The Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2010

A bill further to amend the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 and the Special Marriage Act, 1954. [PRS]. URL:[http://www.prsindia.org/uploads/media/Marriage%20Laws/Marriage%20Laws%20Bill%202010.pdf].

by Parliamentary Research Service PRS | On 26 Mar 2012

National Budget of Bhutan-2011-12

Budget speech by the Finance Minister of Bhutan. [Budget Speech]. URL:[http://www.mof.gov.bt/downloads/Budgetreport2012.pdf].

by Minister of Finance Bhutan | On 22 Mar 2012

Kerala Budget 2012-13

Minister for Finance, Sri. K. M. Mani presented his 10th Budget for the year 2012-13. The Kerala government raised the retirement age of government employees from 55 years to 56 years. [Budget Spe...

by Government of Kerala Govt | On 20 Mar 2012

NRHM, GOI, 2012-13

Using government data, this brief reports on NRHM expenditures along the following parameters: a) Overall trends in fund allocation and expenditure: GOI and States, b) Allocation and expenditure...

by Accountability Initiative | On 19 Mar 2012

Prevalence, Distribution, and Impact of Mild Cognitive Impairment in Latin America, China, and India: A 10/66 Population-Based Study

Rapid demographic ageing is a growing public health issue in many low- and middle-income countries (LAMICs). Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a construct frequently used to define groups of people...

by Ana Luisa Sosa | On 19 Mar 2012

Report on China's Central, Local Budgets (2012)

REPORT ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF CENTRAL AND LOCAL BUDGETS FOR 2011 AND ON DRAFT CENTRAL AND LOCAL BUDGETS FOR 2012. [Ministry of Finance Report]. URL:[http://www.npc.gov.cn/englishnpc/news/...

by Ministry of Finance China | On 15 Mar 2012

Federal Budget of Pakistan-2011-12

BUDGET SPEECH 2011-2012 by DR. ABDUL HAFEEZ SHAIKH, Minister for Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Planning & Development.

by Minister of Finance Pakistan | On 12 Mar 2012

Theft and Loss of Electricity in an Indian State

Utilizing data from the power corporation of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, the politics of electricity theft over a ten year period (2000–09) is studied. It is seen that electricity the...

by Miriam Golden | On 06 Mar 2012

Issues and Challenges with the Philippines' Public Corporate Sector

Government-ownedand- controlled corporations were initially created as solutions to market imperfections. It is ironic therefore, that in recent years, they have come to be seen as problems t...

by Senate Economic Planning Office SEPO | On 06 Mar 2012

Penance time

The time has come for the governmant to make up for its sins of the past three years. The Budget must be judged on whether it shows that the govt is in the mood to recognize its follies, and in a posi...

by T.N. Ninan | On 05 Mar 2012

What is the (New) Deal with Fragile States?

Poor governance and lack of state capabilities in around 45 countries pose a threat to global security and development. The involvement of the international community is required to help these st...

by Wim Naudé | On 02 Mar 2012

The State of the World's Children 2012: Children in an Urban World

The experience of childhood is increasingly urban. Over half the world’s people – including more than a billion children – now live in cities and towns. This report adds to the growing body of eviden...

by United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF | On 01 Mar 2012

Beyond the Numbers: Describing Care at the End of Life

PLoS Medicine, Olav Lindqvist and colleagues describe the range of non pharmacological care giving activities provided by palliative care staff for cancer patients in the last days of life. Their find...

by Plos medicine Editors | On 01 Mar 2012

Subsidizing the National Food Authority: Is It a Good Policy?

National Food Authority's (NFA) twin mandate of price stabilization and food security has cost the government billions of pesos in losses over the past few decades. As such, there is a need to ...

by Senate Economic Planning Office SEPO | On 28 Feb 2012

Indian Islam in the Age of Industry

Review of Bombay Islam: The Religious Economy of the West Indian Ocean, 1840-1915. by Nile Green. Cambridge University Press, New York 2011. xvi + 327 pp. $90.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-521-76924-2.

by Fahad A. Bishara | On 26 Feb 2012

Electoral Rules, Forms of Government and Redistributive Policy: Evidence from Agriculture and Food Policies

The effect of electoral rules and forms of government on public policy outcomes using a new dataset on agriculture and food policies from 74 countries over the 1960-2005 period is investigated. Using...

by Alessandro Olper | On 22 Feb 2012

Drawn into Violence: Evidence on 'What Makes a Criminal' from the Vietnam Draft Lotteries

Draft lottery number assignment during the Vietnam Era provides a natural experiment to examine the effects of military service on crime. Using exact dates of birth for inmates in state and federal pr...

by Jason Lindo | On 19 Feb 2012

Violent Conflict and Human Capital Accumulation

This paper reviews and discusses available empirical research on the impact of violent conflict on the level and access to education of civilian and combatant populations affected by violence. Three ...

by Patricia Justino | On 15 Feb 2012

Aiding Conflict: The Impact of U.S. Food Aid on Civil War

This paper examines the effect of U.S. food aid on conflict in recipient countries (these include Asian countries like Afghanistan, Sri Lanka). To establish a causal relationship, time variation in fo...

by Nathan Nunn | On 08 Feb 2012

India’s Food Security Bill: A Waste or Win for the Hungry?

Home to over 25 per cent of the world’s hungry poor, India faces major food security challenges and the situation has barely improved in two decades. Will the National Food Security Bill that the Indi...

by Sally Trethewie | On 27 Jan 2012

Vital Stats: Assembly Elections 2012

The Election Commission recently announced the poll schedule for Assembly elections in five States – Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa. As parties prepare for the upcoming election...

by Rohit Kumar | On 24 Jan 2012

Myanmar’s Reforms: The Challenges Ahead

The release of many high-profile political prisoners by Myanmar’s government has been applauded by the international community. Many obstacles to reform still exist, but they are not the usual suspect...

by Kyaw San Wai | On 24 Jan 2012

Challenges in IMS Reforms: A Global and Emerging Markets Perspective

The current global financial crisis has reopened an old debate on the international monetary system by baring weaknesses and flaws that have long been known. The debate is centred on both stability an...

by Alok Sheel | On 10 Jan 2012

The Open Knowledge Foundation: Open Data Means Better Science

This article focuses on the Open Knowledge Definition and the Panton Principles for Open Data in Science. Some of the tools the group has developed to facilitate the generation and use of open dat...

by Jennifer C Molloy | On 03 Jan 2012

The National Food Security Bill, 2011-as introduced in Lok Sabha

A bill to provide for food and nutritional security in human life cycle approach, by ensuring access to adequate quantity of quality food at affordable prices to people to live a life with dignity...

by Lok Sabha | On 30 Dec 2011

The Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, 2010

A bill to lay down judicial standards and provide for accountability of judges and establish credible and expedient mechanism for investigating into individual complaints for misbehaviour or incapacit...

by Parliamentary Research Service PRS | On 29 Dec 2011

The Evolving Dynamics of Global Economic Power in the Post-crisis World: Revelations from a New Index of Government Economic Power

This paper develops an index for measuring the economic power of governments viewed as entities in themselves. The basic idea is to encapsulate the economic representative power of a nation’s governme...

by Kaushik Basu | On 27 Dec 2011

Insights into Workers and ‘Political’ Union

Review of the book Workers, Unions and Global Capitalism: Lessons from India, Rohini Hensman, Tulika Books, New Delhi, 2011, pp. xix + 415

by Sharit Bhowmik | On 27 Dec 2011

Mullaperiyar – the Issue and the Politics

Discussions and debates are going on in Kerala over the Mullaperiyar dam. A solution is proposed here to solve the issues associated with the dam.

by Santhakumar V | On 19 Dec 2011

Union Power November 2011

The three year journey of the G-20 Heads of Government Summit from Washington in 2008 to Paris this November is signified by two markers of the depth of the global capitalist crisis. First, that the c...

by Louise Ross | On 14 Dec 2011

Legislative Brief: The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill, 2011

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill, 2011 was introduced in the Lok Sabha by Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, Minister for Finance on March 24, 2011. The Bill was referred to the St...

by M. R. Madhavan | On 01 Dec 2011

Rejigging the Elephant Dance

India's development challenges. The India growth story was thrown off track by the global financial crisis which engulfed virtually every country in the world. We recovered from the crisis sooner than...

by Duvvuri Subbarao | On 30 Nov 2011

Fifth Krishna Raj Memorial Lecture Series: Moving Towards Universal Access to Health Care- 5

The Fifth Anusandhan Trust’s Krishna Raj Memorial Lecture Series on Contemporary Issues in Health and Social Sciences was held on January 5, 2011. The speakers were Dr. K. Srinath Reddy (Chairperson o...

by Hansa Thapliyal | On 29 Nov 2011

Impact of the Retail FDI Policy on Indian Consumers and the Way Forward

This paper analyses the impact of the retail FDI policy on Indian consumers and make policy recommendations for the Indian government. Based on a primary survey of Indian consumers, the paper examines...

by Arpita Mukherjee | On 28 Nov 2011

Publishing Construction Contracts as a Tool for Efficiency and Good Governance

Construction is a $1.7 trillion industry worldwide, much of which is linked to publicly financed projects. Outcomes from this financing are frequently suboptimal. Cost and time escalation, as well a...

by Charles Kenny | On 25 Nov 2011

India’s Agricultural Development under the New Economic Regime: Policy Perspective and Strategy for the 12th Five Year Plan

The Eleventh Plan, which had attempted to reverse deceleration of agricultural growth during the Ninth and Tenth Plan, had some success in as foodgrains production has touched a new peak of 241.56 m...

by Vijay Paul Sharma | On 17 Nov 2011

Where is the Virtue in the Middle Class?

It is widely agreed by economists and political scientists that the middle class is vital to progress because of its many virtues. But it is difficult to define a middle class by income in a manner t...

by Charles Kenny | On 16 Nov 2011

The Public Procurement Bill, 2011

An Act to regulate public procurement with the objective of maximising economy and efficiency, promoting competition among suppliers and contractors while ensuring a fair, transparent and equitable...

by Planning Commission | On 08 Nov 2011

Hospital based Crisis Centre for Domestic Violence: The Dilassa Model

The brief is based on the experience and the success of a hospital based Crisis Centres for women facing domestic violence in Mumbai - Dilaasa. It is a joint initiative of the MCGM and CEHAT, establ...

by ... CEHAT | On 02 Nov 2011

Teaching How to Bridge Neuroscience, Society, and Culture

In most universities, sharp disciplinary and departmental divisions continue to this day and have regrettably translated into the life sciences being taught with scarce attention to their historical a...

by Giovanni Frazzetto | On 31 Oct 2011

Emigration of Women Domestic Workers from Kerala: Gender, State Policy and the Politics of Movement

Restrictions imposed by the Government of India on the emigration of women in ‘unskilled’ categories such as domestic work are framed as measures intended to protect women from exploitation. Specia...

by Praveena Kodoth | On 24 Oct 2011

Macro-Economic Policy Outcomes and Agriculture Relation between Fiscal Deficits and Investment in Agriculture

In an earlier paper (Alagh, Munish, 2011) it was shown that macro economics matters in agriculture. The relevance of understanding the impact of macro-economic policy on agriculture was outlined. A...

by Munish Alagh | On 24 Oct 2011

Burma’s Transition to “Disciplined Democracy”: Abdication or Institutionalization of Military Rule?

This article formulates an analytical framework for the detachment of militaries from politics and identifies positive and negative factors for a withdrawal. It then applies this framework to the case...

by Marco Bünte | On 17 Oct 2011

One Hundred years of Economic Change in Bengal: Re-visiting the Economic Life of a Bengal District

Through the use of secondary data, field visits and focus group discussions, this study explores the dynamics of the evolution of the economic life in Greater Faridpur over the last 100d years (1910-2...

by Selim Raihan | On 04 Oct 2011

Draft Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Bill, 2011

A bill to consolidate and amend the law relating to the scientific development and regulation of mines and minerals under the control of the Union. URL:[http://pib.nic.in/archieve/others/2011/sep/d2...

by Ministry of Mines GOI | On 03 Oct 2011

User-based Financing of Marine Protection in the Maldives

This paper provides an economic valuation of the recreational uses of atoll-based marine resources in the Republic of the Maldives. A travel demand model to estimate the benefits of atoll-based marin...

by Mahadev G Bhat | On 30 Sep 2011

Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict

The Optional Protocol (OP) on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict was ratified by India on November 30, 2005, and is in effect since December 30, 2005. This is t...

by Government of India Ministry of Women and Child Development | On 29 Sep 2011

Valuing the Recreational Uses of Pakistan’s Wetlands: An Application of the Travel Cost Method

This study applies a single-site truncated count data travel cost model in order to estimate the value visitors place on recreation in Keenjhar. The recreational use value associated with Keenjhar...

by Ali Dehlavi | On 27 Sep 2011

Civil Service and Military Pensions in India

The New Pension System in India and the progress that has been made since its introduction in 2004 is described. It then identifies the challenges ahead. It also documents the state of military pens...

by Renuka Sane | On 26 Sep 2011

Mitigating Climate Change Through Agriculture

Among the major challenges currently faced by humanity are food security and climate change. Agriculture plays a significant role in both. Adapting to climate change is expected to be an increasing ...

by Claire Schaffnit Chatterjee | On 26 Sep 2011

Integrated Financial MIS for Local Government Public Expenditure Management - A Case Study of Khajane in Karnataka

Expenditure Management is critical to effective public service delivery, especially at the local government level. Leveraging on information systems to aid in expenditure management is viewed as an ...

by Sandeep M S | On 20 Sep 2011

The Lok Pal Bill Debate: Lack of Accountability, not Anna Hazare's Fast, Should be the Focus

The paper analysis the current situation of corruption in India, the protests against it, the role of NGOs and the Lok Pal Bill

by Asian Centre for Human Rights ACHR | On 19 Sep 2011

The New Great Walls: A Guide to China's Overseas Dam Industry

The purpose of this guide is to support groups addressing the impacts of dams built by Chinese companies and financiers. The guide is intended for use by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and in...

by International Rivers Network IRN | On 19 Sep 2011

Iraq’s Last Window: Diffusing the Risks of a Petro-State

This paper, examines the possibility of adopting Oil- to- Cash scheme in Iraq. Here, a new opportunity is identified which aims for direct distribution of Iraqi oil rents in the planned production exp...

by Johnny West | On 19 Sep 2011

Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography

The Optional Protocol (OP) to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography was ratified by India on September 16, 2005. This is t...

by Government of India Ministry of Women and Child Development | On 16 Sep 2011

Faster, Sustainable and More Inclusive Growth: An Approach to the 12th Five Year Plan

In preparing the Approach Paper, the Planning Commission has consulted much more widely than ever before recognising the fact that citizens are now much better informed and also keen to engage. Over...

by Planning Commission, India | On 12 Sep 2011

Plan vs. Performance: Monsoon Session – August 01 to September 08, 2011

This note lists the legislative business planned by Parliament and compares it with the actual performance during the Monsoon Session. URL:[http://www.prsindia.org/administrator/uploads/general/13154...

by Kusum Malik | On 08 Sep 2011

Returns to Education in India: Some Recent Evidence

This paper estimates returns to education in India using a nationally representative survey. The standard Mincerian wage equation separately for rural and urban sectors is estimated. To account for th...

by Tushar Agrawal | On 06 Sep 2011

Evolution of Property Rights Regimes in the Groundwater Economy of India-Constraints on Moving Towards a Common Property Regime

The paper paper reviews the 'model' central and state government bills, pertaining to groundwater, through a conceptual framework and discusses the Andhra Pradesh experience in the developing governme...

by G.Ananda Vadivelu | On 30 Aug 2011

Comparison between the Lokpal Bill introduced in the Lok Sabha and the Jan Lokpal Bill

A note comparing the key features of the Lok Pal Bill, 2011 introduced on August 4, 2011 and the Bill prepared by civil society representatives in the Joint Drafting Committee. URL:[http://www.prsind...

by Parliamentary Research Service PRS | On 26 Aug 2011

Poverty and Food Insecurity in India: A Disaggregated Regional Profile

This study provides a profile of deprivation with respect to consumer expenditure, cereal consumption and energy intake across demographic and agro-climatic regions as defined by the National Sample...

by Suryanarayana M H | On 23 Aug 2011

Determinants of Primary Yield Spreads of States in India: An Econometric Analysis

An attempt is made to identify the determinants of yield spreads between the State and Central government securities in a panel data framework as has been used in several cross-country studies. This...

by Dhritidyuti Bose | On 08 Aug 2011

Parliament Session Alert: Monsoon Session: August 01 – September 08, 2011

Parliament meets for the Monsoon Session between August 01 and September 08, 2011. There will be a total of 26 sittings. The agenda for government Bills includes 35 pending Bills for consideration...

by Kusum Malik | On 01 Aug 2011

Health Care Systems and Conflict: A Fragile State of Affairs

Health care systems are necessary in all countries, the importance of strong health care systems to fragile nations, and the damage done to these systems during conflict, receive less attention t...

by PLoS Medicine Editors | On 29 Jul 2011

Pendency of Cases in Indian Courts

The Union Law Minister recently launched the ‘Mission Mode Programme for Reduction of Pendency of Arrears in Courts’. According to media reports, the programme aims to dispose of 40 per cent of the...

by Rohit Kumar | On 15 Jul 2011

Shocks, Economic Growth and the Indian Economy

This paper analyses the impact of domestic and external shocks on the Indian economy. A macro-modelling framework is developed that evaluates the impact of two domestic shocks (rainfall shortfall an...

by B B Bhattacharya | On 15 Jul 2011

Inter-State Imbalances in Essential Services: Some Perspectives

This paper analyzes the inter-state imbalances in three major sectors of the economy, namely, education, health and family welfare, and water supply and sanitation for fifteen major states. It uses...

by C Bhujanga Rao | On 14 Jul 2011

A Thousand Industries In A Thousand Days? State Business Relations and The Puzzle of Orissa's Industrial Performance

In this paper, the phenomenon of 'two types of industrialisation' in Orissa is documented where a fast growing resource based manufacturing sector has co-existed with a stagnant non-resource based...

by Alivelu G | On 11 Jul 2011

Socio-Economic Characteristics of the Tall and not so Tall Women of India

New studies are increasingly appearing based on historical data across the world that better socio-economic status is associated with taller men and women. This study based on a recent Indian data ana...

by Brinda Viswanathan | On 08 Jul 2011

Mutual Funds and Market Development in India

A brief description of the role of Mutual Funds in money markets and government securities makets are provided. Some of the regulatory issues that arise are discussed. The role of Mutual Funds in fina...

by Subir Gokarn | On 08 Jul 2011

A Study on Gender Based Violence in Kerala

The paper presents gender-based violence and theories its causes and correlates; it then reviews global information on the prevalence of gender-based violence against women and its health consequences...

by SAKHI Women's Resource Centre SAKHI | On 05 Jul 2011

Getting to a “Grand Bargain” for Aid Reform: The Basic Framework for U.S. Foreign Assistance

In this paper, the author focuses on understanding why long-term development is often subjugated to other objectives in the day-to-day planning processes of the U.S. government. She proposes one way t...

by Jean Arkedis | On 21 Jun 2011

The Global AIDS Transition

This landmark essay proposes a new paradigm for combating AIDS and a new objective around which international donors and recipient governments can coordinate their efforts. CGD senior fellow Mead Over...

by Mead Over | On 20 Jun 2011

India - Reforming Farm Support Policies for Grains

The objective of this study is to analyze some of the recent reforms proposed in the operation of government buffer stocks and provision of price support to wheat and rice farmers in India. Based o...

by Shikha Jha | On 17 Jun 2011

Revenue Potential of Panchayats in Kerala

How much more taxes would it be possible for Panchayats in Kerala to collect? This question is important in deciding the financial allocations to such local governments. Information regarding this m...

by Centre for Development Studies | On 17 Jun 2011

Popular Expectations of Government: Findings from Three Areas in Bangladesh

This paper presents findings from research into expectations of government, based on focus group discussion sessions with over 100 poor and very poor people in rural and urban Bangladesh. The resear...

by Tariq Ali | On 15 Jun 2011

City Governments and Public Water Supply in India: Analysing the Institutional Economics

Given that the 74th amendment to the Indian Constitution stipulates that the water supply service is to be transferred to the city/urban governments this note analyses the institutional economics of...

by Centre for Global Development | On 15 Jun 2011

Is it Desirable to Take a World Bank Loan for Strengthening Local Governments in Kerela?

This note analyses the desirability of a loan from the World Bank for strengthening local governments of Kerala under two scenarios. First, is the case where the loan supplements the resources of th...

by Centre for Global Development | On 09 Jun 2011

Impact of Trade Liberalization on India’s Oilseed and Edible Oils Sector

The edible oil and oilseeds sector in India faces many challenges in the new environment of liberalized trade. Government intervention is faced with the task of balancing the interests of different st...

by P.V. Srinivasan | On 07 Jun 2011

Suicide of Farmers in Maharashtra

The present study focuses on examining socio-economic aspects that can be identified as important risk factors and in providing some suggestions to the GOM. [PP-005] URL: [http://www.igidr.ac.in/suici...

by Srijit Mishra | On 02 Jun 2011

Budget for Children Analysis: A Beginner's Guide

This toolkit is designed to train individuals and civil society on how to conduct a child centered budget analysis to support their advocacy work and to hold state accoutable for the fulfilment of chi...

by HAQ Centre for Child Rights HAQCRC | On 02 Jun 2011

Leasing of Degraded Forest Lands

One of the most critical aspects of information about non-forest wastelands pertains to ownership. Not all may be owned by Government. In addition to uncultivated lands which were historically part...

by Planning Commission | On 27 May 2011

Hong Kong’s Linked Exchange Rate System

Hong Kong has had a linked exchange rate regime of one kind or another for most of its history as a trading and financial centre. In 1863 the Hong Kong Government declared the silver dollar – then a...

by Hong Kong Monetary Authority | On 27 May 2011

Towards a Fair Effective and Sustainable Health Care System for India

Newspapers carry frequent news about increasing government spending in health care and the availability of increasingly more specialised hospital care in India. While facilities in private and gov...

by Rajkumar Ramasamy | On 27 May 2011

Working Effectively in Conflict-affected and Fragile Situations

Getting analysis right in conflict-affected and fragile situations is a critical starting point for developing effective responses. Analysis serves a number of important purposes, including develo...

by International Growth Centre | On 26 May 2011

Monetary Operations and Central Bank Balance Sheets in a World of Limited Government Securities

The limited supply of government securities in some industrial countries has important ramifications for the operating techniques used by central banks to implement monetary policy, provide credit to...

by Mark Zelmer | On 16 May 2011

Bengal Diary: On the Eve of Change: SMS Updates of a West Bengal Tour, April 2011

A tour of West Bengal on the eve of the elections and the results, April 19 – 27, 2011, recorded by a young journalist-in-the-making in a collection of SMS messages.

by Kranti S. Bhatewara | On 13 May 2011

The Future of Development Finance

Development finance is at a turning point. There is talk about a “triple revolution of goals, actors and tools.” As much of Asia grows its way out of poverty, aid will increasingly be focused on Afr...

by Nemat Shafik | On 13 May 2011

National Environment Policy

The National Environment Policy, 2006 is the out come of extensive consultations with experts indifferent disciplines, Central Ministries, Members of Parliament, State Governments, Industry Associa...

by Ministry of Environment and Forests | On 12 May 2011

Ministry of Finance and Planning Annual Report

This paper contains the annual report of Ministry of Finance and Planning, Government of Sri Lanka. URL: [http://www.treasury.gov.lk/FPPFM/fpd/pdfdocs/annualreports/annualreport2009-eng.pdf]

by Ministry of Finance and Planning, Govt of Sri Lanka | On 10 May 2011

Federalism and Fiscal Reform in India

This paper attempts to analyse the experience of incentivising economic reforms at the state level through central transfers to states. It reviews the experiences of the central government introdu...

by M. Govinda Rao | On 09 May 2011

Book Review: Distance Education: A Growing Sector in Asia

Review of Policy and Practice in Asian Distance Edited by Belawati Tiawati and Baggaley Jon Education, Sage, Publications, India 2010, 260 pages, Rs. 650/-

by Madhu Parhar | On 06 May 2011

Nepal and the Pax Indianus

In May 2009, the Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) warned of growing threats to sustainable peace in Nepal. Since that time, Nepal’s politics have continued to polarize. Nepal still has two ar...

by Asian Centre for Human Rights | On 04 May 2011

Armed Conflict, Violence aganist Women and Right to Health

Two of the key highlights of the training were: the absence of counselling services, especially for women in Kashmir given the nature and scale of violence and; the denied right of conflict affected...

by ... CEHAT | On 29 Apr 2011

Encounters

The Tarkunde Committee confirmed that the police and the government of Andhra Pradesh were involved in the cruel practice of committing planned murders and covering it up as encounter. It recommende...

by People's Union for Democratic Rights PUDR | On 28 Apr 2011

Guidelines for Human-Leopard Conflict Management

After careful consideration of the inputs received from a variety of stakeholders, the following framework guidelines are suggested for managing the humanleopard conflict situations in areas where l...

by Ministry of Environment and Forests GOI | On 22 Apr 2011

Targeting and Distribution of Post-Tsunami Aid in Sri Lanka : A Critical Appraisal

In this study, two types of aid transfers - boats and houses are examined- that were made to rehabilitate tsunami-affected fishery households in Sri Lanka. The goal is to investigate the distributio...

by Asha Gunawardena | On 20 Apr 2011

Ramadan Effect on Price Movements: Evidence from Pakistan

This paper attempts to verify the widespread perception that general price level tends to rise due to the month of Ramadan in Pakistan. For this purpose, the ARIMA methodology (simple and extended f...

by Muhammad Akmal | On 19 Apr 2011

Our Tahrir Square

The government has alienated the public through months of scandal on a scale not seen till now. URL:[http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/t-n-ninan-our-tahrir-square/431532/]

by T.N. Ninan | On 13 Apr 2011

Corruption Cases against Government Officials

The agitation led by Anna Hazare has focussed on the formation of a Lok Pal to address the issue of corruption. Some data on the existing systems of identifying and prosecuting cases of corruption a...

by Rohit Kumar | On 13 Apr 2011

Issues Related to the Lok Pal Bill

In January 2011, the government formed a Group of Ministers, chaired by Shri Pranab Mukherjee to suggest measures to tackle corruption, including examination of the proposal of a Lok Pal Bill.

by Kaushiki Sanyal | On 08 Apr 2011

Economic Survey 2010-11

This paper contains the economic survey report for the state of Haryana. URL: [http://web1.hry.nic.in/budget/Economic%20Survey%202010-11.pdf]

by Haryana Government | On 06 Apr 2011

Budget Speech

This paper presents the annual budget of the Goa Government containing the Annual Financial Statement. URL: [https://www.goa.gov.in/portalweb/login/budget_2011-12/speech.pdf]

by Goa Government | On 06 Apr 2011

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women: Implications for Hong Kong

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination, applicable to Hong Kong since October 1996, requires States parties to take steps to address all forms of violence against women. Th...

by Andrew Byrnes | On 06 Apr 2011

Race and Equality: A Study of Ethnic Minorities in Hong Kong’s Education System

This report analyzes the key education-related issues raised in these interviews as well as available studies on the needs of ethnic minority communities, press reports, government reports and edu...

by Kelley Loper | On 01 Apr 2011

State Women Policy

The Government of Chhattisgarh is firmly committed to capitalise on its ‘new State advantage’. The State has taken a conscious decision to do away with past legacies and to adopt a fresh approach to...

by Government of Chhattishgarh | On 30 Mar 2011

Status of the Reservation to the Right to Vote in Hong Kong

The Hong Kong government continues to invoke the 1976 reservation to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) entered by the United Kingdom government in relation to Hong Kong....

by Seren S.T. Tang | On 29 Mar 2011

Scheme for “New Initiative in Skill Development through PPP” - Guidelines for Grants-in-Aid and Other Heads

The scheme would facilitate improving both qualitative and quantitative aspects of skill development in Mission Mode by harmonizing efforts of Central / State Governments as well as private sector t...

by Planning Commission, India | On 28 Mar 2011

Parliament Session Wrap: Budget Session – February 21 to March 25, 2011

Nine legislative Bills were introduced during the session. Five Bills were passed and one Bill was withdrawn during the session. Several hours were lost due to interruptions on the issues of appointme...

by Kusum Malik | On 28 Mar 2011

Trends in Diversion of PDS Grain

This article estimates the proportion of grain "diverted" from the Public Distribution System (PDS) to the open market, using the well-established method of matching state offtake figures published by...

by Reetika Khera | On 21 Mar 2011

Issues Before the Eleventh Finance Commission: Presented and Discussed at the Seminar on The Issues Before the Eleventh Finance Commission

In their tasks to fulfill their constitutional obligations, the Eleventh Finance Commission have to face and solve two broad group of issues. The first relates to the basic principles that ought to go...

by Chelliah Raja J | On 21 Mar 2011

Constituency Development Funds: Are They Constitutional?

This brief examines one particular criticism of Constituency Development Funds (CDFs): they infringe upon the doctrine of separation of powers. It also discusses whether CDFs adhere to other important...

by Christina Murray | On 18 Mar 2011

Budget 2011-12, Punjab

Budget speech by Finance minister. URL:[http://punjabgovt.nic.in/departments/Budget/budget/budget.htm].

by Government of Punjab | On 16 Mar 2011

Cambodia enters the WTO: Lessons learned for Least Developed Countries

The Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia applied for accession to the World Trade Organization in October 1994. At its meeting on 21 December 1994, the Preparatory Committee for the WTO establishe...

by Sok Siphana | On 16 Mar 2011

Poverty Targeting in Asia: Experiences from India, Indonesia, the Philippines, People’s Republic of China and Thailand

Poverty targeting, defined as the use of policy instruments to channel resources to a target group identified below an agreed national poverty line, is used by all governments in Asia in one form or...

by John Weiss | On 11 Mar 2011

Gender Responsive Budgeting: The Case of Kerala

This paper we make an attempt to understand and analyze the budget from a gender perspective. The paper looks into the different areas of allocations, how far it is ‘pro woman’ budget or a ‘gender re...

by Aleyamma Vijayan | On 08 Mar 2011

Budget for Gender Equity

The budgetary policy of the Government has a major role to play in achieving objectives of gender equality and growth through content and direction of Fiscal and Monetary Policies, measures for r...

by Government of India Ministry of Women and Child Development | On 08 Mar 2011

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Gender Budget 2011-12

The Corporation has decided to implement various schemes for females within the framework of its obligatory and discretionary functions as laid down in the M.M.C. Act. A step towards it, is a separat...

by Municipal Commissioner BMC | On 07 Mar 2011

Targeting Subsidies for Insecticide Treated Mosquito Nets (ITNs): A Conceptual Framework, Experience from other Sectors and Lessons for ITNs

A number of interventions for preventing and treating malaria have now been shown through a combination of clinical trials and economic analysis to be highly cost-effective (Goodman, Coleman et al....

by Eve Worrall | On 07 Mar 2011

Budget 2011-12 High Growth Not Reflected in Public Spending

With shrinking public spending, State’s health care concerns are specious. The rise in allocations on the health sector will only have limited impact on its efficiency and availability.

by Ravi Duggal | On 06 Mar 2011

Failed States, Vicious Cycles, and a Proposal

The problems of failed states, including the repeated return to power of former warlords are examined. It is argued that this causes institutions to become weaker and people to get poorer. It is argue...

by Raghuram G. Rajan | On 04 Mar 2011

An Ethnobiography of Teyyam Performance from a Practitioner’s Perspective

Rajesh Komath gives a description the conflicts between his socio-material position as a Teyyam performer, and persona/personality as a student of economics.

by Smriti Vohra | On 26 Feb 2011

Sri Lanka: Budget Speech, 2011

In the aftermath of the long war in the north, the prime minister anf finance minister launched Mahinda Chintana - Vision for the Future” that targets a per capita income in excess of US$ 4,000 by 201...

by Mahinda Rajapaksa | On 26 Feb 2011

Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP): Non-Communicable Disease Risk Factors Survey

The overall objective of the Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) risk factors survey was to improve the information available to the Government health services and care providers on a set of high-priority...

by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare H & FW | On 24 Feb 2011

Will it be Different this Time?

All proposals and policy measures in the forthcoming Budget may best be summed up as efforts to improve the sustainability of growth. Specific objectives are likely to be lowering inflation and defici...

by IRIS India IRIS | On 22 Feb 2011

Development in North East People’s Republic of China

Since the government announced the Revitalise the North East policy in 2002 there has been a new focus to regional policy following on from the previous, but continuing, Develop the West policy. For...

by John Weiss | On 17 Feb 2011

Solutions exist

The press (including this newspaper) has been screaming blue murder about the spectrum scandal from the time it was perpetrated in broad daylight, nearly three years ago. Not only did nothing happen,...

by T.N. Ninan | On 10 Feb 2011

Decentralization, Corruption, and Government Accountability: An Overview

The impact of government decentralization on economic performance and growth is a hotly contested issue. Waves of decentralization occurred in many developing countries over the past few decades, fo...

by Pranab Bardhan | On 10 Feb 2011

India and the Civil War in Sri Lanka:   On the Failures of   Regional Conflict Management in South Asia 

The  paper  provides  an  assessment  of  India’s  role  in  the  final  years  of  the  civil  war  in  Sri  Lanka  (2003‐2009).  In  particular,  it  looks  for  explanations  for  India’s  in...

by Sandra Destradi | On 10 Feb 2011

Moving from Them to Us: Challenges in Reframing Violence Among Youth

This paper describes framing and the challenges particular to the context of violence prevention, with the goal of moving youth violence from being understood primarily as a criminal justice issue dea...

by Lawrence Wallack | On 09 Feb 2011

Privstization in a Small Open Economy with Imperfect Competition

Privatization is analysed in a general equilibrium model of a small, tariff-distorted, open economy. There is a differentiated good produced by both private and public sector enterprises. A reductio...

by Arghya Ghosh | On 04 Feb 2011

Cost-effectiveness Assessment of Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Options: A Proposed Methodology

The World Bank has been requested by the government of India to undertake a study, “Strategies for Low Carbon Growth.” The study considers different options for low-carbon growth trajectories to fis...

by Ministry of Environment and Forest | On 03 Feb 2011

Transperancy in Government Procurement

While in their purchase operations, as in all other activities, governments endeavour to maximize the use of scarce financial resources, the 'cost minimising objective underlying competitive bidding r...

by Anwarul Hoda | On 03 Feb 2011

Russia’s Quasi-Sovereign Debt: A Sizeable Contingent Liability

An overview of corporate and quasi-sovereign debt in Russia is provided. Fiscal sustainability in Russia in a broader framework analysed. Scenarios for public debt developments until 2020, also taking...

by Maria Arakelyan | On 31 Jan 2011

Conflict Resolution through Mutuality: Lessons from Bayesian Updating

If priors are deterministic (zero or unity) and conditional evidence is uncertain (lies between zero and one) then Bayesian updating will lead to posteriors that are the same as priors. This in a sen...

by Srijit Mishra | On 31 Jan 2011

Central-Bank Government Relationship in the Context of Emerging Economic Environment

This is a analysis of relationship between the Central Bank of Sir Lanka and the Sri lankan Government. It views the relationship in context of emerging economic environment and global economy.

by P. B. Jauasundera | On 30 Jan 2011

Rethinking the Policy Objectives of Development Aid: From Economic Growth to Conflict Prevention

The current consensus objective of development aid in the international community is to reduce poverty in general and to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in particular. In addition,...

by Sakiko Fukuda- Parr | On 21 Jan 2011

Postconflict Countries: Strategy for Rebuilding Fiscal Institutions

This paper reviews the challenges and experiences in rebuilding fiscal institutions in postconflict environments, based on advice from the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department to selected countries. Th...

by Sanjeev Gupta | On 20 Jan 2011

Rethinking Food Security Strategy: Self-sufficiency or Self-reliance

This Policy Brief discusses whether Bangladesh should continue to pursue a national food security strategy based on self-reliance or return to its earlier policy of food self-sufficiency through ...

by Uttam Kumar Deb | On 17 Jan 2011

Socioeconomic Divides in Tuberculosis Control: Study of Smear-Positive TB Prevalence, Care Seeking Behaviour and Role of Informal Healthcare Providers

The Government of Bangladesh (GoB) has intensified the implementation of the directly observed treatment, short-course (DOTS) strategy with the primary aims (i) to detect and treat at least 70% of T...

by Fazlul Karim | On 12 Jan 2011

The Disinterested Government: An Interpretation of China’s Economic Success in the Reform Era

In the last 30 years, China has achieved high economic growth and successfully transformed its economy from a planned economy to a market-based system. The country, to a large extent, has attaine...

by Yang Yao | On 10 Jan 2011

Exploring Changes in the Lives of the Ultra Poor: An Exploratory Study on CFPR/TUP Members

Since January 2002, BRAC has started a new experimental programme for the ultra poor called, ‘Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction/Targeting the Ultra Poor’ (CFPR/TUP). This programme targ...

by Imran Matin | On 10 Jan 2011

Pentavalent and other New Combination Vaccines: Solutions in Search of Problems

The pentavalent vaccine and many other combination vaccines waiting to enter Universal immunization Programme (UIP) have brought into sharp focus the gaping gap between lofty slogans of ‘evidence ba...

by Y Madhavi | On 05 Jan 2011

Transforming Conflict with an Economic Dividend: The Sri Lankan Experience

Peace can generate an economic dividend, which can be further increased by appropriate economic reform. This dividend can in turn be used to raise popular support for conflict resolution measures...

by Saman Kelegama | On 31 Dec 2010

Possession and Usage of Insecticidal Bed Nets among the People of Uganda: Is BRAC Uganda Health Programme Pursuing a Pro-Poor Path?

The use of insecticidal bed nets is found to be an effective public health tool for control of malaria, especially for under-five children and pregnant women. BRAC, an indigenous Bangladeshi non-gove...

by Syed Masud Ahmed | On 31 Dec 2010

Responding to Violence Against Women: Role of Health Care Providers

Report of a training workshop for health care providers on responding to violence organised by the Centre for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes (CEHAT), Mumbai.

by Yavnika Tanwar | On 28 Dec 2010

Is Tibet Entitled to Self Determination?

The purpose of this article is to explore whether Tibet can be said to have a right to self-determination under international law. [CCPL Occasional Paper No. 18]

by Paul Harris | On 21 Dec 2010

Group-Oriented Values, Rules and Cooperation

This paper uses a game-theoretic framework to explain how collectivist values hamper societies’ efforts to elicit cooperation in inter-group games of prisoners’ dilemma (PD) and draws on the resul...

by Ke-young Chu | On 15 Dec 2010

Capability Traps? The Mechanisms of Persistent Implementation Failure

Many countries remain stuck in conditions of low productivity that many call “poverty traps.” Economic growth is only one aspect of development; another key dimension of development is the expansion...

by Lant Pritchett | On 15 Dec 2010

The Future of Financial Liberalization in South Asia

The paper defines financial liberalization, distinguishing between liberalization of domestic financial markets and capital account convertibility. It then examines the stages and the strategy of Ind...

by Ashima Goyal | On 14 Dec 2010

Parliament Session Wrap: Winter Session – November 09 to December 13, 2010

List of Bills passed, withdrawn, introcuced and pending during the Winter Session

by Kusum Malik | On 14 Dec 2010

Preventing Odious Obligations: A New Tool for Protecting Citizens from Illegitimate Regimes

This report sets out a way to prevent an all-too-common form of theft from some of the world’s poorest people. An illegitimate, unelected regime signs a contract with a foreign agent, handing ov...

by Centre for Global Development | On 10 Dec 2010

Five Years of NRHM 2005-2010

Health is a State subject and the Government of India has always tried to work in partnership with states to meet people's needs. As the report will indicate, it is through this partnership with const...

by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare H & FW | On 08 Dec 2010

Credibility and Reputationin Peacemaking

The paper analyses credibility and reputation in the context of peace negotiations. Where war provides economic gains to one side, peace is not incentive compatible, and peace agreements will necess...

by Tony Addison | On 08 Dec 2010

Kuttanad Development Project: An Economic Evaluation

This paper attempts an economic evaluation of the Kuttanad Development Project (henceforth referred to as KDP) whioh is part of an overall programme of the Government of Kerala to augment the Produ...

by K. P. Kannan | On 07 Dec 2010

Transparency and Corruption: Does E-Government Help?

Through its pioneering surveys in recent years, the Transparency International (TI) has tried to gauge the extent of corruption in different countries, identify Government departments where corruption...

by Prof. Subhash Bhatnagar | On 06 Dec 2010

Egovernment: Lessons from Implementation in Developing Countries

E-government applications from a large number of developing countries are reviewed. Different models of electronic delivery of services are compared. Delivery through conveniently located service cent...

by Prof. Subhash Bhatnagar | On 06 Dec 2010

Composite Indices of Human Well-being: Past, Present, and Future

This paper surveys the various composite well-being indices that have been inter-country assessments over the last 40 or soy ears, including the well known Human Development Index (HDI). A number of...

by Mark McGillivray | On 03 Dec 2010

'Slippage': The Bane of Rural Drinking Water Sector (A Study of Extent and Causes in Andhra Pradesh)

Slippage is one of the main bottlenecks of achieving full coverage of water and sanitation services in India. This paper makes an attempt to identify the causes of slippage in a systematic manner. T...

by V. Ratna Reddy | On 02 Dec 2010

Census of Castes

The present system of making Census has many advantages such as, taking stock of Indian situation with detailed data regarding the wide diversity of our people and the finding of conditions of life ha...

by Rajesh Komath | On 01 Dec 2010

Getting Infrastructure Priorities Right in Post-Conflict Reconstruction

In this paper, an attempt is made to identify some key challenges for infrastructure sectors in post-conflict reconstruction. In spite of the Hague and Geneva Conventions, infrastructure can be da...

by P. B. Anand | On 01 Dec 2010

Does Inequality lead to Conflict?

This paper presents a simple model to show how distributional concerns can engender social conflict. They have a two period model, where the cost of conflict is endogenous in the sense that partie...

by Indranil Dutta | On 01 Dec 2010

Economic Agendas in Civil Wars: What We Know, What We Need to Know

The political economy of civil wars has acquired unprecedented scholarly and policy attention. Among others, the International Peace Academy’s programme on Economic Agendas in Civil Wars (EACW) ha...

by David M Malone | On 26 Nov 2010

From Conflict to Reconstruction: Reviving the Social Contract

Contemporary civil wars are rooted in a partial or complete breakdown of the social contract, often involving disputes over public spending, resource revenues, and taxation. A feasible social contra...

by Tony Addison | On 23 Nov 2010

Issues in Real Estate and Urban Management – A Note

This note raise many policy issues related to real estate and the urban sector. Urban issues and the very high cost of real estate in India have deep rooted problems that have their origin in the po...

by Sebastian Morris | On 22 Nov 2010

From Conflict to Reconstruction

Governments frequently compartmentalize issues of reform and reconstruction into separate strategies and separate ministries (the fate of poverty reduction as well). Donors do likewise, for each has i...

by Tony Addison | On 19 Nov 2010

Gulf Migration Study: Employment, Wages and Working Conditions of Kerala Emigrants in the United Arab Emirates

This is the fourth in a series of Working Papers published by the CDS on Kerala migration. Unlike the other three, this one is financed by the Kerala Government and the data were collected in UAE. ...

by K. C. Zachariah | On 18 Nov 2010

Global Determinants of Stress and Risk in Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) in Infrastructure

This study analyzes the determinants of stress in public-private partnerships (PPPs) in infrastructure investment. While project failures seldom occur, there are many stresses that hinder success. O...

by Renato E. Reside, Jr. | On 27 Oct 2010

Private Financing Firms in Karnataka: A Boon for Tax Dodgers

The growth of government financial institutions in India both in terms of number of branches and quantum of credit has been impressive, especially in the post-blank nationalisation period. [Working Pa...

by D. Rajasekhar | On 23 Oct 2010

Agricultural Development of Kerela from 1800 AD to 1980 AD: A Survey of Studies

This paper attempts to survey the published literature on agricultural development of Kerala covering a period between 1800 AD and 1980 AD. The Survey covers both academic studies as well as governme...

by B.A. Prakash | On 18 Oct 2010

A Campaign for No UID-Till Complete Transparency, Accountability and People’s Participation

A press conference was arranged which was against the Unique Identity Card (UID) project of Government of India. The panel discussed about the project that the potential to transform the state-citize...

by Shambhu Ghatak | On 08 Oct 2010

Transparency in Government Procurement

While in their purchase operations, as in all other activities, governments endeavour to maximise the use of scarce financial resources. Some of these objectives are to promote the development of a do...

by Anwarul Hoda | On 07 Oct 2010

Aid to Fragile States: Do Donors Help or Hinder?

The record of aid to fragile and poorly-performing states is the real test of aid effectiveness. Rich countries can justify aid to fragile states both through altruism and self-interest. But, wit...

by Stephen Browne | On 06 Oct 2010

Developing Asia’s Competitive Advantage in Green Products: Learning from the Japanese Experience

Right now, governments around the world are spending record amounts of money to kick- start their economies in response to the financial crisis. Fortunately, a great opportunity exists for this fis...

by Fukuya Lino | On 06 Oct 2010

Chronic Poverty and Social Conflict in Bihar

Chronic poverty trends cannot be examined without considering the impact of various social conflicts afflicting a region. It is true that all forms of poverty cannot be explained by conflicts as much...

by N.R. Mohanty | On 04 Oct 2010

Who Are the MDG Trailblazers? A New MDG Progress Index

In September, world leaders will assemble in New York to review progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Ahead of the ensuing discussions, we examine how individual countries are fari...

by Benjamin Leo | On 29 Sep 2010

The Role of the State in Managing and Forestalling Systemic Financial Crises: Some Issues and Perspectives

This paper reviews recent state interventions in financial crises and draws lessons for crisis management. A number of areas are identified where crisis management could be strengthened, including...

by Charles Adams | On 29 Sep 2010

Debt Policy in a Competitive Two-Sector Overlapping Generations Model

In this paper debt policy in a two-period, two-sector overlapping generations model with Leontief technologies has been analysed. It has been found that debt, issued to transfer resources to the initi...

by Partha Sen | On 28 Sep 2010

Fiscal Policy Issues for India after the Global Financial Crisis (2008–2010)

The need for fiscal consolidation and sustainability is one of the key macroeconomic issues confronting Indian economy. This paper attempts to understand India’s current fiscal situation, its likely f...

by Rajiv Kumar | On 28 Sep 2010

HANTEX: An Economic Appraisal

Most Governments in the Third World Countries have actively promoted cooperatives in the traditional sectors of the economy with a view to overcome the diseconomies of small size. Characterised as the...

by Mridul Eapen | On 27 Sep 2010

The Government of Chronic Poverty: From Exclusion to Citizenship?

Development trustees have increasingly sought to challenge chronic poverty by promoting citizenship amongst poor people, a move that frames citizenship formation as central to overcoming the exclusion...

by Sam Hickey | On 24 Sep 2010

Act, Support and Protect: South Asia Forum for Ending Violence Against Children

Seven girls and five boys from six countries in South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Maldives,Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) took part in the Regional Children's Consultation for the first South Asia...

by Ravi Karkara | On 21 Sep 2010

Policy Intervention and Response: A Study of the Pharmaceutical Industry in India during the Last Decade

The pharmaceutical industry in India has provoked much debate and sharp criticism, on account of its insensitivity towards the health needs of the Indian people. The vulnerability of the indu...

by P. Mohanan Pillai | On 20 Sep 2010

Determinants of Weekly Yields on Government Securities in India

This paper examines the determinants of the Government yields in India using weekly data from April 2001 through March 2009. The analysis covers Treasury Bills with residual maturity of 15-91 day...

by Pami Dua | On 13 Sep 2010

The Evolution of Singapore Business: A Case Study Approach

This volume contains summaries of 12 case studies for three categories of business organisations defined by ownership, i.e. foreign, state and (local) private. The case studies explore the history a...

by Anisha Sabhlok | On 06 Sep 2010

Roof above the head - A qualitative assessment of rural housing in India

This paper is based on a set of village visits carried out by the authors as part of a study on rural housing sponsored by Holcim Limited. The views expressed here are those of the authors. [Working...

by Shashanka Bhide | On 03 Aug 2010

European Views on Asia and Europe-Asian Relations

This paper examines in its first part, the views of leading European academics, politicians, lobbyists and opinion-makers on the issue of relations with Asia. The second part of this paper looks at...

by Venil Ramiah | On 29 Jul 2010

Private Sector in the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme: A Study of the Implementation of Private-Public Partnership Strategy in Tamil Nadu and Kerala (India)

During the past one decade, the concept of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) has gained much prominence in healthcare sector in India. The foremost objective of such partnerships has been to improve th...

by Vangal R Muraleedharan | On 23 Jul 2010

Big Industry Before Independence: 1860-1950

The world over, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, private sector units were of a laissez-faire variety i.e., the private sector was completely free of state interference. Private enterprise...

by Anupriya Singhal | On 16 Jul 2010

The Unsupportable Support Price : The Government in Paddy Auctions of Northern India

In consonance with the global trend of redefining the role of the government in developing and transition economies from producer to facilitator, there is today a lively debate in India on governm...

by J.V. Meenakshi | On 07 Jul 2010

Licenses to Open a School: It’s All About Money

In Delhi, 14 lakh children are out of school. So why is there a shortfall in the supply of schools? Does the government help to better the situation? Why or Why not? In the light of these mind-boggl...

by Mayank Wadhwa | On 07 Jul 2010

Why is Dead DEDA Still Alive?

The paper discuses and analyzes the present state of affairs of the Delhi Energy Development Agency (DEDA).

by Arjun Bhattacharya | On 30 Jun 2010

Kisan Credit Card

Provision of timely and adequate credit has been one of the major challenges for banks in India in dispensation of agricultural and rural credit to the farmers. Constant innovation is required in or...

by Danish Faruqui | On 24 Jun 2010

Public Works Department Delhi Government

Public Works Department is engaged in planning, designing, construction and maintenance of government assets in the field of built environment and infrastructure development. This paper talks about...

by Sabith Ullah Khan | On 16 Jun 2010

Street Vendors: Exploitation by the State

Street vendors are those millions of people who come to cities as economic refugees hoping to provide basic necessities for their families.They are the main distribution channels for a large variety...

by Shailly Arora | On 15 Jun 2010

Wine Industry in Maharashtra: An Analysis

Two of the countryʹs biggest grape-producing districts, Nasik and Sangli, are in Maharashtra; 20,000 hectares of vineyards here grow more than one lac tons of grapes a year. As much as 99 per ce...

by Sudipto Mitra | On 15 Jun 2010

“It’s Only a Theory”: Science, Religion and Attitudes Toward Evolution

The controversy over evolution is a long standing one in American politics. The issue is often depicted as a conflict between science and religion. In this paper the effects of confidence in science a...

by Linda A Lockett | On 10 Jun 2010

Agricultural Development for Peace

Agricultural development can contribute significantly to peace by raising incomes and employment, thereby reducing the social frustrations that give rise to violence. Agricultural growth also gene...

by Tony Addison | On 10 Jun 2010

HIV Counselling, Testing And Referrel Services in Mental Health Care Settings in Kolkata- A Provider Perspective

The main objective f this paper id to assess the adherence of and barriers to HIV counseling, testing and referral services on the part of the providers.

by Arupkumar Chakrabartty | On 04 Jun 2010

Koi Bhookha Na Soye

A report of the workshop ‘Koi Bhookha Na Soye’ was held at the Gandhi Peace Foundation on 14th and 15th of May, 2010.

by Shambhu Ghatak | On 03 Jun 2010

Civil Conflict and Human Capital Accumulation: The Long Term Effects of Political Violence in Perú

This paper provides empirical evidence of the long- and short-term effects of political violence exposure on human capital accumulation. Using a novel data set that registers all the violent acts an...

by Gianmarco Leon | On 27 May 2010

Debt Policy and Economic Growth in a Small Open Economy Model with Productive Government Spending

In this paper, the effects of introducing constraints on government borrowing have been examined by using a continuous-time overlapping generations model of a small open economy. Government placing co...

by Koichi Futagami | On 27 May 2010

Urban Governance and Finance in India

Over 330 million people live in India’s cities; 35 cities have a population of over a million and three (Mumbai, Delhi, and Kolkata) of the 10 largest metropolises in the world are in India. India’s...

by M. Govinda Rao | On 21 May 2010

OTC Derivatives Market in India: Recent Regulatory Initiatives and Open Issues for Market Stability and Development

The paper seeks to prove the point that the Indian OTC derivatives markets, unlike many other jurisdictions, are well regulated. Only contracts where one party to the contract is an RBI regulated e...

by Dayanand Arora | On 03 May 2010

Commonwealth Games 2010: Displacement of Persons

This research paper analyses Government policy with regard to Jhuggi-Jhopri clusters- a particular type of housing present in Delhi. These colonies are perceived to be illegal by the Government. Wit...

by Eshaan Puri | On 13 Apr 2010

North East: Fallen off the Media Map?

Report from the 11th Media Dialogue ’North East: Fallen off the Media Map? or Why Does the Media Give so Lettle Space to this Vast Region?

by Shambhu Ghatak | On 07 Apr 2010

State Aid and Competition in Banking: The Case of China in the Late Nineties

A reduced form model where banks can pursue other goals than profit maximization is presented. This allows us to test for behavioral changes of banks over time. This model provides a framework to e...

by Xiaoqiang Cheng | On 23 Feb 2010

Globalisation Lived Locally: New Forms of Control, Conflict and Response Among Labour in Kerala, Examined Through a Labour Geography Lens

With the support of the labour geography framework, this study tries to analyse how the economic geography of capitalism is shaped by the spatial practices of labour. The model that is taken up is n...

by Neethi P | On 22 Feb 2010

India's Public Finances: Do They Matter

India’s general government deficits and public debt have remained high despite faster economic growth in recent years and periodic attempts to instil greater fiscal discipline. Modest fiscal tighten...

by Paul Rawkins | On 04 Feb 2010

Understanding Industrial Energy Use: Physical Energy Intensity Changes in Indian Manufacturing Sector

Physical energy intensity indicators for Indian manufacturing sector is developed and analyzed. Energy consumption in five industrial sub-sectors, namely, iron and steel, aluminium, textiles, paper...

by Binay Kumar Ray | On 02 Feb 2010

Dilli Sarkar’s Advertisement Expenditure: Information or Publicity?

To find out whether our government is spending an astronomical amount of taxpayer’s money publicising itself rather than disseminating information, facts and figures were assimilated. By tracking f...

by Kumar Gaurav | On 29 Jan 2010

Assessing the Fiscal Capacity of Indian Governments

The record of different post reform governments in meeting their targets and improving both delivery and finances is assessed. A variety of indices are constructed, and consistency checks devised to m...

by Ashima Goyal | On 27 Jan 2010

Working with Existing Systems: Lessons from INHP

Engaging and strengthening the ICDS and Health programs of the government was a major approach of the two component projects under the RACHNA program, INHP-II and Chayan. Of the two, the INHP interve...

by CARE India | On 24 Dec 2009

Re-Activating Primary Health Centres Through Industrial Partnership in Tamilnadu Is it a Sustainable Model of Partnership?

Kerala’s success in human development demonstrated that efficient functioning of government health care delivery system opens the doors of prosperity for the poor and vulnerable sections of the popu...

by Varatharajan D | On 21 Dec 2009

Fuel for the Clean Energy Debate – A Study of Fuelwood Collection and Purchase in Rural India

In many parts of rural India the use of wood for fuel is the cause of significant environmental and health problems. Efforts to help people switch to cleaner fuels have not been effective and fuelwood...

by ARABINDA MISHRA | On 18 Dec 2009

Delivering (sustainable) Services on Scale : Anywhere

This paper addresses issues related to public private partnerships that can enable delivery of comprehensive health care to rural communities.

by Prachi Shukla | On 25 Nov 2009

Post-Conflict Recovery: Does the Global Economy Work for Peace?

This paper mainly addresses the economic dimensions, concentrating on the importance of international trade to state-building and the need for global public goods in a global market economy. The focu...

by Tony Addison | On 23 Nov 2009

No One Barked

No reponse form the policies that the government is announcing

by T.N. Ninan | On 20 Nov 2009

From Income to Urban Contest in Global Settings: Chronic Poverty in Bangalore

The paper is a research which studies the government policies and agendas that affect the poor in India. For the research 8 to 10 families, who had been intervened several years ago were re-interviewe...

by Solomon Benjamin | On 16 Nov 2009

The Chinese Aid System

Questions about Chinese aid—how large it is and how fast it is growing; how decisions are made on how much aid is provided each year; which countries receive it and how much they get; how the aid is m...

by Carol Lancaster | On 10 Nov 2009

The Sexual Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Prevention and Redressal) Bill, 2007: A Critique

Before 1997, women experiencing sexual harassment at workplace had to lodge a complaint under Indian Penal Code, 1860, ss. 354 and 509. But the Supreme Court, applying Convention on the Elimination...

by Mahalaxmi Tiwary | On 09 Nov 2009

Public Pain, Private Gain

If a private sector partner goes wrong on business assumptions, it should not be the government or the consumer who pays

by T.N. Ninan | On 09 Nov 2009

Institutional and Economic Perspectives on Government Capacity to Assume New Roles in the Health Sector: a Review of Experience

This review paper provides the background to research that will take place in four country case-studies to examine these issues. A key focus of this paper concerns government's capacity to fulfil the...

by Sara Bennett | On 09 Nov 2009

2 headaches, 1 solution

The government simply has to find a way to deliver the basics. That is what will defeat the Maoists and hold off China.

by T.N. Ninan | On 27 Oct 2009

Financing the Panchayati Raj Institutions: Flagging Some Issues For The 13th CFC

The Finances of the PRIs are looked into. The role of 13th Finance Commission is explained. Some ‘learnings’ from International experience is given.

by Abhay Pethe | On 15 Oct 2009

Coping with Rising Food Prices: Policy Dilemmas in the Developing World

Rising food prices cause considerable policy dilemmas for developing country governments. Letting domestic prices adjust to reflect the full change in international prices generates inflationary pres...

by Nora Lustig | On 09 Oct 2009

Assessing the Impact of Fiscal Policy on Poverty

Fiscal policy measures are a key means by which governments can influence distribution and poverty, but in fact the relationships between fiscal policy and poverty are not well understood. The most c...

by Andrew McKay | On 05 Oct 2009

Dual Practice by Public Health Providers in Shandong and Sichuan Provinces, China

Private practice in the health sector was re-introduced from 1980, when China began its economic reform from a planned economy to a market economy. But today the total number of private sector provide...

by Ying Bian | On 30 Sep 2009

Chronic Poverty and Development Policy in Sri Lanka: Overview Study

The present study attempts to capture chronic poverty in Sri Lanka by examining general information on poverty and drawing conclusions on those who are likely to be among the chronic poor. Certain p...

by Indra Tudawe | On 17 Sep 2009

Do Remittances Impact the Economy? Some Empirical Evidences from A Developing Economy

The study attempts to examine the impact of remittances on macroeconomic activities (private consumption and investment) and its implications on economic growth in India for the period from 1966-67 to...

by Hrushikesh Mallick | On 01 Sep 2009

End of the Recession

The best economic news of the past two years can be that the worst recession in 80 years may be over.

by T.N. Ninan | On 31 Aug 2009

WCD Thematic Review V.2:Contributing Paper: Environmental and Social Impact Assessment for Large Dams -Thematic Review from the Point of View of Developing Countries

It presents an overview of the theme based on the author’s experience on EIA in developing countries. In many of these countries, a holistic approach has been adopted to EIA requiring the consideratio...

by Iara Verocai | On 31 Aug 2009

A Simple Model of the Financial Crisis of 2007-9 with Implications for the Design of a Stimulus Package

The financial crisis of 2007-09 began as a local problem in the mortgage finance market in the United States and Europe but, within months, escalated into a general global financial crisis, resulting...

by Kaushik Basu | On 17 Aug 2009

Swine Flu Casts its Spell across the Globe

The swine flu has come to India also. What measures have been taken by the government to fight against the pandemic?

by Rajeev Mavani | On 12 Aug 2009

Restoring the Asian Silk Route: Toward an Integrated Asia

Lack of full regional connectivity is one of the major constraints hindering regional growth and integration in Asia, as well as with the rest of the world. One of the conclusions of this paper is tha...

by Biswa N Bhattacharyay | On 11 Aug 2009

“Group Measurement” of NREGA work: The Jalore Experiment

The paper takes a closer look at an experiment of NREGA training mates (worksite supervisors) in Rajasthan to improve worksite management. It is based on a four-day field visit (11-14 February, 2008)...

by Reetika Khera | On 05 Aug 2009

Peasant Classes, Farm Incomes and Rural Indebtedness: An Analysis of Household Production Data from Two States

The paper attempts to appraise the extent of the constraint of credit relations on agricultural production and its differential impact across peasant classes. Additionally, the analysis of the structu...

by Arindam Banerjee | On 04 Aug 2009

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill, 2008

A bill to provide for free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years.

by Parliamentary Research Service PRS | On 27 Jul 2009

Self-help Co-operatives, Deposit Mobilisation and Supply of Credit

The paper is aimed at exploring as to how such co-operatives (i) function and deal with members while delivering micro finance; (ii) mobilise funds, and (iii) get shaped and reshape the contents of me...

by Gagan Bihari Sahu | On 09 Jul 2009

Key Features of Budget 2009-2010

Key features of budget presented by the Finance Minister

by Pranab Mukherjee | On 06 Jul 2009

Report of the Internal Working Group on Debt Management

Establishing a debt management office would consolidate all debt management functions in a single agency, and be the catalyst for wider institutional reform and transparency about public debt. It is i...

by Ministry of Finance | On 04 Jul 2009

Emerging Contours of Financial Regulation: Challenges and Dynamics

The paper attempts to analyse the emerging contours of regulation of financial institutions with an emphasis on the emerging challenges and dynamics. [Paper prepared for Financial Stability Review of...

by Rakesh Mohan | On 29 Jun 2009

Sal Seeds, an Untapped Resource in India

Sal seeds could provide effective livelihoods support for poor people when few alternative natural resource based strategies are available

by Sanjoy Patnaik | On 23 Jun 2009

Basic Infrastructure for a Nuclear Power Project

This publication was produced as a direction to increase the capability of Member States to plan and implement nuclear power programmes and to establish and enhance national nuclear infrastructure....

by International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA | On 19 Jun 2009

Drug Regulation in the Philippines

Access to essential drugs is vital for the promotion of better health for the entire population. High prices of drugs are being used as an argument for greater government role in the drugs sector thro...

by Allan Grand A. Sobrepeña | On 16 Jun 2009

Subnational Taxes in Developing Countries: The Way Forward

It is critical to emphasize that intergovernmental fiscal relations must be thought of as a system and that all the pieces in the system must fit together if decentralization is to work properly. Vari...

by Richard.M. Bird | On 16 Jun 2009

Climate Change and Youth and/in Local Governments

Can young people help to increase awareness about climate change and its impacts working through local bodies? A perceptive and informative presentation by the UN-HABITAT Youth Advisory Board Member a...

by John Anugraha | On 15 Jun 2009

Goods and Services Tax for India

The paper contours of a feasible design of VAT in India. It also takes on board the various alternatives proposed. It looks at the issues that need resolution and the options available for resolving t...

by R.Kavita Rao | On 12 Jun 2009

Risk Management in the Midst of the Global Financial Crisis

The global economy is passing through its deepest financial and economic crisis of our time. Protecting the Indian economy from the worst impact of the crisis has been a big challenge for the governme...

by D Subbarao | On 08 Jun 2009

Initiatives of NGOs in Kutch Region

Many NGOs occupy a space between public and private sector organisations, and the papers in this special issue demonstrate that the mechanisms required for effective accountability by these NGOs are u...

by Kalpana C Satija | On 06 Jun 2009

The EU-India FTA Critical Considerations in a Time of Crisis

The paper broadly examines the core trade interests of the EU and India, the content of the negotiations and outlines some key concerns of a potential deal for India in the areas of goods, services an...

by Shefali Sharma | On 05 Jun 2009

A Primary Evaluation of Service Delivery under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM): Findings from a Study in Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan

This paper seeks to evaluate quantity and quality of service delivery in rural public health facilities under NRHM. On appropriate and feasible measures, the former is assessed on the static and dynam...

by Kaveri Gill | On 02 Jun 2009

Barso Mhare Des… Children's Perception of Drought

The chronic drought in Rajasthan affects everyone. But people are affected in different ways. This may be because of locality, form of livelihood, caste and class.This report carries the voices of gir...

by ECHO Save the Children (U.K) | On 31 May 2009

Himalayan Journal of Development and Democracy Vol 3:1, 2008

Papers and Proceedings of The Third Annual Himalayan Policy Research ConferenceSession Chairs and Discussants Session 1A: Conflict Resolution and Democratic Transitions Chair: Christopher Can...

by Vijaya R. Sharma | On 19 May 2009

Backward Linkages of Foreign Subsidiaries in Guangdong, China: A Country- of –Origin Analysis

Multinational companies exercise their impact on the economic development of the host countries and regions through Foreign Direct Investments (FDI). The host countries tap the benefits from these FDI...

by Filip De Beule | On 15 May 2009

Agricultural Impact of Climate Change: A General Equilibrium Analysis with Special Reference to Southeast Asia

Capitalizing on the most recent worldwide estimates of the impacts of climate change on agricultural production, this paper assesses the economic effects of climate change for Southeast Asian countrie...

by Fan Zhai | On 14 May 2009

Asia Enters an Era of Strife

The author argues that deep-seated religious conflicts will mar the region's prospects unless nations truly embrace secularism.

by Michael Wesley | On 06 Apr 2009

Tamil Nadu Budget Speech 2009-10

Budget speech by Prof. Anbazhagan

by Tamil Nadu Government | On 24 Feb 2009

Consultation Paper on Licensing Issues Related to Next Generation Networks

Telecom operators in India have initiated their move towards Next Generation Networks (NGN) by implementing IP based core network. In order to identify & address various issues related to Next Gen...

by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India TRAI | On 04 Feb 2009

Planning for Results: The Public Accountability Information System

The paper proposes a Public accountability information system (PAIS), with a web enabled public information system and a smart card recording all the benefits that the poor are entitled to receive thr...

by Arvind Virmani | On 22 Jan 2009

Conflict in Cross Border Mergers: Effect of Firm and Market Size

This paper tries to analyze the interrelationship between possibilities of conflict in cross border mergers and acquisitions and firm and market characteristics in a two country three firm model. Th...

by Poonam Mehra | On 14 Jan 2009

Exploring the Relationship Between Military Spending and Human Rights Performance in South Asia

The relationship between military spending and human rights is one of the most prominent issues in political economy. Yet, the linkage between the two is empirically underdeveloped. Seeking to fulfi...

by Krishna Chaitanya Vadlamannati | On 08 Jan 2009

Indian Railways in the Past Twenty Years Issues, Performance and Challenges

To understand the development process of Indian Railway’s over the past twenty years, the study covers issues and strategies related to financial and physical aspects of revenue generating freight and...

by G. Raghuram | On 06 Jan 2009

Physical Abuse and Adverse Pregnancy Outcome: a Cohort Study

The present study assess association between physical violence during pregnancy and adverse pregnancy outcomes. A cross sectional study using McFarlane's Abuse Assessment Screen (AAS) was done. A syst...

by Dipty Jain | On 06 Jan 2009

Report on the GLobal Financial Crisis and Kerala Economy: Impact and Mitigation Measures

This preliminary report has been prepared with a view to assist the state government in understanding the implications of the crisis, so that appropriate policies and programmes could be chalked to de...

by Centre for Development Studies CDS | On 02 Jan 2009

Development of What? An Exposition of the Politics of Development Economics

The present paper aims at driving home a hitherto-neglected and perhaps often muted (but important) point, namely, that the confusions and identity crisis that had gripped development economics in th...

by Arup Maharatna | On 31 Dec 2008

Government Spending, Trade Openness and Economic Growth in India: A Time Series Analysis

The study examines the impact of aggregate government expenditure and its two broader components such as revenue expenditure and capital expenditure on the growth rate of output in the Indian contex...

by Hrushikesh Mallick | On 22 Dec 2008

The Interface Between Economic Development, Health and Environment in India : An Econometric Investigation

This paper analyses interrelationships between ‘economic development’, ‘health’, and ‘environment’ in a simultaneous equations framework. The endogenous variables chosen for the model are GDPPC (per c...

by A L Nagar | On 17 Dec 2008

Common Guidelines for Watershed Development Projects

This is an initiative by the Planning Commission to formulate “Common Guidelines for Watershed Development Projects in order to have a unified perspective by all ministries.These guidelines are theref...

by Government of India GOI | On 08 Dec 2008

The Impact of Terrorism and Conflicts on Growth in Asia, 1970–2004

This paper quantifies the impact of terrorism and conflicts on income per capita growth in Asia for 1970–2004. Transnational terrorist attacks had a significant growth-limiting effect. An additional t...

by Khusrav Gaibulloev | On 05 Dec 2008

Ensuring ‘Collective Action’ in ‘Participatory’ Forest Management

This paper is based on a qualitative analysis of three case studies, each belonging to one of three types of institutional structures: Self-initiated, NGO-promoted, and Government-sponsored JFM. The b...

by Rucha Ghate | On 14 Nov 2008

World Development Report 2007 Development and the Next Generation

The Report examines five pivotal phases of life that can help unleash the development of young people’s potential with the right government policies: learning, working, staying healthy, forming famili...

by World Bank | On 11 Nov 2008

Impact of Urban Growth on Water Bodies The Case of Hyderabad

This study makes an attempt to analyse the transformation of common property resources (the lakes) into private property. [WP No. 60].

by Ramachandraiah C | On 17 Oct 2008

Heterodox Macroeconomics and the Design of Monetary Institutions

Two agendas of the heterodox economics programme; the stock-flow consistent models pioneered by Wynne Godley, and the monetary circuit approach researched in France and Italy are discussed. The object...

by Romar Correa | On 10 Oct 2008

Gender Justice and Reconciliation

This paper examins how women's experiences of conflict and transition differ to that of men because of inherent gendered power relations and that, as a result women's experiances of violance and need...

by Nahla Valji | On 10 Oct 2008

Deconstructing China’s and India’s Growth: The Role of Financial Policies

This paper uses the standard one-sector neoclassical growth model to investigate why China’s consumption has been low and investment high. This paper looks into the role played by the financial sector...

by Jahangir Aziz | On 07 Oct 2008

Issues Before the Thirteenth Finance Commission

The paper argues that irrespective of the wording of the Terms of Reference (ToR), the Commission would do well to focus on its primary task of recommending transfers to serve the objective of equit...

by M.Govinda Rao | On 06 Oct 2008

Consultation Paper on Media Ownership

The objective of the paperis to obtain the inputs of stakeholders and to generate a discussion on the appropriate policy relating to cross media and ownership restrictions in India. The comments of al...

by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India TRAI | On 03 Oct 2008

Technology Sourcing and Internationalisation of IT firms in India

The paper analyzes the determinants of internationalisation, defined in terms of export intensity and overseas investments, of the IT firms in India. In particular, the paper examines the role of tech...

by Narayanan K | On 01 Oct 2008

Women in the Calcutta Municipal Corporation: A Study in the Context of the Debate on the Women's Reservation Bill

This article presents the findings of a survey conducted in 2000 in the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC), where quotas – 33 per cent of seats - for women have been implemented since 1995. [CSH Oc...

by Stephanie Tawa Lema-Rewal | On 30 Sep 2008

Pollution Across Chinese Provinces

The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis is revisited using 1987-1995 data for Chinese provinces.

by Catherine Yap Co | On 29 Sep 2008

Goa Musings: Mining

Men who will stop the water: vignettes from Goa's mining heartland

by Hartman de Souza | On 26 Sep 2008

Report on the Fact Finding Mission to the North & East of Sri-Lanka to Asses the State of Displaced Persons

This report on the state of displaced persons in the North and East of Sri Lanka analyses the security conditon and concerns of those who live in makeshifts and camps in conflict affected areas. It pr...

by South Asians for Human Rights SAHR | On 25 Sep 2008

Kandhamal Massacres: Where is the State? Central Government of India must stop the killings

Over 50 persons, mainly Christians, have been killed since the Hindu fundamentalists launched an attack on the Christians following the murder of four members of the VHP including 90 year old Laxmanan...

by Asian Centre for Human Rights ACHR | On 22 Sep 2008

Sri Laka Budget Speech

2008 Budget presented by His Excellency the President Mahinda Rajapaksa

by Ministry of Finance and Planning Sri Lanka | On 18 Sep 2008

Food Processing in Andhra Pradesh Opportunities and Challenges

The study is taken up in the state of Andhra Pradesh with the following objectives: 1. To study the opportunities and challenges in processing of rice, fruits and vegetables, oilseeds and livestock...

by S.Mahendra Dev | On 17 Sep 2008

India's Climate Change Policy and Trade Concerns: Issues, Barriers and Solutions

This study assesses the Five Year Plans and relevant government policies adopted to garner India's climate change goals and priorities. It attempts to highlight key climate change concerns from a brie...

by Centre for Trade and Development CENTAD | On 17 Sep 2008

A Better Childhood: Case Studies onChild Labour

Child labour is seen in every corner of the street in India, they are everywhere, they are visible. It is a very complex socio -economic problem and it definitely will be a burden of the growth of Ind...

by Theodora Lee | On 11 Sep 2008

The Naxals get lethal: Chhattisgarh continues to be the epicenter of the conflict

Chhattisgarh continues to be the epicenter of the Naxalite conflict as a direct consequence of the counter-insurgency Salwa Judum campaign. There have been credible reports of serious human rights vio...

by Asian Centre for Human Rights ACHR | On 18 Aug 2008

WCD Thematic Review 1.3:Social Aspects: Contributing Paper: Displacement, Resettlement, Rehabilitation, Reparation and Development

This paper seeks primarily to establish some benchmarks for policy and law for displacement and rehabilitation in India. It will do this by looking briefly at the actual experience of displacement due...

by Ravi Hemadri | On 14 Aug 2008

Fighting Drugs and Building Peace: Towards Policy Coherence between Counter-Narcotics and Peace Building

Over the past years, increasing attention to how “lootable” natural resources fund armed conflict has spurred the development of innovative policies and mechanisms, like the Kimberly Process – a dia...

by Barnett R. Rubin | On 14 Aug 2008

Impact of Proposed Commodity Transaction Tax

The relationship between trading activity, volatility and transaction cost using a three-equation structural model for five top selected commodities namely Gold, Copper, Petroleum Crude, Soya Oil and...

by Pravakar Sahoo | On 07 Aug 2008

A Human Rights Commission Must Have Effective Powers

Ratification imposes specific obligations on a state to incorporate human rights into national laws, to amend legislation, to promote, protect and fulfill human rights and prevent violations of huma...

by South Asians for Human Rights SAHR | On 31 Jul 2008

Managing Capital Flows: The Case of India

From the early 1990s, India embarked on easing capital controls. Liberalization emphasised openness towards equity flows, both FDI and portfolio flows. In particular, there are few barriers in the fa...

by Ajay Shah | On 24 Jul 2008

Between Citizens and Institutions: The Dyamics of the Integration of Water Supply and Sanitation Services in Hyderabad

The purpose of this study is to review the changes that have taken place recently in water supply and sanitation services and examine the role of various stakeholders involved in urban governance in...

by Agnes Huchon | On 15 Jul 2008

Constitutionalising Panchayats: The Response of State Legislatures

This article is an attempt to look at debates in the light of the Assemblies' tryst with panchayats. It should be noted that it is not an evaluation of what transpired in the state Assemblies. In view...

by Girish Kumar | On 03 Jul 2008

Nuclear non-proliferation from Gulf Perspective.

The GCC states ((Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and UAE) have embarked on establishing a civilian nuclear programme solely for peaceful proposes. However, the actual nature of the programm...

by Nicole Stracke | On 04 Jun 2008

Children’s Perception of Sarkar: A Critique of Civics Textbooks

Where do we locate the value of political education in our country, which has largely been imparted under the category of civics? Since textbooks are on possible site for finding answers, this study...

by Alex M. George | On 29 May 2008

Report on SAHR Fact Finding Mission to the North and East of Sri Lanka to Assess the State of Displaced Persons

This report on the state of displaced persons in the North and East of Sri Lanka analyses the security condition and concerns of those who live in makeshifts and camps in conflict affected areas. It p...

by South Asians for Human Rights SAHR | On 11 Apr 2008

Tamil Nadu Budget 2008-09

Speech of Prof. K. Anbazhagan, Minister for Finance, Government of Tamil Nadu, presenting the Budget for 2008-2009 to the Legislative Assembly on 20th March, 2008.

by Tamil Nadu Government | On 25 Mar 2008

ICT and Employment Promotion Among Poor Women: How Can We Make It Happen? Some Reflections On Kerala's Experience

This paper deals with the integration of gender in policies relating to information and communication technology to empower socially excluded poor women as producers of this technology. In this contex...

by Mohanan Pillai P | On 25 Mar 2008

A short critique of the Stern Review

The Stern Review (2006) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assert that the greenhouse problem can be solved at a negligible cost. this articls details the argument that both th...

by Ted Trainer | On 17 Mar 2008

A Sugar Policy for India Comment on D R Gadgil

D.R. Gadgil, wrote at length about the need for a long-term sugar policy and its efficient implementation is needed in India. What is the current relevance of his ideas?

by Aparna Mitheel Jaikar | On 13 Mar 2008

Scaling up a Reproductive Health Curriculum In Youth Training Courses

Considering the reproductive health information and service needs of adolescents and youth, the Population Council’s Frontiers in Reproductive Health (FRONTIERS) Program, in collaboration with the Min...

by Laila Rahman | On 12 Mar 2008

Andhra Pradesh Budget 2008-09

SPEECH OF SRI K. ROSAIAH, HONOURABLE FINANCE MINISTER WHILE PRESENTING THE BUDGET FOR THE YEAR 2008-09 TO THE ANDHRA PRADESH STATE LEGISLATURE.

by Government Andhra Pradesh | On 10 Mar 2008

Kerala Budget Speech 2008-09

Budget speech 2008-09 by Finance Minister Dr. Thomas Issac

by Government of Kerala Govt | On 07 Mar 2008

Key Features of Budget 2008-2009

Budget presented by Finance Minister

by P Chidambaram | On 29 Feb 2008

The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2007

The Bill seeks to amend the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961.

by Parliamentary Research Service PRS | On 28 Feb 2008

Introducing the Railway Budget 2008-2009

Speech of Lalu Prasad

by Lalu Prasad | On 27 Feb 2008

The Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2007

A bill to provide for the rehabilitation and resettlement of persons affected by the acquisition of land for projects of public purpose or involuntary displacement due to any other reason, and for mat...

by Lok Sabha | On 07 Feb 2008

Requirement of Public Holding for Listing

It is proposed to amend the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Rules, 1957 (SCRR) to make provisions to implement the proposals as suggested at Para 11 in the paper. The comments on these proposals are...

by Ministry of Finance | On 05 Feb 2008

From Theory to Practice: Translating Research into Health Outcomes

Commenting on recent research articles which look at the potential health benefits of behaviour change, the PLoS Medicine Editors say that publication of the findings of such research is only one part...

by PLoS Medicine | On 01 Feb 2008

Municipal Finance in India:An Assessment

This study, entitled “Municipal Finance in India – An Assessment”, undertaken for the Development Research Group (DRG), Reserve Bank of India examines the performance of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in I...

by P K Mohanty | On 29 Jan 2008

National Policy on the Voluntary Sector

This National Policy on the Voluntary Sector-2007 is the beginning of a process to evolve a new working relationship between the Government and the Voluntary Sector, without affecting the autonomy and...

by Planning Commission, India | On 29 Jan 2008

Managing Migration in thePhilippines: Lessons for India

The significance of international migration in the Philippines economy and society is discussed. The Government of Philippines plays a supportive and regulatory role promoting internationational migr...

by S. Irudaya Rajan | On 19 Jan 2008

Book Review: Public Memory and Cultural Politics in Sri Lanka

Militarizing Sri Lanka: Popular Culture, Memory and Narrative in the Armed Conflict by Neloufer de Mel; Sage, New Delhi, 2007; pp. 329, Rs. 475.

by Pramod K. Nayar | On 14 Jan 2008

Issues Relating to 3rd Phase of Private FM Radio Broadcasting

The first phase of private sector involvement in FM radio broadcasting was launched by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India vide its notification in year 1999. Based on the ex...

by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India TRAI | On 11 Jan 2008

WCD Thematic Review V.5 Participation, Negotiation and Conflict Management in Large Dams Projects

This thematic review focuses on the siting, construction and operation of large dam facilities (or their alternatives) as sources of significant conflict, and as opportunities to involve many interest...

by RESOLVE Inc et al | On 26 Dec 2007

Capitalisation of Nature and Accumulation by Dispossession: At the Heart and the Frontier of Capitalism

The concept of `capitalisation of nature’ put forward by Martin O’Connor is a fruitful concept that brings together many red and green concerns into a single abstract concept. The term resonates acro...

by Suhas Paranjape | On 25 Dec 2007

A Success Story

India's economic reforms are evaluated.

by T.N. Ninan | On 26 Nov 2007

Vaccine Policy in India

The success of an immunisation programme in any country depends more upon local realities and national policies. This is particularly true for a huge and diverse developing country such as India, with...

by Yennapu Madhavi | On 12 Nov 2007

The beast in us all

The tragedies and discrimination that happen in our country in the name of caste shows that there is a beast in all of us.

by T.N. Ninan | On 06 Nov 2007

Newsletter on Regional Economy: A bi-monthly four-state update

A monthly compilation by IRIS.

by IRIS India IRIS | On 22 Oct 2007

Unorganised Sector Worker's Social Security Bill 2007

A bill to provide for the social security and welfare of unorganised sector workers and for other matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

by Minister of State for Labour and Employment | On 15 Oct 2007

Between Stools

Different options that RBI and government must decide regard to future inflows of international capital to India.

by T.N. Ninan | On 08 Oct 2007

Model Nagara Raj Bill

Model bill to amend the laws relating to the Municipalities and to institutionalise citizens’ participation in municipal functions, e.g. setting priorities, budgeting provisions, etc. by setting up of...

by Ministry of Urban Development MoUD | On 08 Oct 2007

Governance and Health

As we celebrate 60 years of political independence and take pride in our dynamic private sector, our remarkable IT successes and all the other usual dimensions of success, let us remind ourselves that...

by Shankar Acharya | On 08 Oct 2007

Capital Inflows, Financial Repression and Macroeconomic Policy in India since the Reforms

Since the early 1990s the Indian economy has seen a considerable relaxation of controls, as a consequence of which it has witnessed unprecedented growth. This is especially remarkable in the external...

by Partha Sen | On 04 Oct 2007

History and Anthropology: A Marriage Made in Heaven

Anthropology is a science of inquiries about the origins and continuities of the patterned differentiation of human beings into distinguishable groups. During the last hundred years, most such inquir...

by Sidney W. Mintz | On 04 Oct 2007

Marketing of Bt Cotton in India: Aggressive, Unscrupulous and False….

The paper examines the prevailing situation of Bt cotton marketing in India. It tells a story of how aggressive and unethical marketing practices are adopted for luring faemers into the Bt cotton trap...

by Centre for Sustainable Agriculture CSA | On 04 Oct 2007

Burma: Member States of the UN must Intervene: ACHR Weely Review

Reports have been pouring in that the Burmese soldiers today used baton and tear gas against the Buddhist monks and civilian protesters at Shwedagon pagoda, the holiest Buddhist place in Rangoon. The...

by Asian Centre for Human Rights ACHR | On 26 Sep 2007

The Reserve Bank and the State Governments: Partners in Progress

The States, relative to the Centre, have taken the centre-stage in the reform process since the areas of highest national priority now fall essentially within the purview of the States. The unique and...

by Y V Reddy | On 26 Sep 2007

Missing the Bus

Government has done a lot for the development of textile industry. But India is not at all doing well in the international markets compared to countries like China and Bangladesh. Government has not d...

by T.N. Ninan | On 24 Sep 2007

Educational Policy and the Economics of the Family

The implications of alternative ways to model decisionmaking by families for educational policy are analysed. Many of the policy implications associated with credit constraints cannot be distinguished...

by Abhijit Banerjee | On 11 Sep 2007

Where are the SOPs?

Need for SOPs (standard operating procedures) in many government departments can be seen form the maintenance of cities in India. Many unplanned decisions have caused difficulties to pedestrians. It h...

by T.N. Ninan | On 10 Sep 2007

De-risking the System

The advent of political uncertainties has led to questions about poor governance which can lead to economic under performance.

by T.N. Ninan | On 31 Jul 2007

The Real Numbers

The macro-economic numbers put out by the official statistical systems do not capture the full underlying reality because of a variety of accounting fudges and delayed decisions. Taken in its totality...

by T.N. Ninan | On 30 Jul 2007

Evaluate Anti-Naxal Policies of the Chhatisgarh Government: Naxal Conflict Monitor April 11, 2007

The State has the responsibility to ensure right to life of the citizens. Involving civilians directly in armed conflicts only increases the risks to their lives and prolongs the conflicts. Common cit...

by Asian Centre for Human Rights ACHR | On 13 Jul 2007

Working Together for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health

Despite years of significant advances in improving child survival and health, the final chapter on ending unnecessary child deaths has not yet been written and advances have stagnated in several count...

by Francisco Songane | On 03 Jul 2007

Selection into Worst Forms of Child Labor: Child Domestics, Porters and Ragpickers in Nepal

A large literature considers why children work, but little is known about why children participate in activities that are labeled worst forms of child labor. The principal international convention o...

by Eric Edmonds | On 19 Jun 2007

Social Capital and Economic Well-being

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 Banglade...

by Farhad Ameen | On 30 May 2007

Lesons Government Failure: Public Goods Provision and Quality of Public Investment

This paper focuses on government investment and expenditure policies. Going beyond the growth experience, the author also tries to relate the policy experience to the issues of aggregate poverty, in...

by Arvind Virmani | On 25 Apr 2007

Declaration of SAARC Summits 1985-1998

The Summit declarations of the Heads of State/Government of the Member Countries of SAARC at the conclusion of all the ten SAARC summits that have taken place since the inception of SAARC have been co...

by SAARC Secretariat | On 10 Apr 2007

Language Politics: Learning English

States are struggling to find the right language formula in education, giving rise to political agendas around language teaching. How early should English be introduced in the school curriculum? Shoul...

by Lakshmi Priya | On 03 Apr 2007

Commission of Inquiry

On 1st September 2003, the Government had appointed the Commission under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952, to inquire into the allegations of corrupt paractices and maladministration inot certain...

by Maharashtra Government | On 27 Mar 2007

TB Report

On world TB day, this reoirt gives an idea about how overall the world people are affected byTB and the government initiatives to control TB

by World Health Organisation WHO | On 24 Mar 2007

Educational Development and Wastage in Tripura

The paper evaluates the general educational scene in Tripura three commonly known indicators such as literacy rate, enrolment ratio and wastage rate are used as yardsticks in the present study. though...

by P. Nayak | On 22 Mar 2007

Andhra Pradesh Budget 2007-08

Budget Speech of Finance Minister 2007-08

by Government Andhra Pradesh | On 16 Mar 2007

Suicides by Cotton Farmers in Andhra Pradesh

The paper disuses and analyzes the condition of cotton farmers of Andra Pradesh and the reasons for their committing suicides.

by Reji K Joseph | On 05 Mar 2007

Women Politicians, Gender Bias, and Policy-making in Rural India

Despite the importance of this issue for the design of institutions around the world, little is known about the relative performance of women as policy makers, about their impact on child development...

by Lori Beaman | On 16 Feb 2007

Outcome of the review of the trends in receipts and expenditure in relation to the budget at the end of the second quarter of the financial year 2006-2007

This mid-year review reports developments in the economy in the first half of 2006- 07, with a particular focus on Central Government finances, outlining the performances in the real sector, economi...

by Ministry of Finance | On 06 Feb 2007

Social Cleavages, Multiculturalism and Emerging Space for State in India under Globalisation Regime

This paper focuses on social cleavages based on class , caste,religion and ethnicity in India. It examines the political salience of caste and class conflicts and addresses the translation of social c...

by Sarojini Mishra | On 29 Dec 2006

The International Mobility of Technical Talent: Trends and Development Implications

This paper charts the complex dynamics of the movement of technical talent in the world economy and assesses broadly the impact of such mobility on both sending and receiving countries. Based on sec...

by Anthony P. D'Costa | On 29 Dec 2006

Impact of Reservations of Panchayat Pradhans on Targeting in West Bengal

The effect of randomized reservations of Pradhan (chief executive) positions in West Bengal local governments (panchayats) for women and members of Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) following t...

by Pranab Bardhan | On 27 Dec 2006

Pro-Poor Targeting and Accountability of Local Governments in West Bengal

A commonly alleged pitfall of decentralization is that poverty, socio-economic inequality and lack of political competition allow local elites to capture local governments. This hypothesis is empirica...

by Pranab Bardhan | On 27 Dec 2006

Women's Equality in Transition: North of Ireland's Equality Legislation

Intersectional analysis is required if the approach to women’s equality in Northern Ireland/ the North of Ireland is to benefit the most marginalized women and thereby improve the prospects of build...

by Eilish Rooney | On 29 Aug 2006

India Needs to Separate Debt from Monetary Management

The Reserve Bank of India, in its Annual Policy Statement on April 28, 2005, for the year 2005-06, announced its intention to reorient government debt management operations entailing functional separ...

by Charan Singh | On 14 Apr 2006

Indo-US Nuclear Deal: Time to be Wary

Now that the nuclear deal has been struck, there is a real danger of India now settling comfortably into a de facto NWS status within a welcoming international non-proliferation architecture. This wil...

by D.Raghunandan | On 14 Mar 2006

The Siren Song of Technonationalism

Technological development in Asia is driven by government policy, and that policy is motivated in large part by technonationalism, or the desire of Asian states to free themselves from dependence on W...

by David Kang | On 07 Mar 2006

Macroeconomic and Monetary Developments: Third Quarter Review 2005-06

Contents I. The Real Economy -- 1 Agricultural Situation Industrial Performance Business Expectations Surveys Services Sector II. Fiscal Situation 14 Combined Government Fi...

by Reserve Bank of India | On 25 Jan 2006

Reproductive Health Services and Role of Panchayats in Karnataka

The paper presents an analysis of the reproductive health care services available to women in rural areas in Karnataka, and the various factors influencing them. Based on survey data on the status o...

by Poornima Vyasulu | On 19 Jan 2006

Conceptualizing NGO-State Relations in Karnataka:Conflict and Collaboration amidst Organizational Diversity

This paper maps the organizational diversity of the NGO sector in Karnataka, a “middle order state” (Vyasulu, 1995), and demonstrates that conceptualizing NGO actions vis-à-vis the state dichotomously...

by Neema Kudva | On 13 Jan 2006

Participation in a School Incentive Programme in Karnataka

Development education policy has recently focused on school-based recognition and conditional cash transfer programs to improve accountability and incentives of school employees and committees. The L...

by Sharon Bernhardt | On 12 Jan 2006

Institutionalising Citizen Participaion in Urban Governance

The twin concepts of a federal arrangement – a structure for a multi-tiered form of government with clearly defined roles and responsibilities, as well as active citizenship are like the two strands...

by Ramesh Ramanathan | On 12 Jan 2006

Corruption and Local Governance: Evidence from Karnataka

The paper examines corruption in the institutions of local government in Karnataka, using a Logit model. One of the arguments in favour of decentralisation in developing countries is that it provide...

by V. Vijayalakshmi | On 09 Jan 2006

Dynamics of Local Governance in Karnataka

The objective of this paper is to unpack the dynamics of local governance in Karnataka by studying the interaction between two sets of rural institutions, (a) the formal, elected Gram Panchayats(GPs...

by Kripa Ananthpur | On 09 Jan 2006

ASIAN ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 3, 2004

ASIAN ANTHROPOLOGY , Volume 3, 2004

by Anonymous | On 13 Aug 2005

Code of Ethics of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists

Code of Ethics for Practitioners and Professionals

by Anonymous | On 12 Aug 2005

From Governments To Markets: Funding Urban Infrastructure

Provision of quality urban infrastructure is an area of major concern forthe Indian Economy. The environment defined by the context of globalisation and privatisation has implied fiscal compression an...

by Abhay Pethe | On 05 Aug 2005

Voice Lessons:Local Government Organizations, Social Organizations, and the Quality of Local Governance

As part the Local Level Institutions study of local life in villages in rural Indonesia information was gathered on sampled household’s participation in social activities. We classified the reported a...

by Lant Pritchett | On 31 Mar 2005