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Tribute: Ela Bhatt

Tribute to Ela Bhatt, the visionary leader of marginalised women

by Vibhuti Patel | On 10 Nov 2022

Tribute: Gail Omvedt (1941-2021)

Tribute to Gail Omvedt : feminist scholar, dalit and feminist activist died on August 25, 2021

by Vibhuti Patel | On 09 Sep 2021

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

The Covid-19 Lockdown in India: Gender and Caste Dimensions of the First Job Losses

Based on national-level panel data from Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE)’s Consumer Pyramids Household Survey (CPHS) database, this paper investigates the first effects of Covid-19 induced...

by Ashwini Deshpande | On 09 Jun 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

The case of the spurious drug kingpin: Shifting pills in Chennai

The public lecture by Dr. Sarah Hodges, organised by the Forum for Medical Ethics Society with the Centre for Law and Society, School of Law, and Constitutional Governance, Centre for Public Health, S...

by Sarah Hodges | On 22 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

Wage Inequalities in India

This paper examines the dimension of inequality since our earlier work on poverty and deprivation suggest that social inequality seems to overwhelm all other inequalities in a whole range of indicator...

by K.P. Kannan | On 31 Jan 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

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

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

An Empirical Analysis of the Factors that Influence Infrastructure Project Financing by Banks in Select Asian Economies

This paper analyzes a critical aspect of expanding private finance to infrastructure by examining the role of bank lending to public–private partnership (PPP) projects through the project finance moda...

by Vivek Rao | On 24 Aug 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

Drivers of Student Performance: Evidence from Higher Secondary Public Schools in Delhi

The role of teachers and students in the formation of test scores at the higher secondary level (grade 12) in public schools in Delhi, India is analysed. Using the value added approach, we find subs...

by Deepti Goel | On 01 Aug 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

Does India Need a Caste-based Quota in Cricket? Drawing Parallels from South Africa

In India’s 85-year-long Test history, only four of the 289 male Test cricketers have reportedly been Dalits. While concrete steps have been taken to address a similar under-representation of non-white...

by | On 29 May 2018

Caste-Gender Intersectionalities and the Curious Case of Child Nutrition: A Methodological Exposition

A growing body of research has addressed the issue of intersectionality since the last three decades, mostly adopting qualitative methodologies. Quantitative attempts to capture intersectionality h...

by Simantini Mukhopadhyay | On 28 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

An Ethnographic Study of the Mathru Poorna Yojana (One Full Meal) Pilot Project for Pregnant and Lactating Mothers in Two Blocks of Two Districts in Karnataka

The present study was undertaken to review the pilot implementation of the programme and its uptake by beneficiaries, in order to provide data to the DWCD, before scaling up the programme to all distr...

by Centre for Budget and Policy Studies CBPS | On 23 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

Continuing Caste inequalities in Rural Uttar Pradesh

A continuous mixed opinion on the relevance of caste based reservations and caste as a factor of socioeconomic disparity in the recent period demands update of evidence on socioeconomic inequalities...

by Srinivas Goli | On 16 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

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

Fieldnotes on Caste Practices among Muslims of Nohsa Panchayat

The paper says that the commonly held view is that the caste based stratification is a feature of the Hindu model of social organization.

by Khursheed Akbar | On 22 Feb 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

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

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

Divisive Politics in Tamizh Nadu

While the Dravidian movement is surely a necessary counter to historical and even contemporary oppressive politics played by Brahmins and other upper castes, their militant politics and intellectual...

by Shyam Sundar | On 08 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

Empowerment of Dalits and Adivasis: Role of Education in the Emerging Economy

Well friends, let me begin by narrating a short story. In the Indian epic Mahabharata, dated around one thousand B.C., there is a celebrated fable about Ekalavya, an Adivasi boy; some of you will cer...

by | On 06 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

Gender Inequality and Early Childhood Development

Plan International’s commitment to tackle discrimination and exclusion and advance children’s rights and equality for girls lies at the heart of our new Organisational Purpose. Our ambition to tackle...

by | On 22 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

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

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

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

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

Scheduled Castes, Legitimacy and Local Governance: Continuing Social Exclusion in Panchayats

People of the Scheduled Castes have a long history of being discriminated against, exploited, and placed at the bottom of caste society. The panchayati raj, after the enactment of the 73rd Constitutio...

by | On 07 Dec 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

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

Stigma or Red Tape? Roadblocks in the Use of Affirmative Action

This paper examines whether and to what extent, additional stigmatization adversely affects the use of reservations for higher education or jobs. The quantitative analysis is based on a primary survey...

by Ashwini Deshpande | 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

Marginality, Suffering, Justice: Questions of Dalit Dignity in Cultural Texts

Dalit dignity is organized around caste-determined labour that fits them into hierarchies of social dignity but which, in savage irony, renders them undignified as humans through social death. Second,...

by Pramod K. Nayar | 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

Educational Status of De-notified Tribes A Study of Telangana

This paper deals with educational status of De-notified and Nomadic Tribes (DNT-NT) of Telangana vis-à-vis their socioeconomic conditions. The present study is based on primary data collected from Mah...

by Vijay Korra | On 27 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

Health Experience of Women: A Gender Perspective

This review paper examines the ill-health experience of women, and whether it has been adequately explored in a socio-cultural context from a gender perspective. A deeper understanding of the wide ran...

by Annapuranam Karuppannan | On 14 Sep 2017

The Political Historiography of Modern Gujarat

The focus of this paper is on the political history of modern Gujarat, which has been an intriguing one. The paper identifies and discusses in the broad landscape of Gujarat’s politics three notable d...

by Tannen Neil Lincoln | On 14 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

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

Migration in the 2030 Agenda

This report narrates that it is a matter of record that migration was not included in the 2000 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) framework

by Gervais Appave | On 30 Aug 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

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

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

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

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

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

Early Childhood Development and Violence Free Safe Environment for Women and Children in Selected Slums of Dhaka City

Bangladesh has experienced massive urbanisation in the last few decades with a staggering growth of seven millions slum dwellers. About two million people live in the slums of Dhaka city. Most of the...

by Polin Kumar Saha | On 26 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

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

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

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

Judicial Review and Money Bills

Under the Constitution of India, for a bill to be enacted into a law, it has to be approved by both Houses of the Parliament - the Lower House (Lok Sabha) and the Upper House (Rajya Sabha). There is o...

by Pratik Datta | On 26 May 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

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

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

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

Impact of Goods and Service Tax (GST) on Indian Economy

GST also known as the Goods and Services Tax is defined as the giant indirect tax structure designed to support and enhance the economic growth of a country. More than 150 countries have implemented G...

by | On 13 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

Discrimination as Favoritism: The Private Benefits and Social Costs of In-group Favoritism in an Experimental Labor Market

In this paper, we examine labor market favoritism in a unique laboratory experiment design that can shed light on both the private benefits and spillover costs of employer favoritism (or discriminatio...

by | On 30 Mar 2017

Groundwater Depletion, Adaptation and Migration: Evidence from Gujarat, India

Increasing water scarcity is expected to impact food production and the livelihoods of millions of farmers in semi arid developing countries over the next decades. Multiple studies project that this a...

by | On 22 Mar 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

Caste Connections and Government Transfers: The Mahadalits of Bihar

The category of Scheduled Castes, created for the purpose of affirmative action in India, is large, heterogeneous and unequal. In 2007, the state of Bihar classified the most disadvantaged among thi...

by Hemanshu Kumar | On 16 Feb 2017

Family, Community, and Educational Outcomes in South Asia

In this article, we review research on the economics and sociology of education to assess the relationships between family and community variables and children’s educational outcomes in South Asia. At...

by | On 14 Feb 2017

Tackling Sex Discrimination through Pay Equity

Discrimination at work is a violation of a basic human right. Workers may be discriminated against on many different grounds, including their sex, with women being particularly discriminated against w...

by International Labour Organization [ILO] | On 06 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

The Influence of Gender Budgeting in Indian States on Gender Inequality and Fiscal Spending

This study investigates the effect of gender budgeting in India on gender inequality and fiscal spending. Gender budgeting is an approach to budgeting in which governments use fiscal policies and ad...

by Janet G Stotsky | On 23 Jan 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

Local Institutional Structure and Clientelistic Access to Employment: The Case of MGNREGS in Three States of India

This work is a contribution, first, toward measuring and characterizing some features of rural clientelistic institutions and then toward exploring its impact on household access to an employment sc...

by Anindya Bhattacharya | On 30 Dec 2016

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

Religious Denominations of Kerala

This paper discusses the demographic and socio-economic profile of religious communities (Castes among the Hindus, Sects among the Muslims and Denominations among the Christians) in Kerala’s three ...

by K. C. Zachariah | On 06 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

Challenging Discrimination in Employment: A Summary of Research and a Typology of Measures

The scope of this project was defined by the mandate of the ILO. It therefore focused on the employment relationship as it relates specifically to migrant and ethnic minority workers. The normative ba...

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

Household Income Mobility in India: 1993-2011

Using nationally representative longitudinal survey, the paper examines the income mobility among rural (urban) Indian households over 1993-2004 and 2004-2011 (2004-2011). The paper finds mobility est...

by Mehtabul Azam | On 03 Nov 2016

Lower in Rank, but Happier: The Complex Relationship between Status and Happiness

Case studies across the social sciences have established a positive relationship between social status and happiness. In observational data, however, identification challenges remain severe. This st...

by Bert Van Landeghem | On 25 Oct 2016

Analysis of the Kerala Assembly Elections, May 2016

This study attempts to understand people’s perceptions and their understanding approaching the 2016 assembly elections and how it influenced the voting pattern and behaviour while exercising their r...

by D Dhanuraj | On 21 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

Poor Women in Urban India: Issues and Strategies

It is generally recognised that poverty is experienced differently according to their gender, age, caste, class and ethnicity and within households. Income levels, food security and indeed life choice...

by | On 05 Oct 2016

Identity, Perceptions and Institutions: Caste Differences in Earnings from Self-Employment in India

Using data from two rounds of the Employment-Unemployment Survey of the National Sample Survey for 2004-5 and 2009-10, we investigate the relationship between social identity, specifically caste ident...

by | On 05 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

Stories of Harassment, Violence and Discrimination: Migrant Experiences between India, Nepal and Bangladesh

This Project Briefing explores the experiences of these people as they migrate, drawing on findings from a baseline study on their vulnerabilities, particularly to HIV and AIDS, as they move between t...

by | On 29 Sep 2016

Role of Institutions and Policies in Diffusion of Micro-irrigation in Gujarat, Western India

the role of institutional innovations and subsidy policy interventions in the diffusion of micro-irrigation across the state in the recent years. While the first part makes a comprehensive review o...

by Chandra Sekhar Bahinipati | On 26 Sep 2016

World Social Science Report

Economic inequalities in income and wealth, social inequalities in health, education and access to welfare services, gender and racial inequalities, cultural and religious discrimination, barriers to...

by | On 22 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

Group Inequality in Democracies: Lessons from Cross-National Experiences

Group inequality is a prominent feature of many modern democracies. The purpose of this paper is to take stock of what we know about the ways in which major democracies have viewed social groups and a...

by Rohini Somanathan | On 19 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

You Can Silence Me, But You cannot Silence the Truth

Discrimination against dalits and minority communities has only become more brazen and open. Freedoms – of thought and expression, of scientific enquiry and of rational dissent – continue to be stifle...

by Newsclick Newsclick | On 06 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

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 Concept of Integration in Refugee and Immigrant Studies

The concept of integration is quite a popular one, debated and discussed majorly in developed Nations. Integration is an imperative area of empirical apprehension and inquiry in refugee and immigrant...

by | On 23 Aug 2016

Vital Stats: Parliament during Monsoon Session 2016

The Monsoon Session of Parliament concluded on August 12, 2016. The session had 20 sittings, during which various Bills were passed, including a Constitutional Amendment Bill enabling the levy of a G...

by Kusum Malik | On 16 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

Gender and Food Security

Persistent hunger and malnutrition is a problem affecting millions of people globally, the majority of whom are women and girls. Food and nutrition insecurity is a political, economic and environmenta...

by Bridge Cutting Edge Programme | On 09 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

Utilisation and Impact of Referral Transport System on Institutional Deliveries in Delhi

This paper highlights the major hindrances in providing a robust referral transport service in Delhi, under the Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakaram.The study analyses the socio-economic parameters and...

by Suresh Sharma | On 03 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

Contemporary India and the Discourse of Social Justice: Examining the Colonial Legacy

Contemporary Indian society has witnessed a pervasiveness of claims for and debates about social justice with two enduring aspects to it: on the one hand, injustice and discrimination has become an ov...

by | On 28 Jul 2016

Empowering India with Gender Equality

Achieving gender equality has become a development challenge for India. Women are entitled to live with dignity in society and enjoy freedom from humiliation, fear, exploitation and every type of viol...

by Sanghamitra Deobhanj | On 28 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

The Financial Literacy of Indians

While a lot of experimentation has been done in the realm of financial literacy, it is difficult to point to one standardised method or approach that works best in all scenarios with all kinds of targ...

by | On 20 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

Searching for Religious Discrimination among Anganwadi Workers in India: An Experimental Investigation

This paper examines whether, in India, discriminatory practices by government-employed child caregivers along religious lines, lead to differential health outcomes among the care receiving children. C...

by Utteeyo Dasgupta | On 19 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

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

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

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

Income Mobility among Social Groups in Indian Rural Households: Findings from the Indian Human Development Survey

The paper analyses income mobility across different social groups in India using data from the Indian Human Development Survey (IHDS) collected in 2004–05 and 2011–12. Indices signifying different n...

by Thiagu Ranganathan | On 16 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

Education Through the Lens of Sustainable Human Development

If human development is defined as a comprehensive economic, social, cultural and political process aiming to improve the well-being of populations and individuals, then the one element that can serve...

by Gianna Alessandra Sanchez Moretti | On 06 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

Nutrition Moves: States Create Promising Change in India

This publication gathers a collection of twenty case studies that illustrate how Indian states are creating promising change to ensure the delivery of essential nutrition information, counselling, sup...

by United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF | On 03 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

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

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

The Accumulated Effects of Inequality

Discrimination against women from or even before birth guarantees them a marginal role in Indian society, and ensures that they are poorer, less educated, and facing more unemployment and health risks...

by | On 31 May 2016

People's Rights and Social Res.Centre and ors Petitioner(s) versus Union of India and Ors.

This writ petition was filed in the year 2006, praying for a direction to the respondents to constitute a high level committee with the participation also of the NGOs to investigate the occurance of t...

by Supreme Court of India | On 30 May 2016

Dalits with Disabilities: The Neglected Dimension of Social Exclusion

This working paper studies broader areas of Dalits and Disability in India and explores in-depth consequences of inter-relation between the two. It draws corollary between the two concepts that is phy...

by Gobinda Pal | 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

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

Re-inventing the Congress

Congress should have long goals, energy, media strategy, good governance to come back to power.

by T.N. Ninan | On 21 May 2016

Understanding the Elections in Assam (part 2)

Muslim population, and this population may play a large role in the outcome of Assam’s election. In this piece, CPR researchers Bhanu Joshi, Ashish Ranjan, and Neelanjan Sircar examine the complex con...

by Bhanu Joshi | On 20 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

For Whom Does the Phone (not) Ring? Discrimination in the Rental Housing Market in Delhi, India

Using an audit experiment carried out on of India’s largest real estate websites, this study documents striking variations between landlords’ treatment of upper-caste Hindus, Other Backward Castes, Sc...

by Saugato Datta | On 18 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

Politics, While Young

Attempts to reconstruct a young voters' bloc have been crucial to campaigns around the globe. But caste and class fissures run wide and deep among that demographic, and India's youth might converge mo...

by Anish Nair | On 13 May 2016

Multiple Impacts of Droughts and Assessment of Drought Policy in Major Drought Prone States in India

This study is a result of initiatives taken by the Planning Commission, Government of India, to investigate the multiple impact of drought in one of the India’s drought-prone states i.e. Gujarat. Drou...

by Anil Kumar Roy | On 11 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

Bill for Compulsory Voting

An analysis of electoral data in local elections shows that rural local bodies have had higher turnouts than their urban counterparts in almost all states of India. Data from 2009-13 of city corporati...

by Bhanu Joshi | 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

Health Training Programme for Adolescent Girls: Lessons from India's NGO Initiative

The paper examines the impact of the initiative taken by an NGO -SelfEmployed Women’s Association (SEWA)-in Ahmedabad, a city in western India to impart knowledge about sexual and reproductive healt...

by Leela Visaria | 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

Locating the Processes of Policy Change in the Context of Anti-Rape and Domestic Worker Mobilisations in India

The report argues that state responses to women’s claims making provide a complex and variegated picture of a non-linear, slow, sporadic and contingent process of policy change, with iterations and re...

by Shraddha Chigateri | On 29 Apr 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

Land, Labour and Caste Politics in Rural Tamil Nadu in the 20th Century: Iruvelpattu (1916-2008)

The “Slater” villages of Tamil Nadu that were first surveyed by the University of Madras economist, Gilbert Slater, and his students in 1916, were resurveyed in the 1930s, 1960s and the 1980s. This pa...

by John Harriss | 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

The Redistributive Effects of Political Reservation for Minorities: Evidence from India

We examine the impact of political reservation for disadvantaged minority groups on poverty. To address the concern that political reservation is endogenous in the relationship between poverty and res...

by Nishith Prakash | On 11 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

Youth in India: Challenges of Employment and Employability

Using the NSSO Employment and Unemployment Survey Rounds as the basis, this paper examines questions of unemployment, employment and human capital formation among Indian youth belonging to various s...

by Rajendra P. Mamgain | On 05 Apr 2016

Human Development in Telangana State: District Profiles

Telangana emerged as the 29th state of the Indian Union from undivided Andhra Pradesh after a prolonged struggle for statehood for nearly six decades. The social structure in Telangana is uniquely sk...

by Center for Economic and Social Studies CESS | On 31 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 Caste Gender System - A Necessary Analytic of Experience?

This paper formulates a conceptual category called the caste-gender system and tends to follow how the institution of caste operates in systematic complicity with discriminatory gender norms. It talks...

by Ritu Sen Chaudhuri | On 21 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

Living the ‘Absence’ The Rajbanshis of North Bengal

While often it describe the modern era - framed by the Post-Enlightenment narrative - as one marked by an unprecedented concern for identity and identification, it often lose sight of the parallel pro...

by Samir Kumar Das | On 21 Mar 2016

Rural-Urban Linkages and Socio-Economic Development: A Case Study Of Two Villages In Gujarat

Rural-urban linkages are both a cause and a consequence of socio-economic development. Though there is a vast volume of literature on this subject, there are quite a few gaps in our knowledge about th...

by RS Pundir | On 20 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 Gujarat: 2016-17

Budget speech of finance minister of Gujarat, Saurabh Patel.

by Saurabh Patel | On 16 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Transboundary Pollution as an Issue in Northeast Asian Regional Politics

The paper investigates the political aspects of the coorperation between China, South Korea and Japan to address transboundary pollution in Northeast Asia. Investigating the motivations, modalities an...

by Reinhard Drifte | On 09 Mar 2016

Indian Exceptionalism? A Discussion on India’s Experiment with Constitutional Secularism

This paper speaks to the sense of unease by trying to follow the implications of what it might mean to take the sense of threat to liberal values seriously. That is, to attempt identification of the l...

by Mathew John | 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

Class Gains in Fisheries Management in India: Reflections from Two States

The debate on common property resource centres on issues of a particular strategy for managing it in order to cater to the growing demand for communities that depend on it and the economy at large tha...

by Jharna Pathak | 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

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

Advancing Protection Of Civilians Through The ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission On Human Rights(AICHR)

In the first issue of this month’s NTS Alert, the importance of a robust human rights framework to complement international humanitarian law, and address its shortcomings in protecting civilians caugh...

by S. Rajaratnam International Studies | On 03 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

Connecting the Dots: An Analysis of Union Budget 2016-17

It presents a comprehensive analysis of the priorities and proposals in Union Budget 2016-17, focusing on social sectors (such as education, health, drinking water and sanitation, food security etc.)...

by Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability CBGA | On 02 Mar 2016

Budget 2016: Once Again Fails to Deliver for the Dalit Adivasis

The Union Budget has failed to deliver on the needs of the marginalised section of population. The spending has been much lower than what was budgeted.

by Paul Divakar | On 01 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

Not a ‘Healthy’ Budget

Disappointingly, the new health policy that appeared to be robust one, has received little support in the Union Budget.

by | 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

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

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

"Direct Access" to Climate Finance: Lessons Learned by National Institutions

Implementation of the Adaptation Fund and GCF direct access modalities is still in a relatively early stage. (The Adaptation Fund accredited its first implementing entities in 2010; the GCF did so in...

by Indira Masullo | 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

National Treatment on Internal Taxation: Revisiting GATT Article III:2

The principle of non-discrimination which comprises national treatment and most-favored-nation (MFN) treatment is an important pillar of the multilateral trading system. The World Trade Organization (...

by Sherzod Shadikhodjaev | 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Women’s Empowerment at the Frontline of Adaptation: Emerging Issues, Adaptive Practices, and Priorities in Nepal

The findings of the study reveal that, across Nepal, there has been an increase in rural women’s workload rendering multiple effects on women’s health, income, safety, nutrition, violence against wome...

by Dibya Devi Gurung | On 13 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

Segmented Schooling: Inequalities in Primary Education

This paper utilizes a newly collected nationally representative survey data from over 41,550 households to examine social inequality in children’s educational outcomes. The focus is on 8 to11 year old...

by Sonalde Desai | On 13 Feb 2016

Social Capital in India: Networks, Organizations, and Confidence

Using original data from a newly collected nationally representative survey for 40,000 households in India, we examine associations of various dimensions of social capital with each other and with con...

by Reeve Vanneman | 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

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

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

International Labour Rights for Women and Girls

This report is dedicated to an inventory of the most relevant ILO conventions for women workers, as generally put forward by the ILO, the ITUC and legal scholars publishing in international academic j...

by | On 10 Feb 2016

National Labour Rights for Women

From 2012 to 2016, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the WageIndicator Foundation and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) are running the Labour Rights for Wom...

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

India and its Neighbors: Development Scenarios 2009–2029

This report aims to provide an analysis of India’s potential future trajectories during 2009-2029. It will base its arguments on both long-term evolutionary trends, the various strength of the driving...

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

Notes on Rohith Vemula and the Movement After

This article offers observations to Gopal Guru’s article which highlights the endemic caste discrimination in places of higher learning in India in the wake of the Rohith Vemula suicide in Hyderabad....

by Anveshi Research Centre for Women's Studies | On 09 Feb 2016

Ensuring Identity and Entitlements of India’s Urban Poor

Can we create awareness among the urban poor and create documents for them? What are the steps to be followed for that?

by K.R. Antony | On 09 Feb 2016

A Tragic Exit from Social Death

In spite of his continuous victimization, Rohith Vemula did live a life of the mind that militated against the caste of the mind.

by Gopal Guru | On 09 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

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

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

Reservation in Employment, Education and Legislature — Status and Emerging Issues

This Working paper studies the reservation policy of the Government of India with regard to – employment in government services, admission in educational institutions, and representation in legislativ...

by | On 05 Feb 2016

The Effectiveness of Jobs Reservation: Caste, Religion and Economic Status in India

This article investigates the effect of jobs reservation on improving the economic opportunities of persons belonging to India's Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST). Using employment data...

by Sriya Iyer | 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

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

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

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

Pakistan: The Impact of Economic Liberalisation on Poverty

The reform program that Pakistan gradually implemented during the 1980s and the early 1990s dismantled many of the components of the ISI strategy.1 The extent of dependence on quantitative import cont...

by Zafar Mahmood | On 02 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

Does It Pay to Care? Prosocial Engagement and Employment Opportunities

We investigate whether, why and when prosocial engagement has a causal effect on individual employment opportunities. To this end, a field experiment is conducted in which volunteering activities are...

by Suncica Vujic | 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

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

Gender Equity Remains a Dream

The study explores how far gender equity is promoted or inhibited in these countries which have national policies on gender equity and are committed to international policies to end discrimination aga...

by Institute of Development Studies IDS | 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

Youth and Development: Towards a More Inclusive Future

The report examines the pivotal role of Sri Lankan youth. You and Development: Towards a More inclusive Future considers the opportunities and challenges youth face as the nation progresses through th...

by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) | 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

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

How Would A Trade Deal On Cotton Affect Exporting And Importing Countries?

This paper assesses the likely implications for exporting and importing countries from a trade deal in cotton. The study estimates the price, production and trade effects of reforming cotton subsidies...

by | On 30 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

Institutions of Accountability Series : The Judiciary Policy Note

The courts are one of the most fundamental institutions where power is contested in a constitutional democracy. A functioning and an independent judiciary can restrain and hold the executive accountab...

by . BRAC | 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 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

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

Spatial Dimensions of Muslim Well-Being in India: A Comparative Study of Indian Districts

The Sachar Commission Report of 2006 on Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India generated widespread awareness of the socioeconomic disparity and exclusion of religiou...

by Riaz Hassan | On 29 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

Earnings and Education among Ethnic Groups in Rural India

In rural India social and cultural norms are deep rooted in society. Access to productive assets, employment opportunities and consequently incomes are to a large extent influenced by these social fac...

by Jeemol Unni | On 28 Jan 2016

The Guiding Visible Hand of Participatory Approaches to Irrigation Management

The paper argues that the difference in the mode of programme implementation between Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat exerts an influence on the function and performance of the local institutions created as...

by R. Parthasarathy | On 28 Jan 2016

Competition and Response in Small Firm Clusters: Two Cases from Western India

This paper addresses the different firm level strategies adopted to face up to the pressures of competition by two industrial clusters in the highly industrialised state of Gujarat. The overwhelming p...

by Keshab Das | 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

Public Health in Urban India: Lessons from Surat

Surat-a city in the western-most Indian state of Gujarat, is an important case study, especially for those municipalities attempting reform of public health services. This note takes Surat as a case s...

by Rajib Dasgupta | On 28 Jan 2016

Primary Health Care in Gujarat: Evidence on Utilization, Mis-Matches and Wastage

In order to provide adequate and quality primary health care, a multi-layered network of public health infrastructure has been created right from the district to the village level. But Health for All...

by B.L. Kumar | On 28 Jan 2016

Schools and Schooling in Tribal Gujarat: The Quality Dimension

In order to provide adequate and quality primary health care, a multi-layered network of public health infrastructure has been created right from the district to the village level. But Health for All...

by B.L. Kumar | On 28 Jan 2016

Role of Gender in Health Disparity: The South Asian Context

South Asia's girls and women do not have the same life advantage as their Western counterparts. A human rights based approach may help to overcome gender related barriers and improve the wellbeing of...

by Omrana Pasha | 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

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

Addressing the Unequal Burden of Malnutrition

The poor are not uniformly disadvantaged. For the most health indicators, the status of ‘excluded groups’ such as scheduled caste and scheduled tribes, and Muslims is significantly worse than that of...

by Sukhade Thorat | On 26 Jan 2016

Agroforestry in Tribal Areas of Gujarat: Move towards Sustainable Agriculture?

This paper examines the agroforestry initiative adopted by the Government of Gujarat with the aim to enhance the incomes of tribal households facing numerous production constraints. The specific objec...

by Jharna Pathak | On 26 Jan 2016

International Migration from Gujarat: An Exploratory Analysis

This paper gives an overview of international migration from the state of Gujarat, the state with a long history of international migration and significantly large migrant population abroad. Even as s...

by Biplab Dhak | On 26 Jan 2016

Decentralisation in India: A Review of Panchayati Raj Institutions in Gujarat

This paper examines how the decentralisation process has evolved over time in India from the ancient times through to the British regime to modern era. It focuses specifically on Panchayati Raj Instit...

by Madhusudan Bandi | 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

Child Marriage In South Asia

The briefing paper primarily focuses on violations of women’s and girls’ reproductive rights and right to be free from sexual violence arising from child marriage in six South Asian countries—Afghanis...

by Center for Reproductive Rights CRR | 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

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

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

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

Colonial Origins of Maoist Insurgency in India: Long Term Effects of Indirect Rule

This dissertation tries to answer the puzzle of why the Maoist insurgency in India, which is considered to be the most important internal security threat to the world’s largest democracy, occurs in ce...

by Shivaji Mukherjee | On 19 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

Equity and Health­ Care in the Era of Reforms

Two important policy shifts occurred with the period of economic reforms: one, the sharp reduction in the controlled drug list leading to significant increase in drug prices, and second, the introdu...

by Gita Sen | 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

Perception of Workplace Discrimination among Immigrants and Native Born New Zealanders

Despite considerable research on differences in labour market outcomes between native born New Zealanders and immigrants, the extent of discrimination experienced by the foreign born in the workplace...

by Bridget Daldy | 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

Measuring Subnational Budget Transparency, Participation, and Accountability: India

India has highly populated states and a highly devolved budget; in fact, over half of all India’s public expenditures are through state budgets, including a large share of development expenditures on...

by International Budget Partnership IBP | On 13 Jan 2016

Social Institutions & Gender Index : 2014 Synthesis Report

Discrimination against women and girls carries a high development cost. This third edition of the SIGI captures and measures gender-based discrimination in social institutions- social norms, practices...

by OECD Development Centre | On 13 Jan 2016

The Perils of Counting Caste

While the unpublished findings of the ‘Caste Census’ in India might not receive serious attention if ever made public, some of the socio-economic data, made available by the same Census, can set the m...

by Ronojoy Sen | On 10 Jan 2016

The Judicial Appointments Debate in India: The Need for Integrity and Transparency

The latest ruling by the Supreme Court of India against the government’s project of the National Judicial Appointments Commission has further stirred a public discourse on the best means to have the b...

by Vinod Rai | On 09 Jan 2016

Caste and Gender: The Social Barriers to Solid Waste Management in India

The paper explains the indignities and deeply-held attitudes that stigmatize those who deal with waste, garbage and human excreta in India. It outlines how such attitudes make the goals of the ‘Swachh...

by | 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

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

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

Temporal and Spatial Changes in the Incidence of Agricultural Labourers

The attempt of the present thesis has been to examine the incidence of agricultural labourers in the state of Maharashtra. It primarily aimed at analysing changes in the size of the labour force in ag...

by Awanish Kumar | 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

Street Sweeping as a Livelihood Strategy of Pode Community in KMC: Livelihood Assets and Vulnerabilities

The study of geography of poverty and peoples’ changing livelihood and their relation with globalization are some of the major areas of geographic research in the present context (Subedi, 2005). So, P...

by Basant Adhikari | On 08 Jan 2016

Livelihood Options of Dalit: An Analysis with Reference to Land Resources

Land is regarded as an important source of livelihoods to many people, especially rural people. For those people, access to and control over land resources is the source of livelihoods. Therefore, lan...

by Samana Adhikari | On 08 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

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

Urbanization as “Development” Versus Constitutional Safeguards for the Tribal People

Following are excerpts from Report of a PUCL Fact Finding Team into unrest and repression in the Sundergarh scheduled district of Odisha.

by People's Union of Civil Liberties PUCL | 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

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

Gender differences in health expenditure of rural cancer patients: Evidence from a public tertiary care facility in India

This paper investigates if there are gender differences in health expenditures and treatment seeking behavior among cancer patients and finds that the results are consistent with gender discriminati...

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

A State in Periodic Crises Andhra Pradesh

The history of Andhra Pradesh is conveyed here with some authority based on a long, unbroken and, in all modesty, unrivalled experience as a civil servant. Some writings are collected together which t...

by B P R Vithal | 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

Investing In Renewable Energy Generation and Power Transmission In Eastern Indonesia

This paper documents lessons learned during the implementation of two loans: the Renewable Energy Development Sector Project, and the Power Transmission Improvement Sector Project.Electrification in I...

by Bagus Mudiantoro | On 29 Dec 2015

Progress of the World’s Women: In Pursuit of Justice

This report looks at how the legal system can play a positive role in women accessing their rights, citing cases that have changed women's lives both at a local and at times global level. It also look...

by UN Women | On 28 Dec 2015

Empowering Women Migrant Workers in Asia: A Briefing Kit

A new feature of international migration for work is the increase in the numbers of overseas women migrant workers, which in countries like the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka exceed the numbe...

by | 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

Framework of Actions for the follow-up to the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development

This in-depth, data-rich action framework, sometimes referred to as the ICPD beyond 2014 Global Report, is the culmination of a major global review of progress in implementing the ICPD Programme of Ac...

by United Nations Population Fund UNFPA | On 26 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

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

Gender and Financial Inclusion through the Post

Women form a disproportionately large share of the world’s unbanked population. Gender inequalities in employment and earnings mean that women have lower incomes, making them less able to open account...

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

Social Exclusion and Discrimination in the Labour Market

Social exclusion of certain groups on the basis of race, creed, colour and caste has been practised in most societies. This paper explores the sources and implications of such exclusion, especially as...

by T.S. Papola | 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

National Legal Framework for IDPs in Sri Lanka: A Critical Analysis

This study places special attention on evaluating constitutional provisions that affect IDPs, on legislation pertaining to displacement, and the National Legal Framework for Relief, Rehabilitation, an...

by | On 18 Dec 2015

Swat A Critical Analysis

While the government continues to press for an unconditional surrender of arms and men as a precondition to a dialogue and settlement; the other side is also adamant on its demands including the withd...

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

Democracy in Bhutan: An Analysis of Constitutional Change in a Buddhist Monarchy

The report attempts to provide a comprehensive overview of the constitutional developments in the Kingdom of Bhutan. Starting from the premonarchy era and looking closely at the different phases of m...

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

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

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

Exploring the links of multidiscrimination: Considering Britain and India

The concept of multiple discrimination – particularly in the labour market – is fast becoming common parlance among the policy-making circles. Economics and economists, however, have hardly addressed...

by Kanchana Ruwanpura | On 16 Dec 2015

Domestic Work, Wages and Gender Equality: Lessons from Developing Countries

The paper looks at the basic characteristics of female domestic workers, gaps in minimum wage coverage, compliance, and the extent of minimum wage violations. Presenting empirical evidence on labour m...

by | 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 Proposal for an Open University of Nepal for Providing Higher Education to the Rural and Marginalized People

The disadvantaged and marginalized groups in Nepal, and particularly women and Dalits, face grave hurdles to acquire post secondary education. Lack of educational access has deprived the rural and m...

by Pramod Dhakal | 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

Empowering the Poor through Human Rights Litigation

The purpose of this manual is to collaborate with grass-roots organizations, in particular with NGOs, in defining the content of economic, social and cultural rights (ESC rights) and to empower the ac...

by Maritza Formisano Prada | 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

Intergenerational Educational Persistence among Daughters: Evidence from India

The paper examines educational transmission between fathers (mothers) and daughters in India for daughters born during 1962-1991. We find that educational persistence, as measured by the regression co...

by Mehtabul Azam | On 01 Dec 2015

The Socio-Economic Impact of HIV at the Household Level in Asia: A Regional Analysis of the Impact on Women and Girls

An important element of the socio-economic impact of HIV is how it disproportionately affects women and girls, in terms of their vulnerability to infection, constrained access to services and the a...

by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) | On 01 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

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

Indonesia’s Missing Millions: Erasing Discrimination in Birth Certification in Indonesia’s Missing Millions

Indonesia’s rate of birth registration is imprecisely measured but is low, especially among the poorer, rural, population. At the same time, the country has developed a system of population registrati...

by Cate Sumner | On 20 Nov 2015

State and District Boundary Changes in India: 1961-2001

For a large variety of data recorded by the Census of India, such as those on language, age structure, religion, and on individual Scheduled Castes and Tribes, the district is the lowest level of ag...

by Hemanshu Kumar | On 17 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

The Sector Reforms Process in Rural Drinking Water and Sanitation: A Review of the Role of WASMO in Gujarat

This paper provides an assessment of the interventions in reforming the drinking water and sanitation sector in Gujarat as through the Water and Sanitation Management Organisation (WASMO) from a sup...

by Keshab Das | On 06 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

Native Terror Factories

This digest throws light on how terrorism has affected the social and religious atmosphere of the country. This digest tries to bring a clear picture on the dangerous understanding that a particular c...

by Ram Puniyani | 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

Child Labour and Legislative Framework

Employment of children amounts to denial of rights of future generation and depriving children of their opportunities to growth. Moreover, working at tender age in hazardous conditions exposes childre...

by Helen Sekhar | On 26 Oct 2015

State Food Provisioning as Social Protection: Debating India’s National Food Security Law

This report provides an overview on the main issues debated during the development and passage of the India’s National Food Security Act (2013), which legally binds national and state governments to e...

by Harsh Mander | On 20 Oct 2015

Gender Equality and Human Rights

The achievement of substantive equality is understood as having four dimensions: redressing disadvantage; countering stigma, prejudice, humiliation and violence; transforming social and institutional...

by | On 20 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

The Battle for Bihar

While the politics of caste and personalities do seem to be relevant to the elections to the Legislative Assembly in the eastern Indian State of Bihar, with the multi-phase polls beginning on 12 Octob...

by | On 19 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

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

Health of Muslims in Maharashtra

This report is an effort to understand the health status of Muslims in Maharashtra. The report is based on analysis of National Family Health Surveys (NFHS), District Level Household Surveys (DLHS)...

by Sana Contractor | On 25 Sep 2015

Contesting Consensus. Disputing Inequality: Agonistic Subjectivities in Rural Bihar

This paper discusses the manner in which the rural poor in one of India’s most impoverished regions engage with and in politics by analyzing the way in which a landless Yadav couple tries to forestall...

by Indrajit Roy | On 24 Sep 2015

The ‘Land of the Vaish’? Caste Structure and Ideology in Mauritius

Mauritius has been an independent nation since 1968. It was founded on the history and structures of a plantation society and is mainly inhabited by descendants of Indian (and Hindu) indentured labour...

by Mathieu Claveyrolas | On 24 Sep 2015

Disadvantage and Discrimination in Self-Employment: Caste Gaps in Earnings in Indian Small Businesses

Using the 2004-05 India Human Development Survey data, The paper aims to estimate and decompose the earnings of household businesses owned by historically marginalized social groups known as Scheduled...

by Ashwini Deshpande | On 24 Sep 2015

Human Rights for All: International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

This Handbook is mainly for human rights practitioners who want to familiarise themselves with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and use the human rights fram...

by | On 23 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

Assessment of State Implementation of Business Reforms

This report – “Assessment of State Implementation of Business Reforms” is a scorecard to take stock of what reforms have happened, and to identify the way forward for States. The report highlights the...

by World Bank | On 15 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

The Costs and Benefits of Domestic Work as a Livelihood Strategy

Domestic work remains one of the key occupations for many female migrants in Southeast Asia. As a low skilled, low-wage job with often inadequate legal protection, domestic work is an occupation that...

by | On 14 Sep 2015

Women, Business and the Law 2016: Getting to Equal

The report reveal the magnitude of the challenge that the world still faces in the quest for gender equality. This report promotes the cause of inclusion of women by informing research and policy disc...

by World Bank | On 11 Sep 2015

Debt-Bondage Slavery in India

There have been numerous investigations in recent years to determine the incidence and prevalence of modern slavery worldwide, and debt bondage in India has been found to be the most extensive form of...

by Sarah Knight | On 10 Sep 2015

Dalit Women and Social Exclusion in Nepal: A Concern for Social Justice

Nepali society is highly stratified with many glaring inequalities among different socioeconomic groups. The worst positioned among them are Dalits. The caste system segregates Dalits from the rest to...

by | On 10 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

Socio-Demographic Factors Associated with Domestic Violence in Urban Slums, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Domestic violence is identified as a public health problem. It is associated with adverse maternal health. This study examined the prevalence and determinants of domestic violence among women in urban...

by C.P. Prakasam | On 09 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

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

From Promises to Delivery: Putting Human Rights at the Heart of the Millenium Development Goals

This report focuses on three main issues – gender equality, maternal health and slums – which provide clear examples of how the MDGs and the targets set fall short of international human rights standa...

by Amnesty International AI, | On 31 Aug 2015

Report on Early Childhood Development and Legal Entitlements

The Report consists of seven Chapters. While Chapter I introduces the issue at hand, Chapter II captures various International Conventions, Treaties and Declarations that concern the issue of ECD. Cha...

by Law Commission 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

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

Death Penalty Through Self Incrimination in India

This ACHR report focuses on six specific case studies on the right to life in the context of death penalty. The report highlights Constitutional and other legal guarantees against self-incrimination a...

by Asian Centre for Human Rights ACHR | On 24 Aug 2015

High School Experiences, the Gender Wage Gap, and the Selection of Occupation

This paper finds that high-school leadership experiences explain a significant portion of the residual gender wage gap and selection into management occupations. The results imply that high-school lea...

by | On 24 Aug 2015

Patriarchal Beliefs, Women’s Empowerment, and General Well-being

This paper highlights that depowerment of women is linked to the belief and practice of patriarchy which subjugates women at various levels – political, economic, social, and cultural. Patriarchy is a...

by | On 20 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

Cotton’s Forgotten Children: Child Labour and Below Minimum Wages in Hybrid Cottonseed Production in India

Data for 2014-15 shows that children under 14 years still account for nearly 25% of the total workforce in cottonseed farms in India. In 2014-15, a total of around 200,000 children below 14 years were...

by Davuluri Venkateswarlu | On 30 Jul 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

Freedom to Marry: The Constitutional Choice and KHAP Panchayats

This paper talks about the right to marry as an essential freedom of all human beings as it relates to their right to self-expression and their right to associate with a person of their choice. The au...

by | On 27 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

Girls’ and Women’s Right to Education

This document compiles the explicit references to girls’ and women’s right to education in national reports and is intended to serve as a practical tool for both advocacy and monitoring. The factsh...

by UNESCO UNESCO | On 22 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

The World of India's Girls

India today stands at a unique place in history: we are a young country a country that has seen the emergence of a middle class of over 60 million making it a hub of consumerism and private enterpri...

by Save the Children | On 07 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

Sex-ratio Imbalance in Asia: Trends, Consequences and Policy Responses

This paper offers a regional overview of the mechanisms and consequences of the growing gender imbalances, as observed today in Asia. The extent and timings of the trend towards more masculine populat...

by Christophe Z. Guilmoto | On 02 Jul 2015

The Sunday Edit: The House that Constitution Built

The right to acquire/rent property anywhere in the nation is a fantasy fostered by the Constitution and the rhetoric of modernisation and urbanisation.

by Pramod K. Nayar | On 28 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

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

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

Religion: A Tool for Discrimination in South Asia?

The challenge of independence for South Asia was to weld diverse communities into composite nation states that recognised pluralism, respected human rights and guaranteed freedom and equality for all....

by South Asians for Human Rights SAHR | On 15 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

Implementation of Forest Rights Act: Undoing the Historical Injustices?

This paper is based on a critical literature review and looks into the implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) in India, with particular reference to the two states of Chhattisgarh and Gujarat....

by Madhusudan Bandi | On 09 Jun 2015

Socio-Economic and Ecological Benefits of Mangrove Plantation

In this study an earnest attempt has been made to understand the social and environmental aspects of mangroves in Gujarat state. The study has considered various issues of social, environment and econ...

by | On 08 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

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

Gender Wage Gap in the Last Ten Years: A Case Study of India

This paper examines changes in the gender wage gap in India between the years 1999-2000 and 2009-2010, and analyses its determinants. Results of the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition reveal that in the las...

by Nayni Gupta | 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

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

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

“They Say We’re Dirty” Denying an Education to India’s Marginalized

In 2009, India enacted the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, which provides for free and compulsory education to all children aged 6 to 14 based on principles of equity and non-d...

by Human Rights Watch | On 02 Jun 2015

Stateless in Law: Two Assessments

This report comprises two assessments. The first is a theoretical analysis of the prevention and reduction of statelessness under international laws. By acceding to the ICCPR and the ICSCER conventio...

by Charlotte-Anne Malischewski | 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

Bad Karma or Discrimination? Male-Female Wage Gaps among Salaried Workers in India

This paper analyses the issue of gender parity in wages by focusing on the evolution of male-female wage gaps for an emerging economy, India, and decomposes the gaps to understand patterns of gender-b...

by Ashwini Deshpande | On 29 May 2015

Report of the Working Group on Labour Laws and other Regulations for the Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-17)

The Working Group aims to deliberate on the existing labour laws and the need for review of these laws in order to protect the interest of workers more effectively while at the same time promoting gro...

by Ministry of Labour and Employment GoI | On 26 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

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

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

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

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

YOJANA Volume 58, Issue 1- January 2014

The January 2014 issue of YOJANA contains the following articles - Tribal and Marginalized Communities, Constitutional Provisions, Laws and Tribes, Actualising Adivasi Self-Rule, The Food Bill, Wild F...

by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting MIB | On 11 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

Socio-economic Impact of Implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in India

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005 which is a rights-based flagship scheme of the Government of India with effect from 2 February, 2006, guarantees at least 100...

by | On 06 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

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

The Umbrella Revolution and the Future of China-Hong Kong Relations

This article, written during the 2014 civil disobedience 'Umbrella Revolution' in Hong Kong, suggests that this protest became a turning point in China Hong Kong relations. Suggesting that the protest...

by Willy Lam | On 29 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

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

Report of the Committee for Evolving a Composite Development Index of States

This report however, also takes a step forward in trying to draw a balance between “needs” and “performance”. Given that poor administration or weak institutions in a recipient state can fritter away...

by Ministry of Finance | On 23 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

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

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

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

Budget (2015-16) Speech of Haryana Finance Minister

Budget speech of Haryana Finance Minister

by Capt. Abhimanyu | 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

Budget Speech of Maharashtra Part I 2015-16

Speech of Finance Minister of Maharashtra

by | 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

Budget Brief 2015-16 Gujarat State

It is the budget brief of Gujarat state for the year 2015-16.

by Saurabh Patel | 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

Gujarat Budget Speech: 2015-16

Gujarat Budget 2015-16.

by Saurabh Patel | 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

Social Exclusion in the Context of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

Access to water and sanitation are strongly influenced by identities of caste, class and gender. The launch of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan presents an opportunity to address some concerns pertaining to...

by Kanika Kaul | On 19 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

Caste, Corruption and Political Competition in India

Voters in India are often perceived as being biased in favor of parties that claim to represent their caste. The caste bias is incorporated into voter preferences and examine its in influence on the...

by Avidit Acharya | On 12 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

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

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

Impediments to Contract Enforcement in Day Labour Markets: A Perspective from India

This paper focuses on one such setting in India's urban informal economy: the 'day labour' market for casual labour. We survey seven such markets in Navi Mumbai (a city on the outskirts of Mumbai),...

by Karthikeya Naraparaju | On 12 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

Economic Evaluation of Minority Welfare

The authors review the conceptualisation, and implementation of policies related to the welfare of minority communities in India, with a special focus on Muslims as a minority group. Using the case s...

by Ritu Dewan | On 21 Nov 2014

Efficiency in Healthcare Delivery: Performance of Public Services

This paper focusses on the current health profile of the state of Maharashtra, and its performance as against other growth driven states like Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. Using parameters such as birth rat...

by Manisha Karne | On 21 Nov 2014

Agrarian Poverty, Nutrition and Economic Class – A Study of Gujarat, India

This paper analyses poverty and calorific undernourishment in the Indian state of Gujarat, where high and market-led industrial growth has resulted in rapid economic improvement. The study is carried...

by Mely Caballero Anthony | On 21 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

Socio-Economic Status of the Notified Minority Communities

The report provides a detailed quantitative account of the four notified minority communities – Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Parsis using all available information. The study takes into account th...

by Institute Human Development | On 11 Nov 2014

The Elusive Nature of Educational Incentives

This paper examines the assumptions underlying educational incentive schemes with the help of data collected on the status and implementation of three such schemes for minority communities in Mahara...

by Disha Nawani | On 11 Nov 2014

Socio Economic Profile of Muslims in Maharashtra

Maharashtra’s multicultural milieu is marked by crucial contribution made by Muslims. The Sachar Committee Report, 2006 stated that the condition of Muslim in Maharashtra demands special attention o...

by Vibhuti Patel | On 11 Nov 2014

A Report on Health Inequities in Maharashtra

This study project was undertaken by SATHI and CEHAT to make a small contribution in this emerging field of study of health inequities in India, and with the objective of strengthening advocacy on hea...

by Srijit Mishra | On 11 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

The Global Gender Gap Report 2014

Through the Global Gender Gap Report 2014, the World Economic Forum quantifies the magnitude of gender-based disparities and tracks their progress over time. While no single measure can capture the co...

by World Economic Forum WEF | On 29 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

Violence against Women and Girls: Lessons from South Asia

Violence against Women and Girls: Lessons from South Asia examines the prevalence and factors associated with various types of violence against women and girls in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Indi...

by Jennifer L. Solotaroff | On 25 Sep 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

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

The Roots of Gender Inequality in Developing Countries

Is the high degree of gender inequality in developing countries in education, personal autonomy, and more explained by underdevelopment itself? Or do the societies that are poor today hold certain cu...

by Seema Jayachandran | 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

Event, Memory and Historical Analysis: A Reconstruction of Temple Destructions in India

This paper will highlight the myths that surround the question of mass conversion to Islam and the so called temple destructions by the Muslims during the formative years of the Sultanate and the Mugh...

by Amit K Suman | On 24 Jul 2014

The Din of Silence: Reconstructing the Keezhvenmani Dalit Massacre

This paper is an attempt to reconstruct the Keezhvenmani Dalit massacre of 1968 by placing it in the larger socio-political scenario, giving it a ‘pre-history,’ scouring the various narratives of the...

by Nithila Kanagasabai | On 24 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

Representation of Dalit Women in Dalit men’s autobiography and in Dalit women’s autobiography

This paper focuses on autobiographies by Kaushalya Baisantri and Surajpal Chauhan to look into the ways in which Dalit life-narratives written by men and women vary in terms of emotions, nature of the...

by Shweta Singh | On 24 Jul 2014

Of Reigning Silences and Quivering Words: Kumher Kaand of 1992

This paper is an attempt to revisit an event that was barely given any space in public memory – the Kumher Dalit Massacre of 1992. The pogrom in question is one of the most brutal instances of choreog...

by Ridhima Sharma | 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

Who Goes? Failures of Marital Provisioning and Women's Agency among Less Skilled Emigrant Women Workers from Kerala

This paper draws upon a selection of narratives from interviews with over 150 less skilled emigrant and returnee women workers from Trivandrum district to argue that the conditions that structure i...

by Praveena Kodoth | On 14 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

Laws and Son Preference in India- A Reality Check

This study underscores the need to connect the dots if the practice of son preference and its manifestation, discrimination against daughters, is to be addressed. Clearly, it is not only about impleme...

by Kirti Singh | On 07 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

Incidence of Poor and Poverty Risk in India across NSS Regions for Rual and Urban Areas, 2004-05 and 2009-10

This note provides an estimate of incidence of poor and poverty risk in India across NSS regions for 2004-05 and 2009-10 in rural and urban areas. It raises concern on increasing poverty risk and als...

by Srijit Mishra | On 23 Jun 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

"They Say We’re Dirty": Denying an Education to India’s Marginalized

The 77-page report documents discrimination by school authorities in four Indian states against Dalit, tribal, and Muslim children. The discrimination creates an unwelcome atmosphere that can lead to...

by Human Rights Watch | On 17 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 Employment Imperative: Report on the World Social Situation 2007

The report closely examines four areas of increasing concern that of particular importance when addressing the issue of employment: jobless growth, global informalisation of the labour market, economi...

by United Nations UN | On 16 May 2014

Sanitizing the Profane

This paper seeks to understand the struggle of the ‘original’ singers/musicians of the theripaatu to retain the form in the face of censorship and commercial compulsions. It explores the complex inter...

by Shweta Radhakrishnan | On 13 May 2014

Overcoming Barriers: Human Mobility and Development

The report investigates migration in the context of demographic changes and trends in both growth and inequality. It also presents more detailed and nuanced individual, family and village experiences,...

by Jeni Klugman | On 06 May 2014

Unnecessary Burden: Gender discrimination and Uterine prolapse in Nepal

Widespread and systemic gender discrimination in Nepal has led to hundreds of thousands of women suffering from a reproductive health condition that leaves them in great pain, unable to carry out dail...

by Amnesty International AI, | On 30 Apr 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

Human Development in India: Challenges for a Society in Transition

This report highlights the way in which poverty and a?uence intersect with age-old divisions of regional inequalities, gender, caste, and religion that have long structured human development in India....

by Sonalde Desai | On 17 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

Food Prices and Child Nutrition in Andhra Pradesh

This paper makes an attempt to assess the impact of food price rise on the nutritional status of children of five year old. Young lives panel data provides the nutritional status of the children whe...

by S. Galab | On 27 Mar 2014

Is Self-Employment the Answer to Caste Discrimination? Decomposing the Earnings Gap in Indian Household Nonfarm Businesses

Using the India Human Development Survey data for 2004-05, two methodologies are used to estimate the earnings structure of household nonfarm businesses owned by Scheduled Castes and Tribes (SCSTs)...

by Ashwini Deshpande | On 20 Mar 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

Saksham: Measures for Ensuring the Safety of Women and Programmes for Gender Sensitization on Campuses

As institutions of higher education engaged in teaching, research and the spread of knowledge, (Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) are well placed to reflect on, become sensitized to and oppose...

by University Grants Commission UGC | On 06 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

Breaking the Caste Barrier: Intergenerational Mobility in India

The report studies the extent and evolution of this lack of mobility by contrasting the inter-generational mobility rates of the historically disadvantaged scheduled castes and tribes in India with th...

by Viktoria Hnatkovska | On 28 Feb 2014

Social Mobility of Caste and Tribes in India

Explains how the social difference between the caste system and different tribes was contained even through the caste system was officially abolished. Presents a general model of social mobility based...

by Panizza Philipp | On 28 Feb 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

CAO Audit of IFC Investment in Coastal Gujarat Power Limited , India

CAO received a complaint regarding IFC’s investment in CGPL from Machimar Adhikar Sangharsh Sangathan (MASS), the Association for the Struggle for Fishworkers’ Rights , representing fisher people li...

by O ffice of the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman CAO | On 26 Feb 2014

Public Opposition Halts Violation of Environmental Norms: Case of APSEZ, Gujarat

All too often blinded by the dazzle of development people and planners do not see the trail of destruction that accompanies new initiatives. It need not be that way. As the case of Adani Ports and SEZ...

by Yogi Aggarwal | On 26 Feb 2014

Report of the Committee for Inspection of M/s Adani Port & SEZ Ltd.. Mundra, Gujarat

On September 14, 2012, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) constituted a Committee for inspection of Adani Port and SEZ Ltd., Mundra, Gujarat based on complaints received from Kheti Vikas...

by Ministry of Environment and Forests GOI | On 26 Feb 2014

Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India

In 2006 Sachar Committee prepared a report on the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community in India. The Indian Constitution is committed to the equality of citizens and the res...

by Ministry of Human Resource Development, GOI | On 20 Feb 2014

Is Self-Employment the Answer to Caste Discrimination? Decomposing the Earnings Gap in Indian Household NonFarm Business

Using the India Human Development Survey data for 2004-05, two methodologies are employed to estimate the earnings structure of household nonfarm businesses owned by Scheduled Castes and Tribes (SCS...

by Ashwini Deshpande | On 17 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

Medico Friend Circle Bulletin, 357-360, July 2013- Feb 2014

Contents? Social Discrimination in Health How to think of Discrimination? Why Casteism Persists Even in the 21st Century? Discrimination, Stigma and a Typology of Violence: Some Conceptual Reflect...

by Medico Friend Circle | On 08 Feb 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

Internal Migration for Education and Employment among Youth in India

This paper sheds light on the issue of internal migration for education and employment among the youth. i.e those aged 15-32 years. The paper is a first step towards addressing the issue of whether ...

by Ajay Sharma | On 24 Jan 2014

Gender Equality and the Labour Market: Cambodia, Kazakhstan and Philippines

Increasing job opportunities and decent work for women are essential for inclusive growth, and they are vital for advancing economic and social development in a country. This approach to attaining eco...

by Asian Development Bank Institute | On 16 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

Migrants' Private Giving and Development: Diasporic Influences on Development in Central Gujarat, India

The paper addresses the migration-development debate by developing a framework for understanding who are the migrants, what they are sending back, and how these transfers are being utilised in the lo...

by Puja Guha | On 28 Nov 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

Preliminary Census Abstract on Slum Population

Preliminary report on the extent of slum population to the total population in India, 2011. According to the preliminary reports, the share of slum population has increased in the last decade with Mah...

by Planning Commission, India | On 12 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

Diaspora Philanthropy from a Homeland Perspective: Reciprocity and Contestation over Donations in Central Gujarat, India

This paper deals with the philanthropic between Indian migrants and the local community in Gujarat from a homeland perspective. It is based on research in rural central Gujarat, one of the regions i...

by Natascha Dekkers | On 05 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

Welfare and Poverty Impacts of India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme: Evidence from Andhra Pradesh

India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) is one of the largest public works programs globally. Understanding the impacts of NREGS and the pathway through which its impacts are realiz...

by Songqing Jin | On 14 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

Model State Affordable Housing Policy for Urban Areas

The aim of this policy is to create an enabling environment for providing “affordable housing for all” with special emphasis on EWS and LIG and other vulnerable sections of society such as Scheduled c...

by Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation MOHUPA | On 09 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

A Human Tragedy Unfolds As the State Watches: A Preliminary Citizens' Report

n September 17-18, 2013, an 11-member team from five organizations based in Lucknow, Chitrakoot, Muzaffarnagar and Delhi, respectively visited relief camps in two affected districts of Muzaffarnagar a...

by Vanangana Vanangana | On 23 Sep 2013

Report of the Fact Finding Investigation Conducted to Ascertain Facts in the Case of Alleged Rape and Murder of Dalit girl in Jind district of Haryana

On August 24, 2013, a 20 year old Dalit girl was brutally raped and murdered in Jind, Haryana, while she was on her way to write an examination. Her body was found near a canal the next day by the pol...

by Nivedita Menon | On 14 Sep 2013

A Critique: HIV/AIDS and the Legal and Policy Framework in Sri Lanka

This paper discusses and comments on the legal and policy dimension and the obstacles it poses to a sustainable and effective response to HIV/AIDS as many do not come forward to obtain medical servic...

by Bhavani Fonseka | On 14 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

Preliminary Evidence on Internal Migration, Remittances, and Teen Schooling in India

Migration can serve as an outlet for employment, higher earnings, and reduced income risk for households in developing countries. The 2004–2005 Human Development Profile of India survey is used to exa...

by Valerie Mueller | On 06 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

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

The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Bill, 2012

An act to provide for the prohibition of employment as manual scavengers and their families and for matters connected there with.

by Parliamentary Research Service PRS | On 08 Aug 2013

Patterns of Migration, Water Scarcity and Caste in Rural Northern Gujarat

Patterns of rural-urban migration and employment shifts in a region that is facing ongoing depletion of groundwater resources in Northern Gujarat, India is discussed. Given that migration typically d...

by Ram Fishman | On 30 Jul 2013

Press Release: List of Current MLAs and MPs with Self-declared Serious Cases that have been Pending for More than 10 years

List of current MLAs and MPs with self-declared serious cases that have been pending for more than 10 years. [NEW]. URL:[http://adrindia.org/sites/default/files/List%20of%20current%20MLAs-MPs%20with%2...

by National Election Watch NEW | On 30 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

Why Is Mobility in India So Low? Social Insurance, Inequality, and Growth

This paper examines the hypothesis that the persistence of low spatial and marital mobility in rural India, despite increased growth rates and rising inequality in recent years, is due to the existenc...

by Kaivan Munshi | On 22 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

Land Degradation and Migration in a Dry Land Region in India

Migration literature has always considered environmental constraints as one of the prime movers of populations, especially from dry regions, where water rather than land is the primary limiting factor...

by Amita Shah | On 28 Jun 2013

Recession and Child Labour: A Theoritical Analysis

This paper provides a theoretical model of the impact of recession (income shock) on household's child labor (CL) decision. Parental altruism is endogenized; as their choice of substituting child lab...

by Sahana Roy Chowdhury | On 25 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

Refining State Level Comparisons in India

The performance of Indian States are analyzed across three critical sectors – health, education and infrastructure are analyzed. An index is constructed for each using the Principal Component Analys...

by Pranjul Bhandari | On 10 Jun 2013

Access to Higher Education in India: An Exploration of its Antecedents

Using appropriate measures of participation, this paper explores if the role of socio-religious background and other factors has changed over a period of time. This dynamics of participation in High...

by Rakesh Basant | On 05 Jun 2013

Interstate Migration

Panelists discuss the issues arising out of interstate migrations and its impact on the overall economy. [youtube].

by NDTV NDTV Profit | On 04 Jun 2013

Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 in Rural India

This booklet explains the SECC,2011, as it relates to rural India, and details the entire process in simple language. [Ministry of Rural Development]. URL:[http://rural.nic.in/sites/downloads/general...

by Ministry of Rural Development GOI | On 02 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

Entrepreneurship or Survival? Caste and Gender of Small Business in India

Unit-level data from the registered manufacturing segment of the Third and Fourth rounds of the Indian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) census data for 2001-2 and 2006-7 is used to understan...

by Ashwini Deshpande | On 08 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

Growth and Deprivation in India: What Does Recent Data Say?

The report investigate the relationship between growth and deprivation in India, an issue of immense interest. Given the continuing controversy in India over poverty lines, they used a framework that...

by Sripad Motiram | On 07 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

Inequalities Reinforced? Social Groups, Gender and Employment

Based on the last four rounds of NSS data the study explores some dimensions of women’s labour market participation across social groups. [CWDS Occasional Paper No.59]. URL:[http://www.cwds.ac.in/OCPa...

by Neetha N | 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

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

The Gender Differences in School Enrolment and Returns to Education in Pakistan

In this study attempt has been made to link the gender differences in parental resource allocation in demand for education at primary, secondary and tertiary level of education to gender differences i...

by Madeeha Gohar Qureshi | On 24 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

A Gender-Based Theory of the Origin of the Caste System of India

This paper proposes a theory of the origins of India’s caste system by explicitly recognizing the productivity of women in complementing their husbands’ skills. Its interesting to know the emergence...

by Chris Bidner | On 04 Jan 2013

Kerala-The Land of Development Paradoxes

An attempt has been made to understand the paradoxes of Kerala's development like the state's per capita consumer expenditure is more than the per capita state domestic product. But the nutritional i...

by K.K. George | On 18 Dec 2012

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

An Assessment of Livelihood and Educational Status of Sanitation Workers in Ahmedabad, Gujarat

This study was conducted in 25 neighborhoods and 5 zones of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC). A total of 50 sanitation workers were interviewed and through them the condition of their famil...

by Ashish Mishra | On 05 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

Mid Term Appraisal of Eleventh Five Year Plan - 2007 - 2012

The Mid-Term Appraisal (MTA) reviews the experience in the first three years of the Plan and seeks to identify areas where corrective steps may be needed. The chapter presents a broad overview of the...

by Planning Commission | On 05 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

Education and Employment among Muslims in India: An Analysis of Patterns and Trends

The paper reviews the available evidence on the patterns of Muslim participation in education and employment. Comparing the estimates derived from the most recent round of the National Sample Surve...

by Rakesh Basant | On 27 Sep 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

National Commission for Minorities: Communalising Assam Riots?

The Asian Centre for Human Rights has alleged that the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) is communalizing the riots in Assam. [ACHR]. URL:[http://www.achrweb.org/reports/india/NCM-2012.pdf].

by Asian Centre for Human Rights ACHR | On 24 Aug 2012

The Protection of Women Aganist Sexual Harassment at Work Place Bill, 2010

A bill to provide protection against sexual harassment of women at workplace and for the prevention and redressal of complaints of sexual harassment and for matters connected therewith or incidental...

by Parliamentary Research Service PRS | On 17 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

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

Gender Wage Discrimination in India: Glass Ceiling or Sticky Floor?

Traditional analysis of gender wage gaps has largely focused on average gaps between men and women, and mean wage decompositions such as the Blinder-Oaxaca (1973) decomposition method. To answer the q...

by Shantanu Khanna | On 26 Jul 2012

Conserving, Augmenting and Sharing Water

There is a huge crisis for water all around the world, certainly in India with groundwater table going down and drinking water selling almost at the rate of toned milk. That also shows that country ha...

by Anil K Gupta | On 20 Jul 2012

How Close Does the Apple Fall to the Tree? Some Evidence on Intergenerational Occupational Mobility from India

Using data from the India Human Development Survey (IHDS) 2005, intergenerational occupational mobility in India is examined, an issue on which very few systematic and rigorous studies exist. Individ...

by Sripad Motiram | On 12 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

India's SEZ Policy

Over the last few decades India has emerged as an economic giant. In 2000 the Special Economic Zone (SEZs) policy became part of a strategy to maintain high growth and promote India’s manufacturing ...

by Ebba Mårtensson | 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

Cultural Proximity and Loan Outcomes

Evidence is presented to show that shared codes, religious beliefs, ethnicity - cultural proximity - between lenders and borrowers improves the efficiency of credit allocation. In-group preferential t...

by Raymond Fisman | On 05 Jul 2012

State Health Insurance and Out-of-Pocket Health Expenditures in Andhra Pradesh, India

In 2007, the state of Andhra Pradesh in southern India began rolling out the Aarogyasri health insurance to reduce catastrophic health expenditures in households “below the poverty line.” The program...

by Victoria Fan | On 05 Jul 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

Analysis of Gender Wage Differential in China’s Urban Labor Market

This paper estimates the gender wage gap and its composition in China’s urban labor market using the 2009 survey data from the Chinese Family Panel Studies. Several estimation and decomposition meth...

by Biwei Su | 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

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

Hate Crimes in India: An Economic Analysis of Violence and Atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes

Crimes against the historically marginalized Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) by the upper castes in India represent an extreme form of prejudice and discrimination. In this paper, the ef...

by Smriti Sharma | On 16 May 2012

Vital Stats: 60 Years of Parliament

On May 13, 2012 Parliament completes 60 years since its first sitting. To mark the occasion, a special sitting of both Houses has been organised on the day. Recently, there has been much public scru...

by Rohit Kumar | 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

Measuring the Contribution of Bt Cotton Adoption to India’s Cotton Yields Leap

This study examines the contribution of Bt cotton adoption to long- term average cotton yields in India using a panel data analysis of production variables in nine Indian cotton-producing states from...

by Guillaume P Gruere | On 25 Apr 2012

NAC Working Group on Gender and the Sex Ratio Draft Recommendations

The NAC Working Group held three national consultations on different aspects of the issue of declining child sex ratio. The Working Group conveners also separately met with Ministry of Women and Child...

by Farah Naqvi | On 25 Apr 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

Research Study on Women’s Empowerment, Good-governance and Decentralisation : Assuring Women’s Participation in Panchayats of Two Backward Districts of Northern Part of West Bengal

The study focused on the factors and forces behind the participation of women in Panchayat Structure specially after the seventy third Constitution Amendment Act. The role performance, role awarenes...

by Dilip Kumar Sarkar | 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

Madhya Pradesh Budget Speech: 2012-13

Hon’ble Finance Minister Shri Raghavji presented the budget for year 2012-13. The salient features of the budget estimates of 2012-13 are as follows:- • Total expenditure of ` 80030.98 crores for th...

by Madhya Pradesh Government | On 13 Apr 2012

West Bengal Budget Speech: 2012-13

Speech by Amit Mitra, Minister of Finance. [Government of West Bengal]. URL:[http://www.wbfin.nic.in/writereaddata/Budget_Speech/2012_English.pdf].

by West Bengal Government | On 13 Apr 2012

Gujarat Budget 2012-13

Budget Speech by Minister of Finance. [Government of Gujarat]. URL:[http://financedepartment.gujarat.gov.in/budget12_13_pdf/FM_Speech_English_Part_A_Final.pdf].

by Ministry of Finance Government of Gujarat | On 12 Apr 2012

Chronicling the Hindutva Threat

Review of The Saffron Condition, Politics of Repression and Exclusion in Neo Liberal India By Subhash Gatade; Three Essays Collective, New Delhi; Pp. 475, Rs 500.

by Ram Puniyani | On 04 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

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

Annual Report (2011-12) on The Working of State Power Utilities and Electricity Departments

Major shifts in the policy initiated in the electricity sector are well documented, only then the effect of the policy change can be analyzed, especially from the point of view of laying down future p...

by Planning Commission | 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

Forty Eighth Report on The Lok Pal Bill, 2011

The report includes a specific recommendation to categorically have a statutory provision imparting genuine independence to the CBI by declaring, for the first time, that it shall not be subject, on...

by Rajya Sabha | On 14 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

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

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

Mumbai Riots, 1992-3: Revisiting the Affected

Review of the book 'Riots and After in Mumbai: Chronicles of Truth and Reconciliation' Meena Menon, Sage Publications India, 2011, Pp 267 + xcii, Rs. 595/-

by Irfan Engineer | On 17 Feb 2012

Formalizing the Informal Economy: Women’s Autonomous Self-Employment in Rural South India

This paper considers the effects of contemporary restructuring of women and men’s employment in rural south India alongside ongoing efforts to recast India’s poor rural women as entrepreneurs. This s...

by Samantha Watson | On 15 Feb 2012

Selling Formal Insurance to the Informally Insured

Unpredictable rainfall is an important risk for agricultural activity, and farmers in developing countries often receive incomplete insurance from informal risk-sharing networks. The demand for, and...

by A. Mushfiq Mobarak | On 10 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

Is Caste Destiny? Occupational Diversification among Dalits in Rural India

he caste system – a system of elaborately stratified social hierarchy – distinguishes India from most other societies. Among the most distinctive factors of the caste system is the close link betwee...

by Ira Gang | On 07 Feb 2012

Who is the Identifiable Victim?: Caste Interacts with Sympathy in India

Earlier studies have documented an “identifiable victim effect”: people donate more to help individual people than to groups. Evidence suggests that this is in part due to an emotional reaction to the...

by Ashwini Deshpande | On 03 Feb 2012

Girls Take Over: Long-term Impacts of an Early Stage Education Intervention in the Philippines

This paper examines the long-term impacts of improved school quality at the elementary school stage on subsequent schooling investments and labor market outcomes using unique data from a recent survey...

by Futoshi Yamauchi | On 31 Jan 2012

To Bt or Not to Bt? Risk and Uncertainty Considerations in Technology Assessment

Production costs and crop incomes in drought years are analyzed to test a simplistic theory of risk based on first principles. A mixed-methods framework is employed to draw inferences by combining da...

by Sarthak Gaurav | On 24 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

K to 12: The Key to Quality Education?

The continuous deterioration of the quality of education in the Philippines has prompted the DepEd to push for the implementation of the K to 12 program, which entails the institutionalization...

by Senate Economic Planning Office SEPO | On 23 Jan 2012

India’s Draft Universal Periodic Report-II: A Case of Forced Marriage?

The paper has the objective of viewing the condition of women in terms of freedom of choice, freedom and expression and right of privacy. Also it views violence against women.

by Asian Centre for Human Rights ACHR | On 20 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

Parental Education as a Criterion for Affirmative Action in Higher Education: A Preliminary Analysis

Affirmative action, especially in the form of reservation policies, to address the issues of inclusion and equity has been in place in India for a long time. Through these policies higher participatio...

by Rakesh Basant | On 09 Jan 2012

Are All Migrants Really Worse Off in Urban Labour Markets? New Empirical Evidence from China

The rapid and massive increase of rural-to-urban migration in China has drawn attention to the welfare of migrant workers, particularly to their working conditions and pay. This paper uses data from...

by Jason Gagnon | On 06 Jan 2012

Can the Bill Bring Desired Outcomes?

The Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill (LARR) is considered to be a flawed piece of legislation. An alternative method based on auction based pricing mechanism is suggested here.

by Maitreesh Ghatak | On 05 Jan 2012

The Unseen Skills of the Dalit Population

Review of the book Post-Hindu India: A Discourse on Dalit-Bahujan, Socio-Spiritual and Scientific Revolution, Kancha Ilaiah SAGE India, New Delhi 2009, Rs 295/-, pp 340.

by Vaijayanta Anand | On 03 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

Vital Stats: Parliament in 2011

The year in Parliament was characterised by frequent disruptions and protests over a host of issues. The issue of the establishment of a Lokpal prompted both disruption as well as intense debate. A...

by Rohit Kumar | On 02 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

Comparison of the Lok Pal Bill, 2011 and Lok Pal and Lokayuktas Bill, 2011

Major differences between the Lok Pal Bill 2011 and the Lok Pal and Lokayuktas Bill, 2011.URL: [http://www.prsindia.org/uploads/media/Lok%20Pal%20Bill%202011/Major%20differences%20between%20the%20Lok%...

by Parliamentary Research Service PRS | On 28 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

Social Implications of Economic Reforms in India

Review of the book 'Economic Reforms and Social Exclusion: Impact of Liberalization on Marginalized Groups in India', by K S Chalam, Sage Publications, New Delhi, India.

by Rajesh Komath | On 26 Dec 2011

Will Neoliberal Policies Resolve Water Sector Dilemmas? Learnings from Maharashtra and Gujarat

This paper examines how the neoliberal policies have influenced the water sector reform policies and interventions in India, particularly, in the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. In doing so, the...

by Viswanathan P K | On 26 Dec 2011

Can these Policies Change their Life?

Women who come into the stream of domestic workers are poorly educated and do not know their rights. It is necessary that these women know about their rights. Even after reading the policies some ques...

by Anwesha Sen | On 19 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

High Level Expert Group Report on Universal Health Coverage for India

The recommendations that follow take cognizance of the extraordinary opportunities that India offers – and the possibility for India to take a lead in introducing a well-designed UHC system that i...

by Planning Commission | On 15 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

Where Socrates Fears to Tread……

Review of the book 'Social Income and Insecurity: A Study in Gujarat' by Guy Standing, Jeemol Unni, Renana Jhabvala, and Uma Rani Routledge India, 2010 216 pages.

by N. Vijayamohanan Pillai | On 12 Dec 2011

Data from State Assemblies: Some trends

How often do our State Assemblies meet? Do MLAs get enough opportunity to scrutinize Bills? Are all budget demands discussed on the floor of the House? PRS studied the work done by 13 State Assemblies...

by Parliamentary Research Service PRS | On 07 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

Draft of combined Fourth and Fifth Periodic Reports of India to CEDAW

This Report covers developments in implementation of the Convention in India from 2006 to 2011. The harmonised guidelines for preparation of Common Core Document and the reporting Guidelines of the...

by Government of India Ministry of Women and Child Development | On 25 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

Consumption and Social Identity: Evidence from India

Spending on consumption items is examined which have signaling value in social interactions across groups with distinctive social identities in India, where social identities are defined by caste an...

by Melanie Khamis | On 10 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

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

An Economic Policy and Legal Analysis of The Micro Finance Institutions (Development & Regulation) Bill, 2011

In response to the Second Micro Finance Crisis in Andhra Pradesh, which took place in October 2010, the Ministry of Finance has pro- posed a new Micro Finance Institutions (Development & Regulation) ...

by Shubho Roy | On 17 Oct 2011

Paraiyans’ Self-assertion for Identity

Review of Nandanar’s Children: The Paraiyans’ Tryst with Destiny Tamil Nadu 1850—1956, Raj Sekhar Basu, Sage India, New Delhi, 2011, 492 pp, Rs 895

by Rajesh Komath | On 11 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

Pesticide Applications in Bt Cotton Farms: Issues Relating to Environment and Non-Tariff Barriers

This paper is undertaken to examine various aspects of farm level adoption of Bt cotton in Gujarat as well as explore issues relating to environment and non-tariff barriers affecting the cotton trade...

by N. Lalitha | On 27 Sep 2011

Estimating Urban and Rural Incomes in Gujarat: 1993-94 to 2004-05

Income originating within geographical boundaries of urban and rural areas of Gujarat is estimated for three benchmark years – 1993-94, 1999-00 and 2004-05 - at current prices following the broad me...

by Ravindra H Dholakia | 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

Does the System of Rice Intensification Outperform Conventional System? A Case Study of Gujarat

The paper examines the farm level performance of System of Rice Intensification (SRI) method of paddy cultivation as against the traditional method. The role of NGOs in raising awareness among farmers...

by Jharna Pathak | On 22 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

Vital Stats: Parliament in Monsoon Session 2011

In performance terms, the house fell significantly short of its initial plan. Proceedings were marred by disruptions – first on the issue of corruption and the detention of Anna Hazare, and later on t...

by Rohit Kumar | On 09 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

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

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

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

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

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

Polarization, Inequality and Growth: The Indian Experience

Polarization in India is analysed roughly in the past two and half decades using consumption expenditure data. It is seen that polarization has increased sharply since the 1990s, reversing the earlie...

by Sripad Motiram | On 13 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

National Plan of Action on Nutrition

India's concern for nutrition is as old as her civilization. In the post independent India there has been an unequivocal commitment to the cause of nutrition through Constitutional provisions. The ins...

by Government of India Ministry of Women and Child Development | On 25 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

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

What Constrains Business? The Role of the ‘Single Window’ in Gujarat, India

The investment climate of a region reflects the location specific factors that provide opportunities and incentives for firms to invest, create jobs, and expand. A good investment cl...

by Errol D'souza | On 11 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

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

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

Assam: Alienating the Natives

The issue of Bengali speaking Muslims has been brought up in Assam time and over again and this point has also been used at the time of elections to polarize the communities along religious lines.

by Ram Puniyani | On 05 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

Socio-Economic and Ecological Benefits of Mangrove Plantation: A Study of Community Based Mangrove Restoration Activities in Gujarat

A comprehensive assessment of the multiple benefits of mangrove ecosystems and their restoration efforts in Gujarat is made. The study is important and contextual as there are very limited empirical...

by P.K. Viswanathan | On 29 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

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

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

The WTO Anti-Dumping Code: Issues for Review in Post-Doha Negotiations

According to the GATT principle of most favoured nation (MFN) treatment, trade must be conducted on the basis of non-discrimination between Members of the WTO. 'Like Products' must be taxed the same w...

by Aradhna Aggarwal | On 07 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

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

Monitoring and Evaluation Reform under Changing Aid Modalities: Seeking the Middle Ground in Aid-Dependent Low-Income Countries

This paper grew out of our bewilderment with the insouciance with which some in the donor community seem ready to abandon accounting for the use of aid. If one listens to the rhetoric surrounding...

by Nathalie Holvoet | 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

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

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

Does Women’s Status Matter for Food Security? Evidence from Bangladesh

Using data from a survey of Bangladeshi households, this paper investigates the link between female status and food security. Employing three different indicators of female status – husband’s an...

by Mohammad A. Razzaque | On 29 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

Statistical Discrimination, Productivity and the Height of Immigrants

The analysis focuses on immigrants and native-born individuals because employers are likely to have less reliable signals of productivity for an immigrant than a native-born individual. Using multip...

by Shing-Yi Wang | On 21 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

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

E-Grantz Revolution

This short commentary is about the introduction of e-grantz, an online scheme of distribution of educational assistance to dalit students in Kerala. At the time of admission to a course, students fil...

by Rajesh Komath | On 02 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

Regional Sources of Growth Acceleration in India

Gujarat, West Bengal, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu were the major contributors to the growth acceleration in India after 1991-92. Although the Regional Disparity may increase tempor...

by Ravindra H. Dholakia | On 25 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

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

Incarnating into Cross-Cultural Values: An Effective way to Deliver Experiences

The present paper examines the cultural orientation of foreign students who secured admission in Osmania University (Andhra Pradesh, India) in terms of time orientation and event orientation, dichot...

by S. V. Satyanarayana | On 03 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

Asset Creation and Local Economy under NREGs: Scope and Challenges

The paper examines the potential impact of wages and assets created under NREGS on local economies and discusses policy implications for ensuring realization of the potential. The specific objectiv...

by Amita Shah | On 18 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

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

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

Gender Discrimination in Job Ads: Theory and Evidence

We study firms’ advertised gender preferences in a population of ads on a Chinese internet job board, and interpret these patterns using a simple employer search model. The model allows us to dis...

by Peter Kuhn | On 28 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

Wage Determination in a Casual Labour Market: The Case of Paddy Field Labour in Kerela

The wage rate in s casual labour market, paddy field labour, is estimated from a reduced form version of a supply and demand model after incorporating literacy, caste and the degree of m...

by K. Pushpangadan | On 27 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

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

An Ethnography of Associational Life: Caste and Politics in India

In 1956 Susanne Rudolph and I arrived in India for the first of many research years there. We were among the second batch of Ford Foundation Foreign Area Training Fellows. As area scholars we were com...

by Lloyd I. Rudolf | On 15 Sep 2010

On Backwardness and Fair Access to Higher Education in India: Some Results from NSS 55th Round Surveys 1999-2000

Against the backdrop of policy of reservation of seats in Higher Education for the Other Backward Castes in India, this paper examines two inter-related yet distinct issues: (i) the use of economi...

by K. Sundaram | On 14 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

Informal Trade in the SAARC region

This paper explores issues relating to informal trade in the SAARC region. It spells out the reasons underpinning illegal trade in the South Asian region. Further it focuses on the estimated size an...

by Nisha Taneja | On 10 Aug 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

Quantifying the Impact of Chikungunya and Dengue on Tourism Revenues

Health economists have traditionally quantified the burden of vector-borne diseases (such as chikungunya and dengue) as the sum of the cost of illness and the cost of intervention programmes. The obje...

by Dileep V. Mavalankar | On 21 Jul 2010

Who Participates in Higher Education in India? Rethinking the Role of Affirmative Action

This paper explores how socio-economic, especially socio-religious affiliations, and demographic characteristics of individuals influence participation in higher education (HE). It argues that ap...

by Rakesh Basant | On 16 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

Heroes of the Market: Street Vendors in Vadodara

The paper is a analysis of the street vendors of Vadodara and the Gujarat Government's attitute towards them.

by Nimisha Srivastava | On 29 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

Equal Remuneration Act

The Equal Remuneration Act in India was enacted to prevent discrimination between workers on grounds of gender. The preamble to the act describes it as: An Act to provide for the payment of equal re...

by Aditi Kavarana | On 16 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

Measuring Discrimination in Education

In this paper, a methodology to measure discrimination in educational contexts is illustrated. In India, exam competition is run through which children compete for a large financial prize and teachers...

by Rema Hanna | On 08 Jun 2010

Addressing Agricultural Power Subsidy: A Case Study of North Gujarat

This paper on the basis of fieldwork in the region of North Gujarat tries to analyze the perceptions among various sections of the farmers and examines whether the subsidy is pro-poor in nature. The...

by Vidyut Joshi | On 07 Jun 2010

Constitutional Fiats: Presidential Legislation in India’s Parliamentary Democracy

his article (the first in a two-part series) evaluates the nature and scope of executive controls over primary legislation in India and Pakistan. A Parliament, in a representative democracy, is the pr...

by Shubhankar Dam | On 05 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

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

Do Reservation Policies Affect Productivity In The Indian Railways?

The objective in this paper is to shed some empirical light on a claim often made by critics of affirmative action policies: that increasing the representation of members of marginalized communities i...

by Ashwini Deshpande | On 26 May 2010

Economics and Efficiency of Organic Farming vis-à-vis Conventional Farming in India

The present paper focuses mainly on the issues like economics and efficiency of organic farming visà- vis conventional farming in India. Four states namely Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab and U.P were...

by D. Kumara Charyulu | On 25 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

State Business Relations and Performance of Manufacturing Sector in Andhra Pradesh

In this paper, an attempt is made to enquire into the politics of the government and business relation and how it affects the industrial development in general and expansion of manufacturing sector...

by Alivelu G | On 02 Mar 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

What Determines the Success and Failure of ‘100 Days Work’ at the Panchayat Level? A Study of Birbhum District in West Bengal

West Bengal is not among the best performing states with regard to NREGA. The performance of all districts in the state is not equally discouraging. Some districts, in fact, have done well in gener...

by Subrata Mukherjee | On 19 Feb 2010

The Impact of Slum Resettlement on Urban Integration in Mumbai: The Case of the Chandivali Project

The paper studies the socio-economic impact of the shift of slum dwellers to new rehabilitation site of Chandivali. It also discuses the issue of availability and choice of employment as a key driver...

by Damien Vaquier | On 18 Feb 2010

Many Worlds of Dak Vachan: Proverbial Knowledge and the History of Rain and Weather

This paper is about deconstructing the middle class perception of the domain of the ‘folk’ in this region. With these questions, the paper sets out an agenda for writing the history of rain and weat...

by Sadan Jha | On 16 Feb 2010

Understanding Untouchability: A Comrehensive Study of Practices and conditions in 1589 villages

To date, the tools used to assessthe status of untouchability have been divided by discipline—human rights, legal and social science. Although significant contributions toward understanding untouchabi...

by David Armstrong | On 05 Feb 2010

Gujarat Consultation on Bt Brinjal

Farmers, students , organic farmers, anti-GM activists thronged to the consultation on Bt-Brinjal held late last month in Gujarat with the government.

by Claude Alvares | On 05 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

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

Examining Role of the State in Health Care: A Study of Motikhavadi-Special Economic Zone (SEZ-Jamnagar)

This paper examines the health services provided by Reliance Industries in the village, Motikhavadi, which comes under the Special economic Zone- Jamnagar to scrutinise the role of the state, especi...

by Shilpa Jadhav Bhakre | On 22 Jan 2010

Identity Formation, Nationhood and Women An Overview of Issues

The essay is begun with a reference to a television programme on one of the Hindi news channels - titled Burqe me Atankvad which was telecast sometime in mid-2005. The complex and turmoil-ridden and ...

by Vasanthi Raman | On 21 Jan 2010

Bihar’s Miraculous Economic Performance: Myth or Reality?

The Indian media has wrongly compared Bihar's (that is, 11.03per cent) average annual growth during the period 2004-05 to 2008-09 with that of Gujarat (that is, 11.05per cent). While the media has quo...

by Shambhu Ghatak | On 14 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

The Limits of Intellectual Property Rights: Lessons from the Spread of Illegal Transgenic Cotton Seeds in India

This paper examines these difficulties of regulation in the context of spread of unapproved transgenic Bt cotton seeds in India. This paper also examines the impact of the cultivation of approved and...

by Bharat Ramaswami | On 08 Dec 2009

Women’s Experience in New Panchayats: The Emerging Leadership of Rural Women

This paper presents some of the findings of our recent study on women’s representation and participation in panchayats. Some of the findings of the study (Buch; 1999) of women in panchayats after the...

by Nirmala Buch | On 04 Dec 2009

Poverty and Livelihood among Tribals in Gujarat: Status, Opportunities, and Strategies

This paper tries to look into the status of poverty and multiple deprivations among tribal communities in the state and explores policy options for strengthening their livelihoods through a combinatio...

by Amita Shah | On 27 Nov 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

Regional Analysis of Gender-Related Development: Districts of Western India

In this paper the diverse dimensions of gender development are examined using individual indicators for the districts of the western region of India. The western region for the purpose of this study...

by Preet Rustagi | On 24 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

Can Public Private Partnership reduce Maternal Mortality? Assessing Efforts Made by the ‘Chiranjeevi’ Scheme in Gujarat

The Chiranjeevi Yojna is considered to be a successful PPP model and has also received a prestigious Asian Innovations Award by the Wall Street Journal. It is a flagship scheme of the Gujarat state mi...

by Akash Acharya | On 13 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

Shariat Courts and Women’s Rights in India

The main thrust of this paper is: Why should women go to these courts to settle matrimonial disputes while there are provisions for them in secular courts? Do women face less harassment and get quic...

by Sabiha Hussain | On 05 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

Rural Health Services at Cross-Roads: Insights from Gujarat

The objective of the paper is to i) understand and document the morbidity profile, ii) examine utilisation of health services, and iii) estimate approximate expenses on health care by th...

by Ratnawali Sinha | On 07 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

Are Gender Differentials in Educational Capabilities Mediated through Institutions of Caste and Religion in India?

In this paper, with empirical data, the Capabilities Approach to identify 'conversion factors' that are not typically addressed in the utility approach is used. The two approaches are juxtaposed to...

by Jeemol Unni | On 01 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

Situational Analysis of Reporting and Recording of Maternal Deaths in Gandhinagar District, Gujarat State

A situational analysis of recording and reporting maternal deaths in Gandhinagar district, Gujarat, India and to suggest improvements in the system for reporting and recording maternal deaths based o...

by Tapasvi I Puwar | On 23 Sep 2009

Child Protection A Handbook for Panchayat Members

This handbook on child protection will help Panchayat Raj members to understand the actions they can take to protect children resulting in better convergence of programmes and increased allocation of...

by Government of India Ministry of Women and Child Development | On 16 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

Crossed and Crucified Parivar's War Aganist Minorities in Orissa

The report attempts to contextualize the exploitation of those who are aafected by the one of the worst communal riots in history and document how dominant interests have used this situation of chron...

by People's Union of Civil Liberties PUCL | On 31 Aug 2009

Can ‘Beautiful’ Be ‘Backward’? India’s Tribes in a Long-Term Demographic Perspective

The paper examines the present condition of tribals in India with a demographic perspective. Construction of a long-term demographic perspective on India’s tribal population rests on the premise...

by Arup Maharatna | On 28 Aug 2009

Employment and Income in India: Case of a City Economy

This paper analyses the pattern of growth observed in the city economy of Ahmedabad, a metropolitan city in the industrially developed state of Gujarat. The growth of this city is placed in the cont...

by Jeemol Unni | On 17 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

“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

Marry for What? Caste and Mate Selection in Modern India

This paper studies the role played by caste, education and other social and economic attributes in arranged marriages among middle-class Indians. A unique data set on individuals who placed matrimon...

by Abhijit Banerjee | On 28 Jul 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

Target Free Approach for Family Welfare in Gujarat: A Review of Policy and Its Implementation

The introduction of the Target Free Approach (TFA) has been a major policy shift in the health and family welfare programme of India. This study reviewed the process of change in the implementation...

by B L Kumar | On 17 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

Estimates of BPL-households in Rural Gujarat: Measurement, Spatial Pattern and Policy Imperatives

The poverty scenario in Gujarat is marked by three features: (1) low incidence of poverty (2) spatial concentration and (3) adoption of targeted policy for poverty reduction. One of the important high...

by Amita Shah | 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

Development Challenges in Extremist Affected Areas

Widespread discontent among the people has plagued the Indian polity for sometime now. It has often led to unrest, sometimes of a violent nature. Over the years, statutory enactments and institutional...

by Expert Group Planning Commission | On 06 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

Assessing the Regional and District capacity for Operationalizing Emergency Obstetric Care through First Referral Units in Gujarat

Emergency Obstetric Care (EmOC) is crucial for preventing maternal deaths for which the policy has been to establish First Referral Units (FRUs). Twenty seven facilities from 6 districts from each adm...

by Raman Parvathy | On 03 Jun 2009

Gender and Modern Supply Chains in Developing Countries

The rapid spread of modern supply chains in developing countries is profoundly changing the way food is produced and traded. In this paper we examine the gender implications in modern supply chains. W...

by Miet Maertens | On 29 May 2009

Social Group Disparities and Poverty in India

This paper seeks to provide a profile of social group disparities and poverty in India,where social groups are classified as scheduled caste, scheduled tribe and other social groups, and examine the f...

by Rohit Mutatkar | On 26 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

You Can Get There From Here..

This inaugural piece addresses a fundamental problem of communication – how to effectively talk about an issue. It’s not as simple as it seems. Its always known that people did not always “hear” what...

by Joseph Grady | On 05 May 2009

Motivating Politicians: The Impacts of Monetary Incentives on Quality and Performance

Using exogenous variation in the salaries of local legislators across Brazil’s municipal governments this paper examines whether higher wages attract better quality politicians and improve political p...

by Claudio Ferraz | On 16 Apr 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

Women's Contribution to the Economy Through Their Unpaid Household Work

An attempt has been made to discuss various aspects of unpaid household work such as its treatment in the system of National Accounts, and the methodologies of its valuation. With the help relevant da...

by R N Pandey | On 09 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

Educational Reforms in India: Universalisation of Primary Education in Kerala

The history and evolution and the factors underlying the success of primary education in Kerala. [CDS WP 189].

by P R Gopinathan Nair | On 10 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

Traveling Agents: Political Change and Bureaucratic Turnover in India

Politicians face high-powered electoral pressures while bureaucrats face longer-term, low powered incentives. Given constitutional constraints, what incentives do politicians employ to control bureauc...

by Lakshmi Iyer | On 02 Dec 2008

Development of Corrugated Fiber Board Cartons for Long Distance Transport of Tomato in India

Tomotaoes which are produced in Gujarat, north west India are small, so the growers were not organized enough to raise funds to sponsor research at public R&D institutions in the area. That task was t...

by Girja Sharan | On 25 Nov 2008

Changing Interface Between Agriculture and Livestock: A Study of Livelihood Options under Dry Land Farming Systems in Gujarat

The present paper tries to empirically examine the changing profile of distribution and ownership of livestock across different regions of India and specifically for Gujarat. Besides, primary data col...

by Amita Shah | On 21 Nov 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

Hobbes, Coase and Baliraja: Equity and Equality in Surface Water Distribution

It is attempted to understand the implications of equality in water distribution on social welfare with a simple abstract analysis using Leontief-type fixed production function.

by Sashi Sivramakrishna | On 16 Oct 2008

Right to Drinking Water in India

This paper proceeds with approach that it is the constitutional obligation of the State to provide adequate quantity of drinking water to the citizens and also protect water resources as common good...

by Ramachandraiah C | On 13 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

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

Traditional Water Harvesting for Domestic Use: Potential and Relevance of Village Tanks in Gujarat's Desert Region

Recognising the dearth of detailed analyses of economic and environmental performance of traditional water harvesting systems (TWHS) meant exclusively for domestic use, this paper enquires into the re...

by Keshab Das | On 26 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

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

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

Who Funds the Act of Racism and Racial Discrimination in the Chittgaong Hill Tracks?

Since 1978 Bangladesh government has been providing free food rations to plain settlers to sustain the conflict, make indigenous Jumma peoples a minority in the CHTs and eventually destroy their disti...

by Asian Centre for Human Rights ACHR | 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

Women's Reservation Bill

Women's Reservation Bill

by Parliamentary Research Service PRS | 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

Draft Modalities on Non-Agricultural Market Access

The revised text is the product of his bilateral and plurilateral consultations of the February meeting and builds on the July 2006 text “Towards NAMA modalities”, and the Hong Kong Ministerial Declar...

by World Trade Organisation WTO | On 19 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

Gujjar protest and Reservation Politics

Successive governmental commissions have held that Gujjars do not meet the criteria for inclusion in the Scheduled Tribes. The Gujjar protest has ramifications beyond the States where they live. If th...

by Asian Centre for Human Rights ACHR | On 28 May 2008

Newsletter on Regional Economy: A bi-monthly four state update from IRIS India

A monthly compilation by IRIS.

by IRIS India IRIS | On 09 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

Access and Utilisation of Health Care Services in Urban Low-income Settlements in Surat, India

This paper investigates a range of aspects including socio economic status,morality, morbidity requiring inpatient as well as outpatient care, health care-seeking behavior etc.

by Akash Acharya | On 10 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

Police Firing on Adivasis in Gujarat: Report of Fact Finding Committee, PUCL Gujarat

Report of the committee of concerned citizens formed by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Gujarat to enquire into the facts related to the police firing on the Adivasis demonstration on t...

by Ghanshyam Shah | On 02 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

Medical Abortion: Some Exploratory Findings from Gujarat

The present study based on Gujarat provides interesting insights on medical abortion. Based on interviews with a few chemists, drug industries and the service providers, maladies in the provision of m...

by Leela Visaria | On 11 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

An Analysis of Fertility Differentials among Caste Groups in Andhra Pradesh

The fertility differentials among caste groups in Andhra Pradesh are examined in the context of characteristics and interaction hypotheses, using the second National Family Health Survey data. Multiva...

by P Ramesh | On 21 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

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

Newsletter on Regional Economy A bi-monthly four-state update from IRIS

A monthly compilation by IRIS.

by IRIS India IRIS | On 11 Jan 2008

Fair Access To Higher Education Re-Visited:Some Results For Social And Religious Groups from NSS 61st Round Employment Unemployment Survey, 2004-05

Results from the NSS 61st Round Employment – Unemployment Survey, 2004-05 on the issue of fair access to social groups and religion-based population categories. [WP no. 163].

by Sundaram K | On 04 Jan 2008

Equitable Society : A New Concern For Social Work

Trained Social Workers must be very well aware of Equitable Society philosophy and implementation programmes. They must find opportunity of working with extremely marginalized people.

by Manish Dwivedi | On 27 Dec 2007

Understanding Gujarat Elections: What Does it Portend for Indian Democracy?

With the re-election of Narendra Modi and the BJP will the current disarray in the party give way to strong optimism to strive for power at the centre?

by Ram Puniyani | On 24 Dec 2007

Girls, Educational Equity and Mother Tongue-based Teaching

One of the principal mechanisms through which inequality is reproduced is language, specifically the language used as the medium of instruction. The learner’s mother tongue holds the key to making sc...

by Carol Benson | On 21 Dec 2007

A Success Story

India's economic reforms are evaluated.

by T.N. Ninan | On 26 Nov 2007

Decentralisation and Issues in Self Governance in Tribal Areas of South Gujarat

To examine the functioning of Gram Sabha and participation of tribal communities therein to asses the status of self governance under the “Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) A...

by Ratnawali Sinha | On 14 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

Book Review: Managing Natural Resources: Civil Society Initiatives

Review of Community-based Natural Resource Management Issues and Cases from South Asia by Ajith Menon, Praveen Singh, Esha Shah, Sharachchandra Lele, Suhas Paranjape, K.J. Joy Sage Publications, New D...

by Santhakumar V | On 05 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

The New Mumbai: Defining Systemic Reforms for the Governance of Mumbai City and Mumbai Metropolitan Region

The 73rd and 74th Amendments to the Constitution of India were made with an express objective or purpose of restoring power back to people by legally encouraging “local self-governance”. At the same...

by A.K. Shende | 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

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

Minorities Under Attack in Gujarat: Report of an Investigation

This report is based on the visit of the team to various affected villages and other areas in Gujarat and interviews with the victims and other villagers of these areas. There are a number of other vi...

by Act Now for Harmony and Democracy ANHAD | 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

Broadcast Bill: Content Code

The Ministry expects that putting such a code in place will have the following important positive impact, among others. • The public will be provided with a mechanism through which they can voice t...

by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting MIB | On 16 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

What can be...

Examples of various initiatives for e-governance from Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are given. The application of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology in different sectors can impr...

by T.N. Ninan | On 04 Sep 2007

Newsletter on Regional Economy: A bi-monthly four-state update

A monthly compilation by IRIS.

by IRIS India IRIS | On 22 Aug 2007

The Indian Economy since Independence

India's has been a unique path of economic development—internally decided in a democratic framework, constantly debated between different ideologies and interest groups, and increasingly engaging wi...

by Vinod Vyasulu | On 21 Aug 2007

ACHR Weekly Review: Pakistan: The Land of Religious Apartheid and Jackboot Justice

On 14 August 2007, the United Nations Committee on the International Convention Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD Committee) is tentatively scheduled to examine the situation of...

by Asian Centre for Human Rights ACHR | On 11 Aug 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

Social Affiliation and the Demand for Health Services: Caste and Child Health in South India

The roles of social affiliation, measured by caste, in shaping investments in child health are assessed. The special setting that is chosen for the analysis – tea estates in the South Indian High Rang...

by Nancy Luke | On 23 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

Newsletter on Regional Economy: A bi-monthly four-state update

A monthly compilation by IRIS.

by IRIS India IRIS | On 06 Jul 2007

Public Distribution System in Gujarat: A Synoptic Overview

The PDS programme in Gujarat since the formation of the State in 1960 is reviewd and comments are given briefly upon its effectiveness in delivery. The food security issue for the poor is also address...

by Sudarshan Iyengar | On 04 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

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

Mid Day Meal Scheme: Understanding Critical Issues with Reference to Ahmedabad City

Gujarat started the scheme of Mid Day Meal Scheme in 1984 and was the only State after Tamil Nadu to start it so early. The objective was to provide one meal a day to students studying in primary clas...

by Satish Y Deodhar | On 30 Mar 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

Dynamics of Caste-based Deprivation in Child Under-Nutrition in India

This paper makes an attempt at illustrating the dynamics of caste-based deprivation considering the case of child under-nutrition. It essentially demonstrates the patterns of differentials in nutrit...

by Rudra Narayan Mishra | On 26 Jan 2007

India: Second NGO Shadow Report on CEDAW: Executive Summary

The 2nd and 3rd NGO Alternative Report on CEDAW -- INDIA has just been submitted to the UN CEDAW Committee and is coming up for review in January 2007 in New York. Each of the chapters in the Reports...

by National Alliance of Women | On 06 Jan 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

Dalits Ostracised in Karnataka

In Kadakola, a small village near Basavabagevadi in Bijapur district Karnataka the Chalavadi community, a lower caste is facing a social boycott from the upper caste and including Madigas which is als...

by PUCL Karnataka | On 14 Dec 2006

Gender Disaggregated Analysis of South Gujarat Tribals: Role of Social Capital in Human Development

This paper, based on ‘capabilities’ approach, analyses the ‘development outcomes’ forf ‘tribals’ of rural south Gujarat and examines the relative roles of physical, human and social capital within a...

by Arti Nanavati | On 26 Nov 2006

Surat 2006 Floods: Citizen's Report

The paper is a study with the purpose of exploring the flood time position of citizens in Surat city and to check aspects associated with flood warning system of Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC). The...

by Akash Acharya | On 21 Oct 2006

Kanshi Ram: The Man and his Legacy

Kanshi Ram’s main legacy is that political mobilization and use of State power is required to provide dalits self-respect, dignity, social equality and political empowerment to fight against dominati...

by Sudha Pai | On 13 Oct 2006

Social Exclusion And Criminal Law

This paper will examine the network of consitutional and penal provisions on the question of social exclusion and will explore the implications of these realities for an understanding of criminology...

by S.R. Sankaran | On 29 Aug 2006

Women's Rights and the Crises of International Human Rights Intervention

This paper will map the developments that led to the integration of gender into the international human rights law discourse and examine how the language of ‘violence’ and ‘respectable victimhood’ (...

by Oishik Sarcar | On 29 Aug 2006

Journal of Social and Economic Change

Articles Pareto’s Revenge — Ravi Kanbur 1 Socio-Economic Dimensions of Old Age Security in India: With Special Reference to Karnataka — T V Sekher Gender, Poverty and Employment in India — V Gaya...

by | On 12 Aug 2006

Are we there yet? The deferral of justice and the promise of human rights

Utilizing the critical theory of Drucilla Cornell and Costas Douzinas, and looking back to the utopianism of Ernst Bloch, the paperI offers an argument that acknowledges the limits of the law and th...

by Narnia Bohler-Muller | On 28 Jul 2006

Disability in India: Issues and Concerns

The disabled are deprived of all opportunities for social and economic development. The basic facilities like health, education and employment are denied to them. In spite of several international and...

by Leni Chaudhuri | On 03 Jun 2006

Why Are We Opposed to Reservations?

When an Ambani becomes a CEO, when a Gandhi becomes a minister, we do not say it is against merit, when a professor whose son is not able to qualify JEE, is still able to send her child abroad for hig...

by Rahul Varman | On 30 May 2006

Affirmative Action: Diverging Perspectives

The debate, on affirmative action seems to be focusing on the meaning and relevance of merit and efficiency. It is being conveniently forgotten that merit is a cognitive ability, the power to perceive...

by Prashant Negi | On 05 May 2006

Weekend Ruminations: Casting for jobs

The reality of caste representation in the corporate sector may not be out of line with what the government would like.

by T.N. Ninan | On 23 Apr 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

Democracy and People’s Rights in the Neo-Liberal Era: Role of Judiciary

The recent judgments and orders from various levels of higher judiciary indicate a drastic shift in their outlook and approach. A close look reveals two trends developing within the judiciary. Firstly...

by M.B.Rajesh | On 31 Mar 2006

Constituting Development: Encountering the deprivation of the ‘poor’ under the ‘reform’ apparatus in India

The paper addresses three main issues: The nature of economic reforms and how growth is segregated within the sectors; secondly, limitations of the poverty line approach to estimate the development of...

by Saji M. | On 31 Mar 2006

Regional and Gender Disparities in Agricultural Wages

This study on agricultural wages shows that states like West Bengal and Gujarat have performed well in providing gender equal wages to men and women. Kerala’s performance in maintaining gender equal w...

by Shambhu Ghatak | On 26 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

Gujarat: State Budget 2006-07 Part A

by Ministry of Finance Government of Gujarat | On 27 Feb 2006

Gujarat: Budget Speech 2006-07

by Ministry of Finance Government of Gujarat | On 27 Feb 2006

Decentralisation on Fallow and Fertile Ground: Preparing the Population for Democratic Self-Governance

Decentralizing authority to democratically elected local government is advised for reasons of efficiency and good governance, but equity may suffer if elites capture decision making at the local level...

by Anirudh Krishna | On 16 Feb 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

Riots in Mau: Report on an Investigation

On October 13-14, 2005 Mau in Uttar Pradesh, India experienced widespread violence and communal tension. Mau has a long history of communal tensions. It is largely rural district with a minority of...

by Rooprekha Verma | On 16 Nov 2005

Uncertainity And Discrimination: Family Structure And Declining Sex Ratios In Rural India

This article builds upon the recognition that the declining child sex ratios are a result of an ongoing process of societal change. Looking at areas both in the north and in the south which have shown...

by Mattias Larsen | On 03 Sep 2005

Is Maharashtra Performing Worse Than Other States? A Comparive Study of Public Finances of Indian States

Second Generation Reforms (SGR) has become the new buzz-word around policy circles. In fact, a few governments (Central government included) have gone ahead and proclaimed that they have already initi...

by Anonymous | On 19 Aug 2005

Domestic Violence Aganist Women In Ernakulam District

Gender discrimination manifests itself as violence in the family, community, and society. It takes the forms of female foeticide, female infanticide, abuse of the girl child, social harassment, mental...

by Celine Sunny | On 16 Aug 2005

Gender, Caste, Class, and Health Care Access

The research discussed in the report revisits the notion of access to health care in Koppal, an economically disadvantaged district in northern Karnataka. This issue is important to households experie...

by Aditi Iyer | On 08 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