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This paper studies the relationship between land revenue systems and returns to agricultural labour in colonial India. I provide the first district‐level comparative estimates of agricultural labour returns relative to average income, on the basis of wage/income ratios for 1916. I then use those estimates to analyse the impact of the land revenue systems established by the British colonial authorities. Results show that districts with a larger proportion of non‐landlord land revenue systems presented higher relative wages, closer to the average income. This effect was mainly driven by differences in land concentration connected to the type of landownership introduced by land revenue systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last 15 years, a set of ideas now referred to as "thinking and working politically" (TWP) has coalesced into a "second orthodoxy" about how to take context into account when implementing development interventions. This approach stresses the importance of obtaining a better understanding of the local context ("thinking politically") in order to support local actors to bring about sustainable developmental change ("working politically"). However, the evidence base to justify this new approach remains thin, despite a growing number of programmes which purport to be implementing it. Officials in development agencies struggle with putting it into practice and it is unclear how TWP differs—or not—from similar approaches, such as Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA) and Doing Development Differently (DDD). This Special Issue sheds light on what TWP means in practice by examining a set of initiatives undertaken by both development partners and government departments in Nigeria, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, China and India. This overview article outlines, in brief, each of the Special Issue's four papers and then draws out five lessons—for funders and for practitioners—from across all the papers. Our five lessons are: (1) the fundamental importance of undertaking political economy analysis (PEA) to adapt programmes to their contexts; (2) the importance of having a realistic level of ambition for interventions; (3) the need to support local ownership—not just "agreement ownership" (between a donor agency and government) or local "management ownership" of the programme, but critically "driver ownership" by generating trust with the key local actors driving change; (4) the need for a more effective set of tools for measuring results in complex programmes that attempt to achieve improvements in long‐run governance; and, (5) that although the political economy of donors is often seen as a barrier to applying TWP, the articles show how much can be done with a TWP approach if the analysis takes into account the political economy of donors as well as that of the local context. We conclude with a set of operational recommendations for donors and implementors, as well as suggestions of avenues for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

T.S. Papola, who passed away in November 2015, was one of the founding members of the Editorial Board of the International Labour Review in 2007. But he was above all a pioneering figure of labour economics in India, whose influential work has gained wide international recognition. Drawing on the author's personal acquaintance and collaboration with Professor Papola, this short article highlights some of his major contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Indian software industry is a prime example of globalisation. The industry has been characterised by large cross-border mobility of its skilled labour force. Using a unique survey of Indian software firms, our paper quantifies the extent and impact of mobility on firm behaviour and performance. Cross-border labour mobility in the paper refers to both temporary and permanent labour flows by Indian software professionals. The picture that emerges is of a highly mobile world in which temporary mobility has been an important characteristic of the industry. A significant number of workers have work experience abroad in a developed country. Moreover, the share of skilled workers with such experience has been positively associated with the incidence of skilled migration from the firm. This suggests network effects are at work. In terms of the impact on performance – as measured by the change in turnover per worker and the change in the employment size of the firm – the paper finds little evidence of a robust adverse effect. Further, the evidence suggests that there have been important external effects at work, as through changes in the willingness of workers to acquire skills, as well as through increased provision of educational services. These have further abated the risk of a brain drain. However, the software industry may be rather different from other industries. Our results need to be interpreted as the outcome of a particular case of skilled migration and not one necessarily representative of all types of skilled migration and source sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses spatial interaction in public spending decisions across 22 Indian states during the period 1980–1981 to 2014–2015. In particular, we estimate interactive hypotheses for different proximities of states using a spatial panel data approach. The empirical results support strong spatial interaction and yardstick competition in public spending. Interactive behavior among the states has been found to be consistent and conditional on per capita income, fiscal transfers, infrastructure, literacy and population density. Interaction arising from yardstick competition significantly affects public spending decisions. The present study realizes the need for a well‐developed and comprehensive network to strengthen the interdependence in public spending among the states for higher welfare gain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on a number of case studies from Tamil Nadu, this paper shows that bonded labour is not a relic of the past, but surprisingly contemporary. Refuting the tenets of the semi-feudal thesis, we argue that unfree labour can go hand in hand with capitalism, and that it can be initiated and sustained by capital itself in order to accumulate surplus value. Going against the tenets of the de-proletarianization thesis, we suggest that bonded labour is not always the preferred working arrangement for capitalism. Bonded labour should be examined in connection with specific historical contexts, the changing nature of the economy, the evolution of political forces and modes of socialization. I argue that bonded labour results from a specific regime of accumulation characterized by cheap labour, increased domestic demand sustained through household debt, as well as modes of conflict, contestation and worker identity formation that engage with both governmental programmes and consumerism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective relations between states and business have been increasingly identified as an important institution for sustaining economic development. This paper constructs quantitative indices measuring the quality of state-business relations (SBRs) across Indian states in the 1985-2008 period. It represents the first effort to systematically characterise SBRs across sub-national units within a country without resorting to subjective surveys. We discuss the possible sensitivity of the indices to minor and major definitional changes and examine the evolution of SBRs across Indian states and at the national level through the study of cross-sectional and secular trends in these indices. The results suggest that SBRs have improved over time in all states barring Bihar. Rankings of states in terms of the SBR index show varying time trends-stable and high ranks for states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu, stable and low ranks for states like Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, rapidly improving ranks for states like Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan and swift deterioration in ranks for states like Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Economics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Over the last three decades many authors have addressed the demographic transition from the perspective of evolutionary theory. Some authors have emphasized parental investment factors such as the costs of raising children, others have emphasized the effects of mortality and other forms of risk, and others have emphasized the biased transmission of cultural norms from people of high status. Yet the literature says little about the relative strengths of each of these types of motivations or about which ones are more likely to serve as the primary impetus for large-scale demographic change. In this paper, I examine how each of these factors has influenced the demographic transition in urban South India during the course of the 20th century using two measures of fertility transition: number of surviving children and age at marriage. I find that investment-related, risk-related, and cultural transmission predictors all have significant individual effects on the outcome variables, which persist when they are entered in combination. When the three types of predictors are compared, however, investment-related models appear to provide more robust explanations for patterns in both fertility and age of marriage., (2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.)

The concept of 'financial inclusion' has become a central trope that legitimates a wide range of contemporary development practices. By constructing a new object of development - the 'financially excluded' - it facilitates the expansion of an increasingly corporatized microfinance technocracy. The present paper problematizes the underlying binaries of inclusion/exclusion and formal/informal finance upon which this narrative is based. Through an examination of the 2010 Andhra Pradesh microfinance crisis, it demonstrates key contradictions within the discourse and practices of commercial microfinance. In so doing, it demonstrates why the narrative of financial inclusion and its correlate notion of 'consumption smoothing' are inadequate tools with which to conceptualize the political economy of contemporary agrarian change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabet. Med. 29, e308-e311 (2012) Abstract As diabetes prevalence shifts from affluent to lower-income groups in India, focus on depression in diabetes will become essential. This paper describes four perspectives through which depression and diabetes should be understood in the Indian context. We consider (1) how rapid socio-economic and demographic changes contribute to increased co-occurring diabetes and depression; (2) how social, cultural and economic factors in the Indian context contribute to depression and therefore play an important role in diabetes care; (3) biological and behavioural pathways between depression and diabetes; and (4) the role of health systems in depression, diabetes and their overlap. We conclude with recommendations for future research and policy on this topic in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which investigates the implications of the border carbon adjustments (BCAs) to the bilateral trade flow of the U.S. to China and India. It says that the economic and the environmental impacts of the imposed trade policies are simulated using the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP)-E model. Furthermore, it mentions that the exploration of the impacts of the border adjustments is applicable to the climate change policy in all countries.

This paper develops and tests a model that predicts a positive relationship between absolute levels of capital stock and how favourable are policies toward capital. The theoretical model we use is a model of campaign contributions and electoral competition, extended to consider the implications for factor mobility and hence the structure of production. There are two main predictions. First, countries with more capital stock tend to implement more pro-capital policies. Second, in a two-country model, the country that initially has more capital will be able to attract capital inflows from the other country. Given additional assumptions on the production side, this yields the prediction that the more different are countries' policies, the more different will be the set of goods that they produce. These predictions of the model are confirmed using panel data on cross-state differences in policies and economic outcomes in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A stylized prediction of the development economics discourse is that informality will disappear with development, and yet in the last 20 years conventional measures of informality, far from declining, have either remained stagnant or have actually increased. This includes countries such as India where economic growth has been at historically high levels. What exactly is informality and what are its magnitudes and trends? What are the causes of informality and why is it not decreasing as predicted by standard theories of development? What are the consequences for inclusive economic growth of a large and increasing informal sector? What are feasible and desirable policy responses to informality? These are the questions that motivate this broad based overview of informality. The questions will be addressed based on recent and ongoing research on India and globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

System waste defined as 'any unnecessary inuput anchor any undesirable output from a system' is very important in management of sociotechnical systems since it gives a better indication of the effectiveness and efficiency of performance of such systems than producitivity. For a complex system such as the Indian economy as a unit, it is difficult to pinpoint and analyse causes of system waste due to 'messiness' of the problem caused by many direct and indirect, hidden and articulated relationships, among causes. To develop insights in order to manage the economy more effectively, it is imperative that the hierarchical structure of causation of system waste be revealed. Structural modelling is a methodology that employs graphics and words in carefully defined patterns to portray the structure of a complex issue. This paper describes a study in which interpretative structural modelling (ISM) is used to develop an attribute enhancement structure of causes of system waste in the Indian economy as a whole, for which the causes set was developed by a large scale Delphi study. The structure developed is subjected to MICMAC analysis to reveal indirect relationships among the causes so that the process of management can be aided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interrelation between changes in the economic structure, i.e., industrial distribution of income and labor force, and the size distribution of income is studied in this paper in a case study of India (1961–1960). The change in the size distribution of income is the sum of changes due to (1) inter-sectoral factors and (2) intra-sectoral factors. The need for this distinction is emphasized by the result obtained for India, that 85% of the changes in the size distribution may he assigned to inter-sectoral factors, and only 16% to intrasectoral factors. Since the inter-sectoral factors are significantly influenced by changes in the industrial distribution of income and labor force, our result points out a relation between economic growth and the size distribution which quite often is overlooked in studies of the size distribution. The results obtained in this paper support several cross-section results of Professor Kuznets. In particular some of these are: (a) inter-sectoral inequality in the economic structure widened with economic growth, (b) the inequality in the size distribution of India widened, (c) the level of inequality in India is higher than in any of the eight developed countries considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Book reviewed in this Article A nstey, V era, and M artin, A nne. An Introduction to Economics-For Students in India and Pakistan. B axa, J akob. Adam Müllers Lebenszeugnisse. B ergler, R einhold (Ed.). Psychologische Marktanalyse. C ampbell, R obert W. Soviet Economic Power C ohen, B enjamin J. Adjustment Costs and the Distribution of new Reserves C outsoumaris, G., W estebbe, R. M., P silos, D., M ichalakis, A., and X anthakis, N. Analysis and assessment of the economic effects of the U. S. -PL 480 Programm in Greece F riedmann, K aren J. German Grain Policies and Prices: G urvitch, G eorges. The Spectrum of Social Time. H eide, H olger. Die langfristige Wirtschqftsplanung in Schweden H elleiner, K arl F. The Imperial Loans H ershlag, Z. Y. Introduction to the Modern Economic History of the Middle East. Leiden H icks, J ohn. Capital and Growth. ISEA. Planification et analyse économiques J ohri, C. K. Monetary Policy in a Developing Economy J oint E conomic C ommittee (Congress of the United States). New Directions in the Soviet Economy K iss, G ábor. Gibt es eine ≪marxistische≫ Soziologie? L ebrecht, R obert G. Automatische Konjunkturstabilisatoren oder be-wusste Konjunkturpolitik ? L eontief, W assily. Input-Output Economics. M alinvaud, E. Statistical Methods of Econometrics M artin, A lfred VON. Mensch und Gesellschaft heute. N eufeld, M aurice F. Poor Countries and Authoritarian Rule. Ø lgaard, A nders. Growth, Productivity and Relative Prices. O ulÈs, F. Economic Planning and Democracy. P opper, K arl R. Logik der Forschung. R obinson, J oan. Economics-An Awkward Corner. S achverstÄndigenrat zur B egutachtung DER GESAMTWIRTSCHAFTLICHEN E ntwigklung. Jahresgutachten S eitz, T ycho. Preisführerschaft im Oligopol. T amagna, F rank. Central Banking in Latin America. T heil, H enri. Economics and Information Theory T illy, R ichard. Financial Institutions and Industrialization in the Rhineland T ouraine, A. (et al.). Workers' Attitudes to Technical Change T ullock, G ordon (Hrsg.). Papers on Non-Market Decision Making. Y eager, L eland B. International Monetary Relations; Theory, History and Policy. Y oung, J ohn P arke. United States Gold Policy: The Case for Change [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on poverty and the link between poverty alleviation and reduction of hunger in India. It notes that the decline in the food grain production leads to decrease in the income of the Indians. It states that the people especially poor farmers and landless workers have few means to avoid production changes and price shocks that can put their livelihood at risk. Furthermore, the Indian experience shows that failure in entitlement for food remains a serious problem.

The article focuses on the improvement of the human development indicators in India. It mentions that life expectancy at birth and mortality rates of infants decreased by at least one-half. It states that despite the population improvement of the country, progress is still slow and unequal, and falling behind its economic performance. However, gender differences remains in spite of the improvement in human development indicators.

India's success story in services is well documented at the national level, but similar literature does not exist for India's states. We bridge this gap by studying India's services growth at the sub-national level. Contrary to earlier commentary on the unsustainability of India's services growth process, our findings suggest that per capita services may be converging across Indian states (this is not true of per capita income); unlike previous studies on India, evidence is provided using both traditional sigma and beta-convergence measures and advanced panel unit root tests from the recent econometrics literature. A disaggregated analysis of services sectors reveals convergence in railways, public administration and financial services. Finally, a Jensen and Kletzer approach to determine tradability and an additional original methodology provide evidence of most services being 'traded' across India's states, suggesting the role of such trade in the services growth story even at the sub-national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study develops a theoretical framework that highlights facets of perceived risk and their relationship with behavioural intention. Previous literature highlights that the higher the risk perceived by doctors, the more prospects that they will not adopt telemedicine. Therefore, addressing these risks will help doctors to overcome their apprehensions about telemedicine. The data were collected through field as well as an online survey. An online survey link was shared with doctors of various hospitals in North India. The final sample consisted of 215 observations. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was applied to validate the hypothesized relationships among constructs. The results confirmed that social risk, time risk, technology risk and security risk had a negative impact on behavioural intention. Surprisingly, financial risk emerged as an insignificant construct. This study contributes to literature by presenting and validating a theory‐driven framework that unveils the facets of perceived risk as barriers to telemedicine adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Irrigation & Drainage is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article focuses on the relationship between a new general measure of marginal risk aversion and absolute risk aversion. It states that individuals who are risk averse often desire to take on additional risk on the margin. It reports on the experiments with farmers in India that suggests that farmers may respond not only to the standard risk characteristics of isolated gambles, but also to marginal changes in risk that occur between two gambles.

This paper examines the impact of intangible capital, including human capital and organisational capabilities on productivity, using India as an illustrative example. The research breaks new ground in creating measures of intangible capital at a micro level. Measures of tangible and intangible capital are used to estimate a ‘new economy’ production function with panel data. Generalised method of moments techniques are used to account for unobserved firm heterogeneity and endogenous explanatory variables. The results indicate that intangible assets have a major impact on software sector output. This has important implications for public policy and corporate strategy towards the information technology industry, including for Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a panoramic view of the economic development of India and the major reforms it implemented for the dynamic transformation into a global economy. The article discusses various challenges faced by India like poverty, unemployment, infrastructure development and the prospects of export oriented manufacturing. The article also discusses the prospects of foreign direct investment and currency convertibility, which helps India emerge as one of the largest economies in the world.

The well-known theoretical construct of a U-shaped long-run average cost curve has been put to the test of empirical validity in quite a few studies made in some countries. As the rising arm of the U has been found to be virtually flat in most of the industries studied, an L-shaped average cost curve is already becoming popular. The purpose of the present paper in this context is twofold: First, to determine the long-run cost functions in some manufacturing industries of India, and to see if their shapes tally with the findings in other countries. Second, to determine, with the help of these cost functions, the optimal plant size, and the importance of scale-economies in every industry, in order to answer a few questions regarding concentration, efficiency and barriers to entry. The first section deals with the determination of cost functions, the second with concentration and efficiency, and the third with barriers to entry. The method adopted here to determine cost functions on the basis of these data is like this: In every industry total cost and output over a period of five years were calculated for the plants lying in each size-group.

The relationship between the ethical standards for the governance of clinical trials and market forces can be complex and problematic. This article uses India as a case study to explore this nexus. From the mid-2000s, India became a popular destination for foreign-sponsored clinical trials. The Indian government had sought to both attract clinical trials and ensure these would be run in line with internationally accepted ethical norms. Reports of controversial medical research, however, triggered debate about the robustness and suitability of India's regulatory system. In response to civil society pressure and interventions by the Supreme Court, the Indian government proposed additional measures aimed at strengthening protections for clinical trial participants. Whilst the reforms can be seen as a victory for human rights activists, they have also been criticised as being overly burdensome for sponsors. Indeed, their announcement prompted an exodus of clinical trials from India. Fearful of losing business to 'rival' countries, the Indian government is revisiting some of its proposals. The Indian example suggests that research ethics frameworks and national policies for economic development are increasingly intertwined. Host countries are in theory free to improve the lot of research participants, but doing so may make them appear less attractive to foreign sponsors, who can simply shift their activities to more industry-friendly jurisdictions. Although these economic pressures are unlikely to lead to a regulatory 'race to the bottom', they may limit host countries' ability to enact socially desirable reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy Points: Per‐capita household health spending was higher in economically developed states and was associated with ability to pay, but catastrophic health spending (CHS) was equally high in both poorer and more developed states in India. Based on multilevel modeling, we found that the largest geographic variation in health spending and CHS was at the state and village levels, reflecting wide inequality in the accessibility to and cost of health care at these levels. Contextual factors at macro and micro political units are important to reduce health spending and CHS in India. Context: In India, health care is a local good, and households are the major source of financing it. Earlier studies have examined diverse determinants of health care spending, but no attempt has been made to understand the geographical variation in household and catastrophic health spending. We used multilevel modeling to assess the relative importance of villages, districts, and states to health spending in India. Methods: We used data on the health expenditures of 101,576 households collected in the consumption expenditure schedule (68th round) carried out by the National Sample Survey in 2011‐2012. We examined 4 dependent variables: per‐capita health spending (PHS), per‐capita institutional health spending (PIHS), per‐capita noninstitutional health spending (PNHS), and catastrophic health spending (CHS). CHS was defined as household health spending exceeding 40% of its capacity to pay. We used multilevel linear regression and logistic models to decompose the variation in each outcome by state, region, district, village, and household levels. Findings: The average PHS was 1,331 Indian rupees (INR), which varied by state‐level economic development. About one‐fourth of Indian households incurred CHS, which was equally high in both the economically developed and poorer states. After controlling for household level factors, 77.1% of the total variation in PHS was attributable to households, 10.1% to states, 9.5% to villages, 2.6% to districts, and 0.7% to regions. The pattern in variance partitioning was similar for PNHS. The largest interstate variation was found for CHS (15.9%), while the opposite was true for PIHS (3.2%). Conclusions: We observed substantial variations in household health spending at the state and village levels compared with India's districts and regions. The large variation in CHS attributable to states indicates interstate inequality in the accessibility to and cost of health care. Our findings suggest that contextual factors at the macro and micro political units are important to reduce India's household health spending and CHS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stabilising inflation around certain preconceived level remains the predominant objective of monetary authorities all over the world as its variability has crucial ramifications on the real economy. However, the effective operation of monetary policy to this end largely hinges on the nature and dynamics of inflation both in the short-run and long-run. In this context, the present study focuses on theoretical investigation of how crude oil price fluctuations affect inflation in a real economy. Moreover, the study examines the nature of relationship between crude oil price fluctuations and inflation and its impact with reference to Indian economy. The study suggest that, in India, although the price of petroleum products are insulated against international crude oil price fluctuations by way of subsidies in order to curb inflation, in the long run, inflation manifest itself in the form of worsening fiscal deficit and undermine the sustainability of public debt. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The low quality of health care in developing countries reduces the poor's incentives to use quality health services and their demand for health insurance. Using data from a field experiment in India, I show that randomly offering insurance policyholders a free preventive checkup with a qualified doctor has a twofold effect: receiving this additional benefit raises willingness to pay to renew health insurance by 53%, doubling the likelihood of hypothetical renewal; exposed individuals are 10 percentage points more likely to consult a qualified practitioner when ill after the checkup. Both effects are concentrated on poorer households. There is no effect on health knowledge and healthcare spending. This suggests that exposing insured households to quality preventive care can be a cost-effective way of raising the demand for quality health care and retaining policyholders in the insurance scheme. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior studies have confirmed that the greater the investment in information technology (IT), the better the performance of the firm. In the present study, we use bootstrap data envelopment analysis (DEA), which has previously been used in the accounting literature, and which has an edge over traditional accounting-based measures, to compute the performance efficiency of Indian banks. Specifically, we measure the impact of automated teller machine (ATM) investment intensity on the production efficiency of Indian banks. We also study the impact of bank ownership, soundness, size and risk on efficiency. The study contributes to the literature on the productivity paradox and also draws on structure-conduct-performance theory. We find that ATM intensity has a significant negative association with bootstrap DEA technical efficiency. These results differ from prior research in developed countries. The results could be ascribed to heavy investment in IT such as ATMs by banks, and their inability to reduce labour costs given that many processes still continue to be manual. Accordingly, the study suggests that investment decisions with regard to IT need to be taken with great caution. If the related processes are not simultaneously automated, such investments are unlikely to yield the results that management may have envisaged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Tropical Medicine & International Health is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

India's national nutrition and health programmes are largely designed to provide evidence ‐ based nutrition ‐ specific interventions, but intervention coverage is low due to a combination of implementation challenges, capacity and financing gaps. Global cost estimates for nutrition are available but national and subnational costs are not. We estimated national and subnational costs of delivering recommended nutrition ‐ specific interventions using the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) costing approach. We compared costs of delivering the SUN interventions at 100% scale with those of nationally recommended interventions. Target populations (TP) for interventions were estimated using national population and nutrition data. Unit costs (UC) were derived from programmatic data. The cost of delivering an intervention at 100% coverage was calculated as (UC*projected TP). Cost estimates varied; estimates for SUN interventions were lower than estimates for nationally recommended interventions because of differences in choice of intervention, target group or unit cost. US$5.9bn/year are required to deliver a set of nationally recommended nutrition interventions at scale in India, while US$4.2bn are required for the SUN interventions. Cash transfers (49%) and food supplements (40%) contribute most to costs of nationally recommended interventions, while food supplements to prevent and treat malnutrition contribute most to the SUN costs. We conclude that although such costing is useful to generate broad estimates, there is an urgent need for further costing studies on the true unit costs of the delivery of nutrition ‐ specific interventions in different local contexts to be able to project accurate national and subnational budgets for nutrition in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jayachandran and Kuziemko (Why do mothers breastfeed girls less than boys? Evidence and implications for child health in India. Quarterly Journal of Economics 2011; 126(3): 1485-1538) develop and empirically validate a theory showing son preference in India generates 'passive' parental bias against girls in breastfeeding due to gender-differentiated birth spacing and fertility stopping. I scientifically replicate their empirical exercises to test the validity of the theory in Egypt, where there is also high prevailing son preference, but little research on its implications for child health investments. I additionally examine whether using the exclusive breastfeeding rate as an alternative outcome yields supportive evidence for the theory. I find the theory is strongly supported by empirical results from Egyptian data, bolstering its policy relevance for developing countries besides India. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with sociologist Ramachandra Guha is presented. When asked about what brought him into becoming a sociologist and why his economics training doesn't reflect in his work he refers to the many personalities who had influenced his career. Guha believes that lately he is more of a historian. He also comments on India's pattern of development.

Aim To formulate ready-to-make millet mix Idli and Dosa, and to compare the chemical and sensory qualities of those with pure rice mix Idli and Dosa. Methods Germinated powders of high-quality millets were mixed and incorporated with other basic traditional ingredients like rice powder and de-husked black gram powder in formulated proportions. Nutritional and sensory qualities were assessed after fermentation and cooking of the mix to make Idli and Dosa. Results The millet-based Idli contained high proportions of protein (15-18%), fat (5.0-6.2%) and carbohydrate (72-74%) compared to the rice-based Idli. The ash content was in the range of 1-2% and crude fibre (3.0-4.9%). The millet-based Dosa contained high proportions of protein (15-18%), fat (8.5-9.8%) and carbohydrate (69-72%) compared to the rice-based Dosa. Also the processing steps like decortications, germination and fermentation significantly reduced the phytic acids (69%) and tannin (78%) content in millet-based foods. The sensory evaluation results showed that the overall acceptability of millet based product is 'Like moderately' with score of 7.7 ± 0.5 Conclusion The results indicated that the nutritional content of millet-incorporated Idli and Dosa was comparable with the standard recommended dietary values, and the processing techniques not only decrease the antinutrients but also enhance the essential nutrients. Emerging research on millet-based food is one of the strategies for alleviating malnutrition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to debates on the proliferation of bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs), by analysing novel empirical material: the EU-India FTA negotiations, which have attracted little academic scrutiny. By elaborating on the underlying negotiating interests and strategies of the EU and India, the article examines the significance of overarching interests in ongoing negotiations and articulates the defensive and offensive interests of both parties. It presents a vision of the controversial and milieu-shaping interests at stake, which offer an alternative theoretical explanation for the pursuit of FTAs, and highlights possible outcome scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an overview of the Indian scholarly publishing market in terms of the demographics, market verticals, research institutions, sources and patterns of funding, and the burgeoning potential of the globalised Indian economy. It explores the feasibility for entry of international publishers and tried and tested business models. The analysis covers the nuances of the growth drivers and inhibitors, the current success and status of existing players, and the key challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of microcredit on male and female time use, and draws on this analysis to explore the linkages between credit and women's empowerment. A study of time use can help understand these linkages, because if credit is intended to improve women's livelihoods, it can also be expected to influence the way women allocate their time. Its other advantages are that it does not suffer from much time lag and can be objectively measured. Using household survey data from rural India, the findings show that while microcredit has little impact on women's time use, it helps their husbands move away from wage work (associated with bad pay and low status) to self-employment. This is because women's loans are typically used to enhance male ownership of the household's productive assets. Further, it is found that it is only women who use loans in self-managed enterprises who are able to allocate more time to self-employment. If credit is intended to increase the value of women's work time, it follows that it is not access to loans but use of loans that matters. Ensuring women's control over loan-created assets must therefore be a critical policy objective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This article engages ethnographically with the neoliberalization of nature in the spheres of tourism, conservation and agriculture. Drawing on a case study of Wayanad district, Kerala, the article explores a number of themes. First, it shows how a boom in domestic nature tourism is currently transforming Wayanad into a landscape for tourist consumption. Second, it examines how tourism in Wayanad articulates with projects of neoliberalizing forest and wildlife conservation and with their contestations by subaltern groups. Third, it argues that the contemporary commodification of nature in tourism and conservation is intimately related to earlier processes of commodifying nature in agrarian capitalism. Since independence, forest land has been violently appropriated for intensive cash-cropping. Capitalist agrarian change has transformed land into a (fictitious) commodity and produced a fragile and contested frontier of agriculture and wildlife. When agrarian capitalism reached its ecological limits and entered a crisis of accumulation, farming became increasingly speculative, exploring new modes of accumulation in out-of-state ginger cultivation. In this scenario nature and wildlife tourism emerges as a new prospect for accumulation in a post-agrarian economy. The neoliberalization of nature in Wayanad, the authors argue, is a process driven less by new modes of regulation than by the agrarian crisis and new modes of speculative farming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disasters are a regular occurrence throughout the world. Whether all eligible victims of a catastrophe receive similar amounts of aid from governments and donors following a crisis remains an open question. I use data on 62 similarly damaged inland fishing villages in five districts of southeastern India following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami to measure the causal influence of caste, location, wealth, and bridging social capital on the receipt of aid. Using two-limit tobit and negative binomial models, I investigate the factors that influence the time spent in refugee camps, receipt of an initial aid packet, and receipt of 4,000 rupees. Caste, family status, and wealth proved to be powerful predictors of beneficiaries and nonbeneficiaries during the aid process. While many scholars and practitioners envision aid distribution as primarily a technocratic process, this research shows that discrimination and financial resources strongly affect the flow of disaster aid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the protest repertoire of an Indian labor movement between 1990 and 2006. Chhattisgarh Liberation Front led a seventeen year struggle against the industrialists and state in central India for the recognition of contract workers' entitlements. During this long contentious history, the movement deployed disruptive repertoire, ranging from relatively legitimate “wild-cat strikes” (illegal stoppage of work) to extreme physical attacks, against the industrialists, and non-disruptive repertoire, ranging from disciplined participation in court-cases to mass martyr day celebrations, against the state. The mixed repertoire points at the two distinct capacities in which the movement was acting, as a radical trade union against the industrialists and a social movement in relation to the state. The finding suggests that the CMM participants perceived the state as holding genuine power, and their relation to it as citizens, and perceived the industrialists, despite their being indigenous capitalists, as adversaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consistent with real option theory, the authors argue that the value of the Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) in rural India and its impact on workers' behavior does not depend so much on its income supplementation as on enlargement of opportunities in the uncertain local labor market. The choice between the EGS and other activities is modeled in a dynamic optimization framework, taking into account a fixed wage rate and certainty of employment under the EGS and a stochastic wage rate under other activities. Specifically, volatility of wages in the rural labor markets has important implications for switches into the EGS and for concomitant welfare effects. Under such conditions, the higher the EGS wage, the greater is its attractiveness to relatively skilled and affluent workers, and for those already in it to continue. These and related predictions of the model are validated by panel data estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To determine the cost-effectiveness of prenatal iron supplementation and misoprostol use as interventions to prevent maternal mortality in home births in rural India.Methods: A cost-effectiveness analysis depicted three hypothetical cohorts of 10,000 pregnant women delivering at home in rural India: one with no intervention, one receiving standard prenatal iron supplements, and 1 receiving 600 microg of misoprostol in the third stage of labor.Results: Misoprostol used to prevent postpartum hemorrhage resulted in a 38% (95% CI, 5%-73%) decrease in maternal deaths, while prenatal iron supplementation resulted in a 5% (95% CI, 0%-47%) decrease. Misoprostol cost a median US $1401 (IQR US $1008-$1848) prenatal iron supplementation cost a median US $2241 (IQR No Lives Saved-$3882) per life saved compared with the standard care outcome.Conclusion: Misoprostol is a cost-effective maternal mortality intervention for home births. Iron supplementation may be worthwhile to improve women's health, but it is uncertain whether it can prevent mortality after hemorrhage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study on water supply sustainability and groundwater conditions at Salboni Block in West Bengal, India. It states that the area is under the threatening situation of water scarcity especially during the period of summer. Consequently, an analysis was carried out on the effect of groundwater withdrawal increase to conform its burgeoning water demands. The study discloses that the subsurface formations of the sites consist of rough sand, fine sand, and clay which indicate that long-term groundwater level and quality monitoring and intensive field investigations are necessary to establish strategies for sustainability of the groundwater resources in the area.

At the start of the so-called development race sixty years ago, China, showcasing revolutionary socialism, and India, boasting parliamentary democracy, had close similarities in economic structures and levels of development, but striking differences in terms of cultural cohesion, institutional flexibility and political orientation. The outcome of the race is unambiguous: the question is not who won, but why and how? It is argued here that a wide margin had already opened up in China's favour by the time of the systemic or policy-regime switch-points, 1978 in China, and shortly thereafter in India. The author seeks explanations for this differential performance in the divergent institutional configurations of the two societies and economies, especially in the rural sector in the pre-reform period, and highlights the contrast between the power of the Chinese mass mobilization mode of transformation and the persistent institutional rigidities and obstacles in the Indian case. Post-reforms, processes of ‘pervergence’— an emerging congruence in negative social features — appear to dominate over tendencies towards conventional convergence. The author reflects on the historical significance of the two development paths: did Nehruvian state-led planned development and Maoist socialism serve essentially as pioneers of capitalism, leveraging the re-launching of the two once-powerful Asian giants back into the global capitalist game on dramatically revised terms of engagement? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decode, environmental and social justice activists have increasingly focused their attentions and energies on the privatization of water resources around the globe. Many of the debates and oppositional struggles surrounding this issue have focused on what has been termed the "corporate theft" of water resources. Opposition to transnational corporations like Suez, Vivendi, The Coca-Cola Company, among others, has focused on a range of issues from privatization and price gouging to bottling groundwater and environmental contamination. In this article, I focus on one small struggle for water rights in Plachimada, Kerala, India. I use the Plachimada example to argue that corporate control of resources in India must be located and analyzed within a framework that is not restricted to neoliberal globalization and transnational corporations. I suggest that the struggle of communities like Plachimada should be analyzed as port of the unfolding agrarian crisis in India. Corporate and government strategies to privatize water, along with other goods and services, have especially had a devastating eject on peasants and farmers in rural India and provide new avenues for the reconfigurations of intra- and interclass conflicts between and across the rural-urban divide in neoliberal India. As academics and activists, we face the important task of combining "old" and "new" conceptual or theoretical and political concerns as we confront the exigencies and emergencies wrought by neoliberal globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a long time, the relations between India and the EU have been largely informed by economics without any similar significant engagement at the political level. In recent times however, amongst others, the changing external environment, the EU's emerging profile as a global actor and India's growing importance both regionally and globally warranted the need for greater political dialogue and cooperation between the two sides. What followed therefore was the formalisation at the highest level of the EU's political dialogue with India and its institutionalisation into a meaningful summit-level partnership leading to a strategic partnership. Areas of divergence and challenges remain but the opportunities that have surfaced are significant and deserving of attention. This article critically analyses the growing strategic partnership between India and the EU in the light of both these realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how and why firms in Bangalore, a city in southern India, have achieved success in the global software industry. We use Porter's “diamond framework” to analyze information obtained from secondary sources and interviews with engineers, managers, and top executives from software firms and officials involved in Bangalore's development. While we found some aspects of the case conform to Porter's framework, many other elements tend to diverge from the model. Thus, the article contributes to the Porter's diamond model literature by extending its application to assessing the development of successful regions in knowledge-based industries in developing economies. The discussion in the article would be of value to officials interested in creating such successful regions, as well as international business executives interested in the opportunities afforded by locating in these regions. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A partial convergence of the Indian and Chinese growth models is likely. Judging from China's experience, sustaining India's impressive economic performance of recent years will require a significant further opening of its economy (externally and internally), higher savings and investments, especially in physical infrastructure and social services, and stronger labor absorption in the modern sectors. The base of India's current economic boom — software, IT-related services and high-end manufacturing — is narrow compared to China's. Poor performance in agriculture is responsible for still significant poverty in many parts of rural India. Bilateral India—China ties, including trade and investment, are increasing rapidly and could help to bring about the structural economic changes India needs. Through its exports to China, India is becoming linked to global supply chains centered on China. The notion that India—China relations are, or are bound to become, fundamentally antagonistic, held by many in the USA, is mistaken and potentially dangerous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]