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The changing population age structure has a significant influence on the economy, society, and numerous other aspects of a country. This paper has innovatively applied the method of compositional data forecasting for the prediction of population age changes of the young (aged 0–14), the middle-aged (aged 15–64), and the elderly (aged older than 65) in China, India, and Vietnam by 2030 based on data from 1960 to 2016. To select the best-suited forecasting model, an array of data transformation approaches and forecasting models have been extensively employed, and a large number of comparisons have been made between the aforementioned methods. The best-suited model for each country is identified considering the root mean squared error and mean absolute percent error values from the compositional data. As noted in this study, first and foremost, it is predicted that by the year 2030, China will witness the disappearance of population dividend and get mired in an aging problem far more severe than that of India or Vietnam. Second, Vietnam’s trend of change in population age structure resembles that of China, but the country will sustain its good health as a whole. Finally, the working population of India demonstrates a strong rising trend, indicating that the age structure of the Indian population still remains relatively “young”. Meanwhile, the continuous rise in the proportion of elderly population and the gradual leveling off growth of the young population have nevertheless become serious problems in the world. The present paper attempts to offer crucial insights into the Asian population size, labor market and urbanization, and, moreover, provides suggestions for a sustainable global demographic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Health policy interventions were expected to improve access to health care delivery, provide financial risk protection, besides reducing inequities that underlie geographic and socio-economic variation in population access to health care. This article examines whether health policy interventions and accelerated health investments in India during 2004–2018 could close the gap in inequity in health care utilization and access to public subsidy by different population groups. Did the poor and socio-economically vulnerable population gain from such government initiatives, compared to the rich and affluent sections of society? And whether the intended objective of improving equity between different regions of the country been achieved during the policy initiatives? This article attempts to assess and provide robust evidence in the Indian context. Methods: Employing Benefit-Incidence Analysis (BIA) framework, this paper advances earlier evidence by highlighting estimates of health care utilization, concentration and government subsidy by broader provider categories (public versus private) and across service levels (outpatient, inpatient, maternal, pre-and post-natal services). We used 2 waves of household surveys conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) on health and morbidity. The period of analysis was chosen to represent policy interventions spanning 2004 (pre-policy) and 2018 (post-policy era). We present this evidence across three categories of Indian states, namely, high-focus states, high-focus north eastern states and non-focus states. Such categorization facilitates quantification of reform impact of policy level interventions across the three groups. Results: Utilisation of healthcare services, except outpatient care visits, accelerated significantly in 2018 from 2004. The difference in utilisation rates between poor and rich (between poorest 20% and richest 20%) had significantly declined during the same period. As far as concentration of healthcare is concerned, the Concentrate Index (CI) underlying inpatient care in public sector fell from 0.07 in 2004 to 0.05 in 2018, implying less pro-rich distribution. The CI in relation to pre-natal, institutional delivery and postnatal services in government facilities were pro-poor both in 2004 and 2018 in all 3 groups of states. The distribution of public subsidy underscoring curative services (inpatient and outpatient) remained pro-rich in 2004 but turned less pro-rich in 2018, measured by CIs which declined sharply across all groups of states for both outpatient (from 0.21 in 2004 to 0.16 in 2018) and inpatient (from 0.24 in 2004 to 0.14 in 2018) respectively. The CI for subsidy on prenatal services declined from approximately 0.01 in 2004 to 0.12 in 2018. In respect to post-natal care, similar results were observed, implying the subsidy on prenatal and post-natal services was overwhelmingly received by poor. The CI underscoring subsidy for institutional delivery although remained positive both in 2018 and 2004, but slightly increased from 0.17 in 2004 to 0.28 in 2018. Conclusions: Improvement in infrastructure and service provisioning through NHM route in the public facilities appears to have relatively benefited the poor. Yet they received a relatively smaller health subsidy than the rich when utilising inpatient and outpatient health services. Inequality continues to persist across all healthcare services in private health sector. Although the NHM remained committed to broader expansion of health care services, a singular focus on maternal and child health conditions especially in backward regions of the country has yielded desired results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Physical, Regulatory and Brand value risks due to climate change challenges are foreseen by businesses globally. This paper is oriented towards these challenges and prepared a comprehensive Greenhouse gases (GHG) footprint plan and identification of mitigation opportunities for ONGC, a fortune 500 and national oil company of India. Internationally recognized standards and guidelines like Greenhouse Gas Protocol, ISO-14064, and American Petroleum Institute compendium have been referred for quantifying carbon emissions in nearly real 400 + operation control facilities. The GHG inventory is based on Operational Control approach to identify the boundary for which emissions are to be quantified and two significant scopes of emissions viz Direct Emissions and Indirect Emissions are identified and quantified. The quantification concluded that GHG emission footprint for the year 2016–17 is in the range of 9 million tons of CO 2 equivalent. GHG emissions mainly account due to stationary combustion, fugitive emissions and wastewater treatment, which share the around 56% of total emissions. Another 24–26% of emissions are contributed due to flaring, processes by glycol dehydrator, acid gas removal units, and by electricity purchased from the grid. As a result, it has been found that ONGC emits 187 kg CO 2 e emissions per tonne throughput and also compared with its global peer organizations. At the organization level, "Key Industrial Sites" have been identified as contributing higher GHG emissions and accordingly key "hot-spots," a list of 15 GHG mitigation opportunities have been proposed in the paper. Two GHG mitigation initiatives based on solar energy and bioenergy application undertaken at ONGC has also been briefed on case studies. Highlights • Comprehensive carbon footprint plan and identification of mitigation opportunities for Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), a fortune 500 and national oil company of India. • Guidelines like Greenhouse Gas Protocol, ISO-4064 and American Petroleum Institute compendium are referred for quantifying carbon emissions from direct and indirect sources. • Green policy, incentives and mandatory compliance. • CO2e emissions per tonne throughput and also compared with its peer global organisations. • Key hot-spots, with a list of 15 GHG mitigation opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of non-imaging collectors has a wide scope in process heat applications based on its performance and economics. An experimental investigation of trapezoidal/concave cavity surface receiver (TSR) for non-imaging solar concentrating collector is carried out in this paper. The implementation of surface/coil receiver instead of tubular receiver for non-imaging collector is presented in this paper. A TSR with helical coil is developed for non – imaging concentrating collector, Elliptical Hyperbolic Collector (EHC). Experiments are carried to estimate the thermal performance of the system under various operating conditions such as two operating modes: series and parallel modes of operation of the collector, two circulation modes: passive and active modes. The stagnation temperature of the trapezoidal/concave cavity surface receiver is measured to be 118 °C on a clear sunny day in October and 102 °C on a cloudy day in February. The daily performance tests are performed under different operating conditions. Based on the experimental study, for the flow rate of 0.03 kg/min and 0.5 kg/min, the fluid outlet temperature is estimated to be 87 °C at 768 W/m 2 and 49 °C at 908 W/m 2 respectively. The corresponding instantaneous efficiency was calculated to be 9% and 40% respectively. The numerical model is developed to predict the temperature of the fluid along the receiver. The pressure drop across a receiver is estimated to be 9.3 kPa for a flow rate of 0.5 kg/min. Exergy analysis of the system is carried out and it ranges between 10 and 20%. The costs involved in fabricating the EHC system are compared to that of a non-imaging concentrating collector (CPC) of same aperture area. An economic analysis of the system is also carried out to study the feasibility of the system based on the life cycle savings method by estimating the annual solar savings from the EHC system. The present system can be a suitable option for low and medium temperature process heat applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction between macroeconomic variables and share returns has been a debatable topic since decades. Much of the earlier studies have talked about significant relationships between stock market and macroeconomic indicators. In recent years Islamic finance has shown persistent growth worldwide. India has approximately 177 million Muslims, accounting for 12% of India's total population. Islamic finance differs from conventional investing in different ways like prohibition of gambling, pork, alcohol, entertainment, tobacco, profiting from interest rates etc. This paper aims to explore the long run and short run relationships of macroeconomic indicators and stock returns in the Indian context. The study is unique as it employs Shariah compliant indices to check on the stock market in India, a non - Islamic country. Data spans the period from January 2006 to July 2015. Monthly data is used and the selected macroeconomic variables are inflation rate (wholesale price index), interest rate (365 day government of India T-bill rate), money supply (M3) and exchange rate (US Dollar/Indian Rupee). 'Dow Jones Islamic Market India Total Return Index' is considered to track for the Shariah compliant stock index in Indian equity market. The study employs Johansen's co-integration and VECM to check for long run and short run equilibrium relationships. We check for long run equilibrium relationships through co-integration analysis. Johansen's test is a preferable multivariate cointegration test as it accounts for more than one cointegrating relationships. Granger causality is applied to check for the direction of causality. Variance decomposition in VAR system dynamics is also analyzed. Study reports the presence of a long run equilibrium relation between macroeconomic indicators and Dow Jones Islamic India market index. We are getting a positive and statistically significant relationship between WPI and stock returns as well as money supply and stock returns. Interest rate is showing negative and statistically significant relation with stock returns. Further uni-directional causality is observed from money supply and exchange rate to Dow Jones Islamic India market index. We can say that exchange rate as well as money supply granger causes Dow Jones Islamic India Market Index. Variance decomposition of exchange rate shows that 21.66% of variance in exchange rate is explained by Dow Jones index. Variance decomposition of Dow Jones index shows that money supply M3 explains 16.01% of variation in Dow Jones index. India's Islamic capital markets are showing signs of market inefficiency because of long run equilibrium relationships. This paper caters to the needs of Islamic investors and also to the policy makers as it provides a broad understanding of dynamic relationships between Shariah compliant stock returns and macroeconomic factors in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Resource allocation decisions for disease categories can be informed by proper estimates of the magnitude and distribution of total spending. In the backdrop of a high burden of Non-Communicable Diseases and Injuries (NCDI) in India, and a paucity of estimates on government spending on NCDI, this paper attempts to analyse public sector expenditure on NCDI spending in India. Methods: Various recent budget documents of the Centre and States/Union Territories have been used to extract expenditure on NCDI. The aggregates thus arrived at have been analysed to estimate aggregate and state level per capita spending. State level spending have been compared against disease burden using DALYs. Patterns of spending on NCDI across states were also analysed together with state level poverty to observe possible patterns. Findings: The total spending on NCDI by the government is low at less than 0.5% of GDP. NCDI spending is little more than one-fourth of total health spending of the country and most spending takes place at the state level (80%). The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s share in Central spending on NCDI is around 65%, and currently it spends 20% of its total health spending on NCDI. The gap between spending and DALYs is the most for the economically vulnerable states. Also, the states with high poverty levels also have low per capita expenditure on NCDI Interpretation: India does not depend on donor funding for health. It will have to step up domestic funding to address the increasing disease burden of NCDIs and to reduce the high out-of-pocket expenditure on NCDI. Policies on NCDI need to focus on UHC, service integration and personnel gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the problem of establishing a network among the stocks of a market at high frequency level and give an application to program trading. Our work uses high frequency data from the National Stock Exchange, India, for the year 2014. To begin, we analyse the spectrum of the correlation matrix to establish the presence of linear relations amongst the stock returns. A comparison of correlations with pairwise mutual information shows the further existence of non-linear relations which are not captured by correlation. We also see that the non-linear relations are more pronounced at the high frequency level in comparison to the daily returns used in earlier work. We provide two applications of this approach. First, we construct minimal spanning trees for the stock network based on mutual information and study their topology. The year 2014 saw the conduct of general elections in India and the data allows us to explore their impact on aspects of the network, such as the scale-free property and sectorial clusters. Second, having established the presence of non-linear relations, we would like to be able to exploit them. Previous authors have suggested that peripheral stocks in the network would make good proxies for the Markowitz portfolio but with a much smaller number of stocks. We show that peripheral stocks selected using mutual information perform significantly better than ones selected using correlation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is widespread use of poplar in pulp and paper, match splints, pencil and plywood industries, in northern India. The practice of closer spacing geometry with compact block in poplar cultivation does not permit intercropping from the third year onwards, which discourages small landholders. In 2008, poplar was planted at the Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, India in three spacing geometries of 5 × 4 m, 10 × 2 m and 18 × 2 × 2 m (paired row) at a constant density of 500 trees ha-1. In the present study, two cropping rotations (sorghum-berseem and cowpea-wheat) were intercropped in all three spacing geometries of poplar (up to eight years of rotation), and compared with sole cropping as a control. The results showed that yield of annual crops reduced considerably over the years due to enhancing competition for light, moisture and nutrients. The overall yields of annual crops in various spacing geometries of poplar were reduced by 5.67% in the second year to 45.59% in eight years of plantation. The study resulted in 10 × 2 m spacing of poplar with sorghum-berseem crop rotation exhibiting the highest net returns (Rs 1,191,241 ha-1), NPV @ 12% discounting (Rs 409,673 ha-1), B : C ratio (1 : 2.22), IRR (70%), highest land equivalent ratio (2.28) and land expectation value (Rs 2,242,372 ha-1). In the study, LER and LEV calculated to increase the efficiency and adoptability of agroforestry systems. Therefore, on the basis of economics, the present study concludes that the intercropping of sorghum-berseem and cowpea-wheat in poplar planted at a spacing of 10 × 2 m is more profitable and helpful in doubling farmers' income over traditional agriculture in northwestern India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the causality between energy consumption, carbon emissions and economic growth is helpful for policymakers to formulate energy, environmental and economic policies. For the first time, based on nonlinear dynamics, this paper employs multispatial convergent cross mapping (CCM) to revisit the energy-carbon-economy causation for China, India and the G7 countries using both aggregate data and per capita data. The findings indicate that there are significant differences between developing countries and developed countries. A bidirectional nexus between energy consumption, carbon emissions and economic growth is found in China and India, but various causal relationships are identified in the G7 countries, including bidirectional, unidirectional and neutral nexus. The results confirm that the decoupling phenomenon is common in most G7 countries. By leveraging a variety of samples and a new approach, this study provides new evidence for policy authorities to formulate country-specific policies to obtain better environmental quality while achieving sustainable economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the social inclusiveness of agricultural extension services in India. We estimate the probability and frequency of farmers’ access to extension services and resulting changes in crop income across different caste groups. The literature suggests that caste-based social segregation manifests in various spheres of life, and perpetuates economic inequality and oppression. An econometric analysis of nationally-representative data from rural India verifies this with respect to the agricultural sector. Farmers belonging to the socially-marginalized castes are found to have a lower chance of accessing the public extension services, primarily due to their inferior resource-endowment status. Contacting extension agents at least once increased the average annual crop income by about 12 thousand Indian rupees per household, which is equivalent to 36% of the annual crop income of those without access to extension services. There exists significant impact heterogeneity. Farmers from the socially-marginalized castes hardly benefited from accessing the extension services. Based on these observations, we have developed a number of policy recommendations that could improve the social inclusiveness of agricultural development strategies in rural India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This paper shall first investigate the informatics areas and applications of the four Traditional Medicine systems - Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Ayurveda, Traditional Arabic and Islamic Medicine and Traditional Malay Medicine. Then, this paper shall examine the national informatics infrastructure initiatives in the four respective countries that support the Traditional Medicine systems. Challenges of implementing informatics in Traditional Medicine Systems shall also be discussed.Methods: The literature was sourced from four databases: Ebsco Host, IEEE Explore, Proquest and Google scholar. The search term used was "Traditional Medicine", "informatics", "informatics infrastructure", "traditional Chinese medicine", "Ayurveda", "traditional Arabic and Islamic medicine", and "traditional malay medicine". A combination of the search terms above was also executed to enhance the searching process. A search was also conducted in Google to identify miscellaneous books, publications, and organization websites using the same terms.Results: Amongst major advancements in TCM and Ayurveda are bioinformatics, development of Traditional Medicine databases for decision system support, data mining and image processing. Traditional Chinese Medicine differentiates itself from other Traditional Medicine systems with documented ISO Standards to support the standardization of TCM. Informatics applications in Traditional Arabic and Islamic Medicine are mostly ehealth applications that focus more on spiritual healing, Islamic obligations and prophetic traditions. Literature regarding development of health informatics to support Traditional Malay Medicine is still insufficient. Major informatics infrastructure that is common in China and India are automated insurance payment systems for Traditional Medicine treatment. National informatics infrastructure in Middle East and Malaysia mainly cater for modern medicine. Other infrastructure such as telemedicine and hospital information systems focus its implementation in modern medicine or are not implemented and strategized at a national level to support Traditional Medicine.Conclusion: Informatics may not be able to address all the emerging areas of Traditional Medicine because the concepts in Traditional Medicine system of medicine are different from modern system, though the aim may be same, i.e., to give relief to the patient. Thus, there is a need to synthesize Traditional Medicine systems and informatics with involvements from modern system of medicine. Future research works may include filling the gaps of informatics areas and integrate national informatics infrastructure with established Traditional Medicine systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the ongoing demographic and epidemiological transition, cancer is emerging as a major public health concern in India. This paper uses nationally representative household survey to examine the overall prevalence and economic burden of cancer in India. The age-standardized prevalence of cancer is estimated to be 97 per 100,000 persons with greater prevalence in urban areas. The evidence suggests that cancer prevalence is highest among the elderly and also among females in the reproductive age groups. Cancer displays a significant socioeconomic gradient even after adjusting for age-sex specifics and clustering in a multilevel regression framework. We find that out of pocket expenditure on cancer treatment is among the highest for any ailment. The average out of pocket spending on inpatient care in private facilities is about three-times that of public facilities. Furthermore, treatment for about 40 percent of cancer hospitalization cases is financed mainly through borrowings, sale of assets and contributions from friends and relatives. Also, over 60 percent of the households who seek care from the private sector incur out of pocket expenditure in excess of 20 percent of their annual per capita household expenditure. Given the catastrophic implications, this study calls for a disease-based approach towards financing such high-cost ailment. It is suggested that universal cancer care insurance should be envisaged and combined with existing accident and life insurance policies for the poorer sections in India. In concluding, we call for policies to improve cancer survivorship through effective prevention and early detection. In particular, greater public health investments in infrastructure, human resources and quality of care deserve priority attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Out-of-pocket spending at out-patient departments (OPD) by households is relatively less analyzed compared to hospitalization expenses in India. This paper provides new evidence on the levels and drivers of expenditure on out-patient care, as well as choice of providers, using household survey data from 8 districts in 3 states of India. Results indicate that the economically vulnerable spend more on OPD as a proportion of per capita consumption expenditure, out-patient care remains overwhelmingly private and switches of providers—while not very prevalent—is mostly towards private providers. A key result is that choice of public providers tend to lower OPD spending significantly. It indicates that an improvement in the overall quality and accessibility of government facilities still remain an important tool that should be considered in the context of financial protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The explosive growth in India's mobile telephony during the last decade coincided with a robust growth in its trade with China. A variety of imported equipment from China played a critical role in augmenting the use of mobile phones and expansion of networks in India. This paper studies the trends of these imports and examines the reasons for their penetrating deep into the Indian market. It argues that Chinese imports bridged a serious supply-side deficiency in India's telecom sector: the absence of a modern indigenous equipment manufacturing industry. Pointing out that development of the latter has been stunted due to low R&D, limited innovations, lack of access to finance, and liberal access to imports, the paper argues that Chinese imports are likely to continue until these conditions prevail, notwithstanding security concerns over such imports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Need is being felt to explore the possibilities of saving critical inputs by adopting alternative resources conservative technologies in agriculture as zero tillage and bed planting etc. Main aim of this paper was to see the impact of zero tillage technology in rice wheat system. Zero tillage/no tillage refer to planting of various crops with minimum of soil disturbance. Recently this technology has been recommended to farmers in Punjab to conserve water, save fuel, ensure timely sowing and to reduce drudgery of work. Consequent upon good response from farmers, area under zero till wheat has increased from merely 750 hectares in 2000-01 to over 2 lakh hectares in 2008-09. Economic analysis of the data presented in this paper shows that zero tillage method for wheat cultivation is economical and attractive option for farming community. The high yield grain and less cost of production per hectare were noted on zero tillage farms as compared with conventional farms. The estimates of regression analysis show that zero tillage could increase income of the farmers substantially. Finally, the adoption of zero tillage technology improves farmer's profit, improves his livelihood and eventually reduces poverty. Unawareness about the technology, management of standing stubbles of paddy crop and deep sowing of seed were mentioned as some of the hindering factors in the fast adoption of this technology on farmers' field. The various policy measures in this regard include extension of technical know-how of zero till technology, conducting field trials, giving a new package of practice to the farmers and providing easy access to zero till drill, either at subsidized seed drill price or through custom hiring by the co-operative societies/state agriculture department. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Project Tiger has been India''s premier case of conservation success. Since mid 1990s select Project Tiger Reserves in India were chosen for intensive funding by the Global Environment Facility, the International Development Agency (IDA) and the Government of India under the ‘India Eco-Development Project’. This project marked a modest shift towards debt based funding. The GEF Project has become a benchmark for tiger conservation in India both in terms of management outcomes and scale and scope of funding. However in the absence of large-scale budgetary support or self-generating income flows, it becomes difficult for the GEF type of project to be replicated in other tiger reserves of the country. Debt instruments hold promise as enablers of conservation finance. The paper proposes issue of ‘tiger bonds’ to meet the financial requirements of tiger reserves. Though attractive as a debt instrument, a ‘tiger bond’ could nevertheless entail interest rate and default risks. Bioprospecting activities form good revenue sources for tiger reserves to pay off their debts. However bioprospecting activities do not provide assured returns to tiger reserves. Pharmaceutical companies that prospect for genetic resources and practice ‘real options’ approach to R&D investment planning, adopt multi-phased investment systems and sequential searches that gives them the flexibility to abandon R&D projects. From the point of view of genetic resource providing entities like Project Tiger Reserves, the ‘postponement value’ generated by real options, enables a drug company to tap substitutes for the genetic resources that form the subject matter of bioprospecting contracts. To obviate possible repayment risks by tiger reserves, the paper advocates the institution of ‘put bonds’ as a risk management tool for Project Tiger Reserves in order to hedge themselves against loan defaults arising from possible loss in bioprospecting income. The paper also brings out the mechanics of the issue of tiger bonds in the Indian context. It is argued that a put bond not only hedges default risks but would also aid ‘value discovery’ and payment for ecosystem services as far as the Project Tiger Reserves of India are concerned. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper presents a critique of the essentialist notions of any community as a pacifist or militant community by examining the long history of the cycles of violence and non-violence in the evolution of the Sikh community in the Indian subcontinent. The theoretical premise of the paper is that communities' resort to violence and non-violence is determined by their strategic perspectives to achieve their politico-economic goals and not from any doctrinal adherence to violence or non-violence. The paper attempts a panoramic view of over 500 years of Sikh history (1469 - 2006) and offers a reinterpretation of that history by locating cycles of violence and non-violence in their historical context. It then provides a politico-economic perspective on violence and non-violence in their struggle for identity and political power. It focuses more on an analysis of the recent political conflict between Sikh militants and the Indian state, and concludes by drawing out the policy implications of that analysis for the politics of the modern Indian state regarding the Sikhs of Punjab. It identifies federal arrangements and human rights as issues of key importance in the political economy of this relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The predominant type of firms in developing countries is small family firms and the self-employed in the informal sector. Very few family firms make the transition to larger firms employing non-family labour. In this paper, we examine the reasons for the low presence of firms employing non-family labour in the informal sector, using a firm-level data set drawn from nationally representative repeated cross-sectional surveys of the Indian informal manufacturing sector. We find that the key constraint to firm transition is firm capabilities, followed by the level of urbanisation, access to electricity and roads, and human capital, with financial constraints playing a lesser role. JEL codes: O17, L25, D22 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Though Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) is successful in increasing antenatal and natal care services, little is known on the cost coverage of out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) on maternal care services post-NRHM period.Methods: Using data from a community-based study of 424 recently delivered women in Rajasthan, this paper examined the variation in OOPE in accessing maternal health services and the extent to which JSY incentives covered the burden of cost incurred. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analyses are used to understand the differential and determinants of OOPE.Results: The mean OOPE for antenatal care was US$26 at public health centres and US$64 at private health centres. The OOPE (antenatal and natal) per delivery was US$32 if delivery was conducted at home, US$78 at public facility and US$154 at private facility. The OOPE varied by the type of delivery, delivery with complications and place of ANC. The OOPE in public health centre was US$44 and US$145 for normal and complicated delivery, respectively. The share of JSY was 44 % of the total cost per delivery, 77 % in case of normal delivery and 23 % for complicated delivery. Results from the log linear model suggest that economic status, educational level and pregnancy complications are significant predictors of OOPE.Conclusions: Our results suggest that JSY has increased the coverage of institutional delivery and reduced financial stress to household and families but not sufficient for complicated delivery. Provisioning of providing sonography/other test and treating complicated cases in public health centres need to be strengthened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the association between inequality in energy intensity and social inequality in Indian cities, as these are the two predominant constituents of inequality in Indian socio-economic scenario. This study uses a bivariate cointegration based error correction model for assessing the causal association between the two inequality parameters, which are derived by using Theil's second measure. Given the sustainable development objective set by the government of India, interaction between these two parameters may prove out to be significant for achievement of this objective. It has been hypothesized that nature of this interaction varies largely based on the nature of the cities, i.e. semi-urban, urban, and metropolitan. The analysis has been done on the full and segregated dataset to visualize how the interaction changes with the nature of the cities. For analysis purpose, data for 139 Indian cities for the period of 2001-2013 have been selected. From the data of income, population, and energy consumption, two parameters of this study have been designed by using Theil's second measure. The analysis starts with checking the cross sectional dependence for both of the parameters. Subsequently, the stationarity of the data has been checked by using first generation unit root tests. Then, by employing the cointegration and error correction framework, the long run causal association has been assessed. For checking the short run causal association, Granger causality method has been applied. The data for this study have been collected form Ministry of Power, Govt. of India, Central Statistical Organization, India, and Census, India. Major findings of this study are, (a) for both the parameters and three segments, cross sections are independent, (b) the parameters are stationary at first difference, (c) there is long run cointegration relationship between them, and (d) the causal link between inequality in energy intensity and social inequality is unidirectional for the case of semi-urban cities, and it is bidirectional for the case of metropolitan and urban cities. For full dataset, causal link between inequality in energy intensity and social inequality is unidirectional. The Theil indices calculated for both the parameters show the trends of rising inequality for all the cities taken together. However, no significant trend was visualized for the individual strata of cities, for both of the parameters under consideration. This study summarizes that the economic growth achieved by India is not sustainable in nature. It can be achieved only by considering an inclusive growth framework, where social development will complement the growth objectives. Therefore, the fossil-fuel based economic growth agenda needs reconsideration, viewing the social dimensions of the cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In 2005-06, only 39 % of Indian women delivered in a health facility. Given that deliveries at home increase the risk of maternal mortality, it was in this context in 2005, that the Indian Government implemented the Janani Suraksha Yojana program that incentivizes poor women to give birth in a health facility by providing them with a cash transfer upon discharge. JSY helped raise institutional delivery to 74 % in the eight years since its implementation. Despite the success of the JSY in raising institutional delivery proportions, the large number of beneficiaries (105 million), and the cost of the program, there have been few qualitative studies exploring why women participate (or not) in the program. The objective of this paper was to explore this.Methods: In March 2013, we conducted 24 individual in-depth interviews with women who delivered within the previous 12 months in two districts of Madhya Pradesh, India. Qualitative framework analysis was used to analyze the data.Results: Our findings suggest that women's increased participation in the program reflect a shift in the social norm. Drivers of the shift include social pressure from the Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) to deliver in a health facility, and a growing individual perception of the importance for 'safe' and 'easy' delivery which was most likely an expression of the new social norm. While the incentive was an important influence on many women's choices, others did not perceive it as an important consideration in their decision to deliver in a health facility. Many women reported procedural difficulties to receive the benefit. Retaining the cash incentive was also an issue due to out-of-pocket expenditures incurred at the facility. Non-participation was often unintentional and caused by personal circumstances, poor geographic access or driven by a perception of poor quality of care provided in program facilities.Conclusions: In summary, while the cash incentive was important for some women in facilitating an institutional birth, the shift in social norm (possibly in part facilitated by the program) and therefore their own perceptions has played a major role in them giving birth in facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we estimate the English premium in a globalizing economy, by exploiting an exogenous language policy intervention in India that abolished teaching of English in public primary schools. Our results indicate that a 10% lower probability of learning English in primary schools leads to a decline in weekly wages by 8%. On an average, this implies 26% lower wages for cohorts exposed to the policy change. We find supporting evidence that occupational choice played an important role in determining this wage-gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Rates of perinatal depression (antenatal and postnatal depression) in South Asia are among the highest in the world. The delivery of effective psychological treatments for perinatal depression through existing health systems is a challenge due to a lack of human resources. This paper reports on a trial protocol that aims to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the Thinking Healthy Programme delivered by peers (Thinking Healthy Programme Peer-delivered; THPP), for women with moderate to severe perinatal depression in rural and urban settings in Pakistan and India.Methods/design: THPP is evaluated with two randomised controlled trials: a cluster trial in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, and an individually randomised trial in Goa, India. Trial participants are pregnant women who are registered with the lady health workers in the study area in Pakistan and pregnant women attending outpatient antenatal clinics in India. They will be screened using the patient health questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) for depression symptoms and will be eligible if their PHQ-9 is equal to or greater than 10 (PHQ-9 ≥ 10). The sample size will be 560 and 280 women in Pakistan and India, respectively. Women in the intervention arm (THPP) will be offered ten individual and four group sessions (Pakistan) or 6-14 individual sessions (India) delivered by a peer (defined as a mother from the same community who is trained and supervised in delivering the intervention). Women in the control arm (enhanced usual care) will receive health care as usual, enhanced by providing the gynaecologist or primary-health facilities with adapted WHO mhGAP guidelines for depression treatment, and providing the woman with her diagnosis and information on how to seek help for herself. The primary outcomes are remission and severity of depression symptoms at the 6-month postnatal follow-up. Secondary outcomes include remission and severity of depression symptoms at the 3-month postnatal follow-up, functional disability, perceived social support, breastfeeding rates, infant height and weight, and costs of health care at the 3- and 6-month postnatal follow-ups. The primary analysis will be intention-to-treat.Discussion: The trials have the potential to strengthen the evidence on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of an evidence-based psychological treatment recommended by the World Health Organisation and delivered by peers for perinatal depression. The trials have the unique opportunity to overcome the shortage of human resources in global mental health and may advance our understanding about the use of peers who work in partnership with the existing health systems in low-resource settings.Trial Registration: Pakistan Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02111915 (9 April 2014) India Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02104232 (1 April 2014). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that production must be organized to ensure people's economic viability and policy must direct change toward equality from the start. Considerable concern has been voiced about the impact of economic growth on inequality and distribution in developing countries. Of concern here is why economic inequality increases and the relationship between production organization and distribution. The referent is the impact of agricultural modernization policies favoring capital intensive agriculture on production organization in India, where land and capital are scarce and their ownership unequal. The untenable assumption common to the literature is that production and distribution are separate issues. That production must increase first, and distribution only means providing surpluses for those who need them, is another questionable assertion. This paper begins with a discussion of the political, social, and economic bases of development. Next it presents a discussion of two Indian villages which shows how public policy can change the interdependence between landowners, tenants and agricultural laborers, rendering the latter two groups obsolete. It concludes by suggesting ways to organize production more equally without lessening output.

Background: A peculiar phenomenon of engaging insurance intermediaries for government funded health insurance schemes for the poor, not usually found globally, is gaining ground in India. Rajiv Aarogyasri Scheme launched in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, is first largest tax funded community health insurance scheme in the country covering more than 20 million poor families. Aarogyasri Health Care Trust (trust), the scheme administrator, transfers funds to hospitals through two routes one, directly and the other through an insurance intermediary. The objective of this paper is to find out if engaging an insurance intermediary has any effect on cost efficiency of the insurance scheme.Methods: We used payment data of RAS for the period 2007-12, to find out the influence of insurance intermediary on the two variables, benefit cost ratio defined as benefit payment divided by premium payment, and claim denial ratio defined as benefit payment divided by treatment cost. Relationship between scheme expenditure and number of beds empanelled under the scheme is examined. OLS regression is used to perform all analyses.Results: We found that adding an additional layer of insurance intermediary between the trust and hospitals reduced the benefit cost ratio under the scheme by 12.2% (p-value = 0.06). Every addition of 100 beds under the scheme increases the scheme payments by US$ 0.75 million (p-value < 0.001). The gap in claim denial ratio between insurance and trust modes narrowed down from 2.84% in government hospitals to 0.41% in private hospitals (p-value < 0.001).Conclusions: The scheme is a classic case of Roemer's principle in operation. Introduction of insurance intermediary has the twin effects of reduction in benefit payments to beneficiaries, and chocking fund flow to government hospitals. The idea of engaging insurance intermediary should be abandoned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current article assesses emerging trends in global trade in the case of Brazil-India-China (BIC) Alliance. Although the globalized world is still recovering from the global 2008 crisis, it may be perceived that Brazil, India and China showed considerable growth during the crisis, continuing with the trend even after the crisis period. So that the growth observed in these three countries could be demonstrated, current paper is divided into three sections. The first section will deal with the emerging trends in global trade. Section two will examine emerging trends in Brazil, India, and China's foreign trade. The third section will examine the characteristics of the concept of 'new regionalism' and the role of WTO in accelerating the rate of growth in world trade for the coming years. Revised bibliography and descriptive statistics will be the methodology employed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growth points are centres of economic activity, which are artificially created or stimulated in disadvantaged regions with the intention that they will eventually become natural centres of economic growth. They are centres of expanding industries, which trigger a chain reaction of production and promotion of associated services with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of life. It is envisaged that by declaring promising and resource-endowed centres as growth points, the cumulative causation process would kick-start the process of economic development, whose spread effects would activate the quality of life in the periphery. In so doing it would attract investment and favourable government treatment, which would lead to both cumulative growth in economic activity and high population growth. Some growth poles have continued to prosper long after the initial stimulation factor gone through multiplier effects associated with a growing centre. In this paper, an attempt has been made to find out the potentialities of urban centres of North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, India as growth pole and strategies for the regional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper aims to analyze the spatial variations in the incidence of poverty and level of deprivation in India. The causal relationship between poverty rate (dependent variable) and twenty five selected socio-economic variables (independent variables) of deprivation has been also taken into account. The state/union territory has been taken as the smallest unit of study. The entire research work is based on secondary sources of data. The study reveals that the level of poverty is low in northern and southern states of India, and it is high in central-eastern states extending from the state of Maharashtra in the west to the state of Bihar in the east. The level of deprivation is high in the states extending from Rajasthan in the west to Orissa in the east, medium level in the southern, north-western and north-eastern states and it is low in the northern and southern most states of India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Direct injection diesel engine combustion system offers improvements in performance and fuel economy benefits. Four valves per cylinder, turbocharged and intercooled diesel engine became trustworthy for automobile application. Electronic diesel control, use of common rail with increase in injection pressures, and flexibility in injection control has changed the image of diesel engine. Evolutions in piston crown shape, intake ports with different swirl level helped to enhance mixing of air and fuel for better performance and emissions. Paper describes the work done on 4 cylinder diesel engine, upgraded to BS5 (Bharat stage 5) emission norms with 20% power increase. A systematic approach of engine development was fallowed. Engine performance prediction was done using AVL Boost software. Boost Model was validated with existing engine cylinder pressure. Combustion parameters have been varied to predict higher power. Vehicle model has been build using AVL cruise software and used to obtain steady-state load- speed points. Engine emission development has been done on engine test bench. Typical hardware like piston crown, turbocharger, exhaust gas re-circulation system with exhaust gas re-circulation cooler and various combustion parameters were tested and optimized. Suitable after-treatment system was selected and optimised for precious metal loading to reach Bharat stage 5 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Packaging serves as an important mass communication tool to market foods in stores. Packaging elements such as bright colours, spokes/cartoon characters, cartoonish scripts/crayoned fonts, discounts and premiums are used to attract children and influence their consumption behaviour. Use of these practices is widely researched in developed countries. However, these practices are witnessed to be used in developing countries like India as well. So, it is important to objectively assess the nature and extent of promotions used on food packages in Indian settings. The present study is based on content analysis of food packages. It is found that Indian children are exposed to a wide range of food promotions through food packaging. The extent of promotions used in India is very similar to the practices followed in other countries. Implications of these practices are finally discussed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In a macroeconomic environment with the non-tradable shares reform, financial crisis, tax reform and monetary policy, to examine the dynamic characteristics and factors of the debt maturity structure, this research tends to offer an empirical analysis about Chinese listed companies in different industries. Design/methodology/approach: Learned from Leary (2009), Voutsinas and Werner (2011), this study designs a model of debt maturity structure with an unbalanced panel data set. Consists of 1352 Chinese listed companies with 8124 observations during the period of 2003-2011, the sample passed Hausman test, and the findings support the fixed effects model. Findings: Besides the factors that have been confirmed by previous researches, debt maturity structure is also sensitive to other factors, such as economic expectations, monetary policy, financial restrictions and changes in tax rates. Research limitations/implications: There are still many cases, which affect the debt maturity structure, are worth of further exploring, for instance, the impact of lagged monetary policy, the determinants of short-term debt ratio and the cost of operating. Practical implications: From the macro point of view, research in this area enables the government to introduce more suitable policies that direct and promote the development of the bond market. From the micro point of view, it spurs corporations to choose proper finance structure. Firms can learn from the research to adopt the efficient method and term of financing as well as debt structure. Originality/value: In some way, conclusions of this paper contribute to the study of dynamic characteristics and factors of debt maturity structure in Chinese listed companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Socioeconomic development has been considered as a solution to the problem of sex differentials at birth and under-five mortality. This paper analyses longitudinal data from the Ballabgarh Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) site in north India to check its veracity.Methods A cohort of children born between 1 January 2006 and 31 December 2011 at Ballabgarh HDSS were followed till death, emigration, 3 years of age or end of the study. Socioeconomic status (SES) was measured by caste, parental combined years of schooling and wealth index and divided into low, mid and high strata for each of them. Sex ratio at birth (SRB) was reported as the number of girls per 1000 boys. The Kaplan-Meier survival curves were drawn and a Cox Proportional HR of girls over boys was estimated. Results A total of 12 517 native born children (25 797 child years) were enrolled of which 710 died (death rate of 56.7/1000-live births and 27.5/1000 child-years. Socioeconomically advantaged children had significantly lower death rates. The SRB (10–16% lower) and neonatal death rate were consistently adverse for girls in the advantaged groups by all the three indicators of SES. The first month survival rates were better for girls in the lower SES categories (significant only in caste (HR 0.58; 0.37 to 0.91). High SES categories consistently showed adverse survival rates for girls (HR of 1.22 to 1.59). Conclusions Better socioeconomic situation worsened the sex differentials, especially at birth. Therefore,specific interventions targeting gender issues are required, at least as a short-term measure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Though the cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of mortality in India, little is known about the human and economic loss attributed to the disease. The aim of this paper is to account the age and sex pattern of mortality, hospitalisation and the cost of hospitalisation for cardiovascular diseases in India. Data and Methods: Data for the present study has been drawn from multiple sources; 52nd and 60th rounds of the National Sample Survey, Special Survey of Death, 2001–03 and the Sample Registration System 2004–2010. Under the changing demographics and constant assumptions of mortality, hospitalisation and cost of hospitalisation, we have estimated the deaths, hospitalisation and cost of hospitalisation for cardiovascular diseases in India during 2004 to 2021. Descriptive analyses and multivariate techniques were used to understand the socio-economic differentials in cost of hospitalisation for cardiovascular diseases in India. Findings: In India, the cardiovascular diseases accounted for an estimated 1.4 million deaths in 2004 and it is likely to be 2.1 million in 2021. An estimated 6.7 million people were hospitalised for cardiovascular diseases in 2004, and projected to be 10.9 million by 2021. Unlike mortality, majority of the hospitalisation due to cardiovascular diseases will be in the prime working age group (25–59). The estimated cost of hospitalisation for cardiovascular diseases was 94/− billion rupees in 2004 and expected to be 152/− billion rupees by 2021, at 2004 prices. The cost of hospitalisation for cardiovascular diseases was significantly high in private health centres, high fertility states and among high socio-economic groups. Conclusion: The cardiovascular mortality and hospitalisation will be largely concentrated in the prime working age group and the cost of hospitalisation is expected to increase substantially in coming years. This calls for mobilising resources, increasing access to health insurance and devising strategies for the prevention, control and treatment of cardiovascular diseases in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5 is focused on reducing maternal mortality and achieving universal access to reproductive health care. India has made extensive efforts to achieve MDG 5 and in some regions much progress has been achieved. Progress has been uneven and inequitable however, and many women still lack access to maternal and reproductive health care. Objective: In this review, a framework developed by the Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) is used to categorize and explain determinants of inequity in maternal and reproductive health in India. Design: A review of peer-reviewed, published literature was conducted using the electronic databases PubMed and Popline. The search was performed using a carefully developed list of search terms designed to capture published papers from India on: 1) maternal and reproductive health, and 2) equity, including disadvantaged populations. A matrix was developed to sort the relevant information, which was extracted and categorized based on the CSDH framework. In this way, the main sources of inequity in maternal and reproductive health in India and their inter-relationships were determined. Results: Five main structural determinants emerged from the analysis as important in understanding equity in India: economic status, gender, education, social status (registered caste or tribe), and age (adolescents). These five determinants were found to be closely interrelated, a feature which was reflected in the literature. Conclusion: In India, economic status, gender, and social status are all closely interrelated when influencing use of and access to maternal and reproductive health care. Appropriate attention should be given to how these social determinants interplay in generating and sustaining inequity when designing policies and programs to reach equitable progress toward improved maternal and reproductive health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Telecommunications has been one of the success stories of economic reforms in India. From a teledensity of 2 percent in the not too distant past the sector has grown to a point where the teledensity exceeds 60 percent. The Indian cellular market is marked by strong competition, a large number of operators and some of the cheapest tariffs in the world. The sector experiences growth rates in excess of 80 percent in terms of the number of subscribers. However, all is not well in this sector. There have been a number of upheavals in the past and the latest one involves alleged favouritism in allocating spectrum. This paper analyzes the state of competition in the cellular mobile industry in India. Standard measures of competition such as HHI and concentration ratios are used as well as market share, revenues, access to funds and profits. We also look at the degree of rivalry in the industry through changes in rankings in market share. We provide a brief discussion of the major developments in telecommunications and cellular mobile in particular after the introduction of reforms. Effects of policy making by different institutions within India are discussed in relation to their effect on competition and market development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: India launched a national conditional cash transfer program, Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), aimed at reducing maternal mortality by promoting institutional delivery in 2005. It provides a cash incentive to women who give birth in public health facilities. This paper studies the extent of program uptake, reasons for participation/ non participation, factors associated with non uptake of the program, and the role played by a program volunteer, accredited social health activist (ASHA), among mothers in Ujjain district in Madhya Pradesh, India. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from January to May 2011 among women giving birth in 30 villages in Ujjain district. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to 418 women who delivered in 2009. Socio-demographic and pregnancy related characteristics, role of the ASHA during delivery, receipt of the incentive, and reasons for place of delivery were collected. Multinomial regression analysis was used to identify predictors for the outcome variables; program delivery, private facility delivery, or a home delivery. Results: The majority of deliveries (318/418; 76%) took place within the JSY program; 81% of all mothers below poverty line delivered in the program. Ninety percent of the women had prior knowledge of the program. Most program mothers reported receiving the cash incentive within two weeks of delivery. The ASHA's influence on the mother's decision on where to deliver appeared limited. Women who were uneducated, multiparious or lacked prior knowledge of the JSY program were significantly more likely to deliver at home. Conclusion: In this study, a large proportion of women delivered under the program. Most mothers reporting timely receipt of the cash transfer. Nevertheless, there is still a subset of mothers delivering at home, who do not or cannot access emergency obstetric care under the program and remain at risk of maternal death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) have become a major public health problem in India accounting for 62% of the total burden of foregone DALYs and 53% of total deaths. In this paper, we review the social and economic impact of NCDs in India. We outline this impact at household, health system and the macroeconomic level. Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) figure at the top among the leading ten causes of adult (25-69 years) deaths in India. The effects of NCDs are inequitable with evidence of reversal in social gradient of risk factors and greater financial implications for the poorer households in India. Out-of-pocket expenditure associated with the acute and long-term effects of NCDs is high resulting in catastrophic health expenditure for the households. Study in India showed that about 25% of families with a member with CVD and 50% with cancer experience catastrophic expenditure and 10% and 25%, respectively, are driven to poverty. The odds of incurring catastrophic hospitalization expenditure were nearly 160% higher with cancer than the odds of incurring catastrophic spending when hospitalization was due to a communicable disease. These high numbers also pose significant challenge for the health system for providing treatment, care and support. The proportion of hospitalizations and outpatient consultations as a result of NCDs rose from 32% to 40% and 22% to 35%, respectively, within a decade from 1995 to 2004. In macroeconomic term, most of the estimates suggest that the NCDs in India account for an economic burden in the range of 5-10% of GDP, which is significant and slowing down GDP thus hampering development. While India is simultaneously experiencing several disease burdens due to old and new infections, nutritional deficiencies, chronic diseases, and injuries, individual interventions for clinical care are unlikely to be affordable on a large scale. While it is clear that "treating our way out" of the NCDs may not be the efficient way, it has to be strongly supplemented with population-based services aimed at health promotion and action on social determinants of health along with individual services. Since health sector alone cannot deal with the "chronic emergency" of NCDs, a multi-sectoral action addressing the social determinants and strengthening of health systems for universal coverage to population and individual services is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To ensure efficient water allocation and use, policy designers have adopted various strategies, including price setting, decentralising irrigation water management or improving water rights. Most of these strategies have been applied individually, without considering the complementary relationships between them. This paper uses a discrete choice model to analyse the scope for combinations of tools for irrigation water demand management and farmers'' acceptance of these. In terms of local irrigation water governance, the presence or absence of collective irrigation water management, in the form of a Water Users Association, is considered. Water rights are specified in terms of the duration and quality of the entitlement and its transferability. Finally, four types of water pricing methods (area, crop, block and volumetric pricing) are considered. Using a choice experiment, we elicit the most preferred water pricing method, under different water rights situations, at different price levels and under various contexts for local irrigation water governance. Our results indicated that under conditions of improved water rights, preference for volumetric pricing increases, whilst the presence of a Water Users Association reduces this preference. Furthermore, it was found that using an appropriate combination of water demand management tools considerably increases the willingness to pay for a change in scenario. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper studies mechanisms to compensate local government for the public provision of environmental services using the theory of optimal fiscal transfers in India. Especially, we analyzed the role of intergovernmental fiscal transfers in achieving the environmental goal. Simply assigning the functions at appropriate levels does not ensure optimal provision of environmental services. Optimality in resource allocation could be achieved by combining the assignment system with an appropriate compensation mechanism. Intergovernmental fiscal transfers would be a suitable mechanism for compensating the local governments and help in internalizing the spillover effects of providing environmental public goods. Illustrations are also provided for India. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper describes the process of urbanization and land use change in the urban ecosystems of the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi, India. Two types of land use change are considered--from natural to urban and from agricultural to urban. Both types are explained in terms of economic variables known to be drivers of change. A panel data method was used, and economic variables were combined with GIS-based information on land use change during 1986-2004 for 11 administrative units of the NCR. The results suggest that investment in the construction sector plays a major role in converting the land from natural to urban areas, while differences in land productivity seems to be the major driver for change from agricultural to urban uses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cross-border cooperation in the BIHOR-HAJDU-BIHAR euro region, around the Hungary and Romania's frontier needs to be reinforced for the new 2007-2013 EU Program. This target can be achieved with the support from the specialists in the cross border cooperation development projects. Unfortunately, those specialists are not available yet. How to solve this problem? So this paper focuses to underline the importance to cover this gap by using the educational institutions already based in that euro region, for example, the Institute for Euro Regional Studies and by getting expertise from the other Euro region in the Western side of Europe as the MOT , Mission Opérationnelle Transfrontalière, in France. In this way, it will be possible to involve more people in the euro region initiatives in the coming years and to cover several fields of the cross -border cooperation issues: environment, infrastructure, SME, SMI, Tourism, etc…issues [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, literature on the development of the Indian it industry has proliferated. Yet, paradoxically, an understanding of the dynamics behind this process of 'industrial catch-up' has remained limited. This can in part be attributed to the ideological flavour of the majority of studies, supported by a conventional wisdom that has attempted to draw links between the 1991 liberalisation of the Indian economy and the emergence and growth of the sector. Such works have both misrepresented the state as an obstacle to growth and overlooked its interventionist, facilitating role which, contrary to neoliberal postures, has increased substantially from the 1990s. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate this literature, taking as point of departure a more rounded empirical account, bringing out the integral role of the state in promoting and determining the character of the Indian it industry's development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the total annual cost including capital and operation and maintenance (O&M) costs for the up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) and waste stabilization pond (WSP) systems operated in India. It also compares UASB and WSP systems with the activated sludge process (ASP) and biological aerated filter (BAF) systems in terms of total annual cost and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal cost by assuming various annual interest rates and land prices. It was found that the relationship between capital and O&M costs per unit size of a UASB or WSP system and its treatment capacity can be established by a first-order equation. The relation between the cost of organic removal and capital or O&M cost for various sewage treatment systems at various annual interest rates revealed that, for the Indian context, UASB could be the most suitable option in terms of expenses and treatment efficiency. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: Telemedicine Practice Guidelines, 2020 and Telepsychiatry Operational Guidelines, 2020 can be potential game changers in the practice of medicine in India. They provide legal grounds for the practice of telemedicine. The economics of setting up and running telepsychiatry services vis-à-vis in-person services in India is discussed in this paper to aid the practitioners in understanding the costs involved in each of these modalities. Methods: Costs for various hardware, software, real estate, and human resources are collated from various sources. Telepsychiatry vs. in-person setup is compared for the costs involved. Results: Telepsychiatry consultation will cost much lesser to that of in-person consultation. Conclusions: Telepsychiatry is an economically viable option. There are many benefits and hurdles in telepsychiatry practice. It is a step towards providing psychiatric services at the doorstep in compliance with the Mental Healthcare Act 2017, upholding the rights of persons with mental illness. It will benefit the practitioner, the patient, and the society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rural people in India, particularly the tribals and poor, dependon forest resources for meeting their energy needs, forest products,and for employment. This paper gives details of one estimation of dependency of people on forests in villages in the Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, and Gujarat states of India. Benefits derived by the people were reflected as a percentage of the total income of the household. The dependency on forests varies from 37% to 76% in these villages. This kind of assessment would create a data base and provide indicators of sustainable forest management, especially for an understanding of theintricacies of Joint Forest Management. This information can be veryuseful in deriving the overall contribution of the forestry sector in the national economy and thus help the planners, administrators andforesters in evolving better management practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]