Search

This article examines the dynamics of the income-distribution pattern in India during the post-1991 economic reforms. It considers district-level per-capita income data across agriculture, manufacturing, services, and various constituent sub-sectors, and finds evidence in favour of a uniform process of growth across sectors and regions, which has helped to reduce poverty. In particular, the article finds that growth in agricultural income and access to finance are important for this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa's external relations are currently undergoing major changes. Non-traditional state actors like China and India are reviving their ties with African economies and thereby affecting power relations between African states and traditional partners. Meanwhile, high commodity prices and improved credit ratings make external finance available for African governments. This article examines how non-traditional state actors affect the possibility of African governments setting and funding their own development priorities. It argues that while the current situation may increase the policy autonomy for African economies this is largely a consequence of the increased availability of external finance - and not just from non-traditional state actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid expansion of supermarket retailing, with its impact on farmer communities, represents a contentious part of India's recent economic development. This article reports on three districts of Karnataka, where a survey of 78 farmers supplying fruits and vegetables to Reliance Fresh, a leading supermarket chain, reveals low levels of vertical co-ordination, a lack of written contracts, and highly competitive environments, with the quality parameters used by supermarkets specifying only a limited set of conditions. These findings suggest that supermarket-led restructuring in India has not yet reached a stable institutional situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geographical Indications have evolved in recent years to protect indigenous knowledge in the agrifood sector without hampering the ethos of free trade. Supporters regard them as useful tools for protecting national property rights and offering new export opportunities, while opponents consider them as barriers to trade. This article provides theoretical justifications for them, based on insights from the New Institutional Economics, and cites Darjeeling tea and Basmati rice as Indian examples highlighting some of their dynamic institutional aspects. The new legal framework for GIs is mainly based on the international level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the possible links between economic growth, poverty and health, using panel data for the Indian states. The findings indicate that, though growth tends to reduce poverty, significant improvements in health status are also necessary for poverty to decrease. Also, economic growth and health status are positively correlated and have a two-way relationship, suggesting that better health enhances growth by improving productivity, and higher growth allows better human capital formation. Health expenditure is an important determinant of both higher growth and better health status, and is therefore a key tool available to policy-makers. Among other exogenous variables, literacy and industrialisation seem to improve both health outcomes and growth, and to reduce poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]