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The introduction conveys some data on learning in India and on designing Geography textbooks in this country. The present paper is reliant on four Geography textbooks, ranging from the 9th to the 12th grade. As regards each textbook, the study considers their learning units, then analyses their structure, the unitary way of designing them, the components of the panels of authors, the texts, illustrative materials, drills, learning activities, language, the wealth of Geography lexis, and the glossary.

The paper argues that access to public infrastructure plays a crucial role on the presence of private schools in a community, as it could not only minimise the cost of production, but also ensure a high return to private investment. Results using community, school and child/household-level PROBE survey data from five north Indian states provide some support to this central hypothesis: even after controlling for all other factors, access to village infrastructural facilities is associated with a higher likelihood of having a private school in the community. This is also corroborated by an analysis of household demand for private schools. The paper concludes by examining the effect of private school presence on year 5 pass rates: while all-school pass rates are significantly higher in villages with a private school, private school presence fails to have significant effect on local state school pass rates.

Only a few studies have assessed the economic outcomes of palliative care in India. The major areas of interest include hospice care, the process and structure of care, symptom management, and palliative chemotherapy compared to best supportive care. At present, there is no definite health-care system followed in India. Medical bankruptcy is common. In situations where patients bear most of the costs, medical decision-making might have significant implications on economics of health care. Game theory might help in deciphering the underlying complexities of decision-making when considered as a two person nonzero sum game. Overall, interdisciplinary communication and cooperation between health economists and palliative care team seem necessary. This will lead to enhanced understanding of the challenges faced by each other and hopefully help develop ways to create meaningful, accurate, and reliable health economic data. These results can then be used as powerful advocacy tools to convince governments to allocate more funds for the cause of palliative care. Eventually, this will save overall costs and avoid unnecessary health-care spending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevalence of poverty has bothered Indian economists, policymakers, and politicians alike. The rapid economic growth was unable to trickle down to the poorest which has led to the persistence of poverty both in urban and rural India even after 75 years of independence. Keeping this in view this paper has tried to examine the regional variations in the spatial pattern of incidence of urban poverty in India across 17 major states using data from the 28th and 68th NSS rounds. It also attempts to isolate the key determinants responsible for these variations. The objective of this paper is twofold; one is to bring out changes in the pattern of regional variations in urban poverty across 17 major states of India from 1973 to 74 to 2011–12 and the second is to identify the determinants responsible for these variations. The selection of regional units is based on the availability of comparable data as well as on theoretical considerations. For this study, therefore, we have considered each state as a single regional unit as they are home to largely homogeneous populations with common history and language, topography, institutions, and laws and at the same time each state is different from the other on account of unique factors. Therefore, interstate variations in this paper imply regional variations across 17 major Indian states. The results obtained through an instrumental variable estimation suggest that this effect is causal and is largely attributable to the positive spillovers of urbanization on the rural economy rather than to the movement of the rural poor to urban areas. Concerning the growth process, both urban–rural and sectoral (output) growth poverty relationships are suggestive of stronger intersectoral linkages in the economy, whereby growth in one sector transmits its gains elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"This paper examines the growth experience of 20 states of India during 1961-91, using cross-sectional estimation and the analytical framework of the Solow-Swan neoclassical growth model. We find evidence of absolute convergence--initially poor states grew faster than their initially rich counterparts. Also, the dispersion of real per capita state incomes widened over the period 1961-91. However, relatively more grants were transferred from the central government to the poor states than to their rich counterparts. Significant barriers to population flows also exist, as net migration from poor to rich states responded only weakly to cross-state income differentials.", (excerpt)

Although it is well known that vaccines against many infectious diseases confer positive economic externalities via indirect protection, analysts have typically ignored possible herd protection effects in policy analyses of vaccination programs. Despite a growing literature on the economic theory of vaccine externalities and several innovative mathematical modeling approaches, there have been almost no empirical applications. The first objective of the paper is to develop a transparent, accessible economic framework for assessing the private and social economic benefits of vaccination. We also describe how stated preference studies (for example, contingent valuation and choice modeling) can be useful sources of economic data for this analytic framework. We demonstrate socially optimal policies using a graphical approach, starting with a standard textbook depiction of Pigouvian subsidies applied to herd protection from vaccination programs. We also describe nonstandard depictions that highlight some counterintuitive implications of herd protection that we feel are not commonly understood in the applied policy literature. We illustrate the approach using economic and epidemiological data from two neighborhoods in Kolkata, India. We use recently published epidemiological data on the indirect effects of cholera vaccination in Matlab, Bangladesh (Ali et al., 2005) for fitting a simple mathematical model of how protection changes with vaccine coverage. We use new data on costs and private demand for cholera vaccines in Kolkata, India, and approximate the optimal Pigouvian subsidy. We find that if the optimal subsidy is unknown, selling vaccines at full marginal cost may, under some circumstances, be a preferable second-best option to providing them for free. (Contains 14 footnotes, 2 tables, and 8 figures.)

This paper reviews the ongoing failure of hybrid transgenic Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) cotton unique to India. The underlying cause for this failure is the high cost of hybrid seed that imposes a suboptimal long-season low plant density system that limits yield potential and has associated elevated levels of late-season pests. Indian hybrid Bt cotton production is further complicated by the development of resistance to Bt toxins in the key pest, the native pink bollworm (Pectinophora gossypiella Saunders, PBW), resulting in increased insecticide use that induces ecological disruption and outbreaks of highly destructive secondary pests. Rainfed cotton production uncertainty is further exacerbated by the variable monsoon rains. While hybrid cotton produces fertile seed, the resulting plant phenotypes are highly variable preventing farmers from replanting saved seed, forcing them to buy seed yearly (i.e., market capture), and effectively protecting industry Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs). The lessons gained from the ongoing market failure of hybrid Bt cotton in India are of utmost importance to its proposed introduction to Africa where, similar to India, cotton is grown mainly in poor rainfed smallholder family farms, and hence similar private–corporate conflicts of interest will occur. Holistic field agroecological studies and weather-driven mechanistic analyses are suggested to help foresee ecological and economic challenges in cotton production in Africa. High-density short-season (HD-SS) non-hybrid non-genetically modified irrigated and rainfed cottons are viable alternatives for India that can potentially produce double the yields of the current low-density hybrid system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Health management information systems (HMIS) produce large amounts of data about health service provision and population health, and provide opportunities for data-based decision-making in decentralized health systems. Yet the data are little-used locally. A well-defined approach to district-level decision-making using health data would help better meet the needs of the local population. In this second of four papers on district decision-making for health in low-income settings, our aim was to explore ways in which district administrators and health managers in low- and lower-middle-income countries use health data to make decisions, to describe the decision-making tools they used and identify challenges encountered when using these tools. A systematic literature review, following PRISMA guidelines, was undertaken. Experts were consulted about key sources of information. A search strategy was developed for 14 online databases of peer reviewed and grey literature. The resources were screened independently by two reviewers using pre-defined inclusion criteria. The 14 papers included were assessed for the quality of reported evidence and a descriptive evidence synthesis of the review findings was undertaken. We found 12 examples of tools to assist district-level decision-making, all of which included two key stages-identification of priorities, and development of an action plan to address them. Of those tools with more steps, four included steps to review or monitor the action plan agreed, suggesting the use of HMIS data. In eight papers HMIS data were used for prioritization. Challenges to decision-making processes fell into three main categories: the availability and quality of health and health facility data; human dynamics and financial constraints. Our findings suggest that evidence is available about a limited range of processes that include the use of data for decision-making at district level. Standardization and pre-testing in diverse settings would increase the potential that these tools could be used more widely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investment in the small-scale enhancement of groundwater recharge through check dams and other recharge structures in rural India is on the order of USD 1 billion/year. However, for any catchment, the optimal capacity of check dams is unknown, and the impacts on downstream flows are rarely determined. This paper describes a method that can be applied to plan recharge augmentation in catchments that have at least one monitored check dam. It was applied in the Dharta catchment of the Aravalli Hills in Udaipur district, Rajasthan, India, where four check dams in an ephemeral stream were monitored by farmers over seven years. For the last three years of this study, the hydrology of two of these check dams was affected by 19 new check dams established upstream. A basic hydrologic model, WaterCress, was calibrated on monitored check-dam storages and used to assess the impacts of the new structures on recharge from those downstream. Then, the model was rerun with a range of capacities of upstream check dams to determine the effects of check-dam capacity on (1) the recharge from the downstream check dam, (2) the total recharge from all check dams, and (3) the frequency of spill from the downstream check dam. Using the available economic information, the benefit–cost ratio was calculated for a range of check-dam capacities. This showed a decline in economic efficiency with each new check dam and defined the optimal capacity. Monsoon size was found to be consequential to results, and longer hydrological records yield more reliable results. The study showed that monitoring check dams, rainfall, and groundwater levels is key to deciding whether additional check dams are economically beneficial. [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]

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]

This article presents updates on studies about manpower, as of July 1979. John L. Palmer of the Brookings Institution is editing the papers for a conference that will study the economic effects and administrative problems of federal categorical wage subsidies. Brian Becker of the State University of New York at Buffalo continues an analysis of the consequences of teenage unemployment. Analysis of the irregular economy continued under the direction of Louise E. Berndt and Louis A. Ferman of the University of Michigan-Wayne State University. Mahmood A. Zaidi of the University of Minnesota is revising the article "Structural Changes and Employment Potential in India," for the third edition of the book "India's Economic Problem: An Analytical Approach."

The amount of rental housing in India has declined significantly over the years for various reasons, including the nature of the rent control laws. This paper assesses the impact of rent control for Mumbai, where it has created a shortfall in formal, affordable rental housing and contributed to distortions in the land market. The paper describes how "first-generation" rent control in Mumbai has led to deterioration of the existing rental housing stock, virtually halted the construction of new housing for rental in the city, and given rise to informal practices such as pagdi or key money. It also analyses the spatial concentration and composition of rent-controlled tenements in the city. It proposes reforms that would allow a gradual move towards rationalized rent controls, arguing that such second-generation controls will help incentivize investments in the rental sector and reduce the demand in the housing market at large, with implications for prices and affordable housing in particular. [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 literature on growth convergence has focused to a great extent on the role of initial incomes as a primary determinant of long-term growth outcomes. Expanded versions of growth models have used other explanators to unpack the growth process. In this paper we add to the literature in two significant ways: (a) we use socioeconomic variables that are sometimes overlooked in explaining growth (such as, political stability and political alliance, social heterogeneity, and demographic distribution), and (b) we demonstrate that earlier analyses may be overlooking the problem of normality and endogeneity in regression models (and we provide alternate methods like instrumental variable and distribution dynamics to control for these). In this paper we analyze the per capita income growth at the subnational level in India for the period 1981-82 to 2010-11 using an expanded growth framework. We find that initial incomes, the ratio of working age group to total population, political stability and alliance, and the extent of development expenditure play a positive and significant role in predicting growth. We also find that, contrary to popular belief, the presence of marginalized groups-namely Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes-have not been a hindrance to growth of per capita incomes in states. Our findings on the influence of social institutions may have significant implications for a public policy of affirmative action in India. The results on the impact of development expenditure on growth is also important for states seeking to increase their growth rates through policy intervention., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Monetary policy to be effective, besides an accurate assessment of the economy and precise timing, a clear understanding of monetary transmission mechanism as well as of the channels through which monetary policy affects output and prices is important. Further, what has duly received considerable attention in recent days is the disaggregated effect of monetary policy on output at sectoral level, i.e., whether different sectors respond symmetrically to monetary policy shocks. Extending this line of enquiry, the paper analyzes the effect of monetary policy shocks on the aggregate as well as on the sectoral output of Indian economy using reduced form vector auto regression (VAR) model. In order to understand the direction of response variables (aggregate and disaggregated output) to standard shocks (monetary policy), we employ impulse response functions. We find that the impact of a monetary policy shock at the sectoral level is heterogeneous. Sectors such as mining and quarrying, manufacturing, construction and trade, hotel, transport and communications seem to decline more sharply than aggregate output in response to a monetary tightening. We also augment the basic VAR by including three channels-credit channel, exchange rate channel and asset price channel of the monetary pol icy, and analyze the sector specific importance of each of the channel. The channels through which monetary policy is transmitted to the real economy are found to be different for every sector. In most of the cases, multiple channels are responsible for the changes in the aggregate and sectoral output to the monetary policy shock. These results clearly indicate the need for a sector specific monetary policy in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits recent claims that poor households owning cattle in developing countries settings do not behave according to the tenets of capitalism. We point out that the discussion was based on evidence from one single year only, while cows and buffalos are assets whose return varies through time. In drought years, when fodder is scarce and more expensive, milk production is lower and profits are low. In nondrought years, when fodder is abundant and cheaper, milk production is higher and profits can be considerably higher. Therefore, the return on cows and buffalos, like that of many stocks traded on Wall Street, is positive in some years and negative in others. The fact that in a given year the observed return on a risky asset is negative could certainly not be used as a contradiction of one of the basic tenets of capitalism. We report evidence from 3 years of data on the return on cows and buffalos in the district of Anantapur and show that in one of the 3 years returns are very high, while in drought years they are predominantly negative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses corporate-led jobless growth propelled by development-induced displacement caused by land acquisition by the State. It shows as its inevitable outcome an expanding informal sector which encroaches upon land-related natural resources allocated to the corporate sector. This reduces the latter's labour productivity and competitiveness along with negative impact on environment and social cohesion. Using the example of India as a multiparty democracy, the paper points to the emergence of a dangerous developmental politics of mutualism between political parties and corporations over land acquisition, which subverts the very democratic process through which political power is wielded. [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]

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]

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]

Decomposing the GDP growth from 1981 to 2004, this paper finds that innovation capacity has contributed significantly to the economic growth of China and India, especially in the 1990 s. Outputs of the national innovation system, measured by patents and high-tech/service exports, demonstrate the considerable progress China and India have made in innovation capacity. The enhanced innovation capacity of China and India is primarily due to their heavy investment in the inputs of innovation system, i.e., R&D expenditure and R&D personnel, in recent decades. This paper emphasizes the role that the governments have played in promoting innovation capacity and their contribution to economic development. Both governments have transformed their national innovation systems through linking the science sector with the business sector, providing incentives for innovation activities, and balancing import of technology and indigenous R&D effort. Using case studies of domestic biotech firms in China and India, this paper also offers micro-level insights on innovation capacity and economic development: (1) innovation capacity has become essential for domestic firms' market success and (2) global institutional factors and national government policies on innovation have considerable influence on the choice of innovation at the firm level, i.e., to conduct indigenous R&D or to import foreign technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses contemporary non-Western engagement with Africa through the lens of the second most significant, but surprisingly neglected, 'Asian driver' - India. Much of the literature on India's renewed interest in Africa is panoramic, highlighting concepts of 'South-South' cooperation in ways relatively uncritical of continued Indian claims to the Nehruvian moral high ground in the developing world. This article, by contrast, focuses on critical realities of India's relations with a single country - Kenya, a nation with which India has had ostensibly close links due to the historic presence of South Asian communities in the region. It critiques notions that 'diasporic' ties between India and Kenya facilitate contemporary Indian economic ambitions. Rather, the paper argues, fractious historical race relations in Kenya, and the cynosure of 'African' homogenisation of 'Asians' within an 'ethnicised' post-colonial political economy, might partially impede Indian ambitions relative to capital-rich foreign suitors devoid of such historical baggage. The second major argument holds that the specific state-led imperatives of much economic liaison within Kenya today favour certain 'partners' with statist investment models in contrast to India's more explicit, but not absolute, private sector-led engagement. Most importantly, analysis within a localised African context points to African agency in encounters with the 'Asian drivers', a term implying a certain unidirectional power flow. The competitive interest of a range of 'new' suitors has allowed African leaders, not least in Kenya as this paper suggests, unprecedented choice in international negotiations. The danger, however, is that these new liaisons can reify divisive socio-political conflicts in which many African nations are mired. This appears to be pertinent to Kenya where strains within the elite political sphere are being somewhat exacerbated by foreign investment, particularly from China and the Arab world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The speedy progress of trade in Global Health Services is limited by legal barrier. Advances in technology and cross-border movement of people and health services form legal ambiguities and uncertainties for businesses and consumers involved in transnational medical malpractice disputes. This requires for a uniform means of redress which is more flexible and predictable as compared to litigation in a court room. Therefore, the voluntary, flexible and legally binding nature of arbitration agreements across jurisdictions make this form of dispute resolution efficient and adaptive to changes in the health services industry. With careful making of an approach that accounts for arbitration cost, reasonable recovery amount and complementary mechanisms such as no-fault compensation, international arbitration of medical malpractice disputes will change the legal risks borne by businesses and consumers more fairly and efficiently. This paper argue that most medical disputes are better resolved by alternative dispute resolution mechanisms which will contribute in improving patient safety by encouraging candid and comprehensive reporting of risks. It also argues that medical disputes and patient safety needs to be viewed through a new lens, namely patient autonomy. It discusses the scope of India flourishing in the field of Medical Tourism and also the challenges faced by the foreign patients and the scope of Arbitration in amicably resolving the medical disputes in a cost effective and in a swift manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sought to find the long-run relationships between international tourist arrivals in India with economic variables such as GDP, transportation costs and the exchange rate for the period from 2002-2006. The cointegration techniques used was based on Panel Cointegration Test as well as both the OLS estimator and DOLS estimator were used to find long-run relationship of the international tourism demand model for India. This paper used the five standard method test for Panel Unit Root Tests such as Levin, Lin and Chu (2002), Breitung (2000), Im, Pesaran and Shin (2003), Maddala and Wu (1999) and Choi (2001) and Handri (1999). The long-run results indicate that growth in income (GDP) of India's major tourist source markets has a positive impact on international visitor arrivals to India. These empirical results imply that when GDP of international major tourist source market such as England, America, Canada, France, German, Japan, Malaysia, Australia, Singapore and Korea increasing 1% then the number of international visitor arrivals to India increasing about 3% to 4%. As well as when transportation cost of these country increasing 1% then the number of international visitor arrivals to India increasing about 0.3% to 0.6%. Finally when the value of India's currency strong than the value of these country's currency increasing 1% then the number of international visitor arrivals to India decreasing 0.003% to 0.006%. Furthermore mostly findings were consistent with economic theory and the implications of the model can be use for policy making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent growth pattern of India is set in the context of the parallel experience of China, the experience of poverty reduction is reviewed, and a number of papers illuminating India's development are introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-resource settings often have limited use of local data for health system planning and decision-making. To promote local data use for decision-making and priority setting, we propose an adapted framework: a data-informed platform for health (DIPH) aimed at guiding coordination, bringing together key data from the public and private sectors on inputs and processes. In working to transform this framework from a concept to a health systems initiative, we undertook a series of implementation research activities including background assessment, testing and scaling up of the intervention. This first paper of four reports the feasibility of the approach in a district health systems context in five districts of India, Nigeria and Ethiopia. We selected five districts using predefined criteria and in collaboration with governments. After scoping visits, an in-depth field visit included interviews with key health stakeholders, focus group discussions with service-delivery staff and record review. For analysis, we used five dimensions of feasibility research based on the TELOS framework: technology and systems, economic, legal and political, operational and scheduling feasibility. We found no standardized process for data-based district level decision-making, and substantial obstacles in all three countries. Compared with study areas in Ethiopia and Nigeria, the health system in Uttar Pradesh is relatively amenable to the DIPH, having relative strengths in infrastructure, technological and technical expertise, and financial resources, as well as a district-level stakeholder forum. However, a key challenge is the absence of an effective legal framework for engagement with India's extensive private health sector. While priority-setting may depend on factors beyond better use of local data, we conclude that a formative phase of intervention development and pilot-testing is warranted as a next step. [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]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify drivers and barriers for adopting Social Accountability 8000 (SA8000), a leading global social management standard. Design/methodology/approach: The approach involves combining insights from Institutional Theory with a focus on economic performance to study SA8000 adoption by suppliers operating in a developing economy (i.e. India). Data collection involves interviews with adopters and non-adopters, social standard experts and auditors, and archival data on local working conditions. Findings: This study confirms that customer requests are the major reason for adopting SA8000 in order to avoid loss of business. It is noteworthy, however, that those customer requests to adopt SA8000 are often symbolic in nature, which, in combination with the lack of a positive business case, hinders effective implementation. Practical implications: The findings imply that symbolic customer requests for SA8000 adoption induce symbolic implementation by suppliers, a "supply chain effect" in the symbolic approach. Substantive requests in contrast lead to more substantive implementation and require customer investment in the form of active support and an interest in the standard's implementation, context and effects. Originality/value: This study is original in that it addresses social sustainability from a supplier's perspective, using the lens of Institutional Theory. The value lies in demonstrating the "supply chain effects" that arise from the "quality" of customer requests: a purely symbolic approach by customers leading to symbolic implementation vs the merits of substantive customer requests which stimulate substantive implementation. [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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

In this paper we use new venture creation in Indian family firms to explore the family firm as an inter-institutional system. We argue that in societies where the traditional family dominates social and economic life, the relationship between the two institutions, the firm and the family, is managed via inter-institutional logics. These inter-institutional logics help reconcile the tensions that often arise in the family firms during strategic decision making. We use archival and interview data on 36 new ventures in eight Indian family firms to identify these logics. Our analysis shows that the interaction between firm and family institutional logics in Indian family firms generates four sub-logics: economic, expertise, reputation and attachment. These four logics are used to frame and screen new venture opportunities and justify resource allocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Understanding past trends and forecasting future changes in health spending is vital for planning and reducing reliance on out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses. The current study analyzed health expenditure patterns in India and forecasted future trends and patterns until 2035. Methods: Data on health expenditure in India from 2000 to 2019 was collected from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) iLibrary and National Health Accounts 2019 databases. Gross domestic product (GDP) data from the World Bank was also utilized. Descriptive statistics analyzed the composition and pattern, while the exponential smoothing model forecasted future health expenditures. Results: The findings revealed that expenditure made by OOP is the primary health financing source, followed by government and pre-paid private spending. The percentage of GDP allocated to total health expenditure remains stable, while the per capita health expenditure fluctuates. Variations in expenditure among states are observed, with Karnataka relying heavily on pre-paid private coverage. Future projections suggest a decline in per capita and total health expenditure as a share of GDP, with a slight increase in the government's share. Pre-paid private expenditure per capita and OOP health expenditure as a share of the total is projected to remain relatively constant but still high in absolute terms. Conclusion: The study highlights variations in health spending in India, characterized by high OOP spending, limited public coverage, and a need for investments, and reforms to improve healthcare access and equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we discuss relationship between export diversity and economic performance, focusing on Brazil, China, India and South Africa (BCIS). Using time data on exports over the period 1962-2000 and Applied General Equilibrium (AGE) models for each country, we note the similarities as well as differences in the patterns of diversification in these countries. We find evidence of a U-shape relationship between per capita income and export specialization in at least China and South Africa, and given that the results from Granger causality testing are inconclusive and not robust with regards to export diversification measures, some preliminary evidence from the results suggest that export diversification Granger causes GDP per capita in Brazil, China and South Africa, but not in India, where it is rather GDP per capita changes that are driving export diversification. From AGE modeling we find that South Africa differs from the other economies in that it is the only case where export diversification has an unambiguously positive impact on economic development while in contrast in Brazil, China and India, it is rather export specialization that is preferred. We show that the manner in which export diversification is obtained may be important: if it is obtained with less of a reduction in traditional exports, the impacts are better (less negative). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

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]

Purpose — Among the several sub-themes for this Special Issue this paper aims to deal, broadly, with the Hindu view of economics and allied matters. Design/methodology/approach — The approach is a conceptual one that highlights a few crucial aspects of the ‘positive’ flank of Hinduism vis-à-vis its ‘normative’ dimension. Researchers, thinkers, scholars and, above all, some important but ignored realizers of Hindu psycho-philosophy, have been dug into for materials comprising the paper. Findings — The findings clearly show that the amazing sustainability of Bharat's (i.e. India's) socio-economic processes, structures and systems, despite the tortures of history visiting her, can be explained by her abiding fidelity to the eternal as the basis of the temporal. This is the very foundation of the sacro-secular character of Hindu culture. Practical implications — The expected impact is long-term through deep-structure germination on a wide tract. Hurried practical application in tiny fractions is not intended as this will be premature and superficial. Originality/value — The contents of this paper are meant to generate a holistic and respectful orientation to the forging of constructive links between culture and economics in the context of Hinduism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — This paper seeks to give an idea about the role of ethics and values in the Indian economy and business in ancient times and the changed nature of these factors in the contemporary period. Design/methodology/approach — Books and writings from ancient times are used for discussions related to the earlier periods. Studies by the author and other scholars are used to analyze the contemporary situation. Findings — Ethics and values have guided the Indian economy and business since ancient times. With the large-scale destruction of the native systems in the eighteenth century, and the failure to recognize and revive them after independence, ethics and noble values ceased to guide the economic and business systems. At the local business and society levels, higher human qualities such as help, faith-based business transactions and basic norms are present even today, especially at the non-corporate level. Research limitations/implications — This paper does not discuss different aspects of ethics and values in detail. For contemporary times, it takes up only a few higher human values such as help, faith and broad-based norms in business promotion and transactions. Practical implications — It highlights the contribution of higher human values such as help, faith and unwritten norms to the business and economy of contemporary India. Originality/value — It presents that, even in contemporary times, higher values such as help, goodwill and faith-based transactions help in the economic and business development of India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using industry-level data disaggregated by states, this paper finds a positive impact of trade liberalization on (the absolute values of) labor demand elasticities in the Indian manufacturing sector. The magnitudes of these elasticities turn out to be negatively related to protection levels that vary across industries and over time. Furthermore, we find that these elasticities are not only larger in size for Indian states with more flexible labor regulations, they are also impacted there to a larger degree by trade reforms. Finally, we find that the reforms have led to a reduction in the share of labor in total output and value added, possibly due to the reduction in the bargaining power of workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]