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Whether India's economic reforms have led to increased income growth and poverty reduction or if rising income inequalities have prevented the poor from benefiting from growth has been a long running and contentious debate among the intellectual and political classes in the country. The growth elasticities of poverty reduction calculated in the paper could presumably be used to estimate the economic growth rates needed to reach specific poverty reduction targets. Using data on economic growth rates over the past ten years and the poverty estimates in the paper, it could be possible to assess the direction and pace of poverty reduction since the last NSS round. [Extracted from the article]

Opinion. Addresses the issue of whether lack of access to formal credit in India suppresses production in agriculture, by examining whether households utilize the farm land rental market to equilibrate their access to formal credit. Examination of the effects of access to formal credit; Information used from the Government of India's `All-India Debt and Investment Survey for 1981 to 1982' to conduct analysis; What findings suggested.

India fell behind during colonial rule. The absolute and relative decline of Indian GDP per capita with respect to Britain began before colonization and coincided with the rise of the textile trade with Europe. However, the fortunes of the traditional textile industry cannot explain the decline in the eighteenth century and stagnation in the nineteenth century as India integrated into the global economy of the British Empire. Inadequate investment in agriculture and consequent decline in yield per acre stalled economic growth. Modern industries emerged and grew relatively fast. The reversal began after independence. Policies of industrialization and a green revolution in agriculture increased productivity in agriculture and industry. However, India's growth in the closing decades of the twentieth century has been led by services. A concentration of human capital in the service sector has origins in colonial policy. Expenditure on education prioritized higher education, creating an advantage for the service sector. At the same time, the slow expansion of primary education lowered the accumulation of human capital and put India at a disadvantage in comparison with the fast‐growing economies of East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing body of literature about the impacts of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton in developing countries. While many studies show remarkable benefits for farmers, there are also reports that question these results. Most previous studies consider impacts in deterministic terms, neglecting existing variability. Here we explain the main factors influencing the agronomic and economic outcomes. Apart from differences in pest pressure and patterns of pesticide use, germplasm effects can play an important role. Theoretical arguments are supported by empirical evidence from India. Better understanding of impact variability can help explain some of the paradoxes in the recent controversy over genetically modified crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been competing arguments about the effect of public infrastructure on productivity. Level-based and debate-based regressions often lead to different estimates. To help reconcile this difference, this article applies the GMM method to first test for causality to check for length of lagged relationships and the existence of reverse causality before specifying a final model and deciding the estimation procedure. This approach is illustrated using a panel data set for India. The results show that infrastructure development in India is productive, providing supporting evidence to reverse the trend of declining investment in rural infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses auction theory to analyze wholesale markets for wheat in Northern India. This approach enables us to characterize the market in terms of buyer asymmetries, to detect the existence of collusion, and to quantify its impact on market prices. We show that buyer asymmetries exacerbate the downward impact of collusion on prices. The article also considers whether the government paid too much for the wheat it procured at the minimum support price, and shows that for our sample it did not. The article is based on a primary survey of two wholesale markets in North India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sample of 228 Indian farmers, who were interviewed at two points in time, was taken in order to determine the effects of differential acceptance of improved agricultural technology on changes in equality of reward distribution over time. Analysis shows that inequality increases over time with respect to gross agricultural production, but lagging behind in adoption of improved technology is not clearly implicated in that increase. Conversely, inequalities in both level and standard of living are reduced over time. Early failure to adopt agricultural technology does not seem to lead to enduring and self-reinforcing disadvantage in the context studied. The results ire discussed in terms of the assumptions made about categories of adopters in diffusion research, and in terms of equity assumptions made with regard to technological change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]