| Review of Market Integration |
IDF has launched a journal, Review of Market Integration, in July 2009, the aim of which is to provide a forum for rigorous analysis on the role of markets and market-based institutions that ensure economic efficiency and welfare of the citizens. The broad areas are market integration and role of institutions in sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, services, infrastructure, labour, rural sector, financial/money markets, and role of institutions that promote market-based initiatives in India.
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| Industrialization of Bamboo Sector in India – Synopsis of the Study |
With diverse, extensive and large bamboo resources, India has immense yet substantially unrealized potential to create employment and economic activities based on value added, new and industrial applications of bamboo. But the targeted development of the sector will require, on one hand, a critical and objective assessment of existing bottlenecks with achievable solutions, and on the other hand, a demonstration that most of the bamboo based products are viable entrepreneurial activities. Moreover, the potential synergies with industry - between organised and unorganised sectors - through appropriate business models is also essential for the sector to grow to its potential and beyond.
The study on “Industrialization of Bamboo Sector in India” seeks to address these issues. The study identifies the critical sectoral bottlenecks, and recommends policy, institutional and support mechanisms to remove these bottlenecks. This is done by mapping the landscape and institutional mechanism that governs the sector. Thereafter case laws are used to demonstrate the paradoxical regulatory and access regimes, which emerge as the biggest constraint that the sector faces. The regulatory regime have throttled the sector, beginning with the erratic and scant supply of raw material to the nascent industries, discouraging private end use based plantations to trade restrictions. Consequently, the accent on private bamboo plantations and correcting the definitional as well as harvesting/transit restrictions on such plantations emerges as two key recommendations. The recommendations are backed by citing the existing case laws.
The study then studies the financial viability and sustainability of different modules of technology, applications and industrial activities, one by one, beginning with the viability of a managed private plantation to feeder units where primary processing of bamboos needs to be undertaken to the various final products that have huge market potentials as wood substitutes, structural applications, food products and industrial end use (by dividing the products into these four categories).
Means to strengthen linkages between bamboo producers and bamboo-based industrial product manufacturers has also been clearly spelt out through appropriate business models, to suite functional requirements of the sector. The study then brings out the international benchmark of the Indian case with China and other South-East Asian countries so as to enable initiatives to make the bamboo industry more inclusive, efficient and cost competitive.
“Industrialization of Bamboo Sector in India” is a study that was undertaken by IDF for CII.
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Judicial Impact Assessment: An Approach Paper |
In India, a lack of judges has generally been cited as the main reason for court congestion and delays. This perception in turn has been attributed to an insufficient resource allocation to the judiciary by the legislature. Yet the legislature has constantly enacted new laws and that has added to the burden. Moreover, at times, well-motivated statutes can have unintended consequences on the courts’ ability to administer justice, especially on the criminal side. Therefore one needs to asses the problem from the demand side as well, although the proposed solutions are intended from the supply side.
Legislative proposals typically affect court workload either operationally, or through substantively. Judicial impact assessment is therefore calculating the workload change that the judiciary has to bear due to procedural or substantive law changes and then calculating the expected indicative costs for the same change. Technically, operational impact has the most obvious effect on the courts and is therefore the type of impact most frequently addressed in judicial impact assessments. For substantive law changes it is not always possible to calculate the workload change that the judiciary has to undergo, especially if it involves a completely new area or the economy under goes substantial reforms per se.
Till now a strong case based on statistical data, indicating the sources of litigation flowing from new legislation which is choking the judicial system is yet to be made by the Judiciary for demanding its legitimate share in the allocation of budgetary funds.
A study was conducted to develop methodologies for conducting such impact assessment for the Judicial Impact Assessment Commission, constituted under an order of the Supreme Court to look into the said aspect. The study was therefore based on the premise that measuring and minimizing the impacts of legislation on the courts will aid in preserving the courts’ ability to keep pace with their growing workload, ensuring adequate funding of the courts, improving the quality of statutory enactments, and improving the administration of justice.
The study had two parts – one that looks at a substantive law change in the form of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (further N I Act) with the amendments in 2002, and the other on a proposed procedural change under the Criminal Procedure Act, wherein the statements of witnesses are to be recorded in front of a Magistrate so that the problems of witnesses turning hostile and its effect on delays can be minimized.
The study in the course of its development recognized the following:
1. A different methodology is required for criminal and civil cases.
2. A different methodology is also required for procedural law change and substantive law change. The former has the benefit of using actual case load data of the particular law for which certain procedural amendments are sought.
3. There are two approaches that are available in general – forecasting based on macro level data and developing litigation models (behavioural or perception models), with a game theoretical approach.
What emerged was that, for any substantive law change, while a micro based approach is more appropriate for civil cases (as the individual decision based on a host of factors, to litigate or not to litigate are important) for criminal cases the method to follow is a normative one based on the realization that a certain number of criminal cases are bound to occur in a society. On the other hand for procedural law change, forecasting the effect of any change is based on the actual trend of case flows.
However, the study recognized a host of variables, behavioural and related to the judiciary that needs to be collected. Such data is presently unavailable, making the process less robust and therefore prone to error. In this regard the study suggests a variety of variables that needs to be collected and their importance to carry out any judicial impact assessment.
Nevertheless, the most important conclusion that the study reaches and also demonstrates is that while any impact assessment for the cases under section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, could have been incorrect if done solely based on the inflow of cases of similar types, the same assessment can be done for the proposed change in Section 161 of the Criminal Procedure Act. This is in conformity with the consensus in the USA that the process is feasible in some selected instances only.
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IOU option as an alternative to crop insurance |
The plantation sector in India is one of the oldest in the organized sector. The important characteristic of this sector is that its output is always for the market and, hence, exposed to all the risks of commercial farming. While large plantation owners can absorb some of the risks, the small growers of plantation crops are especially vulnerable to these risks. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that they have very little ability to absorb the risk of loss. Such risks are high as market volatility is an integral part of the world agricultural produce market. This problem is particularly high for plantation farmers as a large portion of their produce is exported. Owing to high volatility and the high probability of losses in the agricultural sector, the premium rates are high and thus insurance becomes unaffordable for the farmer. Insurance is a good tool for covering low probability events but fails when the risk of loss is significantly higher.
The IOU option was developed to provide financial relief to the farmers as an alternative to crop insurance. The scheme is targeted at the plantation farmer who is vulnerable to price shocks in addition to other factors affecting his output. This would act as a tool to stabilize the income of the farmer by absorbing some of the effect of the price shocks. Essentially, it would ensure that the farmer has some income in a bad year and sets aside some of his gains in a good year.
IDF is about to launch a pilot project to test the IOU option. The project will be conducted for the Price Stabilization Fund Trust (PSFT), set up by the Government of India. The pilot will run for a total of 5 years. The target districts will be Wyanad and Idukki in Kerala, Coorg and Mysore in Karnataka, Coimbatore and the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu, Sonitpur in Assam and some districts in Tripura. The crops covered under this pilot will be tea, coffee, tobacco, rubber, spices and fruits and vegetables (each of these crops has increasing demand in the export market).
This concept can be made more sophisticated and, hence, more attractive to the buyers (and the farmers). The IOUs put up by farmers of different products can be aggregated and sold as an instrument to the buyers which is essentially an index of all plantation crops. This will reduce the aggregate risk of the buyer, who will be willing to pay a higher price, which means a greater value to the plantation growers. In principle, if such a market is set up, one can increase the domain of these IOUs to cover the entire agricultural sector to come up with an agriculture index derivative in exactly the same way as we have the stock index for companies.
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Strengthening the Entertainment and Communication Industry in India to Fight HIV/AIDS Related Discrimination, Stigma and Denial |
India Development Foundation has written a report for the World Bank on ‘Strengthening the Entertainment and Communication Industry in India to Fight HIV/AIDS Related Discrimination, Stigma and Denial'. This report suggests the definitive and critical role that the Indian private sector and the entertainment communication industry must play in the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS.
One of the major factors hindering the fight against HIV/AIDS is the stigma associated with the disease and the consequent discrimination faced by the infected, as well as their family, friends and relatives. Stigma generates a vicious cycle --- people hide their infection, there is no proper treatment and care, the infection spreads and all of this happens without any systematic information, or knowledge, about the spreading epidemic.
HIV/AIDS related DSD continues to fuel the global epidemic, by affecting the prevention and care continuum. It is not surprising that this epidemic is spreading faster in the emerging economies that are often characterized by poor infrastructure, lack of education and little resources for the government to utilize in spreading awareness and fighting prejudices. It is in this context that mass media have an unrivalled potential to inform and educate the general public as well as people at the policy and programme level. Through sustained efforts the media can play an important role in breaking the silence and mobilizing society to confront the epidemic.
The government can facilitate an effective AIDS response by joining hands with the private sector. This is the key to sustained growth of India as well as insurance for the investment made by the business community in India. |
Global research study on impact evaluation of health programs |
IDF in collaboration with the Global Development Network (GDN), has undertaken a project, which aims to:
• Conduct extensive impact evaluations of previously unrecognized interventions from the developing and transition world with the greatest potential for replication and contributing to the achievement of the three Millennium Development Goals - MDGs (reducing child mortality, improving maternal health and, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases) directly related to health in Africa and Asia.
• Accumulate a body of empirical evidence based on world-class evaluations to inform the decisions of national policymakers and international donors.
• Assess the accuracy of quasi-experimental designs as a practical means of conducting evaluations on a routine basis.
21 studies have been commissioned in 20 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America for duration of 2 years. |
Information Technology |
This study investigates the use of IT in Indian manufacturing units. It uses two data sets --- the unit level ASI data for the years 1998-99 to 2003-04 and a specific survey carried out in 6 Indian cities. The descriptive statistics derived from the ASI data suggested that IT using units had better performance indicators in terms of profitability and labour productivity. This led to the following question: does IT use result in better performance or, is it that the better performing firms invest more in IT? A rigorous econometric analysis was carried out to establish that IT use leads to greater profitability. It was also established that IT use leads to workers being more productive and greater degrees of employment for both skilled and unskilled workers, though the ratio of skilled to unskilled labour increases with IT use. Most importantly, IT using companies pay more to its workers and employees for lesser hours of work, i.e., the quality of jobs is bettered with IT use.
These findings raise an obvious question. Since investment in IT is a management choice, why would firms not invest in IT even when they know that it increases profit? It was found that physical constraints, like the lack of availability of power, were important factors that kept units away from investment in IT. Another major factor was the degree of IT use by other units in the region (network constraint). This was also confirmed by the survey findings -- bad power supply, lack of skill and labour unions are major barriers to IT investment. The extent of IT use is determined by industry norms and suppliers’ use of IT (networking effect). More than a fifth of the units said that government initiatives help IT use. We also found that IT is not a way of doing business, as yet; IT access is more by management and not by skilled workers. One important conjecture we could make was that IT could be perceived as a substitute for lack of resources and physical connectivity to markets. The study ends with some policy implications that follow from our analysis. |
Innovation |
Innovation has been defined as the intersection of invention and insight that leads to commercial and social value. In India, there are many instances where innovation, as defined, has occurred and is occurring. However, these are not enough, given the size of the country and the number of problems India is grappling with as it embarks on a path of rapid, sustainable and inclusive growth. A careful analysis of the innovations suggests that the translation of new ideas into value generation is not a simple process. Though innovation starts with the idea and ends with value, there are a number of intervening steps that an innovator has to go through. There are no roadmaps that a person with ideas can follow to reach one’s destination.
To nurture innovative ideas, it is essential to have an innovation eco-system that opens up a large network of roads on which an innovator may possibly travel. Key nodes in this eco-system include a mind-set that provides freedom and encouragement to try, nurtures experimentation and out of the box thinking, and allows failure; skills generation and continual skills upgrading; the development and implementation of new courses that will develop skills required in the future, an example is the new initiative being talked about regarding a services science syllabus; a good research environment; reducing the social and economic costs of failure; open collaboration, standards or common platforms and a patent regime that support open collaboration.
We recommend a paradigm shift in nation’s goal-setting (like that happened in 1991 by opening-up the economy) that is not to “drive” innovation but instead generate an attitudinal change in people’s mind-sets like greater tolerance to failure, going off the beaten track, looking for solutions encountered in daily life, etc. Simply put, if we do not innovate, we perish. |
Human Resource Stock and Capital |
Human resources are the key to growth and development in today’s services and knowledge driven global economy. The purpose of the exercise underway here is to help in coordinating the composition of human resources – identify current shortages and future gaps, as well as link the growth of industry, agriculture and services to the stock of human capital. The very first step in this endeavour is to take stock of India’s human resources and the second is to determine how much of it is being put to valuable use and how to prioritize expenditures to encourage various specializations at all levels.
Human resources are characterised chiefly by – education, skill, and values. While education dominates most discussion, skill is crucial for employability, that is, for putting the human capital to productive use. Values are the qualitative dimension of human resources and very important as human capital translates into productive outcomes through the prism of values, for example, punctuality, discipline and regard for others are crucial for teamwork. This project considers all these three dimensions. Further, differences across gender/sex, age, states, and occupation/employment (and incomes/productivity) are also examined.
The preliminary findings are that education attainment in India is increasing quite rapidly with growth rates being double-digit at the schooling stage and reducing at graduate and technical education stages. However, there exist inter-regional and gender variations -- better performing states in 2001 continue to do well in 2004 and least performing states continue to be least performing. Values also vary across states. There exists an education level – occupation mismatch. In several states, occupational categories such as peons and workers had educational levels of graduates/post-graduates.
With 50 percent of the population being young and having global aspirations, a lot more (more schools, more colleges, more teachers; better skill training; more jobs, quality jobs) needs to be done. This exercise informs this process of forward-looking policy making. |
The Health Smart
Card |
The health smart card was developed by the India Development Foundation (IDF) as an innovative solution in the fight against HIV/AIDS in India. In particular, it addresses the following issues that are specific to the epidemic in India:
• Much of the affected population is mobile and the use of the card allows health officials and health care providers to keep track of the patients;
• By continuous monitoring of the patient, it ensures adherence to the treatment plan, which is essential to prevent the patient from becoming drug resistant;
• It keeps the patient's information confidential, which is imperative given the prejudices against the disease;
• It prevents the leakage of ARV subsidies, which are often necessary since the treatment is expensive.
The health smart card was piloted for over 6 months at the Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ART) centres in two public hospitals in New Delhi. The pilot was a huge success and National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) has recruited IDF for nation-wide rollout of the health smart card.
IDF aims to implement the health smart card system at health facilities across public and private health sector and across levels of the health care system, thus leading to a robust database on health of the Indian population.
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Social Accounting
Matrix (SAM) 2003-04
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The objective of the
exercise is to construct an updated
Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) for
India. The most recent SAM was constructed
for 1994-95. It was based on the 1989-90
input-output table augmented by additional
information as close as possible to
the year 1994-95. The current exercise
will use the 1998-99 input-output
table and augment it by all the data
that are currently available. In addition,
sector classifications in the new
SAM will be modified to make it more
suited to analyze currently important
policy issues. In particular, the
new SAM will be useful to check the
impacts of various plan and policy
programmes that could be envisaged
in the eleventh plan.
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Increasing the Use
of IT Products and Services by Business
in India |
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The purpose of the
study on the use of IT products and
services by Indian businesses is to
find out the factors underlying the
lack of interest in the use of IT.
Compared to most Asian and emerging
economies, India is woefully short
in computer penetration in everyday
life. The use of IT products and services
in businesses is amazingly little
when one considers the reputation
of Indian IT companies in the global
world. On the one hand, the IT companies
suffer because of the lack of a domestic
market; on the other hand, the efficiency
of the entire economy is affected
by the lack of IT in most activities.
The study would have two major components.
The first, based on secondary data,
will be an econometric model studying
the relationship between industry
productivity and IT. The second will
use primary data and study the relationship
between firm level productivity and
IT. The importance of policies and
how they affect IT use in society
will also be examined. Finally, a
set of consistent recommendations
would be generated that when implemented
will grow the domestic market for
IT products and services.
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Development
of a Dynamic Infrastructure Index
for Rajasthan |
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A key purpose of developing an infrastructure index is to get an accurate snapshot of the area’s infrastructure facilities --- both economic and social --- at any point in time. However, in a development context, it is also necessary that this same index can be used to monitor the growth in infrastructure over time. The objective in this project is to develop an index with two basic features. First, it has to be a dynamic index --- sensitive to a change of variable values. Second, the index should be parsimonious in the use of data. This essentially implies that, instead of feeding in a huge number of variables to get out an index (or the gap) it uses a small sub-set of the variables to get a number sufficiently close to the full index. This is important if the gap is to be monitored.
In this project, a dynamic infrastructure index is to be created for the state of Rajasthan. The index to start-with will be for four districts - Jalor, Ganganagar, Baran and Alwar. The rationale for creating an infrastructure index for these districts is to provide the government and other intervening agencies with an objective instrument to monitor the growth in infrastructure on a dynamic basis, get a more focused idea of what is lacking, and hence, needs to be done. |
Project ‘ACTION’- Advocacy to Control Tuberculosis Internationally |
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TB is a major
public health problem in India.The
TB burden in the country is still staggering.
Every year, 1.8 million persons develop the
disease, of which about 800,000 are infectious; and, until
recently, 400,000 died of it—1,000 every
day. The disease is a major barrier
to social and economic development. An estimated 100 million
workdays are lost due to
illness. Society and the country also incur
a huge cost due to TB—nearly US$ 3
billion in indirect costs and US$
300 million in direct costs.
TB is also the most common
opportunistic infection in people living with
HIV. As the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV)
breaks down the immune system, HIV- infected
people are at greatly increased risk of TB.
Without HIV, the lifetime risk of developing TB
in TB-infected people is 10%, compared to at
least 50% in HIV-infected. TB in turn
accelerates the progression of HIV to AIDS and
shortens the survival of these patients.
With an estimated 5.1 million
HIV-positive individuals in India (NACO
estimates), it is likely that HIV may worsen the
TB epidemic.
The Revised National
Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP), based on
the Directly Observed Treatment- Short Course
(DOTS) strategy, began as a pilot in 1993 and
gradually expanded to cover a population of 20
million by mid-1998. Rapid RNTCP expansion began
in late 1998. By the end of 2000, 30% of the
country’s population was covered, and by the end
of 2002, 50%of the country’s population was
covered under the RNTCP. By the end of 2003, 778
million population was covered, and at the end
of year 2004 the coverage reached to 997
million. By June 2005, around 93% (about 1030
million) of the population has been covered. It
is planned that the RNTCP coverage will be
extended to the entire country by 2005.
IDF is undertaking a project on
TB, which is funded by RESULTS Educational Fund
(REF), an organisation committed to support a
global tuberculosis advocacy campaign for
addressing and reversing the global TB problem.
The project aims to conduct an analytical
assessment of the key policy and legal barriers
that impede successful TB control in India. The
analytical assessment will highlight the
barriers in the policy and legal framework that
need to be addressed for further successful
expansion of DOTS and related TB-HIV and
DOTS-Plus strategies and for sustaining
effective TB control in India. This assessment
will serve as a guide to the planning of
advocacy activities in
India.
| Private Sector Development in Emerging Markets |
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| Economic
policies in the eighties emphasised improving
productivity in existing units and for making
them globally competitive. Upgradation of technologies
and cost effective organisation structure was
introduced for the first time. Duties on project
imports were brought down, whereas the import
duties on final goods continued to be high. A
more important initiative was broad banding. However,
with the licensing of new entrants still in place
it gave a clear advantage to incumbents. Sick
Industrial Companies (Special Provisions) Act,
(SICA) was also introduced in the eighties. Under
this Act a bankruptcy court, the Board for Industrial
and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) was set up.
Nineties policies were directed
towards the private sector becoming more competitive,
efficient and providing better environment for
investment. The focus was mainly on five areas
-foreign investment, entry procedures, technology,
monopolies and restrictive trade practices (MRTP
Act), and the public sector. For encouraging competition,
industries were delicensed, public sector de-reservation
started and easing of MRTPA regulations. For efficiency,
measures like import de-licensing, reduction in
import tariffs were introduced for availability
of raw material and technology at cheaper rate.
The import weighted average import duty was reduced
from 87 per cent in 1990 to 20.3 per cent in 1997
(World Bank, 1997). Restrictions on import of
technology were simplified. To encourage investment
foreign direct investment up to 51 per cent equity
was allowed whereas in eighties government had
strictly controlled foreign investment.
Findings
The average net entry rate during
1980-1985 was 0.55, and 2.29 during 1986-1990,
giving us an average rate of 1.42 for the decade.
In the nineties, the first half saw a higher entry
rate (2.68) than the second half (0.56) and had
an average net entry rate of 1.62 for all the
10 years. There is not much that distinguishes
the two decades other than the direct implications
of the political events. However, this aggregate
data hides the role of state governments and institutions.
Prior to the nineties, when the central government
was controlling industrial development, the focus
was on reducing regional disparities. The liberalization
policies of the nineties resulted in greater federalism
and states performed differently than they did
in the eighties. Earlier, industries were not
locationally optimized; in the nineties the entry
was higher in states friendly to industry and
had a better investment climate. In most states
the entry rate in the nineties has been considerably
higher than in the eighties. Contrast this with
the huge drop in average entry rates in Uttar
Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.
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The Food Processing Industry in India
Challenges and Opportunities for Investment and Trade |
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The future of the Indian farmer
depends on the success of the food industry as
India's prosperity is predominantly linked to
the growth of incomes in the agrarian sector of
the economy. Increasing liberalization of the
economy has tried to lift the protection that
the food and agriculture sector once enjoyed in
the country. This has, in a limited sense, exposed
the sector both to the opportunities and challenges
of the global food economy.
The market forces are compelling
the Indian agriculture producers to increase the
quality of their farm produce while continuing
to maintain their cost competitiveness in order
to be able to compete effectively in the global
food market. Even in the domestic market, rising
per capita incomes and changing demographic profile
of the population has ensured the growing demand
for processed and convenience foods. Increasing
consumer awareness about health and hygiene has
shifted the focus of the market to "safe"
foods.
The Indian food-processing sector is undergoing
a veritable revolution - all the way from the
plate to the plough. It is important to understand
the catalysts behind this change in the food-processing
sector in the country, and the challenges still
faced by this sector in becoming globally competitive.
This study is an attempt to understand
the dynamics of the "multitude of forces"
responsible for the present situation in the food
processing sector in the Indian economy, and the
growth prospects for the sector in the years to
come. The project entailed a detailed analysis
of the food-processing sector in India, especially
in the following five high-value segments - dairy,
poultry, horticulture, oilseeds, and wheat milling,
and identifying the opportunities and challenges
in investment and trade in these high-value, sunrise
sectors.
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| Vertical Integration in High Value Segments in Indian
Agriculture – Challenges and Opportunities |
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Demand for high-value and processed
commodities is increasing at a fast rate by the
Indian consumers. Their production has to be stepped-up
and their marketing efficiency needs to be improved.
Earlier studies have shown that small-holders
have a better stake in high-value commodities
as they provide better income and employment generating
opportunities. Given the very nature of these
commodities – perishable and high-value –
it has strong implications not only for products,
but also for financers, processors, exporters
and retail industry.
Indian food processing sector
is expected to grow to three times its present
size during the next three years. India should
be a major and influential player in the food
and agriculture trade in the future. However,
at present, India’s share in the world food
trade is only 2 percent. The food processing sector
has been identified as one of the potential growth
area.
The key issue for promoting high-value
and processed commodities is to reduce inefficiencies
and minimise risk in the supply-chain of high-value
commodities. It is to be seen that how producers
are linked with markets and the processors. Earlier
studies have shown that institutional support
increases farm income, minimises risk and reduces
market inefficiencies. There is need to understand
what sort of vertical coordination is developing
between farmers, processors, retail distribution
networks, financers and different input providing
agencies. It is also important to know how smallholders
are incorporated into the vertical chain. Also,
it would be worthwhile to analyse how smallholders
share the benefit of emerging opportunities in
high-value food-processing sector.
This project is an attempt to
assess the issues of the involvement of the small-farmer
in high-value segments of Indian agriculture,
the transaction costs in the process and the risk-sharing
between the primary producer (especially small
farmer) and the processing firm. These issues
are to be assessed empirically and by interacting
with the stakeholders.
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| Small Area Estimates |
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Welfare assessment poses a special challenge in
a vast country like India, which has continental
dimensions and vast disparities. While some regions
have development indicators that match developed
countries, other regions are abysmally poor. Studies
show that poverty and malnutrition are heavily
concentrated in a few states and a relatively
small number of districts and villages. Unfortunately
currently available data do not allow us to identify
these districts or villages, because the sample
surveys used for poverty calculations are not
large or representative enough at the village
level.
A critical challenge, therefore,
is to identify the regions and populations that
are most vulnerable and food insecure. The importance
of systematic data collection for monitoring indicators
at disaggregated level and evaluating the impact
of our interventions cannot be over-emphasized.
Promising new methodologies based on merging of
household survey and population census data are
being experimented with, for identifying specific
villages having the worst human development outcomes.
The World Food Program has commissioned
IDF to undertake a Small Area Estimation on
Uttaranchal exercise for the state of Uttaranchal,
to estimate the indicators of Poverty (consumption
expenditure), Stunting and Wasting of Children
at the village and household level. This would
be achieved by combining the data from the NSS
(1999-2000) and the NFHS-II (1998-99) surveys
with that of the Census of India (2001), to generate
GIS maps of the state for each of the 3 indicators.
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SPS Measures |
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Introduction:
The SPS agreement specifies the general
principles and rules & regulations that any member
state must undertake for the protection of life
and health of humans, animals and plants. The issue
is cause of concern as India is losing on many export
opportunities as the producers here are not able
to meet the SPS measures specified by other countries,
resulting in our products being rejected. Lack of
complete and correct information is one of the main
factors behind the current situation. This lack
of information is the main issue that we aim to
address in the present project.
Project:
The focus of the project is on capacity building
for policy makers, regulators, inspecting firms,
small agricultural exporters and importers in India
to face SPS measures. For this workshops will be
conducted to train the participants in how to meet
SPS requirement for food safety and how to prevent
consignment losses.
In addition there is a proposal
to bring out a CD-ROM with information on SPS requirements
in seven product categories. These categories are
Spices, Mango and Mango pulp, Mushrooms, Rice, Organic
Food, Marine products and Poultry products. Moreover
both the workshops and the CD-ROM would be in five
different languages- Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Tamil
and Telgu- so that it is easier for the local people
to understand. The reason for selecting these languages
was to target a large set of potential beneficiaries.
Urdu, Bengali and Tamil will have a sub-continental
reach as they will be useful for people in Pakistan,
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka respectively. The other
two languages have been incorporated as they would
be useful for a large group of Indian exporters.
Further, all this information will be compiled and
will be made available on a website. We also propose
to update this website regularly for future references.
A comprehensive study will be undertaken
for this project. This would include collecting
first hand information from producers, dealers and
exporters of the targeted products, and also the
experts and researchers working in this area. Also,
information would be collected on various related
issues like other trade barriers, intellectual property
rights etc. Such a study is expected to give us
an insight into the current situation, the relevant
issues, and the problems faced by the target group.
Further, based on our survey and the ensuing analysis,
we expect to make suggestions on how these issues
may be tackled and what adaptations, and changes
these producers and exporters should undertake in
order to increase the acceptance of the their products
in both domestic and international markets.
Working Team:
The project is being funded by Programme Management
Department, British High Commission, New Delhi.
A Steering Committee will monitor the proceedings
and implementations of the project. The Committee
will comprise of Vijay Kelkar, Bibek Debroy, T K
Bhaumik, Amitabha Sadangi, and Mohammad Saqib.
 SPS Agreement
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The Impact Of Economic Reform On Employment and
Poverty |
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The last two decades have been
quite special in Indian economic development.
The growth rate of GDP, that had stayed around
3.5% per annum since 1965, shot up to 5.8% in
the eighties and then increased further to 6.1%
in nineties. The proportion of the population
below the poverty line declined from about 44.5%
in 1983-84 to 26% in 1999-00. These are striking
outcomes but yet we do not know how they came
about. We know that the first few steps were taken
in the eighties to decontrol the Indian economy
and that there were comprehensive reforms in 1991
oriented toward making it more transparent and
open to international trade. But what are the
causal links between the actual policy measures
such as lower tariffs and faster growth? How did
the income trickle down to the poor? And, how
do the reforms affect the wellbeing of women relative
to men? The goal of this project is to answer
these and other associated questions by trying
to identify the economic processes that have been
unleashed by the reform measures. If we can develop
an understanding of the economic processes at
work during the reform phase, it would be immensely
useful to policymakers.
Knowledge-based policy formulation
requires research that identifies the underpinnings
of India’s recent economic experience. Existing
explanations are inadequate and are therefore
insufficient to guide policy. The work that we
propose has the promise of filling this gap of
knowledge. The potential payoffs are large.
Our goals are to examine if and
how the economic reform undertaken in 1991 in
India have made an impact on: (a) growth rate,
(b) poverty, (c) the school enrolment rates, and
(d) the well-being of women. Understanding the
impact on the well-being of women is, of course,
important in its own right. In addition, it gives
us an idea about the future course of development
since the economic well-being of women has important
implications for fertility rates as well as the
human capital formation of the next generation.
Similarly, the direct impact on school enrolment
rates has implications for the future productivity
of the labor force. Thus we hope that this study
will allow us to explore how the economic reforms
of 1991 have had an impact, if indeed they have,
on the course of Indian development.
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Plant Biotechnology Regulations and Policy in India |
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The commercial release of plant biotechnology products requires approval from biosafety regulators. As a result, the introduction of GM products has required the establishment of new institutions, risk protocols and legal structures. The setting of risk protocols and procedures requires a careful balance between the needs for biosafety and the need for early dissemination of useful technology. Our study considers this trade-off in the light of the experience of biotechnology regulation in India. Enforcement of regulations is another issue in developing countries. Estimates suggest that the bulk of GM crops planting in developing countries and especially the large ones is because of illegal seeds. While compliance with the law is undoubtedly a product of many factors, much can be understood by considering the incentives at the individual grower level of complying with the law. In our study, we consider such an exercise for the case of illegal Bt cotton seeds in India. |
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