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In 2010, Uttarakhand entered the second decade of its existence as a separate State. During the first decade, average individual incomes rose by eight ranks in relation to the other States in India. Although these incomes are still below the median for India, they are growing significantly faster, which is leading to rapid convergence with the richer States. Looking ahead, the State can build upon its existing growth momentum, the economic diversification that has resulted from its industrial promotion policies, its favorable location in the dynamic North Indian economy, and good natural resources and skills bases to raise standards of living. This report intends to provide inputs for development thinking that is underway during the Twelfth Five-Year Plan period. It covers the subjects of growth, inclusion, sustainability, public finance and administration, responding to the Government s request for a discussion of these areas. It attempts to strike a balance between broad-brushed strategies and specific and practical recommendations, bringing to bear experience from other States and countries when needed. The overall message to policymakers is: Over the next decade, Uttarakhand should aim to become the preferred State in North India for (a) investing in the production of high value goods and in services; (b) livability; (c) greening; and (d) good government. The global community, including India s multilateral and bilateral development partners can be rich sources of knowledge about design, funds, and implementation support for the State Government s development program. Early actions to engage a wide variety of development partners is likely to help Uttarakhand effectively and efficiently traverse a challenging and unique development path.

Clemens Jürgenmeyer untersucht in diesem Beitrag, inwieweit das indische Regierungssystem als Westminster-Modell (Mehrheitsdemokratie) nach britischen Vorbild angesehen werden kann. Dabei stützt sich der Autor auf die von Arend Lijphart formulierten Merkmale einer Mehrheitsdemokratie. Da sich ein solcher Demokratietyp jedoch zumeist in homogenen und nicht oder wenig föderalen Staaten herausgebildet hat, kann Indien nicht als Westminister-Demokratie gesehen werden. Vielmehr osziliert das indische Regierungssystem zwischen Mehrheits- und Konsensdemokratie und wird dabei entscheidend von den handelnden Akteuren beeinflusst.

There is an understanding that political views in the world are increasingly polarised - one dominant idea will be considered far right and those who are not on that side of the fence will get attracted towards the far left. The first evident indication of this phenomenon in India came soon after the country announced the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The nation was divided into two factions and opposing forces joined various protests. Some took it to social and print media, and some took it to streets with the support of certain organisations whose preamble is against India's Constitution. One such organisation which is under investigation is the Popular Front of India (PFI). Since the beginning of the year 2020, the PFI has been vocal as concerns its contestation against the various decisions taken by India's judiciary. The PFI has been found to be involved in Anti- Citizenship Amendment Act protests. The PFI is registered at Delhi under the Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860. The organisation has been using passive methods to attain larger goals and objectives which run against India's social fabric. It was found to be involved in several transnational terror activities and many social and political conflicts in India. A Popular Front of India member was exposed as 'ISIS sympathiser' on Facebook and linked with Harkat Ul Jihad al- Islami, Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Al Qaeda. This article aims to elaborate about the structure, aim and activities of the organisation and the ways in which it has managed to become a pan-India movement. The article concludes with a discussion on some recommendations intended to face the challenge regarding how to proscribe groups like the PFI.

In the last two decades the Indian economy has been growing unabatedly, with memories of the Hindu rate of growth rapidly fading. But this unprecedented growth has also resulted in widening spatial disparities. While cities such as Hyderabad have emerged as major clusters of high development, many rural areas have been left behind with little development benefits accruing to them. India's mega-cities have continued to grow. This situation raises a number of important policy questions. Should India aim to spread development more equally across space? Are India's cities becoming too large? Should the government invest in infrastructure in the large cities to reduce congestion or in medium-sized locations to facilitate the emergence of new economic clusters? What are the tradeoffs between agglomeration economies and congestion costs? How different is India s experience compared with China and USA?

The success of Mr Modi's government is much more than a domestic issue; it is a fundamental challenge for democracy. India is not only the biggest democracy in the World; India is the only significant example of a XXth century born nation that never knew any other form of government. Nothing is settled regarding democracy in our age. One thing is however considerably safe to predict: the future of democracy is highly dependent on the success of the largest and most consistent emerging democracy. Modi's election broke three enduring democracy hexes: thirty years without clear parliamentary majority; politics polarised by factional issues and dynastic entrenchment. It did so giving hope to hundreds of millions of people on consistent steps for development. And this is the crux of the matter for looking into this first year of Modi in government.

Historically Indian and Afghan leaders enjoyed extremely close relations before and after the end of British colonial rule in South Asia. Due to the friendship with the Soviet Union, India was one of the first non-aligned states to recognise the communist regime installed after the invasion of the Red Army in 1979.

Secondary education is increasingly becoming an area of focus in developing countries, which have thus far concentrated on achieving universal elementary education. This policy note on secondary education in India discusses issues and aspects critical for the development of this subsector. Secondary education, in terms of policy, is a concurrent item in that it is within the purview of both State and Central governments. State level implications and strategies for developing this sub-sector are critical. The Central government involvement in secondary education thus far has been through discrete programs, such as computer and vocational education. The 10th Five-Year Plan (2002-2007) intends a much more strategic role for the Central government in improving secondary education in the country. This policy note supports this national vision and highlights the issues and constraints in implementing this vision. The policy note concludes with a summary of issues and aspects critical for this sub-sector relating to four areas: planning in secondary and higher secondary education; administrative reform; improving the quality of education and financing of secondary education.

Following two decades of relatively rapid growth, and a decade of liberalization, there is growing confidence within India, as well as internationally, about the state of the economy, and India's development potential. Nonetheless, and particularly since the late nineties, when India's states experienced a sharp fiscal deterioration, they have faced a squeeze on development spending, particularly acute in the poorer ones. In response, most state governments embarked on fiscal reforms, aimed at reducing deficits, and enabling effective interventions in priority areas. States in India play an increasingly important role in devising, and implementing policies to stimulate economic growth, and promote human development. But the performance of India's states is increasingly divergent, State deficits and debt levels rose sharply in the late nineties, and off-budget liabilities also increased rapidly. This sharp fiscal deterioration gave rise to state-level fiscal adjustment efforts, which in recent years have shown some signs of improved fiscal performance. Concerns about the level, and composition of fiscal deficits remain. The report states that a halt in reforms would endanger the states quality and quantity of productive expenditures, while debt levels would steadily build. It reviews expenditure reforms - particularly salaries, at the core of expenditure restructuring - and, pensions as a rapidly-mounting liability, which can be contained by parametric reforms, and longer-term structural reforms, while also examines subsidies, exemplifying the difficulties involved in reforming subsidy regimes. Regarding power sector reforms, commercial discipline should be a top priority. Public enterprise reforms are outlined, suggesting that while immediate fiscal gains may not be achieved, such reforms will prevent future budgetary support from keeping loss-making enterprises afloat. On examining revenue reforms, the report indicates these are essential to reduce fiscal imbalances, suggesting the elimination of tax on ...

Der Autor berichtet in diesen Report über eine Konferenz zu den Wahlen in Indien des Jahres 2004, die zur Überraschung vieler einer Regierungswechsel zur Folge hatte. Die BJP-geführte Koalition "National Democratic Alliance" wurde durch die INC-geführte Koalition "United Progressive Alliance" abgelöst. Auf der Tagung, die am 2. und 3. Juli 2004 in Berlin stattfand und vom Seminar für Geschichte und Gesellschaft Südasiens an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin organisiert wurde, analysierten 15 Wissenschaftler aus Indien und Deutschland verschiedene Aspekte der Wahlen sowie zu erwartende Auswirkungen auf verschiedene Politikbereiche.

Lecture held at the South Asia Institute in Heidelberg on 2nd December, 2008. In the context of post-colonial rural India there are essentially two phases in rural politics institutionalized through "panchayati raj institutions" (PRIs). The first phase began in the late 1950s following the implementation of the Balvantrao Mehta Committee recommendations which led to the birth of the first generation PRIs. The second phase began in 1993 when the Constitution was amended to strengthen the basis for PRIs. This amendment can be called a watershed in rural politics because it sought to democratized the whole political process in rural India, and conceived of the PRIs not only as instruments of rural development but also as institutions of self-government. The lecture explores whether PRIs have fostered a new brand of politics and good governance in rural India as conceived by the amendment of the Constitution by conducting case studies in one or two states as well as comparing the experience of neighbouring states that are carrying out similar experiments. Professor Prabhat Kumar Datta is DAAD professorial fellow at the South Asia Institute. He holds the Centenary Professor of Public Administration, Department of Political Science, Calcutta University and is also Honorary Adjunct Professor, Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata.

The broad structure of Modified National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (mNAIS), the main crop insurance program in India, is technically sound and appropriate in the context of India. The NAIS is based on an indexed approach, where average crop yield of an insurance unit, or IU, (i.e., block) is the index used. The insurance is mandatory for all farmers that borrow from financial institutions, though insurance cover is also available to non-borrowers. The actual yield of the insured crop (as measured by crop cutting experiments) in the IU is compared to the threshold yield. If the former is lower than the latter, all insured farmers in the IU are eligible for the same rate of indemnity payout. Individual crop insurance will have been prohibitively expensive, or even impossible, in a country such as India with so many small and marginal farms. Further, the method of using an 'area based approach' has several other merits and, most importantly, it mitigates moral hazard and adverse selection. This report offers detailed analysis of a number of technical and operational issues which should be addressed if mNAIS is to be implemented. GOI is to be complemented on its bold vision of the future of agriculture insurance through modifying NAIS, an action which, if well implemented, has the potential for significant economic and political economy gains. The policy note World Bank (2010) supported this vision and offered specific policy recommendations for mNAIS, with reference to the Joint Group report (2004). This technical report is intended as a complement to World Bank (2010) and also to the previous technical report World Bank (2007a), by offering detailed technical analysis of a number of issues that will be critical to the success of mNAIS.

This SADF Focus outlines the onset of the 17th General Elections in India between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Grand Coalition of parties, which includes the Congress. Political campaigns currently swing between divergent areas – we witness a great variety of promises, including 'India/Hindu First' propaganda and strong promises related to poverty removal, promise of employment, and others. Come this 23rd May, the counting of votes would define a choice between majoritarian politics and populism.

This paper is part of the Heidelberg Inaugural Lecture delivered in the Alte Aula on 15 November 2017, and of a public lecture delivered at the centre for Economic and Social Sciences in Hyderabad. It presents a view regarding state capacity in India after discussing the extensive literature on clientelism. It proposes that state capacity in India has much to do with the way in which the central and sub-national states cogitate about policy goals and the means to achieve them. For example, is import substitution or export promotion the way to grow? Will growth trickle down to the poor or is nonmarket re-distribution the way to alleviate poverty? These issues are debated between puzzling bureaucrats and powering politicians, and when they reach a tipping point, we see that the state finds capacity to deliver even in a liberal democracy like India. The paper proposes a tipping point model for understanding state capacity in the Indian liberal democracy. It suggests a way for liberal democracies to fight clientelism and develop the capacity to pursue their goals, even though these goals are often unrealized.

Der indische Binnenmarkt für Biolebensmittel ist über die letzten 5-10 Jahre schnell gewachsen, insbesondere in den Großmetropolen. In kurzer Zeit ist eine große Bandbreite von Vermarktungkanälen für biologisch erzeugte Produkte entstanden. Die Lieferketten und Einzelhandelsformate sind ebenso vielfältig und umfassen kleine Biofachgeschäfte, Supermärkte, Restaurants, Onlinehandel und Verbraucherinitiativen. Mit Schwerpunkt auf Mumbai, Bangalore und Hyderabad geben die Autoren einen Einblick in den derzeitigen Stand der Biolebensmittelvermarktung in Indiens Großstädten. Auf der Grundlage empirischer Forschungsarbeiten über einen Zeitraum von zwei Jahren dokumentiert die Studie die Vielfalt im Bioeinzelhandel, identifiziert Herausforderungen in den Lieferketten und zeigt erfolgreiche Beispiele regionaler, dezentraler Logistik auf. Das Buch richtet sich an Forschende mit Interesse an Indien, an politische Entscheidungsträger und NGOs, an Bioproduzenten, Biofirmen, Einzelhändler und Verbraucher, die den Markt besser verstehen möchten.

One of the most noteworthy developments in Indian politics is the occurrence of a phenomenon often described as Hindu-Nationalism or Hindutva-movement (Bhatt 2001; Jaffrelot 2007, 1996; Zavos 2000). The movement refers to efforts to undertake dramatic changes within the political culture of India. This attempted transformation of state and society, which manifested itself through 'communal violence' – clashes between different religious communities especially between Hindus and Muslims (Engineer 2003; 1987) and actions aimed at challenging constitutional provisions such as secularism in combination with increasingly radical socio-political demands, have posed a threat to the Indian model of consensus democracy and have sadly lived up to bleak forecasts (Basu et.al. 1993).