Suchergebnisse

The article examines whether there has been a sharp development focus in the state towards the ten coastal districts of Odisha. Our analysis shows that many of the coastal districts did inherently well in agriculture, but in the area of MSMEs, the non-coastal districts have done relatively better than the coastal districts. Marginalisation of labour was also strong in many coastal districts as compared to the non-coastal districts. Since the coastal districts are primarily agricultural, they did not gain significantly from the development strategy adopted by the state of diversifying into industries and services. The state government has attempted to shift its focus outside the coastal districts and also encourage large industries in the power, metals and mineral sectors. Such a strategy has resulted in the creation of certain growth centres in the non-coastal districts but did not have a major impact in reducing the dependence of the population on agriculture.

Demand and supply mismatch is central to the issue of skills and employability. If levels of education are considered as proxy for skills, literacy and numeracy, then higher share of those with lower levels of education—primary to secondary level (44% to 52%)—has not joined the labour force compared to those with higher education levels. The paradox is that unemployment levels are the highest for engineering, technology and management and lower for law, medical and accounts graduates. High dropout rates in schools contribute to lower levels of skills in the workforce. There is dominance of self-employed and casual labour over wage labour. Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Manipur and Uttarakhand have both high gross enrolment ratio and high workforce participation. Studies show that only 40 per cent are employable based on attributes of employability, such as domain knowledge, communication skills, numerical and logical attributes and vertical thinking. In West Bengal, there is excess supply of workforce in all categories—skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled. Although the share of trained workforce in the state is higher than the national average, the absorption rate of this workforce is lower than the national average. Although national- and state-level skill policies have been announced, there is poor mapping of skill gaps which is not in keeping with the local demand. Skill-building policies and strategies need to be made more demand-driven and responsive to the needs of the industry, whose participation in the entire skill-building process will have to be proactive than has been the case at present.

This article, set in the tradition of analysing the domestic inputs to foreign policy, explores the interface of federalism and the making and execution of foreign policy in India by looking at six case studies drawn from the United Progressive Alliance UPA (2004–2014) and the National Democratic Alliance NDA-II (2014 onwards) periods. Although the Indian Constitution has vested the power to conduct foreign policy almost exclusively in the Union government, serious differences between the two layers of government in the Indian federation have never been unknown altogether. However, it is argued here that the twin developments of the 1990s, that is, rise of coalition governments at the central level and introduction of neoliberal reforms in the Indian economy, enabled States to deepen their footprints in the foreign policy arena. In conclusion, the article attempts a comparison of the two regimes' performances in handling the issues concerned and asserts that instead of depending on ad hoc political management skills, these developments should be addressed through devising some new mechanism to achieve effective consultations between the Centre and the States on the foreign policy front.