Search results

In this paper we identify the multiple channels by which parental education affects child health status. These can be summarised as follows: (a) parental education directly improves child health status; (b) amongst all those who utilised institutional health care facilities children of educated parents have a better health status; (c) educated mothers are more likely to utilise institutional health care whether or not such facilities are available within their village; and (d) educated parents are more likely to utilise health care centre that is available in a village, compared to uneducated parents. Our results show that merely expanding the supply of health care facilities will not help to increase the pace of reduction in child mortality rates and improve child health status. Utilization of existing health care services too should expand and here women's education plays a positive role. Hence, the government has to pay attention to increase education level of adults, women in particular, along with the expansion of health care coverage.

Corporates have traditionally been modelled for their investment rather than saving behaviour. However, in recent times the firm-level saving has displayed an unprecedented behaviour across developed and developing economies. Corporate saving behaviour in India has also witnessed fluctuations, and this study captures a mix of aggregate and firm-level variables that may explain this behaviour. This article has three objectives (a) to understand the firm and macroeconomic factors that drive firm-level saving; (b) to examine whether the firm saving is affected by savings in preceding years; (c) to identify whether this saving behaviour of firms is for precautionary motives or not. The data set used in this article includes panel data of 2,109 publicly listed, manufacturing and service sector firms for the financial years 2004–2018. The data analysis has been done using dynamic panel-data models employing system GMM estimation with multiple robustness checks. The study findings show that firm-level saving in India is mainly driven by lagged corporate saving, Tobin's Q, GDP growth rate, CPI inflation, and financial depth, among other factors. Additionally, empirical evidence supports the presence of dynamic persistence effect and precautionary motives for savings by firms. JEL Codes: E21, G01, G32, C33

The Indian government initiated "Cleanliness Survey" of Indian cities in 2014 to promote clean cities. Under this initiative cities are ranked based on certain parameters. Indore city was ranked poorly at 149 in 2014 survey. The newly appointed Indore Municipal Corporation commissioner was confronted with the task of turning around the situation. The task was huge, required meticulous planning and flawless execution to achieve the mission. To the surprise of many including the citizens of the city, Indore achieved no. 1 rank in the cleanliness survey, 2017. We discuss the challenges faced by the Indore Municipal Corporation authorities, the response to these challenges, and critical success factors and make recommendations to sustain the top rank. Indore's success was a result of several activities that constitute a part of public affairs. The study identifies change management, corporate social responsibility, employee communications, external communication, and stakeholder management as important organizational activities that contributed in Indore's success. Learning from the study may be useful for urban local bodies and governments in other developing countries.

Nonperforming assets (NPAs) crisis in Indian public sector banks is one of the biggest challenges before the current government in 2017. The finance ministry, Government of India, and the central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, are worried about the surging NPAs in Indian public sector banks because of their huge macroeconomic impact and systemic risk to the financial system. If not paid timely attention, it can hamper the economic and financial stability of the nation. Rising NPAs in Indian public sector banks are a result of bank specific, macroeconomic, and political factors. In order to control the surging NPAs in Indian public sector banks, the government and the Reserve Bank of India have implemented new crisis management framework which however is not immune to several challenges. This paper looks at NPAs crisis from the lens of crisis management, stakeholder's engagement, government relations, and issue management. Harris and Fleisher () identify crisis management, stakeholder engagement, government relations, and issues management as important organizational activities that constitute part of public affairs. This paper follows a tripartite structure where it first investigates the causes of NPAs in Indian public sector banks. Second, it examines the crisis management framework developed by the policy makers and highlights the key challenges. Third, in light of these challenges, it makes recommendations to tackle the NPAs crisis in Indian public sector banks.

The Madhya Pradesh Housing & Infrastructure Development Board (MPHIDB) is a state‐owned entity in Madhya Pradesh State of India with the mandate of providing housing for citizens, particularly for those in the low‐income segment. MPHIDB has been constructing houses on its own using the traditional engineering and procurement contract (EPC) model. In July 2015, it was exploring the possibility of creating affordable housing units via public–private partnership (PPP). The advantage of involving private sector is that MPHIDB can tap into creative energy and construction efficiency of the private sector and deliver the best results within the given set of time and resource constraints. The proposed structure of PPP is that the private partner will be given a portion of land in lieu of the affordable housing units that it will build and transfer to MPHIDB. However, there are trade‐offs involved in doing the project in PPP mode instead of EPC mode. The main advantages of a government body like MPHDIB doing the project on its own are as follows: (a) It is able to better manage regulatory risks in terms of getting clearances, land acquisition, and so forth; (b) it can raise finances at lower interest rates than what is charged for private sector entities; and (c) the entire land parcel is available to construct houses, and hence it can get more housing units per unit of land. The Commissioner (CEO) of MPHIDB had to decide whether to go for PPP or EPC model, and if he opted for PPP, how should the PPP be structured?

Cost benefit analysis (CBA) has long been used as a useful tool to appraise and evaluate the value of a range of investment projects to a society. Certain aspects of this method such as the appropriate discount rate is an important concern, because the choice of discount rates deeply affect the valuations of future income streams. Other aspects concerning financial flows and appropriate 'shadow prices' have also received considerable attention. However, when a megaproject with the character of a 'universal intermediate' is considered, its multiplier effects may be wide-ranging and permeate several economic and social layers and may be captured only in the aggregates. This study examines the costs and benefits of Vadinar refinery in Gujarat with a focus on this welfare dimension on society for the project. The framework explores a methodological breakthrough in CBA studies. In constituting the macroeconomic effects of expansion of the mega oil refinery, the wider economic impact (WEI) is estimated using the computable general equilibrium (CGE) model and incorporated into the CBA. This assimilation of CBA with macroeconomic externality obtained from the CGE model framework is perhaps only one of its kind in economic analysis of major infrastructure projects of any country. CBA when combined with CGE as an analytical tool can be gainfully employed to appraise or evaluate large scale projects like oil refineries. JEL Classification: B41, C51, C52, C53, C54, C55, D50, D58, D60, D61, D62, H23, H43, L71, O22, Q43

Not Available ; Over the years Indian agriculture had made tremendous progress, which in a large measure is due to its human resources and public investments in agricultural research, education and development. Such investments in agriculture are of long gestation, and needs considerable advance planning. In the context of national demands and changing global agricultural scenario, detailed data on agricultural human and financial inputs, and research outputs and outcomes are central to systematic assessments and, hence, are of strategic importance. Evidences on the impact of agricultural R&D have always been sought for by the policy makers and senior managers to know the utility of the allocations. The present project is the latest in this direction, and has been executed by the National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM) in partnership with International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) to generate such evidences on agricultural R&D in India. India has substantially increased its public funding of agricultural research since the late 1990s and this trend is likely to continue in coming years. Nonetheless, the public agricultural R&D spending as a share of agricultural output continues to be relatively low. In its upcoming years, the Indian Government seeks to address this deficiency by committing a significant percentage of AgGDP to agricultural R&D. ICAR and the AU system are making concerted efforts to improve coordination of research programmes across various institutions. Evidence clearly indicates that an enabling policy environment and attractive market opportunities play important role in the diversification of R&D through participation of the private sector. This is essential for enhancing research intensity and making the system more demand driven. The datasets generated in this study would augur well for such insights into the planning process. It gives me immense pleasure to present the project report jointly prepared by NAARM and IFPRI. The report is timely and useful in preparing the future course of action on impact driven development in agriculture and allied sectors. ; Not Available