Suchergebnisse

Comparing economies is a tricky affair because though the parameters are the same yet, the conditionality differ. It is like a comparison of dissimilar attributes. How to juxtapose attributes of one economy vis-à-vis another when the two have entirely different histories, cultures, geographies and other socio political conditions. However, the task before the authors of this paper was to do this very job – comparing economic development of Spain and India with the help of the evolution of industrialization. The present paper is based on the result of research done between July 2015 and January 2016 in the Department of Management Studies, IIT (ISM), Dhanbad, in the context of post doctoral Fellowship from the European Union program Erasmus Mundus AREAS+. The interesting aspect of this study is that despite all constraints Indian economy has grown commendably in comparison to the leading economies of the world, particularly the Western Europe. It may be recalled that the Industrial Revolution that was a game changer for Europe, gave certain inherent advantages to the European countries where it originated. But over the years Indian growth story has been a transformational one, despite a sluggish growth and disadvantaged history of exploitation and subjugation. Moreover, a large and rapidly growing population plagued by illiteracy and poverty has been a further stumbling block. But, the Indian economy has grown despite these difficulties and compares well with many developed economies. The paper details the evolution of Spanish and Indian economies and is based on the research carried out by the main author under the guidance of the two co-authors.

SummaryThis paper examines the trends in utilization of five indicators of reproductive and child health services, namely, childhood immunization, medical assistance at delivery, antenatal care, contraceptive use and unmet need for contraception, by wealth index of the household in India and two disparate states, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. The data from three rounds of the National Family and Health Survey conducted during 1992–2005 are analysed. The wealth index is computed using principal component derived weights from a set of consumer durables, land size, housing quality and water and sanitation facilities of the household, and classified into quintiles for all three rounds. Bivariate analyses, rich–poor ratio and concentration index are used to understand the trends in utilization of, and inequality in, reproductive and child health services. The results indicate huge disparities in utilization of these services, largely to the disadvantage of the poor. Utilization of basic childhood immunization among the poorest and the poor stagnated in India, as well as in both states, during 1998–2005 compared with 1992–1998. The use of maternal care services such as medical assistance at delivery and antenatal care remained at a low level among the poor over this period. However, contraceptive use increased relatively faster among the poor, even with higher unmet need. Of all these services, the inequality in medical assistance at delivery is consistently large, while that of contraceptive use is small. The state-level differences in service coverage by wealth quintiles over time are large.