Suchergebnisse

I evaluate India's transition from an inward-oriented development strategy to greater participation in the world economy. While tariff rates have decreased significantly over the past decade, India is still one of the more autarkic countries. Despite improvement over the past in export performance, India continues to lag behind its South- and East Asian neighbors. Second, official debt flows have been largely replaced by foreign direct investment (FDI) and portfolio investment in the 1990s. India's ability to attract FDI would be greatly enhanced by further reforms. I argue that India's participation in a future round of multilateral trade negotiations would benefit India. I outline the further reforms most needed: reform of labour and bankruptcy laws, real privatization, and fiscal consolidation. These involve taking on entrenched vested interests, including political parties and governments in states. Enacting them requires political courage and risk taking which in India, as in most societies, are rare.

Much concern about the deleterious effect of rapid population growth on economic development is based on the view that household fertility decisions are either exogenous or, if endogenous, pervasive, & that significant externalities distort them. It is argued that this view is mistaken & that many alleged deleterious consequences result more from inappropriate policies & institutions than from rapid population growth. Thus policy reform & institutional change, rather than policy interventions in private fertility decisions, would be more productive. 2 Tables, 35 References. HA

Stigma is a social devaluation of a person because of personal attribute leading to an experience of sense of shame, disgrace and social isolation. The nature of stigma in schizophrenia and its relationship to attribution was studied in one hundred and fifty-nine urban patients of Madras, India who fulfilled DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia. The response of the primary care givers to fourteen questions on stigma and 14 on what they thought attributed to the illness was elicited. Based on the mean stigma score, the entire sample was divided into two groups- those with high and low stigma. Marriage, fear of rejection by neighbour, and the need to hide the fact from others were some of the more stigmatising aspects. Many care givers reported feelings of depression and sorrow. Discriminant function analysis showed that female sex of the patient and a younger age of both patient and caregiver were related to higher stigma. Among attribution items, having no explanation to offer, and attributions to faulty biological functioning, character of life style, substance abuse and intimate interpersonal relationship discriminated between the two groups. The relevance of stigma in the cultural context is described.