There have been many successes and failures in economic and social development of India in the last 75 years. The recent covid-19 pandemic had also an adverse impact on growth, employment, health and education etc. In this paper, issues and policies are discussed beyond India@75 for achieving growth, inclusion and …
This paper attempts to review the recent performance of the economy and lists the priorities and challenges for the Twelfth Plan. The Indian economy will enter the Twelfth Plan period in an environment of great promise, but the next five years will also be a period of major challenges. The …
In recent months, the BJP-dominated Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the Congress-led Delhi government have been outdoing each other in floating proposals and schemes for better governance. The MCD is in the throes of implementing a new Residents' Welfare Committee (RWC) scheme. Not to be left behind, the Delhi …
The main objective of the paper is to assess the status of urban decentralization in the state of Jharkhand in India and to relate it to some major implications on service delivery. We find that while some of the functions are assigned to the local bodies on paper, none of …
The environmental problems confronting Indian cities today have arisen because millions of people have been forced to live in illegal settlements that lack adequate sanitation and other basic urban services. This is the result of two factors. The first is the legacy of the colonial city characterized by inequitable access …
There is a good deal of ill-informed enthusiasm about “conditional cash transfers” (CCT) among Indian policy makers, based on a superficial understanding of the Latin American experience. In Mexico, Brazil, and other pioneers of this approach, conditional cash transfers were developed to bring a fringe of poor households into the …
As I write this piece, the finance minister has dispatched the Union Budget 2011. The press is busy reflecting the views of business and industry lobbies, as they quibble over duty exemptions, insist on financial stimulus and other incentives, and cry for big-ticket reform—foreign direct investment in retail and insurance. …
The responsibility of municipalities to provide crucial services is being increasingly passed on to the resident welfare associations located in middle and upper middle class areas in cities. Similar tools of intervention are absent in the slums and low-income neighbourhoods and even the local ward committees fail to represent their …
While the discussion on social democracy in western countries often puts the emphasis on its high costs and issues of incentives for work and enterprise, in India high inequality, massive poverty and a vast informal sector make the challenge of implementing social democracy extremely daunting as much as it is …
The Indian economy this year (2010-11) has been characterized by robust economic growth and steady fiscal consolidation. Inflation continues to be high even though it has come down markedly from where it was at the start of the fiscal year. There are structural challenges that face, concerning economic governance, efficiency …
The Orissa Economic Survey, 2010-11 takes note of the efforts of the State Government to bring visible improvements in the State finances, to reduce Debt-GSDP ratio from 55.92% in 2002-2003 to the sustainable level of 23.24% in 2009-10, to create fiscal space for higher plan and capital outlays to propel …
The author explores the nuances of inclusive growth and the technological infrastructure that is required for modernising India. The areas covered include, amongst others, IT, agriculture, transport, education, services and energy.
South Africa underwent a major transition to a full democracy in 1994. The new government embarked on an ambitious program to eradicate backlogs in water supply and sanitation, underpinned by development of sound sector policy and legislation. Initially, this program was driven by the central government. In 2003 responsibilities for …
It is not the sterilisation operations of the Reserve Bank of India, but policy changes agreed to by the Government of India and the central bank in the early 1990s which have led to a smaller fl ow of funds to the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development.
The State Finance Commission, although a technical and quasijudicial constitutional entity like the Union Finance Commission, has to help local governments plan for economic development and deliver social justice and public services at the local level. This article evaluates the history of the performance of SFCs in general and shows …
The CSC scheme in Assam is a poor advertisment for both the centre's e-governance drive and the public-private partnership model. Common service centres have sprung up here with a few government services on offer and appear to exist only to profit private partners availing of the government's subsidy.
The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission adopted a reform-linked funding approach, the culmination of two decades of active debate and experimentation in the urban development sector. Yet, progress of both fund utilisation and reforms under the programme has been tardy. As a second phase of the mission is planned, …
To generate employment in the State and to encourage investments in financial and social infrastructure, the Government announced the launch of a new Industrial and Investment Promotion Policy while presenting the budget 2009-2010. The broad outlook of the new policy not only focuses on industrial investments but has also aimed …
