Panchayat Raj institutions and local development in Madhya Pradesh and Orissa, India: synthesis of findings and recommendations (NRI report no. 2716)

In 1993 the National Parliament in India passed the 73rd and the 74th amendments related to establishment of local governments in rural and urban areas, respectively. These amendments contained some provisions that were mandatory and others of a discretionary nature. This report discusses the implementation of the 73rd Amendment in the two states of MP and Orissa

Gains from a Redrawing of Political Boundaries: Evidence from State Reorganization in India

This paper analyzes the impact of a redrawing of political boundaries on voting patterns. It investigates whether secession of states leads to gains in terms of better conformity of the electorate's political preferences with those of the elected representatives. We study these issues in the context of reorganization of states in India. Madhya Pradesh, the biggest state in India before the reorganization, was subdivided into Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in 2000, the latter accounting for less than one-fourth of the electorate of undivided Madhya Pradesh. Using socio-economic composition and traditional voting patterns, we argue that there were differences in political preferences between Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. However, in electoral democracies, the amount of transfers that a constituency gets depends crucially on whether the local representative belongs to the ruling party. Under these circumstances, we show in a theoretical context that when it is part of the same state, the smaller region would vote strategically to elect representatives with preferences more closely aligned to those of the bigger region. Once it constitutes a separate state however, this motive would no longer operate. Exploiting detailed data on state elections in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in 1993, 1998 and 2003 and a difference-in-differences estimation strategy, we show that these predictions are validated empirically - there is a significant divergence in voting behavior between the two regions in 2003 compared to the pre-reorganization period.Political boundaries, Voting, Redistribution

Adapting participatory and agile software methods to participatory rural development

This paper presents observations from a project that combines participatory rural development methods with participatory design techniques to support a farmers’ co-operative in Madhya Pradesh, India</p

Corruption, business environment, and small business fixed investment in India

This paper estimates a structural dynamic business investment equation and an error correction model of fixed assets growth on a sample of predominantly small and mid-size manufacturers in India. The results suggest that excessive labor regulation, power shortages, and problems of access to finance are all significant factors in industrial growth in the country. The estimated effects of labor regulation, power shortages and access to finance on the rate of business investment all vary by states'levels of industrial development and. Perhaps more importantly, they also depend on a fourth institutional factor, namely, corruption. The rate of fixed investment is significantly lower where power shortages are more severe and labor regulation is stronger over the full sample, but each of these impacts is also greater for businesses self-reportedly affected by corruption. Although access to finance does not seem to influence the rate of investment for most firms, there is evidence that investment decisions are constrained by cash flow in enterprises that are unaffected by corruption or power shortages. There are nuances to this story as we take into account regional specificity, but the key result always holds that labor regulation, power shortages and access to finance influence the rate of fixed investment in ways that depend on the incidence of corruption. In interpreting this finding, we would like to think of corruption as a proxy for the quality of property rights institutions in the sense of Acemoglu and Johnson (2005). On the other hand, we regard labor regulation and the financial environment of small businesses in India as instances of what Acemoglu and Johnson (2005) call'contracting institutions'. The analysis finds that the interaction between corruption and other aspects of the institutional environment of fixed investment decisions could be seen consistent with the Acemoglu-Johnson view that the quality of property rights institutions exerts more abiding influence on economic outcomes than the quality of contracting institutions.Access to Finance,Economic Theory&Research,Labor Policies,Emerging Markets,Labor Markets

Dominance and retaliation in the informal structure of authority: a comparative study of Madhya Pradesh and Bihar

In post-independence democratic India several measures have been initiated in order to bring the marginalised and depressed sections of its population into the mainstream of development. While some of these measures have yielded positive results, several others have failed miserably to achieve the desired goals. This has kept the equity issue alive as a hot topic right up to the present day, leading to a great deal of dissatisfaction among the vast majority of India's population. Given the close affinity between caste and class in India, it is not surprising that the bulk of the population who still remain outside the purview of development happen to be the lower castes of the country. The other side of the same coin is the near total manipulation of the instruments of state policy by the higher caste and the elite, thus creating a chasm between the aspirations of different sections of the country’s population. This has resulted in fractured verdicts in electoral politics and in the growth of regionalism, casteism and religious fundamentalism. The growing difference in class character between policymakers and the recipients of various policy measures has not remained unchallenged and at times manifests itself in violence. Continued inequity in the distribution of landed property in areas of intense agricultural activity, particularly in the rural setting, exacerbates the intensity of such conflicts. The age of liberalisation has introduced a new complexity into the whole picture. The presence of a state, which in several areas never did penetrate very far in the pre-liberalisation phase and thus left the population to fend for itself and seek sources of authority in the informal sector, finds its reach even more constricted in the new setting, with most of its energy and resources being devoured by the ever growing sector of the urban middle class. While the dominant section in the rural setting relies on the age-old instruments of hegemony in the informal arena to perpetuate its authority, the instruments of retaliation forged by the depressed and the subaltern section of the population have now acquired a history of infamy in the legal discourse of the state. This paper focuses on such instruments of hegemony and retaliation in the informal arena of authority in the two Indian states of Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, and in particular seeks to trace how capable, or incapacitated, are the lower echelons of society in coping with these new situations

Legal Limits on Religious Conversion in India

In contemporary India, government assessments of the legitimacy of conversions tend to rely on two assumptions: first, that people who convert in groups may not have freely chosen conversion, and second, that certain groups are particularly vulnerable to being lured into changing their religion. These assumptions, which pervade the anticonversion laws as well as related court decisions and government committee reports, reinforce social constructions of women and lower castes as inherently naive and susceptible to manipulation. Here, Jenkins contends to carefully scrutinized the assumptions since like protective laws in many other contexts, such laws restrict freedom in highly personal, individual choices

Corruption, the business environment, and small business growth in India

This paper estimates a dynamic business growth equation on a sample of small-scale manufacturers. The results suggest that excessive labor regulation, power shortages, and problems of access to finance are significant influences on industrial growth in India. The expected annual sales growth rate of an enterprise is lower where labor regulation is greater, power shortages are more severe, and cash flow constraints are stronger. The effects of each of the three factors on business growth seem also to depend on a fourth element, namely, corruption. Specifically, labor regulation affects the growth only of enterprises for which corruption is not a factor in business decisions. By contrast, power shortages seem to be a drag on the growth only of enterprises self-reportedly held back by corruption. Lastly, sales growth is constrained by cash flow only in businesses that are not affected by labor regulation, power shortages, or corruption. The analysis uses corruption as a proxy for the quality of"property rights institutions"and considers labor regulation and small business financing as instances of"contracting institutions."The findings on the interaction between corruption and other aspects of business environment then seems to indicate that the quality of property rights institutions exerts more abiding influence on economic outcomes than the quality of contracting institutions. Moreover, there might also be a hierarchy among contracting institutions in their effect on manufacturing growth.Labor Markets,Labor Policies,Economic Growth,Access to Finance,Achieving Shared Growth

Inherited hemolytic disorders with high occurrence of b-thalassemia in Sindhi community of Jabalpur town in Madhya Pradesh, India

Hereditary hemolytic disorders such as hemoglobin disorders, β-thalassemia syndrome, G6PD deficiency, and ABO and Rhesus blood groups are the most common public health problems in India. Community genetic screening provides multifaceted information for finding prevalence, level of health education, preventive strategies such as genetic/marriage counseling to relieve the burden of vulnerable communities. However, such genetic screening studies are scanty in India. This study aims to find the prevalence of inherited hemolytic disorders in Sindhi community, identify the persons for genetic/marriage counseling and to suggest the relevant strategies for prevention and control to the affected families. A cross-sectional random study of 508 persons of Sindhi community belonging to all ages and both sexes was conducted for screening of hemoglobin disorders, G6PD deficiency and ABO and Rhesus (D) blood groups following the standard procedures and techniques from Jabalpur town in Central India. High frequency of β-thalassemia trait (20.5%), Hb D trait (2.2%) and hemoglobin D/β-thalassemia (0.2%), G6PD deficiency (0.8%), and a low prevalence of Rhesus negative (3.0%) blood group was observed in Sindhi community of Jabalpur town in Madhya Pradesh. A case of β-thalassemia major and Hb D-thalassemia were also encountered. Double heterozygosity of Hb D/β-thalassemia showed hypochromic and microcytic red cell morphology with mild anemia. Inherited hemolytic disorders are an important public health challenge in Sindhi community. Preventive genetics program needs to be vigorously taken up to ameliorate the sufferings of at risk communities in India

India: Towards the Millennium Development Goals

human development, millennium development goals, mdgs

Maize in India: Production Systems, Constraints, and Research Priorities

Crop Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,