The challenge of fulfilling aspirations

This year’s election is a watershed in Indian history. This editorial discusses possible reasons for the stunning defeat of the previous government. While there is no denying that the previous government could be faulted for many things including creating a leadership vacuum and letting corruption go unchecked, the knockout blow came from its inability to reform the institutions that are responsible for fulfilling legitimate aspirations of the masses. What should the central government do

How does poverty decline? Evidence from India, 1983-1999

This paper attempts to assess the relative contributions of the farm and non-farm sectors to the increase in agricultural wage earnings in India between 1983-1999. Cross-section analysis of NSS data for 1983 and 1993 confirm the importance of farm productivity growth, consistent with the predictions of our theoretical model. A counterfactual exercise that attempts to estimate the relative contribution of the non-farm sector to the increase in the agricultural wage earnings during the period 1983-1999 suggests that this figure is no more than 25 at the all-India level, though it is higher in some states. Thus the bulk of the growth in wage earnings and the attendant decline in poverty during this period appears to be due to the farm sector.Farm and non-farm productivity growth, non-farm employment, poverty, wage earnings

The Political Economy of Food Subsidy in India

Indian parliament is getting ready to debate the National Food Security Bill that would be the single biggest poverty alleviation programme, costing about 1.5 per cent of India's gross domestic product. There has been a fierce debate leading up to the drafting of the bill and subsequent modifications. This article first points out the salient features of the Indian economy to give context to assess the current debate. In particular, it gives a detailed picture of the grain market in India and the important role played in it by the central government. It traces the path of the bill from its genesis through the subsequent debate and political process. The article identifies the key players in the debate and the role they have played in shaping the provisions in the latest draft of the bill. At the end, the authors speculate about likely food security outcomes in India

Measurements of branching fraction ratios and CP-asymmetries in suppressed B^- -> D(-> K^+ pi^-)K^- and B^- -> D(-> K^+ pi^-)pi^- decays

We report the first reconstruction in hadron collisions of the suppressed decays B^- -> D(-> K^+ pi^-)K^- and B^- -> D(-> K^+ pi^-)pi^-, sensitive to the CKM phase gamma, using data from 7 fb^-1 of integrated luminosity collected by the CDF II detector at the Tevatron collider. We reconstruct a signal for the B^- -> D(-> K^+ pi^-)K^- suppressed mode with a significance of 3.2 standard deviations, and measure the ratios of the suppressed to favored branching fractions R(K) = [22.0 \pm 8.6(stat)\pm 2.6(syst)]\times 10^-3, R^+(K) = [42.6\pm 13.7(stat)\pm 2.8(syst)]\times 10^-3, R^-(K)= [3.8\pm 10.3(stat)\pm 2.7(syst]\times 10^-3, as well as the direct CP-violating asymmetry A(K) = -0.82\pm 0.44(stat)\pm 0.09(syst) of this mode. Corresponding quantities for B^- -> D(-> K^+ pi^-)pi^- decay are also reported.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, accepted by Phys.Rev.D Rapid Communications for Publicatio

Search for B_s --> mu+mu- and B_d --> mu+mu- Decays with CDF II

A search has been performed for B_s --> mu+mu- and B_d --> mu+mu- decays using 7/fb of integrated luminosity collected by the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. The observed number of B_d candidates is consistent with background-only expectations and yields an upper limit on the branching fraction of BF(B_d-->mu+mu-) < 6.0E-9 at 95% confidence level. We observe an excess of B_s candidates. The probability that the background processes alone could produce such an excess or larger is 0.27%. The probability that the combination of background and the expected standard model rate of B_s --> mu+mu- could produce such an excess or larger is 1.9%. These data are used to determine BF(B_s-->mu+mu-) = (1.8^{+1.1}_{-0.9})E-8 and provide an upper limit of BF(B_s -->mu+mu-) < 4.0E-8 at 95% confidence level.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure; version accepted by PR

The challenge of job creation

The Indian media is full of reports about the layoffs due to the current slowdown in the economic growth partially caused by demonetization and poor implementation of the Good & Services Tax (GST). However, this paper focuses on the long run course of Indian development by asking why the process of economic transformation that entails labour transiting from low to high productivity activities, has been much slower in India than in other Asian countries like China. First, the article examines how China has transformed itself into an industrial powerhouse, while India has not, considering that both countries had similar levels of poverty in 1978 when the Chinese reforms began. Following, this article analyzes the structure of the Indian economy by looking at the structure of its labour market and the anatomy of the Indian growth spurt. The organized sector has failed to absorb much labour from the unorganized sector in India, where the productivity increases have been modest if any. While the obstacles to the expansion of the organized sector have been widely discussed, this article draws attention to the importance of improving the productivity of the activities in India’s unorganized sector.Arts, Faculty ofVancouver School of EconomicsUnreviewedFacult