Social Hierarchies and Public Distribution of Food in Rural India

In this paper, we develop a simple model that shows that consumption of PDS food grains is significantly different between rich and poor households in states where the PDS functions relatively well; in places where the PDS is non-functional, the difference is not significant. Using household-level data from three recent thick rounds of the consumption expenditure survey (2004-2005, 2009-2010 and 2011-2012), we find evidence in support of the predictions from the model. This suggests that one way to make the PDS functional is to make it more accessible to poor and underprivileged households

Profitability in India’s Organized Manufacturing Sector: The Role of Technology, Distribution, and Demand

Using aggregate data from the Annual Survey of Industries, we analyze profitability in India’s organized manufacturing sector from 1982-83 to 2012-13. Over the whole period of analysis, the rate of profit grew at about 1 percent per annum, primarily driven by a rising share of profits. We use structural break tests to identify medium and short run regimes. We find two medium run regimes, one of declining profitability (1982-83 to 2001-02), and another of growing profitability (2001-02 to 2012-13). We find six short run regimes, of which only two are periods of rising profitability, 1987-88 to 1996-97, and 2001-02 to 2007-08. All other short run periods have witnessed declining profitability. Profit rate decomposition analysis shows that both in the medium and short run, technological factors have been the most important determinants of changes in profitability

Profitability and Investment: Evidence from India’s Organized Manufacturing Sector

Using a state-industry panel data set at the 3 digit national industrial classification (NIC) level of disaggregation for 19 major Indian states over the period 1983-84 to 2007-08, we analyze the contemporaneous and long run impacts of the rate of profit and its components – profit share, capacity utilization rate, and capacity-capital ratio – on investment. Our results show that: (a) the rate of profit has both short and long run positive impacts on investment; (b) the profit share and capacity-capital ratio have only long run positive impacts, and the capacity utilization rate has only a contemporaneous positive impact on investment

Service Sector Growth in India: A View from Households

This paper studies the phenomenon of service-led growth in India over the past two decades from the perspective of household expenditure. We use consumption expenditure data from four recent “thick” rounds of the National Sample Survey in 1993-94, 2004-05, 2009-10 and 2011-12, and study aggregate services as well as 5 individual categories – education, healthcare, transportation, entertainment, and personal services – for both rural India. We begin by showing that expenditures of non-rich sections of the population are, and continue to remain, a significant source of the demand that has supported growth of the service sector over the past two decades. In particular, we show that the bottom 75 percent of households in terms of monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE) have been the source of between 31 and 54 percent of total expenditure on services, the larger numbers referring to urban India. Next, we show that expenditure on services, as a share of total expenditure, has increased across the expenditure distribution, even when we control for expenditure growth over time. For a poor country like India with widespread under-nutrition, this presents an unusual trend. We highlight the perverse nature of this trend in two ways. First, we estimate bivariate Lowess curves for the share of services in monthly expenditure against real MPCE, for rural and urban India separately, and show that it has been pivoting in a clockwise direction since 2004-05. Second, we confirm this finding by estimating quadratic Engel curves with an instrumental variable strategy. The clockwise pivoting of Lowess and Engel curves, especially true for urban India since 2004-05, mean that spending patterns of poor households – as captured by the share of monthly expenditure devoted to services – increasingly resemble those of the rich, even as income differentials persist. This suggests that poorer households are possibly getting constrained into spending more on services, even when they have inadequate consumption of food, due to larger structural changes beyond their control

Employment Elasticity in India and the U.S., 1977-2011: A Sectoral Decomposition Analysis

This paper analyses the phenomenon of jobless growth in India and the US through the lens of employment elasticity. Analytical results are derived for decompositions of both the level and change of aggregate employment elasticity in terms of sectoral elasticities, relative growth and employment shares. Estimates of these decompositions are presented with employment and output data from relevant sources for both economies. In India, the agricultural sector was the key determinant of both the level and change of aggregate elasticity till the early 2000s. In USA, services is the most important determinant of the level of, but manufacturing remains an important driver of changes in, aggregate employment elasticity

Entanglement Negativity in TTˉ\text{T}\bar{\text{T}}-deformed CFT2_2s

We study the entanglement negativity for various bipartite mixed states in $\text{T}\bar{\text{T}}$-deformed CFT$_2$s at a finite temperature. Utilizing the replica method, we construct a general formula for the entanglement negativity of bipartite mixed states up to first order in the deformation parameter. Subsequently, we compute the entanglement negativity for bipartite states involving two disjoint, two adjacent and a single interval utilizing our formula. Furthermore, we advance a holographic construction to compute the entanglement negativity in such bipartite states in the $\text{T}\bar{\text{T}}$-deformed CFT$_2$s and find agreement with the corresponding field theoretic results in the limit of small deformation parameter.Comment: 12 pages + 1 appendix, 5 figure

Farmer Suicides in India: Levels and Trends across Major States, 1995-2011

In the paper, we use data on farmer suicides from the National Crime Records Bureau and population data from the Censuses of 1991, 2001 and 2011 to estimate the suicide mortality rate (SMR) of farmers and non-farmers for 19 major states of India and for the country as a whole. We use movements in the SMR ratio ratio of farmer SMR and non-farmer SMR) to understand the level and trend of the problem of farmer suicides across states and over time. For the country as a whole, and for many individual states, the SMR ratio has increased over time. This suggests that the problem of farmer suicides has become more severe across large swathes of the country, and calls for immediate and well planned policy interventions

Entanglement Islands from Hilbert Space Reduction

In this paper we try to understand the \textit{Island formula} from a purely quantum information perspective. We propose that the island phase is a property of the quantum state and the Hilbert space where the state is embedded in. More explicitly we show that, in a quantum system when the state of a subset is totally encoded in the state of another subset, the Hilbert space of the system will reduce, and the way we compute the reduced density matrix and related entropy quantities will also change essentially. Such reductions of the Hilbert space result in a new island formula in quantum systems, which we conjecture to be the same island formula in gravity recently proposed to rescue the unitarity in the process of black hole evaporation. In this context, we give a simple resolution to the Mathur/AMPS paradox. Furthermore, we propose a non-gravitational field theory configuration where entanglement islands emerge, give a description for the entanglement structure of the island phase and propose how to realize the island phase in the lab.Comment: 28pages. Comments are very welcome; V2 references updated, minor revision; V3, footnote 5 adde

Health-related quality of life in children with hemoglobin E-β-thalassemia with special reference to iron overload

Background: Hemoglobin (Hb) E disease is the most common Hb variant in Southeast Asia. However, in India, it is prevalent in Eastern India and West Bengal, but relatively rare in rest of the country. Objective: The objective of the study was to study the quality of life (QOL) in Hb E/β-thalassemia children with special reference to iron overload. Materials and Methods: An analytical case–control study on Hb E/β-thalassemia children aged 8–12 years was conducted who were admitted in the thalassemia unit and outdoor basis from the departments of pediatric medicine and hematology. They were evaluated for a period of 1 year and the effect on the QOL was assessed with health-related QOL (HRQOL) score along with psychological assessment. Results: A total of 50 subjects were included in the study. The HRQOL was assessed by PedsQL 4.0 generic core scale along with parent proxy report and psychological assessment was done by childhood psychopathology measurement schedule score. It was found that QOL was significantly better when pre-transfusion Hb level was above 7 g/dl. Conclusion: We found that total summary QOL score was not statistically significant, but the physical domain of QOL score showed statistically significant better score when the duration of blood transfusion is less. Therapy should widen beyond drugs with adequate physical rehabilitation and emotional support.&nbsp

Reflected entropy in BCFTs on a black hole background

We obtain the reflected entropy for bipartite mixed state configurations involving two disjoint and adjacent subsystems in two dimensional boundary conformal field theories (BCFT$_2$s) in a black hole background. The bulk dual is described by an AdS$_3$ black string geometry truncated by a Karch-Randall brane. The entanglement wedge cross section computed for this geometry matches with the reflected entropy obtained for the BCFT$_2$ verifying the holographic duality. In this context, we also obtain the analogues of the Page curves for the reflected entropy and investigate the behaviour of the Markov gap.Comment: 47 pages, 1 appendix, 18 figure