"Implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in India: Spatial Dimensions and Fiscal Implications"

Since its enactment in 2005, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has been implemented in 200 districts in India. Based on state-by-state employment demand-supply data and the use of funds released under NREGA, it is found that, although it is a demand-driven scheme, there are significant interstate differences in the supply of employment. The supply falls far short of demand, particularly in low-income states, where the organizational capacity to implement the scheme is limited. It is also noted that the NREGA-induced fiscal expansion has not contributed to higher fiscal imbalances. The consolidation of other public employment programs into NREGA has actually kept the total allocation of funds by the central government at a level no higher than those reached in the fiscal years 2002-03 to 2005-06. The NREGA fund utilization ratio varies widely across states and is abysmally low in the poorer states. Since the flow of resources to individual states is based on approved plans outlining employment demand, it may turn out to be regressive for the poorer states with low organizational capacity in terms of planning and management of the schemes, especially labor demand forecasting.

Deficit Fundamentalism vs Fiscal Federalism: Implications of 13th Finance Commission's Recommendations

The Thirteenth Finance Commission's recommendation to increase the vertical share of tax devolution to states will help, but its horizontal distribution formula leaves much to be desired. One, its design is such that two of the four key indicators are in conflict with each other. Two, the Commission's revised road map for fiscal consolidation at the centre and the states, which recommends state-specific, year-wise, fiscal adjustment paths, not only limits the fiscal manoeuvrability of states but also impinges on their fiscal autonomy. Three, its design of the grant for elementary education has the potential to reduce the expenditure of states rather than augment it. The need to look at intergovernmental transfers from the right perspective of federalism, where the states and the centre are seen as equal partners in development and not from a narrow technocratic viewpoint, cannot be stressed more.

Is Fiscal Policy Contracyclical in India: An Empirical Analysis

The paper empirically examines the validity of Keynesian philosophy of contracyclical variation in fiscal policy to the macroeconomic activity in India. The macroeconomic activity is proxied by ‘output gap’ a concept defined to estimate the index of economic activity. Applying Johansen’s Full Information Maximum Likelihood test of cointegration, it was found that there exists a long run, stable relationship between fiscal policy stance and macroeconomic activity. Further, the causality detection in asymmetric vector autoregression model revealed that there exists feedback mechanism between fiscal policy stance and output gap, which reinforces the Keynesian theory that fiscal stance is contracyclical in nature. The policy implication of these results points to the fallacy of rule-based fiscal policy to contain fiscal deficit, based on the neo-classical assumption that fiscal deficit has detrimental effects through financial crowding out. The results reinforced the role of fiscal deficit not as an evil but as an instrument of short run demand management and also the significance of pump priming.Fiscal stance, Output gap, Contracyclical fiscal policy, Stationarity, Cointegration, Asymmetric vector autoregression

Towards a rational system of centre-state revenue transfers in India: An exploration.

Intergovernmental fiscal relations

Budget Rules, Fiscal Consolidation and Government Spending:Implications for Federal Transfers

This paper examined the nature of fiscal consolidation during the era of rule based fiscal control in states and its implications for federal transfers. The analysis revealed that improvement in fiscal balance has been associated with increasing disparities in developmental spending across states. The econometric estimates in panel data also showed that Fiscal Responsibility Act not having any positive and significant impact on development spending when controlled for revenue effect of VAT and increased central devolution. The result seems robust, as this has been corroborated by the exploratory data analysis even when off budget spending is added with the per-capita development spending of the states. When we compared between social and economic services, the disparity in spending is sharper in social sector vis-à-vis economic services. Given this widening disparities in spending the paper emphasizes on the need for equalization grants and estimates the resources requirement for complete equalization of specific services based on the partial equalization of scheme of transfer proposed .Fiscal Consolidation, Fiscal Responsibility Act, Deficits, Fiscal Equalization

Social Sector in a Decentralized Economy

This book is an analytical examination of financing and public service delivery challenges in a decentralized framework. In addition, it provides critical insights into the effectiveness of public expenditure, through benefit incidence analysis of education and healthcare services in India

Design and implementation considerations for a pedagogical object oriented operating system : MTech Thesis, Jan 2009

For centuries, experimentation has been at the center of all successful scientific studies. Experimental explorations can offer new perceptions, weed out unproductive approaches and validate theories and practices. Computer Science (CS), as a discipline, has a poor record when it comes to experimental validation. The ratio of theoretical research claims that have not been experimentally verified is notably high in CS. The situation is no different in the field of system software where experimental research has now become a necessity. The thesis in discussion presents an experimental study on operating systems. The thesis first develops a design of a new operating system, called JNUOS, imparting several noble ideas and then provides a commentary on its implementation.Facultad de Informátic

Budget Rules, Fiscal Consolidation and Government Spending:Implications for Federal Transfers

This paper examined the nature of fiscal consolidation during the era of rule based fiscal control in states and its implications for federal transfers. The analysis revealed that improvement in fiscal balance has been associated with increasing disparities in developmental spending across states. The econometric estimates in panel data also showed that Fiscal Responsibility Act not having any positive and significant impact on development spending when controlled for revenue effect of VAT and increased central devolution. The result seems robust, as this has been corroborated by the exploratory data analysis even when off budget spending is added with the per-capita development spending of the states. When we compared between social and economic services, the disparity in spending is sharper in social sector vis-à-vis economic services. Given this widening disparities in spending the paper emphasizes on the need for equalization grants and estimates the resources requirement for complete equalization of specific services based on the partial equalization of scheme of transfer proposed