Religious Minorities and Provision of Public Goods: Evidence from Rural West Bengal

Religious and ethnic minorities across the world face partisan treatment with regard to provision of public goods, either as outcome of discriminatory practices or due to historical antecedents, such as the caste and religious divides in India. In several districts of West Bengal in India concentration of religious minorities, namely Muslims is higher than state and country-level averages. We measures access to public goods in rural West Bengal for different strata of minority concentration. Using Least Square, Generalized Linear Models and Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition, we find evidence of strong horizontal inequality against Muslims in terms of access to public goods. Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition shows that Muslims in larger concentrations face poorer access to infrastructure, health and transport facilities.religious minorities, public good, discrimination, welfare, West Bengal

Public Expenditure, Demography and Growth: Theory and Evidence from India

Many countries in the developed world are ageing in terms of their distribution of population. Conversely, a number of countries in the south have younger population. India for example, has 60% of its population in the age group of 15-59, with the mean age close to 27 years as of present times. The lower share of population in the higher and lower age brackets make the dependency ratio lower than that of the ageing countries. The economic growth such a large share of working age population can usher in lies at the core of the demographic dividends. However, low human capital, poor health and inadequate physical infrastructure seems to create significant hurdles in the potential growth path such countries can achieve. We investigate through an endogenous growth model applied to the Indian macroeconomic data, as to whether public expenditures in education, health and physical infrastructure are conducive to rapid economic growth commensurate with the projected demographic dividends for India. We deploy a Structural Vector Autoregressive Model on data for shares of public expenditure on education and health as the main pillars of growth of human capital in the country, on the per capita GDP growth rate, the working age population, etc. Importantly, we find that a rise in expenditure on health imparts a positive impact on the working age population through greater participation. However, higher allocations for education and training draws workers away from the labor market in a country with large share of unskilled workers and employment opportunities in the large informal sector

Religious minorities and provision of public goods: Evidence from rural West Bengal

Religious and ethnic minorities across the world face partisan treatment with regard to provision of public goods, either as outcome of discriminatory practices or due to historical antecedents, such as the caste and religious divides in India. In several districts of West Bengal in India concentration of religious minorities, namely Muslims is higher than state and country-level averages. We measures access to public goods in rural West Bengal for different strata of minority concentration. Using Least Square, Generalized Linear Models and Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition, we find evidence of strong horizontal inequality against Muslims in terms of access to public goods. Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition shows that Muslims in larger concentrations face poorer access to infrastructure, health and transport facilities

A study of demographic and financial changes in India

This chapter demonstrates the role of financial sector in achieving the demographic dividends for the Indian economy. We developed an aggregative macro-econometric model supplemented by sectoral analysis of saving, investment and industrial productivity to explore possible connections. The model highlights the sensitivity of financial development to capital inflow with subsequent implications for the demographic dividends. We show that the benefits of the second demographic dividend in India are critically dependent on a significantly higher accumulation of assets that can be made possible via greater financial depth. In India, the sectoral composition of foreign capital has been biased towards service sectors, particularly banking and finance, albeit the inter-sectoral mobility of capital, however small and restrictive it might be, renders substantial impact on the productivity and employment in the unorganized sector of the country. Notwithstanding such possibilities, the unorganized sector and more broadly the agricultural sector is still largely outside the formal credit network with the institutional credit flow declining over time. We propose that in order to reap the benefits of the demographic dividends, the financial sector policies, especially the banking sector policies, should be geared to bring the rural and informal industrial sector under the banking network much more aggressively. The mobilization of untapped savings and the expansion of lending institutions under strong legal support should crucially facilitate better realization of demographic dividends in India

Facilitators and barriers to the uptake of COVID-19 vaccine precaution dose among adult population: qualitative analysis across six different states of India

IntroductionIndia launched the COVID-19 vaccination drive on 16th January 2021 by vaccinating the adult population above 18 years of age. This was followed by the introduction of an additional precaution dose. As on 18th October 2022, 1,02,66,96,808 (1.02 Billion) first dose and 94, 95, 39,516 (949 Million) second doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered. However, when compared to the uptake of the primary doses, the precaution dose uptake lagged behind with only 21,75, 12,721 (217 million) doses administered. Even though, the uptake of the primary doses remained optimal, irrespective of different interventions by the Government of India, the uptake of the precaution dose remained poor. In this context, the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare wanted to understand the facilitators and Barriers for precaution dose uptake among adults so that future immunization campaigns could address these issues.MethodsAn exploratory qualitative study was conducted to assess the facilitators and barriers for COVID-19 precaution dose uptake at community level across 6 different states in India. From each of the states, two districts with the highest and lowest rates of COVID-19 vaccine precaution dose uptake were selected. In each of these districts, 2 block Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs), one with high and one with low uptake were identified. Within these block PHCs, a PHC field area with high and low precaution dose uptakes was identified. From the identified sites a minimum of four IDIs, four FGDs were conducted among the community members. KIIs of the State Immunization Officers, District Immunisation Officers, PHC Medical Officers, healthcare workers like Accredited Social Health Activist/Auxiliary Nurse Midwife were also conducted. The data was audio recorded and it was transcribed, translated and analysed using framework approach.ResultsIt was observed that rise in COVID-19 cases prompted the community to take the precaution dose, this along with the cost of hospitalization and the number of productive days being lost as a result of being infected resulted in vaccine uptake. The fear of non-availability of COVID-19 vaccines latter on also prompted people for vaccine uptake. While the barriers were, poor accessibility to vaccination centers, long hours of travel, poor road connectivity and lack of transportation facilities. However, the most prominent barriers observed across all study sites was that a sense of pandemic fatigue and complacency had developed both among the providers as well as the beneficiaries. Other barriers include differences in vaccination schedules and longer duration between the primary doses of some vaccines. Media was identified to be both a barrier and facilitator for Covid-19 Precaution dose uptake. Even though media played an important role in disseminating information in the beginning of the campaign, it was soon followed by the circulation of both misinformation and disinformation.DiscussionThe study identified that dissemination of accurate information and community involvement at each stage of planning and implementation are crucial for the success of any campaign. Efforts should be constantly made to address and re-invent strategies that will be most suitable for the needs of the community. Therefore, in order to ensure successful vaccination campaigns, it is crucial that along with political will it is also important to have a decentralized approach with inter-sectoral coordination with different stakeholders such as healthcare workers, community members and the different departments such as the local self-governments, education department, law & order department etc. These lessons learnt from COVID-19 vaccination campaigns must not be forgotten and must be applied in future vaccination campaigns and while framing public health policies

A study of demographic and financial changes in India

This chapter demonstrates the role of financial sector in achieving the demographic dividends for the Indian economy. We developed an aggregative macro-econometric model supplemented by sectoral analysis of saving, investment and industrial productivity to explore possible connections. The model highlights the sensitivity of financial development to capital inflow with subsequent implications for the demographic dividends. We show that the benefits of the second demographic dividend in India are critically dependent on a significantly higher accumulation of assets that can be made possible via greater financial depth. In India, the sectoral composition of foreign capital has been biased towards service sectors, particularly banking and finance, albeit the inter-sectoral mobility of capital, however small and restrictive it might be, renders substantial impact on the productivity and employment in the unorganized sector of the country. Notwithstanding such possibilities, the unorganized sector and more broadly the agricultural sector is still largely outside the formal credit network with the institutional credit flow declining over time. We propose that in order to reap the benefits of the demographic dividends, the financial sector policies, especially the banking sector policies, should be geared to bring the rural and informal industrial sector under the banking network much more aggressively. The mobilization of untapped savings and the expansion of lending institutions under strong legal support should crucially facilitate better realization of demographic dividends in India

Montmorillonite K10 clay: an efficient catalyst for the one-pot stereoselective synthesis of β-acetamido ketones

An efficient one-pot three-component coupling process for the synthesis of β-acetamido ketones catalyzed by montmorillonite K10 clay is described. The reaction is highly stereoselective and the catalyst can be recycled

Leptobrachium Smithi Matsui, Nabhitabhata and Panha, 1999 (Anura: Megophryidae), a new Record for India

Volume: 98Start Page: 289End Page: 29