2,882 research outputs found
Incorporating local knowledge in participatory development of soil and water management interventions in the middle hills of Nepal
Demand Projections for Foodgrains in India
Demand for foodgrains has been estimated for India for the years 2011-12, 2016-17 and 2021-22, by accounting for the factors like urbanization, regional variations in consumption pattern, shifts in dietary pattern and income distribution, limit on energy requirement and changes in tastes and preferences of consumers for food varieties. Indirect demand including ‘home away demand’ has also been considered in working out these food demand projections. Policy scenario has been presented and yield targets for the years 2011-12, 2016-17 and 2021-22 have been projected to meet the demand of foodgrams in these years.Agricultural and Food Policy,
Does Comparative Theology have an Advantage over Religious Studies?
In this essay, I assess the prospects for Comparative Theology as some
scholars proffered towards building a general theory of religion. I first
acknowledge the relationship between the two disciplines; second, I examine
the relationship between faith and religion which I believe is crucial to enter
the discussion on Comparative Theology and Religious Studies; third I come
to the crux of the matter by assessing the influence of theology on the study
of religion; fourth, having problematized the method of Comparative
Theology, I underscore the limits of theological method for comparative
analysis in the study of religion. This above outline is consciously intended
to take the general reader as well as specialists toward my conclusion, which
is to suggest that Comparative Theology can only serve an internal
theological purpose of one religious tradition but not for the purpose of a
general theory of religion
SUSTAINING PRIVATIZATION
This dissertation examines the factors associated with sustainable privatization of infrastructure projects. Privatization offers a way for governments to make infrastructure delivery more effective and efficient than exclusively public provision, but often the promise is fraught with peril. The three essays that constitute this dissertation seek to use empirical data and analysis to answer three selected questions regarding sustainable privatization:
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What causes the private sector to exit from infrastructure projects?
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Do Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) provide value for money to governments?
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Does privatization lead to benign outcomes?
The first essay of this dissertation takes the broadest view, looking at cross-country, cross-sector regression analysis to unearth patterns in infrastructure privatization failures - with a view to understand as well the factors that lead to success. The second essay takes a further step from the broad overview of the first essay by looking in detail at
individual projects and examining what factors could lead to better value for money to governments. Finally, the third essay looks at the choice between asset sales and share issue privatization as two specific methods for privatization and their subsequent impact on the performance of the privatized company. The three essays thus represent a progression from survival to good health and finally to growth.
My major conclusions are:
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Project cancellation rates, though rising, are still low. Although ownership may change hands, for the most part, the private sector is staying in private infrastructure projects.
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Although trends in cancellation may not be an issue for private infrastructure projects as a whole, it is a concern in the water and sewerage sector. The high probability of cancellation and relatively low level of fresh investment in the sector suggests a declining role for the private sector in making available this essential service.
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There is value for money to governments from entering into Public-Private Partnerships in infrastructure.
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Divestment leads to significant improvement in profitability, efficiency, and real output of firms, besides providing some fiscal boost to the government. However, the impact on employment is negative
Branding in children: a barbaric practice still exists in India
Branding is an inhuman traditional practice most commonly employed to treat various disorders in neonates and children in certain community in India. Though stringent law exists to prevent such harmful practices, cases of branding is not uncommon in current era.Pan African Medical Journal 2016; 2
Ethnic differentials of the impact of Family Planning Program on contraceptive use in Nepal
There is wide variation of family planning services use among ethnic groups in Nepal. Despite three decades of implementation the need for family planning services is substantially unmet (25%), and there have been no systematic studies evaluating the impact of the family planning program. This study pooled data from nationally representative surveys conducted in 1996, 2001, and 2006. Multilevel logistic regression analysis of 23,381 married women of reproductive age nested within 764 clusters indicated that Muslims, Janjatis, and Dalits were significantly less likely to use contraceptives than Brahmins and Chhetries (OR=0.27, 0.88 and 0.82 respectively). The odds of using contraceptives by the Newar were higher than the odds for Brahmins and Chhetries, although it was not significant. Exposure of women to family planning messages through health facilities, family planning workers, radio, and television increased the odds of using modern contraceptives. However, the impact of family planning information on contraceptive use varied according to ethnicity. We also found that modern contraceptive use varied significantly across the clusters, and the cluster-level indicators, such as mean age at marriage, mean household asset score, percentage of women with secondary education, and percentage of women working away from home, were important in explaining this.ethnic differentials, family planning, family planning programs, Nepal
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