The Distribution of Household Wealth in India

assets, liabilities, vertical inequality, horizontal inequality, land, real estate

Economic Impact of CDM Implementation through Alternate Energy Resource Substitution

Since the Kyoto protocol agreement, Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) has garnered large emphasis in terms of certified emission reductions (CER) not only amidst the global carbon market but also in India. This paper attempts to assess the impact of CDM towards sustainable development particularly in rural domestic utility sector that mainly includes lighting and cooking applications, with electricity as the source of energy. A detailed survey has undertaken in the state of Kerala, in southern part of India to study the rural domestic energy consumption pattern. The data collected was analyzed that throws insight into the interrelationships of the various parameters that influence domestic utility sector pertaining to energy consumption by using electricity as the source of energy. The interrelationships between the different parameters were modeled that optimizes the contribution of electricity on domestic utility sector. The results were used to estimate the feasible extent of CO2 emission reduction through use of electricity as the energy resources, vis-à-vis its economic viability through cost effectiveness. The analysis also provides a platform for implementing CDM projects in the sector and related prospects with respects to the Indian scenari

Has the Indian Finance Market Achieved Efficiency?

Efficient financial market is one in which prices always fully reflect available information. The most common type of efficiency referred to in financial markets is the allocative efficiency. A trait of allocative efficient financial market is that it channels funds from the ultimate lenders to the ultimate borrowers in a way that the funds are used in the most socially useful manner. Eugene Fama created efficient –market hypothesis. Financial markets are efficient if current prices fully reflect all currently available relevantinformation. If financial markets are efficient, then there is no “best time’ to purchase an asset. Apparent past price patterns are not predictive for future prices. If financial markets are efficient, asset price changes are serially random.This paper is concerned with operational efficiency rather than allocative efficiency. The financial sector reforms which were initiated in early 90s were intended to bring about operational efficiency in the financial market in the sense that the prevailing interest rates in different segments of finance market are moving in the same direction so that possibility of arbitrage is eliminated. Strengthening of linkages among money market segments suggests greater operational efficiency of markets as well as conduct of monetary policy. Purpose of the paper is to explain the impact of financial sector reform measures on integration of various segments of financial markets in India. The present study found integration of short term rates- money credit and gilt edged markets-but capital market deviated from the integration path. Reserve Bank of India studied in detail the process of liberalization of financial and money market and also domestic financial with international financial market. This paper analyzed the long run association between different Money market rates, Debt market, Capital market rates and Forex market rates to highlight the integration between them. The study found there is integration between certain segments of finance market in India .Increased policy changes would expedite the process of financial market integration and will help in the elimination of arbitrage avenues and thereby making the finance markets more efficient. Keywords: Market efficiency, financial market integration, cointegration, Indian finance market, Granger causalit

Out of school and (probably) in work: Child labour and capability deprivation in India

This paper explores the hypothesis that the phenomenon of child labour is explicable in terms of poverty that compels a household to keep its children out of school and put them to work in the cause of the household’s survival. In exploring the link between child labour and poverty in the Indian context, the paper advances the view that the nature of the connection is more readily apprehended if both the variables under study are defined more expansively and inclusively than is customarily the case. Specifically, the suggestion is that it may be realistic to include those children who are conventionally categorized as ‘non-workers not attending school’ within the count of child labourers. It is also suggested that poverty is meaningfully measured in terms of a multi-dimensional approach to the problem, wherein the aim is to assess generalized capability failure—arising from want of access to elementary infrastructural facilities and essential amenities—with respect to a number of basic human functionings. The core of the paper’s argument is presented by means of a simple analytical model of child labour and deprivation, and the issues emerging from it are studied in the Indian context with the support of both primary and secondary data

Growth and inequality in the distribution of India's consumption expenditure 1983 to 2009-10

This paper undertakes an assessment of the evolution of inequality in the distribution of consumption expenditure in India over the last quarter-century, from 1983 to 2009-10, employing data available in the quinquennial 'thick' surveys of the National Sample Survey Office. We find that plausible adjustments to the data, along with an emphasis on 'centrist' rather than 'rightist' or 'leftist' inequality measures, lead to a picture of inequality in the distribution of consumption expenditure widening over time, which is at odds with the impression of more or less unchanging inequality conveyed in some of the literature available on the subject in India

On the 'inclusiveness' of India's consumption expenditure growth

This paper reviews the evidence on the 'inclusiveness' of the growth in consumption expenditure that has occurred in India over the last four decades or so. The notion of dynamic inclusiveness is framed in terms of imagined normative allocations of the inter-temporal product of growth, as dictated by notions of equity of varying orders of demandingness. There are analytical parallels between these exercises and those involved in the study of bankruptcy in 'Talmudic estate problems', as well as in the determination of optimal anti-poverty budgetary allocations. The issue of inclusive growth is reviewed in this paper with respect to inclusiveness across both income classes and social groups such as caste and occupation. The results of the investigation undertaken in the essay suggest distressingly little evidence of inclusiveness in India's consumption growth experience

Numerical Modelling of Scramjet Combustor

Numerical modelling of turbulent-reacting flow field of supersonic combustion ramjet(scramjet) combustors are presented. The developed numerical procedure is based on the implicittreatment of chemical source terms by preconditioning and solved along with unstedy turbulentNavier-Stokes equations explicitly. Reaction is modelled using an eight-step hydrogen-airchemistry. Code is validated against a standard wall jet experimental data and is successfullyused to model the turbulent-reacting flow field resulting due to the combustion of hydrogeninjected from diamond-shaped strut and also in the wake region of wedge-shaped strut placedin the heated supersonic airstream. The analysis could demonstrate the effect of interaction ofoblique shock wave with a supersonic stream of hydrogen  in its (fuel-air) mixing and reactionfor strut-based scramjet combustors