Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Gandhi’S Prophecy: Corporate Violence And A Mindful Law For Bhopal, Nehal A. Patel

Nehal A. Patel

AbstractOver thirty years have passed since the Bhopal chemical disaster began,and in that time scholars of corporate social responsibility (CSR) havediscussed and debated several frameworks for improving corporate responseto social and environmental problems. However, CSR discourse rarelydelves into the fundamental architecture of legal thought that oftenbuttresses corporate dominance in the global economy. Moreover, CSRdiscourse does little to challenge the ontological and epistemologicalassumptions that form the foundation for modern economics and the role ofcorporations in the world.I explore methods of transforming CSR by employing the thought ofMohandas Gandhi. I pay particular attention to Gandhi’s critique ofindustrialization and principle of swadeshi (self-sufficiency) …

Can Peers Improve Agricultural Revenue?, Tisorn Songsermsawas, Kathy Baylis, Ashwini Chhatre, Hope Michelson

Kathy Baylis

Crop revenues vary greatly among farmers and the source of that variation is not fully understood. Using a household survey from India, we estimate peer effects on cash crop revenue. Results show that 60% of farmers' revenue can be explained by peers. Peer effects in input expenditure and land allocation cannot fully explain the variation in revenue, implying peers may also associate with management, negotiation and marketing strategies. Although caste-based networks are important, their effect is substantially smaller than that of self-reported peers. Peer effects are strongest for agricultural peers and in the cultivation of a new crop.

Reading Between The Poverty Lines, Srijit Mishra

Srijit Mishra

The proposed Rangarajan method on measurement of poverty in India borrows elements from three earlier methods – those of Alagh, Lakdawala and Tendulkar. An important departure in the Rangarajan method is to compute the poverty line commodity basket by combining items from two fractile groups to address the relatively higher expenses for some essential non-food items. This, while being statistically plausible, poses a behavioural dilemma, as there will be no fractile group that will satisfy both. As an alternative, we suggest dual poverty lines where the fi rst is computed on the basis of average calorie, protein and fat requirements …

Informal Workers And Their Rights, Srijit Mishra

Srijit Mishra

The four fundamental principles and rights at work are intrinsic and with a pragmatic relevance that also find resonance in the Constitution of India through its Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles. Our interpretation through a Rawlsian prism also adds to our understanding of these four fundamental principles. An evaluation of the Indian context points out that more than 90 per cent of the workforce is informal workers and that the proportion of informal workers is also increasing in the organised sector. Further, our analysis indicates shortcomings in the four fundamental principles. Their freedom to organise is limited as most work …

Women's Inheritance Rights And Intergenerational Transmission Of Resources In India, Klaus Deininger, Aparajita Goyal, Hari Nagarajan

Aparajita Goyal

We use inheritance patterns over three generations of individuals to assess the impact of changes in the Hindu Succession Act that grant daughters equal coparcenary birth rights in joint family property that were denied to daughters in the past. We show that the amendment significantly increased daughters’ likelihood to inherit land, but that even after the amendment, substantial bias persists. Our results also indicate a robust increase in educational attainment of daughters, suggesting an alternative channel of wealth transfer.

Growth And Structure Of Workforce In India : An Analysis Of Census 2011 Data, Venkatanarayana Motkuri, Suresh Naik Veslawath

Venkatanarayana Motkuri Mr.

Census 2011 brings new dimension to ongoing debate on the decline in the growth of employment from the last two decade. The census 2011 result gives better picture when compared with NSSO estimation of workforce. It is observed that there is a fast decelerating rate of growth in overall workforce, particularly that of females, between 2001 and 2011. But the work participation rate has not declined, if not increase, as the rate of growth in workforce is not less than that of population. Secondly, incremental workforce especially the male is getting reduced to marginal workers category whereas the high concentration …

Access To Land: Some Issues, Srijit Mishra

Srijit Mishra

The paper, or rather note, is a brief review of some existing literature. It underscores the need for improved land access to the tiller from the point of view of both equity and efficiency. Some of the suggestions are: (i) opening up of the land lease market so that tenancy does not go underground (ii) in states like West Bengal where tenancy is protected, provision could be made to make them owners in part of the land while giving up claims for the rest, (iii) reduce transaction costs in land markets, which include fees but also bribes being paid, (iv) …

Samarthan’S Campaign To Improve Access To The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme In India, Ramesh Awasthi, International Budget Partnership

International Budget Partnership

In India the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), which guarantees a minimum of 100 days of unskilled work per year to every poor rural family that needs employment, has been ridden with bureaucratic glitches and widespread corruption. This case study examines a civil society campaign to address problems in the NREGA’s administration and mobilize people to demand work under the scheme.

The full version, short summary, and one page summary of this case study are available in English. Summaries are also available in Spanish, French, Arabic, and Chinese.

LINK: http://internationalbudget.org/publications/samarthan%E2%80%99s-campaign-to-improve-access-to-the-national-rural-employment-guarantee-scheme-in-india/

Increasing Role Of Large Reservoirs In Sustaining Urban Water Supplies In India, Sacchidananda Mukherjee

Sacchidananda Mukherjee

Conference: 2011 World Water Week in Stockholm Duration: August 21-27, 2011 Venue: Stockholm International Fair, Stockholm, Sweden Organizer: Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) Theme: Responding to Global Changes: Water in an Urbanising World Workshop 5 (sub-theme): Water for Sustainable Urban Growth For abstract go to Page No. 185 at the Conference Abstract Volume Download from the following link: http://www.worldwaterweek.org/documents/Resources/Synthesis/Abstract-Volume-2011.pdf

Testing For Weak Form Market Efficiency In Indian Foreign Exchange Makret, Anoop Sasikumar

Anoop Sasikumar

This paper attempts to examine the weak form of market efficiency in the Indian foreign exchange market using a family of variance ratio tests. Monthly Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) data from April 1993-June 2010 were used for the analysis. NEER series was considered for the analysis as it is supposed to capture more information compared to the bilateral exchange rates. Three individual variance ratio tests as well as three joint variance ratio tests were used for the purpose of analysis. After analyzing the results from both individual and joint variance ratio test, it was concluded that Indian foreign exchange …

An Analysis Of Presence Of Long Memory In The Indian Foreign Exchange Market, Anoop Sasikumar

Anoop Sasikumar

This paper seeks to analyze the presence of long memory in the Indian foreign exchange market using a family of tests. The study has used Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) series as the data source to check the possible presence of long memory. Three R/S statistics viz. Hurst, Mandelbrot’s and Lo’s modified R/S statistics as well as two semi-parametric tests viz. Robinson’s Gaussian semi-parametric estimate and Andrews-Guggenberger modified GPH estimator are used for the purpose of analysis. All the results conclusively prove the presence of strong version of long memory in the Indian foreign exchange market.

Empowering Women Through Education And Influence: An Evaluation Of The Indian Mahila Samakhya Program, Eeshani Kandpal, Kathy Baylis, Mary Arends-Kuenning

Eeshani Kandpal

This paper shows that participation in a community-level female empowerment program in India significantly increases participants' physical mobility, political participation, and access to employment. The program provides support groups, literacy camps, adult education classes, and vocational training. We use truncation-corrected matching and instrumental variables on primary data to disentangle the program's mechanisms, separately considering its effect on women who work, and those who do not work but whose reservation wage is increased by participation. We also find significant spillover effects on non-participants relative to women in untreated districts.

The Drivers And Dynamics Of Illicit Financial Flows From India: 1948-2008, Dev Kar

Dev Kar

No abstract provided.

Workforce In Indian Health Care Sector, Venkatanarayana Motkuri Mr., Suresh V. Naik Mr.

Venkatanarayana Motkuri Mr.

The paper estimates the total workforce in Indian Helath Care Sector based on NSSO 61st (2004-05) round employment and unemployment survey.

Competition And Demographics In Large Indian Cities, Mohammad Amin

Mohammad Amin

Recent studies suggest that consumer-household attributes may be as important in determining the level of competition in certain markets as firm characteristics and the number of firms. However, evidence on which consumer-household attributes matter for competition is limited, especially for developing countries. Focusing on India’s retail sector, the present paper contributes to this literature by showing that the number of adult non-workers per household in the city, a proxy for shopping time opportunity cost, has a strong effect on competition between retailers. Policy implications of our findings in light of the ongoing dramatic reductions in non-workers in India are discussed.

Information, Direct Access To Farmers, And Rural Market Performance In Central India, Aparajita Goyal

Aparajita Goyal

This paper estimates the impact of a change in procurement strategy of a private buyer in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Beginning in October 2000, Internet kiosks and warehouses were established that provide wholesale price information and an alternative marketing channel to soy farmers in the state. Using a new market-level dataset, the estimates suggest a significant increase in soy price after the introduction of kiosks, supporting the predictions of the theoretical model. Moreover, there is a robust increase in area under soy cultivation. The results point toward an improvement in the functioning of rural agricultural markets. (JEL …

The Drivers And Dynamics Of Illicit Financial Flows From India: 1948-2008, Dev Kar

Dev Kar

This study examines the magnitude of illicit financial flows from India, analyzing the drivers and dynamics of these flows in the context of far-ranging reform. In the process, it represents perhaps the most comprehensive study on the subject matter, both in terms of the range of issues involved and the time span covered. At its heart is a dynamic simulation model which seeks to capture the complex interplay of economic, structural, and governance issues that underlie the generation and cross-border transfer of illicit capital. Due to the random nature of illicit flows, this model cannot be used to forecast such …

Challenges Of Retailing In India (A Short Note), Mohammad Amin

Mohammad Amin

Using Enterprise Surveys data on 1,948 retails stores in India, this note highlights the key problems and challenges faced by retailers in 41 large cities of India. Inadequate power supply, access to finance, corruption, tax rates and land related problems are the most important obstacles to further growth. Competition in the sector also appears to be low, reducing labor productivity. Differences in the severity of these problems across regions and retail stores of various sizes are discussed.

Farmers’ Willingness To Adopt Agricultural Best Management Practices To Control Nonpoint Source Pollution In The Lower Bhavani River Basin, Tamilnadu, India, Sacchidananda Mukherjee

Sacchidananda Mukherjee

The role of stakeholders and their voluntary participation in agri-environmental management in general and water resources conservation in particular is a new area of research, at least for a developing country like India. This study attempts to understand the factors influencing farmers’ willingness to adopt agricultural Best Management Practices (BMPs) to protect groundwater from nonpoint sources of pollution. Based on long term groundwater nitrate concentration and source(s) of irrigation six villages selected in the Lower Bhavani River Basin, Tamilnadu and detailed questionnaire survey (face-to-face interviews) has been carried out among 395 farm households. The results of binary choice Probit models …

Does The Journal Impact Factor Help Make A Good Indicator Of Academic Performance?, Sudhanshu K. Mishra

Sudhanshu K Mishra

Is journal impact factor a good measure of research merit? This question has assumed a great importance after the notification of the University Grants Commission (Minimum Qualifications for Appointment of Teachers and other Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and Measures for the Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education) Regulations, 2009 on September 23rd 2009. Now publication of research papers/articles in reputed journals has become an important factor in assessment of the academic performance of teachers in colleges and universities in India. One of the measures of reputation and academic standard (rank or importance) of a journal is the so-called …

Consumer Behavior And Competition In Retailing (A Short Note), Mohammad Amin

Mohammad Amin

Drawing on a small but growing literature, this note argues that consumer behavior may be as important as firm behavior for the level of competition in consumer industries such as retailing. We use data on 1.948 retail stores in India and contribute to the literature in three ways. First, we find that the number of non-workers in the household, a proxy for time cost of shopping, has a large effect on competition. Moving from the city with the least to the most number of non-workers increases competition by 84% of its mean level. Second, as suggested in the literature, we …

Retailing In India: Assessing The Investment Climate, Mohammad Amin

Mohammad Amin

An overview of the business climate for the retail sector in India is provided using micro data on retail stores collected by the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys.

Economic Valuation Of A Wetland In West Bengal, India, Sacchidananda Mukherjee

Sacchidananda Mukherjee

In the Gangetic flood plain of West Bengal, wetlands are used for multiple purposes, and have significant role in the livelihoods of the local people. Over the years, these Multiple Use Systems (MUSs) are getting converted to single use systems due to economic and social pressure from dominant stakeholders, which are higher than that in single use systems. Economic and ecological functions of MUS changes over time and space. These dynamic aspects of MUS are often not fully appreciated. Attempts to classify wetlands according to their uses across ecological zones and to do their economic valuation are very limited. Based …

Labor Regulation And Employment In India’S Retail Stores, Mohammad Amin

Mohammad Amin

A new dataset of 1,948 retail stores in India shows that 27% of the stores find labor regulations as a problem for their business. Using these data, we analyze the effect of labor regulations on employment at the store level. We find that flexible labor regulations have a strong positive effect on job creation. Our estimates show that labor reforms are likely to increase employment by 22% of the current level for an average store. We also address the issue of informality in India’s retail sector. Our findings suggest that more flexible labor laws can encourage firms to operate in …

Child Schooling In A Community In Transition: A Case Of Scheduled Tribe In Andhra Pradesh, India, Venkatanarayana Motkuri Mr.

Venkatanarayana Motkuri Mr.

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