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This report is on the synthesis by electrospinning of multiferroic core-shell nanofibers of strontium hexaferrite and lead zirconate titanate or barium titanate and studies on magneto-electric (ME) coupling. Fibers with well-defined core–shell structures showed the order parameters in agreement with values for nanostructures. The strength of ME coupling measured by the magnetic field-induced polarization showed the fractional change in the remnant polarization as high as 21%. The ME voltage coefficient in H-assembled films showed the strong ME response for the zero magnetic bias field. Follow-up studies and potential avenues for enhancing the strength of ME coupling in the core–shell nanofibers are discussed.
Since the late 1970s the West Bengal government has implemented comprehensive reforms of agrarian institutions including land reform (land redistribution, tenancy registration) and democratic decentralization (devolution of agricultural development program delivery to elected local governments). We provide an overview of our research findings concerning the accountability of local governments and the impact of their program interventions on farm yields and agricultural incomes. Programs administered by the local governments were reasonably well targeted to the poor, with a few exceptions. Targeting improved as local elections became more contested and deteriorated with greater socioeconomic inequality. The tenancy registration program, distribution of agricultural minikits, IRDP credit, and irrigation programs administered by local governments had significant effects on subsequent growth in farm productivity and incomes. The benefits diffused widely among farms within the village and trickled down to landless agricultural workers in the form of higher wage rates.
Although poverty in India remains disproportionately rural at the aggregate level, urban poverty is growing in importance. Efforts to address urban poverty should note its spatial distribution. This paper shows that the incidence of poverty in India’s small towns is markedly higher than in large metropolitan areas. It is also in small and medium-sized towns that a large majority of the urban poor reside. Moreover, access to key services and institutions in small towns lags behind the larger cities. Agglomeration externalities are found to arise at the level of individual towns and cities and likely provide part of the explanation of the city-size poverty relationship, but inequalities in infrastructure access and proximity to a dominant metropolitan area also play a role. Efforts to combat poverty in India’s small towns may also contribute to rural poverty reduction. A small but growing literature points to a causal link from urban to rural poverty reduction. Evidence suggests that the association is stronger if the urban center is a small town than if it is a large city. There is thus an instrumental case for special attention to small towns in urban poverty reduction efforts, alongside the strong intrinsic interest in such a focus.
This paper examines India’s federal system in the context of prospects for India’s future economic growth and development. After a brief review of India’s recent policy reforms and economic development outcomes, and of the country’s federal institutions, the analysis focuses on the major issues with respect to India’s federal system in terms of their developmental consequences. We examine the impacts of tax assignments, expenditure authority, and the intergovernmental transfer system on the following aspects of India’s economy and economic performance: the quality of governance and government expenditure, the efficiency of the tax system, the fiscal health of different tiers of government, and the impacts on growth and on regional inequality. In each case, we discuss recent and possible policy reforms. We make comparisons with China’s federal system where this is instructive for analyzing the Indian case. Finally, we provide a discussion of potential reforms of aspects of India’s federal institutions.
This paper examines India’s federal system in the context of prospects for India’s future economic growth and development. After a brief review of India’s recent policy reforms and economic development outcomes, and of the country’s federal institutions, the analysis focuses on the major issues with respect to India’s federal system in terms of their developmental consequences. We examine the impacts of tax assignments, expenditure authority, and the intergovernmental transfer system on the following aspects of India’s economy and economic performance: the quality of governance and government expenditure, the efficiency of the tax system, the fiscal health of different tiers of government, and the impacts on growth and on regional inequality. In each case, we discuss recent and possible policy reforms. We make comparisons with China’s federal system where this is instructive for analyzing the Indian case. Finally, we provide a discussion of potential reforms of aspects of India’s federal institutions.
The essays in this volume are written by leading economists working on the Indian economy. They collectively emphasize the importance of policies and institutions for sustained growth and poverty reduction, stressing that the success of sector-specific policies is vitally dependent on the nature of markets and the functioning of institutions such as those charged with regulating and overseeing critical sectors. Individual contributions assess the role of Indian government policy in key sectors and emphasize the policies required to ensure improvements in these sectors. The first section discusses aspects of the macro economy; the second deals with agriculture and social sectors; the third with jobs and how labor markets function in agriculture, industry and services; and the fourth with infrastructure services, specifically electricity, telecommunications and transport. The essays are drawn from the most influential papers presented in recent years on Indian economic policy at the Stanford Center for International Development.
This paper identifies the major political and economic constraints that impact the demand side of electricity industry restructuring processes. Demand-side constraints have been a major barrier to implementing effective restructuring processes in many countries, particularly those in developing world. I describe how these constraints have been addressed and how this has harmed market efficiency and system reliability using examples from restructuring processes throughout world. I propose demand-side regulatory interventions to manage these constraints in a manner that limits the harm to wholesale market efficiency. Finally, specific regulatory inventions for developing countries such as India are proposed.
Professor Davey has written a very interesting chapter on preferential trade agreements (PTAs). Such trade preferences are, by definition, restricted to members of the PTA, but not extended to other members. As such, prima facie, they violate the cardinal principle of nondiscrimination among members of GATT/WTO as enshrined in the Most Favored Nation (MFN) clause of Article I.1 of the GATT agreement of 1947 (hereafter GATT, 1947). This agreement was incorporated (with subsequent amendments) as GATT (1994) as part of the multilateral agreements signed in 1994 that concluded the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Negotiations, among which the agreement to found the WTO with effect from January 1, 1995, with the then set of contracting parties (CPs) of GATT as founder members, was one. However, the original CPs of GATT had explicitly exempted from the MFN clause, albeit under certain conditions specified in Article XXIV, namely customs unions (CUs) and free trade areas (FTAs). They also grandfathered and capped the then existing trade preferences (such as those of the UK, France, the United States, and a few other CPs) through Articles I.2–I.4. While recognizing “the desirability of increasing freedom of trade by the development, through voluntary agreements, of closer integration between the economies of the parties to such agreements,” they also recognized that “the purpose of customs union or a free trade area should be to facilitate trade between the constituent territories and not to raise barriers to the trade of other members with such territories” (Article XXIV:4).
Early results from the SAGE-SMC (Surveying the Agents of Galaxy Evolution in the tidally-disrupted, low-metallicity Small Magellanic Cloud) Spitzer legacy program are presented. These early results concentrate on the SAGE-SMC MIPS observations of the SMC Tail region. This region is the high H i column density portion of the Magellanic Bridge adjacent to the SMC Wing. We detect infrared dust emission and measure the gas-to-dust ratio in the SMC Tail and find it similar to that of the SMC Body. In addition, we find two embedded cluster regions that are resolved into multiple sources at all MIPS wavelengths.
By
Nirvikar Singh, Professor of Economics and Director of Santa Cruz Center for International Economics, University of California, Santa Cruz,
T. N. Srinivasan, Samuel C. Park Jr., Professor of Economics and Chair of the South Asian Studies Council, Yale University; Senior Research Fellow Stanford Center for International Development
India is a Union of States based on the framework of cooperative federalism. Within the cooperative framework, there is also a requirement to develop competitive strengths for the States so that they can excel at the national level and the global level. Competitiveness helps in ensuring economic and managerial efficiency and to be creative to meet new challenges. These are essential to survive and prosper in a fast changing world of today. In addition, in order to strengthen democratic processes and institution, we should all truly strive for substantive decentralization.
From the speech by Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam on his assumption of office as President of India New Delhi, 25 July 2002
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter we examine the interaction between globalization and India's federal system, in the context of the country's past decade of economic reform. In doing so, we recognize that the national government has subnational governments below it and that all these layers of government simultaneously interact with foreign governments and corporations in a global economy. These multiple interactions have become more important as reform in India has opened up the economy to foreign trade and investment, They have also reduced certain constraints on subnational governments. Globalization provides challenges as well as opportunities to federal systems such as India's. This chapter seeks to elucidate these and to draw implications for policy and institutional reform.
In economic terms, globalization can be taken as the increased international mobility of goods, capital, labor, and knowledge.