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2757 items in total found

Working Papers | 2002

Measurement Issues in Comparing Fiscal Performance of States

Ravindra H. Dholakia

Interstate comparison of fiscal performance requires use of appropriate concepts and proper measurement of state income, fiscal deficit and debt. GSDP at market prices and a comprehensive concept of debt consistent with the fiscal deficit of a state government are the right concepts to use for the purpose. The rating agencies and the Finance Commissions have not used the right concepts so far. Illustrative estimates for Gujarat show that it can lead to misleading target setting and wrong perceptions about the fiscal performance of the states. CSO, RBI and the rating agencies have to ensure that right concepts are used in interstate comparison.

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Working Papers | 2002

E-governance for ESI Hospitals Costing of Medical Services at EsI Hospital, Bapunagar

K. V. Ramani

The Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) of India is one of the largest social security organizations providing medical insurance cover and delivering of medical care to 35 million beneficiaries through 140 hospitals and 1500 dispensaries. The objectives of this study are to understand the costing of medical care at ESI hospitals and suggest systems for e-governance to facilitate the coordination between ESIC, ESIS and the beneficiaries. Towards this, we selected a large ESI hospital, namely, the ESI General Hospital at Bapunagar, Ahmedabad and gained very useful insights about the systems currently in practice for offering medical benefits to the insured persons and their beneficiaries. This working paper brings out our detailed analysis of the working of ESI hospital, Bapunagar in delivering medical care under the ESI scheme.

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Working Papers | 2002

Women at the Workplace - The Journey of Three Generations of Women

Parikh Indira J and Engineer Mahrukh

"Women at the Workplace- The Journey of Three Generations of Women", is based on interviews conducted by the authors of a broad cross-section of women in leadership positions, middle management levels as well as women beginning their careers and those making a second start after some years of motherhood. Face to face interviews, each lasting several hours, with 32 women was the main source of information. In only 2 of these 32 cases, a questionnaire was employed. A broad framework was provided to the participants and used as a template for brainstorming. The persons early background, role models, dreams and aspirations, career achievements and the interplay between personal and professional lives was explored. The participants were asked to introspect and explore what success meant to them. A road map for the future for women in organizations was examined. The survey provided a fascinating insight into the minds and hearts of working women. Different women had different motives for working, different dreams and aspirations, different perceptions of the future, different support systems and different hurdles, however, there was also a deep rooted commonality. Looking beneath the surface many common themes and trends emerged for women with different backgrounds, different personality types and varied levels of education, seniority and experience. The human spirit wanted to achieve, to explore and to succeed - only the manifestation of this spirit was different in different cases. An equally strong parallel theme related to fulfillment beyond the realm of professional achievement was prevalent. An underlying need to fulfill maternal and societal roles was observed. The major challenge was to balance these seemingly contradictory aspirations and to achieve happiness. Paths traversed by these 32 women were different, each path equally valid for each person. However, these paths had many crossroads where each individual meets others and then continues on their own path. Till the next crossroad.

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Working Papers | 2002

Women in Management - A Movement from the Fifties to the New Millenium

Parikh Indira J and Engineer Mahrukh

"Women in Management - A Movement from the Fifties to the New Millennium", views the evolution and changes that have occurred from the 1950s onwards and looks at new opportunities for women managers in the new millennium. Women in Management are coming of age. The transformation of the Indian woman from an enigmatic figure, covered in meters of fabric, to todays educated, successful and accomplished professional has not been without great personal sacrifices. These are women who have broken the shackles of the past, who have walked an untraversed path, who have had the courage to make new beginnings and to pay the price for the choices they have made. The paper discusses five phases of evolution of the Indian womans role in management, spanning five decades of the 20th Century and explores the transition to the new millennium. The first phase represented tentative beginnings, where women entered the workplace to utilize their education and time. In the second phase, working women encountered invisible barriers within the organization in terms of promotions and availability of senior positions. The third phase witnessed women compete for careers and opportunities within the organization. The fourth phase, the 1990s, saw the emergence of a mature female career person, with professional ambitions and aspirations matching those of her male counterparts. The gradual evolution of the environment, both at home and at the workplace, and societal changes in terms of increased acceptance by families and colleagues of the womans new role are positive signs of progress and bode well for the future. As always, change has not been easy. The fact that some Indian women now occupy prominent positions and their rightful place in the corporate world bears testimony to their fortitude, patience and courage. The paper also explores the womans role in the new millennium after having traveled a long distance. Women in management now need not be the rebels of the past, but can enjoy lifestyles that do justice to both home and work. Flexible corporate structures, enabling technologies and liberalized societal expectations will allow women to climb the rungs of the corporate ladder without necessarily sacrificing their femininity or personal life roles such as motherhood.

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Working Papers | 2002

Member-funds and Cooperative Performance?

Agrawal Rajesh, Raju K V, Reddy Prathap, Shrinivasan R, and Sriram M S

This research examines the role of member-funds in multi-purpose cooperatives in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. The central thesis is that member-funds, both in terms of quantity and quality, can enhance the control members exert on the cooperative. The involvement of members through their capital stake could be at various levels - by the provision of permanent capital, long-term capital and short-term capital. We expect that each of these will have differing effects on control and on the culture and systems of the cooperative. Such an effect on control is expected to directly drive cooperative performance, and indirectly enhance cooperative performance through greater usage of the cooperative by the members. Enhanced cooperative performance in turn would satisfy members, and the loop will hopefully be completed; satisfied members would place more funds with the cooperative. The research used data collected from 923 individuals and 30 multi-purpose cooperatives, as well as case-studies of four successful multi-purpose cooperatives. The "bottom-line" of this research is that member-funds have a central role in enhancing cooperative performance. Funds provided voluntarily, either as an outcome of collective cooperative level decision making or of individual level decisions are of high quality. Externally compelled member-funds are of low quality, as are short-term member funds.

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Working Papers | 2002

Public Expenditure Accountability of the Indian Railways

G. Raghuram and Venkataraman Krishnan

The Indian Railways (IR) is one of the chief logistics agents of the Government of India (GOI). Considering the significant GOI funding into IR, public expenditure accountability (PEA) becomes an issue of importance. This paper looks into different aspects of the expenditure and financial management of IR. The paper is divided into three portions. The first portion looks at the railway-government interface. The main areas of focus here include a brief examination of The Indian Railways Act, the financial interface between the GOI and IR (consisting of budgetary support, market sourced financing and dividend payments), evaluating the need for a separate railway budget, political interference in the activities of IR and the interaction of IR with state governments. The second portion of the paper deals with the internal financial management of IR. In this section, there is an effort to evaluate the revenue generation by IR along with suggestions for enhancing its potential. This is followed by a look at the issue of subsidies to IR. Investment decisions of IR and the Special Railway Safety Fund (SRSF) along with the issue of excess manpower and cost reduction are other topics included in this section. The paper ends with a roadmap to corporatisation as a possible solution to the problems IR is faced with. The main areas dealt with are financial issues, pensions, the need for customer focus, the importance of focus on core competencies and a need to revamp IRs administrative structure and attitude.

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Working Papers | 2002

Is There Seasonality in the Sensex Monthly Returns?

Pandey I M

The presence of the seasonal or monthly effect in stock returns has been reported in several developed and emerging stock markets. This study investigates the existence of seasonality in Indias stock market. It covers the post-reform period. The study uses the monthly return data of the Bombay Stock Exchanges Sensitivity Index for the period from April 1991 to March 2002 for analysis. After examining the stationarity of the return series, we specify an augmented auto-regressive moving average model to find the monthly effect in stock returns in India. The results confirm the existence of seasonality in stock returns in India and the January effect. The findings are also consistent with the "tax-loss selling" hypothesis. The results of the study imply that the stock market in India is inefficient, and hence, investors can time their share investments to improve returns.

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Working Papers | 2002

Government Role in Road Toll Collection: The Coimbatore Bypass Experience

G. Raghuram and Kheskani Deepa

India has the second largest road system in the world with a road length of 3.3 million kms. In the past 50 years, while the aggregate length of the roads has increased eightfold, the traffic has increased to almost twentyfold, resulting in congestion. To reduce the congestion and improve road quality, the central and state governments have focused on road development projects in the recent years. Public private partnerships have also been leveraged through the Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) framework. This paper discusses various issues in toll based BOT projects, with the focus on a specific case study. L&T Transportation Infrastructure Limited, the BOT operator has been facing financial problems, experiencing a difficult time collecting tolls from the Athupalam Bridge segment of the Coimbatore Bypass project. Though the government has been trying to resolve the problem, it has not arrived at any positive solution as yet. This paper highlights the lessons from the Coimbatore Bypass experience for the future road BOT projects.

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Working Papers | 2002

Private Public Partnership in Urban Infrastructure Projects: Getting Sweet Curd from Spoilt Milk?

Biju Varkkey

Rapid growth in urban population has made Solid Waste Management an important issue for civic administration. The 74th amendment of the Constitution of India and Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules 2000 has made municipal solid waste management the responsibility of urban local bodies (city corporations and municipal corporations). Further, the Supreme Court of India, acting on Public Interest Litigation directed all urban local governments to install scientific solid waste treatment plants before a set timeline. Installing a scientific waste management system was a costly proposition, which many urban bodies found difficult to bear. Many have sought participation of the private sector in solid waste management. The city corporation of Thiruvananthapuram also invited participation of Poabs Group to set up a waste processing plant in the corporation owned land outside the city. Right from inception the project ran into social and political opposition. The investor was enticed by the government to stick to the project by offering various concessions. There were interface issues of very serious nature between the plant and corporation employees whose support was absolutely necessary for continued, viable operation of the plant. However, the concessions remained in paper and the operations of the plant reached a stalemate. Based on the experiences of the private investor, various governance and policy level implications for public private participation in urban infrastructure projects (specifically solid waste management) are discussed.

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Working Papers | 2002

Exports of Agri-Products from Gujarat: Problems and Prospects

Ravindra H. Dholakia

Agri-products are defined to include products of agriculture & allied activities, fishing, forestry, and manufacturing industries, like food & food products, tobacco, textiles, paper, furniture, etc. Gujarat has a revealed comparative advantage in the exporting activity over the other states since, as per GITCO Study (November 2001), more than one-fifth of the exports of the country originate from Gujarat. Gujarat has the revealed comparative advantage in ground-nuts, oilmeals, castor oil, poultry & dairy product, spices, sesame & niger seeds, processed food & vegetables & fruits, cotton yarn & fabric, man-made textiles, handicrafts, and cotton raw including waste. Fresh fruits & vegetables, floriculture, and fish are not the areas of strength for Gujarat so far. Based on the large sample survey conducted by GITCO (November 2001), several features of the exports originating from Gujarat are also examined. Exports of agri-products originating from Gujarat represent excess supply rather than exclusive supply to the foreign markets. The prospects of the domestic demand and production of the agricultural sector in Gujarat are examined. The dismal picture of the declining real income in Gujarat agriculture during the late nineties is not supported by several other evidences. On the contrary, Gujarat has a very vibrant and responsive agricultural sector. It has an achievable potential to grow at 4.5% to 5% p.a. over the next 8 to 10 years. The paper concludes by identifying some areas for further research.

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