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2757 items in total found

Working Papers | 2010

Issues in Real Estate and Urban Management – A Note

Sebastian Morris

This note raise many policy issues related to real estate and the urban sector. Urban issues and the very high cost of real estate in India have deep rooted problems that have their origin in the policy, law and working of government. The potential of high growth to deliver benefits to people but especially the poor have to a large extent been negated by the large perversities that underlie the real estate sector in India. These have been compounded by structural problems in governance. Without correction it is unlikely that India would be able to face to the challenges in rapid urbanisation that lies ahead.

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Working Papers | 2010

Pedagogical Innovations for Triggering Social and Economic Entrepreneurship among Youth

Anil K. Gupta

Recent economic meltdown triggered worldwide search for viable options for generating employment through entrepreneurial opportunities for the youth. Not many countries succeeded although India has fared much better. I discuss the challenges faced by India soon after meltdown and the strategies that could work. While many ideas have still potential to influence the pedagogy and the content of educational programmes in the short term, some have value for longer term entrepreneurial revolution. I pay particular attention to converting grassroots innovative communities into viable entrepreneurial networks. The need for empathetic innovation eco system cannot be over-stressed. I also underline the fact that ethical standards seem to be higher among micro and small and medium enterprises. There is a need for transition from mass consumption to high degree of customisation.

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Working Papers | 2010

Leveraging Innovations for Inclusive Governance

Anil K. Gupta

The concern for making services of public systems accessible, accountable and affordable for the disadvantaged people has been there since independence of the country. However, after recognising the limitations of trickle down theory despite witnessing economic growth for a decade, government has realised the need for more inclusive approach. The disparities have increased just as they had in the post green revolution era. The declaration of this decade as the 'decade of innovation' by the Prime Minister and the President of India has underlined the concern for inclusiveness. On Civil Service Day, April 24, 2010, I had the opportunity to witness the awards to the outstanding civil servants and also share my thoughts in a panel having concerned Minster and former Cabinet Secretary and Advisor to Prime Minister. I have argued that the urgent concern is not so much about triggering new innovations as about learning from existing innovations. I also refer to the efforts of 13th Finance Commission in this regard. Two major changes were enacted on the advice of Finance Commission based on the background papers prepared by NIF. The Commission has recommended in the paras 12.92 and 12.96 setting up of "Centre for Innovations in Public Systems to identify, document and promote innovations in public services across states". A grant of Rs.20 crore has been recommended for the purpose. In addition, "a second grant of Rs.1 crore per district is for the creation of District Innovation Fund [DIF] aimed at increasing the efficiency of capital assets already created." I hope that the paper will trigger discussion about the need for a more systematic cataloguing of innovation in public system so that the benefits thereof can reach the masses rapidly.

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Working Papers | 2010

Cradle of Creativity: Strategies for in-situ Conservation of Agro Biodiversity

Anil K. Gupta and Chandak Vikas

Given the inter-relationship of different agro ecological sub-systems in any country, success of the strategy of diffusion of varieties invariably adversely affects the conservation of agro biodiversity. At the same time, given the climate change and other fluctuations in the environment, in-situ conservation of agro biodiversity is most essential for future survival of the society. This study is a part of a long term investigation being pursued by the first author about the micro level changes at plot level in the farmers' fields and their implications for micro policy at national and international level. Same villages were studied in 1988-89 and 2000-02 to look at the degree of erosion of agro biodiversity. In addition, a survey on preferred incentives for in-situ conservation was also conducted among the local communities. The implications of the study for monetary and non-monetary incentives for conservation have been drawn. Different models of incentives for possible action research have been described. There are not too many studies that provide micro level evidence over a decade on the subject. The findings were presented to the national policy makers though actual response in practice so far has been limited.

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Working Papers | 2010

Empathetic Innovations: Connections across Boundaries

Anil K. Gupta

Several motivations may guide quest of a creative person for solving real life problems either faced by oneself or by others. Honey Bee Network has been documenting and valorizing grassroots innovations and traditional knowledge practices for over two decades. In this paper, I review some of the lessons emerging from the innovations triggered by a feeling of internalization of somebody else's pain [samvedana] exactly as one's own. The concept of empathetic innovations resonates with the Gandhian philosophy in a very intimate sense. Way back in 1924, Gandhiji had announced a prize of Rs. one lakh to improve the design of charkha [spinning wheel]. When burden becomes responsibility and when concern triggers creativity, we encounter Gandhian spirit in action. He was a great action researcher. In the first part, I summarise the journey of Honey Bee Network, the evolution of SRISTI (Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions) on the advice of Policy and Perspectives Committee of IIMA, and establishment of Grassroots Innovation Augmentation Network (GIAN) as a follow up of International Conference on Creativity and Innovations at Grassroots held at IIMA in 1997. Later, NIF (National Innovation Foundation) was set up with the help of Department of Science and Technology in 2000 to build a National Register of Grassroots Innovations and Traditional Knowledge besides bridging formal and informal science. Recently, the NIF has become a grant-in-aid institution of DST. Nine key issues discussed in the paper to amplify the concept of empathetic innovations are: Why does not adding value to people's knowledge and creativity excite majority of young and old institutional scientists?; Does wealth necessarily improve the propensity for risk taking and innovation or the lack of it, i.e., can poverty also be a trigger for innovation? Is frugality fungible?; Whether the nature of motivation influences the incentives or disincentives for diffusion?; Should national science, technology and innovation system be fertilized by the grassroots innovations in a fundamental manner?; Do Gandhian methods still matter? Why did Gandhian institutions fossilize in the last six decades?; Will Incorporating innovations in the curriculum not trigger creativity early in life?; Will creating mobile and stationary museum of innovations help in transforming the minds? and Will Gandhian advice to youth for social engagement be still valid?

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Working Papers | 2010

Container Train Operators in India: Problems and Prospects

Rachna Gangwar and G. Raghuram

In India, railways are under the control of the government which is the sole provider of the infrastructure, operations and regulatory functions. Private participation, though very limited, was largely in the domain of infrastructure creation. In January 2006, in a landmark initiative to introduce competition in the container operations segment, the Ministry of Railways allowed the entry of private and public sector operators to obtain licences for running container trains on the Indian Railways (IR) network. Until then, the Container Corporation of India, a subsidiary of IR, was the monopoly operator of container trains in India. This initiative was the first significant move of its kind where private parties were allowed to make entry in the domain of railway operations with direct customer interfacing. The response to the policy was good and 15 new entrants obtained licences to run container trains. Due to lack of clarity or inconsistency in matters pertaining to haulage charges, maintenance of wagons, transit guarantees from IR and terminal access charges, operators started feeling skeptical about the viability of the business. This paper examines the current policy environment from the point of view of business viability for 15 new Container Train Operators and brings out issues related to licensing, pricing, terminals, maintenance, and service levels. Keywords: Indian Railways, Container Train Operators, Container Corporation of India, Policy Issues for Container Transport

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Working Papers | 2010

When index dissemination goes wrong: How fast can traders add and multiply?

Jayanth R. Varma

This paper studies an episode of dissemination of wrong stock index values in real time due to a software bug in the Indian Nifty index futures market on the morning of January 18, 2006. The episode provides an opportunity to test various models of cognitive biases and bounded rationality highlighted in behavioural finance. The paper provides strong evidence against cognitive biases like "anchoring and adjustment" (Tversky and Kahneman, 1974) that one might expect under such situations even though the cognitive task involved is quite simple. The futures market tracked the true Nifty index which it could not see while completely ignoring the wrong Nifty index that it could see. However, the paper demonstrates that market efficiency failed in more subtle ways. There is evidence of a partial breakdown of price discovery in the futures markets and a weakening of the bonds linking futures and cash markets. This evidence is consistent with the centrality of "market devices" as argued in "actor network theory" in economic sociology (Muniesa, Millo and Callon, 2007 and Preda, 2006). Well functioning markets today depend critically on a whole set of information and communication technologies. Any failures in these material, socio-technical aspects of markets can make markets quite fragile even if behavioural biases are largely absent.

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Working Papers | 2010

Discontinuity in the Environment, Firm Response and Dynamic Capabilities

M. R. Dixit and Bhaskar Bhowmick

This paper identifies and focuses on a specific type of environmental development called discontinuity. Discontinuities in the forms of rapid technological innovations, regulatory reforms, institutional overhauls, and socio-cultural developments are the source of opportunities and threats to the firm. Firm responds to these discontinuities in specific ways in sustaining its existence at different points of time. This paper conceptualizes discontinuity and identifies its natures; explores the possible types of responses by the firm, and their enablers. The capability of sensing, seizing and re-shaping are captured to establish the linkages in the framework of interrelations. It posits a set of propositions based on conceptual development and illustration of two cases.

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Working Papers | 2010

Lessons from PPPs of Indian Railways and Way Forward

G. Raghuram and Gangwar Rachna

The Indian Railways (IR) have grand plans. They would like to leapfrog to a higher growth trajectory during 2010-20. Towards this, they would like to see a total investment of Rs 14,00,000 crores (cr), as stated in the Vision 2020, brought out by the Ministry of Railways (MoR) in December 2009. With whatever level of optimistic projections for the internal resources and borrowings for the coming decade, clearly, PPPs would have to be a significant source. This makes it imperative for the IR to create a policy framework that would attract PPPs, especially in the context that the PPPs in IR have not taken off as projected. This paper reviews PPP projects that the IR has evolved over the past 25 years. These include operating partnership projects of IR including with the state government, PPPs in the pipeline, and discontinued partnership projects in IR. The paper brings out issues that have implications for PPPs in IR. The significant ones are focus on infrastructure creation PPPs rather than service PPPs, partner selection more contextually based than through open competitive bidding, more than acceptable time lags between conceptualization and project execution, issues in extending the project scope, non mutuality in contractual arrangements, and conflict of interest due to multiple roles of IR. Based on these issues, the paper derives certain key lessons and provides a way forward.

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Working Papers | 2010

An Eye for an Eye: Impact of Sequelization and Comparison in Advertisements on Consumer's Perception of Brands

Bibek Banerjee and Chakrabarty Patrali

In this paper we demonstrate that the positive effects of comparative advertising are significantly diluted when a compared-to brand retaliates. Retaliation introduces sequencing in advertisements. We therefore evaluate sequelized advertisements (both comparative and noncomparative) alongside comparative advertisements and ordinary advertisements. We show that, given no threat of comparative advertising from competitors, sequelizing a popular advertisement may be as potent as comparative advertising, in terms of improving consumers' recall as well as preference for the sponsored brand. Furthermore, an advertisement message may be directed at core benefits (and/or attributes) that a brand promises, or at a stylized theme or storyline that use peripheral cues to indirectly convey the brand's deliverables. We incorporate this dimension of communication focus and conclude that while comparative advertisements are more effective with objective messages, noncomparative sequelized advertisements work better with thematic or story based messages.

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