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2757 items in total found

Working Papers | 2010

The Question of Land and Infrastructure Development in India: Urgently Required Reforms for Fairness and Infrastructural Development

Sebastian Morris and Ajay Pandey

Land in India is problematic largely because of archaic and perverse provisions in the practice and the law. The new Land Acquisition Amendment Bill does go some way to correct the anti-democratic and imperial provisions of the old 1894 Act. Other regulatory restraints stand in the way of fair compensation to sellers whether the deal is a sale or an acquisition using eminent domain. Urban planning being based on the "Ricardian Model" and on top of asymmetrically applied regulatory constraints further depresses the benefit to land owners. As a result very little land is obtainable without dispute and high risk for infrastructure development. In this paper we provide an analytical critique of the law and restrictions as also of the framework of urban planning and provide a justification for why major change is required in the approach to land markets, land acquisition and urban planning. We also provide the key elements of a reformed approach that can create a win-win framework for development. We also present our suggestions on how the proposed Amendment to the Land Acquisition Act can be changed to make the Act functional and remove the residual perversities therein.

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Working Papers | 2010

FDI Outflows from India: An Examination of the underlying Economics, Policies and their Impact

Subramanian Ravi, Sachdeva Charu, and Sebastian Morris

This paper discusses the trends in Indias outward FDI over the last decade and then attempts to identify the driving factors for the same. The aim is to provide policy makers with insights regarding levers which would help in encouraging FDI outflows and to stimulate further research in foreign investment from emerging economies. The analysis is based on 287 instances of foreign investment from India by top Indian companies across 17 sectors. The paper draws on the "eclectic" paradigm to study the impact of ownership, location and internalization variables on Indias foreign investment. A sector wise analysis of mode of entry, intent of entry and geographic concentration has been performed. At an aggregate level, it has been found that acquisitions have been the predominant mode of entry for Indian firms investing abroad and seeking new markets the primary intent of investment. A regression model was also developed to understand the impact and relative importance of owndership variables such as distribution system, need for resources, factor of production, post sales service requirement, presence of IP and brand on foreign investment from India. It was found that high distribution expenses and need for resources had a very positive influence on foreign investment. The paper also discusses the key policy changes that impacted outward FDI from India in the last decade and relationship of outward FDI with other macroeconomic indicators such as GDP and Fischer Open Differential.

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Working Papers | 2010

The Role of the District Public Health Nurses: A Study from Gujarat

Sharma Bharati, Sweta Roy, Dileep Mavalankar, Pallavi Ranjan, and Poonam Trivedi

The role of District Public Health Nurses (DPHN) and District Public Health Nurse Officers (DPHNOs) as supervisors of the Public Health nursing and midwifery staff in a district was investigated. Thirteen DPHNs and DPHNOs from six districts selected from six geographic zones of Gujarat were observed for one week using the time motion method. Their activities and time spent were noted and the DPHNs/DPHNOs and their supervisors were interviewed.

The role of the DPHNs has reduced over the years because they have not been assigned new roles with change in programmes and policies. Most of the DPHNs have training for clinical work in hospitals. Their 10 month training to qualify for PHN is inadequate to develop knowledge and skills in public health. There is a gap between their training and posting due to delays in government procedures of promotion. The DPHN/DPHNOs spend majority of their time in the office (49%) where they have a limited role. Their supervisory role for nurses and midwives has lost its importance. They spend about 1/3rd of their time in field supervision mostly visiting centres accessible by public transport as they do not have an allotted government vehicle. As they do not submit any field report, there is no follow-up action from their visit. Nevertheless they seem to have an important role in solving problems of field workers as they are mediators between the district and peripheral facilities. To conclude the DPHNs are under utilized which affects the quality of maternal and child health services in the district.

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Working Papers | 2010

A Perspective on Fisheries Sector Interventions for Livelihood Promotion

Samar K. Datta, Srijan Pal Singh, Milindo Chakrabarti, Subho Biswas, and Bittu Sah

The distinctive features of fisheries resources, fishers and their geographic contexts, on the one hand, and broad stylized features of the existing lacklustre performance of this sector, on the other, call for specialized and sustained efforts to promote livelihood of usually poor, backward and unorganized fisher communities, which are nevertheless and often the most intimate stakeholder of this sector and its underlying resources. To develop a perspective on intervention strategies for livelihood promotion of most intimate stakeholders-that is, the fisher folk, in a sustainable manner, this paper uses clues from recent economic theories and management tools on property rights, Coase Theorem, stakeholder cooperation and public-private-community partnership in an effort towards resolving the multi-dimensional problems of this sector. It stratifies and brings out the pros and cons of the existing fishing efforts into four categories of models-the traditional marketing model, state-led models of livelihood promotion and fisheries development (including cases of para-statal cooperatives), entrepreneur or leader-driven models, and technology-driven models, through selected illustrations from different parts of the country and covering both marine and inland (including brackish water) segments of fisheries. The paper, after identifying the major ingredients for sustainable livelihood development around fisheries, finally articulates Dr. APJ Kalam's concept of PURA to recommend a rural entrepreneur-led hybrid model of fisheries development to solicit sustainable and growth oriented cooperation among the suppliers of land (i.e., stakeholders to fishery resources, which are available through Nature), labor (including fishers) and capital (including professionals). The ultimate goal of this paper is to derive inspiration from Coase Theorem and the Japanese model of Keiretsu to empower the producers and suppliers of fish-namely, the fisher folk and to place them at the centre stage of control of rural entrepreneur-led private organizations, wherein the fisher community will not be deemed as mere consumers or vendors of fish, but will enter as dignified co-producer partners with significant shares in residual claim and residual control in those organizations.

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Working Papers | 2010

Introducing Competition in Container Movement by Rail

Sebastian Morris, Ajay Pandey, G. Raghuram, and Gangwar Rachna

Container movement by rail was a monopoly of Indian Railways (IR) until recently and its subsidiary, Container Corporation (CONCOR) was the sole operator of container trains. Entry of other entities in 2007 has been driven by larger public policy concerns. In the process, issues such as resistance of the incumbent, erection of entry barriers, denial of level playing field, use of a closely held organization as a consultant, and conflicting roles of IR as licensor, regulator, service provider, and operator came into sharp focus. This paper attempts to review the process starting from the policy announcement (February 2005) to evolution of a Model Concession Agreement (January 2007) and shows how policies were influenced by the incumbent to restrict competition by creating barriers on the one hand and how an alternate view provided by external entities, like the Planning Commission and other non-IR stakeholders significantly altered the course of action leading to entry of a large number of competing players.

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Working Papers | 2010

Why Should 5000 Children Die in India Every Day? Major Causes and Managerial Challenges

K. V. Ramani, Dileep Mavalankar, Tapasvi Puwar, Joshi Sanjay, Harish Kumar, and Imran Malek

Globally, more than 10 million children under 5 years of age, die every year (20 children per minute), most from preventable causes, and almost all in poor countries. Major causes of child death include neonatal disorders (death within 28 days of birth), diarrhea, pneumonia, and measles. Malnutrition accounts for almost 35 % of childhood diseases.

India alone accounts for almost 5000 child deaths under 5 years old (U5) every day. India.s child heath indicators are poor even compared with our Asian neighbors, namely Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Nepal and Bangladesh. Within India, the states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh account for almost 60 % of all child deaths

India.s neonatal mortality, which accounts for almost 50 % of U5 deaths, is one of the highest in the world. India launched the Universal Immunization Program in 1985, but the status of full immunization in India has reached only 43.5 % by 2005-06. India started the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) in 1975 to provide supplementary nutrition to children, but 50 % of our children are still malnourished; nearly double that of Sub-Saharan Africa. The WHO/UNICEF training program on Integrated Management of Neonatal and Childhood Illnesses, known as IMNCI, started in India a few years ago, but the progress is very slow.

What is unfortunate is the fact that most of these deaths are preventable through proven interventions: preventive interventions and/or treatment interventions, but the management of childhood illnesses is very poor.

In this working paper, we bring out the nature and magnitude of child deaths in India (Chapter 1) and then share with you in Chapters 2, 3 and 4 our observations on the management of some of national programs of the government of India such as

The Universal Immunization Program (UIP)
The Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS)
The Integrated Management of Neonatal and Child Illnesses (IMNCI)

In the final chapter (Chapter 5), we highlight certain managerial challenges to satisfactorily address the child mortality and morbidity in our country.

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Working Papers | 2010

Organization Development Experiences . A Case for Enriching HRD through OD

T. V. Rao

This article reviews a few definitions of OD and identifies eight characters that are necessary to call an activity or experience as an OD activity or experience. The article then goes on to examine ten case studies (of research, consulting and OD) of what appears like an OD activity in which the author was involved as one of the facilitators for whole system or subsystem and examines each on of them for their appropriateness to be called as OD interventions. The author then goes on to derive some lessons from these experiences. The article outlines also some advantages of using traditional OD approach in various HRD interventions and offers some suggestions for making specific HRD interventions like competency mapping, 360Degree Feedback based leadership Development and Assessment and Development Centers as OD activities. The paper concludes that using an OD approach enriches HRD and yields a good ROI on HRD interventions.

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Working Papers | 2009

The Dynamic Relationship between Price and Trading Volume:Evidence from Indian Stock Market

Brajesh Kumar, Priyanka Singh, and Ajay Pandey

This study investigates the nature of relationship between price and trading volume for 50 Indian stocks. Firstly the contemporaneous and asymmetric relation between price and volume are examined. Then we examine the dynamic relation between returns and volume using VAR, Granger causality, variance decomposition (VD) and impulse response function (IRF). Mixture of Distributions Hypothesis (MDH), which tests the GARCH vs. Volume effect, is also studied between the conditional volatility and volume. The results show that there is positive and asymmetric relation between volume and price changes. Further the results of VAR and Granger causality show that there is a bi-directional relation between volume and returns. However, the results of VD imply weak dynamic relation between returns and volume which becomes more evident from the plots of IRF. On MDH, our results are mixed, neither entirely rejecting the MDH nor giving it an unconditional support.

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Working Papers | 2009

Strategic Orientation of Outsourcing Firms:Demystifying Key Differentiators

Kirti Sharda

Despite the importance of outsourcing firms and the highly competitive nature of the outsourcing industry, there has been minimal examination of outsourcing firm strategy. This paper investigates the strategic focus of 60 outsourcing firms using empirical data collected through survey and semi-structured interviews from 226 top management team respondents. Factor and cluster analysis reveal three outsourcing firm archetypes based on their strategic orientation, namely, superachievers, quality advocates and defenders. The dominance of these archetypes also varies across business activities offered by sample firms. By delineating dimensions underlying outsourcing form strategy and by identifying archetypes of strategic orientation, the paper provides an understanding of key differentiators of outsourcing firm performance.

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Working Papers | 2009

Configurations of Business Process Outsourcing Firms and Organizational Performance

Kirti Sharda and Chatterjee Leena

There is an increasing recognition of outsourcing firms as new organizational forms with unique systems and practices. This paper uses a configurational approach to integrate learnings from outsourcing literature, organization and management theory, strategic management and strategic human resource management in order to understand similarities and differences between outsourcing firms and their performance. It formulates a conceptual framework that proposes that certain combinations of work designs, strategic orientations, client relationships and contexts could lead to better organizational performance within a sample of outsourcing firms.

The paper uses principal components factor analysis, Ward.s minimum variance method, K-means cluster analysis, and chi-square to analyze data collected from 60 outsourcing firms across India. Five dominant configurations of outsourcing firms emerge, namely, clear-eyed strategists, adapting professionals, focalizing artisans, conservative controllers and overambitious associates. Further examination with Kruskal Wallis One-Way ANOVA and Tamhane.s T2 test indicates that specific configurations of outsourcing firms are indeed associated with better performance across a variety of organizational performance parameters.

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