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Working Papers | 2007

Spectrum Allocation for 3G in Philippines: Implications for Policy Makers and Regulators

Rekha Jain

The commercial potential of wireless applications has brought spectrum policies to the forefront of regulatory arena. The visibility of the telecom sector and the prior experience of 3G licensing in Europe and UK have made several Asian regulators and policy makers wary of using auctions. This paper details out the beauty contest approach adopted by NTC to allocate 3G licenses and the issues that arose as a consequence and highlights the influence of global developments (European and UK 3G auctions) on domestic spectrum allocation processes. The adoption of the beauty contest approach and fixed license fee was justified by NTC on the grounds of ensuring lower prices to consumers but it led to criticism that it was a clear violation of law, as NTC was mandated to promote competition. In this context, auctions would have been a better and more economically efficient process. The case study highlights the importance of incorporating economic principles, design of a transparent evaluation criteria and communication of the same to the bidders prior to the event. Policy makers need to recognize that well designed auctions are transparent mechanism to allocate scarce resource to those entities who value it most. While beauty contests may appear to be simple mechanisms to administer, lack of clarity in design could lead to non transparency and subsequent possibility of litigation and delays. The study also brings out that although an open consultative approach in the early stages may appear to delay the process, in the long run, it leads to more transparent and robust solutions.

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Working Papers | 2007

Spectrum Refarming in Sri Lanka: Lessons for Policy Makers and Regulators

Rekha Jain

The commercial potential of wireless applications has brought spectrum policies to the forefront of regulatory arena. In the context of rapidly increasing demands on spectrum, regulators have to adopt refarming so as to be able to provide spectrum for new services. A variety of models have been chosen by different countries. This paper documents the approach and process adopted by Telecom Regulatory Commission, Sri Lanka (TRCSL) for refarming of spectrum and draws lessons for policy makers and regulators. Sri Lanka was among the early countries in Asia not only to introduce telecom reforms, but also commercial wireless services (mobile and WLL). It may appear that TRCSL's quick introduction of wireless services gave a head start to Sri Lanka, but the earlier ad-hoc processes led to a situation where spectrum refarming had to be done very quickly subsequently, imposing additional costs on operators and regulators. While realignment was triggered by the need for mobile operators to adopt standard technology, this opportunity could have been strategically used by TRCSL to review spectrum allocations across all the bands, thus allowing faster deployment of digital services. The open consultation process adopted by TRCSL had reduced the risk of "regulatory capture" and it was able to leverage the refarming initiative to bring equity in quantum of spectrum allocated between incumbent and new operators. The study highlights that for rapid proliferation of wireless technologies, a forward looking approach is required not only for managing spectrum but also removal of restrictions on handsets, whose price is a critical aspect for penetration in a developing country context.

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Working Papers | 2007

Gender Issues: Proposing New Paradigms

Dutta Anurag, Gaikwad Ramnish Kiran, and Asha Kaul

Gender diffeences transgressing beyond the biological, have been amply evidenced in the work scenario. Corporates are making endeavours to change work environment and policies so as to make the corporate culture harmonious for both men and women. Our attempt in this paper is to identify gender issues, real or imagined, and suggest recommendations. We also propose to analyze, in the paper, the inherent truth, if any, in these differences. Are they only figments of the imagination, exist in the perception of the employees, or are they a reality? Our study is the first of its kind in India. It is aimed at identifying the issues that both men and women face in a professional environment, and to suggest recommendations which the policymakers can use. We conducted the study in 3 phases consisting of pilot study, focus group discussions and questionnaire survey. Each phase helped in building on the topic and making the study more robust. On the basis of the findings, a few recommendations have been made which will be a value-add to organizations for implementing changes in policies, and designing communcation campaigns and forums where inhibiting and enabling thoughts and expressions can be freely discussed. Additionally, we have been able to collate some of the best practices followed in the IT and ITeS Sector which will be an important resource for oganizations to build on.

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Working Papers | 2007

Cropping in Arid-Area Greenhouse

Girja Sharan

In hot, arid regions, yields are usually low and unstable. Greenhouse technology can stabilize and improve yields. But its adoption is impeded by the requirement of large amounts of water for cooling. Evaporative cooling is the most common method. Arid Area Greenhouse (AAG) is being developed for hot arid regions, particularly to reduce or eliminate the water needed for cooling. To achieve this, AAG employs earth-tube-heat-exchanger (ETHE) and static vents for environmental control. A prototype was installed in 2002 in an arid region, at village Kothara (ƒÚ 23¢X 14 N, ƒÜ 68¢X 45 E, at 21 m a.s.l.) for study. The single span saw-tooth greenhouse is 20 X 6 X 3.5 m. The ETHE is buried 3m deep directly below and coupled to it in closed-loop mode. ETHE is made of a bundle of eight mild steel pipes arranged in two tiers. Each pipe is 23 m long and 20 cm diameter. ETHE provides 20 air changes per hour. Initial cost of ETHE (material, fabrication, transport and installation) was $ 5000, nearly equal to that of greenhouse excluding instrumentation. There are three continuous closable vents - two along the base of long sides and one along the ridge. A retractable shading cover is provided over the roof. The aim was to determine (a) the extent to which ETHE and natural ventilation meet the need for environmental control and the associated costs (b) the extent to which productivity is increased, cropping season extended. By summer of 2007 five rounds of cropping have been done. ETHE was able to heat the greenhouse easily from 9¢XC to 22-23¢XC in half hour in the cold winter nights. Static ventilation along with shading was effective for day time control till February keeping the temperature about 34¢XC inside. Subsequently, ETHE was operated. It limited the greenhouse temperature to 36-37¢XC with top shaded and crop inside. If grid supply is steady it is operated for five-six hours in the day. House is closed in May-June. Yield of tomato has been close to 2 times that of the open-fields in the province. Water used was 44% of that used in open-field. The water used was mostly for plants, only a small part was for supplementary cooling using foggers. ETHE and static vents hold promise as environmental control device for greenhouses in hot arid regions. There is need to reduce installation cost by substituting plastic pipes for metal. It is also necessary to develop a more easily scalable design than the present one.

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Working Papers | 2007

Implementing a Public Private Partnership Model for Managing Urban Health in Ahmedabad

Patel Amit, K. V. Ramani, Dileep Mavalankar, Anurag K. Agarwal, Maiya Shilpa, and Nayak Beena

Governments in many developing countries acknowledge they are facing difficulties in their attempt to meet the basic health needs of their populations. They rely on contracting out to private (for-profit and not-for-profit) organizations as a strategy to meet the needs of underserved populations. For the most part, the public sector chooses to contract out primary healthcare services to the private sector to expand access, increase the availability of medicines and medical supplies, and improve the quality of care. In both urban and rural settings, private for-profit and non-profit health service providers serve both the rich and the poor. Communities often recognize private sector healthcare providers to be more responsive to their healthcare needs and preferences in terms of services available, suitable timings and geographical access etc. Private sector has always played a significant role in the delivery of health services in developing countries. Public-private-partnership (PPP) is an approach under which services are delivered by the private sector, while the responsibility for providing the resources rests with the government. Establishing a PPP requires a legal framework acceptable to all the partners, clarity on the commitment of resources, roles and responsibilities of each partner, as well as accountability to provide a given set of services at a desired level of quality and affordable user charges. Formalizing such an arrangement between partners requires conceptualising a framework for Public Private Partnership (PPP) to manage the delivery of health services. In this paper, we describe the design, development and implementation of a PPP for managing urban health services in Ahmedabad city, Gujarat. Our model has succeeded in bringing together compatible public and private partners to plan and deliver quality healthcare services to meet the community needs of Vasna ward, in Ahmedabad. The new Vasna Urban Health centre was inaugurated on July 23, by the Chief Minister of Guajarat. This new centre now serves about 120 outpatients everyday as against an average of 10 outpatients daily earlier.

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Working Papers | 2007

Role of Trade and Macroeconomic Policies in the Performance of Special Economic Zones (SEZs)

Sebastian Morris

Special economic zones following the enormous success of China have been widely imitated. But it is to be entirely anticipated that the results would vary greatly. Earlier avatars of SEZs in the form of Foreign Trade Zones (FTZs) and Export Promotion Zones (EPZs) were important in the export led growth of east Asia especially South Korea. But more than SEZs or EPZs per se it is the pursuit of "export led growth policies" which underlie the success of exporting and hence of SEZs. SEZz / EPZs can be seen as a (not necessary) microeconomic and spatial initiative in the pursuit of ELG under rather special circumstances by China, and South Korea and Taiwan to more limited extent in their early phases of transformation. In other countries not pursuing ELG the success of SEZs/EPZs has been rather modest. The roles played by the SEZs/ EPZs etc whatever their original purpose were constrained and determined by the macroeconomic policies, trade policies, and regional alignments. There is little meaning in studying SEZs beyond their layout and design without reference to these broader trade and macroeconomic policies. Thus early pioneers like India could make little out of their EPZs since the policies are severely biased against exports. We characterise export led growth (ELG) as the strategy that has allowed the late twentieth century industrialisations, which is far from both import substitution (as conventionally understood) and laissez faire, and to be the simultaneous pursuit of both IS and EP. With this framework we are able to understand the role and evolution of SEZs in a wide variety of countries. These help us to explain and anticipate that unless the policy turns sharply to favour exports (more correctly tradables over non tradables) the success of Indian SEZs would be modest and nowhere near that registered in China. Following from our characterisation of Import Substitution, Export Led Growth and Laissez Faire we also bring out the nature and performance of "special zones" when these are promoted under the very same regimes.

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Working Papers | 2007

Impact of Initial-Trust Image on Shopper Trust and Patronage Intentions

Kaul Subhashini, Arvind Sahay, and Abraham Koshy

The objective of this study is to examine the role of store image in influencing shopper trust and patronage intentions when 1) the store has never been visited and 2) the store has been visited. This study also identifies three stages through which 'trust-image' progresses and uses the first stage to construct and 'initial-trust-image' of the store. The experimental study findings provide empirical support that initial-trust-image of the store has significant impact on trust and patronage intentions for some shoppers. Retailers entering the Indian market are advised to be conscious of the symbolic cues that they embed in the store appearance, especially since the initial-trust-image needs to convey more than just competence and expertise. Significantly, the findings also indicate that asymmetric effects of trust operate at the stage of initial-trust-negative initial-image perception causes greater mistrust than positive initial-image causes trust.

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Working Papers | 2007

Harvesting dew to supplement drinking water supply in arid coastal villages of Gujarat

Girja Sharan

Shortage of drinking water is chronic, sever and widespread in Kutch - a hot and very arid region. It is specially acute in coastal villages where surface sources dry up rapidly and groundwater is not potable. Many of these are listed as "no source" villages and are supplied water on tanker-trucks daily from long distances. The conventional efforts to conserve and augment water resources are all in place. But one potential resource - dew - had remained unnoticed. The possibility that it may also be a supplementary resource was first noticed in the summer of 2001 when it was observed that dew condensed frequently on a plastic- clad greenhouse in Kothara, a village 15 km from the coast. That led us first, to carry out systematic measurement, and then to develop practical ways to harvest dew for human use. Measurement at Kothara was followed by measurements at two other locations along the coast - Panandhro and Mithapur. Data showed that dew occurred over an eight-month season (October- May) spanning the entire dry part of the year. Quantity was more in summer months than in winter. Dew water was found potable and safe. In the next three years development of dew harvest systems was carried out, prototypes were made and tested. After successful field trial three models were launched. The key component of the systems is the condenser, made of thin plastic film which can harvest 15-20 mm of dew water in the season. Condenser cools itself by radiative exchange with sky, without the use of any external energy. Working installations have been made on large roofs and on open ground. While the devices are specifically engineered to condense dew, these routinely harvest rain as well. These are being promoted as "dewrain" harvest systems that deliver useful but varying amount of water through all the months of the year.

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Working Papers | 2007

Implications of Human Resource Practices and Other Structural Factors on Commitment of Public Medical Professionals in India

Sunil Kumar Maheshwari, Bhat Ramesh, and Dhiman Amit

In this paper we focus on often neglected issue and inadequately studied area of commitment of public sector health professionals and some of the issues surrounding human resources as its determinants. The paper argues that success or failure of new initiatives in health sector critically hinges on the commitment of the staff. This paper is based on the questionnaire study and focused group discussion of 175 doctors working as district medical officers at district level and holding key administrative positions at state level in four states in India. These four Indian states account for nearly 22 per cent of India's population. The findings provide some important insights that would be useful in drawing future agenda of strengthening health sector and involving all stakeholders in implementation process. The study finds critical linkage between human resource (HR) practices and commitment of doctors working in the government. Specifically, following HR practices are found critical in influencing organizational commitment: transparency in selection/postings, supportive training and capacity strengthening climate, recognition of performance and regular performance feedback. Further, results suggest that certain work environment and structural factors facilitate these practices. Health officials' roles need to be redefined and given complexity of coordination at various levels, officials need to be allocated higher responsibilities. There is also a need to improve interpersonal relations within departments and coordination among agencies and officials at various levels. It is also observed that the structural rigidities in the system leading to obstruction in information sharing across various levels needs to be addressed to ensure effective healthcare delivery. This study highlights the criticality of administrative and structural issues for reforms of healthcare sector in India. Addressing human resources issues is critical for ensuring commitment from staff in implementing new initiatives or health reform agenda. National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) also identifies the human resources and capacities as an important challenge. Institutions that are critical vehicles to implement the NHRM would remain weak owing to low commitment of people. It would be important to focus on HR issues before any new initiative is proposed and implemented. The departments of health across states need to broaden and deepen the understanding of HR management and planning issues. For this purpose they may need to set-up HR division having appropriate competency and skill-mix to address the issues and work towards making the right changes. The papers discusses that these changes will be required at both strategic and operational levels.

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Working Papers | 2007

Why don't Small and Medium Enterprises Innovate More: Creating a Cooperative Learning Environment at Individual, Firm and Regional Level

Anil K. Gupta

One would expect, that a large number of innovations linked to cycle, a common person's means of transport, would be of great interest to the cycle industry. But, if the leaders of cycle industry do not evince much interest, there must be some serious reasons. It seems that if a company can manage growth with existing product range, why should it try to provide additional features or conveniences to the client. Indian small and medium scale industry appears to suffer from this limitation. I propose that cooperative model of learning is evolved to make each enterprise more competitive. Thus, cooperation in learning space and sometimes in market space may make Indian industry more competitive globally. There is a brief reference to the potential of intellectual property rights database as a source of learning. Why even in crops like psyllium, Indians have hardly five out of 878 patents is an issue that needs careful attention. Incidentally, psyllium is grown only in India.

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IIMA