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Working Papers | 2007

Maternal Health Financing in Gujarat: Preliminary Results from a Household Survey of Beneficiaries under Chiranjeevi Scheme

Bhat Ramesh, Dileep Mavalankar, Prabal V. Singh, and Singh Neelu

The objective of this paper is to provide preliminary analysis of information collected at household level from beneficiaries of the Chiranjeevi scheme and from those who have not used the scheme (non-user group). The key findings have been discussed. Some of the questions which have guided this exercise are: understanding the socio-economic profile and differences of the households who have used the scheme and those who have not used the scheme, ability of scheme to target the poor and out-of-pocket expenditures incurred both users and non-users of the scheme. We have discussed this by analysing education, land holding, number of earning members in the family, possession of specific assets, age of women at the time of delivery, ANC services received, place of delivery, distance and time taken to reach the facility, status (normal or complication) of delivery, complications experienced, and cost incurred during the process. The total sample size consists of 656 respondents from 3 talukas of Dahod District. Of these total 656 respondents, 262 (40 per cent) are Chiranjeevi clients and 394 (60 per cent) comprise the non-user group. Key findings of the study are: * The Chiranjeevi scheme is being used by relatively younger mothers and having lesser number of children at the time of index delivery. * Most of the Chiranjeevi users have income levels less than Rs. 12,000 per annum indicating the scheme is able to target the poor families in these three blocks of the district, * The expenditure incurred by non-user group on index (recent) delivery at a private facility is Rs. 4000. * The average expenditure incurred by the Chiranjeevi beneficiary on their previous delivery was Rs. 3070. On index delivery a Chiranjeevi client has spent out-of- pocket on an average Rs. 727 per delivery on medicine (self Rs. 297, child Rs. 358) and transportation Rs.72 indicating that the delivery is not really cash-less. However, the average amount saved by the Chiranjeevi client by availing the benefit of the scheme is Rs 3273 (Rs. 4000 minus Rs. 727). * The average distance travelled by a Chiranjeevi client to reach the health care facility is 13.79 kms and the average time taken is 44 minutes. * The average expenditure on transportation using mostly private transport by a Chiranjeevi client is Rs.272 as compared to Rs. 200 which the Chiranjeevi client is reimbursed, * Private doctors have conducted 41 per cent of deliveries where as rest of the deliveries have been conducted by staff at the private health care facility under the Chiranjeevi scheme, * ANMs have been the source of information to 55 per cent of Chiranjeevi scheme users. Anganwadi workers provided information to 17 percent of the clients and Female Health Workers to 10 per cent of the Chiranjeevi clients. Thus, 82 per cent of the total beneficiaries of the Chiranjeevi scheme were provided information by the community health workers.

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Working Papers | 2007

A Conceptual Note on Classification of Literature on Capabilities

M. R. Dixit, Amit Karna, and Sunil Sharma

The research literature has looked at capabilities of a firm from various dimensions. Through this conceptual note, we aim to classify the literature on eight dimensions: Definition, Portfolio, Utilization, Level, Characterization, Demonstration, Lifecycle, and Development. These eight dimensions cover the various perspectives through which capabilities literature has been approached from and furthered to. This classification is expected to enable researchers in this area to position their studies within or across one or more of these dimensions, thus providing a clear contribution by strengthening or furthering research in the area.

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Working Papers | 2007

Role of 'corporate persistence' and 'environmental support' in building breakthrough capability: Empirical investigation of Samsung's initiatives in memory and microwave oven business

M. R. Dixit, Sunil Sharma, and Amit Karna

It is now an incontrovertible fact that capabilities are the source of competitive advantage. However, the process through which firms build capabilities over a period of time is only partially understood. Concepts like learning, resource combination, and co-evolution can be categorized as enablers as they support capability formation. On the other hand, concepts like inertia and path dependence can be categorized as restrictors as they constrain the process of capability formation. Combined together, while these concepts hint in the right direction, there is a need to have concepts that explain the process of capability formation holistically. An endeavour towards this objective would require taking into account the role of internal and external events. This paper builds concepts of 'corporate persistence' and 'environmental support' to explain their role in building breakthrough capability by examining major events in the evolution of two mega high technology business belonging to the Samsung group.

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Working Papers | 2007

Containerization – Building Global Trade Competitiveness

G. Raghuram and Gangwar Rachna

India has 12 major and 187 non-major ports along its 7517 km coastline. Cargo traffic handled by Indian ports in 2006-07 was 649 mt, of which 80 mt (6.0 mTEUs) was the container traffic. The compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of container traffic for the past five years (2002-07) was 22.9 per cent. This was higher than the world's average for the same period. Trade growth, penetration of containerisation, and hub and feeder service structure are the drivers of the container traffic growth. India's export import growth has grown around 24 per cent during 2002-07. Its impact on container traffic growth could be higher, since a greater share of trade is moving towards finished goods requiring containerization. Presently, containerized cargo represents about 30% by value of India's external trade, and this proportion is likely to grow as containerization increasingly penetrates the general cargo trades and increases its share from the current 68 per cent to nearer international levels of around 75-80 per cent [World Bank, 2007]. Considering various growth scenarios and studies, it appears that international trade growth and penetration would result in 21 mTEUs by 2015-16. Looking at the container traffic growth in the past few years, there seems to be scope for hub operations in India, possibly one each on the east and west coast. As per the projections made by a study of the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, 9 mTEUs of the Indian traffic of 21 mTEUs will be hubbed in 2015-16 [JNPT, 2006]. If 50 per cent hubbing were to take place in India, then 4.5 mTEUs will be hubbed in India, implying transhipment handling of 9 mTEUs. This requires port handling capacity of 30 mTEUs, with 9mTEUs as transhipment at hub ports. Further, shipping trends will play an important role in deciding whether the Indian ports have potential for hub operations. Hinterland connectivity is a critical area to ensure a seamless flow of containers and improved port productivity. Currently, 30% of the traffic is expected to move hinterland by rail and the remaining is expected to move entirely by road, mostly to nearby CFSs, and some to the interior Inland Container Depots (ICD) [PC, 2006]. There are also issues with respect to evacuation of containers from ICDs. There is a lot of road based congestion due to insufficient infrastructure. Interfacing with customs is another issue. This paper focuses on issues in marine and port operations, hinterland connectivity, and ICDs; in short, the entire supply chain of container movement for building global trade competitiveness.

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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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IIMA