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Working Papers | 1992

Debate on Biotechnology and Intellectual Property Rights: Protecting the Interests of Third World Farmers and Scientists

Anil K. Gupta

The debate on protection of intellectual property rights of the companies and scientific labs developing technologies through biotechnological means or otherwise has been highly surcharged with the emotions. I have argued in this paper that developing countries like India should negotiate this subject with the position of strength and not weakness. In the case of biotechnology, the technology gap is the shortest to bridge compared to most industrial technologies. By compromising on Industrial front, we could gain a lot on biotechnological front. We should simultanesouly refuse to accept the idea that biodiversity is the global common heritage. We should in fact document and patent various land races and other germ plasm in the name of local communities. The land races do not survive by chance or accident. Conscious effort and attention of local communities makes that possible. We should accept the principle that innovators wherever they are and who so ever they are must be protected and compensated. It is natural that this protection would extend to third world scientists and farmers too. We do not agree with those who think that by extending IPRs to crop varieties we would lose the game to MNCs. On the contrary, by protecting the rights of local communities, we would be able to stake the right of third world farmers to have a share in the global profits of Multinational seed companies. The contentions of those dominating the technological frontiers are given in part one of the paper. The concerns of the developing countries are mentioned in Part Two. The alternative ways in which we can operalionalize the concept of Farmers' Rights and compensate them for their innovations and intellectual property rights are discussed in part three. Issues for further discussion have been listed in part four.

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Working Papers | 1992

Securities Scam Genesis, Mechanics and Impact

Samir K. Barua and Jayanth R. Varma

The term "securities scam" refers to a diversion of funds to the tune of over Rs. 3500 crores from the banking system to various stockbrokers in a series of transactions (primarily in Government securities) during the period April 1991 to May 1992. The scam has for several months become a permanent feature of the front pages of the newspapers. Despite the massive media coverage of the scam, most readers found it hard to understand it particularly when they were confronted with arcane terms and acronyms like ready forward, double ready forward, SGL, PDO, BR, PMS etc. Nevertheless an understanding of the scam is a prerequisite for any meaningful analysis of policy alternatives to improve the functioning of the financial system. This paper presents a plausible reconstruction of how the scam originated, how it was perpetrated, and what would be its aftermath. The paper is expository in nature and the authors make no claims to omniscience. The paper goes on to discuss the response of the government to the scam in terms of 1) discovering and punishing the guilty, 2) recovering the money, and 3) reforming the system. While agreeing with the importance of discovering and punishing the guilty, the paper argues that the attempt of the government to recover the money by such measures as the tainted shares law which cause severe and unjustified hardship to genuine and innocent investors is misguided. Turning to the arena of reforms of the financial system, the paper argues that the origins of the scam lie in overregulation of our markets. It recommends that normal transactions must be allowed to be done openly and transparently, and the role of brokers as market makers must be recognized. The second lesson from the scam is that artificial insulation of closely related markets from each other is counterproductive in the long run. Artificial barriers between the money market and the capital market, between the market for corporate securities and the market for government securities and between the formal money market and the informal one must be eliminated.

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Working Papers | 1992

Gorbachev Betas The Russian Coup and Market Blues

Samir K. Barua and Jayanth R. Varma

Extensive work has been done on response of stock markets to a variety of events, such as announcement of a firm's financial results, changes in a firm's variables. However, little work has been done on response of stock markets to political events. These events, characterized by their suddenness, are often too short lived to leave an impression on the real economy. Yet, their occurrence results in significant fluctuations in prices of securities. One such event which shook the world was the abortive coup in the Soviet Union in August 1991. In this paper we have analyzed the responses of stock markets in 24 countries to the coup, and found differences in the adjustments processes. We also analyzed the impact of fluctuations in exchange rates, and inferred that changes in exchange rates, generally ignored by studies on market efficiency, could be an important factor in explaining the price movements. The large fluctuations in prices due to political events could partially explain the excessive volatility, not justified by economic reasoning, typically observed in stock markets.

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Working Papers | 1992

Indian Economic Forecast August 1992

Rastogi A B

On the eve of the present government's anniversary of assuring office, pessimism towards stabilisation and reforms were well entrenched in the media. With the help of hindsight one may opine that it was the loss of political grip and later certain irregularities in the money market which snowballed into a fraud and resulted in a pessimistic perception. Further meteorological forecast about monsoon precipitated the view that the economy is going to face stagflation. No one expects output to fall this year. The economy has grown in the first quarter of the fiscal year 1992-92, albeit slowly. Economic activity is expected to accelerate in the next few months. Inflation is under control and set to average just under 10% for the year 1992-93; the central government fiscal indiscipline is almost under control and there are good indications that the kharif and the rabi crops may turn out to be bumper crops. But that is not enough for rapid sustainable growth of the economy.

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Working Papers | 1992

Industrialisation Strategy of Gujarat: Performance and an Agenda for Future

Chhokar J S, M. R. Dixit, and Sarkar Mitali

This paper outlines the salient features of the industrialisation strategy that Gujarat appears to have followed since its inception. The results which this strategy has produced are also discussed. The paper goes on to suggest changes required to be made in the strategy to maintain Gujarat's position as one of the leading industrial states in India in view of the changing business environment in the country.

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Working Papers | 1992

Restructuring Public Systems through Administrative Innovations: Will Civil Service Respond.

Anil K. Gupta

When the role of the state is being redefined in the wake of recent economic crisis, a discussion on making public systems and enterprises more responsive to social concerns may be quite appropriate. But that was not the only reason for taking upon this initiative of bringing out a special issue of Administrator (Journal of LBS Academy, Mussoorie) on innovations by administrators. I think like any other subsystem of society, bureaucracy is also ridden with conflicts. While majority may be averse to any change for the better, some do care (just like in any other system). I have no doubt that in any major restructuring in society, the role of even such odd balls may be marginal. But some of them can enlarge their role. Whether they will or not depends upon how crucial and powerful they consider their marginal position to be. Not all those who attempt change are marginalised. Some get Padam Shree (State honour) for their 'distinguished' service. What are the factors which lead state to incorporate certain type of changes and reject others is not too difficult to speculate. I look into the factors which affect the transition of an idea into initiative, innovation and finally into institutionalization. Barriers to innovations have been looked at separately (Gupta, 1982) though briefly are reviewed here too. Not every innovation needs to be institutionalized in the structure of an organization. This is an insight which, perhaps, helps in taking us away from the common refrain in literature about perceived frustration of the researchers on the subject. The paper is organized into 3 parts. In part one, I look into the possible reasons for administrators to take initiatives. In part two, I present an overview of some of the change experiences covered by the authors in the special volume of Administrator, as well as some other experiences not covered. Finally, I summarize a few lessons for further exploration.

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Working Papers | 1992

Issues in Strategy for Export Promotion: An Inter-Industry Analysis

Dholakia Bakul H, Ravindra H. Dholakia, and Kumar N Ganesh

The present paper points towards the need for integration between the new Exit policy and the 8th plan in India by considering direct and indirect effects of a unit increase in coefficients in each of the 47 commodity producing sectors using the CSO's latest Input-Output Tables. Out main findings are : (a) If our objective is to achieve diversified high growth in the economy, the agri-based manufacturing sectors considering their linkages and DI effects; (b) Degree of export orientation of a sector varies inversely with the linkages of the sector with the rest of the economy; and (c) Import intensity of export oriented sectors is higher than that of other sectors. There is, thus, an urgent need to integrate the export promotion measures in our overall development strategy.

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Working Papers | 1992

Micro-Level Planning Methodology for Primary Health Care Services

Satia J K, Dileep Mavalankar, and Sharma Bharati

This paper describes a micro-level planning methodology for primary health care service which has been developed and tested in India. As compared to current top-down target-based planning, the methodology uses village level data on client needs to formulate micro-level plans aimed at improving service coverage. A quick sample survey to assess service need, coverage-gaps and reasons for non-utilization of services form the basis for identifying village level variations and developing village profiles. From such disaggregated analysis of data general interventions for overall service-coverage improvement and targeted interventions for selected villages are also identified. This system was tried out in 113 villages of three Primary Health Care centres of a district in Gujarat state of India. It demonstrated the feasibility and utility of this approach. However, it also revealed the barriers in the institutionalization of the system on a wider scale. The proposed micro-level planning methodology would improve client-responsiveness of the heath care service delivery system and provide a basis for increased decentralization and community involvement. By focusing attention on under-served areas, it would promoted equity in the use of health services. It also helps improve efficiency by focusing the efforts on small group of villages which contribute to most of the service coverage gaps.

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Working Papers | 1992

Nontimber Forest Products: Some Policy Issues and Concerns

Tewari Devi D

This paper reviews policy issues and concerns related to non-timber forest products.

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Working Papers | 1992

Emergence of a Social Change Organization: A Case Study of Sidh

Deepti Bhatnagar

With an increasingly significant role being played by the voluntary sector in the country in addressing age-old problems of poverty, illiteracy and exploitation, there is a greater need to understand the processes of emergence and growth of organizations in this sector. A considerable number of researchers have studied the functioning and contribution of various non-government organizations. However, most of the studies are about successful NGOs-organizations in the voluntary sector which have already arrived and have become well-known. The present study documents the process of emergence of a new NGO, SIDH (Society for Integrated Development of Himalayas) which has just completed three years of its existence. This report traces the genesis of SIDH, its objectives and activities at the nascent stage, its strengths, problems and difficulties, and some dilemmas and tough choices that confront the organization at the present stage of its growth.

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