| Title: | 17 : Infrastructure Strategies For Export Oriented Manufacturing And Service Zones In India |
| Author/s: | Professor N. Viswanadham |
| Abstract: | Manufacturing and service industries are now global and several transnational product and service companies have emerged over the last two decades. The advances in modular product design and flexible production process technologies, distributed organisational structures with multinational human resources, rapid advances in global transportation and information technology, combined with lowering of trade barriers by various countries have led to the proliferation of these company networks. Of these four issues, the last two are infrastructural and policy related issues and are in the domain of national governments. From the point of view of the company, wealth creation occurs when the products are competitive in the market and the economic policies and infrastructural issues are only a means towards this end. Thus policy-making should not be done in vacuum but with the due consideration to the product and the companies. |
| Date: | 16 October 2006 |
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| Title: | 16 : Food & Retail Chains: Case Study Of Andhra Pradesh And Punjab |
| Author/s: | Professor N. Viswanadham |
| Abstract: | Andhra Pradesh comprises of 23 districts and has three well-defined regions viz., Telangana, Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra. Geographically, it is the fourth largest state (276814 sq. km) in India. It is situated on the globe in the tropical region between 12014 and 19054 North latitudes and 76046 and 84050 East longitudes and is bordered by Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Orissa in the north, the Bay of Bengal in the East, Tamil Nadu to the south and Karnataka to the west2. The State has a coastline of 974 kilometres. It occupies 8.34 percent of the country’s geographical area and supports 7.37 percent of the country’s population (Census 2001). Andhra Pradesh is the fifth largest by population and has a population of 7.69 crore. Sixty-three percent of the total population is from rural areas. Andhra Pradesh's gross state domestic product for 2005 is estimated at $62 billion in current prices. Andhra Pradesh is a predominantly services economy: • 49 per cent of the total GDP comes from the services sector • Industry accounts for 27 per cent of GDP • Agriculture accounts for 24 per cent |
| Date: | 9 October 2006 |
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| Title: | 15 : Food And Retail Chains In India |
| Author/s: | Professor N. Viswanadham |
| Abstract: | The time has come for Indian retailing. The signals are there all over. The newspapers, business press, the governments, the Chief Executive Officers of large corporations, all talk about it day in day out. The Indian economy is likely to continue its steady growth with enhanced share in global trade and steady agricultural outputs. Booming employment opportunities, rising urban disposable income and credit card ownerships, changing lifestyles and demographic profiles all are showing a favorable skew towards a rising consumerism culture, boding well for retailing growth. Consumer spending is clearly set to accelerate its pace. Demographics continued to show a positive skew to spur retailing growth. Consumers groups aged between 20-45 years are emerging as the fastest growing consumer group and the mean age of Indians is now pegged at 27, a mean age that reinforces spending across all the retailing channels of grocery, non-grocery and non-store. India's burgeoning middle class will drive up nominal retail sales through 2010 by 10 percent per annum. At the same time, organised retail is becoming more important. At present organized retail accounts for a mere 3 percent of the total; by 2010 this share will already have reached 10 percent. Thus most of India's growth in retail is in the future, not the past. |
| Date: | 6 October 2006 |
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| Title: | 14 : Destination India For The Pharmaceutical Industry |
| Author/s: | Dr Alka Chadha |
| Abstract: | The drugs and pharmaceutical industry has an important place in the Indian economy due to its positive technological spillovers to other sectors of the economy. The industry grew at 7.2 percent and contributed 1.3 percent to the gross domestic product in 2004. It recorded US$4 billion in domestic sales (about 1.5 percent of the global pharmaceutical sales) and over US$3 billion in exports in 2003-04 (Government of India, Economic Survey, 2004-05). Thus, the pharmaceutical industry is a sun-rise industry with vast opportunities for both the domestic and foreign players. With the changes in the regulatory environment regarding patent laws, the spotlight is now on India for contract research, joint ventures and alliances. |
| Date: | 4 October 2006 |
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| Title: | 13 : East Asia Summit And India |
| Author/s: | S. D. Muni |
| Abstract: | There is little dispute about the rise of Asia as the most dynamic region in world politics. This region accounts for nearly 60% of the world's more than 6.1 billion population and nearly $30bn of GDP that outweighs that of Europe. Asia commands global attention both for its economic growth (and potential for growth) as also the security challenge. Economic growth of the region is led by China and India, but many other economies are also growing fast. In security terms, it is not only the main theatre for the pervasive and, what seems to be an unending, global war on terrorism, but also is the region of persisting and protracted political and ethnic conflicts and insurgencies. Asia also poses the challenge of global security for being the continent where most of the emerging and aspiring nuclear weapon states are located. And then, there is the most haunting spectre in Asia of poverty and inequality, democratic denial and distortions, failed and failing states, human rights abuses and spread of HIV/AIDS and Avian Flu. |
| Date: | 3 October 2006 |
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| Title: | 12 : Investing In The Indian Special Economic Zones A Background Paper |
| Author/s: | Rahul Mukherji and Aparna Shivpuri Singh |
| Abstract: | The Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) Background Paper describes the evolution and salient features of the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) Act (2005). It notes that substantial benefits accrue to these zones in the form of tax concessions, customs facilitation and policy stability. In return for these benefits, the Act stipulates that commercial units within an SEZ be net foreign exchange earners during a block of five years, beginning from the first year of commercial operations. This means that commercial units within an SEZ should earn US$1 over and above domestic sales during a five-year commercial period. The paper throws light on the definitional issues and regulatory concerns of the developers and commercial units operating within an SEZ. First, there are no clear benchmarks for successful implementation in the Act for developers. This grey area in the Act should redound to the advantage of a Singapore investor because the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MOCI) will look at these issues on a case-by-case basis. The benchmarks need to be stated in the developer's plan to be approved by the Board of Approval located within MOCI. Profits to be made on the real estate side could be allowed if MOCI is convinced that enough is being done to develop the processing area and for attracting export oriented units. The regulatory checks on successful project implementation of commercial units within an SEZ are unlikely to increase transactions costs if the units are net foreign exchange earners. - Dr Rahul Mukherji is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies, an autonomous research institute within the National University of Singapore, and an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Political Studies, JNU. He can be contacted at isasrm@nus.edu.sg. Ms Aparna Shivpuri Singh is a Research Associate at the same institute. She can be contacted at isasas@nus.edu.sg. 1 |
| Date: | 30 May 2006 |
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| Title: | 11 : Appraising The Legacy Of Bandung: A View From India |
| Author/s: | Rahul Mukherji |
| Abstract: | This paper was presented at a conference on the theme, "Bandung Revisited: A Critical Appraisal of a Conference's Legacy", organised by the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, Singapore. It will be published in an edited volume on the legacy of Bandung. I am grateful to Evelyn Goh, Amitav Acharya, Sumit Ganguly and Partha N Mukherji for suggestions. I thank Tan See Seng for his prodding and patience. Anjali Mukherji provided timely editorial advice. My students Siddhartha Mukerji and Anvita Bhuvan helped with various aspects of the research. The Institute of South Asian Studies, Singapore, chipped in with valuable resources that aided the completion of this paper. The errors that remain are the sole responsibility of the author. |
| Date: | 8 May 2006 |
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| Title: | 10 : Promoting Foreign Investment In India’s Telecommunications Sector |
| Author/s: | Rahul Mukherji |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the political economy of three significant policy decisions taken by the Congress – United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government between November 2005 and February 2006, which have improved the incentives for foreign investment in India’s telecommunications sector. This was a notable departure from the past when policies had clearly favoured domestic investment over foreign investment. The paper argues that these decisions occurred due to the increasing sensitivity of the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) to the needs of the relatively smaller Indian service providers, who were dependent on foreign capital. They were not driven by a crisis of investment or foreign pressure to change policies in India’s telecommunications sector. The political economy of this shift to foreign investment friendly regulations in the telecommunications sector suggests that economic reforms in India can occur in normal times. They depended to a large extent on the nature of the political economy that the ruling party was willing to support. |
| Date: | 4 May 2006 |
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| Title: | 09 : CECA Implementation: A First Look |
| Author/s: | Alka Chadha |
| Abstract: | The Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agr eement (CECA) was signed between India and Singapore on 29 June 2005 to promote trade and investments between the two countries. For the first time, India has signed an all-enco mpassing economic pact with any country so as to benefit from gains through trade and investment flows in areas of mutual interest. This is also the first time that India has notified a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) under Article XXIV of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). While, the Agreements relating to goods and services are in accordance with the provisions under the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Agreement on financial services goes beyond the WTO commitments for both India and Singapore. |
| Date: | 7 February 2006 |
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| Title: | 08 : Cost Efficiency Of Public And Private Hospitals: Evidence From Karnataka State In India |
| Author/s: | Maathai K. Mathiyazhgan |
| Abstract: | The main objective of this paper is to analyze the cost efficiency of the public and private hospitals in Karnataka State in India. This is estimated through the parametric and nonparametric methods by using the Hospitals Facility Survey (2004) in Karnataka State. The findings indicate that the choice of econometric approach did not make any significant difference in the results and they are robust. The analysis infers that (a) hospitals (both public and private together in the analysis) are cost inefficient in the State, which is due to technical and allocative system of resources of the hospitals; (b) the private hospitals appear relatively less inefficient than the public hospitals; and (c) the main determinants of the technical and allocative inefficiencies of the public hospitals are due to inappropriate interventions of inpatient days care, share of medical personnel, beds capacity, quality indices, and choice of the locations; while in the case of private hospitals, it relates only to beds capacity and quality indices. It means that the government hospitals will be out of voluntary health insurance schemes, (which are emerging with many options in the State), as a service provider as it lacks the cost efficiency in general and technical and allocative efficiency in particular. It calls for a standardization of public hospitals and improve the quality of healthcare services as an immediate attention in the State. Need based financing through "capitation fee" and an effective alternative payment mechanisms such as user fee with a protected social justice criteria for poor in the public hospitals are the worth considering options in the State. It is also suggested that the private hospitals need to maintain the quality of healthcare services under the emerging competitive environment; otherwise, it would be subject to financial vulnerability since it highly depends on the user fee payment of the patients in the State. |
| Date: | 27 January 2006 |
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| Title: | 07 : Regulatory Evolution in Indian Telecommunications |
| Author/s: | Rahul Mukherji |
| Abstract: | The transformation of a business environment from a government monopoly dominated by the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) to one with private players and corporatized government owned entities like the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) in India is an interesting research puzzle. History has the tendency to perpetuate certain trajectories. The puzzle in the Indian telecom story is, how was competition in telecom service provision instituted despite historical advantages for the government's monopoly since colonial times? |
| Date: | 25 January 2006 |
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