Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Muslims India Economic conditions'
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Faisal, Syed Mohammed. ""We are always in debt" : commerce and belonging amongst Muslims in South India." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2018. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/77295/.
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Mann, Elizabeth Ashley. "Muslims, work and status in Aligarh : a study of social and economic organisation among urban Muslims in west Uttar Pradesh, north India." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 1987. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.282590.
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Stein, Daniel. "Rainfall index insurance in India." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2011. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/167/.
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This thesis provides three works which each contribute to understanding of the promising yet struggling market for rainfall index insurance in India. The first chapter contains an analysis of the willingness-to-pay (WTP) for rainfall insurance by poor farmers in Gujarat, India. It develops a theoretical model to predict individual WTP and contrasts it with emprical estimates of WTP using the Becker-DeGroot-Marshalk (BDM) mechanism. We find that BDM works well as a predictor of WTP, but that our model significantly overestimates WTP. The second chapter seeks to provide a possible explanation for demand being lower than theoretical predictions by looking at the dynamics of insurance demand. Using a panel dataset of insurance purchasers in India, it shows that people who receive an insurance payout are 9-22% more likely to purchase insurance the following year. The results are consistent with a dynamic model of insurance demand featuring loss aversion, in which receiving an insurance payout shifts the reference point such that people become more risk averse the following season. I provide evidence against other possible explanations, such as increased trust and learning about insurance, and direct effects of bad weather. The final chapter explores the possibility that combining rainfall insurance with savings may result in a more attractive financial product than insurance on its own. We conduct a laboratory experiment with Indian farmers that uses the BDM mechanism to assess the valuation of various insurance/savings combinations, which we title WISAs (Weather Insured Savings Accounts). We find that, contrary to theoretical predictions, most people prefer both pure savings and pure insurance to any combination of the two. This paper hopefully provides valuable contibutions to solving the puzzle of how to shield poor farmers from uncertain rainfall.
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Lalonde, Gloria Marjorie Lucy. "National development and the changing status of women in India : a state by state analysis." Thesis, McGill University, 1985. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=66067.
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Raman, Manoj. "Development and international business : an application to India." Thesis, City University London, 1999. http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/7746/.
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The issue of development in emerging markets has moved on from the polarized debates along ideological lines about the state vs. markets, to focusing mainly on economic indicators. Increasingly, as knowledge becomes the main focus of development, it is acknowledged that the state can play a positive role in promoting its growth. To try and analyse these developments, it is imperative that we appreciate the role of differing business systems that impose constraints on development, especially in influencing capital allocation in the system. The emergence of cybercities in impoverished developing countries like India need to be analysed to appreciate the factors that will influence the trends in development - the success of such cities can be attributed to the positive role played by the state and the clustering of software industries around centres of knowledge. We develop frameworks to analyse to compare the existing forms of corporate governance, and a third system for emerging economies such as Asia or Europe. We also develop frameworks to analyse market exchange and alternative frameworks from modern and pre-modern societies, in order to understand the nature of exchange in intangible and inalienable assets such as knowledge. We apply these frameworks to Indian software industry to give us an insight into how India has managed to emerge as a significant player in the software industry. We conclude that the political embeddedness of the various institutions and organisations are playing a critical role in shaping its business systems which is at the crossroads between a pluralist shareholder and corporatist stakeholder system. Also, these factors are forcing the Indian software industry to focus on the lower end of the value chain.
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Figueirêdo, Lízia de. "The new economic geography and regional growth in Brazil and India." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2002. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28684/.
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This dissertation tries to contribute to empirically assess hypotheses of the "New Economic Geography". Specifically, we tested the relevance of the combination of lower transportation cost with the role of economies of scale in explaining the regional distribution of total activity and of industrial activity. Economies of scale are assumed to be due to "backward and forward" linkages among firms. We also took into account congestion effects and asymmetry among regions. The model was tested for the regions of Brazil, in the period 1950-1995 and 1970-1995, and for the regions of India, in the period 1961-1991. Using panel results, we observed that transportation costs were generating concentration of total activity in the periods 1950-1995 arid 1950- 1970. For these samples, there is evidence that economies of scales were a cause of concentration of total activity. Other forces, not explained by the model, were generating dispersion and so were congestion effects. For the period 1970-1995, we found that congestion effects and lower transportation cost were helping to disperse economic activity, in the panel results. Economies of scale were not, contrary to the model's predictions, helping economic growth. In the case of Brazil, for the 18-state samples, industrial activity tended to concentrated due to the effects of lower transportation cost, although higher industrial growth rates were a characteristic of the states with less economies of scales. In the case of India, strong concentration effects were taking place, both due to lower transportation cost and due to other reasons. Economies of scale were not important in the explanation of the path of India activity.
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Mirza, Rinchan Ali. "Essays in the economic history of South Asia, 1891 to 2009." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:31ac00fe-f728-4e22-bcf1-62447a4e367c.
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This thesis presents research that subscribes to the broader theme of the Economic History of South Asia from 1891 to 2009. First, Chapter 2 shows that the Partition induced expulsion of religious minorities reduced school provision in Pakistan. The effect of minorities is explained by their education, occupational structure and their contribution towards local social capital. Then, Chapter 3 examines how areas affected by the Partition fare in terms of long-run agricultural development in India. It finds that areas that received more displaced migrants after Partition perform better in terms of crop yields, are more likely to take up of high yielding varieties (HYV) of seeds, and are more likely to use agricultural technologies. It highlights the superior educational status of the migrants as a potential pathway for the observed effects. Next, Chapter 4 shows that the agricultural productivity shock induced by the adoption of HYV of seeds reduced infant mortality across districts in India. It uses data on the characteristics of children and mothers in the sample to show that it was children born to mothers whose characteristics generally correlate with higher child mortality, children born in rural areas, boys, children born in rice and wheat producing districts and children born in poorer households who benefit more from HYV adoption. Furthermore, Chapter 5 shows that baseline differences in irrigation prior to the adoption of HYV are associated with differences in the growth of yields after adoption. It explores the relationship between irrigation and yields over time to uncover potential mechanisms for the observed relationship. Finally, Chapter 6 empirically investigates the relationship between religious shrines and literacy in the Punjab province of Pakistan.
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Singh, Swati. "Microcredit, Women, and Empowerment: Evidence From India." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2014. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc699847/.
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Microfinance programs, by providing financial services to economically disadvantaged individuals, generally women, are intended to help poor self-employ and become financially independent. Earlier research in India has documented both positive and negative consequences of microfinance programs on women, from financial independence to domestic abuse. However, most of the research has been geographically limited to the southern states of the country, with a matured microfinance industry, and has given little attention to how variations in cultural practices across different regions of the country may influence the impact of microfinance programs on its members. To fill the gap in the existing literature, three related studies of Indian women were conducted. The first study was a qualitative study of 35 women engaged in microfinance programs in the northern region of India. The study found that women engaged in microfinance programs reported having increased social networks, higher confidence and increased social awareness. The second and third studies used nationally representative data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) 2005-2006. Controlling for a variety of other individual-level and community-level characteristics, the second study examined if getting a microloan affected women’s access to public spaces, and the third examined if getting such a loan influenced married women’s participation in household decision-making. Both studies further investigated if the microloan effect on these dimensions of women’s empowerment varied by the normative context of woman’s respective communities. The results indicated that, all else equal, women who had ever taken a microloan were more likely to go alone to places outside their home such as market, health clinics and places outside the community compared to women who had never taken such a loan. Getting a microloan also had a positive effect on women’s participation in decisions about large household purchases and husband’s earnings. The hypothesized moderating effect of the normative context of women’s respective communities was found only for women’s participation in decisions about large household purchases. Getting a microloan had a stronger positive effect on women’s participation in these decisions if they lived in communities with restrictive gender norms.
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Joseph, John Santiago. "The relevance of involvement in micro-credit self-help groups and empowerment : findings from a survey of rural women in Tamilnadu." Thesis, McGill University, 2005. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=100632.
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The purpose of this dissertation is to establish the extent to which women's membership in self-help groups and their involvement in various activities of these groups, with particular reference to Micro Credit programs, impacted their socio-economic empowerment. The objective is to study the socio-economic empowerment impact factors (evidences) in women members of micro-credit self-help groups in rural India upon the self, the family and the community.Data selected for analyses was based on an operational model of empowerment that encompassed indicators of purported empowerment at the personal, family and community levels. The working hypotheses in quantitative analyses are that there are significant differences in income, savings, assets, expenditure, basic amenities, as well as attitudinal and behavioral changes in the rural women before and after their group membership.
The qualitative interviews helped to assess the life conditions of the women as the process of empowerment before and after their participation in self-help group micro-credit program. The qualitative interviews were to corroborate the veracity of reported progress from the survey to shed some light on the specific factors that contributed to their empowerment in line with their present quality of life at personal, family and community levels. Hence, the impact of the program is measured as the difference in the magnitude of a given parameter between the pre-and post-SHG situations by comparing the life condition of members before joining the self-help group to their condition three years after joining.
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Mallick, Sushanta K. "Modelling macroeconomic adjustment with growth in developing economies : the case of India." Thesis, University of Warwick, 1998. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/4262/.
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The aim of this research is to understand the current economic scene and the stabilisation policies in historical perspective, and to survey and develop models for analysing issues of macroeconomic adjustment with growth. The topics have been chosen for their continued relevance in the current policy debates. The standard open economy model on which the Bretton Woods macroeconomics is based takes into account neither the endogeneity and decomposition of aggregate government expenditure or investment nor the price formation process in a developing economy. Further, with the opening up of the Indian economy since 1991, macroeconomic policy analysis needs to be examined in a different analytical framework from the essentially closed economy framework that has hitherto characterised policy discussions in India.T he present study investigates the appropriateness of the Fund-Bank approach to macroeconomic adjustment; modifies and analyses the respective effects of the model in light of the structural constraints in the form of low capital formation in the Indian economy after having disaggregated government expenditure into government consumption and investment expenditures. This thesis models trade, inflation and the determinants of long-run growth considering the role of endogenous growth and the demand factors in growth. The modelling procedure follows the VAR-based time series literature as against the traditional Cowles Commission approach to structural macroeconometric modelling. It estimates a macroeconomic model that incorporates the paradigm underlying the IMF's policy recommendations to developing countries, using Indian time series data from 1950-51 to 1995-96. It discusses structural sensitivities, dynamics and deterministic optimal control. This study investigates the effectiveness of three sets of key macroeconomic policy instruments which are typical in financial liberalisation process - namely, a tight credit policy, a depreciation of domestic currency and, a hike in regulated interest rates. Finally this study solves a multi-target and multi-instrument optimal control problem and finds that the two-target two-instrument problem of a standard policy package is not growth inducive and must target output growth in order to make the adjustment program as growth-oriented. This research has focused on explicitly recognising and analysing the operation of a credit or lending channel in the transmission of monetary policy.
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Indira, Nagaraju Rajeev. "India's Economic Growth: Role of Political Performance and Gender Wage Gap." PDXScholar, 2018. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/4370.
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This dissertation will explore how gender wage gap and political capacity represented by relative political extraction affect change in economic growth rate of a country. The main argument of the study is that gender wage gap is affecting the labor market by discouraging productive female labor force from entering the labor market. This in turn affects the efficiency and productivity of the labor market reflected in negative economic growth or economic growth potential being compromised. Here the case of Indian economy is examined. The important policy implication of this study is that it could account for the wage differential between genders and it could show how economies are missing out on the labor productivity and in turn negatively affecting the rate of economic growth.
Various sociological literatures have dealt in depth with the gender wage gap and its effect on the socio-cultural fabric of a society. While the current study recognizes existence of extensive sociological theories on gender wage gap, the focus is on the economic impact of gender wage gap on the growth rate change of a country. The argument is that gender wage gap negatively affects the economic growth rate change.
Economic growth literature have proved beyond doubt that economic and political factor together contribute to the economic growth of a country. Political variables such as political capacity reflects the efficiency of the government in resource extraction, its reach and allocation of those resources extracted. Such an efficient government provides the necessary environment for the economic growth. However, this political variable alone is not enough to increase economic growth of an economy. Rather governments must also possess the economic tools necessary, such as capital stock, human labor and labor force.
These economic and political variables together can contribute towards an increased economic growth. How these political and economic factors combine to achieve economic growth of a country? Hence this study looks at both the economic and political variables in a model to see how they affect economic growth.
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Watkins, Kevin. "India : colonialism, nationalism and perceptions of development." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1986. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.670394.
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Evans, Eliza Robinson. "Women, microcredit and capability in rural India." Access restricted to users with UT Austin EID Free text (PDF) of UMI/Dissertation Abstracts International, 2001. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/utexas/fullcit?p3031050.
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Vallabhjee, Bhavtik Choonilal. "China & India : a comparative analysis of two of Asia's powerhouses." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/49881.
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Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2004.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: According to the Economist, India and China (amongst others countries) are expected to be the leading economies of the 21st century (The Economist, October 2003: 78). Significant FDI has been invested into both these countries - China to a much larger extent than India (2003 - China: US$58 bn; India: US$3.8 bn - Refer to Table 2.2, Table 3.2, and the graph in Appendix 6.4). To the best of the writer's knowledge, there has not been any study comparing the economic and operating environments of these two nations, and the attractiveness of investment in them. The purpose of the project is to conduct a comprehensive study to examine whether equal investment in India would be worthwhile, by comparing the economic and operating environments of India and China. The research methodology included both primary research and secondary data analysis. The primary data were gathered through personal and telephonic interviews, while the secondary data were obtained from books, journals, the financial press, articles, the Internet, and case studies. The interviews comprised a blend of open and closed questions to extract the most accurate responses from interviewees. Six South African companies were interviewed - four operate in India and three operate in China. (One of these companies - SAB Miller operated in both these countries). The companies operating in India were Shoprite Checkers, SAB Miller, Nando's International, and Old Mutual. The countries operating in China were Kumba Resources, SAB Miller, and Barloworld. The research identified several similarities as well as some differences between these Asian nations. In conclusion, the research revealed that China and India are at present seen as the favourite investment destinations by many multinational businesses wishing to expand abroad. Yet both these countries, despite their similarities and the lure of great potential, are very difficult markets to operate in, and require careful planning, analysis and thought before expansion into these countries.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Volgens The Economist sal Indië en China (onder ander lande) na verwagting die toonaangewende ekonomiee van die 21ste eeu wees (The Economist, Oktober 2003: 78). Beduidende bedrae in buitelandse direkte investering is in beide hierdie lande belê - tot 'n baie groter omvang in China as in Indië (2003 - China: VS$S8 miljard; lndië : VS$3,8 miljard). (Verwys na tabeI2.2, Tabc1 3.2 en die grafiek in AanhangseI 6.4.) Na die beste wete van die skrywer bestaan daar geen vergelykende studie van die ekonomiese- en bedryfsomgewings van hierdie twee volke, en die aantreklikheid van belegging by hulle nie. Die doel van die projek is om 'n omvattende studie te onderneem om vas te stel of gelyke investering in Indië lonend sal wees deur die ekonomiese en bedryfsomgewings van lndië met die van China te vergelyk. Die navorsingsmetodologie het beide primere navorsing en sekondere dataontleding ingesluit. Die primere data is deur persoonlike en telefoononderhoude versamel, terwyl die sekondere data uit boeke, joernale, die finansiele media, artikels, die Internet en gevallestudies verkry is. Die onderhoude het bestaan uit 'n mengsel van oop en geslote vrae om die akkuraatste reaksies van onderhoudelinge te verkry. Daar is onderhoude met ses Suid-Afrikaanse maatskappye gevoer - vier doen sake in Indie en drie doen sake in China. (Een van hierdie maatskappye - SAB Miller - doen sake in albei hierdie lande.) Die maatskappye wat sake doen in Indie is Shoprite Checkers, SAB Miller, Nando's Internasionaal en Ou Mutual. Die maatskappye wat in China sake doen, is Khumba Resources, SAB Miller en BarloworId. Die navorsing het verskeie ooreenkomste asook sommige verskille tussen hierdie Asiatiese nasies geidentifiseer. Ten sIotte, die navorsing het onthul dat vele multinasionale ondernemings wat graag in die buiteland wil uitbrei, China en Indie as die jongste beleggingsbestemmings oorweeg. Tog is albei hierdie lande, ondanks hulle ooreenkomste en die lokmiddel van groot potensiaal, baie moeilike lande om in sake te doen. Dit vereis versigtige beplanning, ontleding en denke voor daar na hierdie lande uitgebrei word.
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Winters, Jacqueline. "Women in Indian development : the dawn of a new consciousness?" Thesis, McGill University, 1987. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=66247.
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Goodburn, Charlotte Elizabeth Louisa. "Poverty among rural migrant children in India and China : a comparative study of two cities." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.609874.
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Roy, Indrajit. "Capable subjects : power and politics in Eastern India." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2012. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:0e1bb214-020e-4f9e-864f-9037c104660d.
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The principal aim of this thesis is to elaborate a politicized reading of Amartya Sen's Capability Approach. It explores how capabilities are augmented through the forging of contentious political subjectivities. In it, I build on the criticism that Sen's framework can be more sensitive to questions of power and politics. Against some of his critics, however, I argue that its 'politicization' must focus analytical attention on politics as the struggle to produce subjects rather than limiting its understanding to negotiations over authority, resources and allocations. I draw on quantitative and qualitative analysis of ethnographic data from rural eastern India to substantiate my argument. The first two chapters outline the contours of the debates and introduce the social, economic and political life of the study localities. Each of the four subsequent chapters elucidates the manner in which the contentious processes through which political subjectivity are forged augments capabilities. In Chapter 3 I advance the case that any discussion on capabilities needs to analyze how subjects interrogate the relations of domination and subordination which they have hitherto been compelled to inhabit. Based on an analysis of the contentions spawned by the Indian Government's National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, I point to how the notion of cooperative conflict is helpful in understanding these processes. In Chapter 4, I draw attention to the analytic importance that needs to be accorded to 'voice' in order to understand how subjects contest and reconstitute these relationships: I base my analysis on the claims made on elected representatives by different groups of people in respect to 'poverty cards'. This emphasis leads in Chapter 5 to an investigation of the ways in which agonistic exchanges in public spaces augments capabilities: this I do through an examination of two specific disputes involving a variety of local actors. I develop these insights further in Chapter 6 to show how our understanding of the processes through which capabilities may be enhanced gains analytically from an analysis of the manner in which subjects construct their identities. Chapter 7 concludes.
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Furlund, Eivind B. "Singapore, from third to first world country : The effect of development in Little India and Chinatown." Thesis, Trondheim : Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Department of Geography, 2008. http://ntnu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:124648/FULLTEXT01.
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Masset, Edoardo. "Food demand, uncertainty and investments in human capital : three essays on rural Andhra Pradesh, India." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2010. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/2420/.
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This dissertation provides some explanations of the causes of poverty in rural India, by investigating poverty determinants that are too often neglected in the literature and in policy debates. It proceeds in three main chapters, each addressing a specific research question. The first chapter focuses on the process of agricultural transformation in the state of Andhra Pradesh. In the early stages of economic development, all countries undergo a process of transformation of their production and employment structure. As a result, agricultural output as a share of total GDP decreases, as does rural employment as a share of total employment. Over the last 50 years, the share of agriculture in total output has considerably declined in Andhra Pradesh. However, the agricultural sector continues to employ the great majority of the labour force. The theoretical section of this chapter shows how structural change is affected by the characteristics of food demand and by income inequality. The empirical analysis, using novel semiparametric methods, estimates food Engel curves and food elasticities, which are used to simulate the effects on changes in income distribution on the composition of demand. The second chapter analyses the stabilising effect of irrigation on household expenditure. The expansion of irrigation infrastructure, together with the introduction of hybrid seeds and chemical fertilisers, was the most important technological advancement in Indian agriculture of the last 50 years. The positive impact of irrigation on income of rural households has been extensively documented, but its stabilising effect has been largely neglected. The first part of the chapter builds a theoretical model that establishes the causal links between access to irrigation, income stability, and consumption smoothing over the seasonal cycle. The empirical analysis assesses the stabilising impact of irrigation on expenditure using modern impact evaluation techniques. The findings indicate that consumption patterns of households with access to irrigation are more stable over the seasonal cycle and over the years. The third chapter studies the effect of income uncertainty on educational choices made by the rural poor. It investigates the demand side of education in order to understand why a large number of rural children do not enrol or complete primary education. The theoretical part of the chapter presents an inter-temporal consumption model that shows how the expectation of income variability negatively affects household expenditure on education. The empirical analysis uses a duration model with time covariates in order to estimate the determinants of child progress in school, and provides evidence that income variability negatively affects investments in education.
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Amaral, Sofia. "Essays on crime and gender in India." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2015. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/5901/.
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This thesis investigates the relation between legal institutions, strengthening of legal rights and criminal behaviour in India with a focus on the gender gap in access and welfare. In Chapter 1 I provide an overview of the determinants of violence against women in India using micro-level data. In Chapter 2 I investigate how strengthening women’s legal rights affects women’s position within the household. I find that following the amendments to the major inheritance law in India reported and self-reported violence against women fell. This result is explained by an improvement in husbands’ behaviour and in marriage market negotiations. Finally, in Chapter 3 of this thesis, I analyse the implications of missing women on overall crime and on violence against women by investigating the relationship between uneven sex ratio and illegal behaviour. Using district-level information of age-specific sex ratios, I estimate the effect of a surplus of males at crime and marriage prone-ages on violence against women, general violence, acquisitive crime and aggregate gender-specific juvenile delinquency. I find a negative relation between sex ratio of the crime-prone age cohorts and violence against women.
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Balls, Jonathan. "Fluid capitalism at the bottom of the pyramid : a study of the off-grid solar power market in Uttar Pradesh, India." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:d4457f09-bf69-4ec6-802e-dcdfa7495455.
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This thesis examines 'Bottom of the Pyramid' (BoP) capitalism through an empirical study of the off-grid solar power market in the North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Over the last three decades, the extension and neoliberalisation of capitalism across the Global South has gathered pace. In many countries, including India, there has been a proliferation of businesses serving low-income populations following economic liberalisation, and a resulting growth in what is increasingly been theorised as 'BoP capitalism'; primarily in a literature produced by economics, business, and development scholars. In this literature, the development of capitalism at the bottom of the pyramid through the Global South is predominantly being theorised as a free market story, of formal, regularised businesses succeeding by selling good quality, branded but value- conscious, innovative, and frugal goods and services. Furthermore, the argument is being made that this is 'social capitalism', that formal businesses entering BoP markets can deliver developmental and environmental benefits to low-income populations. New markets for off-grid solar power products that are growing in multiple countries in the Global South provide one significant example of BoP capitalism. Within India, an off-grid solar power market has been developing since the 1990s within a newly liberalised market context. A body of research reports that private businesses are selling good quality and value-conscious solar goods and services to India's poor. This market has been framed as highlighting the potential of BoP capitalism to bring energy and light to India's poor, while also delivering developmental benefits. The contribution of this thesis is to challenge the existing body of literature on BoP capitalism, which tells a story of BoP capitalism through the Global South being developed by formal businesses, according to market dynamics, and sees no place for informal businesses as formal ones develop. Based on ten months of qualitative fieldwork in 2013-2014 in the state of Uttar Pradesh, looking comparatively at formal, regularised and commercialised solar shops and dealerships and at informal, small-scale solar shops, this thesis explores BoP capitalism in the Indian context. This thesis has several main findings. Firstly, it shows how a new group of formal solar shops and dealerships selling good quality, branded, and standardised products, and providing an installation service, after-sales servicing, and formal bank financing are developing the BoP solar market in Uttar Pradesh in a fashion familiar to the wider literature on BoP capitalism. Secondly, it shows how the success of these solar shops and dealerships was not a free market story, but how they are being shaped and supported through state and non-state resources and patronage, and that their growth was often dependent upon informal relationships with rural development banks, which opened-up bank financing options for solar customers and access to government subsidies. Thirdly, it looks at how informal solar shops were successfully selling off- grid solar products, adopting distinctly different business practices to formal solar businesses, and developing the market in a distinctly different way. I trace how informal businesses were not just successful because they were selling cheap and substandard goods, but were also thriving because they were the site of improvised and what I term 'jugaad' products and business practices. Jugaad is a Hindi term, referring to improvised and ingenious innovation and action. This thesis highlights a context of fluid capitalism at the BoP in India, where formal and informal solar businesses are developing the BoP solar market in distinctly different ways, and where state and non- state actors are shaping the market.
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Sehdev, Megha. "Moody migrants : the relationship between anxiety, disillusionment, and gendered affect in semi-urban Uttarakhand, India." Thesis, McGill University, 2008. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=116050.
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Recent work in anthropology has translated systemic disjuncture to individual subjectivity, under the premise that "disordered" political economies cause "disordered" identities. However this work underplays the role of affect in "gathering" subjectivity amidst external transformation. The following thesis proposes a concept of "mood" as a set of conjoined, low-level affects that provides continuity in contexts of neoliberalism and change. It investigates women's "moods" in an urbanizing region of Uttarakhand, India. Drawing from ethnographic interviews in a village, and a migrant community, mood is shown to involve components of capitalist anxiety that articulate with attitudes of docility and duty. Experiences typically described as "postmodern" including "incompleteness", "estrangement" and "alienation", are common to, and produce "classical" gendered affects in both rural and urban settings. Although anxiety can be destabilizing, it joins paradoxically with these affects to lubricate women's sense of "belonging" in a place.
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Fouillet, Cyril F. S. "La construction spatiale de la microfinance en Inde." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/210254.
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Cette thèse est composée de deux partie. La partie 1 (chapitre 1, 2 et 3) s’intéresse à la dimension spatiale du phénomène microfinancier. Le chapitre 1 revient sur l’histoire récente du système bancaire indien et plus particulièrement sur sa capacité en termes d’inclusion financière dont nous analysons la distribution spatiale. Dans le chapitre 2, après avoir dressé une histoire du champ microfinancier indien, nous procédons à une analyse de la distribution et de l’évolution de la méthodologie microfinancière dominante en Inde, à savoir, les Self-Help Group. Le chapitre 3 présente une analyse spatiale de l’offre de service d’une institution de microfinance particulière. A cette fin, nous utilisons une base de données unique permettant de suivre l’évolution spatiale d’une institution particulière depuis le début de ses activités. La partie 2 (chapitre 4 et 5) s’intéresse aux limites du financement du secteur agricole par la microfinance et aux aspects politiques de cette dernière. Le chapitre 4 procède à une analyse des déterminants du financement agricole en Inde. En revenant sur la crise microfinancière 2006 en Andhra Pradesh, le chapitre 5 complète nos analyses économétriques par une analyse des acteurs, de leurs motivations et de leurs contraintes afin de mettre à jour la dimension politique de la construction microfinancière.
La conclusion explicite la notion de construction donnée en intitulé. L’élaboration des services microfinanciers, leurs diffusions sur le territoire indien ainsi que leurs utilisations, détournements et réappropriations produisent la construction spatiale de la microfinance.
Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished
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Cobley, David Stephen. "Towards economic empowerment for disabled people : exploring the boundaries of the social model of disability in Kenya and India." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2012. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/4050/.
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The social model of disability, which provides the ideological basis for the recent UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, emphasizes the need for society to change, in order to remove all forms of disability discrimination and allow for full participation. However, literature debates have raised questions over the relevance of this ideology to the majority world context. This thesis aims to explore this dilemma, by examining the influence of the social model on a range of current approaches to promoting economic empowerment within Kenya and India - two countries that have signed and ratified the Convention. The methodology is based on a comparative analysis of 26 case studies, conducted between June 2010 and February 2011, which were focused mainly on three particular routes to economic empowerment: vocational training, formal sector employment and self-directed employment. The study concludes that, while inclusive strategies that were firmly based on social model principles tended to be among the most successful, a total reliance on this ideology would run the risk of excluding a large section of the disability population altogether. In particular, some of the segregated services were found to be continuing to play an important role in disability service provision.
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Dhattiwala, Raheel. "Hindu-Muslim violence in Gujarat, 2002 : political logic, spatial configuration, and communal cooperation." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.669731.
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This thesis uses a mixed methods approach to investigate the different levels of Hindu-Muslim violence in Gujarat (western India) in 2002 when at least a thousand Muslims were killed. An original dataset of killings is compiled to analyse macrospatial variation in the violence across towns and rural areas of Gujarat. Data collected from 21 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Ahmedabad city is used to investigate microspatial variation across three neighbourhoods with varying levels of violence.Macrospatial analysis discusses the link between political authority and its capacity to instigate ethnic violence as a response to electoral calculations and identifies the mechanisms by which violence against Muslims was orchestrated by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Ethnographic findings demonstrate the importance of ecological strategies adopted by attackers and targets during the course of attack and urge a re-examination of the intuitive association of spatial proximity with greater interethnic contact. Findings also reveal methods of enforcement used by legitimate and illegitimate institutions of a peaceful slum neighbourhood in resolving commitment problems of cooperation. Finally, the thesis examines the aftermath of the violence, more specifically a political phenomenon of Muslims of Gujarat supporting the BJP nine years after the brutal violence.Methodologically, the main contribution of this thesis is in bridging the quantitative and ethnographic traditions in the sociology of ethnic violence to make possible the linking, and disentangling, of macrolevel risk factors associated with violence from microlevel factors. Findings of the thesis hopefully provide a better understanding of ethnic violence in multi-ethnic democracies and a roadmap of policy-making for India as it continues to struggle with ethnic strife.
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Prashar, Neha. "Essays on affirmative action policies in employment in India." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2018. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/8256/.
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This thesis analyses the effect of affirmative action policies on targeted groups in India. A robust analysis of the impact of public sector employment quotas for lower caste groups and women is estimated. Chapter 1 focuses on the effect association with these quotas has on lower caste groups and results show not all targeted groups benefit from the policy. Chapter 2 analyses the effect of women’s reservation policy in public employment and results show that there is some movement by women into the labour force. The biggest effect is the movement from private to public sector, putting into question the effectiveness of the policy in increasing female labour force participation rates. The final chapter then extends Chapter 2 to look at the effect of having a female friendly state, by using reservation policy as proxy for this, and women’s working status on incidences of domestic violence. Results show that women’s working status reduces incidences of domestic violence and more female friendly states have a lower likelihood associated with violence. Further to this, it is found that domestic violence increases when women earn more than men. Overall, results are mixed and possible policy recommendations are also outlined in each chapter.
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Kumagai, Yukihisa. "The lobbying activities of provincial mercantile and manufacturing interests against the renewal of the East India Company’s charter, 1812-1813 and 1829-1833." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2008. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/367/.
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The aim of this thesis is to reassess Cain and Hopkins’ gentlemanly capitalist explanation of British imperialism in Asia during the first half of the nineteenth century through examining the lobbying activities of provincial mercantile and manufacturing interests against the renewal of the East India Company’s charter during the periods 1812-1813 and 1829-1833. This thesis particularly has focused on Glasgow’s lobbying activities although Liverpool and Manchester’s cases have also been examined. In Cain and Hopkins’ model, the position of provincial manufacturing interests was outside from the gentlemanly capitalists’ circle consisting of non-industrial capitalists based in London and South-east England, such as the landed aristocracy, the merchants and bankers of the City and professions. Economically, there was a split between these gentlemanly capitalists and the provincial manufacturing interests, and politically, the provincial interests could exercise minor influence on the national politics. This thesis has contributed to three issues related to Cain and Hopkins’ gentlemanly capitalist thesis. The firs issue is the degree of influence of provincial commercial and manufacturing interests on the formation of Britain’s imperial policy. The second issue is the relationship between the gentlemanly capitalists in London and the provincial mercantile and manufacturing interests. The third issue is the Scots contribution to the formation of the British Empire, to which they failed to give their attention. Regarding the first issue, this thesis has demonstrated that the provincial mercantile and manufacturing interests organised effective lobbying activities for the opening of the East India and China trades and succeeded in exerting undeniable influence over the state’s decisions in both the first and second campaigns through well-organised lobbying strategies, powerful lobbing means, and their access to the centre of the national politics through their influential parliamentary supporters. In this thesis, the provincial lobbyists’ economic interests and political backgrounds have closely been examined. Although the provincial lobbyists’ economic and political interests were varied and they split up over some economic and political issues, these did not affect their unity in their challenge against the London merchants’ dominance in the East India trade. This contrasts with Cain and Hopkins’ argument on the gentlemanly capitalists’ superior influence on the national politics. In terms of the second issue, this thesis has shown that there is no evidence for the collaboration between the provincial interests and the London merchants during the 1812-1813 campaign. Nevertheless, as the connection between the provincial manufacturing interests and the London agency houses grew after the opening of the India trade, in the 1829-1833 campaign, the provincial lobbyists and some of the London mercantile interests showed their collaboration. Therefore, this thesis supports the application of Webster’s more complex model than Cain and Hopkins’ original model to British imperialism in Asia during this period. Finally, in respect of the Scots contribution to the formation of British Empire, during these two national campaigns for the opening of the East India trade, the Glasgow lobbyists were very active and the GEIA played a significant role in their lobbying activities.
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Chilibeck, Gillian. "Moving mountains through women's movements : the"feminization" of development discourse and practice in the Indian Himalayas." Thesis, McGill University, 2005. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=82696.
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This thesis examines the varied and contradictory ideas about rural women and their needs that are produced and circulate within development discourses and projects. It pays particular attention to the multiple actors involved in the production of such ideas and the relations of power that determine which ideas gain authority. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in the Kullu District of Himachal Pradesh, India, it looks at women's participation in three different development projects: a women's savings and credit group, a broad-based development NGO, and the women's village organizations (mahila mandals ). These case studies demonstrate how development organizations engage with local gender meanings, often working to reinforce or even exploit inequalities, rather than challenge them. As women are targeted by such projects, they creatively receive, shape, and negotiate the ideas and representations that they encounter about themselves. These encounters limit, and sometimes foster, women's potential for new political identities and agency.
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Kapoor, Mohit. "Story of two villages : physical, social and economic analysis of the landscape of Darkot and Sharmoli (Uttarakhand, Himalayan India)." Thesis, Paris 10, 2018. http://www.theses.fr/2018PA100031/document.
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La thèse constitue une analyse physique, sociale et économique du paysage de deux villages himalayens de l’Inde (Uttarakhand) : Darkot et Sharmoli, par rapport au bourg voisin de Munsiyari qui jouit de fonctions administratives, commerciales et touristiques. Sharmoli est plus proche de Munsiyari, tandis que Darkot est distant de 7 km, et à une altitude plus basse. 173 ménages furent enquêtés. Les villages sont peuplés de Bhotias (classés Scheduled Tribes mais hindous de haute caste), Thakurs (haute caste) et ex-intouchables (Scheduled Castes). Les Bhotias pratiquaient le commerce avec le Tibet, et les autres castes étaient en position de dominés, mais à partir de 1962, avec l’arrêt du commerce et le transfert des terres des Bhotias aux Thakurs leurs anciens métayers, nombre de changements sont apparus dans la vie physique, sociale et économique des deux villages. Darkot est un village très ancien où les structures de caste, de religion et les hiérarchies demeurent très visibles dans les espaces publics comme privés, tandis que Sharmoli, construit il y a 4 ou 5 décennies, est moins marqué. Les habitants des deux villages adoptent de nouveaux types de maisons, avec de nouveaux matériaux de construction et un changement d’utilisation des pièces. Mais l’utilisation du sol à Sharmoli est marquée par le tourisme, au contraire de Darkot. L’agriculture dépasse le seuil de subsistance dans les deux cas. La majorité des hommes des deux villages est engagée dans les services (commerce) mais très peu comme fonctionnaires. L’âge moyen des actifs dans les villages dépasse 40 ans, ce qui signale l’émigration des jeunes vers les villes et la présence d’un grand nombre de retraités, notamment à Darkot. Le revenu par tête dépasse le seuil de pauvreté (3 $ par jour), mais pourrait être supérieur si les qualifications étaient supérieures et les opportunités dans les villages plus abondantes. Les femmes, notamment Bhotia, travaillent souvent dans l’artisanat, et les chambres d’hôte sont devenues une bonne source de revenu pour des ménages de Sharmoli. Globalement, le système clientéliste entre les Bhotias et les deux autres castes a disparu. Mais le paysage social de Darkot témoigne de plus d’orthodoxie dans l’espace public, puisque la religion, le temple, la caste jouent un rôle important en comparaison avec Sharmoli où dominent des fêtes modernes et profanes. La situation des femmes n’est pas très bonne dans aucun des villages, et des factions existent, notamment entre Bhotias et Thakurs. Au final, Darkot comme Sharmoli montrent les caractéristiques de la tradition et de la modernité, à travers l’analyse socio-économique des espaces privés et publicsThe thesis revolves around the physical, social and economic analysis of the landscape of two Himalayan villages in Uttarakhand, India: of Darkot and Sharmoli with respect to the core Munsiyari which exhibits administrative, market and tourism functions. Sharmoli is located near the core while Darkot is situated at a distance of 7 kms. and at a lower height than Sharmoli. The villages are inhabited by Bhotias (scheduled tribe as well as high-caste Hindus), Thakurs (high-caste Hindus) and lower-caste (scheduled castes) people. Around 173 families belonging to different castes are surveyed in the two villages. Bhotias used to practice trade with Tibet and the other two castes were their subordinates, but after 1962 with the stoppage of trade and transfer of Bhotias’ land to the tiller Thakurs, a lot of changes have come about in the physical, social and economic life of both the villages. The analysis of the landscape of Darkot and Sharmoli shows that Darkot is a very old village with the presence of elements of caste, religion, hierarchy etc. in its settlement pattern of private and public spaces, while Sharmoli has been constructed in the last 4-5 decades with a lower degree of influence of social and physical factors. The inhabitants of both the villages are adopting modern-design and new types of houses with contemporary construction materials while the uses of rooms are changing as per need. Land in the Sharmoli is used more for tourism-related activities which are absent in case of Darkot, while agriculture is far from subsistence level in both the villages. Majority of the male inhabitants of both the villages are engaged in service sector activities such as labour, business, private jobs etc. while very few are in government services. The average age of the earner in both the villages is beyond 40 years which shows the out-migration of young people to the towns and cities along with the presence of a large number of pensioners, esp. in Darkot. Though the villagers are not poor with regard to per-capita income, yet their earnings are lower (i.e. around $3 per day) because of poor educational qualifications and skills, along with lack of good opportunities in the villages. Women (esp. of Bhotia caste) are engaged in handicrafts while home-stays have come up as a new and good source of income for the families in Sharmoli. Overall, the patron-client relationship between Bhotias and the other two castes in economic terms has been loosened. The social landscape of Darkot depicts more orthodoxy in public space as religion, temple, caste play an important role in Darkot in comparison to Sharmoli where modern cultural and secular festivals dominate the landscape. The situation of women is not very good in both the villages while the caste factions (esp. among Bhotias and Thakurs) are clearly visible. Hence, both Darkot and Sharmoli depict characteristics of tradition and modernity depending upon the social and economic analysis of private and public spaces
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Cronje, Mark. "Creating a savings culture for the black middle class in South Africa : policy guidelines and lessons from China and India." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/1025.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (MBA (Business Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: High levels of gross national savings reduce a country’s reliance and exposure to the vagaries of the global capital market. On an individual level, delaying consumption and providing for future needs and prosperity is a necessary condition to improve or maintain the quality of life. India and China’s gross national savings and, in particular, their household savings rates are higher than those of South Africa. Within the context of sustaining the global competitiveness of these developing countries - each with a burgeoning middle class – there is a need to ensure that policy formulation recognises the consumption and savings needs of this segment of the population. With a view to understanding the reasons why the household savings rates of China and India are so high in comparison to South Africa, this report investigates whether (and to what extent) South African policy makers can learn from China and India in the design of its policy framework to reduce consumption and create a savings culture. This research project is a comparative analysis of the determinants of household savings behaviour in China, India and South Africa, with specific reference to the consumer behaviour of the middle class consumer in each country. The comparative analysis draws on secondary sources such as journal articles, books, completed research and the Internet. While India and China have high household savings rates, this is not as a function of policy reforms that were introduced to encourage saving. Rather, an absence of sufficient financial sector development and a weak social safety net, coupled with a collective household culture and attitude that values saving ahead of consumption, that has resulted in households in India and China, and in particular middle income households, saving to ensure adequate provision is made. In South Africa, the impacts of financial liberalisation and a flawed social security system have resulted in a failure to provide broad based income protection. Increased consumer access to financial services coupled with a coherent social security structure and continued government investment are critical threads that must pervade the reform agenda in South Africa.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hoë bruto nasionale spaarvlakke verminder ’n land se afhanklikheid van en blootstelling aan die wisselvalligheid van die internasionale kapitaalmark. Op ’n individuele vlak is die uitstel van verbruiksbesteding en voorsiening vir toekomstige behoeftes en voorspoed ’n voorvereiste vir die verbetering of handhawing van lewenspeil. Indië en China se bruto nasionale spaarvlakke, en in die besonder hul huishoudelike spaarkoerse, is hoër as dié van Suid-Afrika. Binne die konteks van die volhoubare wêreldwye mededingendheid van hierdie ontwikkelende lande – elk met ’n ontluikende middelklas – is daar ’n behoefte om te verseker dat beleidsformulering die verbruiks- en spaarbehoeftes van hierdie segment van die bevolking erken. Om te probeer verstaan waarom die huishoudelike spaarkoerse in China en Indië so hoog is in vergelyking met Suid-Afrika, ondersoek hierdie verslag of (in en watter mate) Suid-Afrikaanse beleidvormers by China en Indië kan gaan kers opsteek ten opsigte van die ontwerp van sy beleidsraamwerk om verbruik te verminder en ’n spaarkultuur te skep. Hierdie navorsingsprojek is ’n vergelykende ontleding van die bepalende faktore van huishoudelike spaargedrag in China, Indië en Suid-Afrika, met spesifieke verwysing na die verbruikersgedrag van die middelklas verbruiker in elke land. Die vergelykende ontleding gebruik sekondêre bronne soos joernaalartikels, boeke, voltooide navorsing en die internet. Hoewel Indië en China hoë huishoudelike spaarkoerse het, is dit nie ’n regstreekse uitvloeisel van beleidshervormings wat ingestel is om spaar aan te moedig nie. Dit is eerder ’n gebrek aan voldoende finansiële sektorontwikkeling en ’n swak maatskaplike veiligheidsnet, tesame met ’n kollektiewe huishoudelike kultuur en ingesteldheid wat groter waarde aan spaar heg as aan verbruik, wat daartoe gelei het dat huishoudings in Indië en China, en veral middelklas huishoudings, spaar om genoegsame voorsiening te verseker. In Suid- Afrika het die impak van finansiële bevryding en ’n gebrekkige maatskaplike welsynstelsel gelei tot ’n onvermoë om breedgebaseerde inkomstebeskerming te verskaf. Groter verbruikerstoegang tot finansiële dienste, tesame met ’n samehangende maatskaplike welsynstruktuur en volgehoue staatsinvestering, is kritieke temas wat die hervormingsagenda in Suid-Afrika moet deurvleg.
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Yamin, G. M. "The causes and processes of rural-urban migration in 19th and early 20th century India : the case of Ratnagiri district." Thesis, University of Salford, 1991. http://usir.salford.ac.uk/2232/.
Full textAbstract:
The aim of this thesis is to investigate the reasons for the growth of large scale labour migration from Ratnagiri district during the nineteenth century. It is argued firstly that for an understanding of the origins of migration from Ratnagiri it is necessary to investigate the socio-economic structure of the district, since exogenous demand for labour cannot explain many aspects of the pattern of migration from Ratnagiri, nor can it explain the high rate of migration compared to other areas with similar access to labour markets. It is argued that regional and gender patterns of migration from Ratnagiri can be partly explained by the structure of demand for labour within the district; but that the scale of migration can most convincingly be explained in terms of the acute poverty of sections of the rural population. It is argued that this poverty cannot be ascribed to demographic pressure in the early nineteenth century, since population in the district did not rise rapidly until migration was already underway. It is instead suggested that the poverty of many cultivators in the earlier nineteenth century was an outcome of the spread of a village zamindari system in Ratnagiri during the late eighteenth century, the impact of which was intensified by legal changes introduced under British rule; the consequent concentration of landholding in the hands of the village zamindars led to higher exactions on the lower caste cultivators, which stimulated emigration in the mid nineteenth century. Furthermore, it is suggested that the land tenure system was at the root of the problems of agricultural development which the district faced later in the nineteenth century. When population rose In the mid nineteenth century, the extension of cultivation put pressure on the fragile ecology of the district, which led to rapid deforestation and falling yields per acre. it is argued that though cultivation intensified In Ratnagiri during the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the output per head nonetheless probably fell, and the system of land tenure discouraged the adoption of many strategies which might have raised output per head, thus perpetuating the poverty which, it is argued, lay at the root of out-migration from Ratnagiri.
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Baloch, Bilal Ali. "Crisis, credibility, and corruption : how ideas and institutions shape government behaviour in India." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2017. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:a017adea-7dc4-45a2-9246-4df6adcabb9b.
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Anti-corruption movements play a vital role in democratic development. From the American Gilded Age to global demonstrations in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, these movements seek to combat malfeasance in government and improve accountability. While this collective action remains a constant, how government elites perceive and respond to such agitation, varies. My dissertation tackles this puzzle head-on: Why do some democratic governments respond more tolerantly than others to anti-corruption movements? To answer this research question, I examine variation across time in two cases within the worldâs largest democracy: India. I compare the Congress Party government's suppressive response to the Jayaprakash Narayan movement in 1975, and the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance governmentâs tolerant response to the India Against Corruption movement in 2012. For developing democracies such as India, comparativist scholarship gives primacy to external, material interests â such as votes and rents â as proximately shaping government behavior. Although these logics explain elite decision-making around elections and the predictability of pork barrel politics, they fall short in explaining government conduct during credibility crises, such as when facing nationwide anti-corruption movements. In such instances of high political uncertainty, I argue, it is the absence or presence of an ideological checks and balance mechanism among decision-making elites in government that shapes suppression or tolerance respectively. This mechanism is produced from the interaction between structure (multi-party coalition) and agency (divergent cognitive frames in positions of authority). In this dissertation, elites analyze the anti-corruption movement and form policy prescriptions based on their frames around social and economic development as well as their concepts of the nation. My research consists of over 110 individual interviews with state elites, including the Prime Minister, cabinet ministers, party leaders, and senior bureaucrats among other officials for the contemporary case; and a broad compilation of private letters, diplomatic cables and reports, and speeches collected from three national archives for the historical study. To my knowledge this is the first data-driven study of Indian politics that precisely demonstrates how ideology acts as a constraint on government behavior in a credibility crisis. On a broader level, my findings contribute to the recently renewed debate in political science as to why democracies sometimes behave illiberally.
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Kandiah, Morgan Dharmaratnam. "Indoor air quality, house characteristics and respiratory symptoms among mothers and children in Tamil Nadu State, India." Thesis, Curtin University, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/1890.
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Air pollution is a problem affecting developing and developed countries concerned about the adverse health effects associated with exposure to indoor and outdoor air pollutants. In developing countries like India, the problem, particularly domestic air pollution, is worsened by the use of unprocessed solid fuels for cooking. Other indoor environmental risk factors include the characteristics of housing conditions, household activities, and low Socio-economic status (SES). The potential irritants include nitrogen dioxide (NO[subscript]2), formaldehyde (HCHO), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), indoor smoking, and particulate matter (PM[subscript]2.5-10) and carbon monoxide (CO).Indoor air pollutants, especially those in domestic households are major problems that can contribute to respiratory symptoms and poor health in mothers and children and, in particular, those who live in poorer households in developing countries. There is consistent evidence that mothers and young children from these countries spend more than 80% of their time indoors, especially in the kitchen. Therefore, domestic air quality may be related to the increase in the prevalence of respiratory symptoms and other allergic conditions. In this context, this study established risk factors in the domestic environment that can determine the concentrations of domestic air pollutants and prevalence of respiratory symptoms in mothers and children. Cooking for a long time, keeping young children and infants in cooking areas, the inadequacy of ventilation, and the use of biomass fuels can relate to debilitating health problems, especially respiratory symptoms among poor households’ mothers and children particularly in developing countries.This study is cross-sectional and aims to determine that domestic concentrations of fine particles (PM[subscript]2.5), carbon monoxide (CO), and the socio-economic status (SES) and/or poverty levels, house and kitchen characteristics and households’ activities, may have a detrimental role in the prevalence of respiratory symptoms among mothers and children. One hundred and seventy households (N=170) with young children (n=299) under 15-years-of-age were selected randomly from the City of Tirupur in Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu in South India. This city was chosen as it has diversity in terms of its ethnic mix, economic activities, physical characteristics and income disparities. Each participating household was visited and 170 households’ mothers were interviewed using a questionnaire. During the visits, study data was also collected in 80 households by measuring of indoor concentrations of PM[subscript]2.5, CO and the physical parameters, humidity and temperature.According to the statistical analysis, using biomass for cooking affects mothers’ and children’s respiratory symptoms. The results of this study show that median exposure to fine particles (PM[subscript]2.5) (1.18mg/m[superscript]3) exceeds the recommended WHO standards. CO concentrations did not have any significant relationship with mothers’ and children’s respiratory symptoms as mean concentrations of CO were 4.63ppm or 8.80mg/m[superscript]3. The study shows that kitchens with brick/stone walls and tile roofs are associated with reduced concentrations of PM[subscript]2.5 (p=0.033). If a kitchen has mud walls, a thatched roof and a floor of clay/mud, the indoor air has higher concentrations of PM[subscript]2.5 (p=0.014), Floors, such as cement, can lower the domestic air concentration of PM[subscript]2.5, (p=0.014). The study finds that lower concentrations of PM[subscript]2.5 were also found when windows were open (OR=0.14), (p=0.018).The study shows that there is a significant relationship between the prevalence of asthma in children in relation to CO and more than one time (OR=1.19) with p=0.021. In this study, it was shown that mothers with lower incomes had shortness of breath (p=0.003), almost six times higher than mothers with higher incomes. Children with allergies (78.9%) in the current study came from families where the mothers were employed as labourers and their children had respiratory symptoms such as coughing (p=0.001) and wheezing (p=0.002). The most (p=0.001) significant respiratory symptom of children from families who did not own house/unit or land was a cough: 56 (42.4%) as they usually live either in semi-open air or very badly constructed dwellings).High R/H (%) and T[superscript]oC also seem to have an effect on domestic concentrations of PM[subscript]2.5. As revealed by the statistical analysis, high T[superscript]oC and RH (%) were associated with significant impacts on mothers’ respiratory symptoms but did not have any significant impact on children’s respiratory symptoms. High-income households’ mothers and children were seen to have less significant respiratory symptoms than low-income households’ mothers. Evaluation of the literature also assessed the extent to which SES and/or poverty levels and house and kitchen characteristics and households’ activities affected respiratory symptoms in mothers and children.In conclusion, this study’s results further highlight the role of susceptibility risk factors for respiratory symptoms and show that domestic environmental factors contribute as risk factors for respiratory symptoms in mothers and children, especially in poor households. In order to improve domestic air quality and thus decrease the prevalence of respiratory symptoms, much more effort needs to be made. Because the air quality in the domestic environment is modifiable, there may be opportunities for intervention to reduce respiratory symptoms and this needs greater attention. Low SES and/or poverty levels may cause greater susceptibility to disease through malnutrition, access to health care, better housing and children’s and adult education.This study also provides recommendations how to reduce the prevalence of respiratory symptoms by improving households’ SES and/or poverty levels, one of the main risk factors for adverse health effects of respiratory symptoms in mothers and children from Tamil Nadu, South India. Since the quality of the domestic environment is very important, further intervention is needed to reduce respiratory symptoms in mothers and children, particularly young ones at a time when immune deviation usually occurs, regarding where they grow and spend most of their time. Finally, in order to reduce indoor air pollutants and respiratory symptoms in mothers and children, much more effort and greater attention needs to be paid to improve households’ low SES and/or poverty levels. The main goal should be sustainable development and poverty reduction that will enable people eventually to switch to clean fuels. SES was the most significant predicator of cooking fuel choice to ensure good health.
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Sethi, Aarti. "The Life of Debt in Rural India." Thesis, 2018. https://doi.org/10.7916/D8ZC8FHN.
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Over 250,000 farmers have committed suicide across India since 1995, the majority of deaths concentrated in central India’s cotton belt. Scholarly consensus views suicides amongst the peasantry as debt-induced: transgenic cotton cultivation imprisons producers in downward monetary debt spirals. Based on two years of fieldwork in rural Vidarbha, my dissertation, ‘The Life of Debt in Rural India,’ examines the proximate entanglements of debt and techno-material transformations in cotton cultivation. It demonstrates that with the emergence of cash-debt as an essential component of the productive process, differentiated interest rates have become the medium of negotiating social and familial proximity. From a formerly caste-specific proscribed activity, the generalization of usurious lending has made monetary debt the language of social prestations (of gifts, grain and labour), reshaping customary understandings of status, honour and obligation. This project contributes to the anthropology of South-Asia, the peasantry and debt in two ways. In ethnographically tracing the force of debt as social obligation and the imbrication of modes of production with symbolic cultural life, I demonstrate the inadequacy of an economistic obsession with debt as monetary liability. Accordingly, against characterizations of the ‘risk-averse’ peasant in a customary moral economy, I describe an emergent ethical economy centered on uncertainty as risk becomes a structural precondition of peasant life.
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Gupta, Arnab. "Institutions, politics and the soft budget constraint in a decentralised economy the case of India /." 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/37946.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis tries to build a set of theoretical and empirical premises of the important issues pertaining to a decentralized government structure. While the questions that we attempt to answer in this thesis are varied, the common theme that runs through the essays is its focus on issues from a regional perspective. Our empirical outcomes are based on the Indian federal system, more specifically, the 15 major states of India, which account for over 90 per cent of the population and 95 per cent of GDP. The period under consideration is 1985 - 2000. We consider this to be a crucial period because a lot of stress in state finances emerged during this period. The research questions we broadly seek to answer are the following: 1. What are the causes of differences in developmental levels across the major Indian states? 2. What is the role of political alignment in determining the budgetary considerations of states? 3. What accounts for differences in human developmental outcomes across the states? 4. In normative terms, can it be argued that a decentralized structure need not automatically lead to the iformation of a hard budget constraint? Further, can it be claimed that under certain circumstances, particularly when dealing with State-run natural monopolies, that a soft budget constraint may lead to better outcomes? The starting point of our analysis or the first essay (Chapter 2) deals with the question as to why have Indian states had different levels of development and growth? The existing literature argues that states, which have followed better policies in terms of macroeconomic probity and identification of developmental issues, have had better outcomes, which we feel is an inherently circular argument. The existing literature does not answer the basic issue of what prompted certain states to follow better policies? We add to the burgeoning literature on growth in Indian states, by looking at institutional quality. We argue that some states in India have better institutions than others, and these have set better policies. We suggest that the level of political accountability and the quantum of 'point resources' such as minerals would have an impact on the quality of institutions. The idea being that a region can be 'cursed' with high mineral wealth and having unaccountable politicians. This can lead the politician to try to subvert institutional quality in these regions to facilitate 'rent seizing', leading to lower developmental and growth prospects for such states. We try to prove this through a theoretical model as well as an empirical exercise. The second essay (Chapter 3) is more empirical in its construct and analyses the impact of political affiliations and the quality of fiscal institutions on regional budget constraints. While we do not make any normative judgments here regarding the welfare implications of soft budgets, we argue that the correct political alignment and poor fiscal institutions might combine to lead a state to greater fiscal profligacy. This is because of the inability to have institutional checks on expenditures and due to a higher probability of an ex post bailout by the central government, through higher ad hoc transfers. The third essay (Chapter 4) considers not merely ' budgetary output' levels such as the quantum of expenditures, in isolation, but looks at the 'outcomes' of such expenditures, viz. the impact of expenditure on health on an 'outcome' indicator like Infant Mortality Rates (IMR). across the major Indian states. We argue that analyzing the budgetary allocations on any expenditure tells us merely half the story. Since the Indian states are constitutionally required to spend more on human development expenditures such as health and education as compared to the central government, the correct way to look at 'effective' expenditure would be to analyse the determinants of variation in 'outcome' indicators. We in our essay, consider variations in IMR to be our measure of 'outcomes'. We suggest that political accountability might have a major role in determining human developmental outcome levels through better utilization of expenditures. Since we argued in the second essay that the potentially harmful impact of poor fiscal institutions and political alignment, is softening of the budget constraint, our final essay (Chapter 5) is a theoretical piece of work, which looks at the micro-foundations of a 'soft budget constraint' and tries to analyse the normative issue of the welfare considerations in this regard. We try to prove two concomitant factors in the federalism and soft budget literature. First, contrary to some of the existing literature, decentralization, need not automatically increase a commitment to the hard budget and second, in normative terms, under certain circumstances, a 'soft budget' is preferable to a 'hard budget'.Thesis (Ph.D.)--School of Economics, 2004.
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Gupta, Nitin. "Essays on India's post-reform industrial performance." Phd thesis, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/149886.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis presents three core chapters on aspects of India's post-reform industrial performance. The key motivations for the thesis are to validate the differential impacts of both state level policies and industrial characteristics on industrial performance, and to investigate the evolution of the industrial structure itself in the post-reforms decade. Empirical analysis in all three chapters is disaggregated at both industry and at state levels, using an unbalanced panel of 15 Indian states, 22 industries at the 2-digit level of the National Industrial Classification (NIC), and an 11-year period spanning 1992-2002. The first chapter deals with the issue of manufacturing efficiency, across both Indian states and broad industry groups. It computes, for each industry group at the 2-digit level, the relative ranking of states based on their technical efficiency scores, and how these rankings have changed over time. Three primary sets of conclusions arise. First, there is considerable variation across industries in terms of their aggregate efficiency performance. However, overall industrial performance appears to be driven more by input growth, with technical efficiency having a marginal effect at best. Second, results also show considerable regional variation in efficiency patterns, with southern and western states outperforming northern and eastern states in terms of their overall manufacturing efficiencies. Finally, detailed analysis at the state-industry level allows creation of state profiles, which summarise the relative strengths and performances of industries across those states. The second chapter investigates the impact of financial development on industrial output, and how this is conditioned by differences in state and industry characteristics. The chapter's most novel contribution comes from hypothesising and testing for operating channels though which increased financial depth impacts output. It is concluded that financial depth indirectly benefited industries by facilitating increased use of contract labour, which in turn mitigates the disruptive effects of industrial disputes. However, financial depth failed to facilitate increased capital formation, especially in the most capital-dependent industries. The negative effects of the latter outweigh the positive effects of the former, and help explain the sharp deceleration of growth in industries with moderate and high need for external financing. Finally, the chapter uses the results to make the case for comprehensive labour reforms. The third core chapter investigates aspects of technological change broad industrial categories. Specifically, it estimates the elasticities of substitution and bias of technical change for these categories, as well as their relative impacts on income shares of skilled and unskilled labour, and capital. Secondly, it also investigates the relative importance of technology and policy on labour welfare. The results clearly show that bias of technical change exerts a marginal impact at best on labour income shares. There is also conclusive evidence of capital-skill complementarity, and of the negative impact of substitution elasticities on unskilled labour. Labour welfare is therefore affected more by changes in relative factor costs than by purely technical changes. Finally, pro-labour labour regulations are found to mitigate the adverse effect of substitution elasticities on unskilled labour shares, while pro-employer regulations are found to reinforce them. -- provided by Candidate.
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Pradhan, Dolagobinda. "Communities under stress : trade liberalization and development of shrimp aquaculture in Orissa Coast, India." 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/1828/483.
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Casinader, Rex A. "Desakota in Kerala: Space and political economy in Southwest India." Thesis, 1992. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/2924.
Full textAbstract:
McGee in his recent writings on Asian urbanization highlights extended metropolitan
regions and proximate non-urban settlement systems with an intense mixture of agricultural
and non-agricultural activities. The latter McGee terms as desakota, a neologism coined in
Bahasa Indonesian, to signify the fusion of desa (rural) and kota (urban).
Some of the ecological preconditions for desakota are high rural population densities;
labour intensive rice cultivation with agricultural labourers in need of non-farm work in the off
seasons and/or labour shedding by green revolution effects. McGee however recognizes that
desakota can also occur in other ecologically dense habitat of non-rice crops with high
population densities. Kerala State in India is one such region with a mix of rice and non-rice
crops.
This study examines the urban-rural fusion that is observed in Kerala and provides an
empirically informed assessment of the McGee desakota hypothesis. While basically affirming
the desakota hypothesis, the study at the same time raises some caveats. First, desakota in
Kerala is not dependent on any central urban system and intra-desakota dynamics are
significant. While M c G e e has recognized that such desakota do occur, his writings tend to
neglect this type of desakota. Second, McGee's writings on extended metropolitan regions
and desakota are increasingly associated with the recent rapid e c o n o m i c growth occurring in
some of the Asian countries. Desakota in Kerala blurs this characteristic as it appears to have
occurred beginning in the late colonial p e r i o d of the British Raj. Third, a unique mix of factors
in Kerala make the political economy central to making desakota in Kerala intelligible.
Undoubtedly in the specificity of the Kerala context the political economy is important.
Nonetheless this study raises a critique of the underemphasis of the political economy in
McGee's work on extended metropolitan regions and desakota.
The research on desakota in Kerala involved the examination of the regional
geography of Kerala. Kerala with its radical politics and remarkable social development in a
context of low economic growth, attracted the attention of social scientists. But in these
studies the spatial dimensions were largely ignored. This study emphasizes that geography
matters in understanding Kerala, and that there is an important nexus between the space and
political economy of Kerala.
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Hutchinson, Francis Edward. "Can sub-national states be 'developmental'? : The cases of Penang and Karnataka." Phd thesis, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/150332.
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Dharmalingam, A. "Social relations of production and fertility in a South Indian village." Phd thesis, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/128805.
Full textAbstract:
The pattern of population growth in India is studied in a historical
perspective and through a detailed case study of a village in Tamil Nadu.
The premise of the analysis is that population reproduction is part of the
social reproduction of the whole society and thus inseparable from it. In a
given historical context, the demographic regime is conditioned largely by
the prevailing social relations of production. The combined effects on
generational reproduction of capitalist development in agriculture and in
other areas of economic activity, and of the superficially well-orchestrated
family planning program, depend on the gender relations and class
structure of the village. Given the social reality, a government-sponsored
program aimed at reducing fertility rates cannot work in isolation. It
would demand a radical restructuring of the Society in a direction that can
facilitate the individual's self-determination and adoption of the birth-control
methods that suit the individual's working conditions and social
relations. Far-reaching social and economic changes that have direct
bearing on the underprivileged are, therefore, required to solve the basic
problems of the masses.
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Gebert, Rita Ingrid. "Exchange and environment : local officials and poverty alleviation policy in South India." Phd thesis, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/119327.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis examines the local development officials’ implementation in Tamil Nadu of a rural
poverty alleviation policy--the Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP)--using resource exchange
theory. Resource exchange has not been used previously in the context of local administration. I argue,
however, that it offers a good explanation of the local administrator’s allocation of policy resources
because it sees this allocation in terms of his political and socio-economic environment. The official’s
environment in the community development block gives rise to many, sometimes conflicting, demands
for the resources under his control (thus severely his time). He exchanges policy resources with the
resource rich to satisfy as many of these demands as possible, and to gain valuable resources in return,
such as help in implementing other policies. By exchanging resources the administrator more easily
satisfies demands for resource allocations from politicians (who have some control over administrative
transfers and promotions), and from senior administrators who want program targets achieved.
Importantly, he also minimises the time he needs to spend with each policy.
I argue that the current, "management-style" development policy and administration literature,
which also reflects the attitudes of many senior administrators in India, is both a historical and
a contextual. Its authors fail to explain the local official’s implementation of rural development policy,
largely because they view him as acting either "pathologically" or "irrationally," rather than as responding
as best he can to the most important demands arising from his environment.
In terms of IRDP, which seeks to raise people’s incomes above the "poverty line" through
subsidised loans for "productive assets," the block officials have of necessity ignored most of its time consuming
rules of implementation. They have met IRDP’s targets by trading a large percentage of its
resources to "loan brokers" who choose the program beneficiaries and complete program minutiae for the
officials in exchange for other administratively-controlled resources. These brokers, many of whom have
profited handsomely from IRDP, are little concerned with the poor beneficiaries’ welfare, and the latter
have seldom benefited from taking ERDP loans.