Current Issue

Vol. 51,  No. 1,  2021

Development of Economic and Social Infrastructure in Jammu and Kashmir

Anvesak, Vol. 51 (1), pp. 5-22, Received: 6 Feb. 2020; accepted: 10 Nov. 2021

Tasleem Araf Cash¹, and Prakash C. Anthal^2
1Central University of Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir, India
²University of Jammu and Kashmir, India

Abstract: The economy of the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) has been facing many challenges. Foremost among them are political instability (millitancy), poor financial condition, tough terrain, harsh climatic conditions and relative isolation. Moreover, the region is suffering from relatively poor and lopsided infrastructural development. The paper evaluates the development of economic and social infrastructure at the district and regional levels in the newly created UT of J&K, which is one of the least studied areas in India. An attempt has been made to identify the districts which are lagging behind in terms of infrastructure development and thus need government intervention. In this study, a multidimensional approach has been adopted and two indices, namely, Economic Infrastructure Development Index (EIDI) and Social Infrastructure Development Index (SIDI) have been constructed to measure the district level development of infrastructure. Based on the indices values, the districts are ranked and classified into three development categories: highly developed, medium developed, and less developed. It is found that stark differences exist across the districts in the levels of development of both economic and social infrastructure. Second, infrastructure facilities are highly concentrated in the two capital districts of the UT, namely, Srinagar and Jammu districts. Third, districts, namely, Kupwara, Poonch, Ramban and Reasi, are lagging behind in terms of both economic and social infrastructure development. Fourth, districts located in the Jammu region are lagging behind compared to the districts located in the Kashmir region in terms of both economic and social infrastructure development. The study suggests that additional resources should be allocated to develop socio-economic infrastructure in less developed districts of the UT, in general, and newly created districts of the Jammu region, in particular, if the government intends to promote balanced regional development in the UT of J&K.

Key Words: Economic infrastructure, Social infrastructure, Regional disparities, Inter-district disparities

Manias, Panics and Crashes: A Prodigious Debt Debate

Anvesak, Vol. 51 (1), pp. 23-39, Received: 6 Jun. 2021; accepted: 3 Oct. 2021

Bashir Ahmad Joo and Simtiha Ishaq
University of Kashmir, Srinagar, India

Abstract: Whenever the news of financial and economic crises emerges, economists and financiers regress at “what went wrong?” and “why did markets lack resilience?” As the pandemic progresses into the second year, we are asking the same questions again. In pursuit of the answers, we find the previous pattern repeating over multiple episodes. Though these episodes take place in different locations, sectors, or conditions, it usually stays close to the precedents in the order of events, starting from “Manias” to “Panics” and eventually to “Crash”. This paper is a theoretical review of the works relating to the role of credit-fuelled expectations in speculative credit excesses and covers studies in the pre and post liberalized era. In view of the three generations of crisis models, the paper deliberates on the irrationality of human beings, the part played by the banking sector, particularly financial innovation, and the volatility of financial markets in driving the financial crisis. The results make one significant manifestation that credit plays a vital role in determining the economic course and acts as an amplification mechanism for both up and downturns.

Key words: Credit bubbles, Euphoria, Credit excess, Banking and financial crisis

An EGARCH (1, 1)-M Approach to Time Verying Risk-Return Nexus in Dhaka Stock Exchange

Anvesak, Vol. 51 (1), pp. 40-48, Received: 31 Mar. 2021; accepted: 25 Oct. 2021

Md. Masud Karim¹, Md. Monimul Huq¹ and Utpal Kumar De^2
1University of Rajshabi, Rajshabi, Bangladesh
²North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, India

Abstract: This paper investigates the relationship between time varying risk-return, volatility and leverage impact in Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) by using EGARCH (1, 1)-M model. The model is estimated using daily return based on DSE Broad Index (DSEX) and DSE Shariah Index (DSES). It is found that the risk-return relationship is positive but insignificant which indicates that the risk premium is absent (or very poor) in both cases of DSE. Nevertheless parameter of DSES shows better trade-off between risk return than DSEX return series. Besides, the coefficients of ARCH and GARCH for both cases are significant and volatility of both return series are persistent and explosive. The volatility clustering is more prevalent and high value of β indicates that the impact of old news is very important in DSE. It is also observed that the leverage effect (γ) is significant for DSEX but insignificant in case of DSES, because shariah compliant companies cannot invest in speculative investment, synthetic and debt securities.

Key Words: Time varying risk-return trade-off, Dhaka Stock Exchange, Volatility, Leverage effect, EGARCH (1, 1)-M

Achieving the Green Deal through the EU's Economic Recovery Plan and the Common Agricultural Policy: What Does It Mean for the Global South?

Anvesak, Vol. 51 (1), pp. 49-57, Received: 30 Nov. 2021; accepted: 17 Dec. 2021

Meine Pieter van Dijk
Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands and Maastricht School of Management, Maastricht, The Netherlands

Abstract: The new European Commission, when it took office at the end of 2019, immediately presented a plan. Ms. Ursula von der Leyen and Mr. Frans Timmermans, as President and Vice- President of the Commission, respectively, presented the Green Deal to make the European Union (EU) CO2 neutral by 2050. It is an ambitious plan that—as reported in Financial Times on 27 February, 2020—would determine their five years in office, and the transition to “carbon neutrality as leitmotif of Brussels’ policy making”. However, then came COVID-19 and its effects on the European economy surpassed the effects of the 2008 financial crisis. So, there had to be a Recovery Plan. In the meantime, the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the EU was accepted in the European Parliament. It is about the distribution of agricultural subsidies during 2023-2027, which will be based on a number of EU policies and criteria. This paper is about the relation between the CAP and the other EU policies. Can we achieve the Green Deal through the CAP and the European Union’s Recovery Plan? What do these new programmes mean for the Global South?

Key words: Green Deal, Economic recovery plan, Common agricultural policy, Global south, European Union

Multidimensional Inequities in Acsess to Water Supply: Empirical Evidence from Urban Households of Cuddalore District, Tamil Nadu

Anvesak, Vol. 51 (1), pp. 58-70, Received: 2 Mar. 2020; accepted: 3 Dec. 2020

V. Nagaraj
Central University of Kerala, Kerala, India

Abstract: Existing literature on urban water focused on inequity in water access at macro level with the perspective of policy reinforcements. The present study analyses the multidimensional inequities in access to water supply at micro level in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu state in India. This study confirms the existence of multidimensional inequity in access to water supply by area, sources of water supply, income, and ownership of house. Of this, household income has largely led to inequality followed by sources, area and house ownership. However, all the dimensions of inequity are interrelated. Suggested measures to ensure equity in access to water are: (i) authorities need to review the existing procedure of water supply connection and infrastructure, (ii) appropriate regulatory mechanisms should be mandatory to manage market based water supply and ground water, and (iii) the slums require special attention to increase the number of public tap and ground water sources and maintenance service.

Key words: Multidimensional inequities, Access to water, Urban areas, Tamil Nadu, India

The Extent of Financial Inclusion and the Credit Accessibility of Scheduled Caste Households

Anvesak, Vol. 51 (1), pp. 71-83, Received: 27 Apr. 2020; accepted: 3 Oct. 2021

Jyolsna S.¹, and Shaijumon C.S.^2
1NSS College, Kerala, India
²Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, Kerala, India

Abstract: Financial inclusion is the most important aspect of achieving inclusive growth in an economy. The major objective of this study is to analyse the influence of financial inclusion on the incidence of borrowings of the Scheduled Caste (SC) households in Kerala. The study has employed the financial service usage dimension for constructing an indicator for measuring the extent of financial inclusion of the marginalized SC households. The study has found that the share of formal borrowing of SC households increases with their financial inclusion. Interestingly, the study has also observed that as the extent of financial inclusion improves, various informal sources are increasingly supplying credits to the SC households. The study has found that the operation of informal financiers is highly prevalent, and these financiers’ supply of credit accounts for a significant share of borrowings availed by the SC households.

Key Words: Financial inclusion, Sources of credit, Informal borrowing, Self-help groups, Scheduled caste households

Empowering Women through Entrepreneurship: The Role of Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojna

Anvesak, Vol. 51 (1), pp. 84-100, Received: 21 Mar. 2021; accepted: 3 Oct. 2021

Pushpender Kumar and Divya Nandrajog
Kirori Mal College, Delhi, India

Abstract: Women entrepreneurs from all across the world suffer from several challenges in their growth and development process. Lack of easy access to capital and ownership of land or assets are identified to be the major constraints in the entrepreneurial journey of women from developing countries. To support entrepreneurial growth and overcome the problem of lack of capital, microfinance seems to be an alternative solution. Several microfinance institutions are already functioning in the economy to facilitate easy financing to the poor, but their effectiveness is still a question. The Govt. of India has recently launched a programme, namely, Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY), which aims to fund the unfunded and encourage small and medium-sized entrepreneurs. The present study examines the role of mudra loan in promoting women entrepreneurship and empowering women of the Delhi-NCR region using tabular and graphical analysis.

Key words: Mudra loan, Urban area, Women entrepreneurship, Women empowerment

Social Inclusion and Exclusion: East-West Dichotomy

Anvesak, Vol. 51 (1), pp. 101-112, Received: 1 Jun. 2021; accepted: 16 Oct. 2021

Joyati Bhattacharya
Assam University, Silchar, India

Abstract: In a multi-religious and multi-cultural society like India, the roots of discrimination and alienation go deep and the question of social inclusion and exclusion becomes increasingly complex. In an authoritarian society, the problem of exclusion remains suppressed and does not generally surface till it reaches the boiling point. But a democratic society, being open to dissent, remains sensitive to the question of social exclusion. In Indian context, exclusion is witnessed in various forms and it is much interrelated. It revolves around social institutions and values that exclude, discriminate, isolate and deprive some groups on the basis of primordial identities. For example, caste is a unique determinant of social exclusion in the Indian sub-continent. Given this distinctiveness of Indian society from its western counterpart, the concept needs more deliberation and needs to reflect the realities of India in a more meaningful way. Social Exclusion in India is, in fact, an internalised phenomenon, the solution of which needs far deeper understanding of the concept and strategy beyond the policy of reservation. Until it happens, India’s dream to emerge as a vibrant democracy with an impressive chronicle of inclusive growth will remain half-way.

Key words: Social exclusion, Caste, Dalit, Sub-caste, Reservation

Alcohol Consumption and Its Prohibition in India: A Comprehensive Review

Anvesak, Vol. 51 (1), pp. 113-130, Received: 28 Nov. 2021; accepted: 5 Feb. 2022

Ishan Janbandhu and Anurag Asawa
Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune, India

Abstract: This paper intends to provide a brief review of literature on alcohol consumption and prohibition, emphasising the historical retrospect of India. The literature study suggests that the most rational means to reduce alcohol consumption is education, inculcating moral values and the spiritual progress of an individual and society as a whole. The benefits of no drinking over moderate drinking purely from a health perspective do not fully justify the prohibition as a policy. Indian experience over the long-run suggests illegal liquor is more likely to get back in the prohibited area, creating a parallel economy. From the government perspective, pricing and taxation can show positive benefits.

Key words: Alcohol consumption, Addiction, Prohibition, Religion, Education, Spirituality, Policy.

Vol. 50,  No. 2,  2020

Message from Professor Sir Angus S. Deaton

The Sardar Patel Institute of Economic and Social Research was the first academic institution that I ever visited in India, more than 40 years ago. By then, Anvesak had already started contributing significantly to the studies of the Indian economy. I send it my best wishes on its fiftieth birthday, and hope it continues to flourish for at least another fifty!

Angus S. Deaton
Professor (Nobel Prize Winner in Economics)
Princeton University
USA

Message from Professor Jagdish N. Bhagwati

Anvesak is a journal that is a fitting tribute to Sardar Patel and to eminent Gujerati economists such as Professor Lakdawala, Professor C.N. Vakil, Dr. Anjaria, Dr. Pada Desai, and Lord Meghnad Desai who were among the luminaries of the Indian economics profession. The 50th anniversary of Anvesak is an important milestone and I am delighted that we will be celebrating its Golden Jubilee. As a Gujerati economist, who is proud of our achievements in Economics, I extend to the Editor my profound congratulations on this occasion.

Jagdish N. Bhagwati
University Professor (Economics, Law and International Relations)
Columbia University
USA

Message from Professor Peter Nijkamp

Economics is not a ‘dismal science’ that studies only the shadow sides (such as poverty or unemployment) of our societies. No, it studies the great opportunities for mankind to create a more sustainable world that will serve human well-being and societal prosperity. Admittedly, there is no economy in the world that is always ‘sunny side up’. But the challenge is to turn threats into new possibilities. This is what I would call ‘the blessing in disguise’ hypothesis. The current COVID-19 pandemic is a good illustration of this. It has forced us not only to develop new forms of ‘social distancing’, but also to develop new vaccines that will help improve health conditions all over the world, not only in corona times but also in case of other infectious diseases in the future.

Anvesak has served the economics disciplines in India for more than 50 years. It has played an important role in building up professional capacity in the very difficult discipline of economics. I wish to congratulate Anvesak for its golden jubilee. We all recognize nowadays that the only antidote against ‘fake news’ is solid and well grounded scientific knowledge. I wish the editors, editorial board and in particular the readership of Anvesak much success in realizing its ambitious scientific goals, which at the end will benefit the whole country of India.

Peter Nijkamp
Professor Tinbergen Institute
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

India’s Incomplete Agricultural Transformation Professor Peter B.R. Hazell

Congratulations to Anvesak on 50 continuous years of publication. 1971 to 2021 spans an interesting period in India’s history, and especially for her agricultural transformation. When issue number 1 was published India was still an agrarian economy confronted by rapid population growth, slow national economic growth, widespread poverty, and periodic famines, and the Green Revolution was beginning to dramatically help transform the situation. Today, India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, has a highly diversified and more urbanized economy, and not only feeds itself but is also a major agricultural exporter. Despite these successes, important challenges remain for an agricultural transformation that is still far from complete.

India today is trapped in a situation where nearly half her workers remain in agriculture producing less than a fifth of national GDP, mostly on farms less than 2 ha in size and with low land and even lower labor productivity. As a result, average farm incomes are about half the national average and rural poverty and malnutrition remain stubbornly high. Compare this to China which has gone through an equally dramatic transformation over the same period, but now has only a quarter of her workers left in agriculture, and although they also work predominantly on very small farms, their labor productivity is about twice as high as in India.

There are several reasons for the more constrained agricultural transformation in India.

1.  India has not created nearly enough productive nonfarm jobs to pull more workers out of agriculture. The manufacturing sector did not grow to absorb sufficient numbers of largely unskilled agricultural workers as in China and some other East Asian countries. Most of the nonfarm growth has been in services, and mostly in small scale enterprises with labor productivities that are not much better than agriculture. Continued rural population growth on a fixed land base has added to the problem, leading to a situation where most farm holdings are now so small (average 1.2 ha) that they cannot provide viable household livelihoods without supplementary income from nonfarm sources.

2.  Inappropriate agricultural policies have not helped. While input subsidies made sound economic sense when helping to launch the Green Revolution, they have long since served their purpose and should have been phased out.¹ Instead, they have been maintained to offset distortionary price and trade policies that favor consumers at the expense of farmers. The OECD estimates that by holding the prices of major commodities below relevant international benchmarks, the Producer Subsidy Equivalent (PSE) for Indian farmers over 2014-2016 was -6.2%, despite input subsidies worth 6.9% of gross farm receipts.² Penalizing farmers in this way distorts incentives for farmers to grow the commodities consumers most want, discourages on farm productivity investments, adds to environmental woes and water shortages, and contributes to poverty and malnutrition. It also burdens the government with a huge subsidy bill that leaves far too little budgetary resources for investing in capital formation and agricultural R&D essential for longer term productivity growth. The Government is planning to spend Rs. 2.2 lakh crore on agriculture in 2021, but only 10% of that will go to capital formation and agricultural R&D, while 55.5% will go to input subsidies including agricultural insurance, and 34% to the PM-Kisan direct farm income support program.

What is to be done? To the economist, the obvious solution is for the government to liberalize India’s agricultural markets, let prices adjust to relevant international benchmarks, slash input subsidies, and use part of the budgetary savings to bring public investment in capital formation and agricultural R&D to the levels needed to accelerate agricultural productivity growth. On the downside, these reforms would increase the need for food subsidies to offset higher prices for the poor, and the cost would have to be contained by reforming the current food subsidy system to make it more efficient and better targeted.

But this solution is far from complete. Apart from obvious political hazards of trying to undo long entrenched subsidy policies – as witnessed by current farmer demonstrations, this approach would only partially fix the agricultural transformation problem. It would still leave huge numbers of tiny farms in place that cannot provide viable livelihoods, or even feed the families that depend on them. While there is substantial growth potential within

agriculture, this would be most accessible for small farms that can successfully link with high value market chains, and medium sized farms (greater than 4 ha) that can still make a decent living from growing lower value food grains. Even under optimistic assumptions, this would still leave a huge number of small farms that would still need some form of supplementary income. Continued use of farm input subsidies is an inefficient and not very effective way of supporting these farms, and a direct income supplement like the PM- Kisan program has some attraction. But longer-term solutions must lie in the creation of many more productive jobs outside agriculture, and supporting policies that can help more agricultural workers make the transition to those jobs.

In many ways, this is the standard transformation problem that has faced just about every country that has progressed beyond middle-income status, and nearly all have ended up with some form of farm support policy that has extended into higher income status. Europe, the US, and Japan, for example, still provide their farmers with generous amounts of financial support, and there is no exit in sight. China and some other East Asian countries are already moving in the same direction. But it is one thing for a country with a smallish percentage of workers in agriculture to be able to afford such farm support, while the challenge facing India is much more daunting with nearly half her workers remaining in agriculture. It is hard to see viable solutions to this problem without renewed and rapid post COVID-19 growth in the Indian economy, and with more imaginative policies for a) creating productive jobs outside agriculture and b) helping agricultural workers’ transition to those jobs. I do not pretend to have the answers, but there is clearly a rich and important agenda here for future policy research, and for Anvesak to encourage and publish over the next 50 years.

¹Fan, S., A. Gulati, and S. Thorat (2008), “Investment, Subsidies, and Pro-Poor Growth in Rural India”, Agricultural Economics, 39 (2): 163–170.
²OECD/ICRIER (2018),“Agricultural Policies in India”, OECD Food and Agricultural Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264302334-en

Peter B.R. Hazell
Emeritus Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
USA

India @ 75 

Professor Yoginder K. Alagh  

Anvesak has completed 50 years of its publication journey. What were the big events and trends in the last half century as the nation celebrates the 75th anniversary of Independence? From a policymaker’s perspective, there is recently a book by a retired bureaucrat which documents the journey (Datta, 2021). I was fortunate to be in the Driver’s Seat as it were, spending 19 years of a 35-year career on invitation at Delhi in the Planning Commission, first planning food and energy self-reliance, then sustainable rural development given the land, rivers, soils and climates of my lovely country, and later running its premier university (Jawaharlal Nehru University) as it got into the top select category. Datta was a colleague at the beginning working with me in the Planning Commission, defining poverty and I also use his story. He is generous enough in 2020 to say that when he finished his training as an Indian Economic Service officer, he opted for the Planning Commission and was sent to me to decide if we would accept him. I reportedly grilled him for three hours on his Statistical Training (I don’t ‘grill’ anybody but may have had a robust discussion) and then asked him to join his work; and giving him a ‘brief ’, I asked him to work on defining poverty in an analytical context. There was a poverty line (in terms of Rupees per person per day) defined by an Eminent Persons Group in the early Sixties. Its report was unavailable. I wanted some solid work done, introducing consumer behaviour in rural and urban areas by income class. I told Datta that R. Radhakrishna and Atul Sarma at my mother Institute at Ahmedabad had worked on it. They got onto the job and the PPD (person-per-day) Calorie Requirements Task Force I chaired in 1976 defined a line which separated the Non- Poor and the Poor in urban and rural areas. The work initially appeared in the early Anvesak volumes before it was published elsewhere. I took that report and put it through discussion to get it validated. That then defined the Official Poverty Line (OPL), which lasted for a decade. Ending a later term as Member I wanted to get it changed since it had served its purpose and social norms on minimal standards now changed; so, the Lakdawala Committee was set up. Prof. Lakdawala passed away but the Report which doesn’t have his signature is called the Lakdawala Poverty Line. It essentially did not change the Line; only price level was updated. Later Suresh Tendulkar did the same only the Rural was used for updating for Urban areas also. I was a spectator to all this, not keeping quiet. I got polite hearing, being the grand daddy; but nobody was willing to tamper with the Alagh Poverty Line corrected for prices. Working with a pencil, I figured out that nobody is willing to take less and more there is not to give.

We wanted to change the World we had inherited. Indian food production was stagnating and the American Hudson Institute was predicting millions would die. We built a model based on data to give us the Drivers to change that. Datta describes it. In 1979, I am asked in the World Bank if my target was 125 millions tonnes of grain, which 5 years earlier they had called the dreams of the wild haired boys of India’s Planning Commission, how come production was 127 million tonnes. I said Ms. Gandhi, then in jail, by the UF Govt., supported us and jokingly pointed out that coming from Ahmedabad I put in ‘reserves’ when making strategic decisions.

Datta gives the insider’s story. It ends with the Planning Commission abolished as also rule based resource allocation given up by the NDA Govt. He is deeply disturbed and writes a chapter on his anguish. My only hope is that somebody out there reads his book and takes action on it, to build up a Road Map for implementation of the Farm Laws.

In fact, there is another danger. The Harvard economist of Romanian origin, Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen was a mathematician and developed The Law of Entropy, namely with finite resources which indicates that if you keep on overusing them, you may reach a point of destruction from which there is no going back (Georgescu-Roegen, 1971). It is the closest we come to the Hindu doctrine of Pralay. We must ensure we don’t reach there.

I am, in fact, an optimist. We must endure that the one born now will go to college. The first child will come late and the last one early. They hold up half the sky. Then we will garner The Demographic Dividend (Alagh, 2019). A half century is a brief period in a great nation’s destiny; also in an Institution's progress.

References
Alagh, Yoginder K. (2019): Economic Policy in a Liberalising Economy: Indian Reform in This Century, Heidelberg (Germany): Springer.
Datta, K.L. (2021): Growth and Development Planning in India, Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Georgescu-Roegen, Nicholas (1971): The Entropy Law and the Economic Process, Cambridge (USA): Harvard University Press.

Yoginder K. Alagh
Vice President & Professor Emeritus
Sardar Patel Institute of Economic & Social Research
Ahmedabad, India

Celebrating 50 years of Anvesak: Editor’s Note 

This issue marks the 50th anniversary of Anvesak, the biannual journal of the Sardar Patel Institute of Economic and Social Research (SPIESR). According to the schedule, this issue was supposed to be published in 2020, but the Covid-19 catastrophe has delayed its publication. However, Anvesak 50(2) is an opportunity to celebrate a tradition of publishing research outputs that provoked as well as engaged debates on different issues that were found to influence economic growth and development. Throughout these 50 years, Anvesak has published critical research papers that encouraged and induced significant theoretical, methodological and empirical/analytical debates on various issues related to economic and social development.

On this occasion, the Team Anvesak would like to take the opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the contributions of the authors, and greatly appreciate the cooperation of our esteemed reviewers and readership. The support provided by the Editorial Board, the Advisory Board, and the entire SPIESR family in successfully bringing out the Anvesak 50(2) is gratefully acknowledged. I am extremely grateful to Professor Sir Angus S. Deaton, Professor Jagdish N. Bhagwati, Professor Peter Nijkamp, Professor Peter B.R. Hazell and Professor Yoginder K. Alagh for kindly responding to my request and thereby sending me their ‘messages’ to encourage us in celebrating the golden jubilee of Anvesak. Especially, I express my sincere gratitude and indebtedness to Professor Peter B.R. Hazell who has been so kind to send us a very insightful reflection on some aspects of India’s agricultural transformation over the past 50 years, titled India’s Incomplete Agricultural Transformation. The piece contributed by him, I am sure, would re-stimulate thinking processes of the concerned thinkers in both academia and policy domain to engage further in the long-standing debate on agricultural transformation.

Last but not the least, we are deeply grateful to the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) and the Government of Gujarat for their financial support.

Five research articles are published in the present issue. Besides, this issue reproduces the entire Anvesak 1(1) to commemorate the beginning of the journal’s journey in 1971. Over the years, Anvesak in its own capacity has tried its best to provide an authentic platform for both academic knowledge creation/dissemination and policy debates. Anvesak is committed to recover further and devoted to continue to serve its readers in the years to come.

Subrata Dutta
Editor
30 September, 2021

Style of Question Matters: An Experiment with Questions on Gender Violence

Anvesak, Vol. 50 (2), pp. 1-21, Received: 27 Nov. 2020; accepted: 19 Mar. 2021

Manoranjan Pal¹, Chaiti Sharma-Biswas¹, Sriparna Banerjee², Anjali Ghosh¹, Subhendu Chakrabarti¹, Sumana Guha³ and Premananda Bharati^1
1Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India
²West Bengal State University, Barasat, India
³St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, India

Abstract: Reliable data in surveys is a pre-requisite to correct estimates. There are various kinds of ‘response errors’ in surveys which lead to biased or inconsistent estimates of the population parameters. Some of the response errors are not intentional but when it comes to opinion survey, it might often lead to asymmetric distribution of errors. This paper experimented with positive and negative styles of questions in the forms of statements on gender violence, which were canvassed among randomly drawn adult individuals. The analysis of the data using a statistical model revealed that, instead of a single set of questionnaires, one should make two sets - one positive and one negative and canvass the two sets to two independent samples in the population. The model can then be used to estimate the exact proportion of persons who accept the statement.

Key Words: Response error in survey, Style of question, Gender violence, Chi-square test, Statistical model

Determinants of Green Practice by Manufacturing SMEs in Urban Areas of Sri Lanka

Anvesak, Vol. 50 (2), pp. 22-41, Received: 7 Jan. 2021; accepted: 23 Feb. 2021

S.P. Premaratna, Nayani Melegoda, Kumuduni Dissanayake, Sudeera Ranawala and Ranil Senaratna
University of Colombo, Colombo, Sri Lanka

Abstract: This study examines factors that determine green practice adoption by small and medium scale manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) located in urban areas of Sri Lanka. The determinants include technological factors, organizational factors, business environments, and environmental attitudes and awareness. A questionnaire survey on the green practice adoption of manufacturing SMEs located in the Western Province of Sri Lanka was conducted and data from 342 sample firms was analyzed. The logit regression results reveal that external factors such as regulatory pressure, governmental support, relative advantage, compatibility of green practices and internal factors such as organizational support, quality of human resources, awareness, attitudes and costs and benefits have significant and positive influences on green practice adoption by urban manufacturing SMEs. Meanwhile, complexity has a negative influence on adoption of green practices. However, firm size and customer pressures do not have significant influence.

Key words: Green practices, SMEs, Sri Lanka, Manufacturing sector, SDGs, Logit model

Assessing the Output and Productivity Growth of Indian Manufacturing Industries during the Post Reform Period: Evidence from Stochastic Frontier Approach

Anvesak, Vol. 50 (2), pp. 42-56, Received: 3 Feb. 2021; accepted: 13 Apr. 2021

Sajal Jana

Dinabandhu Andrews College, Kolkata, India

Abstract: Applying the stochastic frontier production function approach, this paper estimates and decomposes the output growth as well as total factor productivity (TFP) of aggregate manufacturing industries across states in India during 1993-2011. The result indicates that change in inputs and TFP play more important roles for output growth while the contribution of capital input is negative. It is remarkable to note that most of the states have achieved negative change in input growth in the years 1998, 2000, and 2001, respectively. However, of all the factors responsible for the output growth, change in input growth contributes the most, followed by technological progress and technical efficiency, respectively. Though technical efficiency is a component of TFP growth, it contributes little to TFP growth and thus the improvement of technical efficiency is the key element for improving the efficiency of Indian manufacturing sector. Technical progress being larger than technical efficiency to the TFP growth in most of the states for the Indian manufacturing sector. The estimated technical efficiency scores across the states have increased over the years, implying that the states gradually move closer to the production frontier over time.

Keywords: Indian manufacturing, Total factor productivity, Technical efficiency, Technological progress, Stochastic frontier

Enabling People and Processes for Rural Transformation: A Knowledge Enabled Institutional Economics Perspective in Gujarat

Anvesak, Vol. 50 (2), pp. 57-62, Received: 10 Dec. 2020; accepted: 23 Feb. 2021

Munish Alagh
Sardar Patel Institute of Economic and Social Research, Ahmedabad, India

Abstract: This paper discusses markets in the farm to food process sector. In addition, access to credit, technical knowledge and education backed by access to institutions play a role in improving farm income and create a Vent for Agricultural Surplus. These enabling processes are then described in detail based on author’s field visits in Gujarat.

Key Words: Rural transformation, Wholesale mandi (market), Farm efficiencies, Institutions, Vent for surplus.

Multidimensional Poverty and Deprivation in Rural Area: Insights from Two Villages of Gurugram District in India

Anvesak, Vol. 50 (2), pp. 63-79, Received: 28 Dec. 2020; accepted: 30 June 2021

Anjali and Kiran Lamba
B.P.S. Mahila Vishwavidyalaya, Haryana, India

Abstract: Despite the relatively high growth of the overall world economy in the recent decades, the incidence of poverty and deprivation in various pockets of the globe is still considered a critical matter that needs to be addressed; otherwise balanced international development will remain a far-reaching goal. Poverty is one of the root causes of underdevelopment of a region. It is imperative to look at this problem through a macro as well as a micro glance. Our focus in this study is on micro issues. The main objective of this paper is to measure multidimensional poverty and deprivation in two villages - Alipur and Kasan - of Gurugram district of Haryana state in India. The study collected data from 235 households and the selection of these sample households was done based on the stratified random sampling method, covering the population groups such as ‘general category’, ‘scheduled caste’ and ‘other backward class’. The study used an updated version of the Rangarajan committee poverty line for measuring income poverty and the Alkire and Foster (2009) methodology for multidimensional poverty analysis. The results show that multidimensional poverty is higher than income poverty; and education and health deprivations are the most significant reasons for multidimensional poverty.