Cotton Quality in India
Transcript of Cotton Quality in India
Dissertation Abstracts
Post Graduate Programme in
Public Policy and Management
(PGPPM)
2004-06
1 | P a g e
Customer Satisfaction in Central Public Works Department
Amol Prabhakar Joshi
Central Public Works Department (CPWD), a government organization, has a
unique position in the industry of construction and infrastructure providers. The opening up
of the economy in India in the early ’90s created new challenges to all government
organisations. Concepts such as customer satisfaction and customer orientation were
adopted to identify and prioritize the areas for improving the quality of services provided by
CPWD to its various clients. The perceived quality of services provided by CPWD was
measured using the SERQUAL instrument on selected attributes and the Gap Approach.
The SERQUAL instrument was further integrated with Importance –Satisfaction model as
in Common Measurement Tools of Canadian Centre for Management Development. Areas
of improvement were identified by the quadrant approach method. Further correlation
analysis was also conducted to find out possible relations between satisfaction scores and
perception and importance scores. The results obtained by the GAP analysis were
collaborated by the subsequent analysis. Sample questionnaires were filled by employees of
thirty-three departments, mostly from the Bangalore unit and few from Hyderabad and
Nagpur units. It was found that CPWD lacked considerably in the reliability and
responsiveness attributes. The importance and satisfaction model also collaborate these
findings by highlighting the factors which correspond to reliability and responsiveness
attributes like speed of service and delivery of promise made.
The suggested structural, process and procedural changes in the institutional mechanism to
improve the deficient attributes are:
• Declaring vivid and clear goals of the departments which should be effectively
disseminated right down to the lowest rank;
• Involving clients to evaluate the performance of the staff; Constant interaction with
the client groups to receive feedback;
• Giving more financial and work related powers to the lower staffs, especially at the
superintending engineer level;
• Leaving the higher officers to monitor and guide;
• Training to departmental as well as contractor’s staff in dealing with the client
department;
• Cutting down procedural delays in award of contract by reducing duplicate works;
• Motivating staff by introducing more levels of promotional avenues by way of
designation as they grow in the department;
2 | P a g e
• Introducing the concept of opportunity cost and performance measurement to
enhance the decision making capacity of the officers and improve accountability in
decision making;
• Making the department and the client more accountable by measuring the cost of
services provided and comparing the same with the industry average.
These suggestions are expected to improve the working of the department as a whole
and make it more reliable and responsive towards the client departments.
3 | P a g e
Public-Private Partnerships in Financing Projects of Indian Railways
Anil Kumar Gupta
Indian Railways (IR) has been a consistently dividend paying organization, but
capacity addition and network growth rate have dwindled over the years due to falling net
budgetary support from the Government of India, and increasing social/political
expectations causing multi fold increase in the number of socially desirable but financially
unviable projects on its shelf. Economic liberalization and globalization post 1990 ushered in
a new era of challenges, which lead to a search for alternative financing involving the private
sector. During the last two decades varied forms of partnerships with IR have emerged and
in order to capture them seven carefully selected independent organizations, including
CONCOR, KRCL and RVNL were studied. They either came into existence as part of
public-private partnership (PPP) or used varied forms of private partnerships. Thirty key
professionals including MDs and Directors in these organizations, government heads of
Delhi and Bangalore Metros, consultants and financial institutions were interviewed in depth
for eliciting their perceptions and opinions on the existing PPP models and the way forward.
Public-private partnership of IR is based on a strong need for increasing
investment, prioritising projects, timely completion, adoption of modern systems on the new
network, and using private expertise in loss making peripheral services. Each case studied is
unique in respect of form of partnership, funding, risk management and regulatory
mechanism, and provides valuable insight into what caused its success/ failure in achieving
the different objectives. Interviews and case studies bring forward an emerging trend in India
in which public sector companies under IR and SPVs have a much greater role to play in
future PPPs and in building capability in the private sector. The most encouraging finding is
the perception among stakeholders that no major reform is needed, yet the government has
to take certain policy decisions to take the endeavour forward.
Looked at this in the backdrop of the international experience of British Railways,
German Railways, and American Railroads; which were reviewed in detail before the onset of
research; the PPP of IR has been primarily a bottom up evolution in new projects in contrast
to the top down imposition on the existing railway systems of the above mentioned countries.
Lessons learnt from these countries, from the Euro-tunnel Project, Indian PPP experience in
airports and highways have been utilized along with the research findings to propose six-
project PPP models, addressing the six most talked about areas ranging from Dedicated
Freight Corridor to Mass Rapid Transport projects. Seven project structures in varying degrees
of privatisation have been used including three variants of BOT, namely, Differed Payment,
Fixed PVR, and Annuity. Together they form the new project structure framework for PPP in
railways. But this was found inadequate to capture the entire evolution of PPP in IR. Further,
the government need not necessarily address each small project; rather it should focus on
creating organizations and laying sector level policies. In the process a three level PPP
framework was developed, which is far superior in capturing various models of private
partnerships in railways and providing strategies focussed on projects, organizations and the
4 | P a g e
railway sector as a whole. The new framework also presents PPP as an alternative to railway
reforms with the involvement of the private sector being carried out in many countries.
The research has shown valuable patterns of evolution of public-private partnerships
in rail transport in India. The new framework of PPP has given form and shape to what had
already been happening in the railway industry in India for better understanding and clearer
strategies. The policy recommendations for the government, if implemented, would help IR
take a big leap in realizing its full potential and the six-project PPP models would provide
valuable tools to the practitioners for designing future project structures.
5 | P a g e
Development of Risk Assessment (Predictive) Model for Selective Import Goods
Examination in the Indian Customs & Central Excise Department
Anuj Kumar
The pressure of handling a large increase in trade with the available scarce
resources in the last decade of the twentieth century, prompted the Indian Customs
authorities to change over from manual processing to computer based electronic processing
of customs documents. This led to the introduction of the electronic data interchange
system in Indian Customs department (ICES) in the late 1990s. However, the goods
examination process under the ICES still remained manual and thus time consuming. In this
backdrop, the current thesis suggests that predictive models can be built from the past
transaction data stored in the EDI databases. Such models can thus predict online the
likelihood of duty short declaration in the live declaration. Therefore, a lot of precious
examination effort can be saved by physically examining only those goods which are covered
by the declarations identified as fraudulent by this predictive model. The present work
illustrates the selection and preparation of relevant data and the development of predictive
models by the application of classification tree data mining algorithm. The customs data
poses the typical problems of skewed dataset, dissimilar training and application dataset and
the variable error of misclassification for each case. These problems have been handled by
using various data level and algorithm level interventions like under and over sampling,
subdivision of target variables, attachment of differential error weights, tree pruning and use
of two different algorithms in succession to finally achieve the maximum possible desirable
duty short declaration detections with reasonably low examination effort. The predictive
models developed by the hybrid applications of these interventions were able to detect over
90% of the total duty short declaration detections with a mere 30% of the original
examination effort. In addition, the tree structure and significant decision rules of these
predictive models throw useful insights into the patterns of the transaction data that can be
utilized for making better informed policy decisions in the Indian Customs department.
6 | P a g e
Economic Viability for Bio-Diesel Farming and Business in India Leveraging On
Environmental and Social Implications
Chandrashekar Reddy G
Bio-diesel is getting prominence today because of the exhaustible nature of the
fossil fuels, volatile international crude oil market, need for energy security and increased
environmental awareness. The tree based non-edible oil (TBO) used as bio-diesel has the
potential to drive the Indian economy when compared to edible oils, which have a huge
demand in the kitchen itself. The long gestation period of TBOs, the requirement of high
investments in the initial years and the lack of government support are the main barriers for
the bio-diesel farming.
The critical issues involved in the motivation of farmers and businessmen are
opportunity cost of land use and signals from the government in the form of investment
support; support price; multiple species based extension support; facilitation of carbon trade;
legislation for mandatory blending and promotion of research and development. The
farmers and businessman feel that pollution control, organic farming, wasteland reclamation,
employment generation, and energy security for the country are the government’s
responsibilities, but are willing to share the responsibility if adequate support is extended
from the government. These issues are analysed from the existing secondary data, literature
available; interactions with the experts in various connecting sectors and on the basis of
personal experiences from the field visits. The bio-diesel experimentation is still very recent
for researchers to gather any meaningful quantitative data; therefore only quantitative
research methods are adopted.
The study indicates that areas for targeting bio-diesel farming on a priority basis
are farm bunds, railway lands, mine spoils, cultivable wastelands, fallow lands and degraded
forest areas - but definitely not food crop areas. Farmers should be encouraged only when
quality seedlings are available for farming. As the crop matures the yields are likely to
increase and therefore additional demand of bio-diesel can be met. Multi species base for
raw material is a preferred option.
The government can leverage carbon credits from the use of renewable bio-
diesel, oilcake as organic manure in place of chemical fertilizer, bio-gas production from
oilcake and from the growth of the bio-diesel plantations, and be prepared for
environmental regulations after the first phase of the Kyoto protocol. The government can
also save on account of subsidies and avoid the cost of pollution control. The promotion of
organic farming in dry land farming areas where chemical fertilizers are not traditionally used
is very important for higher productivity as it can take care of the availability of food grains
even if part of the cultivated area is diverted for bio-diesel farming. The application of
organic manure to the bio-diesel farm also ensures sustained yield.
7 | P a g e
In all this, supply chain management is crucial. The seed procured by the farmers
from their lands or by the SHGs from common lands should be purchased by the oil
companies at the agriculture market committee yards by declaring the support price and
giving oil cake free to the farmers. While fixing the price for bio-diesel it should not be
considered as the cheaper alternative and the greatest advantage is to be given to the farmer
as oil expeller, and the trans-esterifying agency can capitalize on the extraction of the bio-
pesticides from the oil; biogas production from oil cake and value addition to glycerol.
Employment generation and energy security in rural areas would bring in
livelihoods security and avoid distress migration. Global energy crisis and climate change
problems can be attended to by switching to bio-diesel use and this can be an integral part of
the strategy for achieving millennium development goals. Bio-diesel farming project in dry
land farming areas has multiple benefits like irrigation projects but with the lesser costs. At
present bio-diesel can be economically viabile only through government incentives. By
leveraging the environmental and social implications of bio-diesel, we can avoid the social
delays in adapting the program.
8 | P a g e
Financing of Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS): A Case Study of The
Department of Post
Dave B.B
The Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS), introduced in 1954 as a
contributory welfare healthcare scheme for Central Government employees and their
families, has almost lost its purpose and has become highly inefficient, cost-ineffective and
cumbersome in procedures. As a sub-system of the larger network of publicly run health
systems in India, it has been criticised on quality, significant out-of-pocket expenses,
inadequate staff, shortage of medicines etc. This paper analyses the existing arrangements for
financing the scheme and the effectiveness of such arrangements. The cost per CGHS card
for serving employees and pensioners calculated from 2001-02 to 2003-04 revealed abnormal
increases – the cost increase was far more than increase in the number of cardholders. Data
on treatment costs, reimbursements and out-of-pocket expenses collected from the
Department of Post’s establishments in Delhi and Bangalore (hospital category wise and
disease category wise) revealed that despite liberal rules of reimbursements, out-of-pocket
expenses are quite high. A comparative study between Delhi and Bangalore is also made on
similar indoor-cost-related-parameters.
A qualitative survey conducted among the Delhi based DOP officials revealed
that they preferred treatment in private hospitals over government hospitals, and that their
satisfaction level was higher when treated in registered private hospitals. About 67% of the
191 employees surveyed were willing to pay significantly more than the existing rates of
subscription, provided that the choice of providers is widened and reimbursement rules are
further liberalized.
In the case of DOP Delhi, the premium to cost ratio comes out to a meagre ~
12%, which means ~87.37% subsidy. The subsidy ranges from 96.19% for the lowest slab of
Rs.15/pm to 69.11% for the highest slab of Rs.150/pm. Such huge subsidy by the
government for a small group of persons i.e. CGHS beneficiaries can hardly be justified as
the burden of the subsidy is borne by the general tax-payer. The paper critically analyses the
findings and evaluates the possible alternatives. Finally, it proposes a framework of reforms
required to be carried out for financing the scheme (addressing issues like linking
subscriptions to basic pay, introduction of co-payment/user fee etc.). The paper also
discusses issues relating to the necessary institutional and managerial reforms that have to be
carried out. Granting of autonomy; introduction of Third Party Administrators for auditing
the scheme etc. have been proposed with a prospective view of eventually developing the
scheme as a comprehensive social insurance scheme.
9 | P a g e
Strategy for BSNL for Providing Viable Telecom Connectivity in the State Of
Uttaranchal
Deepak Kumar
There is a need to have a clear understanding of the issues, problems and
prospects associated with the rural telecom connectivity. The general argument of service
providers is that rural telecom services are financially not viable. Does the argument hold
well in the ever changing and technologically driven vibrant telecom market? What are the
costs involved with respect to different technologies for providing rural telephony? Can we
develop a cost effective economic model for providing not only rural telephony but a total telecom solution?
With this broad question in mind, this topic has been chosen for the dissertation. The
purpose of this research is to understand the reasons for the wide gap in tele-density
between urban and rural areas; how these positions could be changed and what are the
policy guidelines?
In this research thesis, the current state of telecom connectivity in Uttaranchal has
been studied. Beginning with landline connections, different technology deployments in
different parts of Uttaranchal have also been studied. The study draws conclusions on the
basis of revenue and cost pattern in different telephone exchanges in the state of
Uttaranchal. The marginal revenue has been linked to marginal cost after studying the cost
pattern for the capital as well as for the operating & maintenance expenditure in a few
telephone exchanges (wherever the data was available) in the Uttaranchal telecom circle of
BSNL. The problem faced by users in getting the telecom facility as well as by the operator
in providing telecom services in this difficult geographical and hilly terrain has also been
studied. The study concludes by suggesting some policy changes required in this regard, not
only for this hilly state but for all such hilly and geographically difficult states in the country.
10 | P a g e
Women’s Empowerment: Effect of Participation in Self Help Groups (SHGs)
Deepti Umashankar
This study seeks to explore the impact of participation in Self Help Groups on the
empowerment of women in the context of the great importance being given to the group
approach while conceptualizing any programme for rural women. The study is situated in
Mewat district, in the northern state of Haryana, which faces the conundrum of rapid
economic growth juxtaposed with poor social indicators. The study uses the personal
narrative method to give a voice to women’s perspective, and looks at various dimensions of
empowerment – material, cognitive, perceptual and relational. Access to credit can help in
the expansion of women’s material base by enabling them to start and develop small
businesses, often accompanied by market access; the women also experienced ‘Power
within’: feelings of freedom, strength, self identity and increased levels of confidence and
self-esteem. However, gender discrimination is most deeply entrenched within the family,
and this is evident in attitudes towards daughters-in-law, daughters, the gender based
division of work, roles and responsibilities; plus in the mind-set towards domestic violence
and issues of ownership and inheritance of land. At the social level, one encouraging trend is
that women have been able to challenge the norm of purdah. Besides, involvement in SHGs
has enabled women to have a voice in the community affairs and they have been able to
tackle problems such as a lack of drinking water and electricity, access to health services and
children’s education. Though women face handicaps to their involvement in politics, their
participation in SHGs has altered them, and these women can be prospective leaders in the
local political field. Nonetheless, various constraints like discriminatory practices in labour,
low levels of skills etc. operate to constrict a woman’s potential for empowerment. It may be
comparatively easier to ensure material changes rather than to cause a change in the power
structures, ideologies and attitudes, which accompany them. However, no milieu is static,
and some of the recommendations for a way forward include providing a convergence of
inputs, ensuring a proactive involvement of women in the program, changing social norms
and perceptions and anchoring with wider movements of social change.
11 | P a g e
Forest Development Agencies as Mechanisms for Institutionalizing Joint Forest
Management: A Critical Appraisal
Kamlesh Chatutvedi
The dissertation deals with the role and contribution of the Forest Development
Agency (FDA) in institutionalising and strengthening the Joint Forest Management (JFM) in
India. It was against the background of the growing realization of the importance of the
decentralised governance and bottoms up approach in planning and execution of the
developmental works and natural resource management that the Forest Policy of 1988 was
introduced. It replaced the previous forest policy of 1952. The new policy emphasised
management of the forests by local communities, which was a paradigm shift. The rights of the
locals to forests were recognised for the first time in independent India. The 1990 circular of
the Government of India that followed the 1988 policy suggested that states should take steps
to involve village communities in the regeneration of forests. This circular formed the basis of
the Joint Forest Management (JFM) in India. More guidelines were issued in 2000 and 2002 to
make JFM effective. As on 31.07.05; 99,708 JFM Committees are jointly managing 20.10
million hectares of forests in India. The JFMCs were not envisaged to be work-executing
agencies. They were not involved in executing the forestry activity works. They were not
involved in afforestation activities. They were supposed to protect natural forests and earn a
share in harvested forest produce.
To make afforestation participatory and to further scale up the JFM concept, the
Government of India introduced the concept of Forest Development Agency Scheme (FDA)
in the closing years of ninth five-year plan. Under the FDA scheme funds are to be transferred
to the JFMCs through the FDA, a registered body of the JFMCs at the territorial Division level
to carry out the village level developmental works and afforestation activities. As on 31.07.05,
Government of India has sanctioned 639 FDAs which through 21,953 JFMCs are doing works
worth 1,454 crores. This study is an attempt to explore the contribution of the FDA in
strengthening of the JFM movement.
Chapter –1 deals with the evolution of Forest Management policies in India from
the British period up to the advent of the FDAs. Chapter-2 details the concept of FDA..
Chapter-3 outlines the context of the research problem, literature review, objective of the
research and the concepts in participatory management. Chapter-4 details the research
questions and the methodology of the research. Chapter –5 deals with the inferences on the
primary data collected through questionnaire and the statistical analysis of the same. Chapter- 6
describes outcomes of interviews and discussions and assesses execution level and impact of
FDA on the JFM. Chapter –7 examines the secondary data available with respect to FDA and
their findings. Chapter-8 elaborates the conclusions and recommendations.
12 | P a g e
Institutional and Technological Constraints for Commercialization of Honge Bio
Fuel in Karnataka State: Policy Issues
Kanwerpal
Environmental stability and energy security are essential for the overall
development of India. Factors like ever increasing import bills, high consumption of
petroleum, and price uncertainty in the international market have caused considerable
concern and underline the necessity for stable and sustained economic growth. The domestic
supply of crude oil is about 22% and the demand for transport fuel is expected to grow from
10 MMT (2006) to12.848 MMT (2011). It is imperative therefore to find a viable and
sustainable alternative energy source to reduce dependence on import. The other issues that
need immediate attention include, cutting down on harmful emission, providing energy
security, environmental amelioration and providing gainful employment in the rural sector.
Bio diesel made from oil extracted from the seeds of the Honge tree (Pongamia pinnata) is a
renewable, eco-friendly, oxygenated, potential bio fuel that can be easily blended with diesel
up to 20% and used without any engine modification, leading to increase in mileage and
thermal efficiency. Organized cultivation of Honge will enable sustained growth by
providing energy security, employment, and a clean and green environment.
This research was undertaken to explore whether Karnataka has the potential or
otherwise to take up Honge cultivation on a commercial scale and to see what the
constraints in its commercialization are. The methodology adopted in this study includes
interviewing farmers and oil expellers, and collection of data from secondary sources. The
findings are that farmers are not willing / interested at present to raise Honge tree crop in
block plantations and that food security is their greatest concern. They are willing to practice
farm forestry on a larger scale and to raise Honge tree cropping on bunds, provided saplings
of high yielding variety are available, and buy back guarantee of seeds is provided by the
government functionaries. Many of the farmers are still not aware of the potential of Honge
bio diesel. There exist no effective market mechanism/ policies in the field level to promote
the use of bio-diesel. Creation of bio diesel market, with supply network, awareness
campaign of use and advantages of bio diesel, capacity building of locals, establishment of
demonstration plots, and supply of genetically superior seedlings with assured buy back of
seeds can turn around the rural economy in Karnataka. This will not only provide energy
security, round the year employment, and additional income in rural areas, but will also be
cutting down harmful emissions, thus achieving multiple objectives - that of energy security,
employment, and environment amelioration. There is a large genetic variation in seeding of
Honge trees in a natural stand. Supply of genetically superior seedlings holds the key for
commercial Honge tree cropping on farmlands.
The government transport sector can offer the support price for Honge oil so as
to reap the twin benefits of increased mileage and reduced greenhouse emission. For
promotion and use of the bio diesel and to reduce harmful emissions, resource building
green tax needs to be imposed on use of fossil diesel, while blended diesel is to be exempted.
13 | P a g e
This will generate resources for the self-financing of Honge plantations, striking a balance in
environmental stability, productivity, equity and it would also prove that the government is
fulfilling its social responsibility. To overcome the resource crunch and to induce market
efficiency, public-private partnership is also to be encouraged for taking up large-scale
Honge plantations in degraded forestlands for commercialization, research and development
of Honge bio diesel.
14 | P a g e
India-Thailand Free Trade Agreement (FTA): A Critical Analysis through Indian
Auto-Components Industry
N.J Kumaresh
In the global era, countries have understood the need for trade liberalization by
lowering their trade restrictions unilaterally, bilaterally, regionally or multilaterally. Regional
or bilateral trade agreements have become increasingly popular among the nations.
India, for long, had remained a closed market till it started to liberalize its
economy unilaterally from 1991. India has become active in recent years in finalising bilateral
Free Trade Agreements. India’s economic growth in recent years and its market size have
attracted the attention of countries, which were hitherto hesitant to do business with India.
Though India’s trade agreements with its neighbours such as Srilanka and Afganistan did not
affect the domestic industries, the India-Thailand FTA, signed in September 2004 had raised
strong protests from the domestic manufacturing industry such as the auto-component
industry.
This first part of this paper attempts to understand the strategies of these countries
in using the FTA and to see what could be the dynamics if there are different strategies. The
second part analyses at the feedback obtained from the on the Indian auto-component
cluster in the Chennai-Bangalore region. The feedback has been obtained through in-depth
interviews with the players from the Indian automotive and auto-components industry as
well as the policy-makers in the Government of India to understand what the FTA means to
them.
The findings indicate that for a trade agreement to be successful, it has to be owned
by the industry in the country. If the partner countries have different strategies and
objectives to be achieved through an FTA, it creates a different kind of dynamics, which may
not be mutually beneficial to the partner countries. Again, if the trade policy of a country is
not synchronized with the industrial/investment policies of the country, the trade agreement
may not exactly achieve the desired objectives. In such a scenario, it is better for a country to
go in for unilateral or multilateral trade liberalization than to go in for a bilateral trade
arrangement.
The study on the Indian auto-component industry indicates that the automobile
majors are outsourcing their manufacturing to low-cost manufacturing countries including
India and Thailand. Thailand appears to be better prepared to leverage the benefits of the
FTA since they have a focused aim of making Thailand, the “Detroit of the East”.
The study also indicates that India lacks institutional mechanisms to consult the
think tanks and industry before going for an FTA with any country vis-à-vis the partner
countries. There are important lessons to be learnt and the policy recommendations have
been made at the last chapter.
15 | P a g e
Transfer Pricing Methodologies in the BPO Industry-Capturing Intangibles from the
Taxation Perspective
Lakshmi Hande Puri
This dissertation was conceived in the light of the explosive growth of the BPO
industry in India, the consequential large volume of international transactions involved and,
perhaps even more importantly, the evolution of the industry from rendering simple
transaction-based type services (such as call centre services) to more complex services that
would involve significant intellectual content. The issue of transfer pricing relating to
intangibles that such complex services may entail seemed to be of great relevance from the
taxation perspective.
The objective of the dissertation is to formulate an approach (or approaches) to
how transfer pricing with respect to intangibles in the BPO industry may be arrived at, such
that it is representative of an arms length price. The structure followed in the dissertation is
as follows:
Chapter 1 consists of an introduction to the subject of transfer pricing and the
BPO industry. It also explains the different definitions of intangibles. In Chapter 2, the
different methodologies available to arrive at a transfer price that would be representative of
an arms length price are covered. Chapter 3 contains a review of the literature available on
the subject, particularly with reference to transfer pricing in the case of intangibles, to ensure
that one is not reinventing the wheel. Chapter 4 provides the research framework in terms of
explaining the research objectives, the hypothesis framed etc. Chapter 5 summarizes
information gathered from the Income tax Dept. with respect to a few cases of BPO
companies, the methodology followed by these companies, and the views taken with respect
to the methodologies by the Income tax Dept. The information gathered from a few BPO
companies through the questionnaire issued is reviewed in Chapter 6.
16 | P a g e
Assessing the Impact Of the National Child Labour Policy 1987 & National Child
Labour Projects (NCLPs) in Elimination of Child Labour In India
Laxmikant Vasant Deshmukh
Child labour is a global problem that demands worldwide response. The Indian
government is pro-active in its legislative action plan to address the child labour problem.
The National policy on child labour 1987 & National Child Labour Project are the strategic
elements in India’s response to eliminating child labour.
This paper attempted to study the functioning of two representative NCLPs from
two states of India having the largest number of child labourers. The hypothesis formulated
for the study was that the National Child labour policy & NCLP are highly inadequate as
they lack a holistic and integrated approach in their conceptual, institutionary and
implementational aspects, as well as in their overall design. A mixture or both qualitative and
quantitative methodology was adopted.
The key research findings are as follows:
1. The National Policy has denied free and compulsory education to the child labourers
working in non hazardous occupation. It also denied the right of health care. Thus
the policy has compromised with the most of the articles of C.R.C.
2. The vicious cycle of poverty perpetuates child labour. The national policy failed to
break the cycle, as it has not been successful in helping the parents of child labourers
with a package of economic assistance and skill upgradation, spelt out in the policy.
3. The standard of the vocational training is poor and not in tune with the market
demand. In spite of having the freedom and authority to design quality and
productive vocational training, it did not happen due to the bureaucratization of
project society and concentration of decision-making with the chairperson of NCLP.
Thus the students of special schools graduate to adulthood and still remain
unproductive, being unable come out of their poverty.
4. The study found very low awareness of the civil society, especially among the parents
of students of special schools. They were found to be sending their other children to
work instead of school.
5. There is a mixed result of enforcing the legislative action plan at the two NCLPs
studied. Lacking commitment and by not aligning with the goals and objectives of
NCLP, the enforcement machinery at district level could not deter the erring
employer engaging child labour.
6. The low involvement of various stakeholders in elimination of child labour is
resulting in less than desired results of NCLPs.
17 | P a g e
7. The lack of interdepartmental coordination and heralding convergence is also
contributing to the slow progress of NCLPs.
On the basis of interactions with a few reputed NGOs working in the field of child
labour, the study finally suggested a new revamped policy capable of addressing the
inadequacies found in the functioning of NCLPs. If adopted, the new policy can eliminate
child labour from the project area over a period of time.
18 | P a g e
An Exploration of the Market Orientation of BSNL and Its Effect on Organizational
Identification of Senior Officers
Madhav Narayan Punde
With the liberalization of the Indian economy, private sector participation in the
telecommunications sector got a thrust. The monopolistic department of
telecommunications was converted into a corporation called BSNL, which has been facing
intense private sector competition in the telecom services. In this changed scenario, BSNL
should become market oriented to maintain a sustained competitive advantage. This is a
study of the market orientation of BSNL. The attempt is to understand organizational and
behavioural factors which will help BSNL become market oriented. The effect of
organizational learning disabilities on market orientation and the effect of market orientation
on organizational identification are studied.
The hypotheses developed have been tested with the help of correlation and
regression analysis. The study has used readily available scales for identifying organizational
learning disabilities for measuring market orientation of the firm and for measuring
organizational identification of the employees.
The results show that organizational learning disabilities hamper market
orientation of BSNL. Simple mindedness and superstitious learning affect market orientation
of BSNL the most, followed by blindness and homogeneity. Data supported the predicted
relationship between organizational learning disabilities and market orientation dimensions,
except paralysis.
However, the link between market orientation and organizational identification
has proved to be weaker than expected. Response design and response implementation
affect organizational identification the most. Data showed that predicted relationship
between intelligence generation and dis-identification does not hold good.
Overall homogeneity and response design affect dis-identification and identification
of the employees; while response implementation affects ambivalent and neutral
identification.
19 | P a g e
Business Process Reengineering Case of MPLS-VPN Service in BSNL
N Murali Krishna
Business process reengineering is a concept, which aims at introducing radical
changes in the business process of organisations to achieve better performance. Several
companies in the manufacturing sector have applied the concept to revamp their production
process. Of late, the services industry too started using this concept and related techniques
to improve their service delivery mechanism to customers. However, though BPR concepts
and techniques are being used in the private sector, the public sector companies in India are
lagging behind in this regard. The Indian telecommunication sector has witnessed sweeping
changes due to implementation of the new telecom policy (NTP)-1994, 1999, which has
opened up the sector to the private companies. As a result, customers now have a wide
range of services and service providers to choose from. BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam
Limited), India’s largest telecom company, which was carved out of the Department of
Telecom in the year 2000, has played a key role in achieving the targets set by the New
Telecom Policy. However, as the heat of competition is rising, customers are distancing
themselves from BSNL due to deficiencies in service delivery and poor customer care. The
technological changes are also happening rapidly and increasingly data is gaining importance
compared to voice. The delivery of services based on data requires a radical change in
BSNL’s approach customer care since customer expectations are higher for data related
services. BSNL has to seriously review the present way of doing business, analyse the reason
for customers not willing to embrace its services and remove the drawbacks in the current
procedure and mechanism of working. In this study an attempt has been made to identify
and study the flaws in the current ‘customer facing process” pertaining to MPLS-VPN
(Multi protocol Label Switching- Virtual Private Network) which is a new data based service
launched by BSNL for providing highly secure closed user group network connectivity to
corporates and other organisations. This study identifies the defects in the current process
and accordingly develops a revised process to improve the service delivery mechanism
drastically. It also suggests the strategy for implementation of this revised process.
20 | P a g e
Competitiveness of the UP Sugar Industry: Problems and Prospects
Nitin R. Gokarn
India is the largest consumer and second largest producer of sugar. Sugar is the
largest agro-based industry in rural India with over 45 million sugarcane farmers. Sugar is a
regulated commodity and is important to the political economy of the major states including
Uttar Pradesh (UP). The study of the competitiveness of the UP sugar industry, which ranks
first in cane cultivation, is important in the context of an industry in financial distress,
declining area under cane, ongoing phased decontrol of sugar in India, production shortfalls,
reform processes in EU and US markets, emerging potential for the fuel ethanol and
CDM’s. The study examines the impact of removal of subsidy in the EU and US markets
across major sugar producers. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) for all mills operating in
UP during 1993-94 to 2003-04 has been examined for efficiencies and has been compared
with Maharashtra mill efficiencies for 2000-01 and 2001-02. The management model and
control systems of Haidergarh unit of Balrampur are examined for replicability. The
environmental costs and benefits of cane cultivation, including cogeneration, ethanol and
carbon credits are examined. Factors impacting efficiency levels of sugarcane production in
UP are analyzed in terms of its costs and benefits. The study concludes that for the U.P.
sugar industry to be cost competitive it needs to use the cane biomass as an energy and bio-
fuel source. State Advisory Prices need to be frozen at current levels and incentive systems
need to be built-in to link pricing with sucrose content and time of harvest. Cane
cooperatives do not add value but lead to substantial costs while constraining feedback to
mills and growers and need to be abolished to enable backward linkages of mills with
farmers. Technological upgradation and cogeneration can be financed through carbon
credits. Mergers need to be encouraged to develop economies of scale in the existing units.
21 | P a g e
Ecotourism in Protected Areas and its Policy Implications - A Case Study of Periyar
Tiger Reserve, Kerala
Noyal Thomas
Tourism has been regarded as the fastest growing sector in the global economy,
with a turn over of more than $ 500 billion, surpassing even the Information Technology
sector. The growing environmental awareness of the 1970’s and 80’s resulted in the shift from
consumptive mass tourism to more sustainable non-consumptive nature tourism in the 1990’s.
Though the concept of ecotourism permeates all the spheres of tourism through its
sustainability concept, much needs to be done at the policy level in the area of nature tourism
so as to prevent the drifting of the practices into the ones practiced by mass tourism earlier.
Ecotourism in protected areas is nothing new but merely the reinvention of the old wildlife
tourism practiced earlier in these areas. With the advent of ecotourism the thrust has been for
the participation of local communities in planning and implementing the various programmes
so as to directly accrue the benefits. Ecotourism has conservation of the resources and
deriving sustainable benefits out of these resources with the active participation of the
stakeholders as the central theme.
An attempt has been made in this study to analyze the ecotourism practices taking
place in the Periyar Tiger Reserve in Kerala and their policy implications for future
management, not only of Periyar but also of other major sanctuaries of the state. The
qualitative study was made through structured questionnaires, focussed group discussions and
in-depth interviews of the policy makers and various stakeholders. The views elicited were
analyzed and based on the findings suggestions were made for the future policy prescriptions
for the protected areas of the state, especially for Periyar and other major sanctuaries.
The study finds that community based tourism activities, through empowerment of
local communities are reaping rich dividends in Periyar. The institution of Periyar Foundation
has given the necessary impetus and flexibility to the community based ecotourism activities.
The institutional frameworks of EDC’s and their confederation have been found to be
successful and major portions of the conservation activities are being funded by the Periyar
Foundation now. Hence it has been suggested that the other PA’s in the state should go for
community based ecotourism initiatives constituting EDC’s and also respective foundations so
as to become self sustainable in all respects. There is an urgent need to develop the satellite
camping sites in the plantations around the sanctuaries as part of plantation tourism so that
much of the pressure on the sanctuaries could be reduced. This will help to generate valuable
revenue and can act also as an insurance against the crisis in the plantation sector, especially for
the tea and cardamom plantations in the high ranges of Kerala.
The study makes the following policy recommendations:
• There should be a concrete ecotourism policy for the state to take up the activities in
conformity with the accepted principles of sustainability.
22 | P a g e
• Ecotourism activities should invariably be taken up with conservation as the focal
point and through local community participation.
• Organizations like the Periyar Foundation could be constituted in the Protected Areas
and Non Protected Areas for the flexibility and smooth functioning of these initiatives.
• The activities within the Sanctuaries should be limited to the carrying capacity
preferably of the flexible type by undertaking various modifications in the P.A’s and
Non P.A’s so as to enhance the carrying capacity.
• The concept of Limits of Acceptable Change may be a good alternative to carrying
capacity as it is very difficult to arrive at absolute terms while assessing carrying
capacity.
• Private sector be encouraged to take up infrastructure development in the plantations
surrounding the sanctuaries according to the approved perspective plan and should
also be permitted to take up investments in hotels, resorts and other infrastructure.
• All tourism activities should be taken up as per the Certificate of Tourism
Sustainability so as to ensure the sustainability of the whole programme.
• There should be a synergy between various agencies facilitating tourism activities like
Tourism Department and Forest Department. They should act as facilitators rather
than as directors in the whole programme, so that ecotourism activities would help the
cause of conservation in the protected areas of the state, and can also be a tool for
socio economic empowerment of the local stake holders so as to make them own the
conservation programmes in the state.
23 | P a g e
Power Distribution Reforms in Delhi
Prashant Goyal
State Electricity Boards in India have not been run on commercial principles and
this has created serious socio-economic problems. Under the circumstances, power
distribution reforms have become inevitable for the nation. Faced with similar circumstances
and due to growing public discontent with the performance of state-owned Delhi Vidyut
Board, the Delhi Government decided to privatise the distribution business in July 2002.
Since then the performance has unambiguously improved, as reflected in lower losses, better
quality of supply (QoS) and reduced financial burden on the government. However, the
reform strategy has not been without flaws. Hence, the Delhi model has number of useful
lessons for the other reforming utilities to emulate.
Chapter 2 presents the research questions and the methodology used to find answers to
them. Extensive reliance has been made on in-depth interviews with people involved in the
reform process at various levels and this has helped in adding a practical touch to the
analysis. Chapter 3 comes up with extensive literature review of the studies that have been
done in this field. However, no study seems to have gone into the details of the reform
process as it has unfolded in Delhi.
Chapter 4 highlights the managerial and technical measures used by the distribution
companies to reduce their losses and improve QoS. The research tries to examine whether
there is any freshness in their strategy and whether the measures could have been properly
sequenced. The innovate concept of measuring losses as aggregate technical and commercial
losses has been discussed in Chapter 5, along with their advantages and limitations.
Chapter 6 moves on to examine the role of Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission in the
reform process. The chapter also examines if the regulator could have been more pro-active?
Taking cue from the Latin American experience with power reforms, Delhi had adopted a
partial multi-year tariff (MYT). The chapter has tried to examine the usefulness of MYT in
the political economy of India and also in light of the controversy created by the recent
demand to amend the Electricity Act 2003 to make the regulator subservient to the
government directions. Finally, Chapter 7 has used the Ahmed Galal Framework to
examine how successful the Delhi privatisation experiment has been.
24 | P a g e
The Antecedents of Psychological Contract and Its Consequences: An Empirical
Study of Frontline Employees of the Forest Department in a North Indian State
Pratibha Singh
In this study, psychological contract is viewed as being influenced by organization
politics, job-design (task autonomy, task identity, task significance and task feedback), and
organizational justice (procedural, distributive, interactional and informational). The
proposed influences of psychological contract are seen as burnout (emotional exhaustion,
personal accomplishment and de-personalisation), organization identification (positive
identification, dis-identification, neutral and ambivalent identification) and organizational
commitment. A number of hypotheses are developed linking the psychological contract to
the various antecedents and consequent variables.
Data for empirical verification was gathered through field study using a
questionnaire in Hindi. The data was then analyzed and the hypothesis verified through
multiple regression for foresters and forest guards. SPSS software was used for the statistical
analysis. Along with the empirical study, a blank space was left in the questionnaire to
encourage people to give their responses on whatever they felt was important to them based
on the questionnaire. The responses were then grouped and analyzed.
Results indicated that organization politics, distributive and procedural justice, task
autonomy, task significance and task feedback were important antecedents of the
psychological contract. Organization identification was an important consequence of
psychological contract fulfillment. Organization disidentification was high when exhaustion
was high and personal accomplishment was low. Levels of burnout were low in the
department and commitment level of foresters was interestingly more than that of forest
guards though the latter enjoyed more autonomy. The study is an effort to enhance the
understanding of the psychological contract among the frontline employees in the Forest
Department to motivate them and to put to best use their talents and skills.
25 | P a g e
Livelihood - Focused Conservation Development Model for Maharashtra
Praveen Srivastava
Livelihood rights amount to dependence of local villagers upon the forests for
meeting their bonafide needs of timber, firewood and minor forest produce. As they earn
their wage income from forest-related activities and have their homes in forests, they get
financial and social security as well. Conservation connotes ensuring sustainability of the
ecosystem that encompasses soil, water, air, flora and fauna - in a way a whole life-support
system. There is a popular notion that livelihood rights of forest-dependent people
jeopardize conservation, as people-centric conservation policies are in conflict with
conservation-centric laws. This is based on the precept that harvest of forest produce affects
regeneration. It is applicable to commercial harvest, but certainly may not hold well in cases
of livelihood-driven extraction. The line demarcating these two domains is hazy. To that,
contradicting judicial pronouncements under the influence of evolving global conservation
conventions have added more confusion. Growing number of scanners of conservation
activities in the form of Supreme Court, High Courts, Centrally Empowered Committee,
National Forest Commission, NGOs, media and the recently created PM-appointed
committee headed by Sunita Narayan to probe the reasons for the dwindling number of
tigers in Sariska, cumulatively create an air of urgency to resolve the existing paradox.
This dissertation probes several ongoing national and international efforts
attempting to resolve this conflict. To that, diverge perceptions of all the relevant
stakeholders over the twin issues through questionnaire-cum-interviews was collated.
Politicians, bureaucrats, forest officers, media people, NGOs and academia from Karnataka
and Maharashtra, with credible past experience about the twin issues were interviewed.
Stakeholder analysis was corroborated by the innovations in the existing policy indicators to
discern cause and affect relationship in regard to social capital with livelihood security status
within a society. Likewise, inter-relation of ecological capital with eco restoration status of an
ecosystem and the need for economic capital investment for achieving sustainable
development too was analysed. The analysis reveals that social capital is crucial, but
insufficient economic capital often results in ecological degradation. Forest-rich belts
therefore need empowerment of local village institutions. Promotion to forest produce-
based sustainable industries in such areas may ensure eco restoration as well as economic
well-being. The need to invoke this to arrest the social strife simmering in forest-rich tribal
belts may no longer be denied. Resource-starved degraded forest regions need investment
from private sectors along the line of sustainability while ensuring livelihood security and
thereby ushering in a holistic development. A tripartite arrangement between the private
sector, the federation of existing forest protection committees and the Forest Development
Corporations may turn out to be a viable strategy. Experiences world over have proved this
beyond doubt. Care, however, should be taken to ensure that unalloyed commercial interests
of private sectors may not jeopardise the social capital and in turn livelihood security.
Livelihood security certainly warrants judicious and adequate investment in conservation for
its sustenance.
26 | P a g e
Bio-Fuels and the Impact on India’s Future Oil Dependence
Pushpa Thottan
The high crude oil prices ruling since mid-2004 has once again trained the
spotlight on the dangers of continued dependence of a large part of the global economy on
oil imports from the Middle East. Simultaneously, it has highlighted the potential of bio-
fuels to lower this dependence to a limited extent, as Brazil, USA and the EU demonstrate.
India has also recently ventured into this area and is considering alternatives available.
The world fuel ethanol production of 28 billion litres, equalling 0.4 million
barrels per day is mainly concentrated in Brazil and the United States. This constitutes about
0.5% of global oil consumption, production being based on sugarcane or corn. Bio-diesel
production is as yet less than 2 billion litres per day. Low-cost feedstock such as cellulosic
crops and wood would serve to substantially increase global production potential. Long-term
prospects for bio-fuels use depend on biomass availability, future food demand and food
patterns, other types of land use and agricultural productivity, costs compared to oil based
transportation fuels and government support.
In all countries where bio-fuels are now in vogue, finding their place under the
sun has been an uphill battle, since the cost-benefit evaluation of bio-fuels is dominated by
relatively difficult-to-quantify benefits ranged against well-defined costs. Promotional factors
instrumental for growth in ethanol and bio-diesel use have been the consciousness of their
social benefits, the involvement of the oil sector, production and tax incentives to producers,
subsidies to users, environmental initiatives, land use policies, stakeholder support and so on.
India’s imports of crude as a percentage of the total crude available have been
over 70% in the past years and are slated to become higher as the GDP increases even faster.
Additionally, our limited reserves of oil and gas necessarily imply that our oil dependence
will continue to reign high, particularly in transport because of the limitations of fuel
substitutability. For the present, increased refining capacity, reduced imports of costlier
petroleum products and export of petro-products have so far kept the oil import bill within a
third of the total import bill, but the situation would not continue to be under control
indefinitely
Analysis of the relationship between import dependence, real GDP and the oil
price (in rupees) yielded significant results for the period 1970-2003, and is as follows:
ln (crude imports) = - 4.476 + 1.648 ln (real GDP) - 0.216 ln (oil price in t-1)
27 | P a g e
However, in the short-run, the results were insignificant or contrary to theoretical
expectations, perhaps partly because India is not a major player in the oil market and partly
on account of the short-term inelasticity of demand for crude oil.
As India is a diesel-based economy with an annual consumption of almost 40
MMT, a 5% bio-fuel in diesel would obviously have a much greater impact on oil imports
than a similar blend in petrol in transport. Focus on non-transport, where such use would be
voluntary - though perhaps the best way to proceed - may not yield much. A government
mandate issued to the oil companies to use bio-fuels is definitely needed in the initial years
till the product price stabilizes, in the form of, say, guaranteed purchase as per specifications
at specified prices.
As commercial production of bio-fuels is yet to commence on a large enough
scale, it is advisable to start with a lower level of bio-fuel blend, say 2% and gradually raise
the percentage over the years as production capacities get enhanced. Lack of a coordinated
policy by the central government promoting the fuel and limitations of supply are the main
stumbling blocks at present.
The study also tries to analyse how use of bio-fuels would affect refineries by
putting their expansion plans on hold. An investment of Rs.34, 000 crore by 2010 is required
to upgrade refineries to meet the increasingly tighter emission norms. Consequently, there
would not be any under-utilisation of refinery capacity, implying that crude imports
dependence would grow regardless of price. The surplus, over and above domestic demand
for petroleum products would be exported after value enhancement through refining and the
savings in petrol and diesel accruing from use of bio-fuels would similarly be exported.
The key findings of the study are as follows:
• Oil import dependence is a long-term function of real GDP and oil prices.
Factors like refining capacity, crude production and oil intensity are relatively
insignificant.
• The costs of bio-fuels show that in the normal context, bio-fuels are three times
costlier than petro-fuels but the high crude prices of the past year and a half have
reduced the extent of the gap.
• Promotional factors leading to the programme’s success in other countries
indicate that the onus for promoting bio-fuel use lies with the government.
• No adverse impact needs to be envisaged on refinery capacity augmentation
plans or on availability of other fuels in the Indian economy. Refinery cost
structure would be affected only if ethanol blending in petrol is encouraged on a
large scale, but as per current indications, availability considerations would
restrict it to below 10% in the foreseeable future.
28 | P a g e
The recommendations that flows from the study are, in brief, thus are of two major
types:
1.1 With oil reserves considered to be running out and hydrogen still in the
demonstration phase, bio-fuels can be developed in the interim 25-30 years to reduce the
strain to the economy. This can be achieved by way of special R &D grants to agricultural
universities to develop higher yielding varieties of cane, improve techniques to raise the
sugar recovery factor, enhance extraction of ethanol and encourage production from other
low-cost feedstock for countrywide coverage of 5% ethanol. Dissemination of information
on the successful agronomic practices of Brazil’s sugar cane farmers and its sugar industry
through e-chaupals in the sugar production belt, appropriate industrial and governmental tie-
ups with Brazil and exchange visits would be fruitful. Similarly, the bio-diesel programme
can begin in wasteland regions and areas eager to try bio-fuel farming, with full knowledge of
prospects and risks to curb irrational expectations, disappointments and large-scale drop-
out/ rejection of the programme.
1.2 Well-developed infrastructure for up-stream and down-stream processing of bio-
fuels, guaranteed off-take, collection and processing mechanisms are essential. Also, some
initial subsidies on bio-fuels are needed, weighing costs of continued dependence on imports
at high ruling crude prices versus those of encouraging bio-fuels production. For this, the
ownership of the programme should also vest with the Finance Ministry.
2. Additional measures that can help are the strict implementation of the Energy
Conservation Act of 2002, generating electricity from all sources on a war footing, increased
encouragement to use rail transport for freight, development of an integrated public
transportation system, linking all modes of urban public transport, free pricing of all
petroleum fuels, rating vehicle fuel efficiency by weight, exploiting methane from treatment
plants, better ties with neighbours relatively better off in terms of oil reserves - in short, all-
round infrastructure upgradation would cut down growing oil import dependence and
provide a measure of self-reliance to the economy.
29 | P a g e
Railway's Uneconomic Branch Lines Potential and Possibilities
Rajesh Agarwal
Indian Railways is saddled with many railway branch lines that were constructed
either by the British on military/strategic considerations or by the princely states as a status
symbol. Today these lines do not carry much traffic and the expenditure on the staff and
maintenance of these lines is higher than the revenue generated.
Uneconomic branch lines by definition are those lines that do not yield a return
equal to or more than the opportunity cost of capital employed in the stock of similar risk.
In Railways, the return can be considered as equal to the rate of dividend payable to the
central government. Considering their low importance to the public, development of area,
capital for line being generated through taxpayer’s money and the consent of the central
government to forgo the dividend on these lines, one can assume returns to be zero.
However, if the lines continue to have operational losses, they become a constant drain on
revenues. It thus necessitates a holistic evaluation to find whether they are serving any other
purposes or not. Due to network characteristics of the railway system, a viability evaluation
of an isolated section is complex. The need of section is seen not only from the point of
financial viability but also from that of service, connectivity and economics. So far, studies
on IR have been done with the view of finding ways and means to reduce losses i.e. the
viability gap and the net loss is to be bridged through state or central government funds, or
else the option is to close the lines. Discontinuation of the services on branch lines is an
issue having wide social and political ramifications. Therefore it is generally difficult,
especially given the Indian political environment.
i. Internationally, this issue has been handled differently. In USA, through an
elaborate government regulation, namely the Staggers Act, many innovative
schemes of merger and acquisition of rail lines, apart from closure of isolated
sections among various class I, II and new rail road carriers have been followed
to bring in efficiency in customer service, maintenance practice and financial
performance. Looking at the advantage of having private players, UK has also
gone ahead with full-scale privatization but ended with limited success. This has
happened because of capacity constraint among private players but has still
provided valuable lessons to UK. Now they had modified their concepts and
plans of management of rail services differently for different regions. The
philosophy for London is totally different from that of an isolated section. The
community rail concept allows greater participation of local bodies, industries
and individuals in the day-to-day management of rail lines serving their area.
In India, a similar experiment on Darjeeling Himalayan railways have shown the
way forward with initial success in bringing the local community and state government
together in the management of rail service. Where such potential does not exist, better
utilization of assets needs to be thought of before closure of lines; as demonstrated by the
successful case of the Sanganer-Todaraisingh section of Jaipur. In the absence of a better
30 | P a g e
alternative utilization of the released assets, any closure will result in failure, like in the case
of the Vadodara division, where the inoperative NG sections were re-opened. The fact
remains that the fate of the line is always decided by popular sentiments.
Therefore the management of these lines should be de-linked from IR to facilitate
an increased local participation, allowing them to set their own technical standards for
maintenance; flexibility in deciding the fare and service level; and in harnessing all kinds of
support, including finance from all possible sources. This will ensure transparency among all
stakeholders. Despite this, if a line remains non-viable, it can be closed without the political
resentment and the assets can be put to alternative use.
31 | P a g e
Objective Performance Appraisal: Developing a Methodology for the Employees of
MP Forest Department
Raman K
ACR is the appraisal system for the government servants in India. Various studies
and committees’ reports, like that of the Surinder Nath and Hota Committees have
recommended the adoption of the Objective Performance Appraisal System. Similarly,
studies for Karnataka and MP Forest Departments diagnosed a very high level of
dissatisfaction at all the levels of the organization, caused by lack of recognition for good
work, a very weak system of internal communication, lack of role definition, lack of an
effective performance appraisal system, lack of transparency and openness and lack of trust
and faith among personnel. AP Forest Department's counseling system answers some of the
HRM issues. The employee exercises his choice in the matters of his transfer and posting.
The present study is an attempt to develop an Objective PAR for MPFD
employees. Having the largest forest area in the country, it has a lot at stake in proper HRM.
There is an urgent need to reflect on the quality of service, the factors of motivation and
associated consequences of non-delivery. There is a desperate need for assigning clear
responsibilities to the foresters, setting the targets as per the policies and objectives,
monitoring and evaluation of performance, maintaining transparency and planning the career
of the employee, which should include promotion, training, transfers and postings. Such an
arrangement will not only motivate the foresters to perform better, the department would
also be in a better position to meet the challenges of the day.
The study found it feasible to quantify the performance parameters of different
field employees of the department, which include:
1. It was possible to measure objectively the performance of the beat guards, range
assistants and the coupe-in-charges
2. The evaluation was done on the basis of the available records and reports of the
department
3. On comparing the evaluation based on confidential report and the objective
performance appraisal, it was found that there is no correlation between the two
4. The objective criteria for performance evaluation were found to be very helpful in
providing a reliable measure of the performance of an individual.
32 | P a g e
Public -Private Participation in Slum Rehabilitation in Mumbai
Samir Kumar Biswas
Mumbai, the commercial center of India, is well known for its vast slum population.
The government of Maharashtra has been making efforts to improve the environment, which
started with forceful eviction in the 1950s and evolved through stages to the ‘enabling’
approach of forging public-private partnership in the 1990s. The main focus has been on
decentralizing the decision making process to the community level, and on involving the
private developers. Multistoried buildings are constructed by demolishing the existing huts to
accommodate all the families and the remaining land is sold in the open market to meet the
total cost of construction and the profit of the developer. A developer mobilizes the
community to implement the project in a slum colony only when he sees sufficient profit in it,
which depends mainly on the location of the colony and the density of the existing huts.
Approximately, 1900 out of 2500 colonies are not covered yet, mainly because they are not
financially ‘viable’ due to their poor location or high density. This paper is based on a case
study of six slum rehabilitation projects. One was ‘impossible’ due to its very high density, in
spite of being situated in a ‘lucrative’ location. The community decided to execute the project
without depending on a developer and also to contribute the deficient amount and put it on
the path of sure success. The task of construction is very difficult and complex, which involves
obtaining permissions from various government agencies, mobilizing finances, shifting the
families into temporary houses, marketing and selling the saleable flats, resolving conflicts etc.
For executing all these activities, a community must be sufficiently enabled and supported by
some agency at each stage, which was done by an efficient and experienced NGO working in
the area of slum housing for many years. Many lessons can be learnt from these cases to make
the remaining ‘unviable’ colonies ‘viable’ with proper empowerment of the community. This
study also demonstrates that there is lack of community empowerment effort and absence of
institutional support to enable the community.
33 | P a g e
Antecedents and Consequences of Job Satisfaction among the Constabulary in
Karnataka
Sanjay Vir Singh
With the passage of time, crime and its mode of operation have undergone a sea
change and the responsibility on the law enforcing agencies has shot up significantly. The
growth of economy and globalisation has led to more sophisticated and professional crimes.
The environment has become extremely complex; vested interests play their communal card;
mafia elements, black marketers, illegal liquor barons etc., are making the work of the police
extremely challenging. It is therefore essential that the police officers of all ranks show
personal initiative in tackling the problems effectively.
The study tries to understand the antecedents and consequences of job satisfaction
and personal initiative of the policemen, so as to identify the de-motivating factors in the
police department and to suggest means to empower the constabulary. The concept of
empowerment is “encouraging and allowing individuals to do their jobs and contribute to
the organization’s goals. It requires the creation of a culture which both encourages people
at all levels to feel they can make a difference and helps them to acquire confidence and
skills to do so.” (August Vollmer)
Motivation of policemen is essential to increase personal initiative of the
constabulary in Karnataka. Motives represent what the policemen want and expect from their
jobs, while job satisfaction reflects the policemen’s reactions to what they receive.
Empowerment is extremely essential in the interest of the police since responsibility for
decision-making can be delegated to the lower police officers who are at the field level and
who are in a position to take decisions as per the requirement of the situation. As Richard
Curver states-“The right structure and environment has to be established so that the majority
constituents of the civil police can make full contribution towards better service delivery to the
citizens. This should be recognized that there should be power and authority established at all
levels of the organization”.
In the Police Department, extrinsic factors like pay and working conditions have
contribution significantly more towards job satisfaction than do intrinsic factors like
recognition. Maslow’s need-gratification theory (1954) states that higher needs become
desirable only when the lower needs are satisfied. The study of personal initiative of
policemen can help the police leadership to improve service delivery and get more motivated
employees. Also higher motivation will result in better service and generate staff loyalty and
increase efficiency.
The Districts studied are Bidar, Gulbarga, Mysore, Bangalore and the
Commissionerate of Bangalore. Analysis finds that the most significant factors affecting
personal initiative are – (a) Communication, (b) Exhaustion. The next significant factors
affecting personal initiative are – (a) Supervision, (b) Affective Organisational Commitment (c)
Personal Accomplishment.
34 | P a g e
The following specific suggestions are given for improving the personal initiative of
the constabulary:
• A conscious attempt should be made by the police station in-charge to be fair in job
allocation and
distributive justice.
Replacing the existing system of performance evaluation by a more transparent and
measurable system.
Since the most significant factor is communication, it is essential that both
downward and upward communication be made very effective and all communication
should be clear, precise and easily understood by the constables.
The number of work hours, which is very high at twenty-four hours per day; seven
days a week, exhausts a person physically and mentally and like the police in Mumbai and
Delhi, having an 8 hours duty schedule is required for more personal initiative.
Police is a team organization and a good supervisor makes a difference by enhancing
motivation of the constable in the police station, which results in high personal initiative.
The organization must make efforts to improve the police image, as also make the
constable get a sense of belonging to the organization, since affective organization
commitment will also make a significant difference to the personal initiative of the
constable.
Personal accomplishment is a significant factor and the constable must be rewarded
if he has done some good work. This would motivate him to take personal initiative to
resolve any crisis.
Promotional aspects of constables are poor and the nature of work is monotonous.
The police leadership must strive to change this by giving at least 3-4 promotions to the
constable during his service and also ensure fairness in job allocation and job rotation at
the police station in order to achieve better personal initiative.
35 | P a g e
Taxation and Tax Compliance in India: The Attitudes and Perceptions of Taxpayers
and Their Influence on the Tax Behaviour
Sibichen K Mathew
Taxation is one of the key institutions in all civilized societies. Through taxes, the
citizens become partners in the state’s responsibility to serve the society. However, paying
taxes is not always a pleasant task for a majority of the taxpayers. There is an increasing
tendency among the income earners to pay as little as possible. Consequently, substantial
amount of undisclosed income is generated in the society, creating social and economic
imbalances. Therefore much academic attention has been given to analyse taxation and tax
compliance all over the world. That has resulted in a plethora of studies from different
perspectives. Analysis of various studies have shown that the predominant inference is that
taxpayers are rational decision makers and are concerned about costs and benefits and their
action depends on deterrence factors. Very few studies have recognized the social and
psychological dimensions in the tax behaviour. The present study examines the issue with an
integrated sociological perspective recognizing the influence of multiple factors contributing
to one’s tax behaviour. The study examines the problem with a symbolic interactionist
perspective and attempts to understand the taxpayers’ perception of the state and taxation in
personal, social and situational contexts.
Historical analysis of taxation and tax enforcement in India during the ancient,
medieval and British period clearly brought to light the discriminatory and partisan
characteristics that dominated in each distinguishable period. Thus there is a historical-
sociological reason for the general tax apathy in India. Though the tax policies in the post
independent India took a radical shift and were oriented towards the ideals of equity and
welfare, there were serious problems in ensuring perfect tax compliance. The citizens felt
that while taxes are very much visible, services of the state are not visible to that extent.
While the taxpayers have a positive attitude about the role of the state and taxation in
achieving development and welfare for the country, they seem to have a negative attitude
both about the role performance of the state and the functioning of the tax system. They
perceive large scale tax evasion around them and frankly admit that they conceal part of their
income from taxation. While the tax administration has been successful in ensuring
procedural compliance among the taxpayers, it has failed to increase substantive compliance.
Taxpayers indulge in inter group comparison and perceive that tax policies and tax
administration are not fair. Though there is an inner recognition of the rationale of taxation
at the cognitive level, the same is disturbed by what is perceived in the society and that has
resulted in cognitive dissonance leading to unintended tax behaviour.
The study tries to analyze various problems affecting tax compliance in India as
perceived by the taxpayers and suggests policy recommendations based on the insights that
emerged. The data revealed that past tax experience was not influential to increase the
compliance behaviour of the taxpayers through better disclosure. This calls for the need for
investigations of high quality in detecting tax evasion. The study suggests appropriate
36 | P a g e
communication strategies and enforcement techniques in the light of the findings. It is
necessary that the tax system be flexible to the needs of various categories of taxpayers, but
that flexibility has to be based on consistent, fair, rational analysis of the demands and not
on narrow considerations. The study suggests several steps to ensure a psychological
contract between the taxpayers and the government that would increase the tax morale. Tax
reforms on the lines stated in the study coupled with good governance can ensure better tax
compliance and taxpayer satisfaction in the era of globalization.
37 | P a g e
E-Public Procurement Approach for Implementation on Indian Railways
Sudhir Kumar Sharma
E-public procurement is being looked as a tool for increasing efficiencies and
transparencies and for reducing costs. In the context of the Indian Railways, the need to cut
down the costs is even more urgent given its poor financial health and increasing
competition. Initiative has been taken by the Indian Railways towards implementing the e-
procurement system. However, in implementing the e-procurement system it has to take a
number of decisions such as which model to choose, which format to adopt and which
items to procure through the web. Various available models have been compared and a
hybrid model is suggested for e-procurement, keeping in view the integrated vision for later
upscaling. A framework based on the purchasing portfolio models has been developed to
classify the items into different categories and appropriate auction formats for these
categories have been suggested. The details as to what rules to follow and what valuation
mechanism to use in addition to addressing various pitfalls of the usual auction design have
been addressed within the specific regulatory constraints of Indian Railways. The process of
stake holder analysis has been used to identify the weaknesses of the present system and has
been taken into consideration while suggesting the auction design.
38 | P a g e
Effect of Institutional Structures on Urban Water Delivery System: A Longitudinal
Comparative Analysis
V. Umashankar
The post-liberalisation era has seen several reform efforts in the natural
monopoly utility sectors. However, urban water supply systems have been in the background
and have seen very limited attempts at effective reform. With the burgeoning urbanization
and the essentiality of water for life contrasting with the realization that fresh water is not an
inexhaustible resource, the reform of the urban water infrastructure will achieve prominence.
The water sector has two features that distinguish it from other infrastructure and have
implications for public policy. First, the supply is finite and location-specific. Second,
because safe water is crucial for life and health, its availability and affordability for the entire
population are of enormous welfare and political importance. The achievement of the
objective of affordable provision calls for appropriate institutional arrangements at the local
level for equitable access and economically efficient functioning of urban water systems. The
challenge for institutional development and policy formulation for the sector is to meet both
efficiency and social welfare objectives in the water sector, balancing the needs of
consumers, utilities, governments and the environment.
De-centralisation has been postulated to bring about efficiency and
responsiveness in service delivery. This study attempts to investigate this postulate in respect
of urban water delivery systems by contrasting the relative efficiency and access policies of
the centralised water boards in Bangalore and Hyderabad, functioning under the control of
the respective state governments; and the decentralised service provision by municipal
bodies in Pune and Faridabad. From an understanding of the accountability structures
inherent in the institutional construct, the study concludes that efficient service provision
does not solely depend on decentralisation but on the presence of factors that tend to
promote accountability. Autonomy, clarity in functions, adequacy of revenue assignments
and enforcement of a hard budget constraint with predictability of transfers, foster efficiency
in service delivery; but responsiveness is an outcome of the strength of the chain of
accountability from the customer/voter to the delivery agent. The chain would also depend
on the nature of service provision: whether centralised or decentralised. From the
understanding obtained from the study, appropriate recommendations are drawn for the
policy maker in designing institutional structures for service delivery.
39 | P a g e
Future Directions and Policy for the Karnataka Telecom Circle: A Critical Appraisal
R. K. Upadhyay
Telecommunication services in India have been going through a phenomenal
period of reforms in the last decade. This period has also brought in a tremendous amount
of competition in this sector. BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) is facing tough
competition from private players like Bharati, Reliance, TATA and others. These companies
are concentrating in urban areas and are aggressively pursuing the creamy customers of
BSNL by means of pricing and promotion. Further, due to falling tariffs of mobile service
there is a shift in preference of mobile phones over landline. This has resulted in negative or
almost stagnant growth for BSNL in the landline segment. The result is that a lot of capacity
of landline network is not being utilized and has remained idle for the past few years. In
addition, being a state owned operator, BSNL is the only operator serving in rural areas.
Enough support from use is not available as it is still evolving. Under these circumstances,
BSNL has to think of an alternative approach to its expansion plans in terms of investment,
technology, and strategy to fill up the idle capacity by way of new services like broadband. In
this dissertation an attempt is made to study the BSNL network of Karnataka in respect of
cost, revenue, traffic and new services like broadband to be able to prioritize the exchanges
in terms of giving attention for business and future investment. The cost of providing a line
in urban and rural area is calculated. Similarly the access deficit charges (ADC) are estimated
for each district. The ADC for rural and urban are calculated separately to emphasize that
access deficit is much higher in rural areas. The cost of different type of calls is calculated
both in rural and urban areas to base future strategies in terms of pricing and promotion.
The traffic pattern for traffic originating from Karnataka or terminating in Karnataka has
been studied. It is seen that 76% traffic is confined to Karnataka and only 24% exits out of
Karnataka. Mobiles contribute the highest amount of traffic in tax exchanges. This analysis
can provide insights into possible tariff and marketing schemes. Finally, it has been
established that expanding by GSM will be a better option; however if facilities like
broadband could be given in a large way in cities like Bangalore and Mangalore even,
landlines will be a good option in terms of return.
40 | P a g e
WTO Fisheries Subsidies Debate: Issues and Strategies for India
N Vasudevan
The nexus between fisheries subsidies, overcapacity and over fishing dominates
the WTO negotiations related to fisheries. The Doha declaration of WTO in 2001 stressed
the need for clarifying and improving fisheries subsidies disciplines and since then, some
serious attempts have been made to arrive at some form of consensus among the WTO
members. Reliable estimates suggest that many developed and developing countries heavily
subsidize their fishing fleets. India being one of the largest maritime states has to sooner
than later take a position on the question of fisheries subsidies. In this dissertation, an
attempt is made to provide a framework for India’s negotiating position on fisheries
subsidies in WTO. The methodology involved an extensive survey of literature and
collection of secondary data and interviews with various experts on the subject. The
submissions made by member countries in WTO are also reviewed.
The research questions included the following: (1) What is the level of exploitation of
commercially important fish species/ species groups in Indian fisheries? (2) What are the
subsidies provided to the Indian fisheries industry? (3) What safeguards can be worked out
within the WTO framework to protect the livelihood security of the traditional fishing
communities? (4) What are the challenges faced by our marine products export industry and
how best can it adapt to the globalised world? (5) What management measures and policy
interventions can supplement/complement the global efforts to move towards responsible
fisheries?
The findings include the following: (1) Many of our commercially important fish species do
not appear to be as overfished as they are projected to be (2) Subsidies provided to Indian
fisheries is very negligible (3) It is possible to safeguard the interests of our fishers within the
WTO framework; several management and policy measures are suggested to equip our
fisheries industry to face global challenges and also to strengthen our negotiating position in
the WTO.
41 | P a g e
Imperatives of Developing the Indian Food Industry: Opportunities, Constraints and
Policy Challenges
Venkateswara Prasad J.S
Food is vital to India’s future. India is mainly an agricultural economy, yet the
economic liberalization process has by passed it. This is in sharp contrast to the experience of
other developing economies like Thailand, Philippines, China and the like. If India has to
accelerate its overall economic growth then the food sector has to become dynamic. There
have been some sporadic attempts to remove obstacles to the growth of the food industry in
the last ten years. The governments at the centre as well as in the states have announced
policies, which have not yet created the desired impact. The central Ministry of food
processing has been in existence since 1988. It has a basket of schemes and programmes, but
still things have not improved.
Hence a study was undertaken to not only identify the critical factors affecting the
food industry’s performance but also to identify suitable mechanisms and institutions to
resolve these problems. This study, which was mainly undertaken in Andhra Pradesh, has
covered all stakeholders in the food industry. The respondents have strongly indicated a
need for the government to play a proactive catalytic role. A positive attitude without any
gap between policy intentions and implementation, and convergence of all policy matters
under the umbrella of a separate food processing department is recommended. This will be a
sign of empathy and seriousness of the government towards the food industry. Provision of
basic infrastructure, synchronizing the tax regime with international levels and streamlining
food legislation are other pre requisites. Another significant aspect thrown up by the study is
the need to encourage market systems to integrate farm-firm linkages. Out of the several
options available, contract farming seems the most valuable means of achieving effective
integration of the food chain.
42 | P a g e
Effective Delivery of Public Services Using Information & Communication
Technology
P Vinodchandran
ICT has emerged as a powerful tool for enhancing the effectiveness of public
service delivery. With a plethora of initiatives India is in the forefront of the global effort to
exploit the full potential of ICT for providing a variety of services both in the urban and the
rural areas of the country. However, there is scope for achieving better results if a cohesive
approach, focusing on the customer needs, is adopted. This study attempts to evolve a
strategy for success with customer satisfaction as the main objective. Feedback from
customers, kiosk operators and stakeholders have helped to identify the important factors
influencing the success of initiatives aimed at public services delivery using ICT. The critical
factors for success relate to utility, accessibility, connectivity, reliability, replicability and
sustainability. Ensuring sustainability is the most challenging task and can be achieved
through multiple stake holder involvement, sharing of resources, especially infrastructure,
and providing services that customers need at an affordable price. Accordingly a suggestive
reference model has been developed which could be useful while designing and redesigning
ICT based platforms for public service delivery. Case studies pertaining to some of the
important ICT initiatives which have made an appreciable impact have helped to identify
key features which could be adopted as best practices by other such initiatives. Most of these
projects rely on powerful partnership with other stakeholders based on their capabilities.
Collaboration between the various stakeholders participating in different ICT ventures can
maximize the benefits to the users while at the same time containing the wastage of
resources associated with isolated attempts. Suggestions regarding the terms and conditions
of engagement between the key stakeholders form part of this study. This framework could
enable them to function effectively as a team and achieve the goals within reasonable time
limits. This study includes recommendations for creating the appropriate public policy
background to facilitate the rapid growth of public service delivery using ICT.
43 | P a g e
Terrorism and Human Rights: A Human Rights Perspective on Public Policy
Response to Terrorism in India in the New Millennium
Shikhar Sahai
India is facing the threat of terrorism that presents a major public policy dilemma
that lies in the need to reconcile the requirements of countering terrorism, which requires a
strong state; and preservation of human rights and civil liberties that necessitates limitations
on the powers of the state. In the post 9/11 World, growing global consensus against
terrorism strengthens India’s position in formulating its policy response. There is no single
pattern or causative factor for the three broad strands of terrorism in India. Kashmir
terrorism is predominantly external aided but with historical roots. Northeast terrorism is
localized but intense and complex with ‘live’ volcanoes (Assam, Manipur, Tripura and
Nagaland) and ‘dormant’ volcanoes (Mizoram, Meghalaya & Arunachal Pradesh) that may
become ‘live’ in future. The conflict patterns alternate between inter-tribal conflict, conflict
between tribes and non-tribes and between tribes and the state. Naxalism is a homespun problem
that is expanding to cover pockets of underdeveloped areas in several states.
The theoretical distinction between ‘terrorism’ and ‘insurgency’ gets blurred in the
real world. Sustained terrorism leads to de-legitimization of the state. A recurrent theme of the
reports and campaigns of the human rights NGOs is the alleged violations committed by the
security forces while the latter regard the NGOs as the front organizations of the terrorists.
Human rights are now to be seen in terms of their horizontal applicability to all sections of
society (including terrorists) instead of confining it to a vertical relationship between the state
and the citizens. While the “root causes” of terrorism (“demand side”) must be addressed, it
is equally important to pay attention to factors that “sustain” it (“supply side”). The nexus
between criminality and terror is one such factor. A soft state with soft borders is a recipe for
policy disaster.
The Indian state must adopt a coherent policy response to justify its raison d’etre.
Such a policy frame work must be based on the following 8 pillars:
� Law Enforcement
� Human Rights Sensitization
� Border Management
� Crisis Management
� Sustained Dialogue
� Diplomatic Initiatives
� Good Governance and
� Management of Political Pluralism.
44 | P a g e
A “Triple I” approach based on Insulation of vulnerable sections from group appeal of
terrorism, Isolation of the lawless fringe and Integration into social mainstream is called for. In
a democratic society based on principles of human rights, there is no “final” solution to such
complex problems; and conflict resolution is more a process than a destination.