Journal of Indian School of Political Economy

Ravindra H. Dholakia ¹, Manish B. Pandya ²

Affiliations
1 IIM Ahmedabad, IN
2 DE&S, GoG, Gandhinagar, IN

Abstract

In the present paper, we have critiqued recent revisions made in the estimation of state income in India consequent upon the change in the base year of the National Accounts from 2004-05 to the new base of 2011-12. We have pointed out 10 major limitations of the whole exercise. The revisions associated with the new base 2011-12 series have serious implications on national and regional accounts estimation compared to the past. We have argued with concrete illustrations drawn from the experience of the Gujarat state that most of these impacts are negative on the quality, reliability, valid usage, interpretation and meaningful analysis of long term trends of sectors and the economy at the state level in the country. These revisions areperhaps not well thought out, carefuland consistent with the fundamental desirable characteristics of descriptive statistics and estimation of aggregates. In some cases they seem to be carried out hurriedly without paying attention to their likely impact on the whole system, processes and personnel involved in collection, compilation and generation of critical estimates at regional level. Our final recommendation is that the recent revisions associated with the new base of 2011-12 series should be abandoned for implementation at the state and district levels in the country till further revision of the base year takes place. In the interim period, let the old base of 2004-05 with the methodology continue at the state level.

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Archana R. Dholakia ¹, Ravindra H. Dholakia ²

Affiliations
1 School of Social Sciences, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, IN
2 Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad-380015, IN

Abstract

It is hypothesised that the tax revenues of a state economy would be sensitive to the macroeconomic performance of the state economy measured in terms of inflation and the growth of real income. The case of Gujarat state over the period 1980-81 to 1997-98 is considered for examining this hypothesis. The time trends of the state's tax revenue, GSDP and implicit deflator are estimated and relatively high instability of the growth of both nominal and real income in the state is brought out. The methodology used by the Tenth Finance Commission to estimate the buoyancy of the tax revenues of the states ignored the unit ischolar_main problems in using the level variables with strong time trends. Since the Commission has also not tested for cointegration of the regressions used, it has generated spurious correlations and meaningless estimates of the tax buoyancy for different states. In order to get a more realistic, acceptable and analytically usable estimate of the tax buoyancy in Gujarat, annual rates of growth in the variables are used in the regressions which amount to using the first difference in the double-log form. Moreover, the hypothesis of uniform marginal buoyancy of tax collection for inflation and real output growth is also tested for Gujarat. The argument about tax rebates and incentives contributing to the future growth of output and hence to the future tax collection is also examined. The data on Gujarat do not appear to support such causal links of the tax incentives and future growth of the economy. Very low tax buoyancy indicates serious problems with the tax administration and tax system in the state.

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Shreekant Iyengar ¹, Ravindra H. Dholakia ²

Affiliations
1 Institute of Law, Nirma University, Ahmedabad, IN
2 Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, IN

Abstract

The present study attempts to examine the role of specialist services in the rural public health system of India in the areas of maternal and child healthcare. The study uses primary data collected through a survey of doctors and paramedical staff working at public health facilities regarding availability and quality of the specialist services in gynaecology, paediatrics and anaesthesia. The study discusses in detail aspects of infrastructure, manpower and operational challenges faced in effective provisioning of specialist services through the rural health facilities of four largest states-Bihar, Madhya Pradesh (MP), Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh (UP). The findings of the survey reveal a significant dearth of specialist doctors with their concentration at the district level. Moreover, there are severe misallocations of the specialist doctors and, lack of manpower support, equipment and basic infrastructure within the public health system causing serious challenges in effective provisioning of specialist services for maternal and child healthcare. Lastly, the efforts made by the government for providing additional manpower support for these services are also not giving the desired results.

Keywords

Maternal Health, Child Health, Specialist Doctors, Emergency Obstetric Care (EmOC), Rural Healthcare.

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