Journal of Indian School of Political Economy

Vikas Chitre

Abstract

In January 2015, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) introduced the new series of India’s national accounts statistics with the base year 2011-12 in place of the previous one with the base year 2004-05. Apart from the revision of base year to a more recent year, the new series was marked by more radical changes compared to earlier base year changes, involving the use of new and expanded data sets and significant methodological revisions.

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Vikas Chitre ¹, Abhay Tilak ¹

Affiliations
1 Indian School of Political Economy, Pune-411016, IN

Abstract

This is a revised version of a Background Note, prepared for the seminar on the question of the re-organisation of the States in India. We review at the outset the Constitutional Provisions for re-organisation of States in India and the principles adopted by the States Re-organisation Commission, 1955, to address this question. We recall the Commission’s recommendations particularly in the context of Vidarbha and Telangana, and the Amendments to the Constitution, made to pacify the demands for separate statehood for these two and other regions. Taking the position that the problems in promoting balanced regional development is at the ischolar_main of demands for separate States, we examine in detail the extent to which imbalances in regional development have been ameliorated particularly in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Stressing the importance of ensuring economic and financial viability of the States in the interest of their autonomy, we consider the prospects of the above two regions in particular emerging as financially viable, taking into account the approach to devolution of funds laid down by the Thirteenth Finance Commission.We also evaluate the receipts and expenditure patterns of the newly created States of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand and their mother States with a view to assessing the positive and negative impacts of creation of the new States on the finances of both the newly created as well as the mother States. Finally, we make a few observations about the political considerations underlying the question of the re-organisation of States.

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Vikas Chitre ¹

Affiliations
1 Indian School of Political Economy, Pune-411016, IN

Abstract

This chapter presents the main observations on the trends in expenditure on PMC Schools and related items based on a quick review of the Annual Reports of PMC School Board from 1975-76 to 2005-06.

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Vikas Chitre ¹

Affiliations
1 Indian School of Political Economy, IN

Abstract

Dr. Ramdas M. Honavar, Emeritus Fellow of the School and former Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, passed away on 27 June 2016 after a brief terminal illness in Portugal, where he was living with his daughter, Minal, for the past few years. He had just turned 93 at the time of his demise. As his daughter wrote to us on his demise, "Although physically very debilitated before the terminal illness, he remained avidly interested in currents events and keen to discuss politics, economics and tennis." She further wrote: "Despite the serious nature of his illness and the very high doses of medication he received, his mental faculties remained acute. He remembered the day after the Brexit vote, 3 days before he passed away, to ask me how it had gone and the exact number of votes polled."

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Vikas Chitre ¹

Affiliations
1 Indian School of Political Economy, Pune-411016, IN

Abstract

We examine the voting pattern in 2009 Lok Sabha election in India to assess voter response to various economic and governance outcomes. We find evidence that vote shares for the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party in the states were influenced by macroeconomic outcome variables such as consumer price inflation, growth rate of per capita net state domestic product, as well as specific indicators of infrastructure development like the density of rural and urban roads, and implementation of welfare schemes and safety nets such as the employment and income supplement provided under the National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) Act and subsidised food grains provided through Public Distribution System (PDS) in the states. The evidence was weak for electoral response to the other macroeconomic outcome variables such as employment rate, employment growth and inequality of personal consumption levels, to public services such as provision of drinking water, and to the law and order situation in the states as reflected in the crime rates in the states. In the process, we identify the electoral trade-off between consumer price inflation rate and the growth rate of per capita nsdp and the other factors causing shifts in this trade off relationship. Briefly, for every one percentage point increase in the average nsdp growth rate over the previous five years, the voters would have been willing to accept an increase of CPI inflation rate of 0.24 per cent to keep the vote share of INC unchanged at the level obtained in 2004 Lok Sabha election. Thus, the voters’ trade-off between inflation and growth in India is strongly adverse to growth. Further, the voters would have been willing to accept a somewhat higher rate of CPI inflation and kept INC vote share constant if NREG wages per head or PDS subsidy share of expenditure on subsidised food commodities or increase in rural road density was higher. In states in which the percentage of SC and ST in population was higher, voters would require a lower CPI inflation rate to keep the INC vote share unchanged.

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Vikas Chitre ¹

Affiliations
1 Indian School of Political Economy, Pune-411016, IN

Abstract

We pay our homage to late Professor K.N. Raj, a remarkable teacher, an outstanding social scientist of our country and an effective institution builder, on his sad demise on February 10, 2010. Prof. Raj was actively associated with the School as its Honorary Fellow right from the beginning of the School till very recently, when because of his indifferent health he found it difficult to undertake travel to Pune for the meetings of the Council and therefore, requested not to be re-elected. The School will always remember the valuable contribution and the wise counsel of Prof. Raj to the building of the School.

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Vikas Chitre ¹

Affiliations
1 Indian School of Political Economy, Pune-411016, IN

Abstract

Professor Suresh Tendulkar passed away on 21st June 2011 in Pune after almost two months of struggle with post-operation complications following bypass surgery. In his demise, the country has lost an eminent economist and a serious scholar focussing on a deep study of the Indian development and reform process.

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Vikas Chitre

Abstract

The School started bringing out the Journal from 1989 with the object of disseminating studies on Indian economy, polity and society. Thus, it is an inter-disciplinary research journal covering publications in the areas of economics, political science and sociology with a focus on developmental issues or with a developmental perspective in the context of India. From 1989 to 2003, the Journal was edited first by Prof. V. M. Dandekar, and subsequently by Prof. A. S. Nadkarni and Prof. N. Rath. I have been editing the journal since April 2004. Since 2012, Prof. Sriraman has already been associated with the Journal as Joint Editor. I greatly benefited from the guidance and support of the Editorial Advisory Committee of the journal and the Executive Council of the School through all these years. I am thankful to all the members of these bodies for the same.

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Vikas Chitre ¹

Affiliations
1 Indian School of Political Economy Pune 411016, IN

Abstract

The School organised on January 21, 2017, a Symposium on the Recent Changes in the Methodology of Estimation of India’s GDP. Many of those present at the GSDP seminar also participated in that Symposium. We have also published the revised versions of the papers presented in that Symposium in the Journal of Indian School of Political Economy (Vol. XXIX, Nos. 1&2, January-June 2017). Many of the participants of the current seminar or the readers may have seen that issue as well.

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