The focus of sustainable development goals (SDGs) is to promote the use of renewable energy so that countries can achieve better environmental quality. However, the progression is plodding, and still, 80% of energy comes mainly from conventional sources in developing countries. The implementation of procedures depends on the political attitudes, political stability, and quality of institutions. India has a diverse political structure ranging from central government to state government to local governments. In the late '80s, India witnessed a stiff rise in regional and national political parties, which leads more political competition. This paper tries to explain the possible relationship between political competition and CO2 emission in India. With the application of the time series non-linear ARDL (NARDL) model, this study tries to find the asymmetric relationship between political competition and CO2 emission. In our empirical model, we also include other important elements of environmental quality like innovation and fossil fuel consumption. Empirical results show that political competition is asymmetrically related to CO2 emissions in the long run. Fossil fuel consumption and innovation also have a significant relationship with emissions. Based on the results, a few policy recommendations have been discussed.

AbstractDespite nearly three decades of ostensibly pro‐employer economic reforms in India, trade union membership and density in India appear to have risen. Although similar trends have been reported and investigated in other emerging economies such as China and South Africa, the union revival thesis in India is yet to be fully explored. Using large‐scale official survey data from 1993–1994 to 2011–2012 and primary data collected through 56 interviews with key stakeholders, this paper investigates the patterns of union membership growth in India. Findings indicate varying degrees of growth in union membership across all industrial sectors and employment types. We draw upon theoretical insights from economic theories of union growth, comparative politics and social movement unionism to explain union membership growth in India.

AbstractThis paper investigates pattern of productivity performance of home-based enterprises after introduction of economic reform. Both partial and total factor productivity measures were engaged. In this study we have used comparative analysis of non-home-based and street vending enterprises with home-based enterprises that is one of the significant sections of informal enterprises. The study shows both labour and capital productivity of home-based enterprises is low as compared to their counterpart over the period of time. There has been an improvement in total factor productivity growth of home-based enterprises after 2010–11, but it’s still lesser than its counterpart (non-home-based enterprises). However, the low productivity performance of home-based enterprises are cause of worry and raise several questions regarding new self-employment policy suggested by policy maker of new government.KeywordsProductivityEfficiencyHome-based enterprisesOwn account enterprises

Rural non-farm diversification in India is taking up new roles amidst increasing agrarian distress. In this context, two issues have been examined in this paper: first, the nature of rural non-farm diversification, and second, the accessibility of households to rural non-farm employment in the states of Bihar and Punjab. The study is predominantly based on unit level data of the latest round of the Situational Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households (NSSO). Findings suggest that while non-farm activities are largely adopted by landless and marginal land households in both states, there are a few lucrative options available which are being accessed by large landholders in Punjab. Overall, caste, gender and education are dominant determinants that work as barriers to the entry for rural households. The findings recommend that institutional reforms along with public policies should be prioritised towards generating sustainable non-farm livelihood options while eliminating multi-dimensional exclusions in rural labour markets considering regional prerequisites.

The article analyses determinants of choice of care providers during childbirth. Public health facilities provide care for free to all women during childbirth in West Bengal. In addition, a cash incentive is also attached with the service package for poor women who give birth at public health facilities. However, a section of women still prefer to give birth at home and some avail services from private facilities. The article attempts to explore the reasons underlying such difference. This analysis is based on primary data collected from four villages of Jalpaiguri district following multistage sampling method. It involved a survey of 251 households having at least one child below 2 years. Multinomial logistic regression model was used to analyse the data. The results suggest that quality of public health services, rural infrastructure, utilization of antenatal care and conditional cash transfers influenced the choice of care providers. Women who were eligible for and were aware of Janani Suraksha Yojana were less likely to go to private health facilities for childbirth. However, the programme did not seem to be effective in terms of reducing delivery at home.

Despite having several challenges in implementing certain provisions to combat global financial malfunctioning, the fate of Dodd-Frank Act seems positive with the reelection of Obama in the United States. This article tries to explore some of the recent regulatory affairs in the backdrop of the 2008 global financial crisis, probably one of the most virulent one in the history of the crises reflected in the imprudent lending following the ‘originate-to-distribute’ model by banks in US and the reckless borrowing at easy credit condition by borrowers (especially by sub-prime borrowers) without understanding the complexity of most of the financial products and transactions, unless become visible in a massive negative home equity.

Climate action is a challenging task and uncertainties in climate science make decision making extremely difficult. In this paper we evaluate the role that Real Options can play in helping decision making towards climate action. It also looks into whether evaluation via Real Options — keeping uncertainties in mind — will be a sensible choice from a broader macroeconomic viewpoint. While no single measure may alone be sufficient for climate change mitigation, Carbon Capture and Sequestration/Storage (CCS), along with energy efficiency improvements, renewable energy, enhancement of biological sinks, and other measures, may be able to achieve the emissions reductions needed to achieve climate stabilization. In addition, there will be important decisions in climate adaptation areas too, further adding to the complexities of decision making for climate action. In this paper, a normative case study is incorporated to determine the cost of CCS action in India. While arriving at the costs, a provision for the financial risk of storage has also been added. Given the costs, Real Options analysis is undertaken to arrive at a decision. The Real Options valuation is done using the Black-Scholes method. Ultimately, the Real Options framework is scrutinized from a broader macroeconomic perspective to understand its suitability for a more dynamic global economy as well as the effects of large climate funds on the framework, including how important a decision-making framework like Real Options is for a sustainable world.

The paper attempts to study the Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) in the field of urban water and sanitation in Delhi region in order to ascertain the hypothesis that the budgeting and planning impacts the lives of women and girls disproportionately compared to men and boys. The study finds that various policies and schemes pertaining to urban water and sanitation in India can be categorised as ‘gender blind’ since these do not recognise the gender-based disadvantages in accessing safe water supply and sanitation, sewerage and drainage. It is also observed that the overall budgetary allocation for water and sanitation in the resettlement colonies and for Jhuggi Jhopri (JJ) clusters (slums) is grossly inadequate and not in sync with the needs and effective level of service delivery. There is utter confusion and the lack of effective collaboration and consultation among various implementing agencies. Finally, the paper finds that the efforts of bringing out a ‘Gender Responsive Budgeting’ in India have been a cosmetic exercise so far.

India has witnessed substantial reforms in indirect taxes over the past two decades with the replacement of state sales taxes by Value Added Tax (VAT) in 2005 marking a watershed in this regard. Prior to VAT implementation, the tax structure was considered problematic primarily due to the “cascading effect of taxes”whereby an item is taxed more than once from the production to the final retail sales stage.To avoid this irrational tax structure, VAT was introduced so that that taxes are paid on the “value added portion” by each producer and the hurdles of the cascading effect are done away with. But shortcomings were also noticed in the VAT structure and efforts were made to further rationalise the system.The government has therefore recognised the need for harmonisation of goods and services tax so that both can be levied in a comprehensive and rational manner in a new taxation regime – Goods and Services Tax (GST).While presenting the Union Budget 2007-08, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram announced that GST would be introduced from April 1, 20102, in order to supplement the existing VAT system in India with a tax structure where goods and services tax can be unified in a comprehensive manner. The Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers would work with the Central government to prepare a road map for its roll out.

This article examines the priority accorded to agriculture and allied sectors in India's public expenditure over the last two decades, with specific attention to budgetary spending by the eastern region states. It observes that one of the important reasons for the slowdown of growth in Indian agriculture seems to have been the stagnation in public expenditure on the overall rural economy (i.e. Agriculture and Allied Activities, Irrigation and Flood Control, Village and Small Industries, Rural Development and Special Area Programmes) since the early 1990s. The falling priority given to the rural economy in the last three Five Year Plans of the country would have affected the eastern region states more adversely due to their weaker fiscal health and less developed agricultural sectors. The article also argues that there is a need to redesign the policy framework and provide adequate budgetary support for agricultural activities in dryland/rainfed areas in the eastern region states.