Terms Of Development Indicators Research Articles

Responsibility, social aspirations, and contemporary low fertility: a case study of rural West Bengal, India

ABSTRACT West Bengal, a middle-ranking Indian state in terms of development indicators with more than two-thirds rural population, is on the verge of becoming a lowest low fertility zone. While the rural TFR (Total Fertility Rate) of West Bengal (1.6 births/woman) is on par with many developed countries (Norway, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, etc.), its developmental stage is not—which poses a paradox. Using data from a primary survey of 405 mothers aged 15–35 years alongside focus group data of parents, the present study employs a society-specific approach to explain contemporary low fertility in rural West Bengal. We argue that the presence of high aspirations for children in an economically insecure setting initiates a distinctive sense of parental responsibility that generates a unique local socio-ecology of low fertility not previously observed in the context of rural fertility decline in India. Responsibility-laden aspirations toward children and reasoned-rational deliberations regarding fertility outcomes act as subliminal motives to have a small family, challenging common assumptions regarding the relationship between economic hardship, rurality, and fertility.

Territorial Development as an Innovation Driver: A Complex Network Approach

Rankings are a well-established tool to evaluate the performance of actors in different sectors of the economy, and their use is increasing even in the context of the startup ecosystem, both on a regional and on a global scale. Although rankings meet the demand for measurability and comparability, they often provide an oversimplified picture of the status quo, which, in particular, overlooks the variability of the socio-economic conditions in which the quantified results are achieved. In this paper, we describe an approach based on constructing a network of world countries, in which links are determined by mutual similarity in terms of development indicators. Through the instrument of community detection, we perform an unsupervised partition of the considered set of countries, aimed at interpreting their performance in the StartupBlink rankings. We consider both the global ranking and the specific ones (quality, quantity, business). After verifying if community membership is predictive of the success of a country in the considered ranking, we rate country performances in terms of the expectation based on community peers. We are thus able to identify cases in which performance is better than expected, providing a benchmark for countries in similar conditions, and cases in which performance is below the expectation, highlighting the need to strengthen the innovation ecosystem.

Caste, then Class: Redistribution and Representation in the Dravidian Model

Dravidian parties believe that changes to the economic structure will not lead to social justice if the upper/dominant castes continue to exclusively possess social capital. To them, and later, to the successive Dravidian party governments, economic justice was not possible without first ensuring social justice. This view was held by the stalwarts of the Dravidian movement such as Periyar E.V. Ramasamy (Periyar henceforth), the subject of this engagement, and actualised by leaders such as C.N. Annadurai and M. Karunanidhi, whose electoral politics was a means to empower subaltern groups in Tamil society. We contend that Periyar was the chief aggregator of the ideas put forth by earlier social justice ideologues, and an effective disseminator of the Dravidian political ethos among the masses, making his contribution comprehensive and unique. Through an analysis of the approach of Dravidian party governments towards affirmative action, administrative reform and legislation, and through comparisons of the performance of Tamil Nadu in terms of development indicators with other states, we reveal the profound influence of Periyarist thinking on the Dravidian movement and State praxis. The quest of the Dravidian movement for social justice did not just focus on class inequalities but on caste inequalities, which it saw as a propagator of class inequalities.

Growth or Development Trap

In this essay, we explore how to obtain a more accurate picture not only of the growth situation as measured by traditional economic indicators, but also of the level of development, which also raises the possibility of becoming trapped. We distinguish between development and growth, pointing out that Hungary has good growth figures, but lags behind in terms of development indicators. This discrepancy requires further, more detailed analysis in order to define desirable targets for development indicators that are independent of growth indicators, and to avoid the development trap by achieving them. This is also justified because, in the longer term, the evolution of development indicators also affects the chances of sustainable growth and allows for more general, systemic qualitative progress. Based on the statistical data presented in relation to the issues raised, we conclude that it would be necessary to construct a mathematical model of growth and development to illustrate and econometrically analyse the dynamic relationship. But this is not undertaken in the context of this essay.