Rajneesh Narula, Professor of the- International Business Regulation at the Henley Business School, University of Reading, UK, presented a seminar on “Is Outward FDI from Developing Countries a ‘Good Thing’? Policy Implications for Home Countries” at the NCAER.
A number of developing countries – such as India – have seen a growth in outward FDI by domestic multinational enterprises over the last two decades. Many home countries (both developing and developed) have sought to encourage and promote such activity, arguing that such firms reflect their competitiveness and shifting comparative advantage. Other countries have reacted with alarm at outward FDI activity, feeling that it represents a ‘hollowing out’ of domestic assets-, and signals a decline in their competitiveness. Professor Narula contended that both can be true simultaneously, especially in those countries that have a ‘‘Lewisian’’ dual economy, such as India. There are costs and benefits associated with outward FDI. Professor Narula argued that there is a greater likelihood that such investments will result in capital flight rather than in opportunities for domestic upgrading, when generic approaches are applied.
NCAER organized a Roundtable Discussion on Caring for the Elderly in India: Challenges for a Society in Transition to examine some of the opportunities and challenges using a new and exciting panel survey conducted by NCAER and University of Maryland. India Human Development Survey (IHDS) carried out in 2004-5 and 2011-12 describes the changes in the lives of senior citizens over a period of tremendous social transformation. New results from IHDS framed this discussion.
In this lecture organised by the NCAER, Karthik Muralidharan presented results from a path-breaking three-year study, undertaken jointly with Paul Niehaus (UCSD) and Sandip Sukhtankar (Dartmouth), on the impact of using biometrically-authenticated Smartcards to make payments to NREGS and Pension beneficiaries in Andhra Pradesh. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission presided as the Chief Guest at the lecture. Nachiket Mor, Board Chair of CARE India, also spoke on the ocassion.
Social protection programs in India are often plagued with leakage and corruption, and beneficiaries face several challenges in accessing payments. One of the most promising attempts to increase state capacity to effectively implement programs is India’s ambitious initiative to provide all residents with biometrically-authenticated Aadhar numbers linked to bank accounts, which can be used to directly transfer benefits. While this is a promising initiative, skeptics have raised several concerns including implementation challenges, subversion by vested interests, exclusion errors, and cost effectiveness.
The Andhra Pradesh Smartcard Program used biometrically-authenticated Smartcards to make payments under NREGS and Social Security Pensions and was a functional pre-cursor to the integration of Aadhar with these programs. Prof. Muralidharan presented results from a large-scale, scientifically rigorous, randomized impact evaluation of the AP Smartcard program on beneficiary experiences and leakage. The study finds that the new technology delivered a faster, more predictable, and less corrupt payments process that was also highly cost-effective (in spite of several implementation challenges). The results suggest that investing in secure authentication and payment infrastructure can significantly enhance “state capacity” to effectively implement a broad range of programs.
Karthik Muralidharan is Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego, and a Non-resident Fellow at the NCAER. He is also affiliated with the NBER, BREAD, and J-PAL.
Dialogue on Deconstructing South-South Cooperation: A South Asian Perspective organised by National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) in collaboration with the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Dhaka at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.
This workshop focussed on the modelling work NCAER is undertaking on the economy-wide growth, employment and emission reduction gains from agricultural subsidy reform in collaboration with Professor Peter Dixon of Victoria University, Melbourne widely acknowledged as the world’s leading authority on CGE modelling. NCAER is one of the pioneers in CGE modelling in India and this work is utilising a state of the art, updated computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the Indian economy at NCAER.
The eminent speakers included Prof Arvind Panagariya, Columbia University; Prof Peter Dixon, Victoria University; Prof Maureen Rimmer, Victoria University; Prof Ramesh Chand, Director, NCAP; Dr Kaushik Deb, BP India; and Mr S Sivakumar, Group Head, Agri Business, ITC Limited.
The workshop highlighted the NCAER project “Capturing the Potential for Greenhouse Gas Offsets in Indian Agriculture.” The project sheds light on hidden sources of growth and dynamism that India must tap. This project builds on existing research in this area by pursuing the case for agricultural policy reform not just on the basis of growth and employment gains but also from the perspective of green-house gas reduction benefits that could come, say, from subsidy reforms. The workshop also included a session on ‘economy-wide policy reform priorities and complimentary agricultural modelling scenarios’ by Professor Arvind Panagariya, Columbia University. Kaushik Deb from BP presented on ‘Energy and Climate Modelling Imperatives in India’ while Jyoti Gujral from IDFC spoke on ‘MAC and GHG issues’. A subsequent workshop will focus on the gains from a carbon offset program in Indian agriculture.
