Acquisition of Technological Capabilities through the Clean Development Mechanism: Some Quantitative Explorations

This paper investigates the impact of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) on technological capabilities of implementing firms in India using longitudinal data of 500 CDM and non CDM firms for the period 2001–2012. Technological capacity is a multi-dimensional concept. The present study measures it by three indicators, namely, R&D intensity, profitability, and total factor productivity. The analysis uses difference-in-difference techniques based on longitudinal data. The existing literature on CDM has a limited number of empirical studies that address technological capability building issues deeply. This study is the first of its kind that has mapped the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) data on CDM with the PROWESS database on Indian companies and applied quasi experimental techniques to analyse the impact of CDM on building technological capabilities of the hosting firms. The first draft of the report was presented at the SANDEE research workshop held in Kathmandu in December 2012.

Capturing the Potential of Greenhouse Gas Offsets in Indian Agriculture

The primary objective of this research is to develop policies and programs targeted at the early exploitation of the most cost effective GHG abatement options within Indian agriculture. Subsidiary objectives are to document current national policy settings affecting the Indian agricultural sector which may inadvertently be encouraging high emission production activities or the use of energy intensive inputs; review developments in the GHG policy settings of other countries, with particular regard to the proposed role of agriculture; quantify the scope for cost-effective mitigation within India’s agricultural sector; assess the economy-wide impacts of agricultural policy reform and the introduction of an agricultural offsets policy on agricultural productivity, food security, rural incomes, employment, trade and emissions; and assess alternative policy designs and institutional arrangements that can efficiently deliver GHG mitigation by the agricultural sector.

E-Readiness Assessment and e-Governance Ranking of Indian States/ UTs 2011-12

This is the sixth in a series of e-Readiness reports since 2004. These projects are a paradigm shift in the delivery mechanism of various governance services through ICT adoption by government and are a tool to ‘serve the unserved’ and promote inclusiveness. The assessment is now going to be carried out over time, i.e., states will now be able to track their growth over time. The analysis of different e-Governance projects being implemented in Indian states/union territories will continue in the reports as before.

Baseline Study on e-Panchayat

As the knowledge partner on the e-Panchayat project of the Department of Information Technology, NCAER’s role is to sign off on the project scope, research framework, research methodology, and report formats as well as on the final data used in compilation. The main objectives of the study are to create baseline data against which the impact of ICT based delivery processes can be measured, to understand the challenges in the current mode of service delivery and create a benchmark for future implementation, as well as to understand the differences between high and low performing e-Panchayats. The Agricultural Finance Corporation Limited (AFCL India Limited) is the executing research institute for this project along with Research and Development Initiative Private Limited as the supporting market research agency.

Study on Unaccounted Income and Wealth Inside and Outside India

The objective of the programme is to analyse the extent of unaccounted income and wealth inside and outside the country, the quantum of non-payment of taxes due to evasion of registered corporate bodies and the nature of activities that engender money laundering and to make substantive policy recommendations that would enable detection and prevention of unaccounted money as well as mainstream such activities into the economy.

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