The Quarterly Agricultural Outlook provides an overview of agricultural trends both globally and at the national level. Agriculture continues to be critical to India’s economy given its role in meeting the food and fibre needs of over a billion people and providing livelihoods to millions of households in rural areas. India is a major producer and consumer of several basic food commodities. The challenge is to meet the diversified and increased demand for food commodities as a result of the changing dietary preferences of the population. Imports meet a substantial share of the consumption of edible oils and pulses. The food inflation of the last two years has highlighted the need to watch the imbalances in supply and demand not just of food grains, but also of fruits, vegetables and milk, both in the short and long runs.
The key objective of the study is to assess the economic benefits of five different services provided by the Ministry of Earth Science. These services are aviation meteorological services, marine water desalination, ornamental fish culture, lobster and crab fattening. The study outlines a ‘technology policy’ for seawater desalination considering environmental and ecological factors. It also analyses project impact through the construction of an input-output model at the district/project impact area level. The study also briefly examines the National Institute of Ocean Technology’s efforts to develop a methodology for breeding lobsters and mud crabs in an open sea environment.
This report highlights the vital role of the Indian Railways in the network mode of transportation, given that it will cater to an estimated 2036 billion passenger kilometres by 2020. To bridge the survey gap of detailed profiling (95 per cent of railway passengers travel in non- reserved category), a household survey of two distinct categories of passengers (suburban and non-suburban) was attempted in a scientific two-stage process to capture detailed responses with a clearly outlined distribution framework. The household survey focused on members of the sample households in the catchment area of the selected Centres. The findings indicate that the passengers who are willing to pay a higher fare also demand a proportionate increase in the quality of services they receive at stations and on-board. The travel demands of the sample households are high and the responses linked to their willingness to pay more for services provided by IR are varied and sometimes mutually inclusive. The final report titled, “Understanding Passenger Demand for the Indian Railways: Issues and Perception in a Socio-Demographic Framework”, was released in a conference held on October 25, 2012, in New Delhi.
The Eighth India Policy Forum (IPF) conference, organised jointly with the Brookings Institution, Washington D.C. was held in New Delhi during July 12-13, 2011. Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Indian Planning Commission, delivered the eighth annual IPF Lecture titled ” The challenges for India on the 12th Five year plan 2012-17″. A joint publication of NCAER and the Brookings Institution, IPF serves as a forum for a global network of scholars interested in India’s economic transformation. The eighth volume of the IPF has been edited by Shekhar Shah, Barry Bosworth and Arvind Panagariya.
2011|12, Volume 8, Papers
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The main objective of the study is to prepare a comprehensive documentation of taxes and user charges on transport sectors in India. The existing complex tax regime adds to the inefficient delivery of transport services which also suffer from various other policy distortions. The second key objective of this study is to evaluate gains to the economy when delivery of the transport services becomes relatively efficient through removing tax and other policy distortions.
