The cutback in public investment in the social sector, including health, is an inevitable consequence of the financial crises faced by both developed and developing countries since the late seventies. In India, the dismal performance and several deficiencies of public health services added fuel to the fire. Circumstances made it pertinent to mobilise additional resources from within the health sector itself, as contained in the structural adjustment programme, for financing the health sector. Thus, the involvement of private parties, NGOs, PRIs, co-operatives etc. for delivery of health services started gaining ground gradually. However, this trend is considered as a retreat from socialistic norms and counterproductive for the economically disadvantaged class. The policies including that of the World Bank and the recent ‘Indian Health Report (WHO) 2000’, now recognise the importance of investing in health and also providing a ‘safety net’ for the poor and vulnerable to promote economic development and reduce poverty. There is an urgent need to address several issues to revamp the entire health sector in India. The paper, apart from an extensive review of India’s health scenario also identifies the potential areas where further studies need to be undertaken for accelerating the reforms process in the desired direction.
The paper has two objectives. One, to analyse the pattern of energy usage in India and the implications thereof for carbon emission; two, to examine whether pricing and taxation policies have any role to play in mitigating carbon emissions.
The eclipse of the state-regulated, vertically integrated utility as the dominant institutional form in the electricity industry is now a worldwide phenomenon. This phenomenon is a component of a broader trend towards the privatization of state enterprises and liberalization of markets for the services of infrastructure industries. Though market design experiments are being conducted in countries across the world, the organizational form that will replace it from among many possible forms still remains very uncertain. As has been pointed out in the literature, these forms are mutually exclusive, and therefore, perhaps, in the place of a single organizational form, a hybrid of certain basic forms may evolve. Irrespective of the final market design, the restructuring exercise is consistent with the analysis by Joskow and Schmalansee (1983). The reform model proposed by them predicated competitive markets for generation, the operation of transmission facilities on an open-access non-discriminatory common-carrier basis, and retail competition among power marketers that rely on regulated distribution companies for delivery. The regulation of the wholesale and retail energy markets will be reduced to the imposition of structural requirements and operational guidelines and monitoring, while retaining a substantial regulation of the “wires” market for transmission and distribution. These changes entail unbundling, thereby reversing the vertical integration of utilities.
Even as a case can be made for public spending on elementary education, its link with enrolment rates does not appear strong. However, once efficiency and demand-side factors are accounted for, public spending is seen to make an impact on the rate of enrolment and quality of education as measured by teacher-pupil ratio.
India Policy Forum 2004 comprises papers and highlights of the discussions from the first India Policy Forum (IPF) conference, held March 25-27, 2004, in New Delhi. IPF is a joint venture of the Brookings Institution and the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) that examines India’s reforms and economic transition using policy relevant empirical research. The editors acknowledge the generous support of USAID, Citigroup, the State Bank of India, and HDFC Ltd.
2004, Volume 1, Papers
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