Tuesday, February 28, 2017

8 March 2017: A longitudinal analysis of internal migration, divorce and well-being in China

Alok Bhargava
University of Maryland, United States

Chair: Ali Mehdi

Abstract:
The rapid economic growth in China has been accompanied by increases in levels of internal migration and marital dissolution. The problems are compounded by preference for sons and one-child policy. In light of this, Dr Bhargava would present his analysis of internal migration, divorce and well-being in China. Using longitudinal data from China Health and Nutrition Surveys covering over 19,000 individuals during 1989-2011, his paper has modeled the inter-relationships between internal migration, divorce and individual well-being, tackling methodological aspects such as joint determination of variables. The seminar would also elaborate on the key findings of the analysis. First, random effects probit models showed that migration periods significantly increased the chances of divorce. Second, having sons implied more stable marriages for men reflecting a son-preference. Third, results from dynamic random effects models for self-reported health showed different effects of separation periods for men and women; divorce did not significantly lower the health status. Fourth, dynamic models for systolic and diastolic blood pressures showed significant effects of Body Mass Index and alcohol intake. Further, implications of the findings for health policies will be discussed.

Date: March 8, 2017
Time: 04:00 P.M.

Venue:
ICRIER Conference Room,
Core 6A, 4th Floor,
India Habitat Centre, Lodi Road,
New Delhi – 110 003(INDIA)

Location:

Monday, February 27, 2017

8 March 2017: Discussion on Navigating the Labyrinth: Perspectives on India’s Higher Education

Moderator:
Anubha Bhonsle

Discussants:
Pankaj Chandra, Ahmedabad University
Apoorvanand Jha, University of Delhi
Devesh Kapur, University of Pennsylvania and
Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Centre for Policy Research

Abstract:
In India, few things open faster than colleges, but few sectors reform more slowly than higher education. Demographic changes, economic growth and integration into the global economy, the rising demand for higher education, and the increase in the number of private colleges have led to a massive expansion in Indian higher education. While challenges of access and cost have been long-standing, much of this expansion has been of dubious quality, the result of sustained and deep regulatory and governance failures.

This book analyses these and other complex challenges facing higher education in India, and suggests possible solutions to some of them. The contributors highlight a range of issues facing higher education today, through a deeply moving account of the decline of a college in north Bihar; discussions on the various types of post-secondary educational institutions—the research university, teaching colleges, and vocational training institutes; initiatives, such as community colleges, to address the problem of skill development in India; and the financing and governance of higher education in India.

Date: March 8, 2017
Time: 04:00 P.M.

Venue:
Gulmohar Hall,
India Habitat Centre,
Lodi Road,
New Delhi – 110 003(INDIA)

Location:

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Note:
Please join us for tea at 3:30 p.m. RSVP: Kunal Jalali +91 9015128699

2 March 2017: Does Devolution to Local Governments Improve Health Outcomes in Rural India?

Hari K. Nagarajan
Institute of Rural Management, Anand

Abstract:
Please join us for a conversation with Professor Hari K. Nagarajan, RBI Chair Professor at IRMA, about the findings of his joint work with Hans P. Binswanger-Mkhize and Anirudh Tagat on whether democratisation and devolution of responsibilities to local governments in India improves access to health care, health status, and individual health incomes.

Using nationally representative household panel data for rural India from NCAER’s Rural Economic and Demographic Surveys (more popularly known as REDS), the authors explore the welfare effects of the choice of health service provider. They find that the deepening of democracy through participation in local decision-making and improved grievance redressal related to public goods influences the choice of health care provider. Given a level of illness, they find that such choice, in turn, leads to increases in contribution to household incomes that vary by gender. Their work importantly implies that it is not only the supply of services and mechanisms of access that are important, but what also matters is the extent to which members of households are able to participate in the management and governance of these services. This work continues earlier work based on the REDS data, the only national panel data for rural India, by Nagarajan, Binswanger and Meenakshisundaram in their book, Decentralization and Empowerment for Rural Development, published by NCAER and Cambridge University Press in 2015.

Date: March 2, 2017
Time: 03:30 P.M.

Venue:
NCAER Conference Room
National Council of Applied Economic Research
Parisila Bhawan, 11, Indraprastha Estate
New Delhi-110002(INDIA)

Location:

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Note:
Please join us for high tea and conversation with the author after the seminar. For queries, please contact Ms Sudesh Bala at sbala@ncaer.org or on +91-11-2345-2722.

Thursday, February 23, 2017

2 March 2017: The Transmission of Monetary Policy Within Banks: Evidence from India​

Prachi Mishra
Reserve Bank of India

Date: March 2, 2017
Time: 03:00 P.M.

Venue:
Seminar Room (First Floor) 
Department of Economics,
Delhi School of Economics,
New Delhi-110007(INDIA)

Location:

28 Febraury 2017: Public lands for public needs: How we can optimize returns from a dormant asset for national needs

Shubhashis Gangopadhyay
India Development Foundation (IDF) and Member, Ministry of Defence committee on land utilisation

Discussant:
Sumit Bose, Chairman, Ministry of Defence committee on land utilization

Moderator:
Nalin Mehta, India Development Foundation (IDF)

Abstract:
Reforming management of public lands is crucial for developing smart cities and dealing with the next set of governance challenges for a rapidly urbanising India. Solutions for improving land management lie at the heart of the next phase of the India story. How government can use lands it controls more creatively to create new value and solve development challenges is a key challenge for policymakers. This is essential not just for managing the challenges of urbanization and industrialization but also has huge political and social implications with large numbers of rural workers moving out of farming into big cities as migrants.

This seminar examines how government currently deals with surplus government lands in Indian cities, how this compares with other democracies (such as US, UK, Canada, Australia etc) and suggests optimal solutions for India. It also examines the vexed question of land acquisition and how our processes can be optimized for the greatest economic and social benefit for the country.

Date: February 28, 2017
Time: 11:00 A.M.

Venue:
Viceregal, 2nd Floor,
The Claridges,
12, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Road,
New Delhi-110011(INDIA)

Location:


Note:
Please confirm your participation to Iqbal Shariff at ishariff@idfresearch.org to reserve a seat for you.

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

28 February 2017: Gender and Public Transport in India: How do we move from women's safety to gender equity?

Sonal Shah
Institute for Transportation and Development Policy

Abstract:
The increased policy attention to gender in public transport in India has focused on women and is largely circumscribed by technological and project level interventions aimed at addressing and preventing gruesome incidents of violence. The accounts of sexual violence in the public sphere and Nirbhaya’s death in December 2012 galvanized action by civil society and different levels of government in creating safer public transportation systems.

However, public transport planning remains gender blind as city mobility plans rarely collect gender disaggregated data, investigate gendered trip chaining patterns, the mobility of care, inequities such as daily harassment, time poverty, forced mobility and forced immobility, lack of access to non-motorized vehicles and employment and growth in public transport organizations.

This is compounded by fragmented information on existing initiatives undertaken by public transportation authorities. For example, bus-based authorities have created toilets for transgender persons at city bus stands (Mysore), installed GPS devices and CCTV cameras, provided segregated seats and women only doors, conducted gender sensitization trainings, created Women Safety Committees (e.g. Bangalore) and reserved jobs for women drivers and conductors (e.g. Karnataka). Some of these were initiated prior to 2012, often on political requests or on receiving complaints. The implementation challenges, impact of these actions or the extent to which gender equity is rooted within the transport organization’s vision and goals has not been explored. Thus a wide area of research themes on gender and mobility in India remain uninvestigated.

This paper situates women’s security within a broader goal of gender equity; and identifies research gaps in moving the policy discourse towards gender equitable public transport systems. The research focuses on city bus services as they form the back bone of urban India’s public transportation system. The research was conducted at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements and was first presented at the conference on “Urban Planning, Governance and Design for Reducing Urban Conflicts and Violence: Critical Learnings and Possibilities”, March 2-4, 2016, Ahmedabad.

Date: February 28, 2017
Time: 03:45 P.M.

Venue:
Conference Hall
Centre for Policy Research,
Dharma Marg, Chanakyapuri,
New Delhi–110021(INDIA)

Location:

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Thursday, February 16, 2017

Cancelled due to unforeseen reasons - 20 February 2017: Money & Medicine – the odd couple: An overview of the complexities of health system financing

Margaret Faux
Synapse Medical Services

Abstract:
With a hundred years of health systems behind us we know a great deal about what works and what doesn’t work in the health market. Countries such as India are perfectly positioned to benefit from this vast body of knowledge, but it’s complex! In this seminar we will consider key questions such as who should pay for health? Why is the health market unique and why are countries with very different health systems, facing the same challenges controlling health expenditure? What is universal healthcare and why is the USA the only developed country that has been unable to achieve it? We will look at important health system drivers including information asymmetry, the operation of the moral hazard, the social determinants of health, the codification of health services and the ways in which doctors around the world are paid. We will also compare and contrast some successful but very different health care systems, before concluding by considering the core legal infrastructure required for a health system to succeed.

Date: February 20, 2017
Time: 04:30 P.M.

Venue:
Conference Hall, Ground Floor
R&T Building
National Institute of Public Finance and Policy,
18/2 Satsang Vihar Marg, Special Institutional Area,
New Delhi-110067(INDIA)

Location:

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Note:
Those who are interested may please confirm your participation at bins.sebastian@nipfp.org.in

Monday, February 13, 2017

16 February 2017: International Experience and Lessons Learnt from Brazil in Decentralisation

Deborah L Wetzel
World Bank

Abstract:
This lecture will be based on the World Banks' work on decentralsation in Brazil to draw lessons on how to improve the effectiveness of public expenditure at the sub national level in India.

Date: February 16, 2017
Time: 04:00 P.M.

Venue:
Conference Hall
Centre for Policy Research,
Dharma Marg, Chanakyapuri,
New Delhi–110021(INDIA)

Location:

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20 February 2017: Money & Medicine – the odd couple: An overview of the complexities of health system financing

Margaret Faux
Synapse Medical Services

Abstract:
With a hundred years of health systems behind us we know a great deal about what works and what doesn’t work in the health market. Countries such as India are perfectly positioned to benefit from this vast body of knowledge, but it’s complex! In this seminar we will consider key questions such as who should pay for health? Why is the health market unique and why are countries with very different health systems, facing the same challenges controlling health expenditure? What is universal healthcare and why is the USA the only developed country that has been unable to achieve it? We will look at important health system drivers including information asymmetry, the operation of the moral hazard, the social determinants of health, the codification of health services and the ways in which doctors around the world are paid. We will also compare and contrast some successful but very different health care systems, before concluding by considering the core legal infrastructure required for a health system to succeed.

Date: February 20, 2017
Time: 04:30 P.M.

Venue:
Conference Hall, Ground Floor
R&T Building
National Institute of Public Finance and Policy,
18/2 Satsang Vihar Marg, Special Institutional Area,
New Delhi-110067(INDIA)

Location:

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Note:
Those who are interested may please confirm your participation at bins.sebastian@nipfp.org.in

Thursday, February 9, 2017

17 February 2017: The Online Education Revolution and India

Alex T. Tabarrok
George Mason University

Discussant:
V.S. Oberoi, Secretary, MHRD and & R. Subrahmanyam, Additional Secretary, Technical Education

Abstract:
Online technology has the potential to revolutionize education bringing lower costs and greater access to millions. Online technology is also a fundamentally better way of teaching. New technologies will change the industrial organization of education--how education is delivered, who produces it and how it is paid for. The cost disease does not apply to teaching online. Online technologies have special advantages for a developing nation such as India and give it the potential to increase educational quality far faster than using conventional techniques. Full paper can be found here.

Organised by:
Brookings India

Date: February 17, 2017
Time: 11:00 A.M.

Venue:
Lecture Theatre
Brookings India
No. 6, 2nd Floor,
Dr. Jose P Rizal Marg,
Chanakyapuri,
New Delhi-110021

Location:


Note:
Please RSVP shamika.ravi@brookingsindia.org to reserve a seat for you.

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

9 February 2017: Surveillance in India: Policy and Practice

Pranesh Prakash
Centre for Internet and Society

Abstract:
The speaker propose to present a narrative of the current state of surveillance law, our knowledge of current surveillance practices (including noting where programmes like Natgrid, CMS, etc., fit in), and then to chart a rough map of reforms needed and outstanding policy research questions.

Date: February 9, 2017
Time: 03:00 P.M.

Venue:
Conference Hall, Ground Floor
R&T Building
National Institute of Public Finance and Policy,
18/2 Satsang Vihar Marg, Special Institutional Area,
New Delhi-110067(INDIA)

Location:

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Note:
Those who are interested may please confirm your participation at bins.sebastian@nipfp.org.in

Monday, February 6, 2017

9 February 2017: Quality of Healthcare in Rural and Urban India

Jishnu Das
Centre for Policy Research and World Bank

Abstract:
Based on extensive field work in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh (rural), West Bengal (rural), Mumbai and Patna, this talk discusses the results from research on the availability and quality of healthcare in the rural and urban India. The focus is on applying empirical tools, common to the study of markets, to healthcare in India, and open up a broader policy discussion of federal and state responsibilities towards health in India. The presentation is based on (but not restricted to) the following publications:

1. Quality and Accountability in Healthcare Delivery: Audit-Study Evidence from Primary Care in India (2016) - Jushnu Das, Alaka Holla, Aakash Mohpal and Karthik Muralidharan.
2. The Impact of Training Information Healthcare Providers in India: A Randomized Controlled Trial (2016) – Jishnu Das, Abhijit Chowdhury, Reshmaan Hussam and Abhijit V. Banerjee.
3. Socioeconomic Status and Quality of Health Care: New Evidence from Linked Surveys of Providers and Households in Rural India (2016) – Jishnu Das, Aakash Mohpal.
4. Over-the-counter antibiotic use by pharmacists in urban India: A cross-sectional study with implications for tuberculosis control and antimicrobial stewardship (2016) - Jishnu Das, Ada Kwan, Ben Daniels, Srinath Satyanarayana, Ramnath Subbaraman, Sofi Bergkvist, Ranendra K. Das, Veena Das and Madukar Pai.

Date: February 9, 2017
Time: 11:30 A.M.

Venue:
Conference Hall
Centre for Policy Research,
Dharma Marg, Chanakyapuri,
New Delhi–110021(INDIA)

Location:

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Thursday, February 2, 2017

7 February 2017: The Politics of Public Interest Litigation in Post-Emergency India

Anuj Bhuwania
South Asian University

Abstract:
he Indian higher judiciary has acquired an increasingly important role in India’s public discourse in the last few decades. The Supreme Court and the state High Courts have emerged as enormously powerful judicial institutions in the aftermath of the Internal Emergency of 1975-77. The principal means through which these judicial powers have
been mobilized and enacted is the jurisdiction of Public Interest Litigation (PIL). This lecture will talk about the political role that PIL has come to play in contemporary India. It revisits the circumstances and manoeuvres that led to the rise of PIL and traces its political journey since then, arguing that the enormous powers that PIL confers upon the appellate judiciary stems from its populist character.

Date: February 7, 2017
Time: 04:30 P.M.

Venue:
Conference Hall, Ground Floor
R&T Building
National Institute of Public Finance and Policy,
18/2 Satsang Vihar Marg, Special Institutional Area,
New Delhi-110067(INDIA)

Location:

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Note:
Those who are interested may please confirm your participation at bins.sebastian@nipfp.org.in