6 October 2017: Government Financing of Healthcare in India since 2005: Achievements and Challenges

Peter Berman, Manjiri Bhawalkar
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and
Rajesh Jha, Offbeat Innovations

Abstract:
Government funding for health and primary healthcare in India is clearly insufficient. Low levels of resource mobilisation, however, is only part of the problem when it comes to improving the health outcomes in the country. Poor resource allocation and low budget utilisation exacerbate the inadequacy of financial resources for health. Effective allocation and utilisation is also constrained by public financial management design, operational processes, and governance factors.

In this talk led by Prof Peter Berman, the team from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health will present trends in government financing of healthcare in India from 2005 to 2014 across 29 states. The talk is based on findings from an upcoming study on “Government Financing of Healthcare in India since 2005: What was achieved, what was not and why”. The focus will be on primary care, and the session will explore the substitution effect of central government funding for primary care in richer states along with systemic and capacity constraints that result in low budget utilisation. The study will focus on specific references to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in contrast with states like Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Kerala where some of the practices show far better budget utilisation.

Date: October 6, 2017
Time: 03:30 P.M.

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

Location:

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17 October 2017: Safety Trends and Reporting of Crime - A crime victimisation survey in four major cities of India

Avanti Durani
IDFC Institute

Abstract:
Public safety and security are critical for good quality of life. While there seems to be an agreement on the weak performance of both the police and the courts, this has not yet translated into a large-scale attempt at reform. The official records on crime and response by the police are hugely insufficient in gauging the scale of the problem due to widespread under-reporting, among other deficiencies. Safety Trends and Reporting of Crime (SATARC), IDFC Institute’s flagship survey, is an attempt to marshal evidence, in a systematic way, about the extent and nature of crime, satisfaction with police, and perceptions of safety. The SATARC survey aims to bridge this gap in public data on safety and crime.

Date: October 17, 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

22 September 2017: The role of big data to evaluate Aadhaar

Ronald Abraham and Elizabeth Bennett
IDinsight

Organised by:
International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie)

Chair:
Emmanuel Jimenez, International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie)

Discussant:
Ajay Shah, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP),

Abstract:
Aadhaar has become a seemingly ubiquitous component of a wide range of government and private sector services. However, there are significant gaps in our understanding of Aadhaar’s coverage and performance—especially when it comes to understanding the full range of impacts of the identity system.

In this seminar, IDinsight’s Ronald Abraham and Elizabeth Bennett will present excerpts from their State of Aadhaar Report 2016-17, which provides an overview of the Aadhaar landscape and highlights areas for future research. The conversation will then pivot to the role of primary research and big data in evaluating Aadhaar.

IDinsight’s State of Aadhaar initiative aims to catalyse discourse and inform decision-making in the Aadhaar ecosystem. To achieve this objective, the State of Aadhaar website provides up-to-date data, research, news, and official documentation on Aadhaar.

Date: September 22, 2017
Time: 03:00 P.M.

Venue:
Seminar Hall 3,
Kamala Devi Complex,
India International Centre,
New Delhi – 110001 (India)

Location:

20 September 2017: Discussion on The Future of Global Health: Challenges and Opportunities

Michael Merson
Duke University

Organised by:
The American Center and Duke University

Date: September 20, 2017
Time: 04:00 P.M.

Venue:
The American Center
24, Kasturba Gandhi Marg
New Delhi 110 001 (India)

Location:


Note:
Please register here

21 September 2017: Identifying Earnings Management in Indian companies

Deep Narayan Mukherjee
Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta

Discussant:
Amey Sapre, NIPFP

Abstract:
Study on earnings management of Indian companies may not be frequent, but there are quite a few substantial works on this topic. Most of them come to the conclusion that the problem of earnings management is quite rampant. However, earnings management related studies and their results are not "mainstream" among investors or regulators. That is despite the observation that in cases of big ticket NPA, banks often request for a forensic analysis of the defaulter's financial statement. In an effort to enable identification of companies with potential accounting issues, and thus requiring further in depth analysis of those companies, our team has developed a score. The premise of the work being that earnings management is the start of financial manipulations. The team has made certain analytical enhancements to address shortcomings of existing approaches of accounting pertinent to growth economies such as India.

Date: September 21, 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

7 September 2017: Mutual Fund Flows and Funds Strategic Behavior When Investors Are Inattentive

Apoorva Javadekar
CAFRAL

Abstract:
The paper builds on a simple yet novel idea that the way investors react to the recent mutual fund performance depends largely upon the long-term historical performance of that fund. In particular, I find that investors react more actively to the funds recent performance in case of the funds with good performance history. I show that these effects are strongest for funds which are likely to attract attentive investors such as funds having more visibility or funds with high entry loads. Next, I show that investors who are less responsive to the fund performance are also less responsive to the changes in fund fees which suggest that \textit{investor inattention} rather than any other rational decision-making process that explains the sluggish capital flows. I build a model which shows how the concentration of attentive investors within fund rise with the historical performance which feeds into more reactive capital flows. I provide evidence that mutual funds are aware of the varying degree of investor responsiveness and they adjust their pricing and portfolio risk to maximize the revenue.

Date: September 7, 2017
Time: 11:30 A.M.

Venue:
Seminar Room No. 2
Indian Statistical Institute Delhi Centre,
7, S. J. S. Sansanwal Marg,
New Delhi-110016 (INDIA)

Location:

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