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182. Thirteen Years of Power Sector Reform in India: Are We Still Groping in the Dark?
- Author:
- Kandula Subramaniam
- Publication Date:
- 05-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for the Advanced Study of India
- Abstract:
- In 1991, before the New Power Policy was announced opening the Indian power supply industry to private investment, the country was experiencing power shortages. Sanghvi (1991) estimated that in countries like India, electricity shortages led to a loss of 1.5 to 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Ten years later, India still experiences shortages of power in the form of load-shedding. Even grid breakdowns have become a regular feature. In 2001 alone, there were two major grid collapses, bringing several Indian states to a grinding halt for more than one day.
- Topic:
- Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- South Asia and India
183. India's energy needs
- Author:
- Nick Hordern
- Publication Date:
- 12-2004
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Lowy Institute for International Policy
- Abstract:
- India's exploding demand for energy is confronting New Delhi with two important dilemmas, one internal and one external. India's internal dilemma is that to satisfy its energy needs, India must not only expand but also renovate its energy sector, a huge task. Moreover, New Delhi must balance accelerating the necessary reform of this sector with the need to avoid alienating important domestic constituencies. The external dilemma derives from the fact that India will only be able to meet part of its increased energy demand from its own domestic resources, and therefore will be increasingly forced to rely on energy imports. India is trying to secure its energy supplies in a hostile geo-political climate, since New Delhi's parlous relations with its neighbours make energy cooperation difficult. The resultant fears regarding the vulnerability of India's external sources of energy chime with a core principle of New Delhi's political culture, swadeshi (self-sufficiency), whose influence, while waning, retains its potency. Concerns regarding energy security are particularly prevalent in the case of oil, where India's dependence on imports is becoming acute. The proximity of the Persian Gulf to India's industrialised northwest makes it the main source of growing oil imports. But this in turn increases India's reliance on the unstable Gulf. In order to reduce this risk New Delhi will seek out oil from new energy provinces in the Atlantic Basin, Sudan, Russia and South East Asia. It will also turn to a new energy source - gas - and more imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) will be one result. India's energy needs have implications for Australia. India's growing demand for energy will see coal continue to dominate the energy mix, and as a result India's demand for imported coking coal, including from Australia, is also set to grow. At the same time, India's quest for diversity of supply means that at least some of India's increased LNG imports are likely to be Australian.
- Topic:
- Economics, Energy Policy, and International Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- Russia, Sudan, India, Asia, New Delhi, Australia, and Southeast Asia
184. India: the Next Economic Giant
- Author:
- Mark P Thirlwell
- Publication Date:
- 08-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Lowy Institute for International Policy
- Abstract:
- The Indian economy is showing clear signs of realising its dormant potential. The impact of more than a decade of economic reforms, instigated by a 1991 balance of payments crisis, has now removed or at least mitigated some of the major economic distortions that have handicapped past economic performance. One important result has been a significant boost to the economy's overall potential growth rate. Another has been India's re-engagement with the global economy, which in turn has transformed the prospects of key sectors of the Indian economy. This transformation has been most visible in the case of information technology-related services exports, where India has already become an important global player. But there are also positive signs in the areas of merchandise trade and international capital flows. These trends will have important consequences for the international economy as a whole and for Australia in particular.
- Topic:
- Economics, Emerging Markets, and Globalization
- Political Geography:
- India, East Asia, Asia, and Australia
185. Doubling the Global Work Force: The Challenge of Integrating China, India, and the Former Soviet Bloc into the World Economy
- Author:
- Richard B. Freeman
- Publication Date:
- 11-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Peterson Institute for International Economics
- Abstract:
- In 1985, the global economic world (N. America, S. America, Western Europe, Japan, Asian Tigers, Africa) consisted of 2.5 billion people. In 2000 as a result of the collapse of communism, India's turn from autarky, China's shift to market capitalism, global economy encompassed 6 billion people. Had China, India, and the former Soviet empire stayed outside, global economy would have had 3.3 billion.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Economics, and Government
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Japan, China, America, India, Asia, and Western Europe
186. Decomposing Spatial Differences in Poverty in India
- Author:
- Shatakshee Dhongde
- Publication Date:
- 08-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- Over the last decade, India has been one of the fastest growing economies, and has experienced considerable decline in overall income poverty. However, in a vast country like India, poverty levels vary significantly across the different states. In this paper, we analyze the differences between poverty at the state and national level, separately for the rural and urban sector, in the year 1999-2000. Instead of following the usual practice of decomposing the changes in poverty over time, we decompose the changes in poverty across regions. Such decomposition reveals that differences in state and national poverty levels were largely explained by differences in the state and national mean income levels. Differences in the state and national distributions of income were less important in explaining spatial differences in poverty. An important policy implication of our results is that states with extremely high levels of poverty would have reduced poverty significantly by raising their mean income levels to the national mean income, instead of changing their distribution of income to match the national income distribution.
- Topic:
- Demographics, Economics, and Poverty
- Political Geography:
- India and Asia
187. Industrial Location and Spatial Inequality: Theory and Evidence from India
- Author:
- Somik V. Lall and Sanjoy Chakravorty
- Publication Date:
- 08-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- We argue that spatial inequality of industry location is a primary cause of spatial income inequality in developing nations. We focus on understanding the process of spatial industrial variation—identifying the spatial factors that have cost implications for firms, and the factors that influence the location decisions of new industrial units. The analysis has two parts. First we examine the contribution of economic geography factors to the cost structure of firms in eight industry sectors and show that local industrial diversity is the one factor with significant and substantial cost reducing effects. We then show that new private sector industrial investments in India are biased toward existing industrial and coastal districts, whereas state industrial investments (in deep decline after structural reforms) are far less biased toward such districts. We conclude that structural reforms lead to increased spatial inequality in industrialization, and therefore, income.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Industrial Policy, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- South Asia and India
188. The Transition from Official Aid to Private Capital Flows: Implications for a Developing Country
- Author:
- Renu Kohli
- Publication Date:
- 07-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- India's capital account displays a sharp swing in external financing from official assistance to private capital transfers in the 1990s. This paper examines the implications of this transition for the country. An analysis of the private resource transfer reveals that unlike official flows, private capital flows are associated with real exchange rate appreciation, expansion in domestic money supply and stock market growth, liquidity and volatility. The paper concludes with a discussion on the implications of the transition for economic policy.
- Topic:
- Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- South Asia and India
189. Farmer's Willingness to Pay for Power in India
- Author:
- Rafiq Dossani and V. Ranganathan
- Publication Date:
- 07-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
- Abstract:
- Electric power for rural pumpset usage is subsidized by all the states in India, the subsidy being estimated at 1.1 percent of GDP. Users are charged a highly subsidized, flat, annual fee that varies with pumpset size. This fixed charge has encouraged waste and raised subsidies over time. Unwilling to bear these costs any longer, states have proposed a range of strategies, including independent regulation, metering of agricultural pumpsets, and raising prices.
- Topic:
- Economics and Government
- Political Geography:
- South Asia and India
190. Clean Air for Asia - China - India - Japan - United States Cooperation to Reduce Air Pollution in China and India
- Author:
- Richard L. Lawson, John R. Lyman, Donald L. Guertin, Tarun Das, Shinji Fukukawa, and Yang Jike
- Publication Date:
- 07-2003
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Atlantic Council
- Abstract:
- For China and India, rapid economic growth is imperative to alleviate poverty, raise income levels and improve their citizens' quality of life. In 2000, China and India's combined populations of 2.3 billion represented over 38 percent of the world's population. With both countries determined to grow their economies rapidly, there will be an associated rapid rise in energy demand. One of the most significant problems facing the two countries is the existing and increasing level of air pollution that will accompany growing energy consumption. This report focuses on the challenge of developing economic, energy, and environmental policies that will complement existing policies designed to reconcile the drive for economic growth with the need for greater environmental protection of air quality.
- Topic:
- Economics and Environment
- Political Geography:
- United States, Japan, China, India, and Asia