RESEARCH CENTRES

Centre for Public Policy and Governance Studies (CPPGS)

The Centre for Public Policy and Governance Studies (CPPGS) at IDC focuses on Public Policy, Governance, and Sustainable Development, conducting research in North-Western India to assess and improve public policy and governance.

Centre for Public Policy and Governance Studies (CPPGS)

Pre-testing of the communication material package for the project “Youth Action: Goal 2000" (1994-95) by Vandana Mahajan and Pratap Singh Bisht

Project envisages an ambitious goal of pulling out the populace of Uttar Pradesh from the backwaters of under-development in the spheres of education and health. The study was undertaken to pre-test the available communication material package. Findings reveals that the present communication package is lopsided and inadequate in its message, appeal content and outreach; gender biased. Suggests formulation of a coherent and holistic communication strategy.

Privilege of polygamy and the ability to divorce wives at unilateral direction under the Muslim Personal Law have attracted the attention of the various sections of society. survey of various Hindu and Muslim individuals on Muslim Personal Law – polygamy and divorce- to understand their views on the issue. The introduction of uniform civil code (UCC) has been favored by some Indians as this will help in mitigating gender biases and nurture Indian culture, thus helping in the promotion of patriotic sentiments. The Indians against the UCC contend that it would hamper the basic philosophy of Indian Constitution, which nourishes unity in diversity and communal harmony. The inclusion of UCC could generate feelings of identity crises among minorities as it points to the intolerance amongst different religious groups.

Report highlights the inter-linkages between economic conditions and socio-cultural status of scheduled castes in Punjab; poverty, discrimination and self-perception of lowly status are the main characteristics attributed to the scheduled castes. Economic packages and benefit schemes will not work in isolation from the social transformation of their status. The stamp of “impurity” placed on SCs during their birth carries on throughout their lives affecting various social and cultural domains.

Propose amendments to the accounting and budgeting system of Panchayabyti Raj Institutions (PRIs) under the provisions of the Punjab Panchayati Raj Act, 1994. To ensure the proper accountability and transparency, these institutions need to have an appropriate and simple system of Accounting and Budgeting installed. The accounts maintained should show the total amounts of receipts and payments of cash, surpluses or deficits and the state of the financial health at the end of each year.

The purpose of formulating a state plan for the child enables the states to give expression to specific circumstances in the plan document along with the goals identified by international forums. Emphasis is placed on the quality of services, rehabilitation of children who are victims of violence, improvement in the status of women in terms of education, health and employment. The children of landless laborers and the migratory population, Scheduled Castes and backward families are to be targeted for overall improvement. Special attention shall be paid to school drop-outs, the deviant, the physically handicapped, orphans, drug addicts and street children.

Suggests an increase in rent of the properties of the municipal committees could help them with their financial position. The abolition of house tax in Punjab and the scrapping of octroi on the anvil have severely affected the finances of municipalities; identifies norms to increase the rents of municipal properties so as to improve their financial position; suggests ways to reduce the gap between the demand of rent and the actual recovery of rent from the rented property.

Drug addiction as one of the most pervasive and intransigent problems being faced by the society, particularly in the border districts of Punjab; an exhaustive appraisal is being undertaken in the four border districts of Punjab i.e. Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran and Ferozepur with an idea of exploring the dynamics associated with the phenomenon of substance abuse and dependence and to suggest policy changes.

Police Station Visitors Week (PSVW) was organized 21 countries participated; more than 1100 police stations welcomed 6000 citizens to assess their services in their respective countries. In the Indian sub-continent alone, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Maldives, and Pakistan participated and nearly 250 police stations were visited by more than 3300 citizens in their respective locations. PSVW offered the citizens an opportunity to assess the services provided by the police, gain insight into the police station functioning, and also to become better acquainted with the police establishment; a unique event organised to assess the quality of service delivered in the participating police departments, to identify some of the good practices in use by the police, and to strengthen the accountability of police to the local citizens whom they serve. The assessment was made by the local citizens on global indicators of policing standards; aims to improve the trust and cooperation between the police and the public, leading to greater safety and access to justice. The Police Station Visitors Week is a public participatory assessment of the local police stations to promote global standards and share good practices of service delivery nationally, regionally and globally.

Growth performance in Punjab: Punjab is an agrarian State with the highest contribution of agriculture to GSDP in the country; it has seen a degree of the Lewisian transfer of employment from the agricultural to the non-agricultural sectors. The growth in the agricultural, industrial, and services sectors has been slower than that of India, while the industrial sector in the 1990s did done better than the rest of the country on account of construction activities. The growth of the secondary and the tertiary sectors though credible, has been slower than the country, particularly, in the recent decades.
Policy Initiatives: Government should attract investment to boost employment in the secondary and tertiary sectors, on the pattern of other developed States; State has attained the degree of the Lewisian transfer of employment from the agriculture to the non-agriculture sector.
Agriculture process and problems: Punjab alone contributed 38.7 (wheat) per cent and 22.1 (rice) per cent to the Central pool of food grains; average value of the agricultural output per hectare in Punjab was 75% higher than the all India average; and labour productivity in Punjab was almost five times the all India average; remarkable growth of agricultural production in the State was mainly the result of intensification and modernization of farming and specialization in rice and wheat cultivation. The intensification of cultivation was achieved by expanding irrigation to almost 100% area; recent years generated a number of negative consequences, viz; slowing down of the yield growth of the major crops; ground water depletion, farm debt and debt related farmers’ suicides. Policy Initiatives: suggests measures to counter the agrarian crisis: Water Management in Agriculture: depletion of water table; the experts are not in favour of the continuous cultivation of paddy crops; farmers are not ready to replace this profitable crop; decline in the ground water table can be halted even without reducing the area under rice cultivation by taking a few simple policy measures: proper pricing of power supplied to tube well: once power being supplied to the tube wells is properly priced, the use of ground water for rice cultivation will automatically rationalized.
Research on reducing water use in Rice cultivation: research efforts should be to invent/select/discover rice varieties that use less water, but give same yield.
Credit and Suicides: to counter rising suicides among farmers, the cooperative credit system should be strengthened in the State; farm machinery should be available on rent at the time of need.
Horticulture in State: adopt Maharashtra model to promote commercial agricultural crops.
Agro-processing industry: promote agro-processing industry and ease the norms to attract investment in this sector; axes should be lower for procuring raw materials for agro-processing industry; allocate more funds for research and extension works in agriculture; public and private research should be made more pro-farmer.
Industrial development and policy in Punjab: Punjab needs to concentrate on the industries where it has a comparative advantage and rejuvenation and modernization of traditional industries cotton, textiles (including hosiery and knitwear), food processing, dairy, leather, hand tools etc.
Policy Initiatives: Industrial policy of Punjab has to focus on support, credit extension, modernization and revamping of the SSI units. To revive the closed state units State should invite some big industrial units to run and invest in such units which will create employment for the local people.
Labour market and employment generation in Punjab: done well in diversifying employment structure; employment growth has been slightly higher in Punjab than all India average; construction sector is the main driver of employment growth in the last two decades.
Policy Initiatives: craft policies to ensure remunerative jobs in the urban areas; educated workforce is also moving away from agriculture and migrating towards urban areas. Agriculture and rural tourism should be developed to absorb the rural manpower.
Education and employment in Punjab: unemployment rate is still higher for the rural females in the State than the all-India average; in the rural areas, secondary sector (which includes manufacturing and construction) employs both the low skilled and medium skilled workers while the service sector employs workers with high education level; in urban Punjab, the tertiary sector employs workers with medium and high educational levels, while the secondary sector employs workers with low and medium educational level.
Policy Initiatives: cooperative dairy development may an effective policy intervention to employ low skilled females in rural areas; in the urban areas the loan schemes for the self-employment be encouraged.
Comparing employment and education of SC and non-SC women workers: employment outcomes of the female workers in rural Punjab at two points of time between 1993-94 and 2011-12, showed the evident shift of women from the primary to the secondary and tertiary sectors. The change in the rural structure of employment has not been able to better the employment status of rural women in Punjab, putting SC women at even worse positions as compared to the non-SC women workers; see shift of employment to modern sectors but there has been no simultaneous improvement in the quality of employment; strategy deployed for development has done little to improve the employment status of women workers.
Policy Initiatives: ensure decent working conditions for the female workers by ensuring social protection; special skill development programmes may be organised for such female workers who want to upgrade their skills. Upgrade the skills of the workers in art and craft, etc.: special programmes should be started for the training of SC women in the rural areas in arts/crafts, etc. Growth dynamics, poverty and inequality in Punjab: incidence of poverty in Punjab remained almost half or less than half of the all-India levels during the whole period. The pattern of poverty in Punjab across sectors is opposite to the pattern of poverty in India. Poverty is high in the rural India compared to the urban India during the whole period. During 1993-94 to 2004-05, the poverty decreased for both Punjab and India, except, rural Punjab; however, the rate of decrease in Punjab was less than in India. During the last seven years from 2004-05 to 2011-12, the rate of reduction in poverty increased in both India and Punjab, but still, it was less in Punjab than in India. Consumption inequality in Punjab is less than the average for India during the whole the period. Inequality in the rural areas is less than the urban areas of both Punjab and India. The level of average monthly per capita consumption expenditure was higher in the urban areas compared to the rural areas.
Policy Initiatives: continue the scheme like Atta-Dal as beneficial to the rural masses; economic empowerment of the poor people in the rural and the urban areas may be ensured by providing suitable skills and one-time financial assistance to start new business. State finances and development priorities in Punjab: Gross fiscal deficit – NSDP ratio – is quite high for Punjab; moved from a revenue surplus State in 1986-87 to a revenue deficit State; share of developmental expenditure in the total capital expenditure has gone up; total plan expenditure has gone up; higher level of revenue deficit; burden of imbalance in the revenue account has fallen on the capital account; borrowing has become one of the major components of capital receipts; this would place the State in a vicious cycle Expenditure on interest payment and servicing of debt on revenue account has gone up; need bold thinking on the issue of debt; mobilization of the State’s own tax revenue.
Policy Initiatives: Punjab selected public borrowings route to meet its financial obligations. Fresh taxes have not imposed in the State in the recent past. State must look for other alternate sources of raising its own tax revenue, like taxing electricity and taxing goods and passengers. There are also other sources to mobilize revenue like tax on property transactions. Though improvements have been noticed in the debt sustainability indicators, but the State can enter debt the trap phase any time in the absence of mobilization of any additional resources and rationalization of subsidies and public expenditure, including, curbing of unproductive expenditure. Most of the public enterprises in the State are incurring losses. it is incumbent on the part of the State governments to make adequate budgetary provisions for meeting the financial obligations in case the necessity arises. State government should launch an aggressive strategy for financial consolidation by augmenting additional sources of revenue, particularly, tax revenues by: imposing fresh taxes, increasing tax rates, and Improving tax compliance by simplifying tax procedures, preparing research based case for additional resources from the Centre. Increasing non-tax revenue by: restructuring public enterprises, implementation of disinvestment programmes in the State public enterprises, and winding up of the chronically sick enterprises.
Devising and implementing a policy to: contain and prune public expenditure, mitigate unproductive public expenditure, and rationalize subsidies.
Health status and health care in Punjab: better health status than the national averages; needs some additional concerted efforts; health infrastructure of Punjab is not evenly distributed across the State; NRHM progress is uneven; aggregate health achievement of Punjab conceals its glaring social inequality; health inequality based on gender is alarmingly high; health care system in Punjab has been highly privatized.
Policy Initiatives: upgrade skills of doctors and paramedic staff periodically; enhance health sector funding; seeing the shift in disease pattern, a pro-poor approach in the State’ health Policy must be introduced; concentrate on quality improvements in public health Infrastructure; take steps for proper implementation of a pro-poor health insurance in the State; improve Governance in State Health Sector; rent-seeking behaviour of the health employees be curbed; techno-centric health interventions and mushrooming of private health sector should be monitored; increasing community participation through PRIs and ULBs in the supervision of health centers. State of education in Punjab – Changing spatial differences: Education can never flourish without a State-planned development of the sector; the government must have a vision; Twelfth Plan seeks to improve the quality of school education and overall development of government schools and higher institutions.
Policy Initiatives: bring qualitative improvement in the Technical Education and upgradation of the infrastructure of government and Technical Institutions; Skill development initiatives have to be in consonance with the demand of local industries/service sector; fill the vacant posts of the teachers in the schools; bridge the gap in the rural and urban areas in the skilled workforce; Social sector spending in the State needs to be Improved. Our analysis reveals that the social sector spending in the State has remained consistently low despite the fact that social outcomes in the State leave much to be desired, especially, in terms of welfare of women and socially and economically weaker groups like SCs.
Social sector spending in the State is not only very low in aggregate but also in terms of each of its major components like, health, nutrition and education. Increase the coverage of the targeted population under majority of the programmes: most schemes cover a very minuscule section of the targeted population; Mid-Day Meal Scheme covers merely 15 per cent of the intended beneficiaries; coverage is especially low in the case of the Targeted Public Distribution Programmes and pension schemes; with the advent of MGNREGA, the participation in the public works programme has improved, however, it remains behind most of the other developed States of India. Decrease leakages from the scheme and improve service delivery: reveals large number of leakages from these social protection schemes in the case of Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS); needs to be plugged; in the case of ICDS scheme, Punjab lagged behind all the other States of India in terms of each of the component of the programme; need to be improved upon. Decrease the exclusion errors in the scheme: exclusion errors in most of the social protection schemes in the State are very high compared to all India average. In Punjab, the schemes have failed to affect the economically and socially weaker groups in the society like, the SCs who continue to remain at the bottom; better monitoring and evaluation is needed.
Benchmarks for inclusive growth: benchmark for the level and inclusiveness of economic development has been evaluated by comparing it with the economies of seven other high income States of India; report has attempted to find out Punjab’s position on inclusiveness in terms of percolation of the benefits of development to all the sections of society. In terms of per capita income alone, Punjab is at the bottom and Maharashtra is at the top; in terms of per capita expenditure, Punjab is number two; in terms of ownership/use of consumer durable goods and living facilities, Punjab is at the top and Maharashtra at the bottom. In terms of degree of inclusiveness of economic growth Punjab is at the top and Maharashtra at the bottom. The inadequacy of the raw per capita income figures as the sole indicator of the level of development of the Indian States clearly emerges from the analysis.

Punjab is one of the leading States in India in terms of economic performance; structural shift away from agriculture is visible for all social groups, for the SC workers, the shift is towards construction sector, for the OBCs, towards manufacturing, construction and services; and for the upper caste workers, shift towards construction and service sector. Agricultural growth has raised concerns; slow growth in the crop yields, accumulation of farm debt resulting in farmers’ suicides to the negative impact on natural resources large scale; exodus of the farmers from agriculture; and environmental consequences like, growth of pesticide residues in water, milk, vegetables and grains; and air pollution caused by the smoke generated by rice and wheat straw burning. People’s Well-being: Poverty and inequality: differences in the levels of consumption expenditure, poverty and inequality among the Social groups in the state; non-SCs having higher levels of consumption, lower levels of poverty than the SCs, and the increasing inequality in consumption among SCs while decreasing among the non-SC populace in the state.
Social development: Education and health: social indicators do not complement the economic performance of the state; fails to transfer economic gains into social outcomes for its people; improvement in social indicators have impact on the well-being of its people. Education Status: non-enrolment is an equally important problem confronting the State, the gender gap exists but is lower than that in other States; social group inequality is also visible in terms of the dropout rate in the State; greater role for the government in ensuring quality education and skills enhancement through government run institutions. Health outcomes: Gender disparity in health outcomes is visible. Physical infrastructure for health care as per national norms available in the rural Punjab but lags in a few parameters like number of PHCs for each CHC; morbidity in the rural areas below the national average. Inclusive growth: Gender and Scheduled Castes: access to health services is an area of concern; average expenditure on health is higher in rural Punjab compared to other States; the poor in Punjab are burdened with high expenditure in public as well as private hospitals.
Gender disparity: pronounced bias against the girl child in terms of health seeking, duration. Schemes (like cash transfer schemes) have to be more in line with the real situation, less rigid to ensure larger participation. Social indicators show large social and gender inequities in Punjab that need to be addressed; high degree of deprivation and vulnerability among the socially and economically weaker group—the scheduled castes; social protection has received very limited attention over time. Fiscal Health of Punjab: nature of expenditure: Punjab requires a paradigm shift; an urgent need to enhance agricultural productivity; and released after increase in the productivity of the grains can be utilised for crop diversification and non-farm activities; would have arrested mindless urbanisation. Public policy has not paid any attention to these traditional industries in terms of technology transfer, skill upgradation, marketing and maintenance of environmental standards.
As regards social development, the State of Punjab could not transform its vast enterprising human resource into an asset.; educational system is required to impart quality education. Guiding principle in education and health sector should have been to improve education and health outcomes rather than allow privatisation. In governance, the need is to shift from disinvestment to productive investment; a need to rationalise these subsidies in the background of the environmental challenges from the rice-wheat crop cycles, and the pressures from the global institutions for the agriculture sector. Agriculture sector needs support; power subsidies is a question that should be transparently answered; imbalance in the long-term development expenditure that has been compromised in the State as a result of meeting deficit targets, must be corrected.

Growth rate per se may not be a valid indicator to measure the well-being of the people. The choice of measures reflects the purpose and values to be attained from the growth processes; measure beyond questions is not only lethargic, but dangerous; stop asking questions like, what are we measuring and for what outcomes, it may reinforce the status quo and legitimise discriminations, deprivations and poverty. The measures are loaded with ideology and shape our vision, choices and preferences. Discusses the indicators with inferences and paradox to provides correct pictures of political economy of Punjab with reasons and arguments. GDP and fiscal deficit misnomer:this inference leads to wrong policy formulation and does not help us to make an assessment of the current well-being and sustainability aspects of the growth and entails the wrong policy decisions.Citizens’ well-being:Punjab’s relative position as compared to other States is rather good; performance on poverty eradication and reduction in disparities is better than many others.Human Development Index: Punjab ranked amongst the first five States, and on hunger index, it ranked on the top with least hunger; comparisons reinforce that Punjab is not an autonomous unit; vision needs to be located amidst the global, regional, and national context.
Capital City: An Investment Pole:Punjab which is without a capital city, lost the space that could have acted as a driver of growth; missed ‘Information Technology Revolution’ as it did not have advantage of its own growth pole; Punjab has suffered a major setback in the neoliberal globalised economy as well as in getting its legitimate share in the revenue generated in Chandigarh.Paradoxes of Development:Punjab represents peculiar development paradoxes; its performance on the well-being indicators is competitive with other States, while its own trajectory of development is riddled with stagnation, unable to carve out its own path in a neoliberal globalised economy; worthwhile to understand the main drivers of growth and to have an idea as to how these will shape in future? Has this growth been inclusive? Who are the beneficiaries of this growth?Developed agriculture, but no organic linkages with other Sectors:share in GSDP of agriculture was around 40 per cent till 1990s; got reduced to around 22 per cent 2010; share of industry reached around 30 per cent in 2010s; major increase in 2010s has been in the share of services in GSDP, (48%). Promote small scale Agriculture-led Industrial base:prescription was crop diversification and diversify the economy by a large inter-sectoral shift to high productivity flexible agriculture.Gap between economic gains and non-economic outcomes:nature of economic development could not correspond with the social development indicators. Punjab has high per capita income and its per capita consumption expenditure has been higher than all-India; gap between the economic gains and social outcomes. The Social development index: amongst 14 major States, Punjab ranked at the bottom, in terms of real per capita expenditure on social sector. In Punjab, 9.9 per cent of the GSDP is spent on social sector, whereas, in Haryana, it is 23 per cent, 22 per cent in Tamil Nadu; only 2.15 per cent was spent on education, 0.26 per cent on labour protection, 0.18 per cent on nutrition, 2.3 per cent on social security, and 4.8 per cent on health of the GSDP (2009-10) in Punjab.

Paradox is it has high per capita income, but does not commensurate with social development index; on the inclusive growth, it has low poverty level in general, but poverty amongst the Scheduled Castes is high; Punjab has to refocus on the non-economic factors for economic outcomes. Paradigm shift in Governance: need is to shift from disinvestment to productive investment, from retrenchment to employment generation, from subsidy reduction to rationalization of subsidies, and from anti-corruption drives to corruption-free governance.

For the realization of full citizenship, ‘activisednation’ is yet to be fully transformed into civil society. need to conduct research about the relationship between the activised nation, civil society and the citizens’ rights; Punjab has to reinvent itself to ensure the rights of the poor and underprivileged instead of promoting metropolitan regimes, facilitate foreign direct investment, withdraw subsidies and encourage privatization in social development.

Objective to prepare Village Development Plans (VDPs); to reduce the level of disparity among the SC and non-SC population in the villages. 50 villages having more than 50 percent SC population are identified as model villages are identified in district Sri Muktsar Sahib. In the first phase, IDC has prepared the VDPs for 50 villages in 2015-16. In second phase, it is destined to develop Management Information System (MIS) for these villages, and the third phase constitutes of submission of an evaluation report of the whole scheme, since inception to the implementation.

Vision 2030 document is prepared with overarching strategy focusing on socially just growth, redistributive sustainable development and good governance; to achieve various targets, SDGs have been divided into four pillars.

Theme covering issues of decent work, industry and innovation, ending hunger and ensuring food security, achieving sustainable development, life on land, climate change and affordable and clean energy for all.  Findings:By 2030 growth rate of 11 percent can be expected, only if there is acceleration in industrial sector and services sector; workforce needs to be shifted from agriculture to industrial sector to enable remunerative employment and absorb increasing workforce (industrial sector projected to employ 25 percent of workforce by 2030); R&D should be promoted in sectors which are labour intensive;  for inclusive growth agriculture should be linked with industrial development through high value added crops, processing and marketing; to attain industrial growth industries with strong forward and backward linkage should be promoted; some of the industries in which the state has a good base should be focused; an urgent need to improve rural infrastructure for farmers and industries, invest in agricultural research and improve agriculture extension services;  To ensure food security current growth rate of rice and wheat yield need to be sustained; focus should be on promoting crop diversification towards maize, cotton, sugarcane, fodder, pulses, fruits, vegetables and agro forestry and on horticulture; target of doubling income of small farmers would require a shift to dairy farming; efforts are required to improve water & nutrient efficiency , improve soil health, reduce ground water use, refining water saving technologies, construction of water harvesting structures and water recharge structures and emphasize  short duration varieties of crops; focus on sustainable management of forests to combat desertification, promote agro-forestry and mitigate adverse effects of climate change. To achieve sustainable development and clean and affordable energy for all, share of renewable energy in total energy mix would have to be increased to 30 percent by 2030.

Themes covered include ending poverty in all its forms; providing clean water and sanitation facilities for all; making cities and human settlements safe and resilient; provide health and education to all; reduce inequality and gender equality. Findings: to achieve zero poverty and below 5 hunger by 2030, growth rate of 10 percent is required; state needs to revamp existing poverty alleviation programmes by promoting transparency, accountability; mitigating corruption and plugging leakages; dedicated funds for poor in Flagship programmes like Make in India, Skill India etc. for the benefits to reach the poor; the state needs to ensure sanitation facilities for the poor under Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan, and housing for poor by 2022.Improving ownership of land and property of poor, make poor youth employable, create employment opportunities for poor in sectors other than agriculture, and ensure financial inclusion of the poor; to ensure clean water and sanitation for all; demand-responsive and decentralized service delivery and community involvement are required; effective grievance redressal and public information system should be evolved; needs to promote public private partnership, and convergence with relevant departments is required.  Comprehensive policy for overall urban development to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe and resilient is an urgent need of the hour; master plans for cities should be prepared and their proper implementation should be ensured. While focusing on urban poor, 20-25 percent of the developed land in all housing projects should be earmarked for urban poor. Slum development policy should focus on prevention of further slum formation, while municipal capacities should be strengthened through better devolution of taxes. Focus on restructuring government health institutions and health worker’s production and management systems, legislation to regulate private health service providers should be enacted, Information Technology solutions to be put in place to record and report every health transaction; large investments should be made to revitalize government health sector. To bring structural integration so that every school has adequate number of teachers and educational facilities; redefine the scope of Right to Education (RTE) by making early childhood education part of RTE, universalize elementary education, and BetiBachaoBetiPadhao (BBBP) programme, and making secondary and higher secondary education part of RTE. Every school should have appropriate infrastructure and learning resources. For skill development   the need is to strengthen institutional mechanism for delivery of skills, improve quality of trainers or instructors, etc. To achieve inclusive education for all, specific positioning of boys and girls in rural/urban and SC/ST populations need to be reflected in policy agendas. Specific gender needs would require inter-sectional and multi-sectoral strategies.  Gender social relations need to change rather than providing women the same rights as men. To institutionalise gender centres, creation of gender hubs and gender capital is suggested. Mainstreaming 32 percent of the population comprising of the Scheduled castes requires   redistribution and provision of ownership of public land to SC and poor including women headed households. Similarly, SC and poor should be provided ownership rights of the land cultivated by them.  Prioritise delivery to SC malnourished children under the ICDS programme. Social security schemes to be strengthened for the benefit of SC households. Similarly, schemes meant to improve their education status need to be strengthened and be made part of the tracking system. There is a need to create conditions and opportunities for making livelihood/housing/sanitation/drinking water/electricity/ education/health accessible to Scheduled Castes and population living below the poverty line. Building institutional capacities to provide for gender safety, livelihood, access to resources (assets, credit, services, and rights).

Covers the issue of peace, justice for all and building strong institutions that can deliver justice for all Findings: Suggests convergence of engaged governance with e-governance for ease of business, trust-building, efficient and accountable delivery of services; right to services and accountable grievance redressal system should be put in place; border dynamics need to shift from drug smuggling to commodity trade; focus to be given to prevent crime, casualties and injuries with shift from crime management to crime prevention. Institutional alternatives like SAANJH and improving physical infrastructure of police stations would go a long way in achieving so; there is a need for setting up new and re-demarcation of the Police Stations; scientific data collection system related to road safety, cross-border terrorism, preventing atrocities against children and SCs and controlling drug abuse and smuggling are other relevant steps to be taken.

Mobilization of resources for development and prioritization of government expenditure; strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development are the themes dealt with.  Findings: Resources of Government of Punjab need to improve through improvement in own tax to GSDP ratio; should seek a share in revenue generated in its capital city Chandigarh as per Reorganization Act; Central government should support debt waiver and investment promotion;  State should concentrate towards creation of one or more State level theme based  Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) to leverage capital market financing for meeting the funding requirement/resource gap of select and important social/infrastructural  schemes /projects of the state. Lastly, the state should find ways of tapping Punjabi Diaspora to partner in growth of Punjab.

Book covers the development dynamics and its challenges for the state of Punjab; analysis is provided both sector wise and issue wise, with focus on social and economic differentials. Chapter 1 deals with various indicator of growth and paradoxes of development; chapter 2 deals with centre-state relations in financial matters; chapter 3 discusses general trends in growth in the state over time, industrial development and policy; chapter 4 takes stock of the growth in wheat and rice production in the state and its contribution to the central pool, issues on agricultural for state; chapter 5 provides situational analysis of the educational outcomes in the state using NSS data; chapter 6 examines the employment trends in the state and the issue of livelihood, Relation between education/ skills and employment is also dealt with; chapter 7 looks into achievements in health sector of Punjab and inequality; chapter 8 analysis the demographic statistics and variables in Punjab; chapter 9 deals with gender differentials, highlights Punjab specific gender issues and some policy prescriptions; chapter  10 deals with the growing urbanization, probable ways to tackle the problem; chapter 11 looks into the differentials of socially marginalized groups/castes in employment, occupation and health and education status.

EoDB can be measured through various indicators reflecting procedures for clearances and approvals for setting up a business. Single Window System (SWS) is important for simplifying the procedures for online approvals; fewer documentation requirements and proper coordination within and among departments. Punjab was ranked 1st by World Bank in setting up a business in 2015. Punjab and Andhra Pradesh were the first two states starting the single window initiative in India. Punjab lagged behind other reform areas such as obtaining construction permit, allotment of land, complying with labour regulations, obtaining infrastructure related utilities, tax reforms, carrying out inspections and enforcing contracts was given the status of “Acceleration Required”. Punjab improved in the areas of SWS, access to information and transparency enablers, environment reforms, tax reforms, inspection reforms, construction permit and complying with labour regulations; performed poorly in case of getting electricity connection, enforcing contracts and availability of land; lagged in other reform areas due to weak online infrastructure; lack of proper access to information and awareness and lack of technical skill among staff leading to discouragement of online processes.

Compares the fiscal incentives offered by the State of Punjab to industrial State Haryana to critically evaluates the implications of these measures; analysis takes into account the severalFiscal Incentives to units announced in Punjab industrial policy 2017.  Objectives are to explores: quantum of investment subsidies in terms of net SGST in various areas of these states; interest subsidies for backward areas/districts; credit linked capital subsidy scheme (CLCSS) of GOI; free charged under Collateral Free Credit Guarantee Trust for Micro and Small enterprises (CGTMSE) Scheme; review the assistance provided for technology acquisition; analyse the Exemptions on Change in land Use (CLU) and External Development Charges (EDC); study the Power subsidies, etc. in the two states; analyse the impact of fiscal incentives on employment; Outcome: Report on comparative study on the Fiscal Incentive Structure in Punjab and Haryana for units belonging to MSME, Large and Mega Sectors.

Enterprise Promotion Policy (EPP), 2015 is envisaged to help Haryana achieve the status of a prominent investment destination.  Objectives of EPP are to promote Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) and enhance competitiveness of the industry by reducing the cost of doing business. The performance of the States on EoDB is reviewed in detail in this study by critically evaluating the practices being adopted; the initiatives taken by the Haryana Government to improve its ranking on EoDB are discussed in detail. Focus of this study is to look at the steps taken by Haryana in the area of Ease of Doing Business. Reviewed the steps taken by the Indian States on the basis of reform areas/indicators set by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP); role of the Central agency responsible for giving ranking becomes critical in picking the various parameters and designing the requirements of documents crucial for various clearances. A uniform system cannot work considering local circumstances; the role of a technical expert can become important in designing a suitable format; the EoDB with clear emphasis on simple and online procedures and transparent way to track the applications helped in resolving issues related to clearances/approvals; all the applications pertaining to industrial clearances from various departments are routed through Haryana Enterprises Promotion Centre (HEPC) that has nodal officers to ensure time-bound clearances under one roof. www.investharyana.in, an online single window solution has been developed for all business related clearances. Haryana Government is committed to give all business clearances related to labor, power, pollution, Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), etc., in maximum 45 days.

Study reviews various schemes of Pradhan MantriKisanSampadaYojana pursued by the MoFPI to assess their implications with the objective to suggest the required modifications; to assess the possibilities of success of such policies under various paths of development. Study aims to identify the constraints faced by the SC/ST entrepreneurs to avail assistance under the schemes of the MoFPI;to identify the areas of strength of the SC/ST entrepreneurs in the food processing sector;to identify the state/regions/localities with high concentration of SC/ST population having the ability to take up entrepreneurial activities for better targeting to reach out to the SC/ST entrepreneurs to encourage them to avail the MoFPI assistance;to suggest different models for group intervention like formation of groups in line with SHGs and such other strategy to attract investors from the SC/ST categories;to suggest ways to make the schemes more attractive to the SC/ST entrepreneurs; and to suggest desirable changes in operational guidelines of various schemes of the MoFPI to make them conducive to attract the SC/ST entrepreneurship. The objective of food processing and food supply chain is to increase value addition and also services to reduce wastage and enhance shelf life of food and livestock produce. Food processing includes the entire value chain starting from inputs for the agriculture sector; has the strong backward and forward linkages with the logistics facilities such as transport, warehousing, storage, wholesale and retail outlets and hotels/restaurants units and the consumers. This is crucial for the productive employment generation of the economy as a whole because a large share of workers is engaged in this entire food supply chain in the Indian economy. The purpose is to increase the farmers’ income, reduce farm wastage and create huge employment opportunity. Since most of these activities are carried out in rural and labour-intensive sectors, it will generally help in the up-lifting of masses

Main objective of the study was to analyse the revenue and expenditure of municipal corporations/committees of Punjab in the year 2018-19; the size distribution and density of population of thee 167 municipal corporations/committees was analysed. Punjab government took many measures to expand the number of municipal bodies so that every urban area could have a municipal council; number of municipalities increased from 60 in 1948-1949 to 112 by 1955-56; the number further increased to 175 by 1963-64. Punjab Municipal Corporation Act 1979, resulted in the establishment of many more corporations in Punjab

Ascertains the impact of enforcement of prohibition in Haryana; finds that prohibition has become an administrative programme, rather than a social, political and community-based reforms programme.

Suggests norms to increase the rent of the properties of the municipal committees so as to mobilise resources for them; ways and means to reduce the gap between the total demand of rent and the actual recovery from the rented property; findings reveal that the agreements entered into by the municipalities and the tenants are not property executed. It has been recommended that all agreements should be properly drafted, renewed in time and registered in a court of law.

Safety, security and equitable access to justice are pre requisites for a functional democracy. Without a countable justice system protection of livelihood, provision of entitlements to people on the margins and safeguarding human rights is not possible. It is essential to address the risk of crime, and improve provisions for the security of individuals by creating effective justice institutions and mechanisms that aim at creating a secure crime-free society. Existing Criminal Justice System is insensitive to the needs of its multicultural citizenry, particularly in the context of gender; yet to adopt institutional human rights standards; dynamic interaction between criminal justice system, informal justice mechanisms, civil society interests and citizens in peace, conflict and post-conflict shall lead to evolving parameters for formulation of state policy towards building a crime-free and peaceful society. Aims to develop indicator clusters and a framework of analysis for citizen-centric delivery of justice within the criminal justice system; evolving the participatory mechanism for institutional capacity-building of criminal justice; defining parameters for state policy for participatory, transparent and accountable delivery of justice with a focus on sexual violence.

Report assesses the Right to Service (RTS) Act to expose the shortcomings, leakages and makes suggestions to fix these; concludes that there is a need for improvement in coordination between the RTS Commission and the supporting departments; lack of public awareness on grievance redressal formats under RTS. Institutional effectiveness of the existing mechanisms has been affected by the shortage of regular and trained staff, lower awareness about the RTS among the staff and failure in displaying information regarding rights protected under the Act and timelines. Recommends improved intra-departmental coordination, brochures containing guidelines of the RTS for the staff members and systematic record management of the RTS.

Private sector accounts for more than 60 per cent of total higher education institutions in India; higher education institutions face acute problems in terms of shortage of dedicated academic faculty, required infrastructure, outdated and redundant curriculum unsuitable for market demands, lack of monitoring; the percentage of employable graduates is very low, primarily because of the gap between the requirements of industry and global market and the quality of output of higher education institutions; needs to have focus on building qualitative competitiveness as the quality of education has a wide ranging impact on employability and labour productivity. Major objective of the study concerns with the assessment of quality and efficiency of professional education being provided in universities and professional education institutions; qualitative assessment should focus on the satisfaction of the stated needs and expectation of internal and external customers. Parameters of quality are: infrastructure and learning resources; organizational climate; curriculum design and instructions; evaluation system; innovative practices for teaching; relevance and value based education; preparation of students with sense of social purpose and mission; staff faculty development programme; student support and progression; internship programmes; development of soft skills; faculty/students exchange programme; governance and institutional leadership; and university industry interface (consultancy-internship); efficiency of Higher Education was assessed in terms of productivity of students and the teaching faculty.

Evaluates the status of implementation of the Persons with Disability Act/Schemes including Punjab Divyangjan Shashaktikaran Yojana (PDSY); objectives are to know the socio-economic profile of the persons with disability; the level of awareness about the Persons with Disability Act among officials; examines the steps and measures taken by different departments to ensure the effective Implementation of the Act as well as the schemes including PDSY; finds out the gaps in effective implementation of the Act as well as the schemes including Punjab Divyangjan Sashktikaran Yojna (PDSY).

Assesses the communication needs of the stakeholders of SJVN and RHEP projects; evaluates the communication capacity of the SJVN and RHEP; makes recommendations regarding communication strategy; systems, tools and products for ensuring effective interaction with different stakeholders.

Aims to address whether the Right to Information Act (RTI) is responsive to its stakeholders and what are the necessary amendments; covers the issues in regard to the RTI’s content, deliverables and institutional arrangements for implementation of the law; need to develop a proper framework for addressing the concerns of all stakeholders. RTI created the necessary conditions for access to information to promote transparent and good governance; suggests incorporating the necessary sensitivities in the different provisions of the law.

Assess the overall quality of urban governance, especially, delivery of civic services, and to develop appropriate indicators for assessing comparative performance; Issues of governance in the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) have been the focus of attention at the national and international level since the 1990s. Governance brings in dimensions other than the internal processes of the state agencies and directs attention to the civil society not only as customers but as participants in the processes of government, including, decision making. The issues are not only about efficiency but also about responsiveness and involvement, participation and engagement of the citizens- the ‘third way’. ULBs in India have been separate juridical entities with defined spheres of autonomy recognizes the role of the ULBs for delivery of defined services. Various institutional mechanisms are also proposed / have been set up to strengthen the financial and implementation capabilities of the ULBs. What remains to be examined is whether the ULBs have delivered, and if not, why not, and what can be done about it?

Process of globalization led to transnational consolidation of views, approach and thinking on major issues – earlier considered local or national; issue could be globalization itself, or international trade or development or security versus the right to private property / privacy; process of consolidation of views has, however, not led to any uniformity or harmonization but to the polarization at the extremes of the spectrum of options. This divergence of views is dramatically expressed in the case of major dams and hydroelectric projects – the two views being ‘dams are for development’, and ‘dams are destructive; the issue is how do the agencies and organisations that exist for the building of such projects, go about planning, implementing and commissioning the projects? This is the background of the Study which has been taken up by the Institute for Development and Communication (IDC), Chandigarh, in respect of Vishnugad Pipalkoti Hydro Electric Project (VPHEP) – a run-of-the-river project in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand.

Dr. Pramod Kumar

Dr. Pramod Kumar is Chairperson, Institute for Development and Communication (IDC), Chandigarh. His work focuses on three interrelated themes of politics of development, violence and governance; politics of conflict management and resolution and practice of democracy through empirical methodologies and analysis of public policy and people’s movements. He is a recipient of the prestigious Homi Bhabha Award for the year 1988-1990 for his work on Causation and Forms of Ethnic Conflicts and Inter Ethnic Co operation in India.

Dr Ravinder Pal

Dr. Ravinder Paul holds a Ph.D in Sociology from Punjabi University, Patiala. He has eight-years of teaching experience to graduate and Post-graduate classes at different colleges and university level. Dr. Paul also has extensive research experience in issues concerning society, conducting evaluation and impact assessment studies. He is Associate Coordinator of the Empanelled Training Institute (ETI) at IDC sponsored by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India. Presently, he is supervising two PhD candidates at IDC. He has around ten research papers on different socio-economic and labour issues besides reports prepared for different State governments and national and international agencies.

Mr. Harsh Chopra

Mr. Harsh Chopra, (M.Sc. (Statistics); LL.B.) specializes in statistical model building and data analysis. He is involved in data collection, compilation, analysis, and report writing and also conducting workshops, seminars and training. His area of work includes community policing programme, conducting election surveys and evaluation studies of different social welfare schemes. He has over eighteen years experience in academic research and analysis. Presently, he is Director – Trainings at IDC.

Dr. Chandan Awasthi

Dr. Chandan Awasthi holds Ph.D. from Department of Political Science, Panjab University, Chandigarh. His doctoral work emphasizes on construction of geopolitical discourses within the foreign policy circles of the United States of America, especially focusing on Central Asia and the region around it. He has extensive research experience on various dimensions emerging out of the society, especially in Punjab. He also specializes in the post-colonial police studies, and, issues pertaining to defence and national security of India. Presently, he is supervising three PhD candidates at IDC.He is Deputy Director IDC.

Mr. Amit Kumar

Mr. Harsh Chopra, (M.Sc. (Statistics); LL.B.) specializes in statistical model building and data analysis. He is involved in data collection, compilation, analysis, and report writing and also conducting workshops, seminars and training. His area of work includes community policing programme, conducting election surveys and evaluation studies of different social welfare schemes. He has over eighteen years experience in academic research and analysis. Presently, he is Director – Trainings at IDC.

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