Archives: Briefs Reports

The Covid-19 pandemic presents an unparalleled challenge to the peace and prosperity of South Asia, home to one-fourth of the world population. Aside from the immediate health crisis, the pandemic also threatens to undo decades of economic development in the region and destabilize it socially and politically. It is imperative that India take on the leadership role in the region during this time of crisis. As the largest nation in South Asia, it needs to assume the responsibility of assisting its neighbourhood in combating the pandemic and getting on the path of a sustained recovery. This report, from the International Relations team at the Centre for Policy Research, offers a multi-sectoral action plan for India’s Covid-19 diplomacy in the region, covering critical areas of health, food security, ecology, trade and finance. Focusing on the immediate problems as well as long-term challenges, the report envisions a prosperous South Asia, with India as its engine of recovery.

This brief makes an attempt to benchmark India’s performance globally, from India’s perspective. It compares the sanitation scenario in India with the MDG regional blocks and other comparator countries. The brief makes use of a set of global data sources to relate urban open defecation (%) with other development indicators like GDP (per capita), HDI and IMR.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement between 12 Pacific Rim countries is not just another tariff-eliminating mega regional trade pact, but it is about developing a higher global standard for international trade – encompassing lower benchmarks for non-tariff barriers, more stringent labour and environment regulations, higher intellectual property rights (IPR) protection, greater transparency in government procurement and limiting advantages to SOE (state-owned enterprises). In this paper, we compare the TPP agreement with other mega regional trade agreements both existing and in the pipeline and examine the implications for India. We find that it will be difficult for India to join the TPP at this stage even if it is invited because of the high standards for behind-the-border measures like labour, environment, etc. India is unlikely to experience any significant export diversification in the short-term but it cannot be denied that some trade and investment diversion will occur as a consequence of the TPP in the medium-term, thereby hurting the Indian economy. India needs a multi-pronged approach to mitigate this negative impact of which the most critical is to implement urgent reforms in India’s domestic policies to close the gap with the ‘new-normal’ in global trade-related standards. Otherwise, India will get isolated from the global supply chain. The best option for India will be to finalise the ongoing trade negotiations while implementing necessary domestic reforms. The government should use the threat of isolation from major trade flows to bring the political opposition and domestic industry on board for implementing necessary institutional and structural reforms. Domestic industry and the government, working in partnership, could then look at these trade agreements as opportunities, which if exploited would give the much needed push to growth and employment generation.

Understanding India’s likely energy future is important for both development planning and climate policy. This review of seven national energy and climate modelling studies finds energy use will increase substantially in the absence of additional policies: coal use may increase by 2.5-3 times current levels by 2030, electricity supply by 3-4 times, and greenhouse gases by 2-3 times. However, results diverge widely, even for reference cases, limiting their use for policymaking. Collectively, these studies also use high GDP growth rates and do not fully consider the implications on energy security and environmental concerns. India’s energy and climate planning would be well served by complementary analysis of specific sectoral actions.

Suggested citation: Navroz K. Dubash, Radhika Khosla, Narasimha D. Rao and K. Rahul Sharma (2015) India’s Energy and Climate Policy: Lessons from Modelling Studies. Policy Brief. Center for Policy Research, New Delhi. Available at: https://cprindia.org/research/reports/india%E2%80%99s-energy-and-climate-policy-lessons-modelling-studies

With the State of Odisha being declared as ODF in 2019, the focus now lies in leveraging the momentum for creating and sustaining clean and sanitized villages through the delivery of adequate FSM services to all the residents of rural areas. Envisioning towards ‘Swachha Odisha Sustha Odisha’, the Odisha Rural Sanitation Policy (ORSP) 2020 aims to achieve open discharge free villages through FSM. This is to be realised through the adoption of safe and hygienic behaviour and systems towards FSM; adoption of hygiene-related practices through awareness-building and behaviour change; and effective implementation of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs).

Implementation of FSM projects in urban areas for so many years underscored the need to focus on the supply and demand side of FSM intervention. To get the FSM initiative to gain success, demand generation in the community is important. IEC, therefore, plays a critical role in generating the demand for FSM. In light of the learning from the urban FSM projects and SBM (II) FSM thrust, a rural FSM IEC and BCC strategy stand critically relevant for the state.

This strategy entails different modes and media for promoting behavior change at different categories of stakeholders and resolving the concerns of FSM across the sanitation value chain. The strategy impresses on the use of interpersonal and mass communication along with people centered advocacy to draw attention to the safe and scientific FSM in the sanitation value chain.

The strategy note has been prepared under the Dhenkanal Pilot Project for Solid and Liquid Waste Management (SLWM) supported by UNICEF.

SUGGESTED CITATION: Gupta, P. & Dwivedi, A. 2020. ‘IEC/BCC Strategy for FSM in Rural Dhenkanal’. CPR Report. New Delhi: Centre for Policy Research. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.16928.51202

The Centre for Policy Research (CPR), Delhi in collaboration with the BSE Ltd., Mumbai have started a monthly Macro Economic Seminar Series. The objective of these Seminars is to generate fresh analytical insights into the Indian macroeconomic issues for potential use by policy makers. The unique format of these seminars is to bring together macroeconomists who have different perspectives on the state of the macro economy, depending upon their location in think tanks, financial institutions and corporate organisations.
The first seminar of the series was held in BSE corporate office, Mumbai on 26th October. The topic of the seminar was ‘IFC – Is It a Good Framework for Monetary Policy’. A panel discussion between Sajjid Chinoy, Surjit S bhalla and Ramgopal Agarwala was moderated by Rajiv Kumar.
The government released a revised draft of the Indian Financial Code (IFC) in July 2015 that formally mandated the RBI to move towards Flexible Inflation Targeting (FIT). Under this agreement, the objective of monetary policy is “primarily to maintain price stability, while keeping in mind the objective of growth.” This has opened up a debate on the appropriateness of the FIT for India and of the composition of the monetary policy committee (MPC) as that might affect RBI’s autonomy and dilute its principal responsibility for controlling inflation. Literature review does not gives clear picture whether Inflating targeting is beneficial for developing countries or not.

The Government of Kerala dovetailed its state housing programme with the national scheme of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana in 2015 to realise the vision for ‘Housing for All’. The State Poverty Eradication Mission of the Government of Kerala, or Kudumbashree, is the state-level nodal agency for implementing the scheme in Kerala. The PMAY (U) is converged with the LIFE Mission (Livelihood, Inclusion and Financial Empowerment), the comprehensive housing scheme of the Kerala government, and is implemented as PMAY (U)-LIFE.

In Kerala, the PMAY’s Beneficiary-led Individual House Construction or Enhancement (BLC) vertical emerged as the most preferred vertical, owing to an increased subsidy outlay by the Government of Kerala. Further, recognising the lack of state-owned land as a significant hindrance to the uptake of the BLC scheme, the state government converged the implementation of the BLC scheme with the third phase of the LIFE Mission in 2017. This convergence provided an additional subsidy to the landless households to purchase private land, thereby enabling their inclusion under the ambit of the BLC scheme in the state.

This report is based on a primary assessment of the state of habitat improvement in Kerala, under the ambit of PMAY (U)-LIFE, through a quantitative household survey in three cities of Kerala – Kochi, Trivandrum and Mukkam. It finds that the State’s interventions towards the Housing for All agenda have underscored the importance attributed to the landless and the homeless in the state, rather than slum dwellers exclusively. The State’s interventions have also successfully demonstrated an approach towards enabling livelihoods through housing and imbibing financial empowerment among women.

While the Kerala model has exhibited various successful interventions to achieve a higher uptake of the BLC under PMAY, Kerala now needs to focus on adopting a city-wide, inclusive spatial planning approach. This report concludes by advocating for the provision of allied basic civic infrastructure across the new and existing housing in the state and for a spatial integration of the beneficiaries, to ensure habitat improvement.

In response to the national housing scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), the Government of Odisha designed the Odisha Urban Housing Mission – Awaas in 2015 to realise the goal of housing for all in the state. With an additional outlay as subsidy from the state government and the Centre to the economically weaker sections for building houses on their own land, the Beneficiary-led ‘Individual House’ Construction or Enhancement (BLC) vertical emerged as the most preferred.

During the initial days of implementation, the lack of documentary evidence for the land occupied by slum dwellers continued to exclude the majority from the purview of the BLC subsidy. To address this impediment and to enable a wider traction of the scheme, the State introduced the Odisha Land Rights to Slum Dwellers Act, 2017, entitling the urban poor to rights on the land parcels they had been residing on, depending on the tenability. After the completion of the pilot phase of the Act, the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Odisha launched the JAGA Mission, to expand the land rights programme and to transform the existing slums into liveable habitats, with the provision of all essential civic urban infrastructure.

Against this background, this report aims to understand (a) the impact of the distribution of Land Rights Certificates (LRCs) among the urban poor on their ability to leverage the housing subsidy under BLC and (b) the existing conditions and challenges in the construction of houses through BLC under PMAY in Odisha. For this purpose, a stratified sample survey of 250 households was carried out in three cities of Odisha – Dhenkanal, Gopalpur and Berhampur – in addition to Key Informant Interviews (KIIs).

The study finds that the dissemination of land rights to the urban poor, after the commencement of the JAGA Mission, enhanced the potential beneficiary base in the state for leveraging available BLC housing subsidies. However, the ensuing ‘house only’ approach in the State and the limited focus on improving access to basic services require urgent redressal. While the steps adopted by the Government of Odisha are vital to address the issues of urban planning and housing for slum dwellers, there is now a looming need to adopt a multi-pronged approach towards ensuring an overall habitat improvement and an integration of slums into the city fabric.

Malaysia is one of the countries in the world to have emerged as leaders in septage management for sanitation improvement. However, this journey witnessed various changes and amendments in the Constitution, policies, Acts and operational mechanisms. India undoubtedly faces the challenge to address issues of sanitation in the country. Through various policy frameworks and government programmes such as SBM (U) and AMRUT, sanitation has received tremendous attention recently. This paper attempts to present Malaysia case of sanitation focusing on governance, evolution of sanitation in the country, various legal frameworks and mechanisms that evolved over a period of time, which India can learn from as it embarks on an arduous path to improve urban sanitation in the country.