Archives: Working Papers

Over the past few months, the CPR has been engaged in studies about some of the aspects of the Special Economic Zones (SEZs). This set of four CPR Occasional Papers addresses different facets of what continues to be a contentious subject.

This paper undertakes a more in-depth investigation into the location of SEZs, based on data available from the Ministry of Commerce. It builds upon early work in Mukhopadhyay (2008) which noted that not only are SEZs located mostly in a few states, even within these states, they are concentrated in a few districts, most of which had an above average rate of industrialisation.

The paper describes the estimation exercise, i.e. the Urban Infrastructure Per Capita Investment Cost estimation and projection of urban finance requirements for the period 2006-2031 referred to as the 2006-2031 Urban Infrastructure Finance Estimation Exercise (2006-2031 UIFEE). The 2006 – 2031 UIFEE is special as it the first one in more than a decade of its nature, covering all urban infrastructure sectors. These new estimates covering the period 2006-2031 will add on to the Rakesh Mohan Committee estimates that projected investment requirements till 2006. This estimation exercise is unique as compared to the earlier estimation exercises for a host of reasons including the level of granularity of the projections and its reliance on real project data, which has been appraised by a variety of expert institutions. The demand driven nature of the projects also ensure that the projects are essential to the requirements of the citizens. The outputs on financing requirements are very closely driven by the service standards and the 2006- 2031 UIFEE, has benefited from the recent effort of the Government of India of creating Standard Service Level Benchmarks for many of the urban services estimated. The grand aggregate for all services estimated for India for the period of 2006-2031 has emerged to be 71620 billion rupees at 2009 prices and for the period of 2009- 2031 the requirement would be 71250 billion rupees at 2009 prices, given the JNNURM investments that have already been chandelled into the sector so far. Given that the Government of India total revenue receipts in 2008- 09 is Rs. 5621.73 billion represents less than 8 percent of the capital expenditure requirements for the period 2009- 2031 ie. 71250 billion rupees. This revelation, though not a surprise in itself raises fundamental policy questions on how the Government needs to address urban infrastructure provision. It is hoped that this analysis will get the serious attention of policy makers and that it will raise and help address the key policy and institutional questions that need to be addressed urgently in the urban infrastructure and service delivery sectors today.

This paper discusses domestic politics around climate change in India as an entry point to understanding India’s role in global climate negotiations. I suggest there is broad agreement within India on three issues: India is being unfairly labelled a “major emitter”; India has a considerable ongoing development burden; and India is already moving in the right direction on climate mitigation. However, on each of these issues there is a healthy under-current of domestic debate. Moreover, broad agreement in perspective does not translate to strategic unanimity. Instead, I suggest there are three divergent positions within India: growth-first stonewallers, progressive realists, and progressive internationalists. For a renewed Indian climate politics, the two progressive groups will have to join forces. However, this will require far stronger signals of good faith from the international community and industrialized countries in particular. The paper concludes with a discussion of what India and Annex 1 could do to shift the debate.

This paper documents the Andhra Pradesh experience of institutionalising social audits into the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), and uses it to analyse the social audit process. It draws on empirical work aimed at measuring the effectiveness of social audits conducted in Andhra Pradesh between March and December 2007.

Public discourse in India has been dominated by a heated debate on how to address the endemic corruption in India’s public institutions. The agitation for the Lok Pal bill and the ensuing discussions has brought the role of anti-corruption institutions and accountability mechanisms to the heart of this debate. As potential solutions begin to emerge, it is important to reflect on current experience and take stock of lessons learned from India’s on-going efforts to build accountability systems and to address corruption. The key to designing an effective solution will lie in understanding the conditions under which solutions can work as well and the challenges they are likely to face.

This paper is an effort to contribute to this debate through an analysis of the experience of implementing one such accountability mechanism – social audits in the state of Andhra Pradesh (AP). Using Government Reported data on social audits and data collected through interviews with key government officials, this paper examines the accountability effects of regular, reliable institutionalized social audits in the state.

This working paper is an effort to trace the landscape of citizen-led efforts to hold the state accountable in India. It first offers an analytical narrative of the evolution of thought and practice in public accountability till the current emphasis on citizen-led accountability initiatives, and then after a quick overview of the different mechanisms and instruments through which citizens have begun to scrutinize the state it identifies some of the key limitations in the current discourse on citizen-led accountability initiatives, arguing for a research agenda that addresses some of these issues.

This paper argues that as a step towards improving Indian corporate response to climate change, it is worth exploring an appropriate disclosure-based regulation system. It sets out reasons why Indian companies need to improve their responses to climate change; and compares and contrasts disclosure-based regulation with other traditional models of regulation (command-and-control or market-based) in terms of their approach, strengths and weaknesses, based on its implementation in different parts of the world.

Bharath Jairaj is Senior Associate, World Resources Institute, Washington D.C.

The Delhi Master Plan 2021 introduced the “In-situ rehabilitation” approach to slum redevelopment, in which residents of Jhuggi Jhopdi Clusters transition to temporary housing while the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) reconstructs the settlment, and then shifts the slum-dwellers back onto the original plot and into improved housing. Kathputli Colony, located in West Delhi’s Shadipur region, has been selected by the DDA as the site of Delhi’s first in-situ slum rehabilitation. This paper lays out the trajectory of the Kathputli project thus far, examining the formal, legalistic framework and its relationship to the actual events documented in our research in the colony.

CPR Working Paper No. 3

In the opening pages of “The Indian Ideology” Perry Anderson criticises leading Indian scholars for uncritical and inflated claims of India being a successful, indeed exceptional, democracy. Our subaltern historians and political analysts on the extreme left are equally dismissive. Many of the idealistic young turn to militancy persuaded that democracy is no more than a facade for an authoritarian Indian state. The radical critique deserves more extended consideration than it has received………..