RuralNet: Understanding the state of internet connectivity in rural India

Author(s):  
Zahir Koradia ◽  
Aaditeshwar Seth
2021 ◽  
Vol 94 (3) ◽  
pp. 567-577
Author(s):  
Diego Maiorano

How do Indian citizens access the state? While a standard answer would be "through patronage," three recent books show that clientelism, while important, is just part of the story. Not just passive clients at the mercy of their political patrons, Indian citizens actively engage the state and their representatives to make claims and secure what is due to them. Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner's Claiming the State—Active Citizenship and Social Welfare in Rural India shows how rural dwellers navigate the local government system to access social welfare. Adam Auerbach's Demanding Development: The Politics of Public Goods Provision in India's Urban Slums documents how local political workers make claims on behalf of their neighbours and provide their settlements with essential services. Jennifer Bussell's Clients and Constituents: Political Responsiveness in Patronage Democracies persuasively demonstrates the importance of higher-level representatives in providing assistance to their constituencies. Together, these books not only demonstrate how political the daily life of ordinary citizens is, but also how the Indian state, while far from its Weberian ideal, is much more inclusive than previously thought.


Author(s):  
Debarati Sen ◽  
Sarasij Majumder

This chapter presents a picture of what gendered resilience looks like at the ground level in eastern India's Darjeeling district in the state of West Bengal. It focuses on how women interpret and react to popular market-based development alternatives like microcredit and the consequences this has had for community development. The chapter is divided into three sections. The first section charts the history and dynamics of microcredit's unfolding in Darjeeling and highlights the practices and discourses through which women demonstrate resilience. The second section lays out how and why women re-signify risk in the context of microcredit to make visible non-financial forms of risk that affect their families and, in turn, their communities. The third section explores how, after encountering the social and economic difficulties that came with the microcredit loans, many of the women set up their own groups for lending.


The Electronic National Agricultural Market (e-NAM), a shared online market platform for agricultural commodities on a one nation one market basis, was launched on April 14, 2016. Since this scheme has been in practice for the last four years in the country, but the state of Punjab opted for it two years later, the present study was designed to appraise the adoption of the portal in the selected markets of the state and to throw light on constraints and prospects of e-NAM in Punjab. The results showed that most farmers benefitted from remunerative prices and found the e-NAM system transparent as every step of trading was digitally recorded. The farmers enjoyed the liberty to sell the produce anywhere at a comparatively higher price. The majority of the farmers expressed that e-NAM was better in price realization, which was the most lucrative aspect. At the same time, the farmers wanted to have a separate gate entry for trading through e-NAM, increased awareness, and uninterrupted and low-cost internet connectivity in markets.


2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-324
Author(s):  
Mukesh Kumar Vashistha ◽  
V.K. Tiwari ◽  
Sherin Raj T.P. ◽  
Ramesh Gandotra

The Mukhyamantri Nishulk Dava Yojna (MNDY) was started across the state since 02 October 2011 in order to distribute most commonly used drugs free of cost to all patients visiting the government hospital. To run the scheme, an advanced inventory management by the name of e-Aushadhi has been developed and implemented across all public health facilities (PHFs). Trained human resources and computers with printers and internet connectivity are provided. In this study, 183 patients and staff responsible for the implementation of the scheme and specialists were interviewed. The study revealed that patients and doctors were highly satisfied with the functioning of the scheme and they are getting the majority of the medicines prescribed by the doctor. The scheme has been able to reduce out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditure on medicines and increased hospital attendance manifold.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-179
Author(s):  
Shireen Moosvi

The survival of the original reports of officials engaged in the Dufferin Inquiry (1887–88) from what is now Uttar Pradesh, enables us to have detailed descriptions of the extent of poverty in India’s countryside at that time. The details cover conditions of women, including their share in both domestic and field labour. One can infer the state of gender relations from these descriptions, with bride-price rather than dowry as the prominent institution. We are also able to see how caste customs also shaped women’s access to the labour market outside the home.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-54
Author(s):  
M. Gopinath Reddy ◽  
Bishnu Prasad Mohapatra

The debates on the devolution of powers to the panchayats since the last two decades received enormous attention because of the increasing role played by these institutions in planning and implementation of the development programmes in rural India. But it is observed that devolution agenda including the agenda of fiscal devolution and tax decentralization has not been taken up sincerely in many states including the states of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. Based on the review of secondary data, the present article critically examines the status of the fiscal devolution to the panchayats in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. This article argues that both the states need to strengthen the own revenue of panchayats based on the recommendations of the Finance Commissions of the respective states. In this context, the process of tax decentralization and principles of sharing the state taxes should receive paramount importance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-57
Author(s):  
Sandeep Kumar Sinha ◽  
Pradeep Chaudhry

Open defecation is a major blot on India’s overall reputation as an emerging economy as it still remains stubbornly widespread across rural India. The present paper outlines the economic and psychological aspects of toilets construction and their sustainable usage in two districts of the state of Biharviz. Gopalganj& Bhagalpur. Bihar’s performance is not up to the mark with respect to the sanitation figures among other states of India. It was found that households owning a government constructed latrine,still defecate in the open. Study evidences support a preference for open defecation; many survey respondents reported that open defecation was more comfortable and desirable than latrine use. Old people prefer going outside as they are used to this routineand do not mind defecating in the open for the rest of their lives.The study was conducted with an objective to better understand and assess the issues and strategies of behavioural change, policies present in the system and suggesting suitable recommendations to address the issue of sustenance of open defecation free status in the state.


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