Famine of 1943 in Bakarganj and British Colonial Policy

In the vast literature of Bengal famine of 1943, it is hard to offer new insights about that vicious source of mass misery. Local history may mark a significant departure here, as it provides scope for an in-depth study of both the origin and course of the famine. Bakarganj was called the granary of Bengal, which used to supply rice to other regions even in the driest years due to its large production. But the famine of 1943 gravely affected this district. The present study shows how it was the colonial measures that played a vital role in intensifying the famine in Bakarganj. The government’s led to: hoarding of rice and serious shortage of food supply. The article concentrates on four aspects of the government failure: inappropriate warning system, callous purchase policy, lack of effective government inspection and a policy of disaster denial.

Glimpses of Fiscal States in Sub-Saharan Africa

There is a widespread perception that taxing in sub-Saharan Africa has been and remains fraught with problems or government failure. This is not generally true. For more than a century, colonial administrations and independent states have steadily developed the capacity to routinely collect more substantial revenues than one might expect in a low-income region. The two main historical dimensions of this collection capacity were (a) powerful, centralized bureaucracies focused on achieving revenue collection targets and (b) large, taxable international trade sectors. In recent decades, those centralized bureaucracies have to some extent been reformed such that in structure and procedure they resemble more closely tax administrations in OECD countries. More strikingly, nearly all states have adopted VAT and found it to be a very powerful revenue collection instrument. However, the tax share of GDP has been broadly constant for several decades, and it will be hard to increase it. It is difficult for African governments to effectively tax transnational corporations, especially in the mining and energy sectors, which are of growing importance. Tax administrations continue to approach richer Africans with a light touch, and to exaggerate the potential for taxing small-scale (‘informal’) enterprises. The revenue operations of sub-national governments are often opaque. Ordinary people often pay large sums in ‘informal taxes’ that are generally regressive in impact. And the standard direction of travel in the reform of tax policy and administration is not appropriate to those large areas, especially in the Sahel, that are afflicted by internal and cross-border armed conflicts.

How does Governance Impact Malnutrition ? A Close Look at Factors Associated with Underweight in Children Under 5 Years in Ghana

Undernutrition remains a barrier to achieving the sustainable development goals in most developing countries. The United Nations identified that, the right mix of policies and actions that addresses the numerous, interrelated causes of hunger and undernutrition will be able to achieve Zero Hunger thereby ending hunger and undernutrition . In Ghana, 11% of all children under the age of 5years are underweight. Nutrition programs are traditionally funded through the government of Ghana budgetary allocations, to pay salaries and for the supply of logistics, and training. The objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of human resource capacity and budgetary expenditure on nutrition program outcomes for children under five years using in-depth interviews, anthropometric data on age and weight and data on nutrition human resource and expenditure in three regions from 2014 to 2017 in Ghana. The paper finds using linear mixed effects modeling that human and financial resources are not significant predictors of underweight besides, there are externalities in the implementation of nutrition programs for children under 5years due to poor targeting and information asymmetries, resulting in excludability in consumption of nutrition services, therefore nutrition programs may not be well-coordinated, and implemented pointing to government failure. Mother support groups contributed in reducing undernutrition in children under 5years through the cultivation and consumption of nutrition-sensitive agriculture value chain products .

How Milton Friedman Exploited White Supremacy to Privatize Education

This paper traces the origins of today’s campaigns for school vouchers and other modes of public funding for private education to efforts by Milton Friedman beginning in 1955. It reveals that the endgame of the “school choice” enterprise for libertarians was not then—and is not now--to enhance education for all children; it was a strategy, ultimately, to offload the full cost of schooling onto parents as part of a larger quest to privatize public services and resources. Based on extensive original archival research, this paper shows how Friedman’s case for vouchers to promote “educational freedom” buttressed the case of Southern advocates of the policy of massive resistance to Brown v. Board of Education. His approach—supported by many other Mont Pelerin Society members and leading libertarians of the day --taught white supremacists a more sophisticated, and for more than a decade, court-proof way to preserve Jim Crow. All they had to do was cease overt focus on race and instead deploy a neoliberal language of personal liberty, government failure and the need for market competition in the provision of public education.

Dynamic Evaluation and System Coordination Degree of the Integration of Artificial Intelligence and Real Economy

Artificial intelligence (AI) is an important driving force of the new round of technological revolution and industrial change, and the development of a new generation of AI can help improve comprehensive national power and promote healthy and sustainable economic development. AI can promote economic development through four ways. First, AI replaces labor, expands labor connotation, increases labor supply, and enriches labor wealth; AI empowers laborers and improves labor productivity. Second, AI empowers the three industries and improves production efficiency. Third, AI creates consumer surplus and improves social welfare. Fourth, AI empowers government to correct government failure and improve government efficiency, which in turn corrects market failure and improves economic efficiency. The economic subsystem covers both quantitative and qualitative aspects of economic growth, economic structure, economic efficiency, and economic support. Environmental subsystems are divided into environmental quality, environmental pollution, and environmental protection. While using AI to promote economic development, it is also important to strengthen the research and prevention of potential risks of AI development to ensure that AI is safe, reliable, and controllable.