Policy Perspectives and Strategy for Communication Data and Network Security Projects and Tools

This chapter highlights the constant increase in the number of attacks on computer network systems, which has pushed governments, researchers, and experts to devise better security policies and strategies. However, the rapid growth of systems, components, and services offered has increased the difficulty of administering them. In many organizations in developed and developing countries, more emphasis is being given on use of Automatic Computing for proper network security. The chapter clarifies how various projects and tools could be relevant for network security. The chapter provides insights about what steps have been taken for network security in a developing country like India. It looks into various strategies adopted for communication data and network security in India. It emphasizes that, with increasing demand for basic/citizen services over the Internet, it has become important to protect data and ensure efficient backup and data recovery. The chapter proposes a need for better and effective policy and strategy for communication data and network security to make the government citizen-oriented in developing countries.

Pragmatism in Making Policies

The Indian economy is one of the largest in emerging and developing scenarios. The contribution of gems and jewellery amounts to one-fifth of the total economy. This sector has one of the largest unorganized workforces in the country and is a major source of employment to a large number of people. The formulation of policies gains significance and demands statistical tools as philosophical debates often are inconclusive. The problem becomes more severe if quantification and inferential exactitude is a must. The nature of the gems and jewellery business, especially in India, is very secretive, and the use of language is highly elliptical, where it is very difficult to get any useful information or correct answers to the most basic questions. Diverse variables are difficult to place as well as correlate, and factors influencing an aspect may be very different than the perceived ones. This chapter explores the domain for the purpose of pragmatic policies that can be readily adopted by the government as well as by the industry.

Water Resources Management

This chapter explores grassroots interventions by forging partnerships with stakeholders in improving the management of water resources at the community level. In order to gain insight into the nuances of managing water resources in partnership, a pilot study was instituted in the State of Rajasthan, India. The efficacy of the partnership approach in ensuring equitable water management is demonstrated. The analysis is supported by data collected through the administration of a questionnaire for five different stakeholders. The impact of the intervention reiterates the positive social, economic, and environmental outcomes in a more sustainable manner.

Cluster Analysis

The cluster analysis, also known as grouping, clumping, unsupervised classification, is one of the multivariate analysis techniques. The technique of cluster analysis is highly useful in a wide range of problems related to managerial decisions, psychological solutions, categorization of business organizations on the basis of their performance for constructing separate policies for each clusters, in health sectors, societal problems, etc. For good governance there is a need to apply the proper statistical tools with ICT. Even today, the statistical tools are rarely used in the region of e-governance for better policy development. This chapter discusses the use of cluster analysis in classifying a large amount of data into sub-groups (known as clusters), which are homogeneous in a certain sense, and analyzes each sub-group separately to find solutions for each of them. The method in explained with the help of an illustration, by using the SPSS software.

Providing Rational and Normative Policy Evaluation with Hedonic Estimation in Developing and Emerging Market Economies

Market economy and democratic evolution in public policy requires a shift from a comprehensive rational and positivism approach to including normative considerations through a social participatory thesis. The key question of this chapter’s examination is: Do the fundamental ideas of econometric evaluation of land value as a basis for public policy contribute worth for the society as a whole? Policy that exploits market mechanisms cannot be developed in isolation of the larger societal needs that are required to enrich democracy. To do this, the authors provide an econometric model of valuation of land to test and predict policy outcomes to enhance democratic transition. Establishing market value is a tool that supports policy economic development goals and normative outcomes desired through political transparency in the emergence to democratic processes. The authors conclude with recommendations for implementation to support stakeholders in the policymaking process.

Reflections on Government’s Accountability in Complex Socio-Economic Realities (In the Post-Political Era)

Government accountability is important for more rational and effective functioning of authorities and societies. The actual assessment of government performance in the present complex and diverse socio-economic realities is not possible without qualitative and quantitative analyses. Additionally, new approaches and methods in synchronization with ICTs, computer simulations, and modeling enable the improvement of execution of the governments. This chapter advocates that multicriterial and multilevel assessment of governments should be enriched by recognition and analyses of contexts in which they act. Government characteristics and the present contexts are diverse and their responses to new challenges are limited and differentiated.

Effects of Alcohol Policy on Population Variables and Control Measures

This case study of Dodoma Municipal Council focuses on the application of statistical tools to establish Population Variables (PVs) affected by alcohol and suggested control measures. The establishment relied on primary data involving a sample size of 156 respondents selected through purposive sampling and analyzed by cross-tabs and Chi-square. The analysis found alcohol policy affects mostly the lower-educated population, small householders and youths, and these were significant at 0.029, 0.002, and 0.006 levels, respectively. The inferences drawn shows within PVs, alcohol reduces students’ performances, influences separation of families, and increases poverty in the households, and all were significant at 0.003, 0.028, and 0.003, respectively. The findings conclude that alcohol affects all PVs, which consequently ends up deteriorating welfare. Therefore, to combat alcohol, the chapter recommends usage policy legal measures and educating the masses on the effect of alcohol.

Policy Intervention of Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram in Jaipur City, Rajasthan

The government of India launched Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram (henceforth JSSK) to benefit pregnant women and newborns. The JSSK provides completely free and cashless services to pregnant women including normal deliveries and caesarean operations and sick newborns (up to 30 days after birth) in government health institutions. This chapter studies the utilization of the JSSK scheme by the beneficiaries and the strategy of free entitlements implemented under JSSK through the selected policy targets. The study was carried out in Jaipur district, Rajasthan, India, and was conducted on a medium-sized sample, who have availed the benefits of JSSK in the past year to measure the correlation between three variables, policy targets, service delivery management, and utilization pattern of beneficiaries. The chapter concludes that JSSK is a good scheme but gaps in resources and lack of quality of services needs to be adequately dealt with to make it efficient.

Estimation of Agricultural Production

The successful implementation of e-governance mainly depends on the reliability of its database, as this can be efficiently utilized to give more precise estimates of future production. These predications can be made the basis of the policy for import and export of products like food grain or other crops, which are presently growing in the agricultural fields. Knowing the previous record of the product, as auxiliary variable, one can estimate its future production. This chapter, by constructing practical situational caricatures, emphasizes that the statistical tool like ratio analysis and regression analysis may be helpful in estimating the parameters of the variable in the agriculture field. It includes five illustrations to put forth the idea of application of statistical tools to make effective policy in the field of agriculture.

Kautilya on Selection, Implementation, and Evaluation of a Project

Kautilya wrote The Arthashastra during the fourth century BCE. It is a manual on how to provide freedom from wants and freedom from fear to every citizen. He understood that provision of human security was possible only if projects were selected properly. He recommended projects that maximized the creation of wealth and prevented damages from calamities, such as floods, famines, and fire, but keeping in view the complementarity of projects. He suggested a balanced growth approach to prevent possible bottlenecks. A bureaucratic set-up was designed to hold someone responsible to implement the project and be accountable. Contingency planning was to be undertaken in case the project did not turn out to be as expected. Evaluation of the project afterwards was considered equally important: if the project was successful, what factors contributed to its success, and if it failed, what factors were behind its failure. This chapter explores the modern implications of The Arthashastra.