Book Review: L. N. Venkataraman, The Social Construction of Capabilities in a Tamil Village

L. N. Venkataraman, The Social Construction of Capabilities in a Tamil Village. Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan, 2021, 212 pp., ISBN: 9788194829591 (Paperback).

Book Review: Sanjeev Kelkar, India’s Public Health Care Delivery, Policies for Universal Health Care

Sanjeev Kelkar, India’s Public Health Care Delivery, Policies for Universal Health Care. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021, xix + 496 pp., Ä 93.08. ISBN: 9789813341791 (Hardback).

Book Review: Ankush Agrawal and Vikas Kumar, Numbers in India’s Periphery: The Political Economy of Government Statistics

Ankush Agrawal and Vikas Kumar, Numbers in India’s Periphery: The Political Economy of Government Statistics. Cambridge University Press, 2020, 416 pp., $120.00. ISBN: 9781108486729 (Hardback).

Environmental Movements in North-East India: Political Opportunity Structure and Movement Success

Since the last two decades, the North-East region of India witnessed many environmental movements with similar goals and forms of mobilisation that challenged government policies and actions. Many of them achieved their goals or objectives whereas others failed. This study is an attempt to understand the factors that determined the success and failure of those movements and protests by employing rich details of four case studies from the North-East to make a systematic comparison. This study uses political opportunity structure as a theoretical construct to understand relative success and failure of environmental movements in the North-East.

Book Review: Krishna Kumar, Smaller Citizens: Writings on the Making of Indian Citizens

Krishna Kumar, Smaller Citizens: Writings on the Making of Indian Citizens. Orient BlackSwan, 2021, xviii + 150 pp., ₹395. ISBN: 9789354 420801(Paperback).

ICT Adoption and VAT Registration among Unincorporated Enterprises in India: Analysis of Unit-Level Data

Introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) has resulted in harmonisation of tax compliance system in India. In the new tax regime, tax compliance system has completely moved to online (digital) platforms. Given the inequality in access to digital platform or adoption of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) among marginal, small and medium enterprises in India, tax compliance may not improve in the GST regime. In a developing country like India where majority of unincorporated enterprises are in the informal sector, staying outside the formal network may restrict their economic prospects. It is worthwhile to study the relationship between access to ICT and tax (VAT) registration among unincorporated enterprises in India. Based on unit-level data of the 73rd round NSS survey, this study explores factors influencing the decision of unincorporated enterprises to take VAT/Sales Tax registration across the Indian states. The results show that adoption of ICT in terms of using internet and computers positively influence tax registration. Policy suggestions of the study may help to expand the tax base of GST by bringing informal enterprises under the tax net.

Agricultural Growth Diagnostics: Identifying the Binding Constraints and Policy Remedies for Bihar, India

Agriculture plays a significant role in economic development of underdeveloped regions. Multiple factors influence the performance of agricultural sector but a few of these have a strong bearing on its growth. This study develops a growth diagnostics framework for agricultural sector in Bihar, located in eastern India, to identify the most binding constraints. The study results show that poor functioning of agricultural markets and low-level of crop diversification are the important reasons for low agricultural growth in Bihar. Rise in price instability of agricultural produces indicates a weak price transmission across the markets even after repealing the Agricultural Produce Market Committee Act. Poor market linkages and non-functioning producer collectives at village-level affect the farmers’ motivation for undertaking crop diversification. Hence, policy suggestions to overcome these binding constraints include the state provisioning of basic market infrastructure to attract private investment in agricultural marketing, strengthening the Farmer Producer Organisations, and framing a comprehensive policy on crop diversification.

Administrative and Compliance Costs of Value Added Tax (VAT): A Review

This article surveys the existing literature on the compliance and administrative costs of VAT incurred by the businesses and the governments respectively. The review focuses on the concepts and components of VAT operating costs, the link between the tax compliance costs and the tax compliance decision, factors associated with compliance costs and the steps taken by various countries to mitigate these costs. The major studies of VAT compliance cost since 1980 and the methodologies adopted are summarised. The review of the studies shows that the VAT compliance costs are higher and significant in both absolute money terms and relative to tax revenue in developed as well as developing countries than the administrative costs and the compliance costs are highly regressive in nature which disproportionately affects the small businesses. Further, the psychological costs are underexplored in the VAT compliance cost literature due to the difficulty in measuring them. This article also highlights the understudied area of VAT compliance costs in India and the importance of exploring the compliance burden in India.

Investigating Environmental Kuznets Curve: A Panel Data Analysis for India

The main objective of this study is to examine the relevance of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in describing the relationship between air pollution and development of a panel of 21 Indian states, using data for the period 2001–2016. This article attempts to use panel unit root, the panel cointegration test and panel dynamic ordinary least square approach to examine the relationship among various variables, including the atmospheric concentration of sulphur dioxide (SO2)/nitrogen dioxide (NO2), net state domestic product, social sector expenditure and other variables used as a proxy for the composition effect and development effect. The empirical analysis indicates that there exists a long-term relationship between the concentration of SO2 and NO2 with per capita income and other variables. In terms of the EKC hypothesis, the findings recommend the existence of a cubic relationship in the long run and emphasise the need to bring environment-friendly structural changes in economic activity and to enhance sustainable development through technological innovation.

In Search of ‘Civil’ Society

Ramin Jahanbegloo, Pedagogy of Dissent. Orient BlackSwan, 2021, 108 pp., ₹295. ISBN: 9788194925859 (Paperback). Romila Thapar, Voices of Dissent: An Essay. Seagull Books, 2020, 164 pp., ₹499. ISBN: 978-0857428622 (Hardback).