An Assessment of Infrastructural Facilities in the Dryland Areas of West Bengal

The present chapter focuses on the importance of infrastructure in the dryland areas of West Bengal, India, covering four districts, namely, Purulia, Bankura, West Midnapore and Birbhum. The importance and necessity of having good infrastructure is a well-known phenomenon but it carries a special significance for the drylands, where good infrastructure can open various avenues of earning, communication, better life standard as well as management and nourishment of all types of natural resources in these areas. Sustainable use of natural resources occur utmost importance because it is the only source of livelihood for the people of these areas. Through this study, we have tried to make an assessment of the existing infrastructure scenarios in these four districts for the period 2003-04 to 2012-13. Doing the SWOT analysis amongst the districts, the results show that West Midnapur and Bankura are in a better position than Purulia and Birbhum, although, Birbhum is in a good position in few indicators.

Public-Sector Project Abandonment Decision

This chapter examines the implications of projects abandonment with test of the Ricardian Equivalence on the failed Lagos metro line project in Nigeria as case study. The main variables used are Rail and Pipeline Output, Budget Deficit, Interest Rate, Corruption Index, Savings and some others. The study results on the Ricardian Equivalence hypothesis on deficit financing of projects using Vector auto-regression model from 1980-2012 indicate that no causal influence holds in Nigeria. Results show that poor planning, corruption, political factors, poor support infrastructures, poor quality of local resources, etc. were attributable. The results of the Impulse Response tests reveal that Rail and Pipeline output and a few others responded positively to shocks in the short run (years 1-2), and negatively to others. The result affirms that Government should privatize the railway system, legislate against project abandonment and ensure that projects are adequately planned, funded, insured and insulated against corruption.

Changes in Infrastructural Condition of Slums in India

Addressing the importance of infrastructure development towards inclusive city, the study aims to see the change in the condition of housing, road, latrine, drainage, sewerage, etc. within the slums across states and over time in India. The study has been done with the help of three rounds (49th, 58th and 69th) of NSSO data on slum. Though the condition of slums seems to have improved over time, but it is not satisfactory. However, it seems the improvement of one infrastructural aspect in slum is very much associated with the improvement of others. The factors like ‘Workforce Participation Rate of slums' and overall infrastructure of the state have a positive influence on the infrastructural condition of slums, whereas, per capita NSDP is affecting it negatively. The ‘associations made by the residents of slum for improvement' within the slums seems to have played no role to improve it.

Point of View of Economical Organization at Manzanillo's Harbor

The objective of this research is to analyze Manzanillo's harbor from the perspective of theories based on the Industry, the Dynamic Resources and Institutions, around the Mexican port system based on a review into an updated literature about the port's status and its global environment. The port's competitiveness is based on its resources VRIO, its generic strategies and how it has handled the institutions that affect the port and commercial operation of the port at local, national and international level.

Infrastructure Development and Changing Market Penetration of Consumer Durables in Rural India

In recent years, Indian rural market has been gaining increasing attention from researchers in view of its growing importance in huge potential marketing for various consumer durables such as white goods, brown goods and consumer electronics. India has a vast rural market, which consists of around 833 million potential consumers constituting 68.84% of the total population spread over 6.40 Lac villages. Rural India is now exhibiting changing living standard with higher income, modern education and infrastructure development. This is leading to higher demand for several consumer durables such as colour television, refrigerator, two wheelers etc. The urban consumer's durable market is growing annually 10% to 20%. The corresponding rural market is zooming ahead 20% to 40% annually. Thus, this chapter attempts to investigate the changing market penetration of consumer durables in rural India during 1995-96 to 2009-10. This work also finds out the role of per capita income, rural infrastructure in market penetration of consumer durables.

Health Infrastructure and Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa

In this study, we examine the effect of health infrastructure on economic growth in 30 Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries over the period 1990-2014. Using modern econometric techniques that account for cross-sectional dependence in panel data, we find that health infrastructure (measured by mortality rate) does not have robust impact on economic growth. Gross fixed capital formation, however, is positively associated with economic growth while labor force and polity variables exhibit significant association with economic growth. The results provide sufficient evidence that although capital investment is adequate, the labor force and political environment have not facilitated the health infrastructure in increasing the GDP per capita level in SSA.

MGNREGS of India

Controlling surplus population, on the one hand and use of underutilized resources on the other, have induced governments of the developing world to adopt measures so that, poverty, underdevelopment and social insecurity are managed outside the sphere of core sector, especially through rural employment generation. MGNREGS of India is one such programme. Many researchers suggested the need for government intervention in job creation. On the other hand, some researchers have criticized such policies on the ground that these programmes misallocate resources towards relatively less productive frontiers. We propose theoretically that, the problem is not so much with the revenue expenditure, rather the bottleneck lies on the supply-side and can be mitigated by introducing infrastructural factors. Moreover in this chapter, we have tried to criticize the quality of jobs done and types of infrastructure generated through MGNREGS as it seems that both fail to increase food production and thus create some conflicts between rural and urban sectors.

Anatomy and Significance of Public Healthcare Expenditure and Economic Growth Nexus in India

The objective of this chapter is to take a closer look at the liaison between the two focus variables viz. growth and public healthcare expenditure, and the associated implications for public health infrastructure development. Initially, a theoretical model has been proposed which brings out the link between the focus variables. Panel cointegration and causality are the techniques applied in a Vector Error Correction Mechanism (VECM) set-up using panel data from 1980-2015. Next, a health infrastructure index has been constructed using the Euclidean distance function approach for India for two time points i.e. 2005-06 and 2014-15, to evaluate the interstate performance in public healthcare infrastructure. The findings validate the existence of a cointegrated relationship between health expenditure and economic growth coupled with a bidirectional causality linking the focus variables in this model. It comes to a close by highlighting the policy implications and the future research possibilities in this regard.

Infrastructure, Education, and Economic Development in India

A large number of studies reveal that regions with larger stocks of physical infrastructure and human capital often are associated higher level of economic development. The present chapter attempts to find whether this is valid for India. Factor Analysis has been used to find the index of scores of infrastructure of the selected 20 major states of India. We have then used regression analysis to find the impact of infrastructure and education on economic development of the states. The results indicate that there is huge variation of infrastructure development across the states in India. The findings also indicate the significant impact of infrastructure development and education on economic development of the state, measured in terms of Per Capita Net State Domestic Product (PCNSDP).

Energy Challenges and Infrastructure Development in South Asia

The present chapter seeks to analyze the trend and growth of energy production, supply, growth, consumption and trade in South Asian countries based on data from 1971 to 2011 collected from World Bank data base, South Asia Development reports, Energy Outlook, ADB database. While India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh account for the major natural gas and coal resources, Bhutan and Nepal have large hydropower resources. The study suggests that South Asian countries need enhanced regional energy transfer to leverage economies of scale through a more vibrant intra and inter regional energy trade structure. Mobilizing financial resources to develop the necessary energy infrastructure is a major challenge to enhance energy security in the region. Therefore, South Asian countries need to develop policies that will attract investment in the region.