Meeting: International Seminar on Information and Communication Technology Statistics, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 19-21 July 2010

Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation

This book brings together multiple perspectives from economics, sociology, management, psychology and political science to derive an original framework for understanding skills in modern society. It develops a rationale for social intervention beyond market failure. IOE Research Briefings are short descriptions of significant research findings, based on the wide range of projects carried out by IOE researchers.

Skills and Skilled Work: An Economic and Social Analysis [IOE Research Briefing N°101]

This paper presents the theory and practice of the Futures Action Model (FAM). FAM has been in development for over a decade, in a number of contexts and iterations. It is a creative methodology that uses a variety of concepts and tools to guide participants through the conception and modeling of enterprises, services, social innovations and projects in the context of emerging futures. It is used to generate strategic options that people can utilise to build opportunities for value creation as they move into the future. This paper details examples in its development, and provides theoretical and practical guidelines for educators and business facilitators to use the FAM system in their own workplaces.

Forging the synergy between anticipation and innovation : the futures action model

Mindfulness Promotes Health, Well-Being, and Sustainable Strategy to Eradicate Ill Effects from Tobacco

Did innovating firms experience improved business expectations during the pandemic? Using a survey of Indian firms conducted in June 2020, we explore whether innovating into a new product line or adapting to e-commerce platforms improved business outlook. To address the endogeneity of innovation/adaptation due to downturn in future sentiments, we use structural equations framework which relates the six-month ahead expectations of key demand (new orders) and supply variables (labour costs and raw material costs) to the two innovation strategies. Innovation strategies are in turn determined by unobservable latent variables of past demand- and supply-side shocks (experienced due to the Coronavirus pandemic and its associated lockdown in India). For expectations regarding new orders, we find that both the innovation strategies had a positive and significant impact. The innovation strategies had a mixed impact on the supply side sentiments. While firms which adopted to e-commerce were less likely to report higher expected labour costs six months in the future, neither of the two strategies improved expectations regarding raw material costs. Our paper is the first to explore the mutual relationships between business outlook, adaptation strategies and firm characteristics in India during the pandemic.

Business Expectations and Adaptation Strategies by Firms against COVID-19 Induced Economic Downturn: Evidence from India

This chapter finds that educational inequality in terms of educational attainment and attendance has gone down for the youth aged 5–29 between 2007–08 and 2014, albeit at a slow pace. However, the change in secondary education has been relatively slow in the seven years. The glaring inequity is the average expenditure on secondary education in the top-most quintile. This is approximately two times even the second top-most quintile. Not only does the top-most quintile has more access to secondary education, it is being reinforced further by the significant gap in expenditure per student and therefore quality and learning outcomes. Plus, there are spatial variations in terms of both states and rural–urban gaps. In terms of outcomes, the quality of secondary education is inadequately preparing the youth for higher secondary education and work place. It is argued in this paper that the Indian secondary education needs to be made compulsory. Further, there should be focus on outcomes in terms of skills that will be needed for the twenty-first century citizens. Skills could be cognitive, non-cognitive, physical/psychomotor and technical and vocational. The secondary education system should concentrate on the supply side of skills, providing general skills that are foundation in nature, which will be needed across the work, higher education and citizenship space. Pre-vocational curricula should be included in terms of teaching attitude to work rather than trades itself. Teaching of trades and such should be taught at the higher secondary level in collaboration with firms.

Missing Middle of Educated Unemployable: A Critical Perspective on Secondary Education in India

The aim of this article was to analyse the employability of currently enrolled secondary education (classes 9–12) students aged 14–21, specifically their functional digital skills. Digital skills a...

Are Secondary Schools Imparting Digital Skills? An Empirical Assessment:

An economic evaluation of mega projects is very important for taking into account important aspects connected with investment and operation costs, their possible overflows and the fulfilment of the time period intended for the project. But it is also needed for monitoring the impact of the projects on the overall economy and the regional surroundings. The main objective of the present article is the evaluation of a particular mega project, that is, Ratnagiri Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited, by examining the various aspects of economic evaluation using a new methodology for the estimation of the specific impact in the project evaluation. JEL Codes: C67, L71, L74

Economic Impact Analysis of a Mega Project on Petroleum Refinery: A Case Study of the Proposed Ratnagiri Refinery in Maharashtra

The implementation of the COVID-19 national lockdown announced suddenly in March 2020 in India provided a unique opportunity to capture real-time changes in business sentiments during episodes of unexpected and sudden disruptions. Using a logit-probability model to analyse data of this natural experiment showed that firms’ 6-months ahead sentiments for its financial condition worsened drastically during lockdown compared to firms surveyed immediately prior to the announcement. Further, smaller firms showed a relatively higher impact. We also find that firms perceive this as a relatively higher demand shock in terms of falling domestic sales post-lockdown whereas supply shocks are perceived to be on the downside. Lastly the mitigation strategy of firms involved reducing employment for unskilled workers and wages for skilled workers. This unique study gives insights not only about firms and their strategies but regarding appropriate policy choices during lockdown. The lessons are applicable for governments which imposed local lockdowns during the second wave and potential disruption for the expected third wave.

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Ajaya K. Sahu

Papers

Business Expectations and Adaptation Strategies by Firms against COVID-19 Induced Economic Downturn: Evidence from India

Missing Middle of Educated Unemployable: A Critical Perspective on Secondary Education in India

Are Secondary Schools Imparting Digital Skills? An Empirical Assessment:

Economic Impact Analysis of a Mega Project on Petroleum Refinery: A Case Study of the Proposed Ratnagiri Refinery in Maharashtra

Business sentiments during India’s national lockdown: Lessons for second and potential third wave