Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research

About: Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research is a facility organization based out in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Monetary policy & Inflation. The organization has 307 authors who have published 1021 publications receiving 18848 citations.

Understanding the geographic pattern of diffusion of modern crop varieties in India: a multilevel modeling approach

Abstract: The diffusion of agricultural technologies is influenced by a number of factors, including the farm-, household- and location-specific characteristics, institutions, infrastructures, and agri-food policies. The empirical literature, however, focuses largely on the household-level factors, ignoring the higher-level factors that simultaneously may influence the technology diffusion process. Employing a multilevel modeling approach this paper analyzes the mutually reinforcing and reciprocal relationships between people (compositional effects) and places (contextual effects) to know the relative importance of different geographical or administrative levels in the diffusion of modern crop varieties in India. The findings show strong contextual effects of states (i.e., policies) and also equally strong compositional effects of the between household differences. These findings suggest the need for a greater policy emphasis on agricultural research and dissemination of its outputs, and redressal of the constraints that farmers face in switching over to new technologies and innovations. Further, the findings also suggest that relaxing credit and information constraints will accelerate the spread of technology diffusion. The contextual effects of the intermediate geographical levels are small, and point towards strengthening coordination between different geographical levels for faster dissemination of technologies and subsequent realization of their economic and social outcomes.

Educational attainment in educationally backward states of India: some implications for the Right to Education Act

Abstract: This paper presents estimates of educational attainment and educational inequality for educationally backward states in India. Using multiple rounds of nationally representative household surveys carried out by the National Sample Survey Organisation of India, we estimate average years of schooling and the education Gini index. The estimates show that educational attainment is very low and the extent of inequality is high in all the states. The study adds to the evidence on large gender inequalities in educational attainment in the states of Bihar and Rajasthan. The results are very distressed for disadvantaged social groups of the society. There is a need to give attention on education of females belonging to these social groups, particularly in rural areas, to make the Right to Education Act successful.

Eugene to Altmetrics: A chase for virtual foot prints!

Abstract: There is an increasing interest in science communication and promotion of new inventions in this deluge digital information age. The social media tools available on the Internet assist the promotion of science dramatically and the change is happening in real time models. Expansion of World Wide Web and newer technologies has improved the ways in which science is communicated and its evaluation techniques. The use of conventional metric tools gauges the impact of scholarly publications using citation and download counts. They are widely used to evaluate articles, authors and disciplines on publishers’ platforms. These tools analyse the citation data in natural course of time and make them available over a period of time. ‘Altmetrics’ is a concept that addresses and measures the conversations happening in the virtual world in real time. The concept supports the prediction mechanism of possible citations for an article in future, if it gets cited in the social media. This paper attempts to create awareness about ‘ Altmetrics’ among Indian scholars and takes a closer look at various features available in ‘Altmetric Explorer’ in order to gain insights of the rapidly changing science communication landscape.

Measuring Inequality of Poverty: Theory and an Application to India

Abstract: The commonly used poverty indices measure the overall level of poverty in a society but fail to capture the differential intensity of poverty across different socioeconomic groups. This article proposes a new measure, Inequality of Poverty Index (similar to dissimilarity index in the literature on inequality of opportunity) that captures inequality in distribution of poverty across different subgroups. It can be used to determine the major socioeconomic factors/characteristics/circumstances causing between-group disparity in poverty and effect of a specific factor on poverty relative to other factors and time. The article also provides an application of the index and potential policy implications.

History of Monetary Policy in India Since Independence

Abstract: Chapter 1: Structure, ideas and institutions.- Structure: Sectors, Growth and inflation, Politics, Government finances.- Ideas: Keynes modified, Monetarism in the aggregate, Globalization - ideas and domestic impact, New Keynesian theories in emerging markets.- Institutions: Precedents and path dependence, Strengthening institutions, Openness, markets and CB autonomy, Bank Governors and Delegation in India.- Chapter 2: Policy Actions and Outcomes.- The historical trajectory.- Excess demand or cost shocks?.- Openness, inflows and policy.- Money markets and interest rates.- The global crisis, response and revelation of structure.- Trends in money and credit.- Conclusion.