Number of results to display per page
Search Results
1762. Networking Symposium on Security Sector Governance in Asia
- Author:
- Riefqi Muna and Shiam Vidurupola
- Publication Date:
- 09-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform
- Abstract:
- The Global Facilitation Network (GFN) for Security Sector Reform (SSR) facilitated a symposium in Bangkok from 21-22 September 2004. The purpose of the symposium was to carry out an assessment of the potential of existing and future networks for the promotion and support of Security Sector Reform agendas in Asia. The symposium aimed to encourage a wider debate on SSR by exploring and promoting existing regional networks. Participants attended from a range of many South and South East Asian countries including Bangladesh, East Timor, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. International experts from Germany, the UK, Switzerland Ghana, and Nigeria also attended, in order to encourage a south-south dialogue and to share experiences from other continents. This diversity of knowledge resulted in enriched debate at a regional level. Experiences were shared and analysed by more than fifty participants from senior positions in academia, politics, military, police, civil society, donor organisations, and the media.
- Topic:
- Security, Regional Cooperation, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- Pakistan, South Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Asia, Nepal, Ghana, and Southeast Asia
1763. An India-Pakistan Detente: What It Could Mean for Sustainable Development in South Asia and Beyond
- Author:
- Toufiq A. Siddiqi
- Publication Date:
- 08-2004
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- East-West Center
- Abstract:
- India and Pakistan have had volatile relations ever since they became independent of Britain in 1947. Frequent hostility has stifled cooperation between the two countries and inhibited development in the region. Recently, however, tensions show signs of easing. In March 2004, India's then prime minister visited Pakistan to attend a South Asian regional summit. Flights, bus service, and cricket matches between the two countries have resumed; India's newly elected government continues to support the process. Peace could bring a wide range of benefits not only to India and Pakistan but to the wider region as well. For example, it could enable cooperation on importing energy via a natural-gas pipeline, which would support environmentally sound development. The improved road and rail system that would necessarily accompany a pipeline would also support the goal of building an Asian highway network and the resurgence of cross-border trade, another likely consequence of détente. These benefits could spread far beyond India and Pakistan into the wider west, central, and south Asian region.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Development, and Regional Cooperation
- Political Geography:
- Pakistan, South Asia, and India
1764. Indian Higher Education Reform: From Half-Baked Socialism to Half-Baked Capitalism
- Author:
- Devesh Kapur and Pratap Bhanu Mehta
- Publication Date:
- 09-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
- Abstract:
- This paper examines the political economy of Indian higher (tertiary) education. We first provide an empirical mapping of Indian higher education and demonstrate that higher education in India is being de facto privatized on a massive scale. But this privatization is not a result of changing ideological commitments of the key actors—the state, the judiciary or India’s propertied classes. Rather, this privatization has resulted from a breakdown of the state system and an exit of Indian elites from public institutions, to both private sector institutions within the country as well as abroad. Private philanthropy in higher education, which was supportive of public institutions in the past, is also increasingly withdrawing its support. Consequently the ideological and institutional underpinnings of this form of privatization remain exceedingly weak. The paper questions the extent to which the political economy of Indian higher education can be explained by the hypothesis of “middle class capture” and suggests that education policy, far from serving the interests of the middle class, is actually driven by a combination of ideology and vested interests. We also examine the role of the judiciary in shaping the regulatory landscape of Indian higher education and argue that it an important actor shaping the regulatory landscape of higher education, but in a manner that has done as much to confuse as clarify. Instead of being part of a comprehensive program of education reform, private initiatives remain hostage to the discretionary actions of the state. As a result, the education system remains suspended between over-regulation by the state on the one hand, and a discretionary privatization that is unable to mobilize private capital in productive ways. The result is a sub-optimal structuring of higher education. The most potent consequence of this is a secession of the middle class—ironically the very class whose interests these institutions were supposed to serve—from a stake in public institutions.
- Topic:
- Political Economy, Privatization, Capitalism, Higher Education, and Middle Class
- Political Geography:
- South Asia and India
1765. The Fiscal Impact of High Skilled Emigration: Flows of Indians to the U.S.
- Author:
- Mihir A. Desai, Devesh Kapur, and John McHale
- Publication Date:
- 01-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- Easing immigration restrictions for the highly skilled in developed countries portend a future of increased human capital outflows from developing countries. The myriad consequences of these developments for developing countries include the direct loss of the fiscal contributions of these highly skilled individuals. This paper analyzes the fiscal impact of this loss of talent for a developing country by examining human capital flows from India to the U.S. The escalation of the emigration of highly skilled professionals from India to the U.S is examined by surveying evidence on the changing nature of the Indian-born in the U.S. during the 1990s. The loss of talent to India during the 1990s was dramatic and highly concentrated amongst the prime-age work force, the highly educated and high earners. In order to estimate the fiscal losses associated with these emigrants, this paper first estimates what these emigrants would have earned in India, and then integrates the resulting counterfactual distributions with details of the Indian fiscal system to estimate fiscal impacts. Two distinct methods to estimate the counterfactual earnings distributions are implemented: a translation of actual U.S. incomes in purchasing power parity terms and an income simulation based on a jointly estimated model of Indian earnings and participation in the workforce. The PPP methods indicate that the foregone income tax revenues associated with the Indian-born residents of the U.S. comprise one-third of current Indian individual income tax receipts. Depending on the method for estimating expenditures saved by the absence of these emigrants, the net fiscal loss associated with the U.S. Indian-born resident population ranges from 0.24% to 0.58% of Indian GDP in 2001.
- Topic:
- Immigration, Tax Systems, Capital Flows, Human Capital, Economic Development, Skilled Labor, and Emigration
- Political Geography:
- South Asia, India, North America, and United States of America
1766. Arrows for India?
- Author:
- Richard Speier
- Publication Date:
- 09-2003
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
- Abstract:
- When Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon visits India on September 9-11, he is likely to explore the possible sale of Israeli Arrow antiballistic missiles to New Delhi. The United States, which has provided funds and technology for the Arrow since 1986, has a veto right over sales to third parties. U.S. approval of a sale to India would offer both advantages and disadvantages.
- Topic:
- Security and Religion
- Political Geography:
- United States, Middle East, India, Israel, New Delhi, and Arabia
1767. Convergence Club Empirics: Some Dynamics and Explanations of Unequal Growth of Unequal Growth across Indian States
- Author:
- Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay
- Publication Date:
- 11-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- This paper documents the convergence of incomes across Indian states over the period 1965 to 1998. It departs from traditional analyses of convergence by tracking the evolution of the entire income distribution, instead of standard regression and time series analyses. The findings reveal twin-peaks dynamics-the existence of two income convergence clubs, one at 50 per cent, another at 125 per cent of the national average income. Income disparities across states seem to have declined over the 1960s, only to increase over the subsequent three decades. The observed polarization is strongly explained by the disparate distribution of infrastructure, and that of education, and to an extent by a number of macroeconomic indicators; that of capital expenditure and fiscal deficits.
- Topic:
- Economics and Emerging Markets
- Political Geography:
- South Asia and India
1768. Impact of Trade Liberalization on Returns from Land: A Regional Study of Indian Agriculture
- Author:
- Ghosh Nilabja
- Publication Date:
- 06-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- Trade liberalization, by aligning domestic prices with world prices, is envisaged to bring welfare gains to a country. In the case of Indian agriculture, owing to the vastness and diversity of the sector, the impact is likely to be profoundly unequal across regions especially when liberalization is double-edged, acting on both output and input sides. This paper views returns from land resource as a primary determinant of farmers' economic well-being and production incentive and considers paddy both as the dominant support for the rural population and as a product with comparative advantage, as most studies have demonstrated. Working with state and sub-state level data and taking account of the differences in technologies, productivities and transport costs, the paper finds that the gains vary regionally and may not be positive in all cases when both output and input prices are globally aligned.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- South Asia and India
1769. A Thaw in India-China Relations
- Author:
- Pramit Mitra
- Publication Date:
- 09-2003
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
- Abstract:
- The July 2003 state visit to China by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of India, the first by an Indian prime minister in a decade, represented a major step forward in New Delhi's relations with its giant neighbor and competitor. Dramatic increases in bilateral trade set the stage for nine bilateral agreements covering trade, education, easing of visa regulations, and development projects. The artful language of the agreements suggested progress on the long-standing Sino-Indian border dispute. More substantial relations between India and China are good news for regional stability, although this relationship will remain wary, and China's strong interest in Pakistan will continue to be a constraint.
- Topic:
- Government and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Pakistan, China, India, and Asia
1770. India-Pakistan Trade: Creating Constituencies for Peace
- Author:
- Kavita Sangani
- Publication Date:
- 03-2003
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
- Abstract:
- Bilateral trade between India and Pakistan is extraordinarily low—less than 1 percent of their global trade. Their volatile political relationship has overwhelmed attempts to encourage trade between the two countries, and has also impacted economic integration in the South Asian region as a whole. There are both political and economic obstacles to expanding trade between the two countries. Greater economic co-operation could, however, provide mutual economic benefits, such as lower prices for consumers, much-needed revenue for the governments, and cost-effective gas import to India via Pakistan. Perhaps most importantly, it could generate new linkages between the two business communities, thereby nurturing constituencies for peace in the region.
- Topic:
- Government and Politics
- Political Geography:
- South Asia, Middle East, and India