This article poses four questions which will need to be addressed by the recently-constituted Fourteenth Finance Commission. Given an expansive terms of reference, should the commission confi ne itself to its constitutional mandate? Second, should the commission seek to develop incentive frameworks which will carry credibility with future commissions? Third, should the commission encourage better fiscal performance in the states more explicitly? Fourth, should the commission provide fiscal headroom in its projections for accommodating unanticipated developments?

This study examines the impact of mandated reservations for female sarpanch (elected heads of gram panchayats) on perceptions of service delivery and women's democratic participation. Using survey data from Sangli district in Maharashtra, it finds that the availability of basic public services is significantly higher in female sarpanch villages compared to the male sarpanch villages when the former have been in the job for three to three-and-a-half years.

India has chalked out ambitious plans and policies to tackle climate change and environment issues. However given the scarcity of resources and competing demands, finding the matching resources is a challenge said this annual survey of developments in the Indian economy tabled in the Parliament.

The Odisha Economic Survey, 2012-13 analyses various aspects of the economy of the State; provides useful information for the citizens to know the status of the State’s economy and is a source of valuable feedback for policy makers and others.

GeSI's SMARTer2020 report demonstrates how the increased use of information and communication technology (ICT) such as video conferencing and smart building management could cut the projected 2020 global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 16.5%, amounting to $1.9 trillion in gross energy and fuel savings and a reduction of 9.1 Gigatonnes carbon d

The government is likely to shoot down the department of financial services’ (DFS) plan to appoint common banking correspondent companies for transferring cash to poor people, and replace it with a

Developing Asia is confronted with a protracted slowdown in the world’s major advanced economies and decelerating growth in its own two giants: the People’s Republic of China and India. The continuing sovereign debt crisis in Europe and tepid growth in the United States and Japan have undercut demand for the region’s exports.

Social enterprises (SEs) have the potential to make India’s spectacular growth story work better for its poor citizens. Currently, India’s rapidly growing economy has not managed to alleviate the extreme poverty of nearly half the country’s population that lives below the $1.25 per day poverty line.

Visits to seven small towns in north India reveal how paucity of funds, slipshod planning and a dearth of capabilities have contributed to poor civic services and inadequate infrastructure. Citizens in some areas have organised themselves into neighbourhood committees to tackle problems that the urban bodies neglect, but this has its limitations and cannot substitute for efficient local government. The keys to tap the rich potential in these small towns are purposeful research, participative planning, responsive governance and healthy finances.

A comparative evaluation of one-stop, computerised citizen service centres in various Indian states has been carried out in this paper to assess their efficacy. It is found that the outcomes of policies related to e-governance in India are not correlated to conventional variables such as economic development. Instead the extent to which political parties in power expect such policies to affect their current and future electoral statuses affects implementation.

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