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The Implementation of Industrial Parks: Some Lessons Learned in India
No full textIndustrial parks are as popular as they are controversial, in India and globally. At their best they align infrastructure provision and agglomeration economies to jolt industrial growth. More often, they generate negative spill-overs, provide handouts, sit empty, or simply do not get built. This paper disaggregates how parks are built and how they fail. It contextualizes parks in India, followed by a thick case study of an innovative scheme that appears to buck the trend. This performance is then explained by the way in which the scheme's design and action fit India's political economy. The paper concludes by considering how the analysis and the lessons learned might inform the design and implementation of industrial park programs and other public interventions, in India and elsewhere
Aktuelle Forschungsbeiträge zu Südasien: 4. Jahrestagung des AK Südasien, 24./25. Januar 2014, Freiburg
No full textDie vorliegende Schriftenreihe wurde vom Arbeitskreis Südasien mit dem Zweck gegründet, Einblicke in aktuelle geographische Forschung zu Südasien zu ermöglichen und dient in erster Linie dazu, die vielfältigen Forschungsarbeiten der Arbeitskreismitglieder vorzustellen. Hierzu werden Beiträge der Mitglieder auf den jährlichen Arbeitskreistreffen in Form von Extended Abstracts in einem jährlichen Sammelband zusammengefasst
Bhutan Country Opinion Survey Report (July 2013 - June 2014)
No full textThe Country Opinion Survey for FY2013 in Bhutan assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Bhutan perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Bhutan on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Bhutan; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Bhutan; 3) overall impressions of the WBG s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Bhutan; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG s future role in Bhutan
Twinning: Partnerships between Chinese and European NGOs - Green Financing - Right to Clean Water - Human Rights - Urban Youth Culture - Social Inclusion
No full textThe promotion of an NGO exchange program to build long-term partnerships has thus far been neglected. When Stiftung Asienhaus first applied for funding to support an NGO internship exchange program in 2005, no donors appeared interested in the topic of civil society. At that time, China was facing heavy criticism, and there were doubts about an emerging “civil society” in China. The headlines of European newspapers, especially those in Germany –had been full of biased Chinabashing images. On the EU-level, civil society remained a sensitive term: In 2006, the EU-China Summit decided to set up a Civil Society Roundtable. It was established in June 2007 in Beijing but renamed for unknown reasons into EU-China Roundtable. The roundtable claimed to act as an advisory body to the EU Commission, the arliament, and the Council of Ministers. In 2010, the general attitude towards civil society and NGOs changed substantially. With EuropeAid’s new call for proposals on the topic “EU-China Civil Society Dialogue” beginning in February 2010, Brussels suddenly embraced the term civil society and wanted to “support the consolidation of a structured ongoing dialogue between European and Chinese civil societies”. When the EU decided to spend money on civil society dialogue programs, the term civil society had already become a trendy buzzword in EU policy towards China. The development of a healthy civil society was not only seen as being responsible for developing the fundamental element of a democratic culture, but its failures or weaknesses are also held responsible for horrible developments like the German fascism
Integrating Border Regions: Connectivity and Competitiveness in South Asia
No full textDeeper regional integration can be beneficial especially for regions along international borders. It can open up new markets on opposite sides of borders and give consumers wider access to cheaper goods. This paper uses data from five contiguous districts of India, Nepal, and Bangladesh in the northeast of the subcontinent to measure the degrees of trade complementarity between districts. The paper illustrates that the regions are underexploiting the potential of intraregional commerce. Price wedges of up to 90 percent in some important consumption products along with measures of complementarity between households' production and consumption suggest the potential for relatively large gains from deeper trade integration. Furthermore, an examination of a specific supply chain of tea highlights factors that help industries scale up, aided by institutions such as an organized auction and decent physical and legal infrastructure. However, districts alike in geography but located across international boundaries face different development prospects, suggesting that gains from reduced "thickness of borders" would not accrue automatically. Much rests on developing intrinsic industry competitiveness at home, including the reform of regulatory and business practices and infrastructural bottlenecks that prevent agglomeration of local economies
Voting with their Feet? Access to Infrastructure and Migration in Nepal
No full textUsing bilateral migration flow data from the 2010 population census of Nepal, this paper provides evidence on the importance of public infrastructure and services in determining migration flows. The empirical specification, based on a generalized nested logit model, corrects for the non-random selection of migrants. The results show that migrants prefer areas that are nearer to paved roads and have better access to electricity. Apart from electricity's impact on income and through income on migration, the econometric results indicate that migrants attach substantial amenity value to access to electricity. These findings have important implications for the placement of basic infrastructure projects and the way benefits from these projects are evaluated
India: Women, Work and Employment
No full textSince economic liberalization in the early 1990s, India has experienced high economic growth and made considerable progress in gender equality in areas such as primary education. However, it fared poorly on gender-parity in labor force participation (LFP). During the period between 1993-94 and 2011-12, female labor force participation rate (LFPR) remained consistently low as compared to male participation. More alarming is the fact that female participation rate declined steadily during the same period, particularly in rural areas. The low level along with declining trend in rural female LFP poses a serious threat of 'missing gender' in the labor force. Although economic growth added jobs for both men and women in India till 2005, Indian women lost jobs in the next seven years, while men continued to gain, thereby widening the gender gap. The actual figures in 2012 suggest that approximately 35 to 40 million women are 'missing' from the labor force, had female LFP grown at the same rate as it had between 1999 and 2005.1 This represents a troubling trend considering the potential of these women to contribute to the country's productivity. To better understand the existing situation, this report investigates gender and female labor force dynamics by drawing mostly on data from five rounds of the National Sample Survey, India, between 1993-94 and 2011-12. Key findings from the study are grouped below in three sections. First section describes the dynamics of female LFP looking at its evolution in previous two decades. The next section presents the drivers of low level of female participation and its declining trend. The last section proposes possible areas of action
Inclusive Heritage-Based City Development Program in India
No full textThis report summarizes the motivation, objectives, methodology, results and lessons learned from the design and implementation of the Demonstration Program on Inclusive Heritage-based City Development in India. The development objective of this program is to test an inclusive heritage-based approach to city development planning in three pilot cities with a focus on learning and future expansion. The pilot cities include a metropolis (Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh), a medium-size city (Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh) and a small city (Ajmer-Pushkar, Rajasthan). The pilot cities have been selected on the basis of population, living standards in historic areas, heritage value and reform orientation. These cities represent India s diversity in terms of settlements as well as social and cultural heritage, and provide scope for customizing the tested planning instruments, specific institutional and financial arrangements and methods at an early stage. An initial activity is the first phase of a larger program aimed at providing national policy makers, state governments, urban local bodies and sector professionals in India with exemplary practices, institutional arrangements as well as financial and management incentives that can assist them in incorporating cultural heritage into their overall city development planning framework. This activity has three components: component 1 offers institutional set-up and selection of pilot cities; component 2 provides advisory support to pilot Cities; and component 3 maintains knowledge management and learning systems. Overall, the program is expected to leverage existing public funds under national and state-level schemes that have been earmarked for urban renewal investments but are currently not being utilized for this purpose due to lack of capacities, appropriate mechanisms and tools
Thimphu's Growing Pains: Challenges of Implementing the City Plan
No full textThis study analyses the urban planning efforts of the government for an explanation of some unintended outcomes. A popular perception is that development in Thimphu city could do with better planning. On the contrary, there have been extensive efforts from both the Thimphu Thromde and MoWHS to control land use and regulate building design through policies like the Thimphu Structure Plan 2003-27 and its attached Development Control Regulations 2004. The question driving the research is to explain why despite the rules in place, planning goals are not achieved. The study identifies why and how actors avoid compliance to the original planning codes
Bangladesh Country Opinion Survey Report (July 2013 - June 2014)
No full textThe Country Opinion Survey for FY2012 in Bangladesh assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Bangladesh perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Bangladesh on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Bangladesh; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Bangladesh; 3) overall impressions of the WBG s effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Bangladesh; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG s future role in Bangladesh