27 research outputs found
Agricultural Growth Deceleration in India: A Review of Explanations
Get PDFSince the inception of economic reforms, Indian economy has achieved a remarkable rate of growth. This fantabulous performance, to a large extent, was driven by service sector and improvements in the secondary sector. However, this growth process bypassed the agricultural sector, which showed sharp deceleration in the growth rate (3.62 percent during 1984/85 - 1995/96 to 1.97 percent in 1995/96 – 2004/05). Given the relevance of the sector for employment and rural development the declining trend in agricultural growth has emerged as a major concern for researchers and policymakers. A large number of studies have enquired into the growth process of agricultural sector and has criticised the neo-liberal policy regime for a general neglect of the sector. The sector has recorded wide variations in yield and productivity and there was a shift towards cash crop cultivations. Moreover, agricultural indebtedness pushed several farming households into poverty and some of them resorted to extreme measures like suicides. In this context, the present paper reviews the performance of the Indian agriculture since reforms and compares it with pre-reforms conditions. A systematic and critical review of literature is presented to comprehend the poor performance of Indian agriculture. The review focuses on the pattern and determinants (price and non-price) of agricultural growth and evaluates the influence of policy and environmental factors on its performance. This paper exclusively explains the following objectives. To explain the growth of agriculture in terms of area, yield and cropping pattern and findings that have taken place in the recent past. To understand the determinants that contributes to the changes in the sources of growth. To explore the influence of the policy factors and natural factors, which lead to changes in the growth of agriculture? The study identifies that, in the post reform period there has been an increase in prices of cash crops and the cropping pattern changes towards non-food grains have a significant effect on growth. The review also concludes that much of the slowdown in agriculture is caused due to other pertinent factors such as infrastructure, technology and environmental factors, lack of political commitment and poor implementation of policies.Q10
A Review on Classification Techniques for Human Activity Recognition
Get PDFRecognizing human actions from video sequences has many important applications like video surveillance, patient monitoring, human computer interaction, dance choreography analysis, analysis of sports events and entertainment environments. It involves processing the video into frames firstly and finding out the interest points, then extracting the features and lastly specifying and labeling the videos following an appropriate classifying approach like Support Vector Machine, bag of words or nearest neighbor. This paper provides a detailed overview of various state-of-the-art research papers on human activity recognition using different types of classifiers. We surveyed various challenges exhibited by computer vision researchers like the problem of occlusion, 2D/3D pose estimation, variations in viewpoints, human body modeling especially of a person who is paralyzed or injured. From this survey, we can make conclusion of various advantageous and disadvantageous facts about different classifiers used in the detection and classification task
Agricultural policies in India
Get PDF"Since the early 1990s, India has undergone substantial economic policy reform and economic growth. Though reforms in agricultural policy have lagged those in other sectors, they have nonetheless created a somewhat more open economic orientation. In this study, we evaluate the protection and support versus disprotection of agriculture in India. Our methodology involves examining market price support (MPS) for eleven crops, the expenditures on input subsidies benefiting farmers (for fertilizer, electricity and irrigation), and product-specific and total producer support estimates (PSEs) over the period 1985-2002. We draw on the extensive price-comparison and subsidy-measurement data sets and analysis developed earlier by Gulati and his co-authors, often using disaggregated analysis for representative surplus and deficit states. This allows us to explore how key cost adjustments impact the results. Overall, our results indicate that support for agriculture in India has been counter-cyclical. Support for agriculture has been rising when world prices are low (as in the mid 1980s and 1998-2002) and falling when world prices are high (as in the early and mid 1990s). Our results demonstrate the increased importance of budgetary payments for input subsidies in agriculture in recent years. Yet, in the aggregate for both price support and budgetary expenditures over the period 1985-2002 the counter-cyclical dimension of agricultural policy dominates a clear trend of movement from disprotection towards protection. Using different variants of MPS and PSE measurment we have extended earlier analysis to demonstrate the impact of key assumptions on the calculations. These assumptions we argue are important to consider. For example, in the standard approach, the MPS for the covered commodities is “scaled up” based on the share of the covered commodities in the total value of production. If the commodity coverage is less than complete, as is often the case, the scaling up procedure leads to a total MPS of greater absolute value than the MPS for the covered commodities. This can result in PSEs of different sign than the non-scaled up version but is inappropriate unless market price support for the commodities not covered is similar to that of the covered commodities. Furthermore, we find that the standard procedure of computing the MPS through a comparison of the domestic price to an adjusted reference price based on observed imports or exports can be problematic. This happens when trade volumes are relatively small. In such a scenario a reference price based on observed imports or exports can lead to misleading conclusions. To address the reference price issue, we follow Byerlee and Morris (1993). Essentially the approach adopted is to compute the level of protection or disprotection based on a counterfactual reference price chosen on economic criteria i.e. the adjusted reference price that would exist in the country if the policy interventions were removed. The relevant price can either be the autarky equilibrium price or the import or export adjusted reference price depending on the relationship among these prices. We apply this modified procedure for six crops (wheat, rice, corn, sorghum, sugar and groundnuts). The choice of the crops is dictated by the fact that India has been near self-sufficiency and there have been changes in the direction of trade over the period of analysis. The magnitudes of estimated support for agriculture obtained in this paper are important for several reasons. The estimates confirm that high levels of subsidies were required for India to export wheat or rice in recent years, a conclusion reached by several other studies. However, we report less disprotection of Indian agriculture in the 1990s than in earlier studies. Partly this difference is explained by the modified procedure for choice of a reference price. A large component of this difference can be accounted for by whether or not the scaling up procedure is invoked. There are also fertile areas for future research. Estimates of adjustment costs used in domestic-to-border price comparisons, such as transportation and processing costs or marketing margins, are crucial variables in the analysis and merit being re-examined and further updated. Resolving what are the most reasonable assumptions about reference prices, or extending the analysis to additional crops and livestock to reduce uncertainty in future assessments will also contribute to fuller understanding of the net stance of policy toward agriculture and how it has evolved over time" Authors' AbstractSouth Asia ,South Asia and Central Asia ,Agricultural policy ,Producer Support Estimates (PSEs) ,Agricultural support ,Agricultural production ,Scaling up ,
Rural Credit Delivery System in Maharashtra: Some Emerging Issues
Get PDFAn investigation into rural credit delivery system in Maharashtra shows slower growth in institutional finances through commercial banks, credit cooperatives, RRBs and LDBs, particularly during the decade of 1991-2000, which is mainly due to adverse environment created by the financial sector reforms. Due to unfavourable policy framework, the entire rural credit delivery system is reduced to a moribund state. High transaction costs and poor repayment performance are the twin root causes of the moribund state of rural credit delivery system. With a view to revive the agricultural credit delivery system, there is need to adopt innovative approaches like linking of Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) with mainstream financial institutions. The revival of rural credit delivery system of Maharashtra also depends on strategies that are required for tackling issues such as sustainability and viability, operational efficiency, recovery performance, small farmer coverage and balanced sectoral development of the state.Rural Credit Delivery
Review on: Approaches for Finding Correlation Between Fingerprints and Footprints of a Person
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Evaluating Financial Health of Credit Cooperatives in Maharashtra of India
Get PDFAn analysis encompassing two case studies conducted in forward and backward regions of Maharashtra (India) has shown deterioration in the financial health of central level credit cooperatives (Sangli District Central Cooperative Bank (SDCCB)) in forward region and gross inefficiency in their functioning (Buldana District Central Cooperative Bank (BDCCB)) in the backward region of the state, due mainly to their mounting NPAs or overdues’. Because of substantially high NPAs, the fixed expenses of these institutions have been adversely affected, which in turn have grossly affected the break-even levels of loan advances and deposits of these credit institutions, so much so that there has been huge gap between the break-even levels of loan advances and deposits and the actual loan advances and deposits. In the case of BDCCB, the deficit between actual and the break-even levels are so high (about 60 per cent) that it will be well-nigh impossible for it to overcome this situation. High transaction costs, poor repayment performance, and mounting NPAs are the root causes of the moribund state of rural credit delivery through these cooperatives. Further, it is to be noted that the estimated trend over the past two decades in Maharashtra shows a slower growth in institutional finances through credit cooperatives and also in their membership during the decade of economic reforms (1991-2000) as against the decade preceding it (1980-1990). On the other hand, the outstanding loans of these cooperatives have grown at much faster rate as compared to their loan advances during both pre- and post economic reform periods. The slower growth in institutional finance through credit cooperatives during the decade of 1991-2000 is mainly due to adverse environment created by the financial sector reforms. Due to unfavourable policy framework, much of the deposits of the credit cooperatives are going into investments, instead of advancing loans to the farming sector. As a result, the C-D ratios of these credit cooperatives have been adversely affected. With a view to revive agricultural credit delivery through cooperatives, the need of the hour is to adopt innovative approaches like linking of SHGs and NGOs with mainstream financial institutions, including cooperatives. Such linkages are reported to have not only reduced transaction costs but also ensured better repayment performance. In brief, in order to rejuvenate rural credit delivery system through cooperatives, the root problems facing the system, viz., high transaction cost, poor recovery performance, and NPAs, need to be tackled with more fiscal jurisprudence reserving exemplary punishment for willful defaults, especially by large farmers, and the individual cases who have borrowed credit from these institutions. In fact, insofar as rural credit delivery through credit cooperatives is concerned, the focus should be on strategies that are required for tackling issues such as sustainability and viability, operational efficiency, recovery performance, small farmer coverage and balanced sectoral development.Financial Health Credit Cooperatives
Strategies to Resurrect Rural Credit Delivery System in India
Get PDFThe RFIs operating in Maharashtra have not only shown slower growth in their loan advances and other operational indicators during the period between 1991 and 2000 but also poor performance thereafter. The credit cooperatives in particular have shown significantly high NPAs in Maharashtra. In Maharashtra, Vidarbha region not only shows very low magnitudes of credit flow through cooperatives but also decline in share of loan for cotton crop vis-à-vis other field crops. One of the adverse effects of slowing down in loan advances for cotton crop is seen on the farming community of this region where a significant number of cotton growers have committed suicide either due to lack of loan advances to them or because of pressure created by various financial institutions in terms of recovery of loan despite crop failure. With a view to revive the agricultural credit delivery system, there is need to tackle twin problems facing the system, viz., growing NPAs with falling CD ratios and poor recovery performance of RFIs, aside from adopting innovative approaches like linking of SHGs and NGOs with mainstream financial institutions. In brief, the focus of rural credit delivery system should be on strategies that are required for tackling issues such as sustainability and viability, operational efficiency, recovery performance, small farmer coverage and balanced sectoral development.Rural Credit Delivery India
Rejuvenating Rural Credit Delivery System in Maharashtra of India
Get PDFAn investigation into rural credit delivery system in Maharashtra shows slower growth in institutional finances through commercial banks, credit cooperatives, RRBs and LDBs, particularly during the decade of 1991- 2000, which is mainly due to adverse environment created by the financial sector reforms. Due to unfavourable policy framework, the entire rural credit delivery system encompassing rural branches of commercial banks, cooperative credit institutions and RRBs is reduced to a moribund state. High transaction costs and poor repayment performance are the twin root causes of the moribund state of rural credit delivery system. With a view to revive the agricultural credit delivery system, there is need to adopt innovative approaches like linking of Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) with mainstream financial institutions. Such linkages are reported to have not only reduced transaction costs but also ensured better repayment performance. One of the recent studies conducted in Maharashtra has shown cent per cent recovery of loans through SHGs despite having excessively high rates of interest (24-36 per cent per annum) on their loan advances. One of the further disquieting features of RFIs in Maharashtra has been the high proportion of NPAs to total assets, particularly of RRBs and SCARDBs, which are estimated to hover around 36-48 per cent during the mid-to late nineties. One of the reasons for such high incidence of NPAs of RFIs has been the familiar practice of debt forgiveness, which eroded repayment and allowed defaulters to scot free with no deterrent reprimand. Political interference in issues of prudent fiscal management has got a lot to do with this unfortunate scenario. In order to rejuvenate rural credit delivery system, the twin problems facing the system, viz., high transaction costs and poor repayment performance, need to be tackled with more fiscal jurisprudence reserving exemplary punishment for willful defaults, especially by large farmers. In fact, insofar as the rural credit delivery system is concerned, the focus should be on strategies that are required for tackling issues such as sustainability and viability, operational efficiency, recovery performance, small farmer coverage and balanced sectoral development.Rejuvenation Rural Credit Delivery in India
