39 research outputs found
Assessing Cities' Labour Market Efficiencies using Mumbai Commuting Data
No full textThe sections of the Appendix have been uploaded to this repository. They are outlined below:
Appendix A: Importance and historical evolution of Mumbai’s Central Business Districts
Appendix B: Commutes between residential areas and CBDs
Appendix C: Route-level TTIs
Appendix D: Additional Fuel, Emissions
Appendix E: Speeds for each segment across all analysed routes
Appendix F: Final Script
Assessing the Mumbai metropolitan region: a governance perspective
Full text linkThe paper written from a governance perspective takes the position that a useful governance perspective must be informed by the socio-economic-cultural milieu and in the specific Indian context must sit on a tripod of ‘political reality’, ‘state of decentralization’ and ‘basic economic principles’. Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) is one of the most important growth engines for India as it accrues tremendous revenues to the central and the
Maharashtra (State) governments. It is thus crucial to ensure that the governance system in MMR is efficient for it to continue on its growth trajectory. We assess the performance of the governance system in MMR which resembles a polycentric governance system- a system that
has been heralded as being greatly suited to metropolitan regions by several scholars. We recognize that Metropolitan governance is a concept since in reality it comprises a loose bundle of multiple actors and organizations. For sharper focus, we study the interactions between only two (dominant) public organizations- Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (an Urban Local Body of Greater Mumbai) and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region
Development Authority (a parastatal of the State Government). Our assessment reveals that the institutions – rules of the game – which are essential for the efficient functioning of polycentric governance system are missing in the region. Our findings emphasize the need to bring about micro reforms in the institutional framework for polycentric governance to be
successful in MMR
Building networks: Investigating the <i>quid pro quo</i> between local politicians & developers
No full textMutually beneficial arrangements between politicians and real estate developers are common in many developing countries. We document what happens when the politician-developer nexus is disrupted by an election. We construct a novel dataset of real estate projects and electoral constituencies in Mumbai's municipal government. We find that an incumbent party losing the election increases real estate project completion times by 5%. We find no effect of quasi-random redistricting or changes in voter preferences on project delays. We investigate two mechanisms for the slowdown associated with party turnover — delays in construction approvals around the time of the election and increase in litigation against projects after the election. While we see no rise in litigation, we find that delayed approvals near an election explain 23% of the increased total delays due to party change.</p
What’s in a definition?:A study on the suitability of the current urban definition in India through its employment guarantee programme
No full textInaccurate definitions of urban areas in developing countries could have detrimental consequences for public service provision and construction of development indicators. We explore the suitability of the officially used administrative definition of urban and rural in India through a study of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), a demand-driven scheme targeted to rural areas. Applying three alternative definitions we find that India is more urban than recognised by the administrative definition. We further find that alternative definitions relate better with NREGS use than the administrative definition. We thus argue that the administrative definition of urban does not capture the true character of places and present a case against relying on the administrative definition to determine policy in India
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Representative estimates of COVID-19 infection fatality rates from four locations in India: cross-sectional study
Full text linkObjectives: To estimate age-specific and sex-specific
mortality risk among all SARS-CoV-2 infections in four
settings in India, a major lower-middle-income country and
to compare age trends in mortality with similar estimates
in high-income countries.
Design: Cross-sectional study.
Setting: India, multiple regions representing combined
population >150 million.
Participants: Aggregate infection counts were drawn
from four large population-representative prevalence/
seroprevalence surveys. Data on corresponding number
of deaths were drawn from official government reports of
confirmed SARS-CoV-2 deaths.
Primary and secondary outcome measures: The
primary outcome was age-specific and sex-specific
infection fatality rate (IFR), estimated as the number of
confirmed deaths per infection. The secondary outcome
was the slope of the IFR-by-age function, representing
increased risk associated with age.
Results: Among males aged 50–89, measured IFR was
0.12% in Karnataka (95% CI 0.09% to 0.15%), 0.42% in
Tamil Nadu (95% CI 0.39% to 0.45%), 0.53% in Mumbai
(95% CI 0.52% to 0.54%) and an imprecise 5.64% (95%
CI 0% to 11.16%) among migrants returning to Bihar.
Estimated IFR was approximately twice as high for males
as for females, heterogeneous across contexts and rose
less dramatically at older ages compared with similar
studies in high-income countries.
Conclusions: Estimated age-specific IFRs during the first
wave varied substantially across India. While estimated
IFRs in Mumbai, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were
considerably lower than comparable estimates from high-income countries, adjustment for under-reporting based
on crude estimates of excess mortality puts them almost
exactly equal with higher-income country benchmarks. In
a marginalised migrant population, estimated IFRs were
much higher than in other contexts around the world.
Estimated IFRs suggest that the elderly in India are at an
advantage relative to peers in high-income countries. Our
findings suggest that the standard estimation approach
may substantially underestimate IFR in low-income
settings due to under-reporting of COVID-19 deaths, and
that COVID-19 IFRs may be similar in low-income and
high-income settings
Unravelling the Anatomy of Legal Corruption:Focusing on 'Honest Graft' by Politicians
No full textCorruption in India is ubiquitous and may be broadly classified as illegal and "legal". This paper delves into the typology of legal corruption, which, apart from abuse of discretionary powers and tactical law and policymaking, includes use of the information advantage by politicians to make private gains. Analysing the growth rates in assets of some politicians in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, it finds that they are much higher than the market growth rate. The paper recommends enforcing greater transparency by disseminating information on all transactions conducted by politicians and implementing broad-based reforms to bring about system-wide changes
Unravelling the Anatomy of Legal Corruption:Focusing on 'Honest Graft' by Politicians
No full textCorruption in India is ubiquitous and may be broadly classified as illegal and "legal". This paper delves into the typology of legal corruption, which, apart from abuse of discretionary powers and tactical law and policymaking, includes use of the information advantage by politicians to make private gains. Analysing the growth rates in assets of some politicians in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, it finds that they are much higher than the market growth rate. The paper recommends enforcing greater transparency by disseminating information on all transactions conducted by politicians and implementing broad-based reforms to bring about system-wide changes
Assessing the Mumbai Metropolitan Region:A Governance Perspective
No full textThis paper takes the position that a useful governance perspective must be informed by the socio-economic-cultural milieu, and in the specific Indian context must sit on a tripod of "political reality", "state of decentralisation" and "basic economic principles". The Mumbai Metropolitan Region is one of the most important growth engines for India as it accrues tremendous revenues to the central and the Maharashtra state governments. The paper assesses the performance of the governance system in MMR which resembles a polycentric governance system — a system that has been heralded as being greatly suited to metropolitan regions by several scholars. It recognises that metropolitan governance is but a concept, since in reality it comprises a loose bundle of multiple actors and organisations. For sharper focus, the paper studies the interactions between the only two (dominant) public organisations in governance — Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority. The assessment reveals that the institutions — rules of the game — which are essential for the efficient functioning of polycentric governance system are missing in the region. It emphasises the need to bring about micro reforms in the institutional framework for polycentric governance to be successful in MMR
