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ICSSR Journal of Abstracts and Reviews

G. REGIONAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT

166. Bhattacharya, R., Regional Growth and Disparities in Caribbean Countries: A Study of OECS, Indian Journal of Regional Science, 39(1), 2007; 26-39. Introduction / Objectives: The six island nations of the eastern Caribbean having total population of only around 800,000 perpetually face the challenges of economic growth, global competitiveness and self reliance and threat and vulnerability of natural hazards like hurricanes earthquakes and volcanoes which frequently devastate these countries to a large extent. The general problems of smallness are also applicable in this territory relating to diseconomies of scale, external economic shocks, geographical isolation, limited access to private foreign capital, limited human resources and lack of independent macro economic policy. Often inadequate planning and control over the development processes coupled with environmental degradation leads to an increase in the hazards as well as the vulnerability of these countries to disaster, leading to accumulation of risk and economic stagnation. The objective of this paper is to look into the socio-economic growth and disparity among the group of six nations comprising Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). Data Base and Methodology: The essential data for the study were collected from OECS, World Development Reports, World Bank and Human Development Report, 2002. The study applied Lucas supply-side model to analyze GDP growth. This model of growth explains the current level of GDP by a trend growth rate and allows for any tendency for the economy to return to the trend rate of growth by also including a laggard period. Results : (i) The development process in terms of GDP growth has been uneven across these island nations. ii) All these nations share the common problem of development challenges primarily because of their small size and vulnerability to natural disasters and
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external shocks. iii) The issue of their vulnerability needs to be addressed jointly in a common forum and these countries need to come together to resolve this as their limited resources might not allow them to effectively address their vital issues individually. iv) While the need for improved fiscal management by individual countries cannot be over-emphasized, structural changes, economic diversification relating to products, marketing and human resource base should also merit urgent attention. v) A shift from agriculture to service sector, mainly through tourism and more recently through offshore financial services and telecom related services have helped these countries to grow economically. vi) In order to in cash the benefit of proximity to US and European market, they should develop their potential to explore these markets by attempting to diversify their economies and to attract investments by offering suitable incentives. vii) Social transformation and extending the reach of health, education and information technology to the poorest are also essential to achieve the objectives of development. viii) Institutions have to be developed along with capacity building through investment in education and health. ix) These small nations need to fine tune their economic growth with human development strategies to access new and emerging opportunities in the global environment.

167. Hassan, M.I., Daspattanayak, P. and Misra, B.K., Regional Inequality in Orissa: Some Emerging Issues, Indian Journal of Regional Science, 39(1), 2007; 40-49. Introduction / Objectives: In early 1990s Indias economic policy witnessed a significant departure from government controlled approach of regional development to free market economy with the underlying principles of liberalization and privatization. The proponents of the new economic policy had argued that the approach would result in free mobility of capital, which will eventually bring about an optimum economic growth of different regions. This, however, meant that private investments-both domestic and foreign would go to areas that are endowed with adequate infrastructure and ensured quick returns. As a result, interregional inequality in the levels of development sharply widened. Evidences indicate a marked increase in the gap between the developed and the poor regions of the country in terms of some select indicators. Evidences

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also indicate a growing intra-state inequality even within the developed states. However, not much is known about the regional inequality in a backward state. In the light of the above, the present study intends to look into Orissas performance as compared to overall development of the country during the post-reform period. The study also examines the trends in regional inequality in Orissa during the period. Data Base and Methodology: The study is based on both states as well as district level data drawn from various secondary sources like Statistical Abstract, Economic Survey and Census publication. The study is carried out in two parts. While the first part is devoted to the discussion on the performance of Orissas economy at the aggregate level, the second examines the direction of change in the regional inequality in the state using district-level data. The discussion in the former is based on the following select indicators on three aspects viz. infrastructure, industries and agriculture. The data on the above indicators pertain to two time points in order to capture the changes during the 1990s. This has been done with the help of development indices generated for the state where all India values have been treated as equal to 100. For the district level analysis ten indicators, pertaining to the process of social development, industrial development and agricultural prosperity have been selected. Data on these indicators were collected in two sets pertaining to the two ends of the period selected for the study. The two set of data were subjected to Principal Component Analysis to derive composite scores of individual districts in terms of levels of development. Results: (i) Despite an overall improvement in infrastructure facilities, the position of the state with respect to agriculture as well as industrial sectors appears to have deteriorated during the decade. ii) Although the indices of modern inputs in agriculture like fertilizer consumption and irrigation indicate an improvement, productivity levels in agriculture in the state has managed to grow only at a slower pace than that at all India level. iii) Rice is a dominant crop in the state and covers over 80 per cent of the total area devoted to all food grains. Strikingly, the index of rice yield too has declined from 83.91 in 1991-92 to 76.02 in 2001-02; iv) On the whole Orissa seems to have lagged behind by a considerable margin in the process of economic progress as compared to the developed regions of India. v) Performance of the state in manufacturing sector has deteriorated

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even at a faster pace despite its abundant mineral and other natural resources. vi) At district level there appears to be a definite tendency towards convergence. vii) The narrowing down of the inequality within the state can be attributed to the emergence of yet another development nucleus in the western upland plateaus in and around Sambalpur and Jharsuguda districts. viii) With this the dominance of coastal plains with Khorda as its centre has undergone marked decline. ix) The emergence of Sambalpur and its neighboring districts as a development node is linked with prosperous agriculture and transport connectivity. x) The middle mountainous region with sizeable proportion of tribal population continues to lag behind. The development dynamics, however limited it may be, has definitely witnessed some amount of dispersal during the recent past.

168. Mohapatra, R., Making People the Centre of Planning for Development: A Comparative Study of Canada and India, Indian Journal of Regional Science, 39(2), 2007; 127-135. Introduction / Objectives: During the last few years there has been a paradigm shift in planning strategies from the top down planning to bottom up, starting from the grassroots. Critics are echoing an argument that has been made for years: who knows better about the needs of the local neighbourhoods than the people who live there? According to Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP), Planners work for the public good, taking health, aesthetics, equity and efficiency into consideration. The planning profession is a highly diverse one with wide range of required knowledge sets and associated skills. While the function of planners in land-use planning is typically structured and straightforward, their associated functions are not. As a public servant, a planners role is that of a decision maker embellished with the qualities of being fair, just and unbiased adviser to the legislative authority. It is now imperative to involve the community in the decision making process for cities for which skills has to be developed by future planners to plan with the community rather than for the community. This paper discusses how the planning society of today could improve the methods of training youth planners in becoming not just facilitators, but incorporators of the voices of the community at large. Rather than traditional method of classroom education, the young planners need

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to be trained to work with the community in various development activities to improve upon their skills of understanding ground realities. Data Base and Methodology: The paper is descriptive in nature. The ideas contained herein are lucidly presented with citing examples and quotations. Results: (i) Public participation is an integral part of the planning process and it is crucial for planners to understand whom they are planning for. ii) The study identifies some of the primary skills needed by professional planners in todays society. iii) A good planner should have better negotiation skills to achieve positive outcome. iv) Students should be encouraged to reflect not only on their outcome but also the process of achieving a solution. v) More emphasis should be given in the planning curriculum to encourage students to do role-play or to work in projects outside the classroom environment in consultation with the community.

169. Tiwary, P.K., Level of Rural Poverty: A Micro Study of Niyamatabad Block, District Chandauli (UP), Indian Journal of Regional Science, 39(2), 2007; 87-94. Introduction / Objectives: Poverty is initially caused by the low income as well as low productivity and its inequitable distribution among the people of a nation. By historical records rural poverty has multiplied with the population explosion in India after Independence. In post independent India the poverty has become more relative with the increasing gap between rich and poor, and spreading in masses having a trend of diminishing absolute and increasing relative poverty. In rural areas, an important cause of poverty is lack of land resources along with its distributional pattern as well as fragmentation of holding. A sizeable number of rural households has no land at all. They live entirely upon the earnings from personal labour. They constitute some of the poorest sections of rural population. This study highlights the problems of rural poverty and identifies the regional pattern of level of poverty in Niyamatabad Block (Chandauli District, U.P). Data Base and Methodology: This study is based on intensive field work and personal observations. However, a few secondary data have also been collected from Block Development Office, District Statistical Office, Directorate of Census Operations (U.P)

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and other government offices. To analyze the spatial distribution of poverty levels, fourteen sample villages have been selected through stratified random sampling on the basis of physiographic and socioeconomic variables, size of villages, population structure including ethnic groups and distance of villages from towns. Composite poverty index has been calculated by composing twelve types of variables at the village level. The 30 per cent average households of the 10 per cent selected villages have been taken for survey. Statistically speaking, it works out to about 600 households which have been taken for intensive field survey. Further, random sampling has been employed for the household survey on the basis of above considerations. Results: (i) highest proportion of landless population is below the poverty line in the block. ii) The population of some villages is also below the poverty line only due to less productive land such as usar, and semi usar lands, small size of land holdings and uneconomic agro-operation. iii) Major proportion of marginal farmers is below the poverty line. iv) Villages near the towns have relatively low proportion of rural poor due to employment prospects in the manufacturing and services. v) Backward and schedule castes comprise most of the population below the poverty line. vi) With the help of composite index, villages in the block are grouped into high, moderate and low poverty areas. vii) The major concentration of high poverty has been found in north eastern, central and eastern part of the block. viii) The moderately poor areas lie in the southern as well as northern part of the block and also villages encircling the high poverty areas in the block. ix) The low poverty areas are scattered in the northern, central and southern part of the block.

170. Verma, D.N. and Ali, Alamtar, Spatial Perspectives on Human Resource Development: A Case Study, Indian National Geographer; 42 (1&2) 2007; 121-130. Introduction / Objectives: The paper tries to examine empirically the spatial variations in levels of human resource development in Uttar Pradesh. To this end, it has been endeavored to make objective observations on the status of human resource development using appropriate indicators. Keeping the facts in mind that the development scenario is always in the state of change, it is argued that these changes are also not uniform in the time space frame.

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ICSSR Journal of Abstracts and Reviews

Data Base and Methodology : The data pertaining to fifteen indicators on human resource development has been mainly gathered through Census and Directorate of Economic Affairs for all the seventy districts of Uttar Pradesh. The author applied Composite Index Method and calculated the composite index values for each districts of the Uttar Pradesh. Finally, on the basis of these scores divided Uttar Pradesh into various realms of human resource development. Results: The analysis shows that i) the per capita GDP and the human resource development (HRD) are positively related with each other, with some exceptions. ii) The districts having high and medium levels of HRD makes twenty three per cent of the districts only and are mainly confined in the western part of the Uttar Pradesh, while rest of the districts having low, very low and extremely low levels of HRD are located in the central and eastern Uttar Pradesh. iii) The study relates high levels of HRD to industrial and agricultural developments and depressed regions to that of low agricultural and industrial developments. iv) Obviously, the result of this study shows that the small part of the state is developed while a larger part emerges as areas of very low levels of HRD. This situation is most challenging for the state of Uttar Pradesh.

171. Pattanaik, B.K., National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme: A Micro Appraisal of Equity and Efficiency, IASSI Quarterly, 26 (2) 2007; 5-18. Introduction / Objectives: Employment is a fundamental prerequisite to raise per capita income and eradicate household poverty. Poor employment opportunities are one of the key reasons for the perpetuation of rural and urban poverty in India. However, experts believe that due to the declining investment in agriculture in mid 1990s onwards, a growth of 1 per cent in agricultural output has resulted in 0.13 per cent growth in employment as against 0.4 per cent growth experienced during 1980s and early 1990s. Rural unemployment is an abiding problem and cannot be dealt with through piecemeal approaches. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) is a holistic measure aimed at fulfilling much needed employment to the rural poor. In the present paper an attempt has been made to analyse the implementation of NREGS and associate equity and efficiency issues in the Hoshiarpur district of Punjab.

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Data Base and Methodology: NREGS was implemented only in Hoshiarpur in 2005-06. Later on in 2006-07, it was expanded to cover three more districts namely Amritsar, Jalandhar and Nawanshahr and thereafter was to be extended to all districts of Punjab. The findings are based on the primary data collected from 10 village panchayats of two blocks i.e. Mahilpur and Dasua of Hoshiarpur. The primary data were collected from 90 job card holders in these ten Panchayats. Out of 297 job card holders in these 10 panchayats, 95 (32 %) were interviewed for the assessment of the status and benefits of NREGS to the employment seekers. Results: (i) Panchayats have taken up mostly soil work activities such as construction and repair of roads, renovation of ponds in the villages, construction of Dharmsalas and other public buildings, repair of buildings such as schools and Anganwadis; ii) Available data shows that only 5.56 per cent of the job card holders have received full 100 days employment in the year 2006-07 and none of them received unemployment allowances as per the mandate of the scheme. This apparently indicates that the implementers of the scheme have failed to fulfill the promises ensured by the scheme. Paucity of funds is mainly responsible for this lapse; iii) One of the important efficiency issues is its transparency and impeccable accounting system adopted by the panchayats; iv) Most of the panchayats opined that the release of money from the block is slow and also in a piece meal manner, which creats confussion in the minds of the people, who subsequently suspect panchayats; v) More than 90 per cent of the beneficiaries of the NREGS are Scheduled Castes; vi) Agricultural labour and self employed in non-agriculture relied on the NREGS to supplement their incomes whereas workers in the other labour and self employed in agriculture categories used NREGS as a main stay of their incomes; vii) As the work under the scheme is available in and around the village panchayat, women who are interested but not getting an opportunity because of distance factor, seized the benefit; viii) The percentages of the beneficiaries of the scheme are 25.56 and 40.0 for the youth in the age group of less than 30 years and 31-40 years respectively. Thus, youth are the largest beneficiaries of the scheme; ix) 50 per cent of the beneficiaries of the scheme are the illiterate and primary educated persons, who are unfit to compete in the global market; The employment opportunities created through NREGS would gradually overcome the problems of drug abuse and check migration of rural youth in Punjab.

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172. Nagraj, H. and Murthy, Krishna, Geographical Analysis of Regional Disparities A Case Study of Chitradurga District, Karnataka, Transactions, Institute of Indian Geographers, 29 (1) 2007, 75-82. Introduction/Objectives: Though India has recorded a high rate of economic growth during the past two decades, yet this growth has created regional disparities. Usually the intra-district disparities are much greater than the inter-district disparites. The objective of this paper is to illustrate how in future such disparities could be contained. Social, economic and demographic indicators have been taken into account for the purpose. Regional disparities in the levels of development have emerged as major concerns for all types of spatial planning. Data Base and Methodology: A large variety of socio-economic and demographic indicators of development have been taken into account for measuring levels of development. In all 13 social indicators, 19 economic indicators, and 5 demographic indicators have been considered at Taluka level. The data pertaining to these selected indicators have been tabulated and mapped for the 9 talukas of the district under study. All the talukas have been ranked in case of all indicators and grand total of ranks pertaining to all indicators has been calculated to indicate the levels of regional disparities within the district for 1988 and 1998. The intra-district variations in the grand total rank of all indicators ranged between 14 and 218. It indicates the level of regional disparities within the district. Finally, the district has been divided into very high level of development, high level of development, medium level of development, low level of development and very low level of development regions. Findings: There are only two talukas in the district which could be classified as area of very high level of development. One of these had district headquarters located in it and other was agriculturally developed taluka due to highly developed irrigation. The two talukas falling in the category of high level of development had high net sown area and a good network of agricultural banks, cooperative societies, etc. In low development category also there were three talukas, which had rugged terrain and hence were handicapped in terms of agricultural development.

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173. Singh, Shyam B., S. B. Singh and R. Juyal, Integrated Watershed Management for Sustainable Development, Hill Geographer, 23(1,2) 2007: 51-60. Introduction / Objectives: Hill areas are very fragile regions. They have there own distinct problems. This is the reason why the hilly area development plans have not succeeded. The authors have emphasized on inclusion of local needs and aspirations. The failure of projects is attributed to overlooking the socio-economic status and constraints of the population for which it is designed. The paper has investigated the Phakot Micro Watershed (MWS) of Tehri Garwhal district of Uttarakhand so as to frame a realistic plan for its sustainable development. Data Base and Methodology: Field survey has been undertaken. Through field survey the information regarding land use, food consumption and requirement, fuel wood consumption is collected, computed and presented in tables. Results: (i)The area under forest cover is mainly under reserved forests. The maximum area lies under uncultivable wasteland covered by uneconomic scrub and grass; (ii) The gross sown area occurs on steep slopes. Contour bunding is not practiced by farmers resulting in heavy erosion. There is lack of irrigation and infrastructural facilities; (iv) Agricultural practices are therefore, not very productive. The only cash crop grown is ginger which does not fetch enough money due to high transportation cost. The food production is low. It is sufficient to meet the requirement of four months only. This resulted in food crisis in the region; (v) There is acute water shortage despite good rains. Water harvesting is not practiced in this MWS; (vi) The common property resources are diminishing rapidly and people are increasingly relying on reserved forests for their basic needs thereby, aggravating the problem of deforestation; (vii) The fuelwood consumption is very high. The remote villages have high consumption compared to those located on roadside as they have LPG connections; (viii) The economic condition of region is highly precarious. Agriculture is in a very bad shape. Off farm employment is low. The region is thus, experiencing massive out migration of male population.

174. Kawadia, Ganesh, Gunjan Malhotra and Manasranjan Dasmishra, Economic Development and Environmental

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Degradation in India, Man and Development, 29(1) 2007: 55-70. Introduction / Objectives: The authors have attempted to derive relationship between environmental degradation/deforestation and economic growth. They have established the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis, which holds that their exists u shaped relationship between the two. Data Base and Methodology: The study is secondary source based obtained from India Human Development Report 2001, the annual report of Planning Commission, the 11th Finance Commission report, Central Statistical Organization etc pertaining to 1990-91 to 2001-02. Quadratic regression equation has been used by the authors taking deforestation as dependent variable and per capita income, per capita consumption of electricity, urbanization rate, population density, population growth, road density, literacy as independent variables. One such regression equation used is, Yt = B1 + B2 (PCI) + B3 (PCI)2 + Ut, where Y is deforestation rate, PCI is per capita state domestic product, (PCI)2 is square of per capita state domestic product. Results: (i) States with highest forest cover have higher rate of deforestation; (ii) Trade off between per capita income and deforestation is found to be statistically insignificant but per capita consumption of electricity supports the EKC hypothesis of economic development and environmental degradation; (iii) All other variables mainly from demand side factors like per capita production, urbanization etc failed to explain the variation in the level of deforestation. Only supply side factors like area under forest have been found to explain the level of deforestation in the state and existence of EKC relationship.

175. Sharma, H. N., Geography and Regional Development: Some Thoughts on their Content and Objectives, North Eastern Geographer, 35(1, 2) 2007-08: 10-13. The paper has elaborated on the role of geography in regional development. The author is highly appreciative of the emancipatory and welfaristic role of geography. In regional development studies intra and inter regional disparities within national boundaries are examined and efforts are made to remove them. Till recently the focus of public policy remained on income and socio economic disparities among individuals and groups and investment in

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particular sector and sub sector is emphasized upon. But now it is realized that regional consideration in socio economic development is as important as sectoral consideration as both are complementary to each other. Here comes the role of geography. Space is at the centre stage of geographic studies and as space is considered in a holistic way, taking both the physical and human elements, the study of space is crucial in identifying regional problems and attaining regional development. Thus, the author holds that geographic understanding of regions is the foundation on which the success of achieving the objectives of regional development from macro to micro level depends.

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