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3587 items in total found

Working Papers | 1974

Working Capital Requirements and Credit Needs for Foodgrains Distribution in India

Desai D K and Ramachandran V

This paper attempts to estimate the working capital required for the procurement and distribution of foodgrains. To arrive at the financial requirements for foodgrains distribution, estimates of the marketed surplus are needed. Instead of assuming a certain percentage of the total foodgrains production as the marketed surplus, a diferent technique was employed to estimate the marketed surplus. Based on the prices and stocks of foodgrains required at the beginning of the months and the marketed surplus of foodgrains, the working capital requirements were estimated for different years. The estimates of working capital for foodgrains show that the available bank credit met only 38 per cent of the maximum working capital required in 1972-73. Hence bank credit cannot be blamed for making possible the hoarding of foodgrains. In fact, by not supplying the necessary working capital for foodgrains, the banking system has forced foodgrain distribution to depend on non-banking sources. It has thus increased the cost of financing the working capital and helped the price increase of foodgrains.

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Working Papers | 1974

Economics of Gobar Gas Plant

Desai D K

The oil crisis has led us to explore the alternative sources of nitrogen. One of the alternatives for nitrogen is cow dung (Gobar). Scientists have invented a gobar gas plant which gives methane gas for fuel and rich slurry with high content of nitrogen. Based on the data provided by the Khadi and Village Industries Commission, the cost-benefit analysis of the gobar gas plant shows that the investment in gas plant is economical both from the private and social points of view.

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Working Papers | 1974

Futurology and Public Systems Analysis: A Major Social Need

Krishnayya J G

The rate of social and technological change is overtaking our problem-solving capability. There is urgent social need for institutions which will effectively work on the analysis of public policy and design of public systems along with surveys of the alternative futures which may befall us. Can such Rand-type institutions be created in India? The success of state federal and local governments in outpacing change may depend upon it.

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Working Papers | 1974

Population-Resource Dynamics in an Indian Village

Murthy Nirmal S

The paper presents a simulation model of population dynamics in an Indian village and discusses its usefulness to a policy maker concerned with the economic and social development of such a village. The model contains some of the elements and interrelations which seem to have significant impact on the determinants of population dynamics, namely, births, deaths and migrations. The model is then used as a tool, instead of a real village, to test different development policies for their impact on the village's population growth and economic condition over time. The policies such as health services, education, and family planning are introduced in the model to ascertain their effect on the balance of births, deaths and migration. No attempt is made to optimize the outcome of any policy. Preference for one outcome over another is left to the values and objectives of the user of the model.

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Working Papers | 1974

Need based Family Planning Programmes: Content and Treatment Guidelines for T V Producers

T. V. Rao

This article presents three models of human behaviour with special emphasis on the process of decision making at the individual level in the adoption of family planning practices. The first model describes how the adoption process is influenced by factors at three levels: individual, family and society. The second model views adoption behaviour as influenced by the personality of the adopter, practice characteristics, role of influential and change agents. The third model describes the sequential adoption process. Programme implications of these three models for T.V. producers have been discussed. Suggestions have been made on the basis of behavioural science research findings in family planning in India, about the content, and organization of future T.V. programmes for our country. The results discussed in this paper have implications for the diffusion of any method through mass media.

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Working Papers | 1974

Optimal Investment Planning Model for Power Systems

Mukherjee Shishir K

Availability of adequate and cheap electricity is one of the necessary requirements for industrial and agricultural development and it is also a basic requirement of urban life. Due to very rapid growth of demand for electricity and widespread shortages experienced in India, investment planning in the power sector is of prime importance. As power sector is also highly capital intensive, there is a definite need for determining least-cost investment plans and the use of operations research techniques for choosing the best expansion path from a large number of alternative system expansion plans for power generation. The present paper describes an optimal investment planing model for determining the least-cost expansion plan for generating capacity of a power system under growing demand over a planning horizon of 15 to 25 years. Given projections of future demand for power, the expected shape of the annual load duration curve and relevant capital and operating cost information, a solution of the mixed integer linear programming model would provide the type, capacity and time schedule of commissioning the additional generating plants needed for meeting the given demand with an accepted standard of service in terms of reserve requirements or load-loss probability.

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Working Papers | 1974

Price Behaviour in India - An Explanation Through a Model of Supply and Demand for Money

C Rangarajan

To what extent can changes in money account for changes in price level? The model presented in this paper seeks to explain changes in price level through the divergence between nominal money supply fixed by monetary authorities and warranted money supply determined by changes in real income. After developing the model in detail an attempt is made to test how far such a model explains the behaviour of general price level in India in the past twenty years. The crucial behavioural relations to be estimated in this model was the demand for money in real terms. Three equations were estimated using three variants of the real income variables. These equations together with the changes in real income formed the basis for computing the price indexes. We estimated the price indexes for the period 1950-51 to 1965-66. While the 'preferred variant' of the model performs well in terms of estimating the level of prices it does not perform that well when year to year percentage changes in price level constitute the basis of comparison. Out of 16 years in six years the percentage change in estimated price index differs from the percentage change in actual index by more than 5%.

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Working Papers | 1974

Food Riots: An Analysis of Price Movements of Essential Commodities 1971-83 with Tools for Policy Analysis

Krishnayya J G

Data Analysis techniques must be appropriate to the purpose of the analysis. Policy analysis, in particular, requires analytic techniques which are parsimonious and robust. Data available on the prices of 22 essential commodities in May 1971 and in December 1973 was subjected to analysis with a view to extracting information on the geographical pattern of price changes. The pattern reveals (a) that wheat behaved differently from all other commodities in 1973, (b) that a concentration of price pressure developed on Ahmedabad and Bombay and away from Delhi and Calcutta, (c) that unexpectedly small price increases took place in two commodities (rice and wheat) in Kanpur. The tools used were Information Theory-leading to a measure of "uneveness", and Cluster Analysis, leading to a simple Guttman scale.

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Working Papers | 1974

Information Technology for Developing Countries: Priority Sectors and Prefered Technology

Krishnayya J G

Priority areas for computer-based information systems are located in developing countries, and a preferred technology (midi-computers) is identified. After describing the priority areas where information management and information technology can make positive contributions in developing countries, the bureaucratic (managerial) infrastructure essential for their implementation is examined. Distinctions are made between the skills required for problem analysis, system design, implementation and maintenance. System design is identified as the phase most appropriate for the participation of the professional "expert". The economics of minicomputer and communication-based systems for the priority areas of developing countries are critically examined. The conclusion is drawn that, for developing countries, microprogrammed minicomputer information processing systems offer significant advantages in cost, redundancy, maintenance, lead-time for implementation, and in the systematic growth of management skills with processing capacity. They can also be combined with microcomputer-based message-switching data-communications facilities. Examples are taken from actual situations in the Airline industry, in logistics networks for commodity distribution, and in a mixed information-retrieval and data-analysis situation.

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Working Papers | 1974

Environmental Scanning for Corporate Planning in India

Wadhva Charan D

The need for environmental scanning acquires great policy significance for both the micro-unit and the macro-economy in a developing country like India which is trying to achieve the objectives of economic development and distributional justice simultaneously through national planning. This paper attempts to provide a framework for scanning the external environment of a large industrial enterprise in the private sector in India to help the company in the long term planning of its activities. The impact of international conditions, technological conditions, national economic conditions, social conditions, demographic conditions, political conditions and governmental regulatory conditions impinging upon the existing activities of the company is analysd. Special study is made of the opportunities and constraints imposed by the national priorities set up by the planning authorities of a developing country such as India in her five year plans. The impact of national economic policies in shaping the future of a large enterprise is brought into focus. The likely influence of such policies on the economic development of the nation is briefly discussed.

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