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Working Papers | 2005

Greenhouse Cultivation in a Hot Arid Area

Girja Sharan, Jethava Kamalesh, and Shamante Anand

A facility for controlled environment agriculture is under investigation at Kothara (Kutch), a hot and extremely arid region. It consists of a greenhouse of 120 m2 floor area coupled in closed-loop mode to an earth-tube-heat-exchanger (ETHE) buried directly below. The ETHE provides conditioned air at 20 air changes per hour when needed. A 7.5 hp blower moves the air. Greenhouse is furnished with two continuous roll-up side vents, close-able continuous ridge vents and a retractable top cover made of shade net. Greenhouse has a fertigation system and an array of overhead foggers to supplement humidity and cooling. The ETHE was able to heat the house easily from 9oC to 22-23oC in half hour in the cold winter nights. Static ventilation from side and ridge vents along with shading was effective for day time control till early March. Subsequently ETHE was operated. It limits the greenhouse temperature gain keeping the inside near 36oC while shaded on top and when crop is inside. ETHE holds promise as an effective environmental control device in hot arid areas. A higher air change rate appears desirable to lower the temperature further. Two rounds of cropping has been done, the third is in progress. The results of growing tomato were presented else where. In this paper we present the results of growing capsicum.

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Working Papers | 2005

Dew yield from passive Condensers in a coastal arid Area - Kutch

Girja Sharan

Dewfall occurs over a season of nine months in coastal arid district of Kutch. Quantity too is appreciable. A research program has been started to develop efficient passive condensers to harvest dew and use it as a supplementary source of drinking water which is scarce in the area. A passive condenser is a device that cools itself at night by radiative exchange with clear sky. Under favorable conditions condenser may become colder than the dew point of surrounding humid air and attract condensation. Condensers need to be inexpensive, compact and high yielding. We report in this paper, comparative dew yield of condensers made from six different materials including, aluminum sheet, galvanized iron sheet and polyethylene mixed with titanium oxide and barium sulfate, polyethylene, fiber reinforced plastic plain and corrugated. A test condenser is a panel 1 X 1 m in size and 25 mm thick. Top surface is made of the material being tested for condensation. Its underside is insulated by 25 mm thick styrene foam sheet. Panel is mounted on a metal frame at an angle of 30° from horizontal. Higher end of the panel is 2 m above the ground. Condensate flows down the sloping surface into a collection bottle via a channel and tube. Yield is measured daily in the morning. Ambient conditions are continuously recorded by a ten channel data logger. In this paper results of the first three months are presented. Dew yields are correlated with ambient conditions and material properties.

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Working Papers | 2005

Integrated disclosure - Streamlining the disclosure norms in the Indian securities market

Parekh Sandeep

An increasing focus on improved disclosures has been the regulatory thrust of securities regulations since the great crash of 1929. India gave up the merit based system of a controller regulating the issue of securities in favour of the disclosure based regulatory philosophy in 1988. Since then an increasing focus on public disclosure has been a priority with SEBI, the Indian regulator. However, in an attempt to improve the quality of disclosure, a necessary waste product has developed-that of the quantity of disclosure. Today with new regulations being added by the legislature, SEBI and stock exchanges, we see an excessive duplication of disclosure particularly of listed companies. There are several areas where net disclosure of information can be maintained even while reducing the quantity of information brought out. This paper examines some areas which require reduction of information flow because the information is already out in the public domain. The paper advocates a transition to a company registration with greater emphasis on continuous disclosures and a relatively easy track for seasoned companies to raise capital without an extensive prospectus centered regulations.

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Working Papers | 2005

Directions for Reforms in the Health Sector: Reflections from a State in a Developing Country

Sunil Kumar Maheshwari, Bhat Ramesh, and Saha Somen

Meeting the health care needs of population goes beyond mere budget allocations. The organisation of programmes and commitment of people working in the health sector has significant bearing on sector performance and its reform process. The reform process, among other things, intrinsically makes some fundamental assumptions: high organisational commitment of health care providers, high professional commitment of health care providers and adequate skills of health care providers. The current paper attempts to analyse the HR practices in Madhya Pradesh and its implications on commitment of the health officials. The findings of the study indicate that district health officials do not share strong emotional bond with the department which is likely to affect their willingness to take initiative. The findings suggest the need to consult senior doctors in staffing decisions in order to develop a sense of belongingness in the mind of the health officials. The study suggests investing in development of multiple strategies for the growth and career development of health professionals. The study also advocates the need for intense socialisation among health professionals to facilitate the effective implementation of reforms. Finally the study advocates the need to develop informal channels of communications and networking among various health providers.

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Working Papers | 2005

Third Party Administrators and Health Insurance in India: Perception of Providers and Policyholders

Bhat Ramesh, Sunil Kumar Maheshwari, and Saha Somen

The advent of Third Party Administrators (TPAs) is expected to play an important role in health insurance market in ensuring better services to policyholders. In addition, their presence is expected to address the cost and quality issues of the vast private healthcare providers in India. However, the insurance sector still faces challenge of effectively institutionalising the services of the TPA. A lot needs to be done in this direction. Towards this the present paper describes the findings of a survey study, which was carried out with the objective to ascertain the experiences and challenges perceived by hospitals and policyholders in availing services of TPA in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The major findings from the study are: (i) low awareness among policyholders about the existence of TPA; policyholders mostly rely on their insurance agents; (ii) policyholders have very little knowledge about the empanelled hospitals for cashless hospitalisation services; (iii) TPAs insist on standardisation of fee structure of medical services/procedures across providers; (iv) healthcare providers do experience substantial delays in settling of their claims by the TPAs; (v) hospital administrators perceive significant burden in terms of effort and expenditure after introduction of TPA and (vi) no substantial increase in patient turnover after empanelling with TPAs. However, there is an indication that hospital administrators foresee business potential in their association with TPA in the long-run. There is a clear indication from the study that the regulatory body need to focus on developing mechanisms, which would help TPAs to strengthen their human capital and ensure smooth delivery of TPA services in emerging health insurance market.

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Working Papers | 2005

Determinants of Entry in the Indian Manufacturing Sector

Rakesh Basant and Subhendra Nath Saha

Since 1991, the Indian economy has experienced major structural and policy changes. These changes were expected to reduce barriers to entry and increase competition. While anecdotal evidence seems to support the contention that contestability of various product markets in India has increased in recent years, due to easier entry conditions, no study has attempted a detailed empirical analysis of the same. In exploring the determinants of entry, two specific contributions are made: one, heterogeneity of potential entrants is recognized; two, appropriate econometric techniques are used for estimating the relationships. In the context of the emerging needs to study determinants of entry in the current Indian context and the research gaps, the study (1) identifies key factors that determine entry into the Indian manufacturing sector; (2) explores the difference in the factors that determine entry of different types of entrants and different modes of entry; and shows that it is analytically useful to distinguish between the impact of various causal factors on the incidence vis-à-vis extent of entry into a sector. While achieving the above objectives, the paper provides insights that will be useful for policy makers and managers designing strategies for incumbents and potential entrants.

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Working Papers | 2004

Revisiting the Concept and Classification of Distribution Service Outputs

Lievens Annouk, Haes Joeri De, Piyush Kumar Sinha, Waterschoot Walter Van, and Burt Steve

Distribution service outputs structurally play a pivotal role in retail and channel management. This paper critically assesses the nature of Bucklin's classic formulation, which is concerned with numerically expressible economic benefits resulting from the execution of the distribution function, within a perfectly operating economic channel. It is distinguished from post-classic extensions which provide alternative multi-functional or institutional approaches. The paper captures both approaches in a generic higher-order customer value scheme, which also redefines and broadens the traditional economic customer benefits. The proposed generic framework also extends to any marketing subfield, and provides the potential for more focussed theoretical and empirical research.

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Working Papers | 2004

Empirical Assessment of Coherence in Information Technology Firms

D. Karthik and Rakesh Basant

Coherence is the ability to discover new-potentially profitable-combinations of various types of knowledge assets where complementarity is the basis for relevant combinations. Assets are considered complementary if doing (more of) any one of them increases the returns to doing (more of) others. Despite its strategic importance, few studies have addressed the issue of coherence in the Information Technology (IT) industry. This paper develops a novel methodology assess the extent of complementarity and coherence in the IT firms grounded in 'sensemaking', evolutionary economics, and strategic management. This paper uses managerial perspective for defining businesses. Managers and IT experts identify a typical IT firm based on the dimensions of applications (verticals) and specializations (service lines). Another feature of this paper is the use of survivor principle for assessing complementarity. The results on complementarity suggest that in case of applications, the boundaries between Transport & Ports and Airlines & Railways are getting blurred and these could become a generic combination. Similarly, in case of specializations Software maintenance migration and RDBMS, Datawarehousing & Datamining could become a generic combination. The results also suggest that there is substantial scope for improvement in coherence in both applications and specializations. Analysis of coherence also indicates greater fungibility of knowledge in applications than knowledge in specializations. Another finding is that the IT firms retain coherence with large number of applications but not with large number of specializations. Finally, as the number of applications and specializations reach a critical limit, the average coherence shows a definite decline.

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Working Papers | 2004

Towards a Unified Market for Trading Gilts in India

Jayanth R. Varma

A Working Group of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) under the chairmanship of Dr. R. H. Patil has recommended that Indian government securities should be traded in two separate and segregated markets. Banks and primary dealers are to trade on an anonymous electronic screen based order matching trading system - a monopoly exchange based on the Negotiated Dealing System (NDS) owned by the RBI. Households, pension and provident funds and most other investors are proposed to be relegated to a separate segregated market driven by compulsory market making. The Patil Report also recommends that the RBI should indulge in systematic market manipulation in the NDS to reduce the borrowing cost of the government. This paper argues for a reconsideration of most elements of this design. Government securities are a unique asset class to which all Indians should have non discriminatory access. Segregated markets are unacceptable. Nor are monopolies desirable since intense competition is the principal mechanism for fostering innovation and investor protection. Market manipulation is unacceptable in any financial market even if this manipulation is performed by the state itself. Moreover market manipulation to reduce interest rates would reintroduce financial repression through the back door and would reverse the principal success of the financial sector reforms initiated in 1991. The paper proposes an alternative design for the government securities market and also a new regulatory architecture. Unified markets, non discriminatory access to all classes of investors, intense competition and investor protection are the key elements of the proposed design.

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Working Papers | 2004

Incentive Outlay Ratios in Fast Moving Consumer Goods Sector

Vyas Preeta H

Inflationary trends in economy have led to increased media costs, forcing many companies to increased expenditure on sales promotion activities. It has been recognized that well-planned sales promotion activities have a strategic role to play in brand building and enhancing customer loyalty. This study examines the nature of schemes offered in the FMCG(fast moving consumer goods) category, to find out ratio of incentive and outlay (which the consumer is expected to make to avail sales promotion offers), explore the relationships, find out the rationale behind these offers, and provide guidelines to managers designing sales promotion activities. Eight different product categories were selected for the study. Information on actual offers made in these categories in a quarter was compiled and tabulated through content analysis in terms of brand, MRP(maximum retail price), offer(size of the incentive offered), nature of the scheme, pack being promoted, and outlay. Variations in I/O(incentive-outlay) ratios across product categories revealed that the non-food category exhibited more variations than the food category.The level of incentive in the nonfood category was higher than that of the food category , 0.33(33percent) was the most frequently offered level of incentive, Bonus pack followed by free gift and price offs were the popular tools used across product categories , Except for toilet soaps, in other categories medium to large pack was promoted more often. The findings suggest that managers need to be creative to create an impact , otherwise consumers would tend to be less loyal to any brand in a category and drift from one promoted brand to another. Several propositions generated in this research need to be addressed in future research. Factors to be considered and managerial issues concerning the design are also discussed.

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