-Economic and Political Weekly Any analysis of India's livestock sector must take into account the region-specific growth of the sector, micro-level economic viability of production, and the role of women's unpaid labour, among other factors. All these are crucial to understand whether India's livestock sector will grow sustainably in the future. D K Desai (dhiruprem@gmail.com) retired as professor from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Please click here to download ...

-Economic and Political Weekly   Examining who the beneficiaries are of the Integrated Child Development Services programme, an aspect that has been neglected, this paper presents econometric estimates regarding the relative strength of personal and household circumstances in determining the likelihood of utilising the programme's services. These estimates suggest that inter-group differences in utilisation rates have less to do with characteristics and much more to do with group identity. The paper also...

-Economic and Political Weekly The various activities being promoted under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme such as water harvesting and soil conservations could have high positive results on environment security and biodiversity and environment conservation. While this article appreciates the integration of biodiversity conservation into the MGNREGS, it points out the importance of preparing panchayat-level biodiversity registers, supporting individual and institutional efforts in biodiversity conservation and the formulation of...

-Economic and Political Weekly   The rural labour market is undergoing significant changes mainly due to rising employment opportunities outside agriculture. The real wage rate for farm as well as non-farm rural labour is moving upwards. This has serious implications for the farm sector. This study examines the trend and pattern of rural labour diversification and identifies the underlying factors for this change. The movement of workers outside the agriculture sector was...

-Economic and Political Weekly   It is debatable if the report of the Reserve Bank of India's committee on comprehensive fi nancial services - the Nachiket Mor Committee - offers practical solutions for extending banking services to the poorer sections of society and small businesses. The committee's recommendations are largely conceptual, and some of them could even have serious negative consequences. It is to be hoped that the RBI will examine all...