Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

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Suraj
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by Suraj »

To start the new fiscal year, I've closed the 73-page long very productive old thread. It will be archived and is accessible here:
Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Jan 1 2010)

For those who wish to archive the old thread locally, I recommend ArmenT's excellent BRFArchiver tool, which I use for this purpose.
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by Arjun »

India Inc tells PM to bring on reforms
Top industry leaders have moved into plain-speak mode with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about the worsening investment climate in the country. Speaking at Thursday evening's meeting of the Council of Trade and Industry, they impressed upon the prime minister that foreign direct investment (FDI) wouldn't flow into a country where policies keep changing and reforms are in peril.

"We unanimously reiterated the urgent need to press forward with reforms and improve the investment climate in the country," Rajya Sabha MP and council member Ashok Ganguly told ET.

FDI inflows into India have dipped by 25% in the period from April 2010 to February 2011, compared to the same period of 2009-10. Reform measures such as allowing foreign investment in multi-brand retail and raising the FDI ceiling in other sectors have been on the anvil for long, but the government hasn't taken a final decision yet. Global investors are also wary of delays in government clearances, both for greenfield investments and sell-outs like the Cairn-Vedanta deal.

Bajaj Auto chairman Rahul Bajaj told the prime minister that if the reforms process stays derailed, the country would slip back into the pre-1991 era. "This would hurt entrepreneurship and increase corruption further," he said.

While asking the prime minister not to spare the guilty corporates and officials in scams like the 2G spectrum case, Bajaj added that it was equally important to remove the climate of fear prevailing in the bureaucracy so that innocent officials can go about their work without worrying.

A slew of scams in recent months, with investigations launched against several officials, have paralysed administration to such an extent that even routine decisions are being dithered over. "Almost everybody raised these issues, not just me," Bajaj told ET. Officials present at the meeting confirmed that HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh, MS Banga (former head of Unilever's India operations) and National Advisory Council member Anu Aga articulated concerns about the investment climate.

"One member, in particular, was quite forthright," a senior government official said. "He asked the government how it expected FDI to flow in, if it kept changing its policies all the time and promising reforms that never happened," the official recalled. Parekh and Banga are learnt to have pointed out that India is no longer in flavour as an FDI destination, thanks to a downturn in global investors' perceptions that were positive till a few months back.

While Parekh spoke about the need for financial sector reforms, Bharti chairman Sunil Mittal called for opening up FDI in multi-brand retail enterprises. Kumar Mangalam Birla pointed out some issues plaguing the manufacturing sector, which is important for inclusive growth and employment generation.

Some of the Council members, such as Aga, Parekh and Ganguly, had co-written an open letter to the country's letters to express alarm at the widespread governance deficit, extraneous influences affecting decision and corruption. The apparent governance deficit wasn't explicitly raised at this meeting though, as the prime minister's opening remarks had already reflected these concerns.
Theo_Fidel

Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by Theo_Fidel »

As a nation we do a very poor job of feeding our women and girl children. They are unhealthy and it it affects our children's well being. This right to food will do nothing to solve the underlying problem. The neglected will remain neglected.

http://www.economist.com/node/18485871

The Indian exception
So the most convincing explanations for India’s nutritional failures probably lie elsewhere. Women are the most important influences upon their children’s health—and the status of women in India is notoriously low. Brides are deemed to join their husband’s family on marriage and are often treated as unpaid skivvies. “The mothers aren’t allowed to look after themselves,” says Mrs Khan. “Their job is simply to have healthy babies.” But if mothers are unhealthy, their children frequently are, too.

India is also riven by caste and tribal divisions. It is no coincidence that states with the most dalits (former untouchables) or tribes (such as Bihar and Orissa) have higher malnutrition rates than those, like Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, with fewer of these excluded groups. So-called scheduled castes and tribes are more likely than other Indians to suffer the ills of poor diet.

But that cannot be the whole story. Astonishingly, a third of the wealthiest 20% of Indian children are malnourished, too, and they are neither poor nor excluded. Bad practice plays some part—notably a reluctance to breastfeed babies. There may also be an element of choice. Long ago, a study in Maharashtra showed that people spend only two-thirds of their extra income on food—and this is true whether they are middle-income or dirt-poor. That may seem perverse. But a mobile phone may be more useful to the poor than better food, since the phone may generate income during the next harvest failure, and good food will not.
Leave aside the budgetary implications, which are awe-inspiring. Such a programme would hugely expand the terminally dysfunctional PDS. It would do little or nothing for neglected castes and tribes. It would not raise the status of women, or encourage breastfeeding and early nutrition. (As Mrs Khan says, “the crucial time is between the ages of nought and three, but we’re not really reaching them.”) Giving cash, rather than food itself, would be better. Better still, India should look to international experience and introduce a conditional cash-transfer scheme, such as Brazil’s Bolsa Família, which pays the mother if her children attend school. India hankers after “universal” benefits that would leave millions malnourished. It should instead learn from schemes that target those who need help—and which actually work.
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by somnath »

cash transfer schemes are the flavour of the times - CEA Kaushik Basu's new book covers the concept in great detail...Problem is that cash transfer increases affordibility, does not improve access..So for the time being at least, the PDS needs to be retained as a vehicle, maybe at a goegrpahy-targteed level...Its not as if it is an unmitigated disaster - there are bright pockets, Jharkhand for one...And in areas like Jharkhand, it will be required - access is still an issue there...

In most places though, cash transfers are the way forward...UID, bank accounts are the eseential infrastructure required...

But one sticky issue remains - identification and targeting...Who do you transfer the cash to? How do you recognise that a person is "deserving" of a cash transfer?
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by vera_k »

Perhaps a blood test can be used to determine those nutritionally compromised, and thus deserving of special attention. If children are tested in school and seen to be suffering, then their mothers should get visits from social workers and any support the state is capable of providing.
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by somnath »

vera_k wrote:Perhaps a blood test can be used to determine those nutritionally compromised, and thus deserving of special attention. If children are tested in school and seen to be suffering, then their mothers should get visits from social workers and any support the state is capable of providing.
Nice idea, but quite complicated!

UID and Bank accounts along with cash transfers solve one part of the problem - leakage through the service delivery system...It does not solve the issue of leakage because of benefits accruing to the non-deserving - which is the big elephant in the room (kerosene, PDS, LPG - all subsidies have this as the largest problem)...
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by vera_k »

As for leakage, what is the fraud investigation system in India? Who investigates MGNREGA or PDS fraud by in the delivery system or by people claiming to be poor when they are not? Plain fraud will be a problem with or without cash transfers.
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by somnath »

VEra-k-ji,

Which is precisely why NREGA was designed as a self-opt-out scheme...And therefore had the element of manual labour (which I remember caused so much heart burn here a few weeks back!)...Basically, what it meant was that only those who really needed it would turn up to work for 8 hours and collect the money...Kinf od automatically prevents a lot of "leakage"...somewhat similar with PDS - the assumption is that the "giffen goods" dispensed by the PDS wont be the staples of the relatively affluent...Sort of works out - I dont remember when my father lat went to a ration shop - and he was just a public servant, firmly middle class! But PDS is problematic - it generally has large leakages..

Challenge is to devise something foolproof in a cash transfer scheme..
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by vera_k »

What I mean to say is that perhaps fraud control needs more investment than is currently done. There was news some time ago about MGNREGA fraud found by an RTI activist where people rich and poor were listed on the rolls without their knowledge, and the money was being paid out to the people committing the fraud.

There will always be some fraud, but as long as it is kept low enough the schemes should be effective. Are there wings in CBI, ED or other state government agencies that are dedicated to such monitoring and fraud investigation?
Theo_Fidel

Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by Theo_Fidel »

What we are trying to attack is the 'mal-nourished' population. The nutritionally deficient is another category altogether. Social conditions create both problems.

Distributing food with out social reform is pointless. As long as the community does not care about the condition of its women and children. The malnourished can be easily identified with a simple pinch/skin fold test to measure their body fat level. Anyone with a BMI of 10% or less is likely to need additional calories.

Nutritional deficiency is a whole different ball game.

I can't stress enough that most of the damage is done by Age 5. Adding calories or nutrition after that has much less effectiveness.
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by vera_k »

Theo_Fidel wrote:I can't stress enough that most of the damage is done by Age 5. Adding calories or nutrition after that has much less effectiveness.
It starts in the womb according to something I read about why Indians tend to put on weight in middle age.

Checking kids in school should still be able to identify the mothers who need help, so any future siblings will fare better. Not a perfect solution, but clearly there are no silver bullets.
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by Prem »

http://www.steelguru.com/indian_news/Ma ... 98529.html
He pointed out that “The rise in prices was due to shortage of food grains in 2009-10 and of vegetables, milk and eggs in 2010-11. The inflation observed in the last two years is therefore due to the cost push factor.”
He said “The other factor overheating of economy is not the cause of inflation in India. Overheating refers to a situation when the industrial sector has exhausted its capacity to produce, but there is still a demand, leading to price rise. The Indian economy is clear not overheating. The investment rate in the economy exceeds 36%.”
With an incremental capital output ratioor ICOR, which measures how many additional units of investments you need to get one additional unit of output, of 4:1, he added that we should be able to grow comfortably at 9%.Dr Rangarajan stressed that the ICOR in India is high, meaning more investments are needed for additional output. He said “If the ratio could be brought down by productivity increases, the economy could grow at 10%. He said that “Even if the inflation is due to shortage of foods, there has to be a monetary
policy response. This is because while inflation may have its origin in food shortage, it leads to rise in prices of non-food items too. Monetary policy measures, such as raising interest rates, are therefore needed to check demand growth.”He added that “While there may an inflation vs growth debate in the short term, in the long run, they converge. Several studies have established that in the long run there is no trade off between the two adding that growth rates become increasingly negative at higher rates of inflation. We must remain committed to maintaining inflation at a low level. But this leads us to what the appropriate level of inflation is. Determining the threshold inflation or the point at which it begins to hurt growth, and targeting that level of inflation are complex subjects with problems of their own.”In his opinion, inflation rate of around 5%to 6% may be acceptable.Dr Rangarajan said he i in favor of soft inflation targeting or striving to achieving a targeted inflation rate but without being too fixated about the target. He said that he expects inflation to come down to 7.5% by the end of this month, but one needs to see how global crude oil prices move
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by somnath »

^^^India's ICOR is today relatively competitive with similar economies...All economies with high levels of investment demand, espeically on areas like infrastructure, will have somehwat high ICOR...BTW, an agri-dependent economy is likey to have lower ICOR! India's fares pretty well against China, and is in he same balllpark as most of Asia...Given the large infrastructure deficit, dont see how the ICOR can get much lower though....
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by somnath »

Some more on the Census..

The literacy numbers reveal quite a bit at a state level..
http://censusindia.gov.in/2011-prov-res ... apter6.pdf

The real phenomenal performance is by Tripura, which is now ranked #4...What is more impressive is the decadal growth it has displayed, which is the highest in the country @ 14.5% (discounting Dadar and Nagar Haveli, which is really a small town)...

Jharkhand's prgress is similarly impressive, albeit at a much lower base...

Brings to sharp releif the continuing underpeformance of WB, whose overall literacy rate @ 77% as well as decadal growth @ 8% remains firmly stuck at somewhere in the middle...WB has to be the only communist-ruled region/state/country in the world to have such an abysmal performance in human development indicators..

the other surprising bit is Andhra Pradesh, which is barely above the national average @ 75%..And also Karnataka, the "IT capital" of India is BELOW the national average, in fact well below @ 67%! On top, a decadal growth that is worse than even WB...Again, puts paid to some of the "south advanced, north backward" rhetoric that we have come to hear from time to time..
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by vera_k »

Literacy rate up but well short of plan panel target

What's with this piece of news? Is the planning commission not setting realistic targets or is the census data hopelessly flawed? There's periodic heartburn on the thread about how the GDP data is inaccurate, so are the HDI/social indicators in a similar soup?
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by somnath »

^^^I dont think that anyone can acuse the Census data of being flawed...It is perhaps the largest primary data collection exercise in the world, and while errors are inevitable, the integrity of the data has never really been questioned..

Ditto for GDP - there are sector-specific issues, but at a macro level, no one's really doubted the veracity of the data - there is some talk periodically about non-incluson of "black money", but never really studied as the source of great errors..
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by somnath »

Bleeding of oil companies on under-recoveries continue..
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/psu-o ... 2/771371/0
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by vera_k »

The GDP data is thought to be undercounting the size of the economy because new items are not included in the data collection exercise. See here and here for examples.

Is similar undercounting going on in the Census (don't know how), or is the planning commission being wildly optimistic?
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by K_Reddy »

This is ridicules! The oil bonds are defect through the back door. WFT, the UPA gets worst by the day!
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by somnath »

vera_k wrote:The GDP data is thought to be undercounting the size of the economy because new items are not included in the data collection exercise. See here and here for examples.

Is similar undercounting going on in the Census (don't know how), or is the planning commission being wildly optimistic?
The first instance, of base year change, is a statistical quirk..Whenever the base year is changed, some changes need to be made, at the margin - the absolute numbers arent all that off..Such differences are also adjusted in time periods - between Quick Estimates, Revised Estimates and Final GDP numbers for a year...Nothing unique to India - all countries have similar issues...

The second too is a denominational thing - GDP is typically calculated from supply side numbers, as data on that is easier to come by quickly..Demand side numbers are used to validate...In this instance, it looks to be an error rather than under-reporting, as the headline number didnt change at all..

Quality of Indian stats is actually quite good, even though many say its deteriorated over the years, it still remains ok comapred to many developing countries..
K_Reddy wrote:This is ridicules! The oil bonds are defect through the back door. WFT, the UPA gets worst by the day!
It is, but hardly unique to UPA...The NDA govt pretty much did the same thing - there is a political consensus on shifting difficult subsidies to PSUs!
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by vera_k »

So it's the Planning Commission being overly optimistic then. At first I thought they might have been fed unreliable data and that would explain a 10-15 year miss in the projections. The implementation may have been beyond shoddy, but even that is doubtful given the low base that some states started out with.
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by VenkataS »

somnath wrote:Some more on the Census..

the other surprising bit is Andhra Pradesh, which is barely above the national average @ 75%..And also Karnataka, the "IT capital" of India is BELOW the national average, in fact well below @ 67%! On top, a decadal growth that is worse than even WB...Again, puts paid to some of the "south advanced, north backward" rhetoric that we have come to hear from time to time..
You flipped the states here. It is Andhra Pradesh which has a literacy rate of 67% (much lower than the national average) and Karnataka which has a literacy rate of 75% (just above national average).

The really sad part with respect to AP's literacy rate is that none of the AP based news papers that I read where portraying the news as a travesty. They were actually all parroting the line that literacy rate grew from 60% to 67% as though it was a great achievement.

There is virtually no recognition in the public consciousness in AP that the low literacy rate is a serious problem that needs to be addressed. If the people do not identify it as a problem why will the leaders do anything about it. So no prominent leader in the state talks against this injustice. Unless there is a recognition of the problem how can it get fixed.

One of the reasons for low literacy rate is the per-capita expenditure on education in AP which is about half about what Maharashtra spends on its residents (based on figures from 2004-05) for example.

Most social indicators in the south are only good in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry. Karnataka is a middle level performing state while AP is really bad on some measures.

The one thing that stands out in Andhra Pradesh despite its low literacy (including a female literacy rate of 59%) is the TFR and population growth rate. The NFHS-3 had TFR for Andhra Pradesh at 1.8 (amongst the best performing states) and the decadal population growth rate is at 11.1% in 2011 (as against the national average of 17.64%). As far as I can see only Kerala (amongst the big states) had a lower decadal growth rate than AP. As a side note some smaller states and UTs Goa, Lakshwadeep, AN Islands and Nagaland all had decadal growth rates below 10%.

One other interesting aspect is that decadal population growth rate increased in Tamil Nadu from 11.7 in 1990s to 15.6 now despite TN having a low TFR of 1.8 as well. I do not yet know if this was because of migration into the state or for some other reason.
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by svinayak »

VenkataS wrote:
The really sad part with respect to AP's literacy rate is that none of the AP based news papers that I read where portraying the news as a travesty. They were actually all parroting the line that literacy rate grew from 60% to 67% as though it was a great achievement.

There is virtually no recognition in the public consciousness in AP that the low literacy rate is a serious problem that needs to be addressed. If the people do not identify it as a problem why will the leaders do anything about it. So no prominent leader in the state talks against this injustice. Unless there is a recognition of the problem how can it get fixed.

One of the reasons for low literacy rate is the per-capita expenditure on education in AP which is about half about what Maharashtra spends on its residents (based on figures from 2004-05) for example.
Karnataka is a middle level performing state while AP is really bad on some measures.
AP has the longest INC ruled history and had stability. But in the elections there was no competition for development. Dev competition will force the parties to increase investment which will result in demand for skilled workforce. That will force the ruling party to invest in education. Unless there is a steady stream of educated children to the system there will shortage of labor for skilled workforce.
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by ramana »

Columbia Uty prf take on Indian Economy

Panagariya's Pitch
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by somnath »

VenkataS wrote:You flipped the states here. It is Andhra Pradesh which has a literacy rate of 67% (much lower than the national average) and Karnataka which has a literacy rate of 75% (just above national average
Thats right, VenkataS-ji...Yes, south India is as much a "Kerala" (and somewhat TN) story as anything else..In the same way as "North" does not get the credit for the enormously rich Delhi/NCR/Punjab that gives it far more heft in economic terms that is typically given credit for..On literacy, its not just about the per-capita investment, its also about follow-up..Typically, states with lower drop-our rates perform better on literacy as well (there was a table I posted earlier on state-wise drop-out rates)...

On population growth, the big story is actully on the so-called BIMARU states (or in tehnical parlance, the EAG states)...EAG states has registered a sharper fall in decadal growth than non-EAG states - which is a signiicant performance...

On the issue of sex-ratio, the real worrying feature of 2011 census data, it is perhap instrutive to go through Amartya Sen's seminal "100 million women missing" essay - it was written in 1990, but as relevant today as then..
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archive ... ng/?page=1
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by Arjun »

somnath wrote:Yes, south India is as much a "Kerala" (and somewhat TN) story as anything else..
Kerala and TN lead in social indicators - but entrepreneurial flair is higher in Karnataka and AP.
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by vina »

Arjun wrote:Kerala and TN lead in social indicators - but entrepreneurial flair is higher in Karnataka and AP.
Dunno. Kerala businesses outside Kerala are smash hits , Mallus are a pretty entrepreneurial people. TN as well.

The problem with AP is that shall we put it rather delicately , a big integrity deficit in business. I wouldn't touch most Hyd/AP promoted businesses with a barge pole, either as an investor or a prospective employee.
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by pradeepe »

^^ Ouch!
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by nandakumar »

vina wrote:
Arjun wrote:Kerala and TN lead in social indicators - but entrepreneurial flair is higher in Karnataka and AP.
Dunno. Kerala businesses outside Kerala are smash hits , Mallus are a pretty entrepreneurial people. TN as well.

The problem with AP is that shall we put it rather delicately , a big integrity deficit in business. I wouldn't touch most Hyd/AP promoted businesses with a barge pole, either as an investor or a prospective employee.
A related point. Andhra Pradesh entrepreneurs grew up in an atmosphere patronage from Congress Governments at the State and Central levels. The Telugu Ganga project in the early 80s was the first instance of a massive public works programme that spawned the growth of the Lancors, GVKs and IVRCL and GMRs and the likes who have since landed massive infrastrcuture projects across the length and breadth of the country. The airport privatisation projects at Delhi and Mumbai are examples of patronage elevated to a high art form
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by saip »

ramana wrote:Columbia Uty prf take on Indian Economy

Panagariya's Pitch

Years ago, while growing up, I used hear that the Indian economy has reached the 'take off' stage but it never did. Now, looking at these graphs, I realise that finally it has reached that stage. Most of them look like an aircraft taking off and some of these even look like a rocket taking off!
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by VenkataS »

vina wrote:
Arjun wrote:Kerala and TN lead in social indicators - but entrepreneurial flair is higher in Karnataka and AP.
Dunno. Kerala businesses outside Kerala are smash hits , Mallus are a pretty entrepreneurial people. TN as well.

The problem with AP is that shall we put it rather delicately , a big integrity deficit in business. I wouldn't touch most Hyd/AP promoted businesses with a barge pole, either as an investor or a prospective employee.
Frankly I do not much care about something as immeasurable as entrepreneurial flair, but Vina can you elaborate on what you meant by an integrity deficit for AP based businesses.

Do you have any other examples apart from Satyam which lead you to believe that businesses based in AP/Hyderabad have more of an integrity deficit than the ones in the rest of the country.

Why wouldn't you touch Hyd/AP promoted businesses with a barge pole. Do you think that the businesses in the rest of the country are much less corrupt than the ones in AP/Hyd. Can you quantify to what extent they are less corrupt or have better integrity than the ones in Hyd/Ap.
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by Arjun »

vina wrote:
Arjun wrote:Kerala and TN lead in social indicators - but entrepreneurial flair is higher in Karnataka and AP.
Dunno. Kerala businesses outside Kerala are smash hits , Mallus are a pretty entrepreneurial people. TN as well.

The problem with AP is that shall we put it rather delicately , a big integrity deficit in business. I wouldn't touch most Hyd/AP promoted businesses with a barge pole, either as an investor or a prospective employee.
No I am not looking at subjective qualities....I am looking at measurable parameters such as number of investor pitches for VC / PE money that land at i-banker desks from each of these states, also number of actual VC/PE deals closed....in both these parameters and across a number of industries - invariably the order in the south is Bangalore / Hyderabad first followed way behind by Chennai & Kerala hardly figures (except in a few industries).

The market reputation of Hyderabad / AP deals is like you have stated - but if you follow the PE / VC money a lot of funding continues to head in that direction.
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by Ambar »

They should start measuring literacy for only those below the age of 30 to get a more accurate figure. The overall literacy of the country will always lag international benchmark thanks to the illiteracy among previous generations. For kids below 12, the literacy rate in India is probably close to any developed country in the world.
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by somnath »

Ambar wrote:They should start measuring literacy for only those below the age of 30 to get a more accurate figure. The overall literacy of the country will always lag international benchmark thanks to the illiteracy among previous generations. For kids below 12, the literacy rate in India is probably close to any developed country in the world.
???Literacy is only measured for kids >7 years..How do you estimate the literacy level in the 7-12 year bracket? BTW, given the primary school dropout rates in some of the large states, it is unliekly that we are anywhere close to developed countries yet, though we are catching up...
Ambar
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by Ambar »

How do you measure literacy for those above 12? In most cases, if you can scribble your name, the census workers consider you as literate. Going by that yardstick, it probably makes sense to measure the literacy among young than the overall literacy of the country.
Theo_Fidel

Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by Theo_Fidel »

We are not even close guys. Lets just focus on literacy for the moment.

Developed countries and even China have high school graduation rates approaching 80%. China estimates 5% drop out in urban and 11% drop out in rural areas from High School FWIW. The US is b#tching and moaning about a drop to 76% High school graduation rate. We would kill for that number.

In India only about 38% get to class 10. The graduation rate is an even lower number. Once you start looking at Junior College, what we call 11&12 high school the numbers diminish further. IIRC a 13% graduation rate.
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Re: Indian Economy: News and Discussion (Apr 1 2011)

Post by RamaY »

^ What happens when India achieves 100% graduation rate, say in next 10 years.

India currently has 350+ million people in 1-14yr ages. That is nearly 25-30 million graduates per year.
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