Maximizing non-tax revenues – Property assets as revenue sources of ULBs
January 2011 - Sujatha Srinivasan
Lead Centre: Centre for Development Finance
Focus Area: Infrastructure and Governance
Municipal property assets are a relatively under-researched and under-utilized source of income among the various income sources of local governments in India. The non-tax revenue arising from these property assets, though significant, barely begins to reflect the considerable financial worth of this asset base held by local and state governments. This paper underscores the untapped revenue potential of these assets among the various income sources of state and local governments in India. It also highlights a few benchmark land management practices across the world to understand their relevance and applicability within the Indian context. Building on this data and related literature review, the paper presents a fundamental framework for maximizing revenue generation through property asset sources.
Impact Evaluation and Public Sector Programs in India: What can we do Right Now?
April 2010 - Elizabeth Mathew, Joanne Sprague
Lead Centre: Centre for Development Finance
Focus Area: Infrastructure and Governance
This paper explores the existing gaps in the way CSS’ are evaluated for their impact in the Indian public sector. The authors identify an ‘ideal type’ model for a public sector impact evaluation mechanism that would be both effective and feasible to implement. The authors conclude with a brief forecast of why such steps might be resisted, and provide recommendations of how to overcome resistance to enable near-term improvements to the current evaluation culture.
The Social Impacts of Climate Change in South Asia JMRI Vol 5, No. 3 (2009)
August 2009 - Sujatha Byravan, Sudhir Chella Rajan
Lead Centre: Centre for Development Finance
Focus Area: Environment and Climate Change
This paper focuses on an especially important set of social impacts resulting from climate change in South Asia, namely the displacement of vast numbers of people as a consequence mainly of sea level rise along the coasts and secondarily from drought in rural areas. We examine these impacts through the use of scenarios involving alternative assumptions about whether or not effective policies will be developed in time, given what we know now about the physical changes that are likely to take place
User Innovation & e-Governance Design
August 2009 - Jessica
Wallack
, Srikanth
Nadhamuni
Lead Centre: Centre for Development Finance
Focus Area: Infrastructure and Governance
This paper provides an analytical case study of an Indian NGO’s efforts to engage city government officials in developing and refining an e-governance system for tracking public grievances and city performance in redressing these. It is a draft of a paper that will be forthcoming as part of an edited volume on Hidden Success: Institutional Reform In Urban India, edited by Professor Bish Sanyal (MIT).
India’s Parliament as a Representative Institution
April 2008 - Jessica Wallack
Lead Centre: Centre for Development Finance
Focus Area: Infrastructure and Governance
This article looks at the institutional framework for parliamentary debate in India in comparative perspective. Participation in debate and policymaking is fundamental to representation, yet most of India’s representatives have limited resources and opportunities to do so in comparison to members of parliament around the world.
