Public welfare policies in developing countries have a Rawlsian perspective; they seek to uplift the poor, the poorest of the poor in particular. Policies to enable the poor to catch up with the rich are generally two-fold, viz., inclusive growth, and redistributive (transfer) programmes. This...

In the context of the current public policy focus on rising food prices and their implications for food security, this paper examines two major issues raised : (i) Universalization of the public distribution system; and (ii) its implications for procurement and buffer-stocks. This paper is based...

This study examines the economic profiles of morbidity by disease in Kerala and all- India by estimating Engel elasticities for diseases and classifying them as between those associated with affluence and deprivation. Morbidity rates, in general, are more for the rich than for the poor. There...

In the wake of the economic reform programme undertaken since 1991, distributional issues have received considerable attention and policy concern. In pursuit of such concerns, the government has worked out an approach to the Eleventh Five Year Plan, which lays emphasis on, though without...

This paper illustrates how policy formulation without prior data verification would not make much sense and serve any purpose. Given the National Sample Survey (NSS) finding on substantial errors of inclusion of the non-poor in the targeted Public Distribution System (PDS) and its extenuation...

This study provides a profile of deprivation with respect to consumer expenditure, cereal consumption and energy intake across demographic and agro-climatic regions as defined by the National Sample Survey Organisation of India. It examines this evidence at the disaggregated level to verify...

This paper takes up the issues pertaining to the health sector in Kerala in a larger comparative perspective in the Indian context. It would focus on the incidence of morbidity across socio-economic dimensions and their implications for economic policy. Its major findings are: The level of...