This paper has adopted the exploratory case study method of analyzing a few recent cases of public procurement irregularities on Indian Railways documented by the vigilance departments and the CAG available in public domain to inquire into the following issues: (a) how do irregularities and...

Indian Railways is one of the world's largest public sector organizations. Its network, traffic, organization and extent of vertical integration are gigantic. This paper undertakes a critical examination of its procurement process to understand the procedures and institutional mechanisms which...

In the absence of a national public procurement policy, a plethora of rules and procedures govern public purchase practices of federal and sub-federal government entities including public sector enterprises (PSEs) in India. While these norms generally follow international best practices, their...

In the absence of a national public procurement policy, a plethora of rules and procedures govern public purchase practices of federal and sub-federal government entities including public sector enterprises (PSEs) in India. While these norms generally follow international best practices, their...

The risks of corruption in public sector procurements are higher due to larger sizes of contracts involved. Procurement processes of Indian public organizations have gradually been strengthened over the years, under prodding of oversight bodies, to incorporate most of the methods for preventing...

This paper studies the impact of replacing sales tax by value-added tax (VAT) on production efficiency and informality among Indian states. We disentangle the production efficiency gains caused by removing the distortions of sales tax from the increase in enforcement caused by VAT's input refund...