Kerala is well-known for its achievements in the sphere of social development that includes a rapid and high level mobilisation and organisation of workers regardless of location and sectoral occupation. However such a process of social development without a commensurate transformation of the...

Delays in project implementation and the attendant cost overruns have been a regular feature in the electric power sector in Kerala. Almost all the public projects, including the prestigious major hydroelectric project of Idukki, have been the unfortunate victims of time and cost overruns on...

This paper examines regional heterogeneity both from statistical and cartographic perspectives, using factor analysis of non-demographic data, models of fertility determinants and district-wise mapping to test out the presence of regional clustering. Regional analysis reveals that economic,...

Tariff rates based on Ramsey - Wilson model of changing welfare criterion satisfying equity and efficiency have been estimated for three categories of consumers of an urban water supply in India. The design necessitates values of marginal cost and price elasticity. Paucity of data severely...

This paper examines the public health intervention of the Rockefeller Foundation, one of the major `philanthropic' organisations in the world during the twentieth century, in the erstwhile princely state of Thiruvithamkoor, which currently constitutes a part of Kerala state in India. It...

There is now substantial empirical evidence, based essentially on the experience of developed countries, that there is underinvestment in industrial R&D consequent to the gradual withdrawal of the state. It is generally observed that government can solve this problem of underinvestment in two...

Colonial judges and jurists interpreted matrilineal customs in terms of a theory of matrilineal law, which they shaped in the process of interpretation, rather than on the basis of existing practices. This paper analyses critically the process of interpretation of customs or what is referred to...

This research report is aimed at three aspects of return emigrants in Kerala - their occupational mobility, utilisation of their human and material resources in Kerala's development and their rehabilitation. It describes their demographic, social and economic characteristics before emigration,...

The crisis and stagnation in Indian agriculture have persisted for over a decade and are not showing any signs of reversal. Falling real product prices faced by primary commodity producers have been one of the central causes for escalating farm indebtedness. The gradual shrinkage of formal...

This article reflects on the effectiveness of trade liberalization, as envisaged in the Information Technology Agreement (ITA) of the WTO, for promoting ICT use and production in developing countries. Based on empirical evidence on global exports of ITA goods, and the performance of different...