Ruth Kattumuri

One-and-a-half decades of HIV/AIDS in Tamil Nadu: how much do patients know now?

Tamil Nadu has experienced the impact of HIV/AIDS for one-and-a-half decades and is considered a trailblazer in India in terms of combating the infection. So what are the knowledge levels among 292 HIV patients at Government Hospital for Thoracic Medicine and Christian Medical College? Latent class analysis revealed that it was not adequate. Television and peer contact were found to be most effective as source of knowledge for HIV. Patients who were in contact with health personnel might be expected to have more information but they came out with low scores. Association of knowledge with socio-demographic characteristics revealed that education, occupation, income, place of residence, and age were important predictors. Future information, education and communication programmes need to consider the variation across different socio-demographic groups as a basis for targeting education programmes.

Poverty index as a tool for adaptation intervention to climate change in northeast India

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007) reports that the number of extreme precipitation and temperature events in India are projected to increase in the short term. The negative effects of this on rural populations in India may include crop and livestock loss, livelihood risk, health and sanitation disruptions and shelter risk. Overseas Development Assistance, in the form of aid, will help rural communities to counter these impacts; several development agencies already require that the adaptation to climate change risks be included as project activities in the aid programme. However, it is often difficult to accurately target development aid in developing countries due to uneven and cluster-like development of areas. To help counter this problem, we developed a poverty index intended to help prioritize development aid towards communities at risk, in order of need. The district-wise poverty index was created for seven states of northeast India, a region with highly uneven development, and has been developed from data available from the North-East Data Bank (DoNER). The indicators were selected to adequately represent the poverty of the people as well as to act as a prioritizing mechanism in a data scarce region. The inclusion of a Gini coefficient of land distribution is new to poverty indexes, and helps to capture the pattern of highly unequal land distribution in northeast India, which in turn affects the distribution of income. Although primarily developed for northeast India, the index can be used in other developing countries with imbalances in regional development. If the biophysical factors affecting vulnerability are known, this index can be used in a weighted combination with vulnerability.

Sustaining natural resources in a changing environment: evidence, policy and impact

ABSTRACT This article explores the global impacts of a changing environment on the sustainability of resources. In a global context characterised by continued population growth and accelerated urbanisation in emerging economies and the least developed regions of the world, pressures on environmental resources are intensifying. Extreme effects on ecosystems in both urban and rural communities are of enduring concern, as evidenced in water and food insecurity, and poor air quality. The author compares varying approaches to the collection and use of evidence, and the ways in which researchers may influence policy decisions and their implementation. Drawing on large and small-scale studies conducted in different regions of the world from a range of disciplinary perspectives, the article seeks to unravel the triangular relationship between research evidence, policy and impact, while paying attention to the tools used to assess impact on, and of, policy. In conclusion, the author considers how co-ordinated efforts by academics, public, private and third-sector practitioners across disciplines and national borders might produce stronger evidence and knowledge with which to inform decision-makers, empower citizens and achieve sustainable development, thereby supporting the needs of present and future generations.

Evidence and the policy process from an Indian perspective

This paper analyses the institutional framework and setting within which evidence has become linked to policy in India, and the role that multidisciplinary researchers play in the policy process. It draws on a number of empirical studies exploring sustainable and equitable development in India to illustrate the two-way relationship between researchers and policy-makers, and to demonstrate the value in policy-oriented research of combining quantitative and qualitative methods. The author assesses the potential impact and effectiveness of evidence-based policy-making within the institutionalised strategic planning framework of the National Institution for Transforming India Aayog. She considers whether the lessons learnt from one region could be transposed to other regions within India and elsewhere, and discusses how and why policies and forms of delivery may require adaptation if they are to be implemented in different socio-economic, political and cultural contexts.

Historical developments and goals of social protection policies in India: Goals, Issues and Trajectories in China, India, Brazil and South Africa

供养贫困人群和下层社会——这一概念根植于印度的文化与哲学之中。理解印度历史观,才能全面、充分地理解印度社会保障政策的本质。本文回顾了历史上印度的各种福利措施,这些措施一定程度上满足人民的需求。首先,我们试着呈现公元前3 000年的古印度就已存在的若干与社会保障相关的概念,回顾了古印度——包括青铜器文明、早期封建帝王和社会宗教公共机构——的传统与实践。其次,我们梳理了印度独立前的制度改革与新福利国家道路。接着,我们描述了印度独立后的若干社会保障制度实践和法案——包括那些五年计划。文章的最后部分讨论了印度社会保障的发展趋势与侧重点。

Understanding Governance as a Process

The notion that the term of governance refers to new processes but involves existing government has much currency (Finer in Comparative government. Allen Lane, London, 1970; Jayal and pai in Democratic Governance in India: Challenges of Poverty, Development and Identity. Sage Publications, New Delhi, 2001). In fact, the output of governance is not very different from government (Stoker in International Social Science Journal 50(155):17–27, 1998). In substantial scholarship available on the subject, the changing nature of government and, therefore, of the state is inevitably an object of analysis.

Governance and governed: why governance?

The idea and practice of governance have been much discussed particularly during the last two decades, and the theme now occupies a critical place not only in the development discourse but in the context of the legitimacy of a regime as well. At the very level of practice, the issue of governance is now beset with qualifications such as ‘good governance’ or ‘good enough governance’. One dimension of the governance question that has acquired significance in India as elsewhere in recent past is the changing position of the state vis-a-vis the market, the society in question and the larger transnational forces.

Technology as a driver for governance by the people for the people

The changing dynamics of leadership and growing involvement of people in the process of governance can be attributed to an enhanced access to technology, which enables the governed to engage directly and instantly. This is expected to lead to a greater sense of accountability on the part of leaders to render outcomes for the benefit of the public at large. Effective leadership is increasingly seen to play a significant role in institutionalising citizen’s involvement through social media in order to improve the responsibility of political decision-makers towards the citizens. “Governed” have discovered the ability to transform “governance” through the use of technology, such as social media. This chapter examines the role of technology and media, and the interface between the two, as key drivers in the evolving dynamics of state, society and the governance process.

Renewable technologies in Karnataka, India: jobs potential and co-benefits

The tangible benefits of renewable energy technologies are a crucial parameter when determining the political feasibility of adopting a low-carbon development path, particularly for emerging economies. We present that these potential benefits consist of ‘green jobs’ and of a wider set of socio-economic and environmental ‘co-benefits’ that are generated simultaneously from renewable technologies in India. Based on case studies from the Indian state of Karnataka, we obtain estimates for jobs and describe co-benefits enabled by wind, off-grid solar and biomass technologies. Furthermore, we use these estimates to project the potential for future benefits that could be generated by further enhancing the use of renewable technologies towards sustainable energy policy and security. We show that enhancing green economy offers benefits that include the creation of jobs, but also delivers a much wider set of socio-economic and environmental welfare gains for emerging economies such as India. Our paper also provides valuable evidence-based analyses for policy-makers when assessing the benefits of low-carbon sustainable development.

Reconciliation and transitional justice: the contribution of forgiveness towards healing and restoration

Forgiveness is primarily addressed in the transitional justice discourse as a restorative value, as part of several concepts complementing retributive justice (Braithwaite and Strang 2001). Scholars define restorative justice by emphasising it either as a value or as a process, and the same logic applies to forgiveness. It could be conceived as a process where a group of individuals or societies come together to solve issues. Forgiveness can relieve the burdens created by wrongful actions and intolerable debts and suggests that both victim and perpetrator can start afresh (Digeser 2001). It might even imply the re-establishment of moral equality between the parties. This chapter suggests that forgiveness is a valuable and complementary mechanism for healing and restoration of individuals and societies.