India
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| Dr. Nirupam Bajpai, Senior Development Advisor & Director, South Asia Programs, CGSD with the Honorable Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India in New Delhi on September 4, 2006. |
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee Visits Columbia University:
The Earth Institute at Columbia University was honored to host former Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee of India as part of Columbia University’s World Leaders Forum on September 24, 2003. The Earth Institute has “a thriving advisory program” in India, in the words of Earth Institute Director Jeffrey Sachs.
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| From left to right: Lalit Mansingh, India's Ambassador to the US; Earth Institute Director Jeffrey Sachs; The Honorable Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Prime Minister of India; Nirupam Bajpai, Director of the Earth Institute's South Asia Program; Parmesh Godrej; Lee Bollinger, President of Columbia University; and India's Consul General in New York, Pramathesh Rath. |
In his address to Columbia, Prime Minister Vajpayee talked about the current state of India's economy and where the government would like to take it in the future. He commented on the importance of Jeffrey Sachs' invitation to participate in a global development dialogue at Columbia University, and the valuable connections of the Earth Institute's work on "issues of the greatest concern to developing countries." The Prime Minister added that the Earth Institute is "pioneering a major program of policy research on the Indian economy."
Program Background
Research under this program aims to deepen understanding of the Indian economy, policy, and society among U.S. academics, policy makers in India and abroad, and the international business community. Specifically, work is being undertaken in the areas of strategies to achieve the Millennium Development Goals; regional income inequality; fiscal consolidation and its challenges; comparative studies of the Chinese and Indian reform experiences, foreign direct investment, outsourcing and issues of costs and quality, and the issues and problems of state government finances. Project leaders are also studying regional growth patterns and the impact geography and demography have had on various Indian states. Projects are being undertaken both for the federal and the state governments in India.
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Expanding India-related research
Surprisingly, however, little work on the Indian economy is now being conducted at leading U.S. universities. In light of the progress of India's reform program and the growing worldwide interest in India, CGSD strongly believes that intensified analysis of the Indian economy is called for. Thus, the commitment on CGSD's part to launch a major program of policy research on the Indian economy and India's economic reforms. It is envisaged that this work will go a long way toward developing a deeper understanding of the Indian economy, polity, and society among the academic community in the United States, policy makers in India and abroad, and the international business community.
CGSD intends to encourage work on India that is similar in scope and intensity to the academic research underway on China. CGSD conducts research; organizes conferences; and sets up collaborations between CGSD and counterpart research institutes in India. A major focus of CGSD's work in India is at the state level so as to achieve rapid economic growth in the states via continued reforms that improve institutions and economic policies, and thereby create an environment conducive to private investment (both domestic and foreign) and economic growth. Research work has been undertaken on state and district level income inequality in India; scaling up services in rural India; federal and state-level unfinished reform agendas; comparative studies of the Chinese and Indian reform experiences, including foreign direct investment in both the countries, and global services sourcing with a focus on India.
CGSD has several projects in India to study and advise governments on a wide range of issues of concern to India’s policy-makers, academicians, and the business community. Currently, these research and advisory programs include a project on scaling up services in rural India, of which Phase I included working in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. In Phase II, work is planned in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu. Past projects have included: working with the Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad (IIM-A) for the State Government of Gujarat. As part of this project, Earth Institute scientists worked on seismology and disaster management strategies, seasonal and inter-annual climate prediction, agriculture, and water resource management. Economists from the Earth Institute and IIM-A worked to develop strategies to reduce poverty, achieve higher rates of economic growth, attract foreign direct investment, and promote labor-intensive manu facturing exports from the State of Gujarat, all in an environmentally sustainable manner. Additionally, the Earth Institute advised the Health Minister, GOI and senior officials of the Health Ministry on strategies to best achieve the objectives of the National Rural Health Mission.
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| Left to Right: Lalit Mansingh, India's Ambassador to the US; His Excellency Yashwant Sinha, Minister of External Affairs; Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Prime Minister of India; Lee Bollinger, President of Columbia University; Jeffrey Sachs, Earth Institute Director; and Nirupam Bajpai, Director of CGSD's South Asia Program |
Research and advisory projects
I. A project to scale up services in rural India. The first Phase of this project focused on three Indian states and is being undertaken by CGSD in collaboration with several research institutions in India. There were two key questions that were addressed in this project:
1. In terms of state-wide scaling up of rural services (in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan) in the areas of access to safe drinking water, availability of power, primary health, and primary education, what will it cost financially and what will the human resource requirements be?
2. The second question addressed was what policy, institutional and governance reforms will be necessary so as to ensure proper service delivery. As is well known, merely setting up more PHCs or primary schools isn't going to be enough; higher public investments in these areas need to be accompanied by systemic reforms that will help overhaul the present service delivery system, including issues of control and oversight.
In Phase II, work is planned in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu, which will commence from February 2007.
II. A project on the National Rural Health Mission. To constitute an International Advisory Panel to advise the Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, and senior officials of the Ministry on strategies to achieve key objectives of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). This project is likely to focus on the following areas:
1. Strategies for improved governance, district-level planning, demand side financing and public-private partnerships focusing on core reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health issues.
2. Strategies for reducing infant mortality (to 30/1000 live births by 2012); and maternal mortality (to 100/100,000 live births by 2012). Strengthening inter-sectoral linkages in the areas of nutrition, sanitation and safe drinking water for substantially improved health outcomes for maternal, newborn and child health issues.
3. Strategies for improved health service delivery through the Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) for universal immunization, safe delivery, and newborn care, prevention of water-borne and other communicable diseases.
4. Implementation of new training in public health with a view to recommending strategies to train and enhance capacity of the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) to own, control and manage public health services.
Further information can be found at http://www.cid.harvard.edu/archive/india/index.html
For further information, please contact: Dr. Nirupam Bajpai