Kala Seetharam Sridhar | Public Affairs Centre (original) (raw)

Papers by Kala Seetharam Sridhar

India Migration Report 2017, 2018

Paving the Way for Better Governance in Urban Transport, 2019

We assess eight Executing Authorities, i.e. agencies that undertake urban transport projects or p... more We assess eight Executing Authorities, i.e. agencies that undertake urban transport projects or provide transport services in this chapter. The agencies evaluated are the Public Works Department (PWD) of Delhi, the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), the Development Authorities of Kolkata, Siliguri Jalpaiguri and Asansol Durgapur in West Bengal, the Road Department of the Corporation of Chennai and the Projects Wing of the Tamil Nadu Highways Department. Executing authorities are evaluated based on 20 indicators. Half of the indicators evaluated scored a ‘low’ value, while only a tenth got a ‘high’ rating. All but one of the Public Participation indicators got a ‘low’ score. The PWD Delhi and the two Transport Corporations in Karnataka performed better in this category. At the other end of the spectrum, the Corporation of Chennai fared very poorly, with 18 of the 20 indicators assessed as a ‘low’.

This chapter looks at the budgeting process in eight different agencies that are involved in tran... more This chapter looks at the budgeting process in eight different agencies that are involved in transport infrastructure development or provision of transport services. The former consists of the Public Works Department (PWD) of Delhi, the Corporation of Chennai and the Tamil Nadu Highways Department. The latter are Transport Corporations providing bus services. We evaluated the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) and the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC). In the State of West Bengal, we scrutinized the Calcutta, North Bengal and South Bengal State Road Transport Corporations. The budget process is assessed using seven indicators. Overall, 41 of the 56 indicators evaluated only managed a ‘low’ score. PWD Delhi fared better than other agencies. While the Accountability and Capacity indicators had some ‘low’, ‘medium’ and even a few ‘high’ scores, we find that all Public Participation indicators and all but two of the Transparency indicators scored a ‘low...

Paving the Way for Better Governance in Urban Transport, 2019

The genesis of the TGI toolkit lies in the Electricity Governance Initiative (EGI) toolkit create... more The genesis of the TGI toolkit lies in the Electricity Governance Initiative (EGI) toolkit created by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and Prayas Energy Group, which deploys principles of good governance to improve decision-making processes in the urban transport sector and ensure it is environmentally sound, socially just, universally accessible, safe, equitable and efficient, based on principles of transparency (T), accountability (A), Participation (P) and Capacity (C) (TAP-C). This chapter describes the TGI toolkit in detail which consists of 381 indicators across the six functional categories of urban transport (which are also the instruments that govern the urban transport sector, i.e. policy, planning, standard setting, execution, budgeting and regulations). Each indicator comprises several elements of quality and relates to one of the aspects of governance, namely, TAP- C. Each indicator is described with a context, relevance, elements of quality and a guidance for how the indicator is to be assessed.

Urbanisation, 2018

A strong urban transport system is crucial for city efficiency, given the need for mobility in ci... more A strong urban transport system is crucial for city efficiency, given the need for mobility in cities. This article uses Census of India (2011) data on transport to examine work-related commute among Indians at the state and city levels. At the state level, it finds a strong positive correlation between workforce participation rate and proportion of commuters. It also finds a strong positive correlation between the proportion who commute on foot and those who use bicycles. States characterised by extensive usage of public transport are the ones that account for a greater share of workforce participation. At the city level, the article finds that the smallest cities are most conducive for those who commute on foot or bicycles, whereas cars are preferred by commuters in high-income cities. In mid-sized cities, commuters tend to use two-wheelers. Commuters across all the selected cities walk for long distances spanning between 6 and 10 km. This indicates the need for further examinatio...

Spending and Financing, 2012

Abstract: Enterprise zones are a tool of regional development policy, relying on tax incentives. ... more Abstract: Enterprise zones are a tool of regional development policy, relying on tax incentives. The objective of the paper is to answer the questions: Are enterprise zones efficient? Are they efficient if adopted by high-unemployment areas? The research applies the questions to Ohio’s enterprise zone program because of the policy debate it has generated. The net benefits from employment created in the pro-gram are compared to program costs making different assumptions about employment. I find that the net benefits of regional develop-ment can be expected to be greater than their costs. However, be-cause of their efficiency implications, I find that it could be beneficial for high unemployment areas to adopt tax incentive policies.

Often, it has been observed that telecommunication infrastructure development and economic growth... more Often, it has been observed that telecommunication infrastructure development and economic growth proceed together. While this relationship has been studied in the context of developed (OECD) countries, in this study, we investigate this simultaneous relationship between telecommunications and the economic growth, using data for developing countries. Using 3SLS, we estimate a system of equations that endogenize economic growth and telecom penetration (respectively production function and demand for telecom services), along with supply of telecom investment and growth in telecom penetration. We estimate this system of equations separately for main telephone lines and cell phones. We find that while traditional economic factors explain demand for main line phones, they do not explain demand for cell phones. We also find significant impacts of cellular services on national output, when we control for the effects of capital and labour. The impact of telecom penetration on total output i...

In this study, we investigate empirically the relationship between telephone penetration and econ... more In this study, we investigate empirically the relationship between telephone penetration and economic growth, using data for developing countries. Using 3SLS, we estimate a system of equations that endogenizes economic growth and telecom penetration. We find that the traditional economic factors explain demand for mainline and mobile phones, even in developing countries. We find positive impacts of mobile and landline phones on national output, when we control for the effects of capital and labor. We discuss the associated policy implications related to improvement of telecom penetration in developing countries. JEL Classification: O47, O57, L96, H54

Abstract. In the standard urban model, employment is concentrated in the Central Business Distric... more Abstract. In the standard urban model, employment is concentrated in the Central Business District (CBD) and the locational choice of households is modeled solely on access to the employment center. Now, technology has facilitated the emergence of new office environments where work is done at unconventional locations that were earlier in the CBD. While the urban density function is not really new, in this study, we look at the effect of telecommuting, made possible by technology, on suburbanization, using data for U.S. metropolitan areas. We use population and household gradients as measures of suburbanization. For telecommuting indicators, we use data from Survey of Income Program and Participation (SIPP). We find support for the natural evolution theory of suburbanization. We find that telecommuting contributes to centralization of cities. We conclude that technology could be a complement, not a substitute for face-to-face interaction. 1.

In this paper, we evaluate India’s flagship rural employment guarantee programme, the Mahatma Gan... more In this paper, we evaluate India’s flagship rural employment guarantee programme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), by answering questions such as whether the MGNREGS wages have been above their reservation wages. Furthermore, we estimate the reservation wages as a function of 1 Dr Kala Seetharam Sridhar is Professor, Centre for Research in Urban Affairs at the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru (India). She can be contacted at kala@isec.ac.in; kala_sridhar2002@yahoo.com; kalaseetharam@gmail.com. 2 Dr A Venugopala Reddy of the Centre for Symbiosis of Technology, Environment and Management at Bengaluru (India). He can be contacted at avgreddy@gmail.com. The authors, not ISAS, are responsible for the facts cited and opinions expressed in this paper.

Seeking Middle Ground, 2019

Urban land is crucial to economic productivity and growth in cities, given substantial land inten... more Urban land is crucial to economic productivity and growth in cities, given substantial land intensive economic activity takes place. While land use regulations are needed for inclusive growth and to protect the urban poor, they create distortions in the land market, and become counter-productive. Indian cities are characterized by strong urban land use controls, given its socialistic and planned economy for a long time. Draconian land use regulations that continue to exist in India’s cities are rent control and highly restrictive floor area ratios (FARs). In this chapter, I focus on FARs and rent control to a limited extent. I examine the impact FARs have on population and household density, in the context of the standard urban framework, taking the case of Bengaluru, where ward-level data have been recently put together on FARs. I find in Bengaluru that FARs impact (both population and household) density negatively, consistent with what other studies have found. The Karnataka rent ...

Given that India’s urban areas contribute to nearly two-thirds of its gross domestic product, eve... more Given that India’s urban areas contribute to nearly two-thirds of its gross domestic product, even though they account for only 31% of the country’s population, they have been rightly called the engines of India’s growth. In this paper, I answer the following questions: What are the economic specializations of Indian cities and towns, and how have these specializations changed over time? What part of these specializations identified is due to the local advantages, and what part is due to growth of the industry or national economic growth? Answers to these questions are basic to sustaining the competitiveness of India’s cities. This paper uses standard Census of India data at the level of the city, to compute location quotients for all of India’s cities and towns, using the state as the reference area, and examines changes in the Indian cities’ economic base over time, using an ex ante classification of states/cities. Further this paper performs shift share analyses for selected larg...

In this study, we have made an attempt to assess the potential of land as a municipal financing t... more In this study, we have made an attempt to assess the potential of land as a municipal financing tool in cities using a sample of four Indian cities. We have studied the institutional arrangements for land use between the urban development authorities and municipal corporations in the cities and have found that the responsibilities are often fragmented and sometimes unclear. The urban development authorities, being state government entities, are much better endowed with resources than municipal corporations. We find that if revenues from land leasing and sales by the urban development authorities were to accrue to municipal corporations, there is no clustering around any measure of central tendency and there is a huge range in the addition to municipality revenues that could result. Specifically, we find that there could be an increase in municipality’s total revenues to the extent of 33 percent, own source revenues to the extent of 90 percent, and property tax revenues to the extent...

List of Tables List of Figures Preface Introduction Studies of Regional Disparities: A Review Has... more List of Tables List of Figures Preface Introduction Studies of Regional Disparities: A Review Has the South Performed Better than the North? What Explains the North-South Divide? Southern Region versus Northern Region Conclusions and Policy Implications Appendices Bibliography Index

Area Development and Policy, 2020

This study draws on a large household survey to identify the effective labour market of Bengaluru... more This study draws on a large household survey to identify the effective labour market of Bengaluru, India, the accessibility of its jobs and the degree to which they are welfare-enhancing. The average journey to work was 28 min, implying that Bengaluru’s effective labour market had increased since 2001. The survey showed that 81% of jobs were accessible within 20 min, while the reported reservation wage was found to depend on age, education and current wages. For a majority of respondents, the welfare from jobs was zero, and for 29% it was positive. The policy implications are examined.

This chapter focuses on urban transport governance. We summarize the existing studies on urban tr... more This chapter focuses on urban transport governance. We summarize the existing studies on urban transport, and position our work uniquely in the context of the existing research. The chapter elaborates on why urban transport as a sector is important to focus upon. Summarizing the studies on general transport governance, we find that it is an important sector that cannot be ignored, especially because of its network effects, but has to be made sustainable. Regarding institutional arrangements for urban transport, we find mere merging of transport and land-use departments without their holistic consideration does not work. But we find collaborative/cooperative governance works. While we find the presence of both public and private operators in public transport systems creates competition, there has to be an appropriate institutional framework for public–private partnerships (PPPs) to work, given the limited resources for the government in emerging economies, to make them inclusive and ...

India Migration Report 2017, 2018

Paving the Way for Better Governance in Urban Transport, 2019

Urbanisation, 2018

Spending and Financing, 2012

Seeking Middle Ground, 2019

Area Development and Policy, 2020