India

The transformation of India's unorganized sector is important to its modernization, growth, and attainment of regional economic equality. This paper documents several... Show More + key facts about India's unorganized sector in manufacturing and services. First, the unorganized sector is large, accounting for more than 99 percent of establishments and 80 percent of employment in manufacturing. Second, the unorganized sector is stubbornly persistent -- it accounted for 81 percent of manufacturing employment in 1989 and 2005. Third, this persistence is not due to particular subsets of industries or states, as most industries and states show limited change in unorganized sector employment shares. Fourth, the degree to which localized unorganized activity exists is important as it is associated with weaker production functions for manufacturing firms. Building from these facts, the paper investigates conditions promoting transformation by state-industry. Decomposition exercises find that both within and between adjustments for state-industries weakly reduce unorganized sector shares. The aggregate persistence instead comes from the covariance term, where fast-growing state-industries witness rising unorganized sector activity. Regressions quantify that growth in the organized sector by state-industry reduces the unorganized sector employment share, but only marginally reduces employment levels in unorganized activity. Analysis of the establishment size distribution highlights that entrepreneurship and larger organized sector plants are most important for transitions in the manufacturing sector, while small establishments play a key role in the services sector. Show Less -

Coastal Tamil Nadu, one of the most densely populated regions of the world, is facing major issues of sea level variation, shoreline erosion, salt water intrusion, and... Show More + degradation of mangroves and existing shelterbelts. In addition, there are increasing commercial pressures to develop the coast. The combination of these detrimental effects has led to the dwindling of coastal resources, thus increasing the vulnerability of the area to natural hazards. This situation took its toll during the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, which impacted hundreds of thousands of people on the Indian coast. In response to this event, the Tamil Nadu Government launched the Emergency Tsunami Reconstruction Project (ETRP) with assistance from the World Bank. The objectives of the ETRP were to revive livelihoods and promote recovery in the tsunami-affected areas in the short-term. In the longer term, the goal of the program is to reduce the vulnerability of coastal communities and create a more resilient environment. Show Less -

Water from the tap 24 hours a day, seven days a week is a distant dream for almost all Indians. While villages in Maharashtra, Punjab, and Uttarakhand are piloting 24/7... Show More + water supply, there is widespread skepticism that water can be provided continuously in India's urban areas. Karnataka has now proved that 24/7 water supply is indeed possible, affordable, and sustainable in urban areas. About 200,000 people in Belgaum, Gulbarga, and Hubli-Dharwad are now getting continuous water supply under the World Bank-supported Karnataka Water Supply Improvement Project. The introduction of water meters and payment of tariffs based on water use has reduced citizens' private expenses for securing water, led to the generation of revenues for the municipal water service provider, and helped conserve water. The experience provides valuable lessons for other cities and states that strive to improve water supply for their citizens. Show Less -

The year 2012 marked the close of the Government of India's (GoI's) Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC). The program was started in 1999 to achieve universal rural sanitation... Show More + coverage. Although rural sanitation coverage has increased during TSC, progress still falls short of the program goal of universal coverage. The objectives of this assessment are to: provide GoI with an overview of the range of service delivery processes adopted by different districts across states and their relative performance in terms of outcomes; identify which service delivery processes are linked to better (or worse) performance; and identify where the key bottlenecks are to achieving or sustaining outcomes. In the first round of this assessment undertaken in 2010, six service delivery processes were identified as being critical for achieving sustainable rural sanitation outcomes at scale. In this second round, the number of processes assessed was increased to nine and grouped into three thematic components corresponding to the three stages in which the districts implement the program: catalyzing, implementing, and sustaining. Once this is in place, program implementation needs to focus on aligning operations to facilitate achievement of outcomes. Finally, the outcomes achieved must be sustained to achieve downstream impacts such as improvements in health and quality of life. Show Less -

This review, undertaken jointly by the World Bank and the Water and Sanitation Program at the request of the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, presents the... Show More + results of a 20-year partnership between India and the World Bank in the rural water supply and sanitation (RWSS) sector. Over this period the Government of India (GoI) has increased access to improved drinking water sources from 63 percent of the rural population in 1990 to 90 percent in 2010 a total of some 360 million people. At the same time access to an improved sanitation facility increased from 7 percent in 1990 to 23 percent in 2010, equivalent to some 150 million people. The major contributions of the Bank, through this partnership, come from the successful implementation of innovative institutional models at scale. These models are built around inclusive, community-based, participatory, demand-responsive approaches to implementing RWSS infrastructure. The result is improved financial, technical and environmental sustainability and high community satisfaction with the service. The review also highlights a number of challenges. Water security is a major and growing threat to the sustainability of rural water supply which requires a broader view of the water cycle, particularly the impact of agricultural practices on water availability and quality. While communities and local governments play a critical role in service delivery, they need ongoing technical, institutional and financial support to ensure long term sustainability of schemes. As a result linkages between the communities/local government and higher levels of government need to be formalized and reinforced. The sustainability of multi-village schemes remains elusive and increasing expectations from customers for higher levels of service will require the introduction of new technical, institutional and financial solutions. Show Less -

This paper uses plant-level data to examine the impact of industrial and trade policy reforms on the geographic concentration of manufacturing industries in India from... Show More + 1980 to 1999. First, the research shows that de-licensing and liberalization in foreign direct investment significantly reduced spatial concentration, but trade reforms had no significant effect on spatial concentration. Second, plants respond differently to policy reforms based on their size. Liberalization in foreign direct investment and de-licensing caused small plants to disperse, while trade liberalization had the opposite effect. However, for large plants trade liberalization led to lower spatial concentration. Show Less -

Indian utilities have attempted to improve the reliability and quality of water service delivery for over a decade, and a key ingredient of these efforts has been to... Show More + assure the financial viability and sustainability of water service providers. Despite substantial investment by the central and state governments over the past decades, service levels have remained stagnant, and major cities have typically received a very limited time schedule of water supply on a daily basis. The problem continues to be exacerbated by tremendous increases in urban populations. Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF) has provided assistance for capacity and awareness building, enabling environment reform, and transaction support in this sector. PPIAF has also provided support to state governments such as Orrisa, Delhi, and Maharashtra to explore options for public-private partnerships (PPPs) in wastewater services and solid waste management (SWM). Such activities have assisted in achieving consensus among various stakeholders on the way forward for private sector participation in the water supply and sanitation (WSS) and SWM sectors. PPIAF funding further supported a report on water tariffs and subsidies in Bangalore, India and Kathmandu, Nepal, which provided an analysis of the distributional incidence of water subsidies in South Asia. Show Less -

India's strong economic record since the 1980's has been associated with a significant reduction of poverty levels and important socio-economic gains, including increases... Show More + in literacy and life expectancy. The State of Bihar has been identified as a region that calls for priority attention. Bihar is the poorest state in India and faces some of the most adverse economic and social conditions in the country. The proposed Bihar State Environmental Analysis (BSEA) will provide an analytic basis to proactively address the environmental requirements of the Bank's OP 8.60. To develop this analytic foundation, the BSEA will identify priority environmentally- related development activities. The rest of the concept note provides the context in which the BSEA will be prepared, focusing on economic and governance issues. The note then highlights controversies surrounding water projects in Bihar, because, among all natural resources, water plays a particularly significant role in the state. The concept note continues by providing details about the objectives and content of the proposed BSEA. Show Less -

This study aims to strengthen the understanding of the vulnerability of Kolkata from increased precipitation caused by climate change effects with a specific goal to:... Show More + compile a data base with past weather related information and damage caused by extreme weather related episodes; develop hydrological, hydraulic, and storm drainage models to identify vulnerable areas and determine physical damage estimates resulting from climate change effects; assess monetary, social, and environmental impacts resulting from such climate change events; and strengthen local capabilities so that the planning process for Kolkata can account for climate related damage effects in future while analyzing all new projects. In this study, precipitation events in Kolkata based on available historical rainfall data for 25 years has been considered as a baseline (without climate change) scenario. The study modeled the impact of climate change on increased flooding in Kolkata Metropolitan Area (KMA). The main causes of flooding in KMA are intense precipitation, overtopping of the Hooghly River due to water inflow from local precipitation as well as that from the catchment area, and storm surge effects. Land subsidence was not included in the study as it was felt to be a localized problem in only a few pockets. Show Less -

Executive Directors expressed support for the objectives and approach of the National Ganga River Basin Project. They noted the importance of strengthening institutional... Show More + capacity, providing close implementation support, and maintaining long term commitment for achieving the objectives of cleaning and conserving the Ganga river. They highlighted the importance of tracking direct impacts of the project, including on a gender disaggregated basis. Directors noted the risks of the project and expressed satisfaction with the mitigation measures put in place. They welcomed and encouraged continued collaboration among development partners, stressing the importance of participation of all stakeholders in project execution. Directors agreed that such large transformational projects were an appropriate engagement with India. Show Less -