Fiscal Decentralisation And Economic Development The Kerala Experience

Fiscal Decentralisation and Economic Development: The Kerala Experience signifies a substantial contribution of the trends in the central government’s fiscal transfers and its impact on Kerala and all state finances between the fiscal years 1980–81 and 2012–13. Regional disparity in resource transfer and economic development are often sources of political tensions and dissatisfaction in a federal system. The fundamental economic argument advanced in favour of decentralised government activity has been that decentralisation is a means to enhance the efficiency of government activity, to increase social welfare and to promote economic development and growth. Despite constitutional recognition of the third tier in 1992, analysis of fiscal decentralisation incorporating the role and functions of the third tier in conjunction with the first two tiers does not exist. This study is an attempt to provide a more complete picture of the fiscal federalism in Kerala incorporating all the three tiers of government. Before the policymakers shift to some new theories on deciding the allocation of very valuable scarce national resources to states through the Finance Commission and Planning Commission and thereby providing strong incentives to influence the development strategy of states, it is pertinent that we consider some empirical relationships from the data on Indian states and this book hopes to provide some insight into this direction, which will be highly useful to policy makers, administrators and academics.

This book evaluates two decades of Kerala's experience on fiscal decentralization, finances and decentralized planning of rural and urban local governments and draws lessons for achieving sound fiscal decentralization in developing countries.

This entirely new edition of a successful textbook provides a detailed understanding of Kerala’s economic backwardness, the reforms required, and the performance of the economy during the post-liberalisation period. This collection of 17 original essays, focusing on current economic problems and development issues affecting Kerala, will serve as a basic textbook for graduate and post-graduate students of Kerala’s economy.

Focusing on current economic problems, Kerala's Economic Development: Emerging Issues and Challenges provides an in-depth analysis of the major development issues and challenges faced by the state. Kerala’s development experience has attracted worldwide attention due to its paradoxical development: attaining higher quality of life of people on the one hand and continuation of the backward productive sectors on the other. The state’s economy remained backward in many respects and relied heavily on the remittance of Keralite emigrants. The implementation of liberalisation and globalisation policies since 1991 radically altered the growth process and Kerala achieved higher rates of investment and growth and greater technological change. These policies, however, have not only provided enormous opportunities, but also new challenges. This book examines the state’s economic growth as well as the issues that have accompanied the policy changes.

Contributed articles presented earlier at a national seminar on December 8-10, 2005.

This entirely new edition of a successful textbook provides a detailed understanding of Kerala’s economic backwardness, the reforms required, and the performance of the economy during the post-liberalisation period. This collection of 17 original essays, focusing on current economic problems and development issues affecting Kerala, will serve as a basic textbook for graduate and post-graduate students of Kerala’s economy.

At a time when disillusion with neo-liberal development nostrums is mounting, alternative models of development are being revisited. Kerala's 30 million people may not have experienced rapid growth in GDP per capita, but they have for the past several decades achieved a remarkable social record in terms of adult literacy, infant mortality, life expectancy, stabilising population growth, and narrowing gender and spatial gaps.What are the implications of the disjuncture between human development and economic growth? What are the political, social and cultural factors responsible for Kerala's success? Does its human development record necessarily relate to sustainability in environmental terms? How inclusive has the Kerala model been, particularly for the fishing community and other socially marginalised groups?Can the new people's campaign for decentralised development from below make Kerala's development experience more enduring? What realistic view can be taken of its replicability elsewhere in India or further afield in the South? These are among the most important questions explored in this timely reassessment.

In the early 1990s, Kerala's growth rate was high due to the enhanced performance of the secondary and tertiary sectors. Unable to sustain this development, Kerala is now in severe recession. This book examines the region's economic problems.

The literature on fiscal decentralisation in India is few and far between. The collection of papers in this volume written by scholars who have done scholarly works on the theme seeks to fill the gap relating to the state sub-state level fiscal decentralisation in India. While the first paper by Anwar Shah, an internationally known expert on fiscal federalism, provides a general backdrop relating to fiscal decentralisation and macro management, all other papers critically review the various dimensions of fiscal decentralisation emerging in India since the implementation of the 73rd/74th constitutional amendments by the state governments. Two papers focus exclusively on Kerala which has won world-wide acclaim for its innovative initiatives in decentralisation.

The unique development experience of the Indian state of Kerala has attracted widespread interest. However, no serious attempt has so far been made to comprehensively assess both the positive and negative features of Kerala's economy. This timely volume amply fills this lacuna by providing a detailed examination of the development, growth and problems of the state's economy over the period 1956 to 1991 while also outlining the prospects. Twenty-two leading economists discuss in this volume a number of crucial issues such as the decline in the rate of growth of the state's economy, the alarming rise in unemployment, the repatriation of Gulf migrants, agricultural stagnation, industrial backwardness, and the financial crisis presently afflicting Kerala. Divided in six parts, the volume begins with an overview of broad trends in Kerala's economy. The second section contains essays on demographic trends, the changing structure of the workforce, poverty, and migration. The next part deals with issues pertaining to the agricultural and allied sectors including marine fisheries. The fourth section comprises papers on both small-scale and heavy industry and the power sector, while the next one discusses trade unionism, educational development and Kerala's external economy. The last section examines recent trends in the state's finances. Presenting a data-based and analytical account of the most recent trends in Kerala's economy, this comprehensive book will be of considerable interest not only to students and scholars of economics, political economy and development studies, but also to policy-makers and organisations involved in development work.