Economic & Political Weekly: Table of Contents

Adrift and Alone

Vol - L No. 21, May 23, 2015 

• Editorials

The plight of the Rohingya is a test for Asia's humanitarian instinct.

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Editorials India's Attitude towards Sports The suicide of a teenage sportswoman recently showcases all that is wrong with Indian sports. Read more	Commentary Growth in Gross Value Added of Indian Manufacturing 2011–12 Series vs 2004–05 Series Bishwanath Goldar There has been criticism of the 2 percentage point hike in the 2013-14 real gross domestic product growth in the new National Accounts Statistics series and some observers have therefore been sceptical about the new series. There is, however,... Read more
Commentary Can Traditional Bat Hunts Cause Disease Outbreaks in India? Pilot Dovih Natural hosts of some of the most deadly emerging viruses such as Ebola, bats are harvested in an annual ritual by one tribe in Nagaland. This practice, endangering both public health and biodiversity, can lead to the emergence of novel... Read more	Commentary Agricultural Oddities T C A Ranganathan Low input-use efficiency and insuffi cient productivity increases are key challenges to Indian agriculture. But are ever-rising minimum support prices and sops such as free power and farm loan waivers appropriate solutions Read more
Commentary Immunisation Coverage in India An Urban Conundrum Purnamita Dasgupta, Rajib Dasgupta This article examines the decline in coverage levels of the Routine Immunisation Programme in the better-governed states across three rounds of the District Level Household and Facility Survey. The analysis points to an urban conundrum where... Read more	Commentary Remembering Chris Bayly Ajay Skaria Chris Bayly--who passed away recently--began as a historian in the classical Cambridge School mould but moved away from the school's understanding of the locality in his second work where he stressed on locality as a place shaped both by... Read more
Fourteenth Finance Commission Fourteenth Finance Commission Continuity, Change and Way Forward Y Venugopal Reddy In preparation of its report, the Fourteenth Finance Commission was guided by the terms of reference; the approach of the previous finance commissions; the prevailing macroeconomic situation in the country; and the evolving circumstances relevant... Read more	Fourteenth Finance Commission Stance on Devolution and Grants V Bhaskar The Fourteenth Finance Commission is to be commended for bringing states to the forefront of the development paradigm. The award is transformational but the fall in progressivity is of concern. There is a divergence in the growth projections... Read more
Fourteenth Finance Commission Some Hits and Misses Archana R Dholakia The Fourteenth Finance Commission has come up with some bold and game-changing recommendations such as an increase in the tax share going to states from 32% to 42%, setting up of the Fiscal Council to make the centre accountable, and doing away... Read more	Fourteenth Finance Commission Implications for Local Governments M A Oommen The subject of local governments has not been comprehensively treated by the Fourteenth Finance Commission. The implications of the new inter se distribution formula of the commission's award for local governments have not been thought... Read more
Book Review Learning to See an Early Indian History of Regions Uzma Z Rizvi The Changing Gaze: Regions and the Constructions of Early India by Bhairabi Prasad, Sahu Oxford University Press, New Delhi, India, 2013; pp 344, Rs 850. Read more	Book Review In Spite of Stigma Shalini Rudra Birth in the Age of AIDS: Women, Reproduction and HIV/AIDS in India by Cecilia Van Hollen (California: Stanford University Press), 2013; pp 288, $24.95. Read more
Book Review A Participant Takes Stock Bala Raju Nikku Nepal Votes for Peace by Bhojraj Pokharel and Shrishti Rana, New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 2013; pp xiii + 266, Rs 450, paperback. Read more	Insight Public Health Facilities in North India An Exploratory Study in Four States Kritika Goel, Reetika Khera Following the introduction of universal access to free medicines and diagnostics at public health facilities in Rajasthan during 2011-13, we revisited the facilities surveyed by Banerjee et al (2004), and present the changes over the last decade... Read more
Special Articles Cast(e) on the Hill ‘Divine’ Power, Social Cohesion and Hierarchy in Himachal Pradesh Surinder S Jodhka Caste has often been viewed as a system of hierarchy based on the religious ideology of the Hindus with a common structure across the subcontinent. Based on an extensive empirical study of Himachal Pradesh, this paper shows how caste actively... Read more	Special Articles When Planning Becomes a Ritual Shirish B Patel The debate over Mumbai's Development Plan 2034 has exposed the fault lines in the urban planning process. Apart from the problems posed by multiple autonomous agencies and a state government that has virtual veto powers, the development plan... Read more
Special Articles Grandparental Childcare and Labour Market Participation of Mothers in India Zakir Husain, Mousumi Dutta This paper examines whether the presence of grandparents increases the probability of mothers going out to work in India. Analysis of data from the Demographic Health Survey (2005-06), supplemented by a primary survey covering 750 graduate women... Read more	Discussion Caste in Indian English Fiction Footnotes to a Post-Mandal Debate Merin Simi Raj Taking off from Kalyan Das's article "Subaltern Historiography to Dalit Historiography" (EPW, 14 February 2015), this discussion digs up an old debate in the pages of EPW on the presence of caste and its denial in Indian English...