Caste and Credit: A Woeful Tale?

This paper examines caste-based differences in farmers’ access to bank loans in rural India. We investigate whether banks practice taste-based discrimination on the basis of caste. In order to identify potential discrimination, we consider loan applications and approval decisions separately. We find significant inter-caste differences in application rates, and evidence of discrimination against Scheduled Tribe borrowers at the approval stage. To rule out the role of statistical discrimination, we simulate unobserved credit histories with various distributions. Evidence for taste-based discrimination persists despite accounting for unobservables. However, we find that this discrimination does not affect small farmers.     

Producers' response in rice production — A comparison between ten Indian states under planning

This investigation attempts to compare rice producers' response to price and yield expectations in terms of changes in the planted area in different Indian states under two decades of planning. It provides an explanation of why the response function may differ between the states and offers supporting evidence.     

Electoral alliance with sworn opponent political party: factors impacting voting intention

Alliance with sworn political opponents is becoming a growing phenomenon within the realm of political alliances. Here, two or more competitive political parties join hands to defeat a particular common opponent. During election, alliance partners face election together and distribute electoral seats mutually to avoid vote share. However, ensuring vote in favour of opponent alliance candidate is only possible when voters prefer to cast vote for the alliance candidate. Thus, this is crucial to know influencing factors that shape voters’ voting intention in favour of opponent alliance candidate. This study is an attempt to empirically investigate factors that have significant influence to shape voters’ voting intention for opponent alliance. The result shows that opponent alliance perceived fit impacts opponent alliance voting intention positively. Opponent alliance brand trust has a positive impact on opponent alliance voting intention. In addition, opponent alliance preference impacts opponent alliance voting intention positively.     

Uncertain India? Deepening globalization,unanticipated consequences and the challenge of sustainability

ABSTRACT

Taken together, these essays are an eye-opener for those who still see India as a homeostatic society, trapped into caste and custom. The articles on transparency in public transactions, financial credit market reform, effect of the new, reformed economy on the leaders of business and industry and the general framework for understanding India’s “reform consolidation,” present different facets of a society on the move. They showcase how endogenous transformation interlocks with external stimuli and opportunities. This introduction is a succinct analysis of the course of India’s development in specific arenas, contradictions, and resilience of the general process of which they are a part, and, most important of all, the convergence of endogenous developments and exogenous conditions that have emerged as critical determinants of the durability of India’s globalization. However, thanks to India’s noisy but resilient democracy, the direction and pace of India’s globalization, locked into the clash of two paradigms, one drawing its legitimacy from the rhetoric of secularism and social justice and, the other, leveraging on muscular nationalism, deep cultural roots, and rapid corporate-led growth, remains uncertain.