Getting India Back to the Growth Turnpike: What Will It Take?

India’s real GDP growth has slipped substantially since the onset of the North Atlantic financial crisis (NAFC). There are questions as to whether growth can be revived back to the high growth phase of 2003–2008 in an environment of macroeconomic and financial stability. This article argues that returning India to a high growth turnpike is quite feasible but it will need much more focused attention to the revival of manufacturing and to accelerate investment in transport and infrastructure. The immediate priority is to achieve the kind of fiscal quality and low inflation level that was exhibited during 2003–2008, with focused attention to increasing efficiency and compliance in tax revenue collection Higher tax revenues can facilitate increases in public investment for the delivery of public goods and services, which then crowd in private investment. However, the task ahead will be more difficult now in view of the protracted slow-down in global economic growth and in global trade.     

The Public Governance of Collaborative Spaces: Discourse, Design and Democracy

This article investigates the relationship between democratic practices and the design of institutions operating in collaborative spaces, those policy and spatial domains where multiple public, private and non-profit actors join together to shape, make and implement public policy. Partnerships are organizational manifestations of institutional design for collaboration. They offer flexibility and stakeholder engagement, but are loosely coupled to representative democratic systems. A multi-method research strategy examines the impact of discourses of managerialism, consociationalism and participation on the design of partnerships in two UK localities. Analysing objective measures of democratic performance in partnerships and interpreting the discursive transition from earlier practices in representative democratic institutions we find that institutional designs for collaboration reflect different settlements between discourses, captured in the distinction between club, agency and polity-forming partnership types. The results show how the governance of collaborative spaces is mediated through a dominant set of discursively defined institutional practices.     

Fear of persecution not adequate to claim refugee status

In Delgadillo v Canada, the Federal Court of Canada upheld an Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) decision to refuse refugee status to a Mexican gay male refugee claimant because he had an Internal Flight Alternative (IFA). Although the court reached this conclusion, it nevertheless agreed that Mr Delgadillo had a legitimate fear of persecution. As well, the court made an important finding--that people in Mexico who are living with HIV/AIDS do not have an IFA.