Madhya Pradesh Housing & Infrastructure Development Board: affordable housing via public–private partnership mode

The Madhya Pradesh Housing & Infrastructure Development Board (MPHIDB) is a state‐owned entity in Madhya Pradesh State of India with the mandate of providing housing for citizens, particularly for those in the low‐income segment. MPHIDB has been constructing houses on its own using the traditional engineering and procurement contract (EPC) model. In July 2015, it was exploring the possibility of creating affordable housing units via public–private partnership (PPP). The advantage of involving private sector is that MPHIDB can tap into creative energy and construction efficiency of the private sector and deliver the best results within the given set of time and resource constraints. The proposed structure of PPP is that the private partner will be given a portion of land in lieu of the affordable housing units that it will build and transfer to MPHIDB. However, there are trade‐offs involved in doing the project in PPP mode instead of EPC mode. The main advantages of a government body like MPHDIB doing the project on its own are as follows: (a) It is able to better manage regulatory risks in terms of getting clearances, land acquisition, and so forth; (b) it can raise finances at lower interest rates than what is charged for private sector entities; and (c) the entire land parcel is available to construct houses, and hence it can get more housing units per unit of land. The Commissioner (CEO) of MPHIDB had to decide whether to go for PPP or EPC model, and if he opted for PPP, how should the PPP be structured?     

Hair-MAP: a prototype automated system for forensic hair comparison and analysis

This paper demonstrates the feasibility of the automation of forensic hair analysis and comparison task using neural network explanation systems (NNESs). Our system takes as input microscopic images of two hairs and produces a classification decision as to whether or not the hairs came from the same person. Hair images were captured using a NEXTDimension video board in a NEXTDimension color turbo computer, connected to a video camera. Image processing was done on an SGI indigo workstation. Each image is segmented into a number of pieces appropriate for classification of different features. A variety of image processing techniques are used to enhance this information. Use of wavelet analysis and the Haralick texture algorithm to pre-process data has allowed us to compress large amounts of data into smaller, yet representative data. Neural networks are then used for feature classification. Finally, statistical tests determine the degree of match between the resulting collection of hair feature vectors. An important issue in automation of any task in criminal investigations is the reliability and understandability of the resulting system. To address this concern, we have developed methods to facilitate explanation of neural network's behavior using a decision tree. The system was able to achieve a performance of 83% hair match accuracy, using 5 of the 21 morphological characteristics used by experts. This shows promise for the usefulness of a fuller scale system. While an automated system would not replace the expert, it would make the task easier by providing a means for pre-processing the large amount of data with which the expert must contend.     

Understanding the Magic of Credibility for Political Leaders: A Case of India and Narendra Modi

The field of political marketing has majorly benefited from the use of social media platforms. This has been true both for eastern and western contexts. The primary areas in political marketing that have majorly benefited from the social media usage have been the political leader and the evaluations of the leader by the voters. In the Indian context too, the use of social media techniques has been hailed as the Holy Grail of political marketing. This estimation is quite apposite. Nevertheless, what must not be forgotten is that the complexities of the bonding between political leaders and voters are not only premised primarily on the efficacy of social media techniques but also include other key dimensions. Thus, this article focuses on the importance of credibility as a key dimension. This dimension is inevitable to make social media techniques as effective as they are in political marketing. To substantiate this, we have comprehensively engaged with the fields such as traits of political leaders, crisis management and collaboration. These deliberations have been contextualized to the case of Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India. Further, these deliberations culminate in an effective framework. Academicians and practitioners of political marketing can extensively utilize this framework.     

The Impact of Trade Liberalisation on Household Welfare in a Developing Country with Imperfect Labour Markets

Abstract

I develop an empirical methodology to assess the distributional impact of trade-induced price shocks when labour markets are imperfect. The proposed methodology relates exogenous variations in prices to changes in household welfare using a separable agricultural household model that flexibly allows the data to determine the degree of labour market imperfections. Applying this approach to Vietnam, I investigate the impact of agriculture trade liberalisation between 1993 and 1998 on overall household welfare, measured using per capita household expenditure. I find that accounting for labour market imperfections results in welfare gains that are nearly four times larger than those found when assuming complete labour markets.     

Lessons from NPAs crisis in Indian banks

Nonperforming assets (NPAs) crisis in Indian public sector banks is one of the biggest challenges before the current government in 2017. The finance ministry, Government of India, and the central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, are worried about the surging NPAs in Indian public sector banks because of their huge macroeconomic impact and systemic risk to the financial system. If not paid timely attention, it can hamper the economic and financial stability of the nation. Rising NPAs in Indian public sector banks are a result of bank specific, macroeconomic, and political factors. In order to control the surging NPAs in Indian public sector banks, the government and the Reserve Bank of India have implemented new crisis management framework which however is not immune to several challenges. This paper looks at NPAs crisis from the lens of crisis management, stakeholder's engagement, government relations, and issue management. Harris and Fleisher ( 2016 ) identify crisis management, stakeholder engagement, government relations, and issues management as important organizational activities that constitute part of public affairs. This paper follows a tripartite structure where it first investigates the causes of NPAs in Indian public sector banks. Second, it examines the crisis management framework developed by the policy makers and highlights the key challenges. Third, in light of these challenges, it makes recommendations to tackle the NPAs crisis in Indian public sector banks.     

Adapting the Chumbley Score to Match Striae on Land Engraved Areas (LEAs) of Bullets,

The same‐source problem remains a major challenge in forensic toolmark and firearm examination. Here, we investigate the applicability of the Chumbley method (J Forensic Sci, 2018, 63, 849; J Forensic Sci, 2010, 55, 953) (10,12), developed for screwdriver markings, for same‐source identification of striations on bullet LEAs. The Hamby datasets 44 and 252 measured by NIST and CSAFE (high‐resolution scans) are used here. We provide methods to identify parameters that minimize error rates for matching of LEAs, and a remedial algorithm to alleviate the problem of failed tests, while increasing the power of the test and reducing error rates. For 85,491 land‐to‐land comparisons (84,235 known nonmatches and 1256 known matches), the adapted test does not provide a result in 176 situations (originally more than 500). The Type I and Type II error rates are 7.2% (6105 out of 84,235) and 21.4% (271 out of 1256), respectively. This puts the proposed method on similar footing as other single‐feature matching approaches in the literature.     

Corporate governance challenges in Indian banks: A public affairs perspective

Weak governance framework in Indian public sector banks has paralyzed their performance with declining profitability and deteriorating asset quality. In order to tackle the governance issues in Public Sector Banks (PSBs), Indian government established Banks Board Bureau (BBB) in April 2016 to revamp the existing governance structure in PSBs. However, the issue management framework of establishing BBB is not immune to several challenges and has not been able to achieve its desired objectives. This paper looks at the weak governance issue in PSBs from an issue management perspective by using the famous Jones and Chase issue management framework. In light of this framework, the paper makes several recommendations to effectively address the governance challenges in PSBs in India. The findings of this paper may be useful for other emerging economies facing similar governance issues in their banking sector.