Does corporate governance affect CEO compensation in Indian manufacturing firms?

This study examines the effects of (a) chief executive officers (CEO) pay dynamics, (b) corporate governance characteristics, and (c) the impact of environmental, social, and governance disclosure practices on CEO compensation. Data of 282 Indian manufacturing firms were collected from Bloomberg database from 2013–14 to 2018–19. This study uses Generalized Method of Moments estimation technique to assess the impact of corporate governance on CEO compensation. The empirical estimates reveal that increase in board size, board independence, women director in board, CEO duality, and institutional holdings reduced CEO compensation. Furthermore, the environmental, social, and governance disclosure confirmed that higher firm disclosures help to streamline CEO compensation. It has also been found that CEOs' current compensation is affected by their previous pay. This study corroborates the objectives of Companies Act 2013 to streamline the governance practices for optimizing CEO compensation.     

Agriculture and rural out-migration in Central Asia, 1960-91

"This article seeks to analyse agrarian structure and policy in the Soviet period and discuss their effect on migration from rural to urban areas. In the case of [Soviet] Central Asia, neither the various steps to bring down labour intensity in the farm sector, nor the falling standard of living in rural areas, could bring about migration from rural to urban areas. This was because in traditional societies economic mechanisms are not effective unless they are complemented by appropriate social and cultural policies. All policies were oriented towards the state's goal of vertical integration of regions with the central economy. In Central Asia in particular this policy resulted in serious distortions in the social and economic spheres."     

Neo‐populism and Marxism: The Chayanovian view of the agrarian question and its fundamental fallacy

The neo‐populist viewpoint on the agrarian question, developed in Russia from the late 19th century against Marxist theory, enjoys a modified revival in India today. The theoretical core of the neo‐populist framework consists in the idea of an economically undifferentiated, virtually homogeneous peasantry, which shows extreme stability and viability vis a vis the competition of capitalist production; and is of superior efficiency with respect to yield. There is a basic logical fallacy underlying this view, consisting in the positing of identical conditions of production for units with differing objectives of production—’subsistence’ for peasant holdings and ‘profit’ for capitalist holdings—in a situation where they coexist and are linked through markets. In fact capitalist production cannot emerge at all unless it is accompanied by a rise in output and surplus per unit area compared to petty production, which presupposes technical change. The logical necessity of differing conditions of production, implies that all the neo‐populist propositions are invalid.     

Where is India’s growth headed?

Growth in India declined in the post financial crisis years both due to external and domestic factors. While the slowdown appears to be largely cyclical, it is possible that trend growth may also have been affected, especially by negative shocks from the domestic policy environment. In this article, we analyze the sources of output growth in the past three decades and discuss the outlook going forward. We make projections for the growth of factors of production and the growth of trend gross domestic product (GDP) per worker for the period from 2013–2030. In general, the outlook for factors appears strong. As long as policy reforms support the broad environment for investment in infrastructure and education and eliminate frictions hampering the efficient use of labor and capital, all of which can also boost productivity, it does not appear that trend growth is likely to decline in the future.     

Migrant labor at ASIAD '82 construction sites in New Delhi

Abstract

Throughout India the scale of migrant labor is reaching alarming proportions. Apart from the spontaneous migration of essentially free labor from impoverished rural areas to urban centers, there exists a deliberately planned migration of bonded or semi-bonded labor over distances ranging from 200 to over 2000 kilometers. With the rising demand for labor in the oil-rich countries of the Persian-Arabian Gulf, labor migration in India has also taken on international dimensions.     

Ascertaining the economic characteristics of peasant classes‐in‐themselves in rural India: A methodological and empirical exercise

In 1976 the author developed a simple labour‐use index for the empirical identification of classes‐in‐themselves within a cultivating population. This index was subsequently applied, along with other conventional grouping methods, to farm economics data relating to Haryana, India. This analysis was complete by 1981. Part I of this article summarises some results of this methodological exercise in ascertaining the economic characteristics of classes‐in‐themselves. Part II is a critical discussion of an article on a similar theme by Athreya, Böklin, Djurfeldt and Lindberg in a recent issue of this journal.     

Fundamental Redesign of Financial Law: The Indian Approach

India is at the cusp of important financial sector regulatory reform. The reform aims at deeper changes in financial sector laws and regulatory architecture. While many incremental reforms were undertaken in the last two decades, the pace of change has slowed down owing to the constraints posed by the underlying legal framework. The key problems in the financial sector include: lack of financial inclusion, a glacial pace of innovation, the growth of an unregulated shadow financial system, numerous ponzi schemes, high inflation, and barriers to capital flows. In the last decade, there have been many efforts in rethinking financial sector regulation to address these problems. A group of expert committees created a consensus around a strategy for change, which has led to a draft law proposed by the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission set up by the Ministry of Finance of the Government of India.