Dr. Vinod F. Khobragade, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Agra.
Afghanistan needs assistance from entire world community especially the world and regional superpowers by making effective efforts that to promote investment, economic growth, good governance, stability and security in Afghanistan, which would help to further promote the regional peace and stability and the economic development of the region eventually. The most formidable task in Afghanistan is security which has been put in danger because of the Pakistan state sponsored terrorism and, as recently revealed, Iran’s support to Taliban and also Russian hidden involvement, though aiming against the US. The power game between the US and its adversaries in Afghanistan will benefited to none and situation in Afghanistan will further deteriorate. However, in the direction of normalizing the situation in Afghanistan, the US is exploring a new approach towards Pakistan. The potential responses under talks, as reported, include the expansion of the US’s drone strikes, redirecting aids to Pakistan and perhaps eventually downgrading Pakistan’s status as a major non-NATO ally.57 However, China does not seeming to signal such a strong stand against its all weather friend Pakistan which has been supporting terrorism in Afghanistan. In fact, China has its own interests in maintaining the just peaceful order in the region. But, both Afghanistan and Pakistan failed to contain the use of their land for the use of terrorist activities against each other and also both have been indulging in allegations for sponsoring terrorist attacks against each other that further aggrandizing the trust deficit. However, China is making hard efforts to normalize the tense relations. China’s better diplomatic relations with both warring neighbours are better. The Afghan government also interested to involve China in its peace making process along with the other powers. China may build some sort of pressure on or prevail upon its all weather friend, Pakistan to be an honest neighbor ceasing its dysfunctional support against Afghanistan and to normalize its relations with Afghan so that to improve the life of the Afghani people by fastening the process of reconstruction. The urgent need is to ponder on how to end the terrorism from Afghanistan. Thinking for establishment of Peace-stability without the end of terrorism can be just a chimera.
Dr. Ejilvanan, Department of Politics and International Studies, Pondicherry University and Rameez Raja Mir, Doctoral Candidate (JRF), Centre for European Studies, DPIS, Pondicherry University.
The British withdrawal from the Indian sub-continent led to the conflict between India and Pakistan. There were efforts to normalize the relations between India and Pakistan since their inception. But the disputes were turned into political conflicts escalated into three wars. The two countries have not been able to build trust between them. There is not any breakthrough in the process of dialogue between India and Pakistan due to lack of political will. There is an urgent need of peace which requires the leaders and masses of both countries to reverse the downward slide that is characterized between the India Pakistan relations. The ill planned and hasty British withdrawal from the subcontinent led to the conflict. It seems that the British policies of ‘divide and rule’ degenerated into ‘divide and run’. The Kashmir Dispute was one among them. The other problems that are considered as the legacy of the partition process include water dispute, the division of military and financial assets, the evacuee property issues, and the rehabilitation of the refugees and the annexation of Princely States. Despite all these problems efforts are being made to ensure that the confidence building measures (CBMs) continue to remain in place, to enable the people of both countries, in the border regions in general and in the state of Jammu and Kashmir in particular, to maintain a semblance of normalcy in their lives. This paper will try to evaluate the experience of CBMs between India and Pakistan. It will try to analyze to what extent have CBMs succeeded in achieving their underlying objectives.
Satyanarayana Murthy Dogga, Assistant professor, Department of Economics, S.N. Ambedkar, Professor, Department of Public policy, Law and Governance and Dean school of Social Sciences and Cheruku Jeevan Kumar, Assistant professor, Department of Public policy, Law and Governance, Central University of Rajasthan.
Aiming at addressing corruption, black money, counterfeit currency and terror financing, recently the government of India has demonetized the high-value currency notes on 8th November, 2016 and replaced with new notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 2000. There was two-way track arguments carried out by the experts on this recent historical move. Conceptually, demonetization may have a positive impact on any economy whose reserved money has been strucked in the hands of few tax evasion people in the long run. However, in reality, the effect of demonization may differ as it depends on several factors. Therefore, using the data on various macroeconomic variables, the present study makes a preliminary assessment of the macroeconomic impact of recent demonetization in India. The empirical findings suggest that the impact of demonetisation on GDP growth during Q3 and Q4 of 2016-17 was mostly felt in construction and real estate, but because of stronger growth in manufacturing, agriculture, mining, and electricity the overall impact on gross domestic product growth was modest. The analysis also shows that demonetisation along with seasonal factors didn’t affect inflation excluding food and fuel. However, demonetization has significantly pushed down the food inflation. Economic sentiment and vehicle sales show a recover after the demonetization operation, but the preliminary drop is not evident in the headline GDP figure. The important explanation why demonetization did not produce a big dip in the gross domestic product figures might be the quality of data. Especially the informal sector, which borne the brunt of the demonetization operation due to heavy cash-3dependency, is underrepresented in the national accounts.
Dr. G. Palanithurai, Professor, Rajiv Gandhi Chair for Panchayati Raj Studies, Gandhigram Rural Institute
In Indian society much of women’s labour is informalised, unrecognized and undervalued. Women and girls involved in domestic work remain unorganized and unnoticed and as a result poor attention is paid by policy and political community towards the issues of the domestic women workers. Yet there have been attempts on the part of the civil society to draw the attention of the political and policy community and thereby some legislations and decisions have been passed to regulate the working conditions of the poor domestic women workers. India is always known for its progressive legislations, policies and decisions and regressive in practice and implementation. But in operation of the schemes, one will find the administrative apathy and lethargy and they are due to insensitivity on the part of the officials. Further, at the ground there is always a conflict between constitutional provisions and the community practices. The existing literature on this subject have adequately amplified the poor attention of the administrators in implementing the existing act, decisions and policies of both centre and state governments. While looking into the life and livelihood of the women domestic workers at the ground, one will find the gap between the decision and its operation. An attempt is made to assess the level of consciousness of the women about their own rights and the working conditions of the women domestic workers in Dindigul district through case analysis by adopting the narratology method. This study will highlight the working conditions of the women domestic workers from a dignity perspective and their linkages with the labour market demand. Through the case analysis by adopting the new methodological tool narratology scope for movement building for policy advocacy will be highlighted. Since Tamil Nadu being gender sensitive governance, a policy note could be prepared out of this narratology.
Farooq Ahmad Waza, Doctoral Fellow, Department of Political Science, University of Kashmir, Hazratbal, Srinagar
Jammu and Kashmir State is not only large in size but is also extremely diverse in socio-cultural settings. The geographical size of the state the diversity of population and the challenge that vary from place to place make a centralized set of solutions illogical. Therefore, the social complexities require decentralization for the purpose of planning and administration so as to reflect the needs and aspirations of the people since one-size fits all approach has no relevance in diverse society. In diverse societies People’s participation in planning and decision making process is envisaged not only for effective planning and implementation of programmes but also to give people a sense of belongingness so that they feel they are part and parcel of the development process. In Jammu and Kashmir, planning began with the launching of the first five year plan at the national level by the centre that was to be implemented with the help of the state governments. The top down model also known as ‘Nehruvian model’ adopted a centralized structure to keep in check the caste, religious and ethnic groups in the emerging nation, as well as to embark on a modernist development strategy that was to be managed by professionals and bureaucrats through the planning process2. In 1950s the central government launched two ambitious rural development programmes -community development programme and National Extension Services. In 1956 a study team under the chairmanship of Balwantray Mehta was set up by the planning commission in order to investigate on all India basis the working of these programmes3. The study team after doing its job came to the conclusion that the prgrammes had failed to achieve desired results, the reason being the absence of ‘people’s participation’ or ‘local supervision’. The study team recommended the creation of three tier panchayat raj structure-village panchayat at villge level, Panchayat simiti at Block and Zila Parishad at the District Level. The report was adopted in National Development Council meeting in 1957. By 1959, all the states had passed the Panchayat Acts and subsequently Panchayats were in existence throughout the country. The government of Jammu and Kashmir has announced that next Panchayat elections that will be held March in 2017 however, due to fragile security scenario government is enable conduct the panchayat elections. There is a possibility that by the end of the year elections may be held. However, like in the past it should not be a hasty step, in view of the large scale malpractices in the functioning of panchayats primarily because of the structural lacunas/ institutional deficiency the following steps deserve immediate attention before the next panchayat elections are held in the state.
Dr. Nisha Velappan Nair, UGC Post-Doctoral Fellow in Economics and Prof. (Dr) M.S. John, Director of Research and Dean, School of Global Studies, Central University of Kerala, Kasargod
Decentralised planning was initiated in Kerala in 1997, which resulted in the transfer of substantial resources to local bodies. The local bodies were expected to spend money for services rendered by the transferred institutions such as Public Health Centres. In view of the high morbidity of Kerala and the growth in lifestyle –related ailments, the local bodies were encouraged to invest considerably in the health sector. After a faltering start, most local bodies now allocate money for infrastructure and various services provided by the health centres for allopathic, ayurvedic and homeopathic systems of treatment. It has also been found that most of those who use the public health system are women. This paper looks at the allocation and expenditure in the health sector in Thiruvarpu Gram Panchayat in Kottayam district from 2009 to 2016. It then seeks to make an analysis of the gender dimensions of this allocation and expenditure by dividing the projects carried out in the health sector into three categories, namely women-specific, women-friendly and women-neutral and undertake a gender benefit incidence analysis.
Dr. Madhu Thawani, Assistant Professor, Department of Public Administration, Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat
As per the Human Development Index value of all the States shown in “India Human Development Report-2011” Published by Planning Commission of the Government of India, Gujarat State has been ranked 11th . Human development is outcome of socio and economic development. Along with economic development, social development is also to be considered for improving human development index. Social sectors like Health, Education, Women and Child Development, Sanitation etc. are key sectors for Human Development. Gujarat Government aims at becoming a model state on all fronts of Human Development. The State Government has given the highest priority to development of Social Sectors like Health, Education, Water Supply, Sanitation, Housing, Women and Child Development, Welfare of Backward class, Labour and Employment etc which have direct impact on human development by allocating nearly about 48.76 percent of the total outlay to Social Sectors in the 12th Five Year Plan 2012-17. State Government have come up with various Flagship Programmes like ‘Sagarkhedu Sarvangi Vikas Yojana’, ‘Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana’,‘Garib Samruddhi Yojana’ , ‘Kanya Kelavani’, ‘Gunotsav’, ‘Krishi Mahotsav’, ‘Nirmal Gujarat’, ‘Kausalya Vardhan Kendra’, ‘Nirogi Bal’, ‘Bal Sakha Yojana’ ‘Mamata Abhiyan , Mukyamantri Amrutum Yojana ,etc. to improve Human Development Index of the State. In this paper we will focus on Mukyamantri Amrutum Yojana, a health scheme for the people living below poverty line.
Afseer. K.P., Research Scholar, Department of Social Work, Loyola College of Social Sciences, Thiruvananthapuram,
Dr. Sonny Jose, Head and Associate Professor, Department of Social Work, Loyola College of Social Sciences and
Dr. Gopakumar K.D, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation, Thiruvananthapuram
Corporate Social Responsibility has been, since long, considered to be an important principle of corporate governance. It is presumed that such contributions will indeed enrich the social development of the country especially in the nine major areas like education, community health that have been specifically mentioned in the schedule VII of the Act. Corporate social responsibility is about the role of the business community, about preventing companies from contributing to exacerbation of the problems or, conversely, about the contribution companies can make to solving problems in society. Although many companies do have CSR projects, the successful accomplishment of each project depends on the identification of real problem i.e. felt-need. However, serious efforts are seldom taken by the companies to identify the felt need. This dilemma can be rectified to a great extent with the support of local governing institutions working in the lower strata of society. Local Self Government Institutions plays an important role in reaching public services to all citizens in India in their respective areas. The bottom-up approach of development is very well applicable with a systematic involvement of LSGs in all development areas for better results especially in social responsibility initiatives of the companies. The research study is an attempt to portrait the perceived role, expectations and implementation strategy requirements for effectiveness CSR projects execution with the mutual participation of the LSGs. The methodology followed in the study is case studies of experts from various domain including LSGs and corporates are included.
Christopher Dick-Sagoe, Doctoral Fellow, Department of Public Administration, Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat
This paper revisits the public choice theories of decentralisation. It reviews the works of Charles Tiebout and Richard Musgrave, which theoretically described, analyzed and advanced the decentralisation concept. Tiebout and Musgrave focused on the economic priorities of reducing the size of the welfare state, reducing public expenditures, balancing budgets, outsourcing services and delegating responsibilities to local governments. These are broadly known as decentralisation, which is in line with the new public management’s ideology. Tiebout and Musgrave’s argument, known as the public choice theory, supports local governments for the delivery of improved public services. The paper finally concludes with a synthesis of the relationship and differences between and among these theories.
Dr. Birajit Mohanty, Associate Professor, Department of Business Administration, School of Business & Commerce, Manipal University, Jaipur, Rajasthan and Dr. Susmita Parija, Sr. Faculty, Centre for IT Education, (A Constituent College of BPUT, Odisha)
Financial inclusion is the availability of banking services at an affordable cost to disadvantaged and low-income groups. Thus, access to financial services by the poor is a prerequisite for poverty reduction and sustainable economic development. SHG-Bank linkage programme is one of the most important interventions in this direction. The present study has critically analyzed the sources of borrowings of the sample respondents belonging to different farm households and the percentage of sample households having access to types of financial services in the study area. Further, the study has successfully attempted to study the association between degree of financial inclusion and SHG-Bank linkage programme with the aid of Financial Inclusion Index (FII), by giving appropriate weight to the selected financial services. The findings of this study undoubtedly show that the SHG-Bank linkage has increased the flow of institutional credit to landless and marginal farm households and discouraged non-institutional borrowing. Percentage of households which borrowed from institutional sources during 2010-11 increases with farm size. Among landless and marginal farm size category, it was found to be considerably more in the households (57% and 33% respectively) with SHG compared to their counterparts without SHG. The chi-square (χ2) results lead to the conclusion that the SHG-Bank linkage increased the degree of financial inclusion among landless and marginal farm size category of households.
Dr. Anthony Rodrigues, Associate Professor & Head, Department of Commerce, Fr.Agnel College of Arts & Commerce, Pilar-Goa.
Large-scale social safety net programs such as India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) are difficult to implement due to governance challenges related to elite capture, leakages, and corruption. The ability to identify how the governance challenges of program implementation can be met requires detailed insights into the actual process of program implementation, with clear views on the source of leakage and mismanagement, the sensitivity of program implementation to the influence of different actors, local power structures and informal bureaucratic processes. This paper uses a new participatory research method, referred to as Process-Influence Mapping, to shed light on these issues and related governance challenges, using the implementation of NREGA as an example. The Process-Influence Mapping tool helps identify the specific features of the NREGA implementation process that limit the program’s effectiveness (for example, elite capture in the definition of work and capacity limitations due to staff shortages and lack of training) and create scope for the misappropriation of funds. The insights gained can be used to identify policy options for reforming the administrative process of NREGA implementation so as to create an effective social safety net.
Zainab Farhat, Research Scholar, Department of Public policy, Law and Governance, Central University of Rajasthan, Bandarsindri, Kishangarh, Ajmer, Rajasthan and Prof. Nagendra Ambedkar Sole, Dean, School of Social Sciences, Department of Public policy, Law and Governance, Central University of Rajasthan
Disparity among the social structure is the main cause of deprivation among the people. Identities along with the religious lines have minoritised the minority further leading to exclusion of the community. Being home for the largest Minority community , Indian Muslims are having 14.2 percent of the country’s population. In spite of having a significant percentage, the community is trapped in the circle of marginalization and backwardness. The Gopal Singh Committee Report (1983), The Sachar Committee’s Report (2006), The India Human Development Report (2011), Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission (2007) and the post- Sachar Evaluation committee report (2014) has revealed that Muslims are in a state of being the most socially, economically and educationally backward community in a deplorable condition. The country has the historical affirmative action programs for removing the Socio –economic inequalities. However, it has failed to cater the demand of the disadvantaged Minorities on reservations, and in order to remove the exclusion among Muslims, it is now necessary to provide complete access through a provision of opportunities to the community in all spheres of life. Adequate measures need to be built in for their inclusion in the mainstream in the form of affirmative action policies.
Dr. Santosh. D. Sabale, Asst. Professor, Centre for Educational Studies, Indian Institute of Education, Kothrud, Pune
After decades of state-funded service provisions through the non-governmental organizations in Spain, the development of the Roma Gypsies has remained static. In the name of intercultural and vocational training programmes, the ‘Spanish Model’ for Roma Inclusion has become a myth for the socio-economic development. The Roma organizations stand against discrimination and social exclusion which are faced by Roma people. In the context, the social inclusion of Spanish has been accompanied by the intercultural education by government agencies in providing formal vocational training under Acceder and Workaló programmes since the 2000. The purpose of the article was to understand critical discourses of social inclusion by Spanish government for Roma gypsies and also understand the proactive role of Roma advocacy groups. Using the purposive sampling method, 52 Roma individuals engaged in informal and recycling sector were studied from Bilbao City of Basque region of Spain. The case studies of the Roma NGOs viz. Kale-Dor-Kayiko Association and Fundación Secretariado Gitano were drawn to understand the standpoints of Romani activists in the inclusion process for Roma. In conclusion, the study argued the discourse of social inclusion seeks to debunk the idea that the poverty is due to cultural inadequacies of the poor and underlines the economic, political, and cultural barriers, and discrimination faced by Roma in the routine labour activities. The review of ‘Spanish Model’ for inclusion of Roma by Roma advocacy organizations has urged the local governments to revamp existing social security schemes; the social minimum; and unemployment guarantee payment and full citizenship status.
Vineeth Thomas, Doctoral Fellow, Department of Politics and International Studies, Pondicherry University
The condition of Dalits in the pre-independent Kerala was not different or improved. When the instances of deprivation and discrimination became a part of life and accepted norm of the caste based society, the victims of marginalisation awakened through social movements. The social reform movements of later 19th century and early 20th century created a conducive atmosphere in Kerala for the appeals of social churning through protests and movements. Charismatic and spirited leaders were sprouted from the downtrodden sections of the society to pioneer the dalit protests and movements. These leaders out their experience and knowledge ignited the spark of awakening and reforms among the dalit population about their rights and privileges. Subsequently, this led to realisation among the dalits about the need of demanding the legitimate rank in the hierarchy of social status. They were instilled with thoughts and speeches underlining the fact that all are human being and discrimination on the basis of caste is absolutely unethical and unacceptable at any levels of life. But it was not a smooth and easy task for the dalits to achieve their demands. The elite caste people resisted every effort of social movement and mobilisation with tooth and nail. In this context this paper explores the caste system and life situation of dalits in the pre-independent Kerala, with special reference to Travancore. It also throw insights into various initiatives taken by the charismatic leaders for the upward social mobility of dalits in Pre-Independent Kerala.
Dr. G. Sundharavadivel, Associate Professor, Dept. of Adult and Continuing Education, University of Madras
In India, we have a pluralistic society as opposed to a monolithic culture. The voluntary organisations cater to the needs of our cultural plurality. If we would like to avoid concentration of power in the hands of a few, we must retain this multi-ethnic character of a free society and make full use of it. Voluntary organisations can serve as ‘power breakers’. Efforts should be made to prepare people for a new kind of society through voluntary work. When the State’s resources are limited, voluntary action would bring forth additional resources and cover the areas hitherto uncovered by the State. In view of their flexibility in operation, ability at experimentation and innovation, pioneering spirit and other such qualities, voluntary organisations can continue to work for better standards, better methods and better forms of organisation. There is an argument that at the empirical-existential level voluntary agencies are nothing but the stooges of the ruling elite and the corporate sector, mainly of the capital finance variety. In this new role, voluntary organisations have created a crisis that begs a comprehensive solution. However, given the circumstances in terms of administrative or governmental reach, especially in the implementation of welfare schemes for the tribal peoples, we for once cannot deny the positive role of the non-governmental organisations. There are many areas yet to blink the state’s radar. They are either very remote or inaccessible. In such a situation, the concerned and committed civil society groups have no other alternative but voluntary approach. The role of NGOs in the fields of education, health, sanitation, housing and particularly agriculture has not been a wide ranging one. We shall hope they would expand their area of action.
Thanzeela Ebrahim K, Faculty of Commerce, M.E.S Asmabi College, P. Vemballur, Kerala
Since the 1990s, higher education in Kerala has been subject to significant policy shifts, which hold long-term implications for the general arts and science segment. At least three sets of policy moves in the recent past have altered or hold the potential to alter significantly the context of general arts and science education in the state. First, the opening of the doors to self-financing colleges, somewhat ambiguously in the 1990s but with full force since 2000, initiated full fledged private participation in the sector where as previously private participation had been publicly funded through the private aided colleges, which receive public funds but are managed by private establishments mostly of the nature of voluntary or charitable trusts. Second, from 1998 onwards the pre degree courses were delinked in a phased manner from arts and science colleges and brought under the higher secondary schools as plus two courses, a process that was completed in 2001. Third, very recently the Kerala State Higher Education Council (KSHEC) has initiated reforms in undergraduate arts and science education, which envisages a radical overhauling of the existing structure and practices.
Dr. Laxminarayan Bindhani, Asistant Professor, Department of Public Administration, B.N.M.A. Degree College, Paliabindha, Bhadrak
The present paper is a survey-based micro study in the context of issues associated with implementation of RTE act in the state of Odisha. Based on the feedbacks from different stakeholders of elementary schools, it has come to the notice of the author that, the obstacles on the way, in achieving the success of RTE act in the state of Odisha, lies with the issues like lack of awareness about RTE act even among the teachers; diversity of schooling systems (i.e. Government / Government Aided / Private); lack of adequate infrastructure; lack of proper funding as required; lack of non-teaching staff in government schools (usually teachers manage all the clerical and peon works in elementary schools of Odisha); practice of contractual and temporary teachers, the so called Shikshya Sahayak system (that results into more of private coaching and tuition by the school teachers, which is contrary to the RTE act); and prevailing child labour practice in different unorganized sectors (i.e. shops and hotels). Unless and otherwise these problems are addressed properly, the noble intention with which the act was enacted, would remain a day dream. So, it is high time for the policy makers and the educational administrators of the state, to work out a foolproof strategy to address the aforesaid issues.
Dr. Nilanjan Sengupta, Professor of HRM, SDM Institute for Management Development, Mysore, Karnataka and Dr. Mousumi Sengupta, Professor of HRM, SDM Institute for Management Development, Mysore, Karnataka.
The world of human resource recruiting is experiencing major challenges due to increased competition among industries to procure the best talents in every sector of the economy, globally. The race is to acquire the best talents in the quickest possible way, so that companies can leverage the power of human resources as a key differentiator in generating more business growth for a firm. People are key resources in any organizational set-up and hold the key to competitive advantage in businesses, today. In this context, social media recruitment seems to be emerging as a potent tool for harnessing the power of technology to get access to the best hires and talents all over the world. This topic has become an important area of discussion and hence deserves attention on the part of researchers. This paper seeks to explore the various issues related to social media recruitment. In particular, the focus would be on finding out the various advantages and disadvantages of using this tool for hiring, while stressing on the issues like the pre-requisites for getting the process right. Some of the best practices in the field of social media recruiting will also be explored to get a total view of the pros and cons of this new recruiting tool. In the end the endeavor would be to ascertain whether this tool is just a buzz word or a commercial hype to sensationalize the process of recruitment or a useful tool to genuinely help in the acquisition of needed talent in a given organization.
Dr. Padmalaya Mahapatra, Associate Professor Dept. of Public Administration, Utkal University, Bhubaneswer, and Rashmi Rekha Das, (Doctoral Fellow-JRF), Dept. of Public Administration, Utkal University, Bhubaneswer
Today’s employees expect to have more than a life outside of work. They expect their life to take priority over their work. Smart employers should know this and work to accommodate their employees in this regard as much as possible. As many organisations are still trying to motivate workers with an “assembly line mentality”, there has been an increasing need for a new paradigm so that organisations can meet the genuine life-related demands of the workers. It is a truism that employees with higher morale are always more productive. An organisation that focuses on the importance of employees’ lives outside of work is going to increase their morale. Work life balance is a much bigger and further-reaching issue than many organisations feel or think it is. The issue has gained a higher profile in recent years; yet lot remains to be done.
Dr. Amit K. Chakrabarty, Assistant Professor, Department of Commerce, Chakdaha College, Nadia, West Bengal
This paper analyzes the role of tourism industry in reducing the problem of unemployment in India. Tourism industry is a labour intensive industry. This qualitative study is purely based on the information collected from different sources like websites, articles published in reputed national and international journals, news papers and reputed reference books related to this field. Unemployment is a curse of developing countries like India but tourism industry has an interesting employment multiplier i.e. 2.36. So there is a possibility of employment of large number people in the industry directly or indirectly. The potentiality of this industry in India is very large due to its natural, geographical and historical background. At this time India stands third in tourism after jam & jewelery and readymade garment. The position of tourism industry, one of the fastest growing industries in world, in respect of globe is just below the oil and automobile industry. So the author recommends the development of tourism industry in India by improving infrastructure to get rid of unemployment.
Dr. Manoj P.K, Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Economics, Cochin University of Science and Technology
The vast potential of tourism for bringing about economic development and employment generation being widely acknowledged in the literature, promotion of tourism is particularly relevant in developing nations like India. International agencies like the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN-WTO) have estimated that nations like India and China would become the superpowers in the global tourism map by the year 2020. In spite of the excellent tourism resources in India, the country could not utilize its vast potential because only during the last two decades tourism has been getting due attention in India. While China has already attained a prominent position in global tourism, the progress of India has been slower. India has to traverse a long way to catch up with the top players, including China. Though India is considered unique in its rich bio-diversity and cultural heritage, this rich potential which could be meaningfully utilized for promotion of ecotourism and such other allied tourism segments, is still not being used optimally. In respect of Kerala state in particular – one of the states with the highest tourism resources in India – the situation is more discouraging as Kerala’s performance in tourism has not been commensurate with its enviable tourism resources. A few recent studies by the author have revealed the vast prospects of tourism in Kerala for employment creation and economic development. Focusing on Thenmala ecotourism destination, the first planned ecotourism destination in India, this study which is a continuation of the earlier studies of the author analyses as to whether the socio-economic and demographic factors are significantly influencing their decision on tour packages, and suggests the segmentation, targeting and positioning strategies for ecotourism promotion.
Dr. Renu Malra, Assistant Professor, Department of Tourism, University College, Kurukshetra University, Haryana
Haryana “The Adobe of God” is located between 27° 37’ to 30° 35’ latitude and between 74° 28’ to 77° 36’ longitude in the Northern India. The area has its own Tourism importance with the presence of glorious art and culture, varied Historical events, and natural beauty of Shivalik Ranges in the North and Aravali Hills in the southern-west part of the state. The place is unique in itself with the manifestation of green surroundings everywhere. With the existence of different forms of tourism like adventure tourism, eco-tourism, farm tourism, heritage tourism, pilgrimage tourism, MICE tourism and highway tourism with supportive government policies, area has a potential to be a famous tourism Centre at international level. Rich art and cultural heritage, handicrafts of the area are the unique Centre of attraction among the tourists. Folk dances, music, cuisines, fairs and festivals, costumes and ornaments influence the tourists to visit the area for reconnoitering the region. Proximity to the capital of the country “Delhi” with the excellent infrastructure facilities, well connected transportation system, the state has a potential to be recognized at international level. Although having so much potential, tourism in the state is not proven its worth. The main emphasis of the study is to explore distinguished prospects of the region to recognize Haryana as International Tourism Destination.
M.R.B. Anantha Padmanabha, Deputy Editor, South Asian Journal of Socio-Political Studies and
Dr. M.R. Biju, Editor, South Asian Journal of Socio-Political Studies
Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries globally, including in the developing world. It has grown faster than world gross domestic product since the 1950s with expenditure on tourist goods and services representing some 8 per cent of total world export receipts and 5 per cent of world GDP. Wen and Tisdell rightly observed that this is due to rising global incomes, increasing leisure time, a rising world population, fall in real transport costs, reduced travel time and globalisation. Many developing countries have recognised the possible contribution that this industry can make to economic development and have included it as an integral part of their development strategies. As a result, over the last two decades, an extensive body of literature on issues surrounding this industry in developing countries has been built up. Employment generation, foreign exchange earnings and community welfare are aspects of tourism-induced development considered in most of the relevant literature. However, the possible contribution of the tourism industry is heavily influenced by international economic and political stability, as well as by terrorist threats and civil unrest in the tourist destination. There is a widespread view among the tourism analysts that international visitors are very concerned about their personal safety and thus this industry can only thrive under peaceful conditions.
Dr. Padmasani, Assistant Professor, School of Commerce, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore and
Remya. V, Senior Research Fellow, School of Commerce, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore
Despite the fact of high potential and consistent growth, Kerala’s share in the international tourists arrival is negligible. Even though the Government of Kerala has been providing the financial assistance for development of tourist infrastructure, promotion and marketing, the influx of tourists to the state is relatively low. This exhibits a very low market share. Thus, understanding tourists’ behavioural intention, is an essential task to the service provides for identifying their competitive advantage and increasing their market share in the world tourism market. In this context, the present paper determines the predicting factors that influence the formation of tourists’ behavioural intention towards Kerala as an Ayurvedic health tourism destination. The findings from regression analysis indicate that behavioural intention towards health tourism is driven by destination image, satisfaction and service quality. This information would help destination managers and marketers in designing effective strategies to retain existing tourists as well as to attract new ones.