Two great posts in Development Impact (my favorite economics blog right now) on aspirations, expected returns to investments, and the advancement of women. The first reviews evidence on how increased labor market opportunities available to women lead parents to invest more in the daughter's education. The second looks at how recent quotas decreeing that a randomly chosen 1/3 of village governance seats in India be filled by women have led to increased aspirations among girls and their parents, as well as increased investments in the former. In the study they cite, the gender gap in child education (which favors boys at baseline) was decimated when a village headship was randomly assigned to a woman.
The posts, and the articles cited there in, make two powerful points. First, information on opportunities for girls that may be unknown to families (for whom the cost of obtaining such information is high because of, say, lack of access to "plugged in" social networks, media, etc) can be powerful in combating gender bias. Second, proactively breaking down institutional barriers can play an important role, too, something we saw with the Civil Rights Movement here on our shores.
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Friday, March 2, 2012
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Imports and Development
It's always fun when a friend or colleague of yours is mentioned in The Economist. Last week was no exception, when the venerable periodical covered a recent piece on trade co-authored by Amit Khandelwal, a former Yale economics graduate student now at the Columbia Graduate School of Business as an assistant professor.
The research in question looks at the effects of imports on aspects of economic development. As the Economist piece points out, in policy discussions on trade, there is this belief that exporting is good for the home country's development, but importing is not. Khandelwal et al's piece shows that, in the case of India, imports have had some positive benefits. Quoting from the news article:
As part of those reforms, India slashed tariffs on imports from an average of 90% in 1991 to 30% in 1997. Not surprisingly, imports doubled in value over this period. But the effects on Indian manufacturing were not what the prophets of doom had predicted: output grew by over 50% in that time. And by looking carefully at what was imported and what it was used to make, the researchers found that cheaper and more accessible imports gave a big boost to India’s domestic industrial growth in the 1990s.
This was because the tariff cuts meant more than Indian consumers being able to satisfy their cravings for imported chocolate (though they did that, too). It gave Indian manufacturers access to a variety of intermediate and capital goods which had earlier been too expensive. The rise in imports of intermediate goods was much higher, at 227%, than the 90% growth in consumer-goods imports in the 13 years to 2000.
Good stuff.
The research in question looks at the effects of imports on aspects of economic development. As the Economist piece points out, in policy discussions on trade, there is this belief that exporting is good for the home country's development, but importing is not. Khandelwal et al's piece shows that, in the case of India, imports have had some positive benefits. Quoting from the news article:
As part of those reforms, India slashed tariffs on imports from an average of 90% in 1991 to 30% in 1997. Not surprisingly, imports doubled in value over this period. But the effects on Indian manufacturing were not what the prophets of doom had predicted: output grew by over 50% in that time. And by looking carefully at what was imported and what it was used to make, the researchers found that cheaper and more accessible imports gave a big boost to India’s domestic industrial growth in the 1990s.
This was because the tariff cuts meant more than Indian consumers being able to satisfy their cravings for imported chocolate (though they did that, too). It gave Indian manufacturers access to a variety of intermediate and capital goods which had earlier been too expensive. The rise in imports of intermediate goods was much higher, at 227%, than the 90% growth in consumer-goods imports in the 13 years to 2000.
Good stuff.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Public Health in India: Some New Data
The Ministry of Health and Public Welfare in New Delhi recently released data from the third National Family Health Survey (NHFS-3), based on a nationally representative sample of women aged 15-49 year women. The survey provides information on health and welfare for nearly 200,000 women, as well as their spouses and children. For a variety of reasons, this survey is a potential gold mine for public health, health economics, and public policy research projects. You can have a look at the details here. The summary report, which is very thorough and serves as an excellent reference for all things public health in India, is available via the same link. It is essential reading for all Indophiles, whatever your discipline or persuasion may be.
I've glanced through the summary report myself and have found some really interesting things (some of which will likely serve as fodder for research in the coming months). Here is a sampling:
1) The NFHS-3 is the first large scale all-India survey to include HIV testing. Surprisingly, despite local resistance in states like Nagaland, nearly 82% of eligible women and men were tested. This is a lot higher than I would have imagined given stigma around HIV/AIDS combined with voluntary testing. The survey finds that 0.28% of adults 15-49 have tested positive for HIV, that the prevalence of HIV is much higher in urban areas and among men. Also, HIV in India does not seem to discriminate by caste or level of wealth. In fact, the highest positive rate is among one of the top wealth quintiles in the sample.
2) Over 70% of children under 5 are considered to be stunted (i.e., below 2 sd from the median height for a child of given gender and age in months). However, only 32.9% of all children in the sample received services from the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) program, a village level intervention designed to provide basic health, nutrition and educational services mothers and young children, which now has very wide coverage in India. This isn't an issue of coverage: that 32.9% figure applies to all children who live in an area with ICDS facilities. I find this really interesting. ICDS offers free services and free food and children are malnourished. So why aren't more mothers taking it up? There are a variety of reasons why this could happen: ICDS is perceived to be ineffective; supply-side problems, such as failure to staff the clinics; high opportunity costs to attending ICDS (long-queues, remote locations); lack of knowledge among mothers or heterogeneous treatment effects that induce self-selection among certain classes of families. I think it would be interesting to compute (heterogeneous?) returns to the ICDS program and get a sense of why people are not going.
3) Less than half of all households in India use adequately iodized salt. This could have tremendous long-term consequences, especially for young children. Check out this important and interesting paper by Erica Field, et al, for more information.
4) The data is representative at the state level as well, and its always fun to compare how different states do with respect to various health indicators. Obviously, there is a great deal of variance among states in population health status.
5) There is plenty of other interesting information on anemia among men, women and children, female bargaining power and domestic violence, knowledge and attitudes about HIV/AIDS, household socioeconomic status, and so forth. Again, its a pretty rich survey for public health stuff, and I encourage you to check it out.
I've glanced through the summary report myself and have found some really interesting things (some of which will likely serve as fodder for research in the coming months). Here is a sampling:
1) The NFHS-3 is the first large scale all-India survey to include HIV testing. Surprisingly, despite local resistance in states like Nagaland, nearly 82% of eligible women and men were tested. This is a lot higher than I would have imagined given stigma around HIV/AIDS combined with voluntary testing. The survey finds that 0.28% of adults 15-49 have tested positive for HIV, that the prevalence of HIV is much higher in urban areas and among men. Also, HIV in India does not seem to discriminate by caste or level of wealth. In fact, the highest positive rate is among one of the top wealth quintiles in the sample.
2) Over 70% of children under 5 are considered to be stunted (i.e., below 2 sd from the median height for a child of given gender and age in months). However, only 32.9% of all children in the sample received services from the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) program, a village level intervention designed to provide basic health, nutrition and educational services mothers and young children, which now has very wide coverage in India. This isn't an issue of coverage: that 32.9% figure applies to all children who live in an area with ICDS facilities. I find this really interesting. ICDS offers free services and free food and children are malnourished. So why aren't more mothers taking it up? There are a variety of reasons why this could happen: ICDS is perceived to be ineffective; supply-side problems, such as failure to staff the clinics; high opportunity costs to attending ICDS (long-queues, remote locations); lack of knowledge among mothers or heterogeneous treatment effects that induce self-selection among certain classes of families. I think it would be interesting to compute (heterogeneous?) returns to the ICDS program and get a sense of why people are not going.
3) Less than half of all households in India use adequately iodized salt. This could have tremendous long-term consequences, especially for young children. Check out this important and interesting paper by Erica Field, et al, for more information.
4) The data is representative at the state level as well, and its always fun to compare how different states do with respect to various health indicators. Obviously, there is a great deal of variance among states in population health status.
5) There is plenty of other interesting information on anemia among men, women and children, female bargaining power and domestic violence, knowledge and attitudes about HIV/AIDS, household socioeconomic status, and so forth. Again, its a pretty rich survey for public health stuff, and I encourage you to check it out.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
The Funny Economics of Buses
In the course of chasing data in India, I spent a lot of time on buses. While all buses seemed the same to me (save the luxury buses), apparently some are operated by the government and the others by private companies. There is very little to distinguish the two upon first site: both are kind of rickety looking and are often stuffed to the brim.
I had an interesting conversation with a member of the TN Planning Commission on the topic of buses. He pointed out that, excluding the luxury buses, both private and public buses are highly regulated. In this case, all non-luxury buses cannot charge more than 28 paise per km.
Here is where it gets interesting. Apparently private buses are running at a profit while public buses are running at sizable losses. Not only that, the non-luxury sector is profitable enough that there are multiple private carriers in the markets (this suggests that, despite price regulations, barriers to entry might be rather low).
Why is this so? As I mentioned earlier, private and public buses offer the same amount of luxury and personal space. Not only that, both buses run around the same time and take about the same time to reach their end destination. Then what gives? Here are some theories:
Exploitation of Labor: The planning commission member suggested that private bus companies operate on lower costs by stretching their labor inputs to the fullest. Apparently, this is a well known phenomenon - at least well known enough to warrant some air time on this blog.
I'm not too sure about this explanation. Why don't exploited drivers find employment opportunities at other bus companies, that might offer more competitive salaries or perks, or with the government buses? What about employment opportunities outside of driving buses (such as driving lorries)? Unless there are some weird frictions in the labor market (ex 1: perhaps bus drivers are easy to replace and there are few outside opportunities for bus drivers in other sectors, thus giving bus drivers little bargaining power; ex 2: private bus companies collude with each other), I'm not sure if this can fully explain the profit difference.
Competition on Other Margins: Another explanation is that private buses make their meal on margins other than service quality, time to destination, etc. The planning commission officer noted how, on inter-city trips, private buses dilly-dally around, picking up lots of customers, making up the difference by booking it on the highways. Public buses on the other hand are forced (by regulation) to make timed stops and have to sign off on their time of stopping at various points on the journey. The point is that private buses are able to allocate the journey time more productively by spending more of it in areas where more customers can be picked up.
Ultimately, while I think the second explanation is compelling, this is still a bit of a riddle. I wish I had more time to observe what exactly is happening. If any of you have experienced Indian buses, or have thoughts on this puzzle, please post your comment.
I had an interesting conversation with a member of the TN Planning Commission on the topic of buses. He pointed out that, excluding the luxury buses, both private and public buses are highly regulated. In this case, all non-luxury buses cannot charge more than 28 paise per km.
Here is where it gets interesting. Apparently private buses are running at a profit while public buses are running at sizable losses. Not only that, the non-luxury sector is profitable enough that there are multiple private carriers in the markets (this suggests that, despite price regulations, barriers to entry might be rather low).
Why is this so? As I mentioned earlier, private and public buses offer the same amount of luxury and personal space. Not only that, both buses run around the same time and take about the same time to reach their end destination. Then what gives? Here are some theories:
Exploitation of Labor: The planning commission member suggested that private bus companies operate on lower costs by stretching their labor inputs to the fullest. Apparently, this is a well known phenomenon - at least well known enough to warrant some air time on this blog.
I'm not too sure about this explanation. Why don't exploited drivers find employment opportunities at other bus companies, that might offer more competitive salaries or perks, or with the government buses? What about employment opportunities outside of driving buses (such as driving lorries)? Unless there are some weird frictions in the labor market (ex 1: perhaps bus drivers are easy to replace and there are few outside opportunities for bus drivers in other sectors, thus giving bus drivers little bargaining power; ex 2: private bus companies collude with each other), I'm not sure if this can fully explain the profit difference.
Competition on Other Margins: Another explanation is that private buses make their meal on margins other than service quality, time to destination, etc. The planning commission officer noted how, on inter-city trips, private buses dilly-dally around, picking up lots of customers, making up the difference by booking it on the highways. Public buses on the other hand are forced (by regulation) to make timed stops and have to sign off on their time of stopping at various points on the journey. The point is that private buses are able to allocate the journey time more productively by spending more of it in areas where more customers can be picked up.
Ultimately, while I think the second explanation is compelling, this is still a bit of a riddle. I wish I had more time to observe what exactly is happening. If any of you have experienced Indian buses, or have thoughts on this puzzle, please post your comment.
Friday, August 17, 2007
A New Series
Being in Chennai, a city experiencing rapid economic growth, and conducting a project that required constant face time with academics, government officials, activists, and private sector employees gave me the chance undertake a fun, more qualititative diversion. In particular, I asked people the following three questions:
1) Do you believe that India will be a developed country by 2020?
2) Do you think everyone is benefiting from economic growth?
3) What are the top three factors/forces that could derail India's quest to become a world economic superpower?
Over the last two years, India has been everyone's favorite cover girl, with breathtaking commentaries on rising affluence and consumerism in India a sign of the West's fascination with this budding superpower. Also, one of the things that struck me most during this most recent trip was how much things had changed, mostly for the better, since my last visit in 2003. Given these two things, I felt a study on people's perspectives on growth might be interesting.
My "sample" consists of all the parties mentioned above, along with individuals from occupations such as flower seller, auto rickshaw driver, small store owner, large store owner, and school child, with the idea being to try the best I could to generate a representative cross-section of the Chennai population. (Besides getting answers to my questions, interacting with so many people allowed me to practice my Tamil, whose condition I have upgraded from "terrible" to "not good."). My aim is to combine these perspectives with my own thoughts and readings in a series of posts about Indian economic development.
Of course, any synthesis that begins with Chennai is probably biased in the direction of optimism (which happens to be my natural leaning, anyway). This is where you come in: please feel free to post any comments, experiences, or thoughts you might have.
I hope to kick off this series in the coming few days and work on it over the course of a month or so. Hope you find it interesting.
1) Do you believe that India will be a developed country by 2020?
2) Do you think everyone is benefiting from economic growth?
3) What are the top three factors/forces that could derail India's quest to become a world economic superpower?
Over the last two years, India has been everyone's favorite cover girl, with breathtaking commentaries on rising affluence and consumerism in India a sign of the West's fascination with this budding superpower. Also, one of the things that struck me most during this most recent trip was how much things had changed, mostly for the better, since my last visit in 2003. Given these two things, I felt a study on people's perspectives on growth might be interesting.
My "sample" consists of all the parties mentioned above, along with individuals from occupations such as flower seller, auto rickshaw driver, small store owner, large store owner, and school child, with the idea being to try the best I could to generate a representative cross-section of the Chennai population. (Besides getting answers to my questions, interacting with so many people allowed me to practice my Tamil, whose condition I have upgraded from "terrible" to "not good."). My aim is to combine these perspectives with my own thoughts and readings in a series of posts about Indian economic development.
Of course, any synthesis that begins with Chennai is probably biased in the direction of optimism (which happens to be my natural leaning, anyway). This is where you come in: please feel free to post any comments, experiences, or thoughts you might have.
I hope to kick off this series in the coming few days and work on it over the course of a month or so. Hope you find it interesting.
Jobs and TVs in Tamil Nadu
In an earlier post, I wrote a bit about the Noon Meals Scheme in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. This program happens to be the largest of the many, many social schemes operating in the state today. Because much of my research on Noon Meals involved meeting TN government officials and program officers, I also picked up a great deal of information on some of the other, more recently instituted schemes. Here are some of the more interesting ones:
Televisions for the Poor: As part of a large set of campaign promises, the DMK party promised free TVs for poor and near-poor households all over the state upon being elected. Sure enough, the DMK was voted into power and TVs are now being distributed all over the state. Some 160,000 households have received TVs so far, and the government hopes to up this number to 700,000+ in the next five years. (I may be off by an order of magnitude on the latter figure).
Quite a few people I talked to believe the whole TV bit is yet another check in a string of shameless populist promises and claims (check out this humorous piece about populist politics in TN). However, the DMK brass claims that TV's may have a number of benefits, including providing educational and cultural opportunities for women and children and inducing various parties to provide electricity to previously unconnected households in remote rural areas.
I'm a bit skeptical about the latter, but the former may not be such a stretch. A recent paper by Robert Jensen and Emily Oster suggests that the influx of cable TV, with its urban culture/sensibility slanted TV serials and commercials, may have lead to improvements in women's autonomy and position in the household, lower fertility, and higher rates of female child schooling in Indian villages. The paper is compelling and definitely a good read. I always thought stuff like "Kyunki Saas Bhi Kahbi Bahu Thi" was totally mind-numbing nonsense, so its interesting to see that good things may actually stem from its existence!
Employment Guarentee Schemes: This one is not specific to Tamil Nadu, but its interesting and something everyone I met wanted to talk about. Basically, individuals who want to work but are unable to find jobs are either given a job or provided a cash transfer while searching for a job by the government for a period of 100 days. The wage/value of the transfer currently stands at Rs 80 a day (see the flower lady post to put this in context).
Currently, the scheme is operating in some 200 districts all across India. The area of coverage should grow over the next few years, with the growth being especially rapid in Tamil Nadu. I think an interesting set of studies would be to look at the household and labor market effects of this policy. As the Yale Economic Growth Center is carrying out a large panel survey in TN starting this year, there might be ample scope to use the phased-roll out of the program to identify the effects of having an employment safety net in rural areas.
Land Distribution: Some 100,000 individuals have benefited from a scheme where previously fallow lands were distributed to previously landless farmers. The lands are distributed to groups of farmers, with the government providing capital inputs (borewells for irrigation, heavy machinery, seeds) as well as advice on agricultural practices and investment.
What is most interesting is the collective action aspect. Since the group of farmers own the land together, who makes the farming decisions, who owns the borewell, who is in charge of monitoring and remedying capital depreciation? I couldn't get a good answer from the bureaucrats about this one. Please post a comment if you have any thoughts/nuggets of knowledge regarding this scheme.
Televisions for the Poor: As part of a large set of campaign promises, the DMK party promised free TVs for poor and near-poor households all over the state upon being elected. Sure enough, the DMK was voted into power and TVs are now being distributed all over the state. Some 160,000 households have received TVs so far, and the government hopes to up this number to 700,000+ in the next five years. (I may be off by an order of magnitude on the latter figure).
Quite a few people I talked to believe the whole TV bit is yet another check in a string of shameless populist promises and claims (check out this humorous piece about populist politics in TN). However, the DMK brass claims that TV's may have a number of benefits, including providing educational and cultural opportunities for women and children and inducing various parties to provide electricity to previously unconnected households in remote rural areas.
I'm a bit skeptical about the latter, but the former may not be such a stretch. A recent paper by Robert Jensen and Emily Oster suggests that the influx of cable TV, with its urban culture/sensibility slanted TV serials and commercials, may have lead to improvements in women's autonomy and position in the household, lower fertility, and higher rates of female child schooling in Indian villages. The paper is compelling and definitely a good read. I always thought stuff like "Kyunki Saas Bhi Kahbi Bahu Thi" was totally mind-numbing nonsense, so its interesting to see that good things may actually stem from its existence!
Employment Guarentee Schemes: This one is not specific to Tamil Nadu, but its interesting and something everyone I met wanted to talk about. Basically, individuals who want to work but are unable to find jobs are either given a job or provided a cash transfer while searching for a job by the government for a period of 100 days. The wage/value of the transfer currently stands at Rs 80 a day (see the flower lady post to put this in context).
Currently, the scheme is operating in some 200 districts all across India. The area of coverage should grow over the next few years, with the growth being especially rapid in Tamil Nadu. I think an interesting set of studies would be to look at the household and labor market effects of this policy. As the Yale Economic Growth Center is carrying out a large panel survey in TN starting this year, there might be ample scope to use the phased-roll out of the program to identify the effects of having an employment safety net in rural areas.
Land Distribution: Some 100,000 individuals have benefited from a scheme where previously fallow lands were distributed to previously landless farmers. The lands are distributed to groups of farmers, with the government providing capital inputs (borewells for irrigation, heavy machinery, seeds) as well as advice on agricultural practices and investment.
What is most interesting is the collective action aspect. Since the group of farmers own the land together, who makes the farming decisions, who owns the borewell, who is in charge of monitoring and remedying capital depreciation? I couldn't get a good answer from the bureaucrats about this one. Please post a comment if you have any thoughts/nuggets of knowledge regarding this scheme.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Indian Cricket, the BCCI and the ICL, by Maheer Gandhavadi
(Ed.: Today's entry is by Maheer Gandhavadi, a medicine resident, sports fan, and incredibly insightful social observer and armchair economist. If you are interested in writing a guest entry, please e-mail me at asv22@pantheon.yale.edu. Thanks)
I love sports. Most of my time on the internet is devoted to various sports websites and my morning routine is not complete without some Sportscenter and cereal. If I had to rank sports in terms of the enjoyment I derive from them, American football would be on top and cricket would be second.
Cricket receives little attention from people here in the US - most of thetime people think I'm referring to croquet - and its hard to find fault with this. In the original (test match) form of the game, matches take FIVE DAYS to complete. The truncated (one day international = ODI) version only takes 1 day. And by one day I mean 8 hours or more. When you consider the length of matches and the often perplexing rules, it's no wonder that baseball, the godson of cricket, is preferred in this country and that cricket remains relegated to England and its former colonies.
In the past few years, however, there has been a push to make cricket more accessible with the introduction of Twenty20 cricket. Twenty20 cricket features matches that last 2.5-3 hours, about the length of a baseball/football game. So far Twenty20 matches have been very popular and have been growing in number.
*****
Although the national sport of India is field hockey, cricket is by far its most popular sport. Indians devour anything cricket related, and the Indian cricket market is the largest in the world. Indian cricket fans are rabid ;after Bangladesh defeated India in a World Cup match earlier this year, infuriated fans destroyed bowler Zaheer Khan's restaurant in Pune and wicketkeeper MS Dhoni's house in Ranchi (note: I do not condone this behavior in any way or form, it just serves as an example).
The record of the Indian cricket team has been stellar in the sub-continent; they are essentially unbeatable. However their results overseas are another story. Out of 200 test matches played abroad, India has won 29. TWENTY NINE! That is ridiculous.
*****
Cricket in India is ruled by one body, aptly named the Board of Control forCricket in India. They decide what the match schedule for the Indian team, they select the players on the national team, they set the pay scale for theplayers. They also control various cricket fixtures and tournaments within India. The BCCI is basically this big bureaucracy that is in charge of anything associated with cricket in India.
Not surprisingly, the BCCI is India's richest sporting body and perhaps the richest cricket sporting body in the world. Let's look at a few of their contracts:
-kit sponsorship deal with Nike from 2006-2010: US$43 million
-official team sponsorship with Air Sahara over 4 years: US$70 million
-media rights for 25 neutral venue ODIs to Zee TV: US$219.15 million
-global media rights for cricket in India over 2006-2010 to Nimbus: $612million!
Bottom line: the BCCI is loaded. Their net worth is well over US$1 billion,which is an incredible sum for any sports agency worldwide and especially large by Indian standards.
****
What the BCCI's financial success reflects, more than anything else, is the fervor with which Indians pursue cricket. Again, Indians love cricket. They worship the sport. Is it too much to ask, therefore, for Indian success at home and abroad? Can anyone truly be satisfied with the team going from a king in South Asia to a doormat anywhere else? One would think that a nation of 1 billion people (most of whom play and watch cricket almost all the time) would be able to produce players capable of executing in any environment.
Fed up with the state of cricket in India (and no doubt looking to make a nice profit) Subash Chandra, head of Zee TV, announced the creation of the Indian Cricket League (ICL) in April 2007. All ICL matches are to be played in the new Twenty20 format. Moreover, the teams will be comprised of four international, two Indian, and eight rising domestic players. Cricketsuperstars such as Brian Lara, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, and Inzamam Ul-Haq, players who remain popular but whose skills are not entirely on par with international cricket standards, have expressed interest in joining theICL.
The ICL seems to have it all - an entertaining format, veteran players who can attract a crowd, and a way in which unknown Indian players can gain national exposure. Not surprisingly, the BCCI has taken a clear anti-ICL stand, going so far as to say that any players involved in the ICL would bebanned from cricket FOR LIFE.
*****
What gives?
From the BCCI's standpoint this makes perfect sense. They have a monopoly on cricket in India and can easily use their size and power to push any potential rivals out of their market. The BCCI could even go so far as to create its own Twenty20 league to rival the ICL. I understand where theboard is coming from and if I was the BCCI I would be tempted to do something similar if my profits were at stake.
However, as a cricket fan, I find this appalling. The BCCI is full of a bunch of obnoxious, overbearing jerks. They're also self-serving. Every team selection and action undertaken by the board is riddled with politics. It's just ridiculous. On our current team, there are multiple players whose skills have diminished and should just make way for a younger breed. Yet they continue to play. Also, is Anil Kumble really the only spinner inIndia? Yeesh.
In terms of its sheer bureaucracy-ness the BCCI is just over the top. If I had to point to one reason why the Indian team is so stagnant, it would be the BCCI.
The current state of cricket in India is most analogous to the Indian economy post independence (1947). The post-1947 economy was full of regulations and bureaucracy, in part out of fears of another East India Company taking over the country. As a result of these regulations, overall growth was minimal. Only in the 1990s when regulations were lifted and the government decided to pursue a much more open market approach did the economy flourish and achieve the remarkable growth rates we see today.
The BCCI should adopt a similar free market approach. Why restrict the ICL? If it is a product that the people want then the BCCI should strive to meet these demands as well. And the selection process for the national team should follow the Australian method. That is, it should be totally merit based. If you aren't playing well, you aren't on the team. No questions asked. Will this make a difference? I don't know. But, I would be happy to know that our best team was on the field at all times.
One final note to those at the BCCI, I will definitely be watching the ICL when it starts.
I love sports. Most of my time on the internet is devoted to various sports websites and my morning routine is not complete without some Sportscenter and cereal. If I had to rank sports in terms of the enjoyment I derive from them, American football would be on top and cricket would be second.
Cricket receives little attention from people here in the US - most of thetime people think I'm referring to croquet - and its hard to find fault with this. In the original (test match) form of the game, matches take FIVE DAYS to complete. The truncated (one day international = ODI) version only takes 1 day. And by one day I mean 8 hours or more. When you consider the length of matches and the often perplexing rules, it's no wonder that baseball, the godson of cricket, is preferred in this country and that cricket remains relegated to England and its former colonies.
In the past few years, however, there has been a push to make cricket more accessible with the introduction of Twenty20 cricket. Twenty20 cricket features matches that last 2.5-3 hours, about the length of a baseball/football game. So far Twenty20 matches have been very popular and have been growing in number.
*****
Although the national sport of India is field hockey, cricket is by far its most popular sport. Indians devour anything cricket related, and the Indian cricket market is the largest in the world. Indian cricket fans are rabid ;after Bangladesh defeated India in a World Cup match earlier this year, infuriated fans destroyed bowler Zaheer Khan's restaurant in Pune and wicketkeeper MS Dhoni's house in Ranchi (note: I do not condone this behavior in any way or form, it just serves as an example).
The record of the Indian cricket team has been stellar in the sub-continent; they are essentially unbeatable. However their results overseas are another story. Out of 200 test matches played abroad, India has won 29. TWENTY NINE! That is ridiculous.
*****
Cricket in India is ruled by one body, aptly named the Board of Control forCricket in India. They decide what the match schedule for the Indian team, they select the players on the national team, they set the pay scale for theplayers. They also control various cricket fixtures and tournaments within India. The BCCI is basically this big bureaucracy that is in charge of anything associated with cricket in India.
Not surprisingly, the BCCI is India's richest sporting body and perhaps the richest cricket sporting body in the world. Let's look at a few of their contracts:
-kit sponsorship deal with Nike from 2006-2010: US$43 million
-official team sponsorship with Air Sahara over 4 years: US$70 million
-media rights for 25 neutral venue ODIs to Zee TV: US$219.15 million
-global media rights for cricket in India over 2006-2010 to Nimbus: $612million!
Bottom line: the BCCI is loaded. Their net worth is well over US$1 billion,which is an incredible sum for any sports agency worldwide and especially large by Indian standards.
****
What the BCCI's financial success reflects, more than anything else, is the fervor with which Indians pursue cricket. Again, Indians love cricket. They worship the sport. Is it too much to ask, therefore, for Indian success at home and abroad? Can anyone truly be satisfied with the team going from a king in South Asia to a doormat anywhere else? One would think that a nation of 1 billion people (most of whom play and watch cricket almost all the time) would be able to produce players capable of executing in any environment.
Fed up with the state of cricket in India (and no doubt looking to make a nice profit) Subash Chandra, head of Zee TV, announced the creation of the Indian Cricket League (ICL) in April 2007. All ICL matches are to be played in the new Twenty20 format. Moreover, the teams will be comprised of four international, two Indian, and eight rising domestic players. Cricketsuperstars such as Brian Lara, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, and Inzamam Ul-Haq, players who remain popular but whose skills are not entirely on par with international cricket standards, have expressed interest in joining theICL.
The ICL seems to have it all - an entertaining format, veteran players who can attract a crowd, and a way in which unknown Indian players can gain national exposure. Not surprisingly, the BCCI has taken a clear anti-ICL stand, going so far as to say that any players involved in the ICL would bebanned from cricket FOR LIFE.
*****
What gives?
From the BCCI's standpoint this makes perfect sense. They have a monopoly on cricket in India and can easily use their size and power to push any potential rivals out of their market. The BCCI could even go so far as to create its own Twenty20 league to rival the ICL. I understand where theboard is coming from and if I was the BCCI I would be tempted to do something similar if my profits were at stake.
However, as a cricket fan, I find this appalling. The BCCI is full of a bunch of obnoxious, overbearing jerks. They're also self-serving. Every team selection and action undertaken by the board is riddled with politics. It's just ridiculous. On our current team, there are multiple players whose skills have diminished and should just make way for a younger breed. Yet they continue to play. Also, is Anil Kumble really the only spinner inIndia? Yeesh.
In terms of its sheer bureaucracy-ness the BCCI is just over the top. If I had to point to one reason why the Indian team is so stagnant, it would be the BCCI.
The current state of cricket in India is most analogous to the Indian economy post independence (1947). The post-1947 economy was full of regulations and bureaucracy, in part out of fears of another East India Company taking over the country. As a result of these regulations, overall growth was minimal. Only in the 1990s when regulations were lifted and the government decided to pursue a much more open market approach did the economy flourish and achieve the remarkable growth rates we see today.
The BCCI should adopt a similar free market approach. Why restrict the ICL? If it is a product that the people want then the BCCI should strive to meet these demands as well. And the selection process for the national team should follow the Australian method. That is, it should be totally merit based. If you aren't playing well, you aren't on the team. No questions asked. Will this make a difference? I don't know. But, I would be happy to know that our best team was on the field at all times.
One final note to those at the BCCI, I will definitely be watching the ICL when it starts.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Review: Chak De India!
About a year ago, I watched Kabhi Alveida Na Kehna, a full-scale Bollywood spectacle about love and adultery starring some of the biggest names in the business (Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Preity Zinta, and the Bachchan boys). The movie was so over the top - too much crying, too much song, too much this, too much that - that I felt compelled to take a long break from Hindi cinema.
A few days ago, I felt ready to get back into the Bollywood sphere. With only a few days left in India, my sister and I decided to watch Chak De India, a movie about the Indian women's field hockey team (field hockey is a very big deal in India), their coach, and their quest to bring glory to the Motherland. A priori, the movie had a few things going for it:
-No love story
-No breaking out into song
-Shah Rukh Khan in the lead
-The movie centers around sports and Indian pride
There were also a few negatives:
-Shah Rukh Khan in the lead
-Produced by Yash Raj Films, which has a history of putting out over the top, gooey cinema
The verdict? Chak De is absolutely fantastic. The movie centers around a former Indian national side field hockey player (Khan) who falls into disgrace by missing a final penalty shot against Pakistan in a World cup final (he is accused of intentionally helping the Pakistanis win and the resulting craziness is well portrayed). Seven years after the fateful missed shot, Khan seeks a chance for retribution by coaching a talented, yet mercurial Indian women's side to World Cup glory.
Not only is Chak De India a good Hindi movie, but its also a darn good sports movie. Yes. I've taken the qualifier 'Hindi' out of the equation. Chak De certainly has all the hackneyed elements of a typical sports film, but the beauty is that each is 'Indianized' in a very effective and compelling matter. Here are some examples:
-Team Bonding: Almost every sports movie centering around a team starts out with the team members at odds with each other. Over the course of the movie, they set their differences aside and become an effective squad. In Chak De, the penultimate team bonding moment occurs when the girls beat up a gang of eve teasers in McDonald's. It a scene that has to be seen to be believed. (Anyone whose ever walked around with a female relative in an Indian city will truly appreciate the moment! This was definitely one of my favorite scenes.)
The other aspect of team bonding which is quite unique is that each of the girls hails from a different state in India. As a result, team bonding is used for a metaphor for national pride superceding regional pride in the goal seeking process.
-The Tortured Coach: The beauty of Shah Rukh Khan's role is that the coach displays steely determination throughout the film in seeking glory for India. Besides his personal demons, there is no other side story or distraction. Khan's coach is tough, unrelenting and driven, and this attitude slowly seeps into the girls' mindset during the course of the film.
Shah Rukh Khan has done a really good job in this film. This is the Swades or Hey! Ram Shah Rukh that I love to watch: restrained and expressive. There is no Kabhi Alveida Na Kehna buffoonery or excessive crying here.
-The Back Stories: Usually there are some compelling back stories for some of the players to make the action more meaningful. In Chak De the stories center around chauvanism, expectations of familial responsibility on the part of women, etc. Very germane to an India that is changing in both economic and sociocultural dimensions.
-The Montages and Action Sequences: Regarding the former, these sports montages are as good as any I've seen (save the Rocky movies). Regarding the latter, apparently each of the girls (all newcomers in the acting arena) were taught to play hockey over the course of some weeks. I know little about field hockey, but the action looks pretty convincing to me. Definitely well done.
The inevitable comparisons will be with Lagaan, a movie about cricket and independence that won international acclaim. I think such comparisons are unfair. While Chak De and Lagaan share common elements - the underdog story and cross-cultural unity in particular - the message and scope of the two movies are completely different.
The bottom line? See this movie. The acting is great, the action is great, the music is rocking and the goose-bump moments are plenty. You also get a lot of social stuff: women's empowerment, national pride and unity, among other messages. This is good fare and, for me personally, a great re-entry into Hindi cinema.
A few days ago, I felt ready to get back into the Bollywood sphere. With only a few days left in India, my sister and I decided to watch Chak De India, a movie about the Indian women's field hockey team (field hockey is a very big deal in India), their coach, and their quest to bring glory to the Motherland. A priori, the movie had a few things going for it:
-No love story
-No breaking out into song
-Shah Rukh Khan in the lead
-The movie centers around sports and Indian pride
There were also a few negatives:
-Shah Rukh Khan in the lead
-Produced by Yash Raj Films, which has a history of putting out over the top, gooey cinema
The verdict? Chak De is absolutely fantastic. The movie centers around a former Indian national side field hockey player (Khan) who falls into disgrace by missing a final penalty shot against Pakistan in a World cup final (he is accused of intentionally helping the Pakistanis win and the resulting craziness is well portrayed). Seven years after the fateful missed shot, Khan seeks a chance for retribution by coaching a talented, yet mercurial Indian women's side to World Cup glory.
Not only is Chak De India a good Hindi movie, but its also a darn good sports movie. Yes. I've taken the qualifier 'Hindi' out of the equation. Chak De certainly has all the hackneyed elements of a typical sports film, but the beauty is that each is 'Indianized' in a very effective and compelling matter. Here are some examples:
-Team Bonding: Almost every sports movie centering around a team starts out with the team members at odds with each other. Over the course of the movie, they set their differences aside and become an effective squad. In Chak De, the penultimate team bonding moment occurs when the girls beat up a gang of eve teasers in McDonald's. It a scene that has to be seen to be believed. (Anyone whose ever walked around with a female relative in an Indian city will truly appreciate the moment! This was definitely one of my favorite scenes.)
The other aspect of team bonding which is quite unique is that each of the girls hails from a different state in India. As a result, team bonding is used for a metaphor for national pride superceding regional pride in the goal seeking process.
-The Tortured Coach: The beauty of Shah Rukh Khan's role is that the coach displays steely determination throughout the film in seeking glory for India. Besides his personal demons, there is no other side story or distraction. Khan's coach is tough, unrelenting and driven, and this attitude slowly seeps into the girls' mindset during the course of the film.
Shah Rukh Khan has done a really good job in this film. This is the Swades or Hey! Ram Shah Rukh that I love to watch: restrained and expressive. There is no Kabhi Alveida Na Kehna buffoonery or excessive crying here.
-The Back Stories: Usually there are some compelling back stories for some of the players to make the action more meaningful. In Chak De the stories center around chauvanism, expectations of familial responsibility on the part of women, etc. Very germane to an India that is changing in both economic and sociocultural dimensions.
-The Montages and Action Sequences: Regarding the former, these sports montages are as good as any I've seen (save the Rocky movies). Regarding the latter, apparently each of the girls (all newcomers in the acting arena) were taught to play hockey over the course of some weeks. I know little about field hockey, but the action looks pretty convincing to me. Definitely well done.
The inevitable comparisons will be with Lagaan, a movie about cricket and independence that won international acclaim. I think such comparisons are unfair. While Chak De and Lagaan share common elements - the underdog story and cross-cultural unity in particular - the message and scope of the two movies are completely different.
The bottom line? See this movie. The acting is great, the action is great, the music is rocking and the goose-bump moments are plenty. You also get a lot of social stuff: women's empowerment, national pride and unity, among other messages. This is good fare and, for me personally, a great re-entry into Hindi cinema.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Fruit/Vegetable and Flower Vendors
India is a feast for the senses. The sounds and smells are especially memorable. One of my favorite sounds comes from fruit and vegetable vendors who drive their carts around the city calling out the names of the produce they are currently offering. These individuals have really striking voices, both in terms of pitch, tone and loudness. A few years ago I created an mp3 of these sounds and every now and then I play it for myself when I miss being in India.
Here is an interesting question: do produce vendors develop these great voices as part of their on the job experience? Or do individuals with such voices tend to self-select into these jobs thanks to higher returns to their respective traits? I have a prize in mind for the "best" answer to this question. (I leave the definition of "best" vague on purpose.)
Flower vendors are another interesting occupational group. Every night the flower lady comes by and collects Rs 5 - 20 in exchange for a string of jasmine flowers and some pink rose petals. I've seen her the last three trips I've been here.
I always assumed that flower vending was a part time evening job to supplement another low-skill day job. Apparantly not. Flower vendors on average make about Rs 5000 a month (and maybe 50% more on festival months), which is equivalent to what a full time driver would make. That sounds like very little, but consider that an average 1 bedroom apartment in Chennai rents for around Rs 1500/month and, since flower vending is typically carried out by married females, the Rs 5000 salary is on top of what the spouse makes in his respective job. Pretty interesting stuff.
Here is an interesting question: do produce vendors develop these great voices as part of their on the job experience? Or do individuals with such voices tend to self-select into these jobs thanks to higher returns to their respective traits? I have a prize in mind for the "best" answer to this question. (I leave the definition of "best" vague on purpose.)
Flower vendors are another interesting occupational group. Every night the flower lady comes by and collects Rs 5 - 20 in exchange for a string of jasmine flowers and some pink rose petals. I've seen her the last three trips I've been here.
I always assumed that flower vending was a part time evening job to supplement another low-skill day job. Apparantly not. Flower vendors on average make about Rs 5000 a month (and maybe 50% more on festival months), which is equivalent to what a full time driver would make. That sounds like very little, but consider that an average 1 bedroom apartment in Chennai rents for around Rs 1500/month and, since flower vending is typically carried out by married females, the Rs 5000 salary is on top of what the spouse makes in his respective job. Pretty interesting stuff.
Friday, August 3, 2007
Temple of the Dogs
Compared to my last trip, there are a lot more stray dogs running around Chennai. I did a non-scientific poll (i.e., not a random sample, no stratification, etc) and found that 12/15 people considered this to be a big problem and want to get rid of the dogs quickly. Of the 12, 10 were ok with putting the strays down. There is a big debate between these individuals and animal activists on how to best address the problem. Check out this piece for a summary.
I kind of like the strays: they are cute. On our way back home, my aunt, sister and I picked up a new friend, a little white dog who followed us over 2 km back home. He came up to the house gate and waited for us to come back out to play. We gave him some bread and he wagged his tail and went on his way.
After an experience like that its hard to support any policy of killing stray animals. In fact, there might be something to be learned from Bombay, where airport officials were forbidden from shooting dogs on the runway and forced to find more humane solutions.
I kind of like the strays: they are cute. On our way back home, my aunt, sister and I picked up a new friend, a little white dog who followed us over 2 km back home. He came up to the house gate and waited for us to come back out to play. We gave him some bread and he wagged his tail and went on his way.
After an experience like that its hard to support any policy of killing stray animals. In fact, there might be something to be learned from Bombay, where airport officials were forbidden from shooting dogs on the runway and forced to find more humane solutions.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
A Day in the Life
Doing research in India is both exhilarating and frustrating. There are times when I feel like dropping this whole PhD nonsense and going back to the toil of med school. Then there are times when I feel completely motivated to push forth and continue the "quest." Luckily, in any given day, I go through those emotions in that order, so at the end of the day I'm stoked for what lies ahead.
Yesterday was a typical day. I started off at the Government of Tamil Nadu, oscillating between the Department of Social Welfare, Planning Commission and World Bank ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) offices. The great thing about Tamil Nadu is that high-level officials are extremely accessible. I literally walked into the Secretary of Social Welfare's and Member Secretary of the Planning Commissions' offices yesterday to ask a few questions! Imagine trying to do that in a typical U.S. state goverment. Heck, I probably couldn't drop in on the Town of Clifton Park Supervisor's office that easily!
I think a lot of this comes from the recent nationwide push to make government more accessible/accountable to the people. In fact, the Right to Information Act which I am using for leverage in getting data is another initiative in this broader scheme.
Everyone in government is nice and willing to help. Unfortunately, it is still difficult to extract the needed historical information. Apparantly, it is computerized somewhere...but not really. And each official claims that the other one has the information I need....but when I head to that individual, I get returned to sender.
All in all, I think I shuttled between departments three times yesterday, taking the city train back and forth. Like a fool, I didn't take a bottle of water with me, and paid the price for being out in the sun later at night when my body completely shut down.
The afternoon session was much better. I visited the Institute for Financial and Management Research (IFMR) on a tip from Santosh Anagol (do visit his blog, "Brown Man's Burden"), and found it absolutely exhilarating. They are doing all sorts of interesting research there, much of it in conjunction with U.S. economists. A lot of their work has to do with coming up with various poverty reduction schemes and testing these in the real world using randomized experiments. Because its applied, the research is policy relevant and useful for public and private organizations alike. In addition, the investigators try to incorporate questions in their survey that will allow the measurement of outcomes and behaviors that are useful in testing/building economic theory.
Here is an example of an applied problem they work with. Imagine two neighboring farmers. Neither is rich enough, or has enough access to credit, to make a capital investment in a bore-well that could be used for irrigation. Collectively they do have enough to carry this out. However, despite generations of their family living and tilling that land, no contract or transaction is made between the two parties to undertake this investment. It seems that farmers are unwilling to enter joint-liability situations (where would the bore-well be placed, does placement matter in who is in charge of upkeep, etc?). Rather, they are more willing to buy water from a neighboring farmer who already has a bore-well; that too, not through a long-term agreement, but through daily spot transactions. How can we encourage efficient investment and low-opportunity cost financial contracts? What sort of financial instruments are appropriate for this situation? These are the sorts of questions the IFMR deals with.
My visit was to find out more about what they do in the public health and micro-healthinsurance areas. I won't know about that until next week, when I visit another branch of the IFMR. I'm excited for the next visit and will surely keep you informed.
Yesterday was a typical day. I started off at the Government of Tamil Nadu, oscillating between the Department of Social Welfare, Planning Commission and World Bank ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) offices. The great thing about Tamil Nadu is that high-level officials are extremely accessible. I literally walked into the Secretary of Social Welfare's and Member Secretary of the Planning Commissions' offices yesterday to ask a few questions! Imagine trying to do that in a typical U.S. state goverment. Heck, I probably couldn't drop in on the Town of Clifton Park Supervisor's office that easily!
I think a lot of this comes from the recent nationwide push to make government more accessible/accountable to the people. In fact, the Right to Information Act which I am using for leverage in getting data is another initiative in this broader scheme.
Everyone in government is nice and willing to help. Unfortunately, it is still difficult to extract the needed historical information. Apparantly, it is computerized somewhere...but not really. And each official claims that the other one has the information I need....but when I head to that individual, I get returned to sender.
All in all, I think I shuttled between departments three times yesterday, taking the city train back and forth. Like a fool, I didn't take a bottle of water with me, and paid the price for being out in the sun later at night when my body completely shut down.
The afternoon session was much better. I visited the Institute for Financial and Management Research (IFMR) on a tip from Santosh Anagol (do visit his blog, "Brown Man's Burden"), and found it absolutely exhilarating. They are doing all sorts of interesting research there, much of it in conjunction with U.S. economists. A lot of their work has to do with coming up with various poverty reduction schemes and testing these in the real world using randomized experiments. Because its applied, the research is policy relevant and useful for public and private organizations alike. In addition, the investigators try to incorporate questions in their survey that will allow the measurement of outcomes and behaviors that are useful in testing/building economic theory.
Here is an example of an applied problem they work with. Imagine two neighboring farmers. Neither is rich enough, or has enough access to credit, to make a capital investment in a bore-well that could be used for irrigation. Collectively they do have enough to carry this out. However, despite generations of their family living and tilling that land, no contract or transaction is made between the two parties to undertake this investment. It seems that farmers are unwilling to enter joint-liability situations (where would the bore-well be placed, does placement matter in who is in charge of upkeep, etc?). Rather, they are more willing to buy water from a neighboring farmer who already has a bore-well; that too, not through a long-term agreement, but through daily spot transactions. How can we encourage efficient investment and low-opportunity cost financial contracts? What sort of financial instruments are appropriate for this situation? These are the sorts of questions the IFMR deals with.
My visit was to find out more about what they do in the public health and micro-healthinsurance areas. I won't know about that until next week, when I visit another branch of the IFMR. I'm excited for the next visit and will surely keep you informed.
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