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Welcome to the IUP Journal of Governance and Public Policy

December'11

Previous Issues

The overarching purpose of Governance and Public Policy, a quarterly journal of IUP, is to bring professional focus to the burning issues of the day. It seeks to provide a forum for informed debate on and critical evaluation of public policies and governance at the national, state and local levels. India's foreign policy and relations are also given due attention in the light of the globalisation underway since mid-1980s.

  • Formulation of Policies and Implementation
  • Evaluation of Policies
  • Reforms
  • Comparative Public Policy
  • Foreign Policy
  • Global Affairs
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Top-Down Versus Bottom-Up Approaches for Climate Change Negotiations: An Analysis
An Implementable Institutional Reform that Transfers Control of Government Spending Levels from Politicians to Voters
Tax Administration of the Third Tier: A Study of Two Districts of West Bengal
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Contents
(December '11)

Top-Down Versus Bottom-Up Approaches for Climate Change Negotiations: An Analysis

-- Rafael Leal-Arcas

This paper argues that the Kyoto Protocol to the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change was doomed to face difficulties ab initio. It explains why this is the case by analyzing the Kyoto Protocol’s shortcomings and deficiencies. Moving the climate change agenda forward multilaterally among the 195 parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is proving to be a serious challenge. The lack of progress in UNFCCC negotiations in recent years, especially the failure to obtain an international agreement on emissions limitations targets and timetables by all major developed and developing country emitters, has led many to question whether the UNFCCC is, in fact, the best and most effective forum for mobilising a global response to climate change. The current approach to negotiating a comprehensive, universal, and legally binding global agreement on climate change is unlikely to succeed. The paper concludes that no breakthroughs will take place regarding a global climate change agreement until there is more political maturity on the side of the US, and until rapidly emerging economies such as China and India indicate that they are ready to play their part in tackling the climate change challenge, since they are part of the solution. Large emitters of green house gas need to be involved for negotiations to come to a conclusion. Much progress is still needed until we reach an international agreement that covers all the world’s countries and that is strong enough to tackle climate change effectively and is equitable enough to gain the sympathy of all countries.

An Implementable Institutional Reform that Transfers Control of Government Spending Levels from Politicians to Voters

-- Philip E. Graves

Elected representatives have little incentive to pursue the interests of those electing them once they are elected. This well-known principal-agent problem leads, in a variety of theories of government, to non-optimally large levels of government expenditure. An implication is that budgetary rules are seen as necessary to constrain politicians’ tax and spending behavior. Popular among such constraints are various Balanced Budget Amendment proposals. These approaches, however, are shown here to have serious limitations, including failure to address the central concern of spending level. An alternative approach is advanced here that relies on a Coase-like mechanism that transfers control of government spending to the voter. Prisoner’s Dilemma incentives and political competition are seen to be critical to the superiority of the present mechanism to approaches requiring budget balance.

Tax Administration of the Third Tier: A Study of Two Districts of West Bengal

-- Tapan Kumar Ghosh and Satyen Sarkar

The 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act has entrusted Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) (Third Tier) with a wide range of responsibilities. Discharging these responsibilities requires an adequate tax administration. But even prior to this amendment, tax administration of the panchayat bodies were not strong enough to implement the functions they were expected to perform. They are heavily dependent on the grants from Central Government (First Tier) and State Governments (Second Tier). The taxation powers given to PRIs are wide, but doubts have been raised whether they can fully utilise these powers in an effective manner. Panchayats at all the three levels are found to be reluctant to impose taxes due to various reasons. This paper makes an attempt to review the lacunae in the existing tax administration system of collection of revenues by PRIs in West Bengal and suggests measures to rectify the loopholes. Further, it focuses on some problems in tax administration and also examines whether the PRIs at Gram Panchayat (GP) level are able to fully exploit the sources assigned to them or do they face any constraints towards fuller utilisation of present sources of revenue. This analysis mostly deals with the lowest tier of the PRIs, viz., the Gram Panchayats.

 

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Automated Teller Machines (ATMs): The Changing Face of Banking in India

Bank Management
Information and communication technology has changed the way in which banks provide services to its customers. These days the customers are able to perform their routine banking transactions without even entering the bank premises. ATM is one such development in recent years, which provides remote banking services all over the world, including India. This paper analyzes the development of this self-service banking in India based on the secondary data.

The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is playing a very important role in the progress and advancement in almost all walks of life. The deregulated environment has provided an opportunity to restructure the means and methods of delivery of services in many areas, including the banking sector. The ICT has been a focused issue in the past two decades in Indian banking. In fact, ICTs are enabling the banks to change the way in which they are functioning. Improved customer service has become very important for the very survival and growth of banking sector in the reforms era. The technological advancements, deregulations, and intense competition due to the entry of private sector and foreign banks have altered the face of banking from one of mere intermediation to one of provider of quick, efficient and customer-friendly services. With the introduction and adoption of ICT in the banking sector, the customers are fast moving away from the traditional branch banking system to the convenient and comfort of virtual banking. The most important virtual banking services are phone banking, mobile banking, Internet banking and ATM banking. These electronic channels have enhanced the delivery of banking services accurately and efficiently to the customers. The ATMs are an important part of a bank’s alternative channel to reach the customers, to showcase products and services and to create brand awareness. This is reflected in the increase in the number of ATMs all over the world. ATM is one of the most widely used remote banking services all over the world, including India. This paper analyzes the growth of ATMs of different bank groups in India.
International Scenario

If ATMs are largely available over geographically dispersed areas, the benefit from using an ATM will increase as customers will be able to access their bank accounts from any geographic location. This would imply that the value of an ATM network increases with the number of available ATM locations, and the value of a bank network to a customer will be determined in part by the final network size of the banking system. The statistical information on the growth of branches and ATM network in select countries.

Indian Scenario

The financial services industry in India has witnessed a phenomenal growth, diversification and specialization since the initiation of financial sector reforms in 1991. Greater customer orientation is the only way to retain customer loyalty and withstand competition in the liberalized world. In a market-driven strategy of development, customer preference is of paramount importance in any economy. Gone are the days when customers used to come to the doorsteps of banks. Now the banks are required to chase the customers; only those banks which are customercentric and extremely focused on the needs of their clients can succeed in their business today.

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