Journal Press India^®

The editorial and advisory team of Pragati – Journal of Indian Economy, to begin with wishes all its readers a very Happy New Year. On our part, we have put together the inaugural edition of the journal’s first (Jan-June, 2014) issue. We hope that this proves to be a good New Year gift.

The first issue has eleven articles that have been selected for publication. The journal encourages analytical and empirical papers; along with some shorter pieces like review articles and case studies. The range of topics varies from financial inclusion, to balance of payments and demographics. Towards this end we have included two empirical papers. The first is an invited paper from Prof. Raghbendra Jha, who is the Executive Director of the Australia South Asia Research Center, at Australian National University. The paper is a rigorous paper that estimates a Probit function to capture fertility behavior in India. It concludes that, ‘Demographic transition is well underway in India with rising incomes associated with fewer children and smaller family size’.

Another empirical paper by Mr. Phool Chand touches upon the topical issue of India’s Current Account Balance. With the help of growth equations it studies the growth patterns of current balances and concludes that ‘the overall positive growth of current account balance is basically an indication of good management of current account balance.’  Other papers analysing important aspects of Indian Economy include a study on rural infrastructure in Odisha by Dr. Chittaranajan Nayak, India’s position on capital account convertibility by Dr. Anjala Kalsie and a study on Indian organized retail by Dr. Leena Kaushal and Prawesh Singh. There are two micro-studies on financial inclusion. One is a district level study on Belgaum District, Karnataka by Dr. Arjun. Y. Pangannavar. It looks into women’s Self Help Groups (SHGs). The other is a case study of Joint Liability Group members of Utkarsh Microfinance Institution, in Allahabad, UP. The results strongly demonstrate that on an average, there is a significant increase in women empowerment. Capturing the aspects of India’s bilateral trade, the paper on ASEAN by Mayengbam Lalit Singh, argues how institutional development over time can lead to developments in bilateral trade between India and ASEAN.

In future, it would be our endeavor to encourage inter-disciplinary papers, such as, sociological aspects of Indian economic development or developmental implications of Center-State relations. We hope that this new journal invokes the interest of all researchers, scholars and faculty. We shall be back with a new issue in the next six months.

Prof. K.V. Bhanu Murthy

Editor-in-chief