Journal Press India^®

           In this issue of PRAGATI, the emphasis has been on the rural sector and monetary policy. A refreshing change is the piece on Environmental Kuznets Curve in the Indian context. One of the papers entitled ‘Trends and Pattern of Expenditure and Infrastructure Development of Education Sector: A Study at Elementary Education Level in Odisha’ by Abinash Singh and Ranjan Aneja from Central University of Haryana studies elementary education using district level data on expenditure and Gross District Domestic Product for a period of 14 years i.e., from 2002-03 to 2015-16. The findings of the study show that, the state is spending too less on elementary education in comparison to secondary and higher education. Moreover, on an All India basis Odisha’s rank is declining over the period.

          A study on ‘Transmission Mechanism of Monetary Policy: Case Study of Interest Rate Channel in India’ written by Prakash Anant Salvi and Davinder Kaur Suri, Ruparel College, University of Mumbai, has examined the evolution of the interest channel in India across the period 1985 to 2014 firstly by studying the interest rate pass-through using the Correlation matrix and the OLS technique and secondly, by studying the transmission of policy rates to the real economy using the reduced VAR model. The results show that the transmission of interest rates pass-through from policy rates to market interest rates (both - short-term as well as long-term) has strengthened.

          ‘Labour Reforms and Social Welfare: The Developmental Debate’ is written by Ranita Nagar from Gujarat National Law University and concentrates on how will labour law reforms address the concern of expanding employment and creating better quality employment for 78 percent of the work force in India, which do not fall within the ambit of labour laws and are classified as the unorganised sector.

          A fresh paper in terms of content and theme is ‘Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC): An Empirical Analysis in the Indian Context’ by Sakshi Gambhir, an Assistant Professor, Janki Devi Memorial College, University of Delhi. The paper substantiates a cubic form of EKC in the Indian context for the time period 1991 to 2014. With aggregate CO₂ emissions as the dependent variable, the linear, quadratic and cubic terms are all significant with the expected signs, which confirm an N-shaped EKC for India.

Two research scholars from Department of Economics, Erode Arts & Science College, Erode, Tamil Nadu, have written on ‘Relationship between Money, Output and Price Level in India: A Granger Causality Approach’.

           Two scholars from Department of Economics, University of North Bengal, Siliguri, namely,  Archita Nayak  and K. K. Bagchi, have written on ‘Trends and Pattern of Population Ageing in India and West Bengal: A Comparative Study.’ They show that remarkable shrinkages of population pyramids on population for India and West Bengal over 2001–2011 indicates a decline in fertility leading to an increase in the proportion of elderly population.

          ‘Diversification of Employment in the State of Punjab: Factors and Future Prospects’ by  Gurinder Jit Singh Bhullar and Harinder Mohan, from Guru Nanak College, Moga, Punjab, demonstrate that efforts should be made to enhance infrastructural facilities to enhance the participation in the non-farm activities. ‘Economic Growth and Unemployment Rate: An Empirical Study of Indian Economy’ by Khem Chand, Rajesh Tiwari and Manish Phuyal, from Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology SD India, Panipat, re-iterates that unemployment has been a major problem for India from a long time. It has been found that there is a strong negative correlation between economic growth and unemployment rate.

          I hope that our readers will find this issue of PRGATI interesting in terms of the diversity of topics that it includes and we look forward to receiving more such insightful papers in future.

Prof. K.V. Bhanu Murthy

Editor