Journal Press India^®

The month end brings the coming year 2023 into focus. This issue of PRAGATI: Journal of Indian Economy contains eight papers on a variety of topics. The range of topics vary from dairy farming, household assets, women entrepreneurship, inflation, Indian stock market to MNREGA. The academia is slowly coming out of the malaise of COVID. Active researchers are back on track of academic writing.

Archita Nayak, Kanti Paul, and Kanak Kanti Bagchi, in their paper, assert that the dairy sector plays a vital role in the case of a nation’s food supply, engagement of rural workforce etc. This paper conducts an inter-state analysis to understand the production, consumption and marketing status of dairy development in India. The paper on ‘Distribution of household assets and the resultant pattern of income among citrus fruits growers in Himachal Pradesh’ by Vinod Kumar, Vivek Kumar, and K.C. Sharma, observes that distribution of land is followed by inequality in the distribution of income and assets which further leads to unequal access to the decision-making process. Mass poverty and chronic underutilization of enormous human potential are commonly considered as the most important concerns.

The paper by Nupur and V. Shunmugasundaram builds on the notion that ‘women’s development is central to nation-building’ and analyses success factors of women entrepreneurship in India. Another paper titled ‘Impact of inflation on consumption pattern of households’ by Amit Saha, concludes that inflation has a severe impact on households as the prices of necessities have surged beyond their purchasing power pushing them further below in their living standard.

This issue of PRAGATI has two papers dealing with different dimensions of the impact of Covid-19 on Indian economy. The paper by Basu Garg and Vikas Chander delves on the various government measures to mitigate the effect of Covid-19 on Indian economy. Another paper by Sourabh Mahendrakar, Sneha Nimbayi and Sagar Patil, talks of the impact of four major events (i.e. NITI Aayog, Demonetization, GST and N-Covid-19) on the Indian stock market and concludes that indices were significantly impacted by events with negative yield in the short run.

There are two papers in the nature of case studies. The paper by Rahul Kumar Si, Raj Kishor Pradhan and Bhukhanda Palita observes the impact of MGNREGA on economic and social development of beneficiaries in Subarnapur district of Odisha. The authors find that the scheme has immense scope and impact and that the results in social security aspect are encouraging. Another paper is on the tribal block, Bharmour, Chamba district, Himachal Pradesh that concentrates on the pattern of household income and employment. The paper is written by Sanjeev Kumar and Rajesh Kumar. The paper uses a binary logistic regression model and analyses the determinants that influence workforce to undertake non-agriculture activity as principal occupation.

We hope this issue of PRAGATI will provides useful insights to our readers on diverse issues confronting the Indian economy and we look forward to the continued support of our authors and readers.

Wishing you all a very happy and prosperous New Year.

Prof. K. V. Bhanu Murthy
Editor