Journal of South Asian Development

This article employs a unique set of data to paint a quantitative picture of the nature of corruption in rural India by computing the proportion of approaches to various officials that resulted in a bribe, thus providing a ranking of officials by ‘corruption rate’; examining the size of the bribe associated with the different reasons for approaching officials; showing that in the case of officials who received approaches for a variety of purposes, the same official could charge a different bribe depending on the nature of the work to be done; testing whether corruption in India has increased over time and finally, by using the method of inequality decomposition, analyzing the extent to which observed inequality in the bribes paid by different households could be due to the facts that (i) different households paid differently for the same purpose and (ii) different purposes required bribes of different amounts, with each household paying the same amount for a particular purpose. The article shows that of the occasions on which households approached officials for getting their work done, 18 per cent resulted in a bribe, averaging `147, being paid. Not only that, every area of interaction between citizens and officials to get some work done resulted in someone, somewhere having to pay a bribe. Even the provision of basic facilities, such as drinking water and sanitation, was not exempted. Compounding this, we find systematic evidence that corruption in India has increased in the past 15 years. The existence of corruption is overlaid with a degree of inequality: The size of the bribe varied depending upon the official approached and the purpose of the approach.

Flows of remittances to Pakistan are being increasingly viewed as a relatively attractive source of external finance, which can help to foster development and manage economic shocks. Remittances have become a major source of revenue, surpassing the volume of foreign direct investment (FDI) and official development assistance (ODA) that the country receives. This study focuses primarily on the stability, cyclicality and stabilization impacts of remittances to Pakistan. It is evident that foreign flows exhibit different types of volatility; remittances are found to be a less volatile source of external finance than FDI and ODA; they are also found to be counter-cyclical and stabilizing, thus serving to stabilize the recipient economy in times of economic downturns. ODA appears to be a-cyclical and stabilizing, whereas FDI emerges as pro-cyclical and destabilizing. Furthermore, remittances are insensitive to cyclical fluctuations in the sending countries. We also consider a structural vector autoregressive (SVAR)-based identification in order to examine the responses of financial flows to innovation in receiving and sending economies. We confirm the counter-cyclical mechanism of remittances with respect to Pakistani output. In particular, our results indicate that remittance flows to Pakistan are mainly explained by the economic conditions in the country.

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have been at the centre of passionate debates in recent years, about their safety, their political economic impact and arguably as a litmus test for broader discourses about development. In India, this debate, focusing on Bt cotton, and more recently on Bt eggplant (brinjal), has been particularly vociferous. This article adds context to the debate by showing how rival perspectives on the role of GMOs in economic development have found differing channels of influence and support, many of them transnational in nature. Drawing on interviews with participants in India, from all sides of the argument—non-governmental organizations (NGOs), research, private and governmental sectors—this article argues that a ‘third’ perspective on the introduction of GMOs, that of ‘equitable development’, has been eclipsed by the transnational resources and media presence of both ‘pro’ and ‘anti’ stances. This article therefore aims to link the study of transnational advocacy with the political economy of development, a link which has not been apparent in much recent literature on advocacy networks.

This article examines the relationship between the concept of neutrality in community mediation and partisan party politics in Nepal. Focusing on one donor-sponsored, US model-based community mediation programme in the Terai, this article contributes to a growing literature on authority formation and the role of party politicians in post-conflict Nepal. It argues that both neutrality and bias in dispute settlement are constitutive of building (Weberian) authority, allowing for the legitimate exercise of power by politicians. Neutrality is not only highly valued in mediation ideology, but is also a crucial legitimizing register in dispute settlement in Nepal. Although resolving disputes neutrally enhances the local legitimacy of (political) mediators, our research finds that there are cases when showing political favouritism also helps maintain power. We find that these contradictory incentives and the need to balance them guide the arena in which politicians choose to resolve disputes and how they choose to resolve them. These strategic decisions made by politicians in order to balance neutrality and bias thus guide outcomes of dispute settlement, and mediation in particular. This raises questions about the proclaimed ability of community mediation to overcome power imbalances and provide justice to disadvantaged communities.

This article examines the adoption of new-generation modern rice varieties (MRVs) and their impact on family welfare among rural farm households in central Nepal. Using cross-sectional data from 416 farm households and the Heckman’s sample selection model, this article finds a positive and significant impact of MRVs on farm income; distance to market and off-farm work exert a negative effect on farm income. The likelihood of adoption is mainly explained by age and education of the household head, access to extension services, seed access and acceptability of the rice grain to consumers. The results further reveal that farm size and land type have significant and positive influences on the adoption of MRVs. Designing mechanisms to help promote MRVs’ adoption among poorer households by developing new varieties suited for rain-fed areas may be a reasonable policy instrument to increase farm incomes. The results of this study suggest that because of the difficulties and costs of transportation and travel to distant markets, availability of seed in local retail outlets will benefit the farmers. To reduce transaction costs, farmers need to be linked to markets by a wide seed distribution network. Integrating farmers with potential buyers may increase profitability in agriculture and its subsequent impacts on rural farmers’ food security and general livelihood.