(SoHSS) School of Humanities and Social Sciences

<p>Shiv Nadar University is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, research-focused, and student-centric University offering a full range of academic programs at the undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral level. With state-of-the-art infrastructure, the University comprises of academic wings, sophisticated labs, international standard sports facilities, amphitheaters, auditorium, conference rooms and smart classrooms. The University&rsquo;s goal is to become internationally recognized for the quality of its research and creative endeavors and their applicability to improving quality of life, generating new insights and expanding the boundaries of human knowledge creativity. Committed to excellence in teaching, research and service, the University aims to serve the higher education needs of India and the world beyond.</p>

Shiv Nadar University

The issue of scale is examined in the context of a watershed development policy (WSD) in India. WSD policy goals, by improving the natural resource base, aim to improve the livelihoods of rural communities through increased sustainable production. It has generally been practiced at a micro-level of less than 500 ha, as this was seen to be a scale that would encourage participative management. There has been some concern that this land area may be too small and may lead to less than optimal hydrological, economic and equity outcomes. As a result there has been a move to create guidelines for meso-scale WSD of above 5,000 ha in an endeavour to improve outcomes. A multidisciplinary team was assembled to evaluate the proposed meso-scale approach. In developing an adequate methodology for the evaluation it soon became clear that scale in itself was not the only determinant of success. The effect of geographical scale (or level) on WSD is determined by the variation in other drivers that will influence WSD success such as hydrological conditions, land use and available institutional structures. How this should be interpreted at different levels in the light of interactions between biophysical and socio-economic scales is discussed. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.

World University root node

Economics

Fulltext

Hydrogeology Journal

Confronting scale in watershed development in India [Confrontation d'échelles dans le développement d'un bassin versant en Inde]

This dissertation consists of three essays. In the first essay, I study the interactions of students with limited English proficiency (LEP). It is vital to study these LEP students' (LEPs) interactions because immigration into the United States continues to usher many foreign students with LEP into American schools. Additionally, U.S.-born children from immigrant homes enter schools knowing little English. In order to understand how best to instruct these limited English proficient (LEP) students, it is important to examine how concentration of LEP students (LEPs) affects educational outcomes of the LEPs themselves. On one hand, having a larger number of LEPs allows teachers to deliver a more focused instruction. On the other hand, LEPs may speak in their native languages more often and practice speaking English less when they are surrounded by many other LEPs. In this paper, I examine the effects of classmate English proficiency on the educational outcomes of LEP 5th graders using administrative data from an urban school district. Specifically, I study how exposure to LEPs affects the achievement, mainstreaming and grade retention of LEPs using the idiosyncratic variation in LEP shares across cohorts in a school. I find having more LEPs in a cohort leads to higher math achievement, faster mainstreaming and less grade retention amongst LEP students. In the second essay, I partnered with Scott Imberman and Steven Craig. We identify the impact of gifted and talented services on student outcomes by exploiting a discontinuity in eligibility requirements and find no impact on standardized test scores of marginal students even though quality of peers and classes improve substantially. We then use randomized lotteries to examine the impact of attending a GT magnet program, relative to programs in other schools and find that, despite exposure to higher quality teachers and peers, only science achievement improves. We find that the relative ranking of the students change, as do their grades, indicating that either invidious comparison peer effects or teaching targeting may be important. In the third essay (with Adriana Kugler), we examine the impact of remittances on households' investments and consumption in Vietnam using the Living Standards Surveys. Given that households likely face budget constraints in Vietnam, one may expect for remittances to affect the decisions of households to invest and consume. In addition, since the unitary model of the household is particularly unlikely to represent households in developing countries, we also look at differential impacts when women receive a larger fraction of the remittances. We use an instrumental variables strategy to address the fact that households receiving different amounts of remittances and sending different amounts of remittances to women are likely to differ in terms of their observable and unobservable characteristics that correlate with investments and spending. We instrument the amount of remittances and the share of remittances going to women with the 1992 migration rate from the household's region of residence and the interaction between this variable and the share of women in the household. OLS results show that remittances are associated with better health of young, adult and older individuals, while the fraction of remittances received by women is associated with greater educational attainment and attendance and less child labor while changing the composition of consumption expenditures from all categories towards health expenditures. However, when we use an IV strategy, we find that remittances increase education expenditure while reduce food expenditure. More importantly, the fraction of remittances received by women increases the household expenditure on health relative to other household expenditures. The results thus show not only the amount of remittances but also the identity of the receiver matters in terms of increasing human capital investments for children and their family members.

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses

Essays on applied microeconomics

For the longest part of the two decades since the end of the Cold War, there were mostly Indian perspectives, rather than debates, on Iran and bilateral relations. Domestic debates on Iran began in 2005 and continued until mid-2008, reaching a crescendo during this period and dissipating soon after. The debates, when they took place, were not about influencing the government's Iran policy. Rather they were the necessary oppositions that emerged from specificities of India's domestic politics in which coalition compulsions, parliamentary democracy and ideological differences played their part. {\textcopyright} 2012 Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.

International Relations and Governance Studies

Strategic Analysis

Necessary oppositions: Domestic debates on Iran

Emphasis on democracy in Indian and international perspectives on India's foreign policy has grown over the past decade. Claiming that India is a 'successful' example of a non-Western liberal democracy, these perspectives prescribe a role for India in international democratisation efforts. The keener among these suggests that India must participate in Western-style, or Western initiatives of, democracy promotion. This article offers a critique of these prescriptions. Recent theorisations of India's democratic practices argue that India is a predominantly non-liberal democracy. Drawing upon these theorisations, this article outlines the non-liberal features inherent in the practices of Indian democracy. It also outlines the democratic processes that restrain India's foreign policy from acquiring an other-regarding orientation. Contesting the characterisations of India as a liberal democracy, this article questions the basis on which the calls for India to participate in liberal democracy promotion projects are made.

South Asian Survey

India's non-liberal democracy and the discourse of democracy promotion

English

Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities

Exploring dickens through a director's lens: A study of the cinematic presentation of a tale of two cities

Sociology

Diog{\`{e}}ne

Coutume et politique

Climate change is a bag of nettles in India’s contentious, iniquitous and unsustainable agriculture sector. Climate change is expected to adversely impact agriculture through increased temperatures, inter-and intra-seasonal changes in precipitation and temperature regimes, and sea level rise. The expected result is an overall decline in food grain production in the country. © 2012 Selection and editorial material, Navroz K. Dubash.

Handbook of Climate Change and India: Development, Politics and Governance

Agriculture in the environment: Are sustainable climate friendly systems possible in India?

This paper designs a stylized model representing farming in water-scarce regions of South India to address the problem of managing depleting groundwater assets facing the threat of irreversible loss. Circumstances under which it may be optimal to forgo sustainable water use are evaluated in the context of farmers' wealth and land endowments, crop choices, and risk of groundwater loss. Several policy and management implications are derived. Additionally, it is argued here that attaining livelihood resilience will entail a transformation process involving tradeoffs between different capital assets where it may be optimal for a farmer to forego the objective of maintaining groundwater sustainability. However, mere forgoing of sustainability may not ensure resilience for all. Initial wealth and risk endowments come into play, especially in heterogeneous communities. © 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.

Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management

Natural resource sustainability versus livelihood resilience: Model of groundwater exploitation strategies in developing regions

This book uses eclectic, triangulated methods to explore the socio-economics of waste and of the commodity chains involved in recycling. Known as 'unorganised' in India, this part of the informal economy is anything but that. In developing theoretical ideas about poverty, agency and choice, the politics of caste and patronage, the institutions and regulation of markets and judicial activism, this book illustrates how grounded field research contributes to practical policies of urban land-use, pollution, and livelihoods. Its study of garbage collectors, scavengers, and the plastic recycling or scrap trading self-employed entrepreneurs reveals a very complex pattern of organisation and linkages with the market economy and productive employment. The book shows that the most imperative requirement for a policy of alleviating poverty and expanding employment is understanding very clearly how the different segments of India's informal economy work, interact with each other, and link up with market forces. © Oxford University Press 2010. All rights reserved.

Of Poverty and Plastic: Scavenging and Scrap Trading Entrepreneurs in India's Urban Informal Economy

It is only in the recent decade that distinct archaeological studies on children have emerged. One of the ways in which children have been made archaeologically visible has been in the context of craft and learning frameworks where they have been perceived as active agents in the production of material culture. Archaeologically, the work of novice crafters can be discerned through attributes of small size, asymmetrical forms, and other deficiencies in manufacturing techniques suggesting inadequate conceptual frames as well as less developed physical skills. The deposits recovered during the excavations in the northwestern part of the ancient site of Indor Khera have been dated between 200 b.c. and a.d. 300. The excavations have revealed in an early phase a potter's house within and around which several miniature vessels with similar characteristics were found, perhaps the work of children. Further, numerous tiny terracotta and clay lumps indicate that to begin children might have been given small bits of clay to play with. It appears that the ceramic craft may have involved a gradual learning process that included play, observation, and experimentation. © 2011 by the University of Hawai'i Press.