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The global energy scenario has transformed in the past 20 years. Oil demand, earlier driven by the West, is now shifting to the East, more specifically to Asia. New oil supplies from North America have challenged the hegemony of the traditional oil exporters from West Asia and Africa. India, once a marginal player in the world oil market, is now a valued customer providing demand securityfor oil exporters. This book systematically examines India's oil and gas trade, which makes it the world's third largest importer of oil after China and the US. It explores the changing patterns of oil demand and supply, and the growing market for natural gas, renewable energy, biofuel, and alternative sources of energy. Further, the volume discusses a range of issues that affect India's position in the global energy econom,y such as The geographic shifts in energy production and trade; international relations and economic sanctions that affect the oil trade; India's quest for energy security; and contest with China for oil assets; Building new partnerships, and investing in stable, oil-rich countries like the US and Canada, while keeping up existing energy relations with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait; Using market mechanisms to ensure energy security. Topical and comprehensive, this book inThe Gateway House Guide to India in the 2020s serieswill be useful for scholars and researchers of international relations, geopolitics, foreign policy, security and strategic studies, energy studies, West Asia studies, South Asian studies, and international trade. It will also be of interest to policymakers, diplomats, career bureaucrats, and professionals working with think tanks, academia and multilateral agencies, media agencies, and businesses.

Financial inclusion is the broad based delivery of banking and other financial services at affordable cost to the poorest sections of society. In India, financial inclusion emphasizes to include maximum number of people under formal financial systems. The most important part of financial services in a region is typically measured by number of people who have access to bank accounts. The present study investigates the drive to financial inclusion in the form of the growth in bank accounts of scheduled commercial banks and the changes in below poverty line population. The result suggests that the growth in bank accounts is not significantly associated with the reduction in below poverty line population across states. Providing banking services to maximum number of people is unsuccessful as a poverty reduction strategy. As a poverty reduction strategy, developing inclusive financial systems should give priority, which is financially and socially sustainable.

Trade unionism is a legislative system of organizing workers and raising voices for economic and social goods. As the process of global integration deepens the labour market become more flexible and fragmented, rendering collective organization more and more difficult. In this backdrop, the paper attempted to analyse the impact of union membership on wages in the organised manufacturing industries in India. The study uses a recent survey data on labour market in the organised manufacturing industries. The estimated wage premiums for union membership for permanent and contract workers are 56.7 per cent and 10.3 per cent respectively. Decomposing this wage gap indicates that union membership contributes majority of the wage differentials, indicating that unions able to reserve higher premium for their members. In general, it refutes the problem of free riding the benefits in the organized manufacturing industries in India.

The process of globalization is an international economic order which has led to the progressive integration of the world economy through the pulling the barrier of trade and greater mobility of factors of production. In addition the technological innovation also provides impetus to the progressive integration of the nations. The elements of globalization include free movement of goods and services, flow of capital, movement of labor and the transfer of technology. Many transition and developing countries through liberalization and increased openness to trade have benefited from the process. Apart from the economic benefits, globalization also indicates the flow of ideas, norms, information and peoples. There is a large heterogeneity in the degree of globalization over time and across countries and regions of the World, as well as within countries. The present study is an attempt to measure globalization by using both parametric and non-parametric approaches. The data cover a wide range of industrialized, transition and developing countries on the basis of their international integration. We identify the factors influencing globalization among the countries in the form of economic integration, personal contact, technology and political engagement. We isolate the contribution of the factors by quantifying the individual factor contribution to the overall integration. Finally, we investigate the links between globalization and labor market in India manufacturing industry.

This book offers a critical perspective on the issues related to women's empowerment, microfinance, and entrepreneurship in India. Written by distinguishing experts in this field, this book highlights women's empowerment, which is a process of entrusting power to an individual on the control over resources and decisions. However, these two factors are less effective in a society where religion and cultural dominance is high. The book sheds light on the social security measures undertaken by the government aiming to the right to work helped women who are bounded by social restrictions. Over time there is a shift in rural occupational structure towards non-farm activities, which is largely distress driven self-employment. Access to credit is a great source to provide self-employment that develops self-esteem among women and uplift their position. The book highlights the discrimination against women entrepreneurs in access to credit led to gender biased entrepreneurial society. Association with self-help groups (SHGs) has made women more socially empowered. SHG members help them to change their life in a positive manner through micro-entrepreneurial activities. The book has emphasized on the role of microfinance, which has served the poor to become financially self-reliant. It is observed that for second generation borrowers, the impact of microfinance seems to fizzle out, where MFIs who are gaining efficiency are diverting their objective of servicing poor, signalling a sign of mission drift

Agricultural credit is one of the most crucial inputs in all agricultural development programmes. Access of rural credit has still remained scarce in India. Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS) working at grass-root level, having direct contact with the rural people and meet their financial requirements. The problem of loan overdue is a serious concern in different regions of the country, as it affects the recycling of funds and loses its economic viability as a lending institution. The present study examines the recovery performance of rural credit given by PACS in six different regions of India namely Central, Northern, Southern, Eastern, North-East and Western. The result suggests that the performance of credit recovery has been low in north-eastern states and high in northern and southern states. Recovery performance of credit is directly proportional to non-agricultural loan to agricultural loan, trained-untrained staff ratio and average member per society and inversely related with proportion of government capital to working capital and real growth rates at constant price. To make all PACS viable and ensure adequate and timely flow of credit, appropriate policies are required from the Reserve Bank of India in collaboration with State Governments.

Background Since the Millennium Development Goal era, there have been several efforts to increase institutional births using demand side financing. Since 2005, Government of Nepal has implemented Maternity Incentive Scheme (MIS) to reduce out of pocket expenditure (OOPE) for institutional birth. We aim to assess OOPE among women who had institutional births and coverage of MIS in Nepal. Method We conducted a prospective cohort study in 12 hospitals of Nepal for a period of 18 months. All women who were admitted in the hospital for delivery and consented were enrolled into the study. Research nurses conducted pre-discharge interviews with women on costs paid for medical services and non-medical services. We analysed the out of pocket expenditure by mode of delivery, duration of stay and hospitals. We also analysed the coverage of maternal incentive scheme in these hospitals. Results Among the women (n-21,697) reporting OOPE, the average expenditure per birth was 41.5 USD with 36 % attributing to transportation cost. The median OOPE was highest in Bheri hospital (60.3 USD) in comparison with other hospitals. The OOPE increased by 1.5 USD (1.2, 1.8) with each additional day stay in the hospital. There was a difference in the OOPE by mode of delivery, duration of hospital-stay and hospital of birth. The median OOPE was high among the caesarean birth with 43.3 USD in comparison with vaginal birth, 32.6 USD. The median OOPE was 44.7 USD, if the women stayed for 7 days and 33.5 USD if the women stayed for 24 h. The OOPE increased by 1.5 USD with each additional day of hospital stay after 24 h. The coverage of maternal incentive was 96.5 % among the women enrolled in the study. Conclusions Families still make out of pocket expenditure for institutional birth with a large proportion attributed to hospital care. OOPE for institutional births varied by duration of stay and mode of birth. Given the near universal coverage of incentive scheme, there is a need to review the amount of re-imbursement done to women based on duration of stay and mode of birth.