The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations最新文献

{"title":"Decoupling Natural Resource Use & Environmental Impacts from Economic Growth","authors":"U. Simonis","doi":"10.1108/03068291311305044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/03068291311305044","url":null,"abstract":"RESOURCES MOBILIZATION THROUGH SHGs IN URBAN VILLAGES by Chittaranjan Dash, Concept Publishing Company (P) LTD, New Delhi, 2012, xxvi+186, Price Rs 550 (Hardbound) This book forms the substance of a survey research conducted in 2008 with a view to ascertain the impact of micro --finance in the context of enclave and peripheral urban villages in Delhi. The objectives of the study are: 1) to analyze the pattern of socio--economic and educational status of SHGmembers, 2) to investigate the economic profile of SHG members, 3) to evaluate the impact assessment of micro finance through credit and asset structure, 4) to measure the role of NGOs for implementation of micro finance, and 5) to augment the strategy for better implementation of micro finance. In the nineties, National Bank for Agriculture Rural Development (NABRDs) pilot scheme--micro finance --was launched to bridge the gap between the demand for and supply of funds in the lower rungs of rural economy. The Indian micro finance scene is dominated by Self-Help Group (SHGs) which were formed with the initiative of NGOs with 10-20 members and work as economic unit. The phenomenal out reach of SHG-bank linkage programme has enabled an estimated 86 million poor households to gain access to microfinance (India 2011). The data was generated through an interview schedule and participatory observations by the members of the SGHs with the help of NGO staff and local people from the enclave and peripheral villages.110 SGHs were covered, 52 from enclave villages and 58 from peripheral villages. In all 219 group members, 104 and 115 women from the enclave and peripheral villages respectively were interviewed. The data was analyzed statistically. The demographic status of the SHG members indicates that a majority of group members were in the age group 21-50 years. The average age of the sample members is 37.8 years, the average number of children per woman is 2.73 and the average household size is 4.9. Married women constitute 90 percent of the sample. There are also a few widows. There are unmarried members also in the enclave villages. Majority of the members have qualification of matriculation, at the same time, there are also some illiterates. A majority of the sample population has nucleus family, and own pacca houses. A majority of them were born outside Delhi. Some members came to Delhi through marriage while some others came along with their parents or husbands. Abut 44.29 percent of members joined the SHGs during 2007 and 2008. The motivation to Join the SHGs was provided by NGOs, neighbors, friends and relatives. Family has least role in inducing members to join SHGs. A majority of the SHGs were of the size of 20 members. Majority of members are home makers. In the enclave villages some members are services holders while in peripheral villages it is professional work, shop keeping, and dairy business. Less than half of the sample have annual income between Rs.30,000/- and Rs. 60,000/-. The avera","PeriodicalId":306011,"journal":{"name":"The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124847934","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Turning Points of Environmental History","authors":"U. Simonis","doi":"10.2307/j.ctt5hjsg1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5hjsg1","url":null,"abstract":"THE TURNING POINTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY by Frank Uekoetter (ed.), Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press 2010, xi + 206 pages, ISBN 978-0-8229-6118-5 Environmental history has grown beyond its childhood days, the editor says. But the field is learning that adolescence has its problems as well. For instance, where to start when looking for turning points of environmental history? What are those turning points? How to structure them, materially, intellectually, politically? Is it that case studies or key trends should define the field? For the first generation of historians, the turning points of environmental history essentially were shifts from an ecologically benign life to a destructive, or environmentally unsustainable one. The problems with such an approach, the editor believes, were twofold: (1) there was the issue of monocausalism, and (2) a distinction had to be made between 'before' and 'after'. In the first case, the search for a single factor that put the environment on a downward slope was bound to prove elusive, and corresponding attempts often were defied by the complexity of history. In the second case, the turning point was structurally a 'point of no return', a secular watershed that made the course of history flowing in only one direction. The editor of this book wanted to be more flexible with the concept in order to be more realistic with the results. And so he put the task of definition on the shoulders of the invited authors by asking them to respond to two questions: (1) Where do you see the key turning points of environmental history in your respective field of scholarship? (2) What are the reasons of your choice? Just imagine, these questions would have been put on you, dear reader. We certainly could be sure that the outcome would differ greatly between you, me, and others, and that the structure of any book on such basis would be diverse. Starting a collective book project with no strictly defined hypothesis means running a great risk. It may lead to new and unexpected insight, or to controversial and inconsistent output. How did this project develop, and how do the results look like? First of all, the book is a mix of grand designs, sectoral approaches and strange examples. The first author, John R. McNeill rushes to the realm of global-scale history, the long history of human habitation of the biosphere. Deborah Fitzgerald then looks at agriculture and suggests that the real turning points collect around three extensive historical periods: the first revolution from mid-sixteenth to mid-nineteenth century, the second from mid-nineteenth century until World War II, and the third from World War II to the present. Regarding forestry, Bernd St. Grewe identifies major dimensions of change and continuity: the political dimension of forestry, including an increasing influence and power of the rulers and later the state, who established a severe forest administration; the economic dimension, leading from multifunct","PeriodicalId":306011,"journal":{"name":"The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114647124","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Caught in a Trap. Identifying the Least Developed Countries","authors":"U. Simonis","doi":"10.1108/03068291011055487","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/03068291011055487","url":null,"abstract":"CAUGHT IN A TRAP. IDENTIFYING THE LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES by Patrick Guillaumont, Paris: Economica, 2010, xiv + 386 pp., $ 54,95, ISBN-13: 978-2717857993 In the course of reading this book, Haiti was hit by a heavy earthquake. Instantly one looks for answers to such vulnerability. Could this book perhaps help to explain why so many people had to die when the Earth had trembled? First of all, Haiti is on the list of least developed countries, and ranks poorly on all the indicators used to define that list: it has a low average income, a low value for the human assets and a high value for the economic vulnerability index. In the comprehensive ranking, however, Haiti is not at all the worst case. But one aspect is striking: while most of the other least developed countries became politically independent only in the 1960s and 1970s, Haiti has been independent since 1804! Still, the country seems not to be in a position to handle major challenges --it is definitely caught in a poverty trap. Patrick Guillaumont starts his book with the basic question--\"what are the least developed countries\"--and gives the final answer right away. Today, 49 countries make up the category of least developed countries (LDCs), according to specific criteria and procedures, and as confirmed by a resolution of the UN General Assembly. Countries in that category are low-income countries that suffer from severe structural handicaps to growth, particularly low human resources and high economic vulnerability. In the years since the LDC category was established, the number of countries on the list has doubled, now representing about 40 percent of the developing countries, with more than 750 million people or 11.8 percent of world population. By contrast, their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is just 0.7 percent of world GDP and 3.2 percent of the GDP of all developing countries on an exchange rate basis (UNDP 2007). Compared on the basis of purchasing power parity, the differences are a little smaller, with the LDCs share at about 1.8 percent of world GDP and 4.0 percent of the developing country GDP. Most LDCs are small or medium-sized in population, are located in Africa, are land-locked, insular or arid. Haiti is the only Latin American country among the LDCs. In the literature and in international relations, other (unofficial) structural categories of developing countries are being used. While the LDCs are an official category of the United Nations, \"low-income countries\" is a classification established empirically each year by the World Bank, making a group of 60 or more. Another category used, this one geographical, is that of the \"small island developing countries\", which has about 50 members, 36 of them independent states. A final structural category is that of the \"land-locked developing countries\", 28 in number. Furthermore, there are three political categories of developing countries that partly overlap with the LDC category: the \"African, Caribbean and Pacific countri","PeriodicalId":306011,"journal":{"name":"The Indian Journal of Industrial Relations","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-06-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125279925","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}