Since independence a massive personnel and public health infrastructure has been created in India. However, there is no competition and hardly any choice to the poor patients resulting in poor quality services leading to allocative and technical inefficiencies. This study uses the data envelopment analysis model to assess and compare the efficiency of health system within various states of India. It shows the inadequacy of health infrastructure and manpower in the inefficient states where poor people are concentrated. Among the determinants of efficiency female literacy, poverty level, institutional delivery, and full immunization of children are proved to be important factors in explaining efficiency of health system in India.

The burden of social inequality falls disproportionately on child health and survival. This inequality raises the question of how wide this gap is, or what its relation is with the level of child mortality. Whether these disparities are increasing or declining with the development and how they differ from region to region or from state to state within the country needs to be looked into. As a measure of inequality and to compare the disparities between different states of India, concentration curves and indices are constructed from infant and under five mortality data classified under different quintiles of wealth index from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) data of India. Inequality measures indicate that inequality in child mortality is more concentrated in the comparatively developed states than the poorer states in India.

No abstract

In this paper, we analyse the fiscal policy orientation of the developing economy of Sri Lanka in the context of the growth performance of the economy during the period 1975-2000, using an integrated input-output and macroeconometric model. The paper draws upon the Government's policy approach towards faster economic growth. The empirical findings show that the Government's budget deficits are not primarily the result of an excess of consumption over revenue. Rather, other current expenses, such as Government transfers and interest payments, have been the main cause of the country's mounting public debt. The proportion of Government investment in total Government outlays has declined over time. This could be a major obstacle to economic growth. At the same time, the Government's recurring budget deficits have led to an escalating national debt, and the monetization of deficits has created inflationary pressures. In order to arrest these trends and encourage economic growth, reducing the current deficits in the Government budgets is imperative. Domestic private investment, foreign direct investment and Government investment have to be combined as complementary forces to ensure rapid economic growth in the country.