The assignment of significant weight to equity criterion without any weight to efficiency criterion in the distribution of federal transfers across states by the Fourteenth Finance Commission may increase both vertical and horizontal fiscal imbalances. The imbalances have persisted mainly due to the assignment of significant weight to equity or efficiency criterion as well as the level of contradiction between the two. The use with significant weightage of either one of them is not feasible with the existence of high economic disparities across states. When the equity criterion is used with significant weight, high fiscal capacity states exhibit their status as 'deficient states' to avail of the benefit. Similarly the assignment of significant weight to efficiency criterion does not enable the poorer states to get their due share. These states try to maximize their share through the reduction of social and economic expenditure which further deteriorates their fiscal health. The simultaneous use of both criteria involves contradiction between themselves because when equity criterion is based on the deficiency in fiscal capacity, the efficiency criterion is based on the improvement of the fiscal capacity of the states. When equity is assigned significant weight rich states exhibit their status as 'deficient states' and when efficiency is assigned significant weight, poorer states show themselves as 'efficient states'. In both cases the criteria fail to achieve their objectives. An optimal weight is the only solution to minimize the level of effect of contradiction which may reduce fiscal imbalances. It assigns one-third weightage to efficiency and two-thirds to equity criterion.

SummaryA survey was conducted to study the genetic differentiation among 16 tribal groups of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra belonging to different ethnic and linguistic affiliations. Sixteen hundred and fifteen blood samples from both sexes were tested for 5 red cell enzyme systems: ACP, ESD, PGD, GLO, LDH, and Hb pattern. Three hundred and nineteen male individuals were tested for G-6-PD enzyme deficiency. The distribution of the enzyme markers and Hb show a range of variation which are more or less within the Indian range. Cases of homozygous HbSS were detected in all the tribes except 3 tribes in Orissa. Two cases of LDH Cal-I homozygote were found in two Dravidian language speaking Orissa tribes. The Z2-values for testing the homogeneity of gene frequencies indicate a non-significant heterogeneity for all alleles in the individual system. Within population diversity seems to be larger than between population diversity. The degree of over all genetic differentiation as measured by Gs~ value is 0.0154+0.0071.

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The composition and trends of social expenditures at sub-national level in India has been examined using the secondary data from 1987-88 to 2013-14