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Reforming
Urban Water Supply Sector in India
-- Ramakrishna
Nallathiga
The
progress of the urban water supply sector has been very
slow in India inspite of the policy initiatives because
of the improper focus and inadequate reforms in the urban
local bodies. Water supply is still largely a supply driven
and public sector activity. Even large metropolitan cities
are yet to undertake reforms for improving the efficiency
of water service provision. There has hardly been any strategic
focus on demand management and improvement in service delivery
efficiency. This paper provides a quantitative and analytical
overview of the status of water resources and then outlines
the need for reforms in water supply and service as well
as water service delivery. The reform agenda thereafter
sets out reforms in water institutions, finances and governance,
which are discussed in detail.
©
2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Schedule
Performance of Construction Projects in India
--
R Kansal and M
C Gupta
The
problem of delay in the construction industry is a global
phenomenon. The schedule overrun leads to cost overrun of
the projects which results in a loss of revenue to the promoter.
This paper presents the factors affecting the schedule performance
of the construction projects in India. To identify these
factors and study their significance, the opinion of the
three major playerscontractor, consultant and ownerinvolved
in any construction project was sought through postal survey.
©
2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Fleet
Management of Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation
--
S Mohan
Fleet
management is one of the aspects which determine the operational
performance of a transport undertaking. An old vehicle has
high operating variable cost on diesel, oil, spares and
maintenance. Old condemned buses are also used by the State
Transport Undertakings due to inadequate capital. Concerning
the above, it has been felt that a detailed study of the
fleet management of Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation
(TNSTC) would help to identify the causes of such problems.
Therefore, the TNSTC has been chosen for the present study.
An analysis of the identified problems would help to propose
possible solutions and suggestions. This paper focuses on
three aspects of fleet management viz., fleet composition,
test for equality of proportion and fleet utilization.
©
2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Measuring
Efficiency of Indian Ports: An Application of Data Envelopment
Analysis
-- K
M Chudasama and Kiran Pandya
The
performance of ports is increasingly becoming important
with the globalization wave. The performance of ports is
highly dependent on the efficiency levels to utilize the
resources and therefore measuring port efficiency can reflect
their status quo and reveal their advantages and disadvantages
in the competitive environment. Since the 1990s, India aimed
at an export-led growth emphasizing international trade
and necessitating efficient port infrastructure. As a majority
of the Indian foreign trade in volume is carried by sea
transport, the port efficiency becomes a crucial factor
for global competitiveness. Available studies have not paid
due attention to the efficiency measurements of the Indian
ports. This paper focuses on measuring the efficiency of
the major Indian ports, using Data Envelopment Analysis
(DEA) approach. Although the DEA technique is widely applied
for comparing the efficiency of many decision making units,
it has been seldom applied to the Indian Ports. Unlike the
econometric analysis, the nonparametric characteristics
of calculations in DEA do not require a prior knowledge
of weights assigned to the inputs and outputs in the analysis
and is therefore, more convenient for measuring the port
efficiency. As a feedback to the port operations in India,
this paper supplements the existing studies by deriving
estimates of relative efficiency for 12 major ports of India.
©
2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
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