Ensuring Rural Infrastructure in India: Role of Rural Infrastructure Development fund

Rajeev, Meenakshi (2008): Ensuring Rural Infrastructure in India: Role of Rural Infrastructure Development fund.

Abstract

Inclusive economic growth is the most talked about issue in India. This is due to the fact that the impacts of the recent spectacular growth have not been able to percolate down to various segments of population, most importantly to the rural population. Rural infrastructure in India have still remained far from satisfactory and amongst others, lack of funds is one critical reason for this. In order to ensure smooth flow of funds for the development of infrastructure in rural India, rural infrastructure development fund (RIDF) was introduced in the budget of 1995-’96. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governs this fund through NABARD with corpus from the commercial banks. This paper is an attempt to critically examine some of the issues that arise in the context of utilization of the fund by different states of India. The study finds that many projects remain incomplete even after receiving funds under RIDF and certain measures are necessary to ensure proper utilization of funds as well as to reduce intra rural disparity in India.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Key Words: Rural Infrastructure Development Fund, Corpus, RIDF Tranche
• Subjects: H - Public Economics > H5 - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies > H54 - Infrastructures ; Other Public Investment and Capital Stock; H - Public Economics > H5 - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies > H53 - Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs

References

Ahluwalia, M.S., 1985, Rural Poverty, Agricultural Production, and Prices: A Re-examination, in J. Mellor and G. Deasi (eds), Agricultural Change and Rural Poverty, John Hopkins Press, Baltimore, MD.

Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, Economic Intelligence Services Report, Different Issues, Mumbai.

Government of Andhra Pradesh, 2000, Strategy Paper on Poverty Eradication in Andhra Pradesh, http://www.aponline.gov.in/ quick%20links/strategy%20papers/strategy_paper_poverty_eradication.html

Government of India, 1995, Union Budget.

Jha, Raghbendra, 2002, "Rural Poverty in India: Structure, determinants and suggestions for policy reform," ASARC Working Papers 2002-07, Australian National University, Australia South Asia Research Centre.

Morris, A. A. and S. Morris, 2003, Rural Infrastructure Development Fund: A Review, in Morris. S (eds.), 2003.

Morris, Sebastian (eds.), 2003, India Infrastructure Report: Public Expenditure allocation and Accountability, 3i Network, Oxford University Press, New Delhi.

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development ,1996-2002, Annual Reports, NABARD, Mumbai, India.

National Council for Applied Economic Research, 2006, India Rural Infrastructure Report, New Delhi.

Rajaraman, Indira, 2003, Inter-state Variations in Utilization of the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund, Working paper no. E/235/2003, Institute of Economic Growth, New Delhi.

Rajeev, Meenakshi , 2008, A Critical Analysis of RIDF, Economic and Political Weekly, XLIII, 7, pp.27-31.

Rajeev, Meenakshi, 2008, Rural Infrastructure Development Fund: Need for a Track Change, Working paper No. 195, ISEC.

Vos Rob, L Taylor, R P D Barros , 2002, Economic Liberalization, Distribution and Poverty : Latin America in the 1990s, UNDP, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., UK.