Introducing Competition in Container Movement by Rail

Container movement by rail was a monopoly of Indian Railways (IR) until recently and its subsidiary, Container Corporation (CONCOR) was the sole operator of container trains. Entry of other entities in 2007 has been driven by larger public policy concerns. In the process, issues such as resistance of the incumbent, erection of entry barriers, denial of level playing field, use of a closely held organization as a consultant, and conflicting roles of IR as licensor, regulator, service provider, and operator came into sharp focus. This paper attempts to review the process starting from the policy announcement (February 2005) to evolution of a Model Concession Agreement (January 2007) and shows how policies were influenced by the incumbent to restrict competition by creating barriers on the one hand and how an alternate view provided by external entities, like the Planning Commission and other non-IR stakeholders significantly altered the course of action leading to entry of a large number of competing players.

Relative Effectiveness of Signals in IPOs in Indian Capital Markets

IPO by a firm calls for assessment of potential agency problems and associated costs by the outside investors. The potential conflict of interest problems between insiders and outsiders could be very high in countries with weak corporate governance mechanisms like India. Theoretically it could be argued that there are quite a few signals related to the firms in the IPO context and available to the investors, which could be used by them to assess the quality of firms. Based on cross-sectional data of 1243 IPOs in Indian markets during 1993-95 period, we find that the under-pricing (or realized excess returns), inside equity and pre-public offer firm reservations made for institutions and mutual funds explain the extent of oversubscription across IPOs. The type of agency appraising the project and presence or absence of foreign financial and/or technical collaborators fail to explain the extent of oversubscription across IPOs. In addition, we find that subscription rate rather than realized initial returns as dependent variable sheds more light on the effect of signals in a fixed-price open offer IPO process characterized by listing with considerable lag.

Beyond the Rhetoric: Maternal, Newborn and Child Survival in Nepal

Nepal has performed exceptionally in improving reproductive, maternal and child health outcomes over the past two decades. In this article, we discuss these achievements and outline a vision for the future of maternal, newborn and child survival in Nepal after the era of the Millennium Development Goals. On the pathway towards quality universal health care services for all, we propose strengthening of health information systems, gradual health system reforms, improvement of existing facility based services, development of integrated service delivery models, improved technical and managerial capacity at district and facility levels. Elimination of all preventable causes of maternal, newborn and child deaths in Nepal should be our collective aspirational goal.</jats:p

Structuring PPPs in Aviation Sector: Case of Delhi and Mumbai Airport Privatization

The concession agreement for the modernization and operation of Indira Gandhi International airport in Delhi and Chhatrapati Shivaji International airport at Mumbai respectively is referred to as Operation Management and Development Agreement (OMDA). The OMDA was a part of a set of transaction documents along with the request for proposal provided to potential bidders. The OMDA laid out the contractual terms for structuring the PPP. This paper discusses the evolution of the draft OMDA from when it was first released in April 2005 to the bidders till it was released as a final OMDA in August 2005 before an extended bidding date. During this period, some of the critical issues addressed were: limits to commercial development of airport land, nature of tariff regulatory regime, contingent liabilities including performance bonds and termination payments, and potential contractual and strategic conflicts. It brings out the intra-governmental issues and processes, and the significant learning that formed part of these PPP concessions, which could well be among the largest in the world.

Star formation in young star cluster NGC 1893

We present a comprehensive multi-wavelength study of the star-forming region NGC 1893 to explore the effects of massive stars on low-mass star formation. Using near-infrared colours, slitless spectroscopy and narrow-band $H\alpha$ photometry in the cluster region we have identified candidate young stellar objects (YSOs) distributed in a pattern from the cluster to one of the nearby nebulae Sim 129. The $V, (V-I)$ colour-magnitude diagram of the YSOs indicates that majority of these objects have ages between 1 to 5 Myr. The spread in the ages of the YSOs may indicate a non-coeval star formation in the cluster. The slope of the KLF for the cluster is estimated to be $0.34\pm0.07$, which agrees well with the average value ($\sim 0.4$) reported for young clusters. For the entire observed mass range $0.6 < M/M_\odot \le 17.7$ the value of the slope of the initial mass function, $`\Gamma$', comes out to be $-1.27\pm0.08$, which is in agreement with the Salpeter value of -1.35 in the solar neighborhood. However, the value of $`\Gamma$' for PMS phase stars (mass range $0.6 < M/M_\odot \le 2.0$) is found to be $-0.88\pm0.09$ which is shallower than the value ($-1.71\pm0.20$) obtained for MS stars having mass range $2.5 < M/M_\odot \le 17.7$ indicating a break in the slope of the mass function at $\sim 2 M_\odot$. Estimated $`\Gamma$' values indicate an effect of mass segregation for main-sequence stars, in the sense that massive stars are preferentially located towards the cluster center. The estimated dynamical evolution time is found to be greater than the age of the cluster, therefore the observed mass segregation in the cluster may be the imprint of the star formation process. There is evidence for triggered star formation in the region, which seems to govern initial morphology of the cluster.Comment: Accepted for the publication in MNRAS, 21 pages, 26 figures, 10 table

A Study of starless dark cloud LDN 1570: Distance, Dust properties and Magnetic field geometry

We wish to map the magnetic field geometry and to study the dust properties of the starless cloud, L1570, using multi-wavelength optical polarimetry and photometry of the stars projected on the cloud. We made R-band imaging polarimetry of the stars projected on a cloud, L1570, to trace the magnetic field orientation. We also made multi-wavelength polarimetric and photometric observations to constrain the properties of dust in L1570. We estimated a distance of 394 +/- 70 pc to the cloud using 2MASS JHKs colours. Using the values of the Serkowski parameters namely $\sigma_{1}$, $\bar \epsilon$, {\lambda}max and the position of the stars on near infrared color-color diagram, we identified 13 stars that could possibly have intrinsic polarization and/or rotation in their polarization angles. One star, 2MASS J06075075+1934177, which is a B4Ve spectral type, show the presence of diffuse interstellar bands in the spectrum apart from showing H{\alpha} line in emission. There is an indication for the presence of slightly bigger dust grains towards L1570 on the basis of the dust grain size-indicators such as {\lambda}max and Rv values. The magnetic field lines are found to be parallel to the cloud structures seen in the 250{\mu}m images (also in 8{\mu}m and 12{\mu}m shadow images) of L1570. Based on the magnetic field geometry, the cloud structure and the complex velocity structure, we believe that L1570 is in the process of formation due to the converging flow material mediated by the magnetic field lines. Structure function analysis showed that in the L1570 cloud region the large scale magnetic fields are stronger when compared with the turbulent component of magnetic fields. The estimated magnetic field strengths suggest that the L1570 cloud region is sub-critical and hence could be strongly supported by the magnetic field lines.Comment: 26 pages, 22 figures, and 7 tables; Accepted for its publication in A&

Are We Seeing Magnetic Axis Reorientation in the Crab and Vela Pulsars?

Variation in the angle $\alpha$ between a pulsar's rotational and magnetic axes would change the torque and spin-down rate. We show that sudden increases in $\alpha$, coincident with glitches, could be responsible for the persistent increases in spin-down rate that follow glitches in the Crab pulsar. Moreover, changes in $\alpha$ at a rate similar to that inferred for the Crab pulsar account naturally for the very low braking index of the Vela pulsar. If $\alpha$ increases with time, all pulsar ages obtained from the conventional braking model are underestimates. Decoupling of the neutron star liquid interior from the external torque cannot account for Vela's low braking index. Variations in the Crab's pulse profile due to changes in $\alpha$ might be measurable.Comment: 14 pages and one figure, Latex, uses aasms4.sty. Accepted to ApJ Letter