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1. Course Description

Institutions are the rules of the game; organisations are the players – Douglass North

The course seeks to equip potential rural managers with analytical frames that would develop a keener appreciation of opportunities and constraints in the rural environment. Rural India has witnessed rapid, at times catastrophic, changes in recent years necessitating a rethink on many institutions and their roles.

2. Student Learning Outcomes: At the end of this course, the learners will be able to:

1. Recognize the role and appreciate the importance of contextual environments in influencing decision making.
2. Understand some basics of the rural environment – poverty, unemployment, growth, development, migration, globalisation etc and how public policies have and are responding to these challenges.
3. Sensitize them towards institutional dynamics between the state, private sector and civil society institutions
4. Sharpen skills in qualitative reasoning that includes thinking about complexity and planning for diversity in decision making contexts.

3. Required Text Books and Reading Material

The course does not have a standard text. A set of readings would be provided for the course. An indicative list of books is below.

1. Thomas Dye, Understanding Public Policy.
2. Dipankar Gupta. Caged Phoenix: Can India Fly?
3. Dutt and Sundaram. Indian economy
4. Kaushik Basu. Ed. Oxford Companion to economics in India.
5 & 6. Chambers, R. Ideas for Development. & Rural development: Putting the Last First.
7. Uphoff, Norman. Reasons for success and Reasons for Hope.
8. Birkland, Thomas. An Introduction to the Policy Process.

Reading of the Economic and Political Weekly, Down to Earth, Seminar and Tehelka regularly is strongly recommended. Students are also expected to benefit from accessing the Government of India and other websites.

4. Tentative Session Plan*

Session	Topic / Theme
1	Course introduction, understanding rural environment
2	Organisations and environment
3	Change and the Indian village
4	Mapping development context of rural India
5	Rural surveys
6	Economic systems – growth and development
7	Indian economy an overview
8	Hunger and poverty in India
9	Fundamentals of public policy
10	Fundamentals of public policy and policy making in India
	Mid Term Exam
11	Craft and skills of policy analysis
12	Public policy processes
13	Budgets and policy making
14	Policy analysis, framework dialogue
15	Designing good policies – case of NREGA
16	Globalisation: A conceptual review
17	New policy mechanisms – New public management, institutional economics or PPPs
18	Guest lecture/ interaction with policy makers
19	Policy panel – reviews of public policies
20	Policy panel – reviews of public policies

* subject to changes depending on learning pace and interest

5. Evaluation

Course participants are expected to and encouraged to read beyond standard text books and prepare to relate classroom learning with their RLLE both in the class and through an e-group that will be constituted for the course. The grading pattern is as below. The groups are also expected to participate in analysis of a public policy through a term paper. Relevant films will be shared during the course.

Assignments 30 %
Term Papers 20 %
Mid Term exam 10 %
Class and egroup participation 10 %
End term examination 30 %

The course is assignment intensive and students are requested not to default on submission dates or request for extensions. Details of the assignments will be shared in the first class and at regular intervals.

6. Academic Integrity

Students are encouraged to meet and discuss faculty but advised not to bring leave applications for signatures and request absence from classes. Students are expected to source materials appropriately and avoid penalization.

Created By: Debasis Mohanty on 12/26/2012 at 08:46 AM
Category: PGPRM-I Doctype: Document