Department of Liberal Arts

Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH) is a premier institute of science and technology established in 2008. IITH has been consistently ranked in the&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/reports/" rel="noopener noreferrer">top 10 institutes</a>&nbsp;in India for Engineering&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nirfindia.org/2021/EngineeringRanking.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">according to NIRF</a>&nbsp;making it one of the most coveted schools for science and technology in the country.

IITH offers&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/academics/under-graduate/">undergraduate programs</a>&nbsp;in all the classical engineering disciplines, applied sciences, design, as well as several modern interdisciplinary areas. Students are given a flexibility to explore a broad set of areas, and potentially pursue a minor or double major in a discipline that is not their own. Students who wish to seek a deeper understanding of their own discipline are strongly encouraged to get involved in cutting-edge research with the help of a faculty to mentor them, and earn an Honors in their own field.

The very foundation of IIT Hyderabad is based on&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/research/">research and innovation</a>. The vibrant research culture is evident from the number of patents and publications that IITH produces consistently every year. IITH offers&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/academics/programmes-offered/">graduate programs</a>&nbsp;at both a masters, and a doctoral level, in several diverse areas. There are separate programs for technology, design, science, and liberal arts. The&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/academics/post-graduate/">MTech program</a>&nbsp;is offered in various modes and durations to cater to the ever-growing need of postgraduate level professionals in the country.

IITH encourages and supports&nbsp;<a href="https://iic-iith.netlify.app/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">innovation and entrepreneurship</a>&nbsp;at every stage. The minor program in entrepreneurship is open to all students of IITH, and many of the courses are offered by industrialists who are entrepreneurs themselves. There are various&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/research/centres-incubators/">innovation centers and incubators</a>&nbsp;that promote entrepreneurship and help mentor young innovators. IITH has been very successful in building tie-ups with leading academic institutions around the globe.

IITH enjoys a very special relationship with Japanese universities and industries that goes beyond academic and research collaborations. In fact, some of the iconic buildings in IITH campus will carry the signature of Japanese architecture.

IITH creates a unique holistic ecosystem for education that offers interactive learning, a very flexible academic structure, cutting-edge research, strong industry collaboration, and entrepreneurship. This is an environment which enables students and faculty to translate their dreams into realities.

IIT Hyderabad

This paper attempts a sectoral estimation of sacrifice ratios for India. Two Structural VAR models are estimated using quarterly data for the period 1997–98 Q1 to 2016–17 Q1. The empirical findings suggest that the real cost of disinflation policy is not negligible in India. The estimate of sacrifice ratios in terms of real GDP range from 0.16 to 0.17 depending upon the model employed. The calculation of sectoral sacrifice ratios show that all the three sectors are affected negatively and the largest impact is found in the manufacturing sector followed by the other two sectors, i.e., agriculture sector and service sector. The sacrifice ratio in the manufacturing sector is found to be 1.10 and 0.72 indicating huge negative impact of tight monetary policy. Similarly, for the agriculture sector the sacrifice ratios are 0.40 and the service sector shows sacrifice ratios of 0.36 and 0.37 respectively for different models. Further, from 10-year rolling estimation, we find that sacrifice ratios are time varying. The sacrifice ratio is declining in the last few quarters at the aggregate and sectoral levels indicating that disinflation could be less costly in recent times. However, the high disinflation cost experienced prior to the year 2015 can’t be neglected. So, it is important to take caution while interpreting the results of disinflation cost in India. © 2017, The Indian Econometric Society.

World University root node

Journal of Quantitative Economics

Estimating Sectoral Disinflation Cost in India: Some Structural VAR Evidence

This paper empirically analyzes the dynamic relationship between business cycle, investment-specific technology shocks, and stock returns in the Indian context. Using Structural VAR technique the study finds: (1) business cycle shocks and stock market returns are more pronounced, especially during the financial market liberalization (2) the dominant role of global cycles over country cycles in explaining stock returns (3) interest rate plays an important role to interact the business cycle dynamics and stock returns (4) a relatively weak effect of investment-specific technology shocks on the business cycle and stock returns. © 2017 Elsevier B.V.

Economic Modelling

Do business cycles, investment-specific technology shocks matter for stock returns?

A link between perceptual processing styles and (pro)social behavior has gathered supporting empirical evidence to show that people raised or trained in traditions of collectiveness, compassion, and prosocial beliefs are biased to the global level in perceptual processing. In this research, we studied the reciprocal link - whether contextually broadening perceptual scope of attention via global processing could make people more prosocial. We hypothesized that global processing linked previously to an interdependent compassionate self-orientation would make people more prosocial, compared to local processing. Four experiments manipulated perceptual scope through a Global-Local task using hierarchical stimuli. It was found that participants who performed a global processing perceptual task volunteered to donate more money across different donation frames, compared to those who performed a local processing task. While previous research showed prosocial mindsets lead to perceptual broadening, the current results suggest that perceptual broadening also leads to more prosociality, thus establishing a reciprocal link between perceptual broadening (attentional scope), and acting prosocially. It is proposed that perceptual scope of attention is one of the generic cognitive processes that underlie prosocial decisions. Explanations based on scope of attention can potentially be used as a framework that enables researchers to link the effects of different contextual cues on prosocial decisions. © 2018 Mukherjee, Srinivasan, Kumar and Manjaly.

Fulltext

Frontiers in Psychology

Perceptual broadening leads to more prosociality

This paper investigates the productivity growth and efficiency change of selected automobile industry in India during 2009–2015. This study uses data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique to measure the productivity growth and efficiency change. The empirical findings suggest that the segments of the automobile industry, i.e., passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles and two wheelers have positive productivity growth in the recent period. However, our study found that commercial vehicles are more efficient as compared to passenger vehicles and two wheelers firms. Further, by applying DEA multistage approach to examine the sources of inefficiency. Our results reveal that excess inputs in near about 50% firms are cause of inefficiency and these inefficient firms can become efficient by targeting the peer group with the help of reducing the input sets which are overused in the production process. Copyright © 2018 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management

Productivity growth, efficiency change and source of inefficiency: Evidence from the Indian automobile industry

This article examines the validity of the capital-enhanced equilibrium exchange rate (CHEER) approach using quarterly data ranging from 1993Q1 to 2016Q2. Using unit root break test and structural break cointegration technique, our overall results indicated that the CHEER is invalidated once a structural break is accounted for in the cointegration relationship. The rejection of the validity could be attributed to the asymmetry in the capital flows and exchange rates being not fully flexible. © 2018, © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Applied Economics Letters

Capital-enhanced equilibrium exchange rate: evidence from India

This paper compares total factor productivity (TFP) growth and its components for both manufacturing- and service-based firms in India for the period 2008 to 2014. TFP growth based on data envelopment analysis shows higher productivity for the service sector as compared to the manufacturing sector. Further, decomposition of TFP growth results indicates that both the manufacturing and services sectors are driven mainly by technical change. Comparing TFP growth at the sub-sectoral level shows that mean TFP growth is highest in the case of IT firms as compared to the chemical, textile and trade industries. Further, the determinants of TFP growth using a feasible generalised least squares model indicate that capital intensity, capital turnover ratio and debt significantly affect productivity growth in the case of manufacturing. However, none of the determinants except capital intensity affect productivity growth in the services sector. From a policy standpoint, this paper suggests greater emphasis on both the service and manufacturing sectors despite some variability among firms. © 2017 Elsevier B.V.

Productivity growth and efficiency change: Comparing manufacturing- and service-based firms in India

This paper investigates the impact of public debt on economic growth using key macroeconomic channels for the period 1970–2013 in the context of India. The analysis is undertaken in two different steps: first, it is examined whether public debt has any nonlinear impact on economic growth and second, determines the key channels through which public debt affects economic growth. The results derived from 2SLS model show that public debt positively affects economic growth in the short run, while it shows a negative impact in the long run. Further, by using Nonlinear ARDL approach, this paper supports the existence of a nonlinear impact of public debt on economic growth. The channels through which public debt significantly affects economic growth are households saving, public investment and total factor productivity growth. From policy perspective, we suggest that government should target the public investment and productivity channels for utilizing the public debt in India, and the government should opt for borrowings as long as it leads to capital formation of the country. © 2017, The Indian Econometric Society.

Do Macroeconomics Channels Matter for Examining Relationship Between Public Debt and Economic Growth in India?

This paper examines the impact of exchange rate misalignment on total factor productivity growth in case of 15 emerging market economies using the annual data from 1990 to 2014. First, this study through panel cointegration test found a long-run cointegrating relationship between RER misalignment and TFP growth. Second, the DOLS results indicated that RER misalignment has negatively affected the TFP growth in the majority of the countries within the EMEs and the group as a whole too. Third, we found bi-directional panel long-run and short-run Granger causality between real exchange rate misalignment and total factor productivity growth. Finally, in order to check the robustness, the dynamic panel data results showed that RER misalignment has negatively affected the TFP growth, which is consistent with our results derived from the DOLS. Further, when we decomposed the series into pre and post global financial crisis periods, this study found that real exchange rate misalignment did not affect the TFP growth in the pre-global financial crisis, but it has significantly adverse impact on TFP growth after the global financial crisis periods. © 2017, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

International Economics and Economic Policy

Exchange rate misalignment and total factor productivity growth in case of emerging market economies

We examine the solvency of India’s current account (CA) in the post-liberalization period using intertemporal optimization approach to the CA. Using quarterly data ranging from 1996Q1 to 2014Q2, we estimate a benchmark consumption-smoothing model and an extended model that incorporates external shocks. Overall, we find that the predicted optimal CA in both the models can track the actual CA movements and the extended model performs better over the benchmark model. Further, we also find that the optimal CA is more volatile than the actual CA which implies that the capital flows have been less than optimal and thus makes an interesting case for further liberalization of the capital account. Our findings suggest that policies aimed at further liberalization of capital flows will allow larger CA deficits to achieve higher economic growth since it will help agents to further smoothen their consumption without worrying about risks associated with insolvency. © 2018, © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Applied Economics

External shocks, consumption-smoothing and capital mobility in India: evidence from an intertemporal optimization approach

This chapter undertakes an exhaustive review of the vast literature on indigenous healing within anthropology and psychology. Although the topic of ritual healing has been popular within anthropology, in more recent times, it has also drawn the interest of scholars in psychology and related fields. Much of the early research on indigenous healing or ritual healing focussed on the practices of healing cults and indigenous healers and shamans in non-Western contexts. These studies approached healing in terms of symbolic practices and performances. More recently, however, scholars have looked at the everyday contexts of healing, studying situations where people turn to alternative healing practices for relief from illness or distress. Accordingly, the key terms for these practices have changed, with ‘ritual healing’ and ‘indigenous healing’ giving way to ‘everyday healing’ or, often, simply healing. In tracing these changes in the study of healing, this chapter addresses the key questions about efficacy and effectiveness that are central to this field of study. While arguing for the powerful place of diverse healing practices in society, this chapter cautions against simplistic attempts to incorporate alternative healing within biomedical practices of treatment and cure. © Springer (India) Pvt. Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2018.