Comparing the efficiency of different scheme's under “Bharat NirmanYojana”: A Malmquist DEA analysis

• Published date: 01 February 2021
• Author: Sana Fatima,Vishal Sharma
• Date: 01 February 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2110

ACADEMIC PAPER

Comparing the efficiency of different scheme's under “Bharat

NirmanYojana”: A Malmquist DEA analysis

Sana Fatima|Vishal Sharma

Department of Economics, Aligarh Muslim

University, Aligarh, India

Correspondence

Vishal Sharma, Department of Economics,

Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar

Pradesh 202002, India.

Email: economics.vishal26@gmail.com

The development of rural infrastructure is an important component in improving the

standard of living in developing countries. In India, the government has taken up

numerous measures to contribute toward the development of rural infrastructure,

thereby initiating the Bharat Nirman Yojana (BNY). In this research study, the

Malmquist model of input-oriented DEA has been conducted to determine the effi-

ciency of six schemes of the BNY for the time period of 2013–2015. The input vari-

ables selected were; designated investment and total amount released by the central

government against the output variable of number of villages covered or achieved.

The analysis of the data observed that only the telecommunication scheme has con-

stant efficiency of 1.000 for all the years. On the other hand, the least efficiency from

the Constant Return to Scale model was found for Accelerated Irrigation Benefit

Programme (AIBP) (0.014 for 2013; 0.026 for 2014 and 0.007 for 2015). Again, the

Variable Return to Scale model indicated technical efficiency for the electrification

scheme and telecommunication for all the years. Further, in terms of technical effi-

ciency, all the schemes had decreasing change where Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak

Yojana (PMGSY) showed the highest change with 99.98% and the telecommunica-

tion scheme reflected the least change. Furthermore, the productivity index was

found to be highest for Telecommunications (1.443) followed by AIBP (1.312), and

the lowest productivity index was found for Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran

Yojana (RGGVY) (0.353). Thus, it was interpreted that among all the schemes,

telecommunications scheme was the most efficient.

1|INTRODUCTION

Rural infrastructure is the composition of basic amenities that provide

physical and economic development of a village or rural region of a

country, thereby improving the quality of living (Cook, 2011). Rural

infrastructure comprises of roads, electrification, housing, water

supply, healthcare, employment, education and communicative infra-

structure (Datar, Mukherji, & Sood, 2007). According to the census

report of 2011, 69% of the total population in India lives in rural areas,

thus, development and improvement of rural infrastructure is very

important for economic development of the country (Samanta, 2015).

Then 5 year development plan further strives to increase the country's

rural infrastructure investments withrise in GDP by 8.2% (Government

of India, 2013c). Recently, it was found that there has been a steady

surge in the amountof money invested to develop the rural infrastruc-

ture of India. For instance the 12th Five Year Plan (FYP) implemented

in 2012 witnessed an investment of Rs. 557,500 millons in rural infra-

structure and employment generation which rose to Rs. 599,780.29

millions in 2015(Government of India, 2013c; IBEF, 2016).

The plan is also dedicated to connect every village with all-

weather rods, provide drinking water and electricity to at least 50 and

20% of the rural population, respectively, increase irrigation area by

103 million hectare, and that of rural tele-density to 70%. Further-

more, the Government of India has also laid down various other

schemes and policies so as to improve the standard of living in the

rural area (Samanta, 2015). One of the biggest investment plans is the

Received: 17 February 2020Accepted: 8 March 2020

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2110

J Public Affairs. 2021;21:e2110.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa© 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd1of8

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2110