Sharing the Benefits of Growth with Citizens
Orissa's Periphery Development Fund

Description:
Orissa -one of India's poorest states, also has almost all the national chromite and nickel deposits, half the bauxite and over one-third of the national iron ore deposits. Given the growth spurt in the international economy and the dramatic increase in the prices of minerals, extraction of major minerals in Orissa too has proceeded rapidly in the last few years.  Can the benefits of this dramatic growth be shared with citizens?  What kind of mechanisms are sustainable?  How is the political economy navigated? During the late 1990s and early millennium, a series of opportune events prompted the Government of Orissa to set in place its model for benefit sharing, of which the Periphery Development Fund was an intrinsic and unique part.  Since royalties from mining in India are the collected by the state government but belong to the central government, Orissa tried a novel experiment by setting up this Fund to which mining companies contribute in addition to what they pay as taxes and royalties.  The presentation will discuss the governance challenges of the Fund and the ways in which the Bank is assisting the government to restructure it as part of an innovative TA program on social development in the context of growth.

Speaker:
Maitreyi Das is a Senior Social Sector Specialist in the South Asia's Social Development Department.  A demographer and sociologist by training, she has a PhD from the University of Maryland.  Before joining the Bank, she spent many years as an officer of the Indian Administrative Service.

Chair:
Caroline M. Kende-Robb (Sector Manager, Social Development Department)

Discussants:
     John Strongman (Oil, Gas and Mining Policy Division)
     Markus Goldstein (Poverty Reduction Group)

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socialdevelopment@worldbank.org| www.worldbank.org/socialdevelopment