This paper is an attempt to measure and analyse the demand for a supply of yarn in the handloom sector. It finds that there is a persistent shortfall of the supply of yarn in relation to the demand for it. It seeks to identify and examine the key factors accountable for the shortage of yarn and to explore the possibilities of overcoming the inherent problems.This paper argues that the shortage in the supply of yarn is more a function of the defective system of yarn distribution than of the total quantity of yarn, both locally produced and imported. This shortage is aggravated by the anomalies emanating from the differences in the counts of yarn. It maintains that there is a concurrent need for liberalising import of yarn until its local production attains self-sufficiency and for formulating an effective system of yarn distribution in keeping with the demand pattern of yarn. The paper concludes with some policy guidelines.

In this study an attempt is made to analyze the effects of mother’s work on such aspects of child welfare as child care, dietary intake, and dietary adequacy status of pre-school children by employing data from a rural area of Bangladesh. The data show that although the mother is the major source of child care, older female children are also important. However, the quality of child care time provided by female children is not at par with that of child care provided by mothers. Time spent by the mother in child care is found to have a positive and significant effect on the calorie and protein intake and dietary adequacy status of pre-school children. However, when a mother works, her home production activities, particularly time spent in child care, are significantly reduced. The more hours per day a mother works, the less time she devotes to child care. This has a small but negative effect on the dietary intake and dietary adequacy of pre-school children. Older female children of working mothers devote significantly more time to child care than do those of non-working mothers.

A model of the interdependence between energy and the macro-economy is developed and estimated. The model is kept general enough to be applicable to a vide range of oil-dependent developing economies. As a test case, the model is estimated only with Indian data. The results of econometric estimation are highly encouraging. Primary energy demand is found to be price responsive. Further, the coupling between energy use and the macro-economy comes through very clearly in the estimates. Static and dynamic simulations of the model show high degrees of reliability in the models’ ability to predict the historical behaviour of all the decision variables.