Accelerating Municipal Bond Market Development in Emerging Economies: An Assessment of Strategies and Progress
The advantages of using municipal bonds to finance urban infrastructure are increasingly evident to policymakers in emerging economies, some of whom are undertaking efforts to accelerate the development of municipal bond markets in their countries. Many of these efforts use the strengths of the U.S. municipal market as a guide to suggest the kinds of market characteristics necessary to attract issuers as well as investors to the marketplace. Features of the U.S. market are often difficult to recreate in these countries in the short run, but policymakers are using a variety of innovative techniques to approximate essential market characteristics. This article reviews these efforts in four emerging economies: Indonesia, the Philippines, Poland, and South Africa.
URBAN LOCAL BODIES 8 . 1 SUCCEEDING IN MUNICIPAL ACCOUNTING REFORMS : THE GUJARAT , TAMIL NADU , AND KARNATAKA EXPERIMENTS
Municipal accounting reforms had been initiated in India by the World Bank in the early 1980s. The current phase of the municipal accounting reforms began in 1998. The second phase of the municipal accounting reforms had also been at the behest of the World Bank. The World Bank, as part of its financial assistance to the Gujarat Urban Development Project in 1985, had insisted on the introduction of accrual-based accounting in the recipient municipal corporations (six in number) and also in Anand, which had the status of a municipality. The work of municipal accounting reforms actually started only in the 1990s, after the World Bank had appointed consultants for this job and these consultants had worked till 1995 in the selected municipal bodies of Gujarat. Their efforts had met with varying degree of success. The third and current phase of the municipal accounting reforms includes Tamil Nadu Urban Development Fund (TNUDF)-sponsored state-wide municipal accounting reforms programme in Tamil Nadu, introduction of an improved accounting system in the Anand (Gujarat), Jaipur (Rajasthan) and Tumkur (Karnataka) municipal bodies by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) India under the Asian Development Bank (ADB) TA No. 3209-IND, and various reforms in Mirzapur (Uttar Pradesh) under the Ganga Action Plan. There are other experiments like Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF)-initiated project of improving the accounting system in the Bangalore Municipal Corporation. Similarly, the Indore Municipal Corporation on its own has gone for various administrative and revenue mobilization reforms including accounting reforms and computerization efforts. Recently Maharashtra has received USAID technical assistance to introduce state-wide municipal accounting reforms. A.F. Ferguson & Co. have been appointed as the consultants to prepare and to implement an improved accounting system. In this sub-section we cover principally the Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka experiences.
The risk of Listeria monocytogenes infection in beef cattle operations
Aim:  To determine the prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes and associated risk factors among beef operations (cow‐calf and feedlot) in central and southern California.