PROJECT EVALUATION CRITERIA AND COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS(1989)

This monograph contains twelve essays from experts in the field of evaluation, project appraisal and the cost-benefit analysis. This new edition is extensively revised and enlarged.

The contributions are by men with rich experience in the line and the monograph is edited by an author of rich experience in evaluation and project appraisal for about three decades.

It is hoped that this monograph will be useful to all those concerned with evaluation and cost-benefit analysis

Project appraisal and evaluation have become very important tools of planning during the eighties and have attained a definite status. They manage to identify the pitfalls in planning and development and indicate corrective action. This second edition deals briefly with the coaceptional approaches to project appraisal and evaluation, with discussions on some specific sectors and projects.

This edition contains twelve chapters. Chapters 4, 7 and 8 are new. These are taken from my earlier work "Aspects of Evaluation and Project Appraisal" a brief, but well received, monograph published in 1978. The new chapters are "Methods of Evaluation of Field Programmes", "Evaluation—Some General Aspects" and "Planning Evaluation of Applied Nutrition Programme". Adding these three chapters in the present book makes the work more comprehensive. Further, from the first edition, the chapter on "Cost-Benefit Analysis—Consumers' Surplus Approach" has been deleted since in 1984, a comprehensive treatise "Cost-Benefit Analysis—A Theoretical and Applied Critique of Alternate Methodologies" (co-authored with S. Venu) was published (reprinted in December 1988), in which a fully revised and expanded version of the chapter has been published.

There are three major steps in evaluation and project appraisal. Specification of evaluation topic, i.e., delineation of precisely what is to be evaluated, is the first important step. Designing the procedures for the evaluation or project appraisal of the selected topic is the second important step. This phase thus consists of specifying procedures for making judgements about effectiveness and efficiency as well as selecting procedures for collecting and processing the data. The last step refers to the implementation of the evaluation or project appraisal so designed. This phase particularly deals with the organisation and administration of evaluation. The purpose of this second revised and enlarged edition is to provide a coherent analysis of these steps through discussion on methodologies and case studies.

I am grateful to all the academicians, researchers, teachers, students and all readers of the first edition, the reviewers and the press for having encouraged me to bring out this edition. I am extremely grateful to those who have reviewed the book.

                                                                                        K. PUTTASWAMAIAH

Preface to the Second  Edition                                        ix
Contributors                                                                 xvii
1. Philosophy, Perspectives and Objectives
of
Evaluation
R.K. Dar                                                                           1
2. Objective, Scope and Methods of Evaluation
K. Puttaswamaiah                                                           7
3. Approach to the Formulation of Criteria in
Evaluation
J.P. Bhattacharjee                                                         23
4. Methods of Evaluation of Field Programmes
K. Puttaswamaiah                                                         37
5. Some Issues in Methodology of Evaluation
with
Large Social Content
R.K. Dar and C.S. Grewal                                              47
6. Household Approach in the Evaluation Studies
J.N. Tewari                                                                    63
7. Evaluation—Some General Aspects
K. Puttaswamaiah                                                        75
8. Planning Evaluation of Applied Nutrition
Programme
K. Puttaswamaiah                                                        87
9. The National Accounting System, Social
Costs
and the 'Quality of Life'
S. Venu                                                                        99
10. Social Cost-Benefit Measurement in Education
and Transport Sector
J.N.Tewari                                                                  117
11. Little and Mirrlees Technique of Project
Appraisal—A General Assessment
S.K.Gandhe                                                               131
12. A Social Cost-Benefit Analysis of a Sugar Production
and Refining Project in Goa—An
Application of the Little-Mirrlees Technique of
Project Appraisal
S.K. Gandhe                                                             157
Select Bibliography                                                  183   
Index                                                                       193

Project Evaluation Criteria and Cost Benefit Analysis by K. Puttaswamaiah, Oxford and IBH Publishing Co. New Delhi/ 1989 (second edition), Pages 196

There is an, urgent need for a good text book on evaluation. Short of that Puttaswamaiah has come out with a collection of papers on evaluation written by eminent scholars like J.P. Bhattacharjee, R.K. Dhar etc. Since this is a second edition, the eminent scholars who have written later such as the reviewer, have not been included. The fact that the book has com out with the second edition reflects the demand. The author needs to be congratulated for the pains he has taken, The book in fact consists of two parts. Chapters 1 to 8 deal with the subject matter of evaluation-the nature and scope, types of evaluation and the role evaluation plays in public policy. Chapters 9 to 12 form part two. These deal mainly with cost benefit analysis on which much awareness is required in the country.

What is evaluation ? What is its aim ? What are the different types of evaluations in evaluation ? How is evaluation different from scoial surveys and sample studies ? What is its justrification ? Puttaswamaiya's collection provides some answers to these questions.

Evaluation seeks to search for factors which favour or hinder the objectives of the programmes. In India, evaluation has been considered as an essential aid to the formulation and implementation of the programme. It has also helped in revising the 'Guidelines' issued by Government. Evaluation studies are basically diagnostic in nature. It should be objective in nature. J.P. Bhattachargee holds that evaluation is a special field of social science research. Evaluation should follow 'scientific method' and it should be purposeful in its approach, analysis and results. Evaluation involves judgement. Both quantitative and qualitative data are used; also both primary and secondary. This gives balance.

An evaluator must suggest remedial measures for taking corrective action by those responsible for the execution of the programme. R.K. Dhar emphasises use of proper quantitative observations in evaluation. There is no doubt that evaluation is a challenging task.

YOJANA, November 18-31, 1989

The issues of GNP and CBA are discussed ably by S. Venu and S.K. Gandhe. Gandhe bases his observations on a case study of a sugarcane factory in Goa. His expositition of Little and Mirrless technique of project appraisal is excellent. J.N. Tewari has contributed two important essays. Puttasamaiya's two papers have overlapping and repeatitive sentences and he being the editor could have edited them properly even at the risk of reducing the matter. His one paper is a lecture note. The author has expressed sentences from the Proceedings. of the Conference of central and state evaluation officers held in New Delhi in 1978.

We do hope that this book will be well received and planners and policy makers will derive useful inspiration to improve their performance by taking course to evaluation and cost; benefit analysis in the projects they are entrusted.

                                                                                               S.M. Shah

PROJECT EVALUATION CRITERIA AND COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS
EXTRACTS OF REVIEWS
"The book is an exceptionally well integrated study with imaginative set of proposals and suggestions. It is a useful addition to the available current literature on the subject and can be profitably used by students as well as planners and administrators. No future examination of project evaluation and cost benefit analysis should fail to cite this remarkable work."
               - Yojana
"This book which analyses the methodology of cost benefit analysis and also includes some case studies would be welcomed by students of growth and development."                                                                                                                      -Eastern Economist
"This is a useful exercise in finding, assessing and applying project evaluation criteria and cost benefit analysis in the context of both costs and benefits understood in different ways at the macro-level of the country or an individual sector and at the micro level of a particular operating unit or its components. A useful bibliography has been appended at the end which enhances the usefulness of the volume to project evaluators and researchers."
                -Financial Express
"On the whole, it is an exhaustive book on the tool of cost benefit analysis. All the salient aspects of the concept are examined and discussed by writers, well-known for their reputation and scholarship."
                -The Hindu
"This is a useful book for planners in Government as well as in institutions oriented towards social and economic development."
                -The Mail
"The book will be extremely useful for those who, in some way, are involved in the project formulation, appraisal and implementation."
                -Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics
"On the whole this is a useful monograph for researcher analysis who are primarily engaged in project appraisal and social cost benefit analysis."
                -Margin