NGOs' efficiency and their sustainability reforms: impact analysis through an envelopment approach

The government of India has been implementing various development program activities and reforms through non-governmental organizations [NGOs] in a bid to improve efficiency in the service delivery. There has been little effort so far, however, to review and synthesize the lessons learned from these experiences and/or for further development of services. This paper is aimed to estimate the relative technical and scale efficiency of NGOs in India to demonstrate policy implications in the developmental sector. The empirical analysis was used to assess the efficiencies to highlight the importance of internal dynamics of the NGOs for enhancing its social contract. Nonetheless, the paper concluded to policy makers and the leaders of NGOs that the versatility of empirical analysis in measuring inefficiencies among the organizations and their inputs need a close and continual monitoring; follow allocative efficiency and provide required sustainability efforts for reforming NGOs which are necessary and is the need of the hour

Immune Reconstitution Tuberculosis in HIV Patients after Antiretroviral Therapy

Free antiretroviral therapy is being given to eligible people living with HIV in India since April 2004. Govt. Hospital of Thoracic Medicine, Tambaram Sanatorium, Chennai is one of the largest centers managing HIV/AIDS patients with antiretroviral therapy in India.This study finds out the incidence of tuberculosis as the manifestation of ‘Immune Reconstitution Syndrome (IRS)’ after the initiation of Antiretroviral therapy in patients with HIV/AIDS. All the patients, placed under ART, were followed up for the occurrence of tuberculosis from April 2004 to December 2005 at GHTM, Tambaram Sanatorium, Chennai. 2330 HIV patients were initiated antiretroviral therapy till December 2005 and of whom 1409 (61%) were already treated for tuberculosis. 302 (12.9%) had IRS and 81 (3.5%) had tuberculosis, as the component of IRS. Occurrence of tuberculosis as IRS manifestation is significantly high after antiretroviral therapy. This results in starting or restarting anti tuberculosis treatment with the changed or modified antiretroviral therapy in a large number of patients, escalating treatment cost.