Economy

The India Forum's articles on economy that have been published since 2019.

The Mamdani Campaign for an Affordable New York

For the majority of New Yorkers, coping with rising costs of living generates stress, resentment, and incomprehension. Mamdani's campaign that speaks openly about these pressures and urges bold…
▶01-Jul-2025
Adam Tooze

What will it take for India's New Free Trade Agreements to Avoid Pitfalls?

The India-UK free trade agreement may serve as a model for a future deal with the EU. However, talks with the US risk introducing tough terms into a bilateral pact. As imports rise through these FTAs…
▶04-Jun-2025
Biswajit Dhar

How Some Highly Educated Middle-Class Women Manage to Navigate Care and Work

A workspace for highly educated women forced to leave their trained careers is emerging—they avoid demanding full‑time roles of 70 plus weekly hours, and opt for contract or home‑based work while…
▶19-May-2025
Mala Khullar, Ratna M Sudarshan

Reimagining the Road to a More Equitable India

India’s leaders face a crucial decision – persist with Western-inspired economic policies adopted after the 1991 shift away from industrial planning and socialism, or explore alternative approaches.…
▶22-Apr-2025
Arun Maira

Caste and Careers: Limited Mobility Over Three Generations

Does caste still dictate occupation and occupational mobility? A socio-economic survey in Uttar Pradesh reveals that aside from modest Dalit upward mobility, the occupational gap between upper-caste…
▶09-Apr-2025
Rukmi Pradeep, Srinivas Goli

Will the Centre Hold or Will it be Anarchy for the World Economy?

The global economic outlook has become uncertain with all the extreme rhetoric of Donald Trump. Will this translate into action and is there a coherent strategy to deal with the fallout? Regardless,…
▶17-Mar-2025
Partha Ray, Parthapratim Pal

Is the Rise in Female Work Participation due to an Odd Set of Instructions to Enumerators?

Given the high degree of informality in the Indian economy, national employment surveys have drawn up complex instructions to capture all those who work. This however also comes with the risk that…
▶10-Feb-2025
Aloke Kar, PC Mohanan

Stepping Out to Work

Gender-sensitive public infrastructure that enables women to balance care and market activities, is essential for work outside the home. Including a gender perspective in village-level infrastructure…
▶29-Jan-2025
Akash Sawarkar, Savita Kulkarni, Rajani Mathur
Book
Behind the Rise in Women’s Work-II

The Rise in Female Labour and Work Force Participation Rates

The increasing participation of women in work in recent years as revealed by official surveys, especially in 2023-24, appears to arise from definitional changes that now include groups of women as…
▶16-Jan-2025
Avanindra Nath Thakur, Priyanshi Chaudhary
Book
Behind the Rise in Women’s Work-I

What Does Self-Employment Mean for Women in India?

Contrary to official claims that we have “an equitable, vibrant labour market where women play a leading role”, there has been a decline in real incomes of self-employed women and falling real wages…
▶14-Jan-2025
Jayati Ghosh