Economy
Economy
Issue Articles
Growing Distress and a Falling Unemployment Rate
What is going on in the labour market?
The Periodic Labour Force Survey for 2019-20 has thrown up some unusual and contradictory patterns in employment and unemployment. However, the trends in the labour market over three years of the PLFS from 2017-18 onwards are clear and cause for worry.
Making Sense of India’s Measures of Unemployment
The co-existence of seasonal and regular employment has posed a challenge over the decades for accurately measuring unemployment in India. An explainer and a discussion in the light of the puzzling results of the 2019-20 Periodic Labour Force Survey.
CMIE’s Consumer Pyramids Household Surveys: An Assessment
In the absence of timely data from the national official surveys, the large-scale private CPHS have become popular sources of data on current conditions. But problems in the survey design & methodology of the CPHS need to be fixed for more reliable estimates.
The Global Minimum Corporate Tax: Not High Enough, Not Fair Enough
‘While the global minimum tax proposal is a step forward, that step is disappointingly short of what is needed and possible.’
Systemic Gaps in India’s Social Protection Delivery Architecture
The pandemic could have been an opportunity for India's welfare measures to shine. But poorly designed interfaces, centralisation, and lack of accountability have made access difficult, necessitating civil society organisations to step in.
India's Inequality Problem
India’s inequality is driven by limited upward mobility due, in turn, to unequal opportunity. Greater taxation of wealth will make possible investments in education, health, and infrastructure which will improve opportunity and raise the growth potential.
Women Bring a Spring of Hope to the Farm Movement
Women have been reinforcing the farmers’ protests on Delhi’s borders, right from the beginning. Their experiences of the agrarian crisis are broadening the demands of the movement beyond defending minimum support prices for crops.
Changing Modes of Agriculture in Punjab
The crises of Punjab’s agriculture are rooted in the same history that made it the granary of India. Ensuring sustainability for farmers and the farm sector requires an engagement with the shifting trajectories of agriculture over the last seven decades.
India’s Biggest Challenge: The Future of Farming
India has enough food; does it have too many people working in agriculture? The pressure on land is an outcome of policy, which condemns most people to marginal farming. India needs a different set of solutions for agriculture and for those working the land.
When Narratives Drive Economic Policy
The case of India's 2016 demonetisation
Demonetisation was not just an egregious act of cruelty but also an economic policy disaster. Yet, the successful use of popular narratives to sell the demonetisation story meant that the public did not make the government pay for this major folly.
Brand India and the Making of a New Citizenry
Branding projects to make India appear open for global business has entailed the production of an exclusionary image of the nation and a rewriting of the contract between citizens and state.
India’s Deregulated Dairy Sector Signposts the Future of Our Food
The result of the deregulation of the dairy sector holds a mirror to what would happen if the new farm laws were to be implemented in agriculture: an easing out of the small producer, greater inequality in consumption, and co-operatives replaced by monoliths.
Confirmation Bias on Overdrive in 'Economic Survey 2020-21'
The decline in the quality of what is supposed to be the premier annual economic policy document of the Government of India is a result of its authors playing to the gallery rather than offering careful analysis of the economy today.
The Wages of Low Public Spending on Child Nutrition Programmes
Stagnant government funding and mis-allocation of available resources in recent years are together resulting in limited improvements in levels of child nutrition, anaemia and mortality.
India and the Pandemic
The First Year
A collection of 24 essays on how India dealt with Covid-19 in 2020, published by Orient BlackSwan. The essays, with a detailed Introduction, cover the history of pandemics, the early stages, the lockdown, the law, impact on economy & society, and the future.
The Political Economy of Covid-19 Vaccines
Vaccine grabs, the refusal to relax patents to enable mass production, and the use of vaccines for diplomacy run the risk that poorer nations may not be protected against Covid-19 quickly enough. This will prolong the pandemic, even for the richer nations.
How (Not) to Fight Monopolies
Lessons from India’s Licence Raj
RK Hazari's landmark work on corporates in 1960s India holds lessons for contemporary questions on promoting small and medium firms and ensuring effective corporate governance. These questions are all the more crucial in times of rising income inequality.
Problems with the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor
Is it time to abandon the programme?
The story of India’s Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor for close to two decades is one of rising costs, delays and the Department of Atomic Energy making never-ending promises of commissioning. Shouldn’t India then stop pursuing the breeder programme?
For A Bahujan Economics
A Personal Statement
Bahujan students face hostility in universities but they cannot give up. They must fight to assert their identity, reject being called “non-meritorious” and master their subjects. One scholar recounts her struggle and demands a more compassionate Economics.
India’s Privatisation Drive
Be careful what you wish for
The case for privatisation is based on the belief that the private sector is more efficient, and that public sector units do better when in private hands. But what does the evidence tell us? These are issues to ponder as India embarks on a major sell-off.
Indian Banking Reforms
Talking Tokyo, Looking London?
With most of India’s attempts to reform its financial sector rolled back post demonetisation, the country could soon be facing a possible solvency crisis amongst state-run banks. The government must quickly return to its early reforming zeal.
Learning from Crises
The Evolution of Indian Banking Regulation
India's banking regulation has come this far through a process of learning from a series of bank failures in the last century. But it might not be adequate to meet present and future threats.
‘Mere Paas Sarkaar Hai’
State Intervention in Indian Agriculture: Why it is needed and how it must change
The uniqueness of agriculture calls for continued & not less government intervention. Reform of Indian agriculture is needed, but this must be to enhance state capacities and strengthen regulatory oversight. What would be a “better government that is better”?
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