-The Financial Express In Madhya Pradesh’s tribal districts of Dewas and Khargone, the NGO, Samaj Pragati Sahayog, discourages cash transactions for agricultural inputs. The interest rates are usurious and vary according to commodities. For fertiliser, it is dheda—loan for the stuff has to be repaid 1.5 times over by the end of the harvest season. For pesticides it is sawa, or 1.25 times. Even barter can be extortionate. One quintal of...
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Tax buoyancy improves, thanks to indirect levy -Muthukumar K
-The Hindu Business Line Research Bureau But indirect tax is inequitable as it is a burden for both the rich and the poor alike The growth in tax collection in relation to GDP growth has improved over the past couple of years under the Modi regime. In 2013-14, the final year of the UPA regime, tax buoyancy hit a four-year low at 0.71. Since then, it has improved to 1.23 in 2014-15 and...
More »Pronab Sen, Country director of the International Growth Centre, interviewed by Ajaz Ashraf
-Scroll.in India’s first chief statistician, Pronab Sen, is now country director of the International Growth Centre, which seeks to build effective growth facilities through engagement between policymakers and researchers. In this interview to Scroll.in, he speaks on the 50 days of demonetisation, its failings, its severe impact on the poor, the loss of credibility of the Reserve Bank of India, the push to make India a cashless or less-cash economy, and...
More »Esther Duflo, development economist and a professor at the department of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), interviewed by Roshan Kishore and Pramit Bhattacharya (Livemint.com)
-Livemint.com Economist Esther Duflo on demonetisation impact, role of randomized control trials in policymaking, low priority assigned to health and education in India New Delhi: India’s demonetisation of high-value currency notes is a dramatic example of a policy announcement made without any serious thought given to implementation, said Esther Duflo, one of the leading development economists of the world and a professor at the department of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of...
More »Pardon, the gender wage gap is showing -G Sampath
-The Hindu ILO finds women form 60% of lowest paid wage labour, but only 15% of highest wage-earners India had among the worst levels of gender wage disparity — men earning more than women in similar jobs — with the gap exceeding 30 per cent, the Global Wage Report 2016-17 released by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) revealed last week. In contrast, Singapore had among the lowest, at 3 per cent. Among major...
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