Without policy efforts to deal specifically with issues such as reduced incomes and unemployment, the global economic crisis will be far from over. FOR most economic commentators, 2010 begins on an optimistic note. Just a year ago, there was much gloom about the world economy. The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression had broken out in full fury; asset markets in the United States, Europe and then most developing...

New method finds India is 9 per cent poorer india is poorer than previously estimated. A revised estimation of poverty for 2004-05 using new methodology showed the number of people below the poverty line was 37.2 per cent and not 28.3 per cent, as estimated earlier. The new estimate took into account expenditure on food, basic health and education, unlike the earlier estimation based on per capita calorie consumption. The inclusions...

What sets poverty in India apart is the effort that has gone into defining, measuring, recalibrating, contesting, recounting, refining and disputing its magnitude, nature and, at least, in the case of one protagonist, existence. This exegesis on poverty has been captured in a World Bank volume, The Great Indian Poverty Debate, published before the latest estimates by Prof Suresh Tendulkar kicked off yet another round of heated discussion on the...

The price of many commodities are expected to rise this year primarily fuelled by increased demand worldwide, the International Monetary Fund has said. The demand for commodities is anticipated to grow as the global economy is improving, after witnessing one of the worst financial meltdowns in 2009. "Looking ahead into 2010, prices of many commodities are likely to increase further. The demand side should generally be the main source of...

The Prime Minister's economic adviser, C Rangarajan, wants the Reserve Bank to remove excess money from the system to check rising prices as food inflation neared the decade's high of 20 per cent. "We need to see that liquidity does not put inflationary pressures and for that some action on the monetary front would also be required," said Rangarajan, Chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) and a former...