-The Indian Express Subramanian’s suggestions come days ahead of the Budget to be presented on February 1. Incidentally, Congress President Rahul Gandhi said his party will bring Minimum Income Guarantee for every poor person if voted to power. New Delhi: In order to tackle agrarian distress effectively, the Central government and the states should launch a basic income scheme which guarantees minimum cash transfers to all except the well-off in rural...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Jean Dreze, the Belgian-Indian economist, interviewed by Ujjawal Krishnam (National Herald)
-National Herald Well-known Belgian-Indian economist Jean Drèze, reflects on the times we live in this animated conversation with Ujjawal Krishnam Jean Drèze, the Belgian-Indian economist, true to his reputation, laces humour and an acerbic wit to reflect on the times we live in. Self deprecating, he brushes aside the question how he juggles between his roles as economist, activist and teacher. He wonders at the multi-tasking ability of Indian women instead. Nor...
More »Behind rural slowdown: Credit shows uptick, but still trailing in farm sector -Sandeep Singh
-The Indian Express Data collated from the Reserve Bank of India over the last five years shows that growth in credit outstanding for the priority sector has traditionally been rising at a much faster rate than the growth in gross bank credit An uptick in the economy is clear from the improvement in gross bank credit availability but unlike in the past, lending to the priority sector continues to trail, posting single-digit...
More »Farmers package in the works: Income support scheme and interest-free loans -George Mathew & Sunny Verma
-The Indian Express As there are 21.6 crore small and marginal farmers — most of whom are not in a position to repay the loan or put collateral — such a scheme is the only way to support their fund requirements, apart from ensuring market prices for their produce. Mumbai: The NDA government is considering a package of proposals for the distressed agriculture sector that includes interest-free loans, loans without collateral...
More »Using RBI reserves to fund government expenditure: A misleading debate -Prabhat Patnaik
-The Telegraph Our public discourse should be informed by economic theory that is free of obfuscations For some time now there has been a debate in the country that is as esoteric as it is misleading, namely whether the Reserve Bank of India’s reserves should be drawn down by the government to finance its expenditure. On the one side, the argument is that if the government has to undertake extra expenditure, then, other...
More »