The newly released World Bank report has estimated that the number of extremely poor people globally went up by nearly 71 million in the year 2020 as compared to 2019 — a 11 percent increase. Between 2019 and 2020, the number of poor swelled by around 56 million in India. It means that about 79 percent of the total people globally who slipped into poverty during the first year of...

-Business Standard External storms are morphing into hurricanes. India is in a relatively better position than many other countries, but this period of heightened volatility will require agility and clarity on policy Despite recovering from the pandemic, repeated global shocks have presented numerous challenges for India’s economy this year, driving inflation and evoking balance of payments (BoP) pressures. These shocks will likely persist for much longer.  In the US, even amidst signs of...

-Ideas for India The share of bank credit extended to MSMEs increased dramatically during the pandemic. In this post, Harsh Vardhan discusses the the government guarantee of bank loans as a possible driver of this growth. He outlines the current policy of providing credit against collateral, and the constraints MSMEs face while borrowing– which leads to decreased investment and firm productivity. He argues that the learnings from the credit guarantee scheme...

-The Telegraph The airbrushing of the Indian economy is damaging The latest Monthly Economic Review from the ministry of finance gives the reader a great deal of comfort by indicating that all is well with the Indian economy. If there is any cause for concern at all, it is from external economic and political shocks: events like the Federal Reserve in the United States of America raising interest rates, or Russia invading...

-Hindustan Times In its South Asia Economic Focus report released on Thursday, the World Bank said, “The spillovers from the Russia-Ukraine war and global monetary policy tightening will continue to weigh on India’s economic outlook.” The World Bank on Thursday downgraded India's GDP or gross domestic product to 6.5% for the fiscal year 2022-23 from an earlier estimate of 7.5%. In the previous year, the Indian economy grew by 8.7%. In its South...