-The Indian Express Possibly the most problematic aspect of evaluating the budget is the opaqueness of the underlying data. The interest in this year’s Union budget had been high for obvious reasons. It being an election year, there were expectations of a major spending package focused on struggling sectors such as agriculture. The budget didn’t disappoint as the finance minister announced an income support programme for farmers, raised the tax-free income...
More »SEARCH RESULT
The mistaken obsession with the fiscal deficit -CP Chandrasekhar and Jayati Ghosh
-Networkideas.org It’s that time of year again – the time when all eyes turn to those magic numbers, the actual and proposed fiscal deficits of the central government as shares of GDP. Breathless news anchors will interrogate financial investors on what the numbers mean, and why 3.5 per cent or 3.7 per cent is fatally worse than, say, 3.4 per cent or 3.2 per cent or less. Everyone will breathe a...
More »Jean Dreze -- development economist -- interviewed by Jipson John and Jitheesh PM (Frontline.in)
-Frontline.inJean Dreze is a well-known Indian economist working in the field of "development economics". Born in Belgium, he studied mathematical economics at the University of Essex and completed his PhD from the Indian Statistical Institute (New Delhi) in 1982.He has taught at the London School of Economics and the Delhi School of Economics and is currently visiting professor at Ranchi University as well as honorary professor at the Delhi School...
More »Tracing the economic roots of discontent among farmers -Roshan Kishore
-Hindustan Times Farmers have experienced a growing mismatch between their production efforts and incomes under the Narendra Modi government. The coming union budget will have to find a balance between two contradictory FDs: farm-distress and fiscal discipline. The choice is not going to be an easy one. Ignoring farm-distress in the last full-fledged budget before elections could be politically suicidal. Meanwhile, there are at least two things that could make the government slip...
More »Kaushik Basu, Professor of Economics and the C. Marks Professor of International Studies at Cornell University, interviewed by Mohit M Rao (The Hindu)
-The Hindu The former Chief Economic Adviser on India’s current slowdown in economic growth and the mix of policies needed to reignite it In a career spanning more than four decades, economist Kaushik Basu has donned many hats. He was Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India (2009-2012) and Chief Economist of the World Bank (2012-2016). At present, he is Professor of Economics and the C. Marks Professor of International Studies...
More »