governance, political economy, institutional development and economic regulation
In the run up to the COP26 Summit in Glasgow on 31st October, enthusiasm bubbles over. This is as it should be. Preserving the world as we know it requires cutting back on the 34 giga tons (2018) of annual CO2 emissions, 37 percent of which is by the 16 percent of the global population in high-income economies. To […]
Read More Sharing the pain at GlasgowGovernments are habitually profligate and gladly eat into an ever-larger share of GDP growth. The United States, the richest, big country in 1990, spent 40.6 percent of GDP on government expenditure. By 2011 its government was spending even more at 43.7 percent of the GDP. Countries which went in the opposite direction were rare- such as […]
Read More To spend or not to spendIn the world of venture capital, market share matters more than profits because scaling-up builds investor expectations. By this metric, renewable energy is already the future. India’s renewables share in total generation doubled from 5.6 to 11 percent over the past six years since 2015. A share of 25 percent is targeted by 2030 primarily […]
Read More Renewing our future at GlasgowIn late June this year, Reliance Industries announced a US $10 billion investment for the production and use of hydrogen (H2). H2 is a colourless gas physically. But in the race to Net Zero Carbon, it comes in multiple colours, each representing a specific process. The many colors of H2 Grey is the cheapest at US […]
Read More If data is the new oil is hydrogen the new gas?Fifteen months down the road to economic recovery, the economy is still limping back to the normal circa 2019-20. GDP in the first quarter of the current fiscal year (April to June fiscal year 2021-22) at INR 32.4 trillion (constant terms) is 20.1 percent higher than the same quarter last year- that’s the good news. But it […]
Read More Indian economy – struggling to reach 2019-20 GDP levelsThe Modi government launches new initiatives with blindsiding flamboyance. The National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) announced August 23 does not disappoint. It targets raising INR 6 trillion over four years (Fiscal 2022 to 2025) by leasing out operational public sector assets. The target for this year, with just six months in hand, is INR 0.9 trillion when disinvestment […]
Read More Leasing-out operational public assets to boost private investmentThe doors are closing As rational beings, we should expect the worst, much before the turn of the century, on account of climate change. Slowing economic growth has reduced the fiscal space to invest in sustainable technology and lowered the appetite of the high-income economies to vacate the carbon space needed for the growth of […]
Read More Glasgow 2021- Reward aggressive carbon mitigationThe tremors from the fall of Kabul are likely to be felt far and wide – most keenly in nations transiting away from traditional identities to modern forms of nationalism. Dampening conflict through developmental assistance as a carrot for winning hearts and minds and measures to empower national governments, have been standard international tools for […]
Read More Picking up the pieces in KabulLivability in a city, over the past 18 months is strongly influenced by the extent of the ravages unleashed by the COVID-19 virus. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) annual survey done in February 2021, “The Livability Index”, focuses on the pandemic’s impact on city rankings. It is a relief that no Indian city is in […]
Read More Indian cities: Victims of outdated political-economy constructsAs July turns into August and the second wave of covid mutants’ wanes, the temptation, after relentlessly fighting the havoc and mayhem of the last financial year, will be for government to enjoy a well-deserved rest. This would be a costly mistake. Now is the time for top decision makers to define a sustainable fiscal […]
Read More A direct-tax league table can energize revenue receipts across states