governance, political economy, institutional development and economic regulation
It is a measure of the randomness of the policy changes in the United States that the left hand no longer knows what the right is doing or more appropriately neither of its two right hands know what the other is up to. Working at cross purposes Consider that Elon Musk, reportedly working overtime, sleeps […]
Read More Trump’s DOGE & “Reciprocal Tariffs”: Different StrokesThis Opinion piece was first published in the Quint February 14, 2025 https://www.thequint.com/opinion/modi-trump-meeting-washington-reciprocal-tariffs-implications-for-india The recent Narendra Modi-Donald Trump meeting in Washington was overshadowed by the US President, who, just hours before, upended global trading arrangements in favour of the US, by establishing the principle of reciprocity as the foundation of trade relationships. Based on the […]
Read More Modi-Trump Washington meet: In the shadow of reciprocal tariffsFinance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman crafted the budget around four key targets of accelerating growth, promoting inclusive development, enhancing private investment, uplifting household sentiments including by income tax reform to enhance income in the pockets of middle-class consumers- those earning up to Rs 1.2 million a year, who account for over 80 percent of the total […]
Read More Budget 2025: Scorecard of Hits & MissesFinance Minister of India, Nimala Sitharaman is set to make history. Some, she has already made by being the first women to be Finance Minister (FM) if one excludes Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who held the finance portfolio in 1969. If all goes well, she will become the first FM to serve for more than […]
Read More If I were Nirmala SitharamanHigh growth generates the comfort of public unwillingness to look a gift horse in the mouth. When growth is more than double the global levels and the highest achieved by any comparator entity, there are even fewer quibbles. This is true for both startups and national economies. Both are subject to “analyst fog” about an […]
Read More Interim Budget 2024-25: Government a prisoner of over-reachRhetoric was rife at the opening of COP 28 with the Secretary General of the United Nations calling for an end to the burning of fossil fuels. “Not reduce, Not abate, Phase out” he recommended. This urgency found no salience finally in the first global stock, attended by nearly 200 countries, 85,000 participants with 55,000 […]
Read More Beyond the rhetoric COP28 DubaiThe good news that India’s GDP grew at 6.1 percent in Q4 (January to March 2023) and at 7.1 percent over the entire fiscal year (2022-23) received less than deserved attention. The previous fiscal year (2021-22) was the first post-covid normal year. To clock a growth rate of 7.1 percent over a normal base year […]
Read More Greenlighting GrowthMonetary policy that hunts with the advanced economy “hounds”—via symmetric upward adjustments in policy interest rates over the last year—and simultaneously runs with developing country “hares”—by desperately trying to revive stalling growth—has contradictions just waiting to come home to roost. That growth in India is stalling is clear from the RBI Monetary statement on 6 […]
Read More High Policy rates sans supporting fiscal policy cannot tame inflationAssociating budgetary allocations with cultural tropes is one way of validating them. Consider the case of two Indian states, joined at the hip till 1960 — Gujarat and Maharashtra. The origins of the 1960 split The port city of Surat in Gujarat was the entrepôt for Western India and the link with Arabia and beyond […]
Read More Culture drives how States Spend Public moneyIn India, the Union government takes on a much broader fiscal mandate than is necessary. Some of this is driven by the constitutional allocation of tax mandates, which favor tax flows to the Union government. Nearly 20 per cent, on an average, of a state government’s revenue flows in a “waterfall arrangement” from the Centre […]
Read More Indian Economy: Reading the Tea Leaves
Opinion India 