governance, political economy, institutional development and economic regulation
Photographs of quixotic, colorful, bustling markets, cheek by jowl crowds of buyers and shops, a profusion of color and a staggering variety of goods are standard fare in tourism advertisements for India. Sadly, however, when it comes to the market for public services, the offerings are bland. More generally India exhibits deep anxieties about letting […]
Read More Bringing markets back into the conversationJust east of India Gate –where, under the arch, an everlasting flame flickers in remembrance of martyrs – is an empty canopy built along with the rest of colonial New Delhi in the 1930s. This once housed a statue of George V – King of England when the shifting of the capital from Calcutta to […]
Read More The empty canopy at India gateProf. Ashutosh Varshney of Brown University calls India an improbable democracy — poor, impossibly heterogeneous and multicultural, and ironically, only its colonial heritage keeps it going. So has our hubris cost us plenty? Why we are not China Forget comparing ourselves with China today. Are we at least on the same path? No, we are […]
Read More The price of democracyThe tricolour flutters happily at the Peer Makhdum Shah Dargah in Mahim, Maharashtra, hoisted by the peer’s devotees, as a symbol of the Indian Republic being alive and well. India is a Republic. But often it feels as though only the Union government must carry the can for doing unpleasant things – like levying tax […]
Read More Funding the Republic(photo credit: fundamental.bogs.com) How justified is Mr. Kejriwal, the Chief Minister (CM) of Delhi in assuring auto rickshaw (tuk tuks) owners and drivers -his niche supporters numbering around 100,000 – annual rate revisions in tandem with rising costs, when he denies a similarly supportive regulatory regime to the three private companies which supply power to […]
Read More CM Kejriwal’s plunging popularityMihir Sharma’s book (Random House 2015) is the one for you if you are a policy wonk but at a loss for arresting sound bites; a businessperson looking for bright and engaging things to say at your next meeting; a student of economics, politics or sociology grappling with the question why things are so difficult […]
Read More Restart: The last chance for the Indian Economy
Opinion India 