Op-Eds

Aiming for an absolute fiscal-deficit target rather than a ratio would let counter-cyclical stabilizers kick in automatically India’s second wave of the covid pandemic is advancing at a frightening pace. On the economic policy front a sharp contraction has upended the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act. As Arvind Subramanian and Josh Felman have suggested...   Read More

The NCAER’s second Land Records and Services Index 2021 has found that states and Union territories have made considerable progress in digitising their land records and services over the course of one year despite the Covid-19 pandemic. Bihar and Odisha now offer the facility of a web portal to register a transaction the N-LRSI 2021...   Read More

Delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccine against Covid-19 despite its availability is a key hindrance in achieving optimal vaccination coverage among populations around the globe. Using data from a Facebook survey – conducted in partnership with University of Maryland and Carnegie Mellon – this article explores vaccine hesitancy in India and trends across states...   Read More

In recent years India has been increasingly focussing on augmenting its capacity of producing electricity from renewable energy. As of November 27 2020 38 per cent of India’s installed electricity generation capacity is from renewable sources — 136 gigawatt (GW) out of 373 GW. To some extent this push is due to Paris Agreement where...   Read More

National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) India’s largest and oldest economic think tank announces the appointment of Poonam Gupta as its new Director-General. NCAER is delighted to announce the appointment of Poonam Gupta as its next Director General. Poonam the first woman Director General of NCAER will succeed Shekhar Shah who has led NCAER...   Read More

With livelihoods affected during the pandemic the importance of land ownership for access to formal loans as well as government relief programmes became more evident. But the relatively poor availability of clear and updated land titles remains a hurdle. For a significant section of the rural poor land is both an asset and a source...   Read More

The recent semi-public exchanges between Sebi and DFS raise several questions about the legislative function of regulators that need careful consideration In March 2020 a private bank wrote off Additional Tier 1 (AT-1) bonds worth Rs 8415 crore based on a scheme of reconstruction approved by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). This created a...   Read More

The government should reduce price distortions while farmers must organize themselves to gain collective bargaining power Our skewed policy of providing support prices chiefly for two crops has led to the oversupply of these even as our subsidy-cum-procurement regime turned farmers dependent on it. The roots of the continuing farmers’ agitation go back over 50...   Read More

Auto fuel pricing goes beyond taxes to refineries The discourse around the spikes in gas petrol and diesel prices follows the usual line. The government argues that the consumer has to bear the high price because global crude oil prices have hardened. The Opposition argues that the higher domestic price is due to frequent upward...   Read More

The proposed SPV meant to carry out the monetisation should take essential steps for making land assets of PSUs free of any hindrances Urban development in India is largely obstructed by the lack of availability of land at affordable prices a key prerequisite for infrastructure development and housing. According to the Numbeo database for 2021...   Read More