Op-Eds

India can fix its public-sector lenders by letting them raise enough equity capital to significantly reduce government control. As with the whole economy the covid pandemic dealt a severe blow to India’s banking sector which was already reeling under a huge burden of non-performing assets (NPAs). Stress tests reported in the Financial Stability Report (FSR)...   Read More

The COVID pandemic has understandably grabbed most of the Government’s attention becoming the single largest health focus in the country currently but as India moves ahead to deal with this challenge it would do well to simultaneously focus on the health of its most precious human resource its children. The year 2020 has become synonymous...   Read More

Multiple rounds of discussion on the Farm Bills do not convince the farmers to withdraw the agitation. The proponents of the Farm Bills seem to highlight the benefits. However in realities many of these are not feasible for an ordinary farmer. That is the reason for the continuous deadlock. It is the high time the...   Read More

There is a strong connection between bolstering democracy and achieving a better functioning financial system A great debate has surged in recent weeks in India about democracy and “tough” economic reforms. In the field of finance the main path of reforms is intertwined with deepening of democracy. This is what has been observed elsewhere in...   Read More

The establishment of a national expert group for Covid-19 vaccine distribution and Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN) to track and manage vaccine stocks and storage is welcome. However little attention has been directed towards the last-mile challenges in vaccine distribution. Three challenges deserve particular attention. Twice is Nice First cold storage requirements make it impossible...   Read More

The importance of credit to an economy cannot be over-emphasised. The NCAER Quarterly Reviews of the Economy (June & September) has detailed out the tsunami like effect of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) on the Indian economy. Unlike the contraction in year-on-year (y-o-y) growth shown by majority of indicators like Index of Industrial Production exports imports...   Read More

International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD): The WHO estimates that more than one billion people - about 15% of the world's population - experience some form of disability Not many of us are aware that we celebrate about 173 “international days” every year which as per the United Nations “serve as an indicator of...   Read More

Aadhaar linkages of individuals and bank accounts already exist. If residential information in the Aadhaar database can be efficiently structured this would allow for geographic targeting. The US Congress acted expeditiously in late March to provide relief on account of the COVID-19 to poor and middle-class individuals and to stimulate the economy by enacting a...   Read More

No one would have ever thought or anticipated that Covid-19 would shake the world to such an extent that it is impacting and perhaps changing and re-defining every aspect of our lives. It also proved that no country is invincible no matter how developed rich and powerful and it demolished the notion that these nations...   Read More

Our goal should be to achieve a low cost of capital for Indian firms which calls for liquid and efficient markets accessible to all investors Many firms require capital in tiding over the pandemic. In recent months large amounts of portfolio capital have come into the country helping to fill this need. This includes an...   Read More