Op-Eds

Competitive markets in financial services are the best bulwark against consumer fraud in the long run. In the medium term omnibus and dedicated legislation could be the answer. In her Budget speech this year Nirmala Sitharaman announced several initiatives with a view to develop and deepen the country’s financial markets. This included the announcement of...   Read More

Relocate clearance procedures away from the border and partner countries must adopt well-established practices Of late India has been active in improving volume of trade flows through the land route with its eastern neighbours under the preamble of India’s Act East policy. With this in mind improving border management for faster movement of cargo has...   Read More

Water tables have fallen drastically and we need paradigmatic changes in agricultural practices for resource conservation. Our policies to ensure food sufficiency and assure farmers income have unfortunately also caused crop distortions that have led to excessive drawing of groundwater and its depletion. A disastrous water crisis has been creeping up on us for years. Water...   Read More

The 2nd Covid-19 wave rose sharply from mid-March and peaked on 9th May 2021 (NCAER Quarterly Review of the Economy). The peak number of cases and deaths in second wave were four times higher than the peak in the first wave.  Daily deaths (7-day moving average) peaked at 4190 on 24th May 2021 compared to...   Read More

The placement of these two ministries with one minister is the first step towards improving the employability of India's workforce in a pandemic. Skill development is a multi-dimensional problem. One dimension relates to “employer connect” that is essential for productive employment opportunities for the skilled persons. Another dimension is “entrepreneurship” or self-employment which is becoming...   Read More

Likely hysteresis and a closing demographic window make a case for wide-ranging reforms to sustain high economic growth Post-covid scenarios chalked out by NCAER indicate that effects of this shock will persist for a long time and we can’t expect a quick return to our pre-pandemic growth path even in the most optimistic of recovery...   Read More

Can the Generation Equality Forum ensure two basic rights for women: The right to safety and peace at home and to decent work outside of it? The recently concluded Generation Equality Forum has once again pinned the focus on gender equality and how far we are from achieving it in most parts of the world....   Read More

The evaluation criteria proposed by CBSE is flexible enough to accommodate concerns of students. With the central government deciding to cancel the Class XII examinations a majority of state education boards and stakeholders welcomed the move in view of the safety of students and teachers. However the cancellation policy also introduced uncertainty on how students...   Read More

The United Nations’ “Policy Brief: The impact of Covid-19 on children” dated April 15 2020 was convinced that “Children are not the face of this pandemic.” This was also evident in India when the ‘first wave’ of Covid-19 hit the country. Scientists and experts were convinced that children were less susceptible as compared to adults...   Read More

No doubt the pandemic has exposed the fragility of India’s health sector. The shortage of doctors hospital beds ventilators oxygen medicine etc. is the stark reality of the day. The story is true across all over India. Incidentally none of the metros have stood apart in this pandemic disaster even though health infrastructure is quite...   Read More