Op-Eds

Using tech to monitor river water quality real-time will help. India is a home to 4 per cent of the world’s freshwater resources and it ranks among the top 10 water-rich countries of the world. In spite of being home to the major river systems both perennial and non-perennial India is a designated water stressed region...   Read More

Children in households without piped water or LPG have lower learning outcomes. This negative impact is greater when women bear a greater share of the burden of unpaid work compared to men. Inadequate access to safe drinking water and clean cooking fuel leads to serious health concerns. The importance of safe water in preventing water-borne...   Read More

The answer to the question of how to vaccinate a billion Indians is perhaps to be found in basic economics. What is the most important health imperative as well as the most significant economic stimuli for India today? Unarguably it is Covid vaccination. We must remember that the story does not end with the strains of...   Read More

The East’s low may worsen the regional imbalance as the second Covid wave rages on. The NCAER Business Confidence Index (BCI) a measure of business sentiments fell for two consecutive quarters in 2019-20:Q4 and 2020-21:Q1 on a quarter-on-quarter basis. After the lockdown restrictions were withdrawn business sentiments recovered in a V-shaped form in 2020-21:Q2 and then...   Read More

The Covid-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns have had a significant adverse impact on jobs and livelihoods. Using 2006-2021 data from a quarterly survey on business sentiments this article examines fluctuations in firms’ hiring of temporary/casual and permanent workers across three major economic events – the Global Financial Crisis demonetisation and the Covid-19 crisis. It shows...   Read More

A mechanism to separate Sebi's judicial and executive powers is central to creating a regulator more in tune with the rule of law In 1748 the French philosopher Montesquieu proposed a form of government where powers were not excessively concentrated. The legislature defines what is forbidden in laws. The xecutive administers laws investigates violations and prosecutes...   Read More

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