Op-Eds

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

Cutting logistics costs and complying with exacting European product standards will go a long way in boosting shipments India is the EU's ninth largest trading partner with 2.4 per cent of the bloc’s overall trade. Bilateral trade (in both goods and services) touched €115 billion in 2017. EU exports to India have grown from €24.2...   Read More

A Retrospective on H1: 2020-21. In the September Quarterly Review of the Economy NCAER had forecasted that GDP would contract in H1: 2020-21 although the rate of contraction would moderate in Q2: 2020-21 compared to Q1: 2020-21.   In such times cost-cutting is a common response of firms.  These typically take two forms — (i) layoffs:...   Read More

Media News: Surjit S Bhalla & Abhinav Motheram  The more academic American Association for Public Opinion Research’s (AAPOR) postmortem report on the 2016 election polls recognised that state polls ‘clearly underestimated Trump’s support in the Upper Midwest’. India 2014. Britain 2016. The US 2016. India 2019. And now the US 2020. What do the above five...   Read More

Dr. Tarujyoti Buragohain NCAER surmises that high prices of horticulture products due to lack of necessary infrastructure and quality are the major constraint for India in the export market. Moreover diversifying into organic and value added horticulture products may help improve export prospects. IBT: How have India’s horticulture exports progressed in the global market over...   Read More