Op-Eds

There needs to be robust infrastructure for official statistics so that governments do not suppress inconvenient truths. Over the past two weeks headlines have focussed on declining employment between 2011-12 and 2016-17; loss of jobs under the National Democratic Alliance government particularly post-demonetisation; and the government’s refusal to release a report using the Periodic Labour...   Read More

In a market economy like India a strong judiciary is required for quick settlement of disputes Since the 1991 economic reforms India has improved tremendously in almost all economic indicators and is now one of the fastest growing nations in the world. Various economic policies of the current government have enabled the economy to move...   Read More

It may be difficult to imagine that the humble “anganwadi" the grassroots institution at the base of the Integrated Child Development Services scheme (ICDS) could have any role in addressing India’s formidable challenge of unemployment. However two recent studies Employment In India (Oxford University Press 2019) by Ajit Ghosh and the Annual Status Of Employment...   Read More

The past four-and-a-half years of the Modi govt have been more of continuity than a break from the past says Wolf New Delhi: The government that comes to power after the general elections due in April-May may not be able to carry out radical reforms like the present one even if Prime Minister Narendra Modi...   Read More

Remember only the US Fed is raising the rates. The Europeans Japanese and the Chinese are not doing that.  While there are several critics of the farm debt waiver it has found a supporter in Martin Wolf chief economics commentator at the Financial Times. In India to deliver the C D Deshmukh Memorial Lecture organised...   Read More

The NCAER-India International Centre Mid-Year Review 2019-20 had pointed out that miscellaneous inflation was the biggest contributor to overall retail inflation in the first half (H1) of 2019-20 (40.7%). Within miscellaneous items the health sub-category had the largest weight (25.1% and 16.3% in rural and urban areas respectively). Health inflation contributed 40.2% and 26.9% of...   Read More

The methodology to rank different entities be it the grading of States districts or blocks has several inherent weaknesses. A minimum standard for each parameter/indicator and rank should be given only if one scores above the minimum standard In recent times it has become almost customary to rank different entities across various indicators. Of course...   Read More

For long debates on air pollution have centred around PM2.5 and PM10 levels even as an invisible killer remains unnoticed Another winter has arrived and the discourse has invariably turned towards air pollution especially in the metro cities. Of course the centre of discussion is New Delhi  which is considered to be a hotspot for...   Read More

If ‘Make in India’ is to succeed it needs to encompass ‘Make it the Indian Way’. It need not emulate mass production technologies fuelled in Detroit by massive capital investment or in Beijing by cheap labour. We are fortunate to be in a historic moment when the manufacturing sector is about to go through a...   Read More

The government should establish a commission for 21st century skills to prepare a 15-year roadmap on transferable skills that can meet present as well as future demand from industries says a report. The report titled 'Skilling India - No Time to Lose' by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) notes that rigid labour...   Read More