Op-Eds

The Centre’s rural employment guarantee scheme can be substantially improved but it has undeniably helped Dalits Adivasis and women find work In an era of growing globalisation and rising inequality the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) stands out as a unique attempt to provide a social safety net via a massive public...   Read More

Two in five Indian women didn’t choose their spouse and about one in two was married before the legal age of 18 according to a new study that paints a grim statistical picture of married women across the country. The National Council for Applied Economic Research a New Delhi-based think tank based their findings on interviews...   Read More

Sonalde Desai On International Women’s Day the Election Commission of India held a special campaign to bring women voters to the polls. Although men and women vote at a more or less similar rate in State elections women are 6-8 percentage points behind in the Lok Sabha elections where national issues dominate. These disparities prompt...   Read More

Four out of ten women in India still have no say in their marriage eight out of ten need permission to visit a doctor six out of ten practise some form of head covering and the average Indian household gives over Rs. 30000 in dowry. These are among the findings of a major new large-scale...   Read More

Indian households have always accounted for the major share of gross domestic savings. But they seem to have lost the savings habit now. You can blame some of that on consumerism. But what explains the fall in the share of their savings in financial instruments? Received wisdom says persistently high inflation since 2009. Years of...   Read More

After a slide in the second quarter of the present fiscal higher exports enhanced farm produce and moderation in inflation improved business confidence during the October-December period think-tank NCAER said on Monday. The Business Confidence Index (BCI) rose by 21.8 per cent in theJanuary 2014 survey over the previous quarter the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER)...   Read More

New Delhi Wednesday 5 February 2014: At a seminar held at the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) on the State of Economy the following observations reviews and projections were made by the Council through a presentation and release of their quarterly report titled “Quarterly Review of the Economy”.  

GDP Growth rate for 2014-15 is projected at 5.1 - 5.5 per cent. The higher growth of 5.5 per cent is conditional on pick upon investment spending. WPI based average inflation rate projected at 6.1 per cent for 2014-15. Fiscal deficit for the center estimated at 4.5 per cent of GDP for 2014-15.   New...   Read More

There has been a long tradition in India of large business groups endowing academic and research institutions but in recent years a new trend seems to be emerging. A few days ago Nandan and Rohini Nilekani contributed Rs 50 crore to the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) a sizeable amount by any standards the interest from...   Read More

After receiving one of the largest private gifts to an independent research body in India the National Council of Applied Economic Research plans new study initiatives to redevelop its campus and so on. Director General Shekhar Shah talks to Somesh Jha about these plans and the problems such think tanks face in India. Edited excerpts:...   Read More