NCAER in the News

Opinion: C.S. Mohapatra. Policies have sought to promote participation in financial markets, but investor ignorance and negligence as well as fraudulent activities are impediments to growth. India’s financial sector has grown exponentially over the past two decades. One major contributor to this is the rising participation of private investors in financial markets coupled with digitalisation....   Read More

Highlights

  • The best way to reform India’s architecture of fiscal federalism

    On 29 July 2019 the government amended and added to the terms of reference (TOR) of the 15th Finance Commission (15th FC) asking it to “... examine whether a separate mechanism for funding of defence and internal security ought to be set up..." The amendment has been interpreted as an attempt by the Centre to...   Read More

  • The great water paradox

    India’s relatively wet climate offers hope even in today’s dire situation. What is needed is the enforcement of programmes aimed at conserving our most precious resource Water water everywhere/ Nor any drop to drink.” These words from an evocative poem by the famous 18th century English poet Samuel Coleridge echo the helplessness of a harried...   Read More

  • Economic Graffiti: What is to be done about growth

    Arvind Subramanian’s paper ‘India’s GDP Mis-estimation’ published in June this year caused a lot of controversy. I was initially sceptical of his argument. But now having heard him at the India Policy Forum at NCAER on July 10 where he presented more data on India’s slowdown I am convinced about the significance of his research....   Read More

  • Opinion | An unimpressive budget after the massive electoral mandate

    India had an opportunity to take major initiatives but what the bureaucracy gave us is just another incremental budget The Bharatiya Janata Party’s massive electoral mandate provided a great opportunity for introducing major fiscal and other initiatives through the budget. Unfortunately that opportunity has been missed. Following her meteoric political rise finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman...   Read More

  • A demographic window of opportunity: on population and policy

    In India investing in the laggard States will ensure their role as being the greatest contributors of the future Last month the United Nations released the 26th revision of World Population Prospects and forecast that India will overtake China as the most populous country by 2027. The only surprise associated with this forecast is the...   Read More

  • Dr G C Manna, Senior Adviser NCAER appointed to the National Statistical Commission

    New Delhi (Wednesday July 10 2019):  Dr Gurucharan Manna Senior Adviser at NCAER and former Director General of CSO and NSSO Government of India has been appointed a member of the National Statistical Commission.  Dr Manna has nearly 40 years of specialized experience in sample design estimation procedures for household and establishment surveys and the...   Read More

  • Budget 2019: Challenges mount for Nirmala Sitharaman amid limited fiscal space

    There has been a decline in economic activity since the last fiscal. Both economic activity and inflation showed falling trends throughout 2018–19. Akin to the rest of the world business uncertainty had increased in India post the Lehman bankruptcy in September 2008. A measure of volatility the standard deviation (SD) of the quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) growth...   Read More

  • Squandering the gender dividend

    It is a national tragedy that women unable to find work are dropping out of the labour force If labour force survey data are to be believed rural India is in the midst of a gender revolution in which nearly half the women who were in the workforce in 2004-5 had dropped out in 2017-18....   Read More

  • The sum and substance of the jobs data

    Rising unemployment must also be seen as a function of rising education and aspirations The report from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) is finally out garnering a lot of attention based on selective reading of tables and spurring partisan debates. In particular the staggering increase in the unemployment rate from 1.7% in 2011-12 to...   Read More

  • Manila Forum on Future of Work to host NCAER Director-General as one of the panelists

    Asia Society JPMorgan to hold forum on future of work A FORUM on “Rethinking the Future of Work to Promote Inclusive Growth in Asia Pacific” will hold on June 4 at The Peninsula Manila. Organized by Asia Society and multinational investment bank JPMorgan the event will form the last leg of the One Step Ahead...   Read More