The Covid-19 pandemic has forced governments across the world to increase reliance on debt. The IMF projects the fiscal deficit as a proportion of GDP in emerging markets and middle-income economies (EMMIEs) as a group to rise from 4.9 per…
The results of the long-awaited time use survey conducted over January to December 2019 by the NSSO have just been published. This finally allows policy makers and the general public to have some idea of the extent to which unpaid…
The office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, in its Report 4 of 2020 relating to Union finances, has criticized the Centre’s handling of funds collected from various cesses levied for specified purposes. Cesses collected for designated…
Provisional trade figures released by the Ministry of Commerce indicate that India’s aggregate trade balance over the period April-August 2020 was in surplus to the tune of $14.2 billion, as compared with a deficit of $45.11 billion in the corresponding…
While it was expected that the Indian economy will experience contraction during the second quarter of 2020, the 23.9 per cent fall in GDP reported by the National Statistical Office came as a surprise to many. For some the surprise…
As India faces the biggest economic crisis since Independence, it is being led by a central government in denial about the severity of the impact on lives and livelihoods, and spreading false hopes about the immediate future. The Monthly Economic…
At least two state finance ministers have declared it a great betrayal. Many others have strongly protested. But the Central government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has decided to go ahead with its decision to…
Declared the leading threat to global stability by the United States and a group of its allies, China has been accused of transgressions varying from stealing hi-tech secrets, spying, and interfering in domestic politics abroad to spreading viruses. Sometimes, even…
Multiple indicators reveal that the pre-pandemic deceleration in growth segued into a deep recession that persists six months after the first reported Covid-19 case. But official optimism hasn’t waned. Some spokespersons promise a V-shaped recovery. Others clutch at every straw…
India’s stock markets have revived and touched inexplicable peaks even while the real economy braces for what may be the largest contraction in post-Independence economic history. Having collapsed from a level in excess of 40000 in late February, when the…
