Can India stay with GST?
July 2020 marks the completion of three years since the launch of the Good and Services Tax regime. That is long enough to allow us to take stock of how well the new tax regime is performing. If the regime…
A Critique of the Indian Government’s Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic
The most destructive effects of Covid-19 in India have not been the result of the disease, but the nature of the government response. The most stringent lockdown in the world destroyed the economy and forced millions into poverty and hunger,…
Developing Asia’s External Debt Concerns
There has been much discussion about how external debt concerns are likely to weigh heavily on developing countries in their attempts at economic recovery in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Most of this discussion has centred on emerging markets…
Economic Contraction and the Fiscal Stance of the Indian Government
It is generally recognised that the Indian economy was already in a steep slowdown well before the Covid-19 pandemic and badly planned lockdown further destroyed economic activity. But what is possibly not so well understood that that a major reason…
India’s Response to Covid-19 has been Sadistic
One of the most vocal critics of neoliberalism in general and the socioeconomic policies of India’s BJP-led Central government in particular, eminent economist Jayati Ghosh is known for her sharp and lucid views on social issues. In a conversation with…
The Worrisome Return of Capital
In a trend which sees equity markets in the “emerging economies” imitate stock markets in the US, the MSCI Emerging Market Index that collapsed over the month ending 23 March, from more than 1,100 to just above 750 (Chart 1),…
New fronts in the US-China trade war
While everyone was busy looking at the Covid-19 numbers across the world, other “stuff was happening” in international trade: the US-China trade war, which started as far back July 2018, just got significantly worse. This on-again-off-again war has been a…
How to Build the Global Green New Deal
The demands for a "Global Green New Deal" were never about some Utopian vision or naïve perception of global togetherness: combined and co-ordinated global efforts are necessary to ensure the survival of the planet and of human life on it.…
Will Diluting Labour Laws in India in Indian States Attract more Private Investment?
The class war waged by employers in India has never been so blatant, nor has the openly partisan behaviour of the executive and judiciary. What began ostensibly as a public health exercise to prevent the spread of a virus infection…
Contours of the Covid-crisis
Early evidence of the crisis in the developed world induced by the Covid-19 pandemic is trickling in. One set of numbers provide the first estimates of GDP growth in the first quarter of 2020, which includes the period when lockdowns…