The Debate on GST
The debate so far on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) has been largely concerned with the question of compensation to the states for the losses they may suffer owing to the transition to a GST regime. The losses to…
The Dismal State of Rural India
The Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011 (SECC), released by the Government of India on Friday the 3rd of July, paints a dismal picture of the economic conditions of the people in rural India. The data it has unearthed need to…
The Spectre of the Thirties
The Reserve Bank of India, as is to be expected, has been denying that its Governor Raghuram Rajan had ever suggested that the world was facing the possibility of a 1930s-type Great Depression. Members of the “global financial community” are…
The Destruction of Education
The NDA government’s appointment of hack loyalists to important positions in the sphere of education has rightly raised concerns about the damage being done to the education system. But this is not the sole source of danger to the system.…
The Declining World Foreign Exchange Reserves
If one adds up the foreign exchange reserves of all the countries in the world, including under the term “reserves” what these countries hold in the form of gold, US dollars, other reserve currencies, Special Drawing Rights of the IMF,…
Growth and Hunger
India, we are constantly reminded, is one of the more rapidly growing economies of the world at present; and even though the growth rate has come down somewhat of late, official figures show that it still remains quite high. What…
The “Niti Ayog”
The Planning Commission, set up under Jawaharlal Nehru’s Prime Ministership, was a logical expression of an idea that underlay India’s anti-colonial struggle, namely that in independent India, an improvement in the material conditions of life of the people, subjugated and…
The RBI Governor’s Unwarranted Remarks
The Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Dr. Raghuram Rajan, while inaugurating the annual conference of the Indian Economic Association at Udaipur on the 27th of December, questioned the wisdom of the debt-waiver scheme for agriculturists, which the UPA…
The Phenomenal Increase in Wealth Inequality
Credit Suisse brings out a Global Wealth Report every year. The current year’s report takes up for specific discussion the issue of wealth inequality. The term “wealth” in the report covers only household wealth and refers to the value of…
The Gathering Clouds of Recession
The world capitalist economy has been mired in stagnation and high unemployment ever since the 2008 financial crisis. Many were predicting that a turnaround was about to occur, partly because of the fact that the U.S. economy last month showed…