There was a time when economists were inevitably concerned with development. Early economists of the 16th and 17th centuries to those of the mid 20th century were all essentially concerned with understanding the processes of economic growth and structural change:…
On 27 July, 2015 the BSE Sensex dropped by 551 points relative to its previous closing value. The index fell by a further 102 points the subsequent day. Such single-day declines need not be a cause for concern. The stock…
The results of the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) conducted in 2011 were finally released to the public in early July 2015. And even this was only a partial release, with data covering only rural India and that too…
Among the initiatives launched with much fanfare by the NDA government is the one titled “Digital India”, which is slated to use high speed internet as a core utility and provide citizens entitlements, documents and a host of services on…
For reasons not always well established, the middle class in modern societies is viewed with favourable eyes. Defined in terms that are often subjective, that group is seen as directly or indirectly underlying social stability and driving growth. Based on…
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 day after the Indian government banned the BBC documentary India’s Daughter, on the horrific gang rape and killing of a student in Delhi, a 10,000-strong mob broke into a jail in a town in Assam, dragged out an alleged rapist, beat…
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…
Saturday 7 February was voting day in the capital city of Delhi. So it was effectively a holiday for many workers, who only had to walk to their polling stations to cast their votes for the Assembly elections. This meant…
If Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan is to be believed, efforts to help Indian farmers by providing them with cheap(er) credit and relieving them of an unsustainable debt burden only harms them in the long run. In his…
