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 BJP under Narendra Modi has been by and large favoured by fortune. This is reflected not just in the fact that it managed to win 52 per cent (282) of the seats with just 31 per cent of the…
There is a reason why budgets have to be passed in parliament (in India certainly, but also in most other countries). There is a reason why, as per the Indian Constitution, the Finance Bill that details the revenues and expenditure…
There are many ways to divide Indian society, and unfortunately we seem to be pretty good at all of them. There are material inequalities: in terms of asset ownership, incomes, consumption, access to finance, control over physical and natural resources,…
The spat between the BJP-Led government and the NDA over celebrations to mark Nehru’s 125th birth anniversary must not divert attention from one important fact. There has been for around three decades now an explicit or implicit rejection of and…
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…
The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, at least the image through which it is expressed, of celebrities descending from limousines in sundry locations to sweep away the “clean garbage” (mainly leaves and such like) which have been carefully deposited there by official…
After months of impasse, India finally agreed to relent on its opposition to allow progress on the post-Bali work programme of the World Trade Organization (WTO), after concluding a “bilateral agreement” with the United States. According to the terms of…
On the face of it, the campaign to clean India is something that obviously must be welcomed and accepted by every right-thinking citizen: something unexceptionable in intent and clearly desirable in stated outcomes. But it suffers from the same deficiencies…
Inflows into deposit schemes for Non-resident Indians (NRIs) are shrinking. They peaked at $38,406 million in financial year 2013-14, with monthly average inflows of $3,200 million in that year (Chart 1). As compared to that, inflows during April to August…
