India Policy Forum 2021


Book Description

The India Policy Forum (IPF) is India's most prominent annual economic policy conference in the summer season of New Delhi and is organized by NCAER, the National Council of Applied Economic Research. The primary goal of the IPF is to promote original policy and empirical research on India, including policy-focused review articles that seek to define the best economic policy advice based on robust, empirical research. The annual IPF conference provides a unique combination of intense scholarship and expert commentary on commissioned research papers with a strong focus on policy. The revised papers and conference proceedings are published in this volume, including the comments of paper discussants and a summary of the floor discussion on each paper.




India Policy Forum 2018


Book Description

The India Policy Forum (IPF) is India’s most prominent annual economic policy conference in the summer season of New Delhi and is organized by NCAER, the National Council of Applied Economic Research. The primary goal of the IPF is to promote original policy and empirical research on India, including policy-focused review articles that seek to define the best economic policy advice based on robust, empirical research. The annual IPF conference provides a unique combination of intense scholarship and expert commentary on commissioned research papers with a strong focus on policy. The revised papers and conference proceedings are published in this volume, including the comments of paper discussants and a summary of the floor discussion on each paper.




The India Policy Forum 2004


Book Description

A Brookings Institution Press and the National Council of Applied Economic Research publication The India Policy Forum (IPF) is a new annual publication dedicated to research on the contemporary Indian economy. It provides a forum for addressing the scope, speed, and desirability of economic reforms within India and their fundamental impacts on the country's social and economic welfare. The IPF aims to nurture a global network of scholars interested in India's economic transformation. A joint publication of the National Council of Applied Economic Research in India and the Brookings Institution in the United States, the IPF provides a bridge between researchers in India and abroad. This inaugural issue contains highlights from a conference held in New Delhi in March 2004. Topics include: • India's Trade Reform: Progress, Impact, and Future Strategy • Should a U.S.-India Free Trade Agreement Be Part of India's Trade Strategy? • Foreign Inflows and Macroeconomic Policy in India • India's Experience with the Implementation of a Pegged Exchange Rate • The Challenges for Capital Account Convertibility in India • Banking Reform in India




Costs of Democracy


Book Description

One of the most troubling critiques of contemporary democracy is the inability of representative governments to regulate the deluge of money in politics. If it is impossible to conceive of democracies without elections, it is equally impractical to imagine elections without money. Costs of Democracy is an exhaustive, ground-breaking study of money in Indian politics that opens readers’ eyes to the opaque and enigmatic ways in which money flows through the political veins of the world’s largest democracy. Through original, in-depth investigation—drawing from extensive fieldwork on political campaigns, pioneering surveys, and innovative data analysis—the contributors in this volume uncover the institutional and regulatory contexts governing the torrent of money in politics; the sources of political finance; the reasons for such large spending; and how money flows, influences, and interacts with different tiers of government. The book raises uncomfortable questions about whether the flood of money risks washing away electoral democracy itself.




Breaking the Mold


Book Description

The new path for economic development that India must create The whole world has a stake in India’s future, and that future hinges on whether India can develop its economy and deliver for its population—now the world’s largest—while staying democratic. India’s economy has overtaken the United Kingdom’s to become the fifth-largest in the world, but it is still only one-fifth the size of China’s, and India’s economic growth is too slow to provide jobs for millions of its ambitious youth. Blocking India’s current path are intense global competition in low-skilled manufacturing, increasing protectionism and automation, and the country’s majoritarian streak in politics. In Breaking the Mold, Raghuram Rajan and Rohit Lamba show why and how India needs to blaze a new path if it’s to succeed. India diverged long ago from the standard development model, the one followed by China—from agriculture to low-skilled manufacturing, then high-skilled manufacturing and, finally, services—by leapfrogging intermediate steps. India must not turn back now. Rajan and Lamba explain how India can accelerate growth by prioritizing human capital, expanding opportunities in high-skilled services, encouraging entrepreneurship, and strengthening rather than weakening its democratic traditions. It can chart a path based on ideas and creativity even at its early stage of development. Filled with vivid examples and written with incisive candor, Breaking the Mold shows how India can break free of the stumbling blocks of the past and embrace the enormous possibilities of the future.




Futilitarianism


Book Description

This volume is an overview of, and commentary on, aspects of contemporary India and its socio-economic policies. It focuses on India’s economy and society in recent years, and in the process it addresses structural issues of development such as those of population, poverty, inequality, health, and social exclusion. It reviews the adequacy and appropriateness of governmental response to these problems, in terms of public policy, narrowly conceived, and philosophical orientation, more broadly conceived. The concern is not only with economic achievement and human development but also with the framework of civic rights, personal liberty, and institutional autonomy within which the exercise of governance is perceived to be carried out. The essays in this volume were originally written with the general-reader-as-involved-citizen very much in mind as the intended target. However, it should also be of interest to scholars of economics, political science, development studies, and South Asian studies.




The COVID-19 Pandemic, India and the World


Book Description

This book analyses the economic and social impact of the Covid-19 crisis with special focus on India. It examines the economic disruption caused by the pandemic, policy responses to it and the prospect of a severe global recession. It also covers how the pandemic has contributed to considerable suffering among the masses and affected socio-cultural relationships, behavioural patterns and psychological attitudes governing human interaction. A topical and timely collection on the pandemic, the essays in the volume discuss several key themes which include, · The Corona pandemic and the changing global economy; growth, trade and macroeconomic recovery; · Public health and policy failures; appropriate policy response; · Impact on education; guidelines for the future; · Idea of economic herd immunity; impact of India’s lockdown, crisis of the migrant labourers; · Impact on agriculture, industry, firms, households and the informal sector; · Implications of digital technology for production, labour and labour relations; · Violence amidst the virus; Covid 19 and Hindu- Muslim conflict in India, domestic violence, questions of occupation, identity, gender and vulnerability; · De-globalisation and environmental challenges in the post-Covid era. Engagingly written, this comprehensive volume compiles original research by leading economists from India and abroad. It will be useful for scholars and researchers of economics, of the Indian economy, development economics, development studies, labour studies, public policy, public administration, governance, sociology and political economy.




The Future of Economic and Social Rights


Book Description

Captures significant transformations in the theory and practice of economic and social rights in constitutional and human rights law.




Accelerating India's Development


Book Description

Seventy-five years after Independence, India has much to be proud of. We are both the world’s biggest democracy and fastest-growing large economy. Yet, we face profound challenges that hinder both individual well-being and aggregate growth, including education and skills, health and nutrition, public safety, justice, social protection, and jobs. This seminal book systematically analyses India’s governance challenges, especially in delivering essential public services, and highlights how these are limiting India’s development. Drawing on a wealth of research and practical insights, it provides actionable, evidence-based strategies, emphasizing state-level reforms as critical for India’s advancement. Accelerating India’s Development is addressed to all Indians—leaders, officials, entrepreneurs, teachers, students, citizens, and civil society—and provides an urgent call to action. It argues that building an effective state is the great unfinished task of Indian democracy, because quality public services are key to translating the political equality of ‘One Person, One Vote’ into greater equality of opportunity for all Indians. Every chapter showcases the author’s dedication to bridging the gap between scholarly research, public understanding, and actionable governance. This book is a testament to cautious optimism and the belief that with the right public systems in place, India’s next twenty-five years can be a period of unprecedented growth and societal enrichment.




THE GOLDEN BIRD 2.0


Book Description

The Golden Bird 2.0 draws from India’s rich past to take a fresh look at its potential for a glorious future—a second golden age, shaped by powerful public will, economic wherewithal, and the nation’s status as the world leader. What made ancient India the Golden Bird in the first place? What did China, the Land of the Dragon, have in common with India, and when did these two ancient civilizations diverge on their paths to global success? Raina Singhwi Jain discusses the immediate need and measures for a quantum jump in our attitude towards development. While conventional wisdom suggests improvements in manufacturing, the ease of doing business and digital technology, Jain goes a step further, drawing surprising parallels between other areas that beg our attention—process engineering, communication design, journalism, and education. This is a work of reflection and a call to action, urging Indian denizens to act now for a revival of the genius that lies dormant within each one of us.