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Contributor : Profile

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Ashok Kotwal

Editor-in-Chief, I4I; University of British Columbia
kotwal.ashok@gmail.com

Ashok Kotwal is the Editor-in-Chief of Ideas for India. He is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He served as the Head of the Department from 1995-2000 and as the Director, Centre for India and South Asia Research at the University of British Columbia from 2003 to 2008. His research has focused on development issues such as the process of poverty decline, labour and credit markets in developing countries, the role of agriculture in development, the role of international trade, and rural governance. More recently, he has been engaged in the study of poverty alleviation schemes such as Public Distribution System and MNREGA (Employment Guarantee Act).

Posts by Ashok Kotwal

Protectionism under the guise of food security

India has backed out of the commitment it made at the WTO negotiations in Bali in November 2013. The implicit explanation is that the government needs to accumulate food grain stocks to provide subsid...

  • Perspectives

The challenge of fulfilling aspirations

This year’s election is a watershed in Indian history. This editorial discusses possible reasons for the stunning defeat of the previous government. While there is no denying that the previous gove...

  • Perspectives

Emerging challenges: Economic and social

To mark the second anniversary of I4I in July 2014, we invited two eminent scholars – Abhijit Banerjee (MIT) and Mukul Kesavan (Jamia Milia) to discuss the emerging economic and social challenges in...

  • Videos

The perplexing case of Gujarat

The common perception is that Gujarat has performed a lot better than the rest of India in terms of development, particularly in the past decade. This column analyses data recently compiled by th...

  • Articles

Bali conundrum: WTO and Indian agriculture

The outcome of the recent WTO meetings at Bali is a stopgap arrangement, which implies that the Indian government does not have to make any changes in the implementation of the new Food Security Act i...

  • Perspectives

Some reflections on the National Food Security Act

The Food Security Bill became an Act with little parliamentary opposition. Yet the public debate has lingered. Would subsidised food grains reduce malnutrition? Won’t it be better to invest in heal...

  • Perspectives

A suggestion for WTO negotiations

India’s new food security law is likely to breach WTO’s limit on farmer support. India is keen to ask for a temporary exemption from the rule so that the law can be implemented unhindered. But, i...

  • Perspectives

Doing a number on the Food Security Bill

In a recent article, Kotwal, Murugkar and Ramaswami pointed out errors in estimation by Surjit Bhalla that led him to assert that the Food Security Bill will increase cost of food subsidy by 336%, an...

  • Perspectives

Correct costs of the Food Security Bill

In a recent article, Surjit Bhalla has asserted that the Food Security Bill will increase costs of food grain subsidy by 336%. Correcting errors in his calculation brings this figure down to 18%. In t...

  • Perspectives

I4I turns 1!

It has been a year since the voice of ‘Ideas for India’ was first heard. Our mission was to be an outlet for evidence-based arguments on a wide set of issues relevant to Indian growth and develop...

  • Perspectives

I4I Panel Discusson: A conversation on Indian Development

To celebrate the first birthday of I4I, we invited eminent economists Abhijit Banerjee and Raghuram Rajan to have a conversation about vital issues in Indian development.

  • Videos

What explains the steep poverty decline in India from 2004 to 2011?

Ashok Kotwal, Editor-in-Chief, Ideas for India, interviews Pronab Sen on the recent poverty figures that show a steep decline in poverty in India between 2004 and 2011. According to him, the shift in...

  • Perspectives