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Contributor : Profile

Name Surname

Bharat Ramaswami

Ashoka University
bharat.ramaswami@ashoka.edu.in

Bharat Ramaswami is a Professor of Economics at Ashoka University and prior to that he was at the Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi. He has held visiting appointments at universities in Canada, Japan, Sweden and the United States. Before earning a PhD from the University of Minnesota, Ramaswami obtained a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Economics from the University of Delhi. He was awarded the Mahalanobis Memorial Medal by the Indian Econometric Society in 2004 for his contributions to quantitative economics.

Posts by Bharat Ramaswami

Two views on the Budget

The Modi government’s first Budget has received a mixed response. Eswar Prasad and Bharat Ramaswami present two distinct views on the Budget. While Prasad is of the opinion that the Budget hits the...

  • Perspectives

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

How labels influence the decision to buy genetically modified food

A regulation mandating labelling for all packaged products has been in effect in India since the beginning of this year. This column examines the role of information provided by labels in the decision...

  • Articles

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

Food Bill: Neither populist nor unaffordable

Criticism of the National Food Security Bill has led to the government dropping the idea of issuing an Ordinance and instead, saying it would try to get the Bill passed in a special session of Parlia...

  • Perspectives

Grain stocks: Is it a problem of storage capacity?

Foodgrains rot due to insufficient storage capacity, even as millions go to bed hungry. This column argues that increasing capacity is only a partial resolution. The crisis has happened before and wil...

  • Articles

The impacts of linking NREGA payments to UID. A Study of Maharashtra

This project attempts to measure the impact of Universal Identification (UID)-linked wage payments on corruption in public works projects funded under MNREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act)....

  • IGC Research on India