Editorial : Profile
Nirvikar Singh is Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), where he co-directs UCSC’s Center for Analytical Finance. He held the Sarbjit Singh Aurora Chair of Sikh and Punjabi Studies from 2010 to 2020, and also previously led its South Asian Studies Initiative. He has been a member of the Advisory Group to the Finance Minister of India on G-20 matters, and currently is a member of the Punjab Chief Minister's expert group on revitalizing the state economy. He previously served as Director of the Santa Cruz Center for International Economics, Co-Director of the Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, Special Advisor to the Chancellor (all at UCSC), and Consultant to the Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. He organised one of the first major US conferences on Indian economic reform.
He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, where he was awarded the Allyn Young Prize, Gonner Prize and Ely Devons Prize.
Professor Singh’s current research topics include entrepreneurship, information technology and development, electronic commerce, business strategy, political economy, federalism, economic growth and the Indian economy. He has authored over 100 research papers and co-authored/edited six books: The Other One Percent: Indians in America; Economic Transformation of a Developing Economy:The Experience of Punjab, India; Joint Ventures, International Investment and Technology Transfer; The Political Economy of Federalism in India; Waiting to Connect: India IT Revolution Bypasses the Domestic Industry; and The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of the Pacific Rim. He has also served as an advisor for several startups and knowledge services firms in Silicon Valley and in India.
Posts by Nirvikar Singh
Economic development of Punjab: Prospects and policies
While the north Indian state of Punjab topped per-capita income rankings within the country until year 2000, its position fell consistently thereafter. This article discusses the current state of Punj...
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Nirvikar Singh
Prakarsh Singh
Lakhwinder Singh
17 July, 2024
Introduction to e-Symposium: The good jobs challenge in India
One of the primary concerns for India is the question of jobs – specifically good quality jobs. Why has India lagged in creating opportunities for its working age population, and how different secto...
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Kunal Sen
Nirvikar Singh
12 September, 2022
The future of work from home
With the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic, work from home became the norm in 2020. However, even though mobility restrictions have been lifted, many workplaces all over the world continue to follow a m...
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Nicholas Bloom
Nirvikar Singh
29 July, 2022
The future of work from home
With the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic, work from home became the norm in 2020. However, even though mobility restrictions have been lifted, many workplaces all over the world continue to follow a m...
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Nicholas Bloom
Nirvikar Singh
29 July, 2022
The Indian economy and policymaking: Towards ‘openness’
Providing his perspective on the recent policy paper by Subramanian and Felman, Nirvikar Singh contends that more emphasis is needed on financial reforms and innovation, addressing India’s export sl...
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Nirvikar Singh
29 January, 2021
Farm laws: Reform needed but not at expense of small farmers
Commenting on the controversial farm laws, Kaushik Basu and Nirvikar Singh contend that the government should withdraw these laws, return to the drafting table, engage with farmers and states, and inc...
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Kaushik Basu
Nirvikar Singh
21 December, 2020
Union Budget 2020 and India’s economic future
In this post, Nirvikar Singh discusses what we can learn from the recently presented Union Budget about the possible direction of India’s economy. He contends that, though the Budget is positive in ...
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Nirvikar Singh
07 February, 2020
Management and India’s economic growth
India has produced a well-recognised elite of managers, some of whom have demonstrated their capabilities in premier firms outside the country. In this post, Nirvikar Singh discusses existing empirica...
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Nirvikar Singh
20 July, 2018
Financial inclusion: Concepts, issues, and policies for India
The International Growth Centre recently brought out a synthesis paper (Singh 2017) that lays out the basic concepts surrounding financial inclusion, and reviews a wide range of IGC and other studies ...
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Nalini Gulati
Nirvikar Singh
17 August, 2017
Union Budget 2016: Will it support India's economic transformation?
In this year’s Budget speech, the Finance Minister articulated the government’s agenda to ‘Transform India’ through a set of economic reforms framed in terms of ‘nine pillars’ - agricultur...
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Nirvikar Singh
08 March, 2016
Foreign currency borrowing by Indian firms: What do we know?
As foreign currency borrowing by Indian firms has been increasing, concerns have surfaced about rising associated risks. Hence, recent policy changes seeking to make the regulatory regime simpler and...
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Ila Patnaik
Ajay Shah
Nirvikar Singh
09 November, 2015
Foreign borrowing by Indian firms: Implications for growth and macroeconomic stability
This project analyses the pattern of external borrowing by Indian firms, an exercise that has as yet not been carried out. It identifies possible drivers of such borrowing.
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Ila Patnaik
Ajay Shah
Nirvikar Singh
30 June, 2015