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An economist's view on the new government's initiatives
In this article, Pranab Bardhan, Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley, provides his perspective on some of the initiatives of the new Indian government at the centre in their fi...
- Pranab Bardhan
- 19 December, 2014
- Perspectives
How effective is Janani Suraksha Yojana?
Janani Suraksha Yojana - India’s safe motherhood programme – provides poor women with a financial incentive for delivering births at health centres and seeking antenatal and postnatal care. This colum...
- Shareen Joshi Anusuya Sivaram
- 18 December, 2014
- Articles
India's macroeconomic outlook
With falling inflation, high forex reserves and the new government embarking on a broad reform agenda, things seem to be looking up for India. In this article, Eswar Prasad shares his macroeconomic o...
- Eswar Prasad
- 16 December, 2014
- Perspectives
Response to the Bhagwati-Panagariya rejoinder on MNREGA
In a recent article, Abreu et al. refuted the Bhagwati-Panagariya argument for phasing out MNREGA in favour of cash transfers. In this article, Abreu et al. respond to claims in a rejoinder by Bhagwa...
- Dilip Abreu Pranab Bardhan Maitreesh Ghatak Ashok Kotwal Dilip Mookherjee Debraj Ray
- 14 December, 2014
- Perspectives
Should India embrace inflation targeting?
The Urjit Patel Committee recommended the formal adoption of an inflation targeting regime for India. In this article, Iyanatul Islam compares the views of the current RBI Governor with those of his ...
- Iyanatul Islam
- 12 December, 2014
- Perspectives
Workfare as an effective way to fight poverty: The case of India's MNREGA
The fundamental appeal of a workfare programme, vis-à-vis a welfare programme, is that it helps in targeting the beneficiaries. This column assesses the welfare impact of MNREGA on poor rural househo...
- Shamika Ravi
- 11 December, 2014
- Articles
Taxing Tobacco
The steep increase in excise taxes on cigarettes in this year’s Union Budget is a welcome move. However, this column argues that unless more commonly consumed bidis are also taxed heavily, the public ...
- Rijo M. John
- 09 December, 2014
- Articles
Financial inclusion for agricultural growth: An alternative approach
Traditional, group-based microcredit has had limited success at enabling farmers to expand the cultivation of risky but profitable cash crops. Evidence suggests that this is mainly because of its mech...
- Pushkar Maitra Sandip Mitra Dilip Mookherjee Alberto Motta Sujata Visaria
- 08 December, 2014
- Articles
Assessing the quality and usefulness of MNREGA assets in Maharashtra
Questions have been raised regarding the quality and usefulness of assets created under MNREGA. To examine the validity of the scepticism, this column reports results from a study of MNREGA assets in...
- Upasak Das Ashwini Kulkarni Sudha Narayanan Krushna Ranavare
- 05 December, 2014
- Articles
Building state capacity for better programme implementation: Lessons from the Andhra Pradesh Smartcard Programme
Biometric payment systems are posited to reduce leakages in public welfare programmes but there is limited evidence on their effectiveness. This column presents evidence on the impact of the Andhra P...
- Karthik Muralidharan Paul Niehaus Sandip Sukhtankar
- 03 December, 2014
- Articles
What's the plan for MNREGA?
The new government’s plans to scale back MNREGA have elicited a mixed response. In this article, Abhijit Banerjee contends that both supporters and critics, and indeed the entire nation, deserve to be...
- Abhijit Banerjee
- 02 December, 2014
- Articles
Can services be a growth escalator in low-income countries?
Just like the East Asian Tigers, the Lions of Africa are now growing much faster than the developed economies. However, this column shows that the growth escalators in Africa are different than in Ea...
- Ejaz Ghani
- 01 December, 2014
- Articles