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The unsustainability of fossil fuel use in India

India’s dependence on fossil fuel is widely regarded as unsustainable. This column highlights that this unsustainability is not just environmental in character, but is emerging as a macroeconomic one...

  • Articles

Exchange-rate pass-through by Indian and Chinese exporters

The pricing behaviour of exporters in emerging markets confirms that the already well-reported decline in exchange rate sensitivity of import prices is due to export prices becoming more sensitive to ...

  • Articles

Casteism and corruption: Beyond political correctness

Sociologist Ashis Nandy’s recent remark that most corrupt people belong to lower castes drew a lot of flak. In this column, Pranab Bardhan shares his views on what he considers to be the two substanti...

  • Perspectives

Low-carbon development in Indian agriculture: A missed opportunity?

The agricultural sector is the largest contributor of Greenhouse Gases in India. Yet, it has not received due importance in India’s climate change mitigation strategy. This column says that India mus...

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India's disputed ruling on pharmaceuticals and patents

On April 1 2013, the Supreme Court of India rejected the attempt by Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceutical company, to patent a new version of the leukemia drug Glivec. The verdict follows previous rulin...

  • Perspectives

Electricity demand in urban Indian households: Influencing consumer behaviour

The huge and fast growing urban middle class of India uses a significant amount of electricity at their homes. This column argues that there is a need to focus on managing demand of electricity, and d...

  • Articles

IAP improving lives in Maoist-affected areas

In this Note from the Field, a PMRDF working in the Left Wing Extremism affected Purulia district in West Bengal, narrates how the Maoist movement disrupted livelihoods, revenue generation and public...

  • Notes from the Field

Why India should not further delay a credit line from the IMF

India is expected to run a current account deficit of more than 4% of its GDP this year. At the moment this can be paid for with money coming in from abroad – but what if the flow of money were to su...

  • Articles

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

Adoption of Water-Saving Infrastructure in Agriculture: The Case of Laser Levellers

Water tables are falling rapidly, in large part due to the fact that individuals do not bear the social marginal cost of the water they use; free water extraction is a property right attached to land ...

  • IGC Research on India

Should bribe-givers be let off?

In 2011, Economist Kaushik Basu argued that for a class of bribes, the law should not punish the bribe-giver. This column presents results of experiments conducted to test this idea and provides insi...

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Two questions about the 2G scandal

The scandal involving corruption in the allocation of 2G licenses left the nation stunned. This column presents estimates of the revenue loss to the government, and says that while the common man was...

  • Articles