Innovative Scamsters
Aug 20th 2008, C.P. Chandrasekhar
The recent emergence of a set of financial instruments, by the name of 'auction rate securities' or ARS, signifies another symbol of the malfunctioning global financial markets. The ARS system apparently follows a transparent and market efficient principle, but in reality results in a lowering of the notional value of securities held by investors in the absence of an active market.
Mid-Course Deviation
Aug 11th 2008, C.P. Chandrasekhar
The withdrawal of support for the UPA government by the Left parties on the Indo-US nuclear deal is justified since they had always opposed any attempt to forge a strategic relationship with the US, since there remains an inherent contradiction between US imperialism and the interests of developing countries like India. This problem was compounded by the fact that the UPA had in any case been deviating widely from the CMP agreed on by the UPA and the Left, especially in implementing the pro-poor programmes.
 
Gender Inequality in Banking Services in India A Note
Aug 2nd 2008, Pallavi Chavan

This brief note is a preliminary attempt to understand the extent and nature of gender inequality in the provision of banking services in India. It addresses the largely unanswered question of whether the increasing spread of micro finance has indeed resulted in financial inclusion of women at large and whether it has been able to counteract the existing gender inequality in the provision of banking services.

Balance of Payments: Do We Need to Worry?
Aug 1st 2008, C. P. Chandrasekhar & Jayati Ghosh

Despite the apparent public complacency regarding the balance of payments, there are reasons to be concerned about recent trends. In this artilce the authors specifically examine tendencies in the current account and assess their significance for the immediate future.

 
The Impact of Macroeconomic Change on Employment in the Retail Sector in India: Policy Implications for Growth, Sectoral Change and Employment
May 15th 2008, Jayati Ghosh, Amitayu Sengupta &
Anamitra Roychoudhury
This study is concerned with the employment situation in India's retail sector. High economic growth in India has not produced satisfactory outcomes of job growth, both in terms of quantity and quality. Concern has arisen that many of the working poor engaged in small-scale retailing and street vending are crowded by entries of large-scale domestic as well as foreign retailers. Share of workers' income in manufacturing has also seen a decline, despite labour productivity growth, during the last decade. This paper argues that economic policy in India needs to be made more inclusive and equitable. The only sure way of doing so would be making it more pro-job and pro-poor, through examining employment implications of macro policies that accompany economic liberalization.
Farmers' Suicides in India: Magnitudes, Trends and Spatial Patterns
Mar 3rd 2008, K. Nagaraj
Given the very large number of suicides by farmers in various parts of India over the last decade, there is a need to probe the issue by utilizing a data source which would provide a comprehensive, nation-wide picture. This paper is a modest attempt to fill that gap. Its basic objective is to put together, and carry out a preliminary analysis on, the secondary data that are available on farmers' suicides in the country. The paper studies, first, the magnitude and trends in farmers' suicides in India over 1997-2006; and second, the regional patterns, if any, in the incidence and trends in these suicides.
Nov 28th 2007.
Economic Research Foundation (ERF) is looking for researchers for appointment at the Junior Economist and Economist levels.
Budgetary Policy in the Context of Inflation
Mar 30th 2007, Prabhat Patnaik

Negating the impact of the current inflationary episode in India on the poor requires both the ensuring of appropriate supplies through imports, and a transfer of purchasing power from the profit earners to the workers. Hence, even if augmentation of supplies through resorting to imports, as the government is doing now in the case of foodgrains, succeeds in ending inflation, there is still the need to put additional purchasing power in the hands of the poor so that they regain their earlier real income. The author argues that the basic problem with the 2007-08 budget is that it is oblivious of these social demands of a situation of profit inflation.

Singur and the Political Economy of Structural Change
Feb 17th 2007, Mritiunjoy Mohanty

The paper explores the controversy that has surrounded the West Bengal Government's land acquisition programme in Singur and situates it within the overall context of economic growth and transformation. It argues one of the most adversely affected groups as a result of the acquisition is relatively large farmers for whom agriculture is a source of accumulation and not livelihood and subsistence. This might explain in part why the resistance has been so strong. The paper argues that equitable and sustained growth is possible only by reducing the share of agriculture in the labour force and therefore that the West Bengal Government's strategy has to focus on maximising the generation of non-farm rural employment.

Jyotirmoy Bhattacharya
 
What were the Main Drawbacks of the Nehruvian Strategy of Development?
Public Finance Statistics
Index Number of India's Exports & Imports
All India Index Numbers of Area, Production and Yield of Principal Crops (Base: Triennium ending 1981-82)
National Accounts Statistics (Base: 1993-94 )
National Accounts Statistics (Base: 1980-81)
National Accounts Statistics: Disaggregated Statements
State Domestic Product (Base: 1980-81)
 

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