The Price of Growth
Jan 27th 2012, C.P. Chandrasekhar
The early signs of a reduction in the rate of inflation have been used as evidence to make a case for lower interest rates. However, there is no reason to believe that within the current policy regime, rate cuts would not aggravate inflationary trends once again.
Democracy and the Financial Markets
Dec 1st 2011, Jayati Ghosh
In the last few decades, it has become increasingly common for various developing and “emerging” markets to give greater importance to appeasing the interests of financial markets over the requirements of political democracy. Now, this is afflicting developed countries as well, where governments are sacrificing democracy in favour of the markets.
''Planning'' for Whom?
Oct 12th 2011, C.P. Chandrasekhar
There are some fundamental changes in the Planning Commission's current perspective relative to the earlier periods. In the post-Independence years, pursuit of profit was not seen as being in the social interest and this was reflected in the nature of development planning. But now, profit is the sole motive and the role of the state is to merely facilitate this by incentivising corporate activity.

The Challenge of Ensuring Full Employment in the Twenty-first Century
Oct 12th 2011. Jayati Ghosh
The recent economic growth process in India and other parts of the developing world exhibits the inability of even high rates of output growth to generate sufficient opportunities for 'decent work' to meet the needs of the growing labour force. Therefore, there is a clear case for a shift towards wage-led and domestic demand-led growth, particularly in the economies that are large enough to sustain this shift.
What World Leaders Need to Do Urgently (but are not)
Oct 4th 2011, Jayati Ghosh
Global leaders' efforts to control the prevailing anarchy and enable recovery in their economies end up having the opposite effect, because the direction of their macroeconomic policies is all wrong and mobile finance capital is still largely unregulated. Here are five basic steps that world leaders need to take.
India’s Schizophrenic Banks
Jun 29th 2011, C.P. Chandrasekhar and Jayati Ghosh
The release of the third of the Financial Stability Reports being prepared by the RBI provides new information on the state and behaviour of the Indian banking system. While banks appear well capitalised and their balance sheets robust, at the margin they seem to be embracing too much risk.
Trading Growth for Inflation
May 27th 2011, C.P. Chandrasekhar
If inflation is influenced by global developments, adjusting domestic interest rates may do little to redress the problem. The RBI's latest interest rate manoeuvre may thus end up being successful in contracting demand and growth, but it is likely to fail to rein in inflation.
Employment under the New Growth Trajectory
Dec 22nd 2010, C.P. Chandrasekhar and Jayati Ghosh
A comparison of the results of the 55th, 61st and 64th Rounds of the NSS permits an assessment of the trends in employment in India during the years when India transited to an era of high growth. It suggests that some of the optimism generated by the results for 2004-05 may not be warranted.
Surviving Uncertain Times
Dec 1st 2010, C.P. Chandrasekhar and Jayati Ghosh
It is now evident that the world economy is in for another spate of major problems, with recession and stagnation likely to affect the largest economies and altering prospects for growth elsewhere. This article examines recent patterns of the Indian economy’s external engagement, in order to gauge how well equipped it is to face this uncertain future.
Fiscal Discipline and All That
Jul 27th 2010, Jayati Ghosh
There was a sudden resurgence in Keynesian ideas everywhere when the global financial crisis broke in September 2008. But, equally suddenly, financial markets have once again turned back on state intervention and policy makers are giving in to demands for massive cuts in public expenditure that would require enormous sacrifices from their populations.
Foreign Aid or Aiding the Foreign?
May 1st 2010, C.P. Chandrasekhar
The passing of a draft version of the Foreign Educational Institutions Bill by the Union Cabinet has raised certain questions with protagonists and opponents expressing a range of views on the subject. While there is a fear that the process underway is one of creating a window for foreign players and then changing the rules in their favour, question is also raised whether the implementation of the Bill amounts to skewing further the inequality in access to higher education.
The Travails of the Rupee
Apr 15th 2010, C.P. Chandrasekhar and Jayati Ghosh
The significant appreciation of the rupee in recent months, driven by a surge in foreign portfolio capital inflows, has revived old and generated new problems for macroeconomic management. This signals once again that the need is not for further capital account liberalisation but for the imposition of additional controls on the cross-border flows of capital.
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