(This post first appeared in The Times of India on 7th March, 2023.) In a recent article (India in 2047 – A Developed Country, TOI 17 February 2023) Surjit Bhalla has tried to quantify the Prime Minister’s call for making India a developed economy. He has suggested that we adopt the level of per capita…
A recent article by The Hindu has triggered a debate over the Akshaya Patra Foundation (APF). Specifically their contribution to Karnataka’s midday meal (MDM) scheme. Animated and sentimental opinions have been making the rounds on social media. The discussion appears to have regressed into a conflict of ideologies and stories rather than an examination of…
Since Independence, India has shared a cordial relationship with the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. As time progressed, India and the CEE countries which were part of the erstwhile Soviet Union shared an amicable relationship till its disintegration.1 Since then, economic relations between the countries have dwindled. India contributes somewhere between 1-2% of the…
India recently relinquished its numerouno position of being home to the largest number of poor according to the Future Development blog of the World Bank’s Brooking Institute. Now, Nigeria has become home to the largest number of poor people or people living on less than USD 1.90 a day. It houses 87 million such people…
With travel and tourism being considered an important pillar for socio-economic and cultural development in India, the sense of urgency to strengthen tourism has grown. India is ranked 40th out of 138 countries in the 2018 Travel and Tourism Competitive Index of the World Economic Forum. India has jumped 25 places, improving upon its ranking…
A lot has been written about the China – US trade war that has been going on for the better part of this year. US President Donald Trump announced in his campaign that he would return prosperity to the US Rust Belt that has been “stolen” by China. As a first measure, on January 22,…
According to the SIPRI Year Book 2018, global military expenditure in 2017 stood at USD 1,739 billion. United States of America (USA) remains the largest military spender and exporter of weapons in 2017. Other countries exporting significant volumes of military equipment and systems are Russia, China, Germany and France. These countries account for almost a…
Washington Consensus promoted the view that the operation of the free market and the reduction of state intervention were crucial for development in the global South. It is of the view that developing countries should adopt market-led development strategies (such as free flow of goods, services, labour and capital) that trickle down to the benefit…
In India, liquor falls under List II or the State List in the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India. In other words,anything pertaining to production, manufacture, transport, sale or purchase of liquor falls under purview of state administration. The control and regulation exercised by the states on liquor production and supply makes an interesting…
The Defence Production Policy (DPrP) 2011 was issued by the Department of Defence Production (DDP), Ministry of Defence (MoD). It outlines the framework within which domestic industries are expected to pursue indigenous design and manufacture of defence equipment.The policy recognises Micro, Small andMedium Enterprises (MSMEs) as an integralpart of the defence production supply chains. As…
Data released by Ministry of Commerce shows a worsening of India’s trade deficit by almost 45%, rising from USD 106.2 billion in FY 17 to USD 156.83 billion in FY 18. While imports during the fiscal grew at around 19.59%, exports showed a muted growth rate of less than 10%. This slowdown in India’s foreign…
The Finance Resolution and Deposit Insurance (FRDI) bill was introduced in Parliament during theBudget Session of 2017 and has been due to be passed since then. The work of establishing a framework for financial resolution and deposit insurance started with the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Committee (FSLRC) report which came out in 2013, but progress…