The Times of India

In a forthcoming paper for the Cato Institute, I have summed up the 25 years of economic reform as an era of private sector success, government failure, and eroding institutions. In 1991, many analysts warned that opening up the economy […]

The government hopes that Parliament will pass a Constitutional amendment for a Goods and Services Tax in the coming monsoon session. Attempts for over a decade have failed to ensure a two-thirds majority in both Houses. Does this mean India

After attacking Raghuram Rajan as mentally un-Indian (he is a US green card holder) and unfit to be governor of the RBI, Subramanian Swamy has demanded the sacking of chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian. Arvind’s supposed sins include his being

When Donald Trump started his zany campaign —laced with racism, xenophobia, nasty remarks about women, and endless falsehoods — most analysts said he could not possibly win the Republican primaries. Yet he did so easily. So, the very analysts who

Are India’s statistics just cooked up to give them a good flavour? The question has been raised by critics after the news that statistical “discrepancies” in the January-March quarter were as high as 4.8% of GDP. Critics say this casts

The BJP’s loose cannon Subramanian Swamy has launched a scathing attack on RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, accusing him of tight money policies that have ruined Indian industry, saddled the banks with bad debts, and slowed economic growth. Many industrialists also

For electoral success, economic development and electoral alliances are crucial, as shown by the results of five state elections last week. Political analysts tend to ignore economic development. They emphasize personalities, vote banks, catchy slogans and imagemanship. These certainly matter.

The urban middle classes hate her, the rural masses love her. The middle classes hate to admit it, but in elections the rural masses matter more. Most of the bhadralok castigate her for ruining university autonomy, filling institutions with her

Upamanyu Chatterjee once wrote a book titled The Mammaries of the Welfare State. If he visited Tamil Nadu today, he would be tempted to write another called The Alcoholic Mammaries of Tamil Nadu’s Welfare State. Tamil Nadu gives away more

Arvind Kejriwal should remember two elementary economic propositions when overhauling his odd-even scheme for cars. One, those who use public benefits (like roads) should pay levies to finance those benefits. Two, financial disincentives are better than physical bans and controls.