The Economic Times

For more than two decades, from 1980 to 2003, India’s GDP growth averaged around 6% per year. Reforms in 1990 produced no dramatic acceleration. Then, with no new policy impetus at all, GDP growth suddenly shot up after 2003 to […]

For more than two decades, from 1980 to 2003, India’s GDP growth averaged around 6% per year. Reforms in 1990 produced no dramatic acceleration. Then, with no new policy impetus at all, GDP growth suddenly shot up after 2003 to

I am somewhat surprised that the sensex as well as other stock markets the world over have taken off after the US Federal Reserve cut its short-term interest rate by 0.5%, to 5.5%. Other central banks are also expected to

Journalists do not have a good reputation for predicting recessions. Indeed, they are reputed to have predicted 10 of the last three recessions. A month ago, I wrote that the US had a 33% chance of going into recession next

The slump in global stock markets since July has wiped out an estimated $5 trillion of wealth, five times the GDP of India. So, world inequality has fallen dramatically. Are poor people across the world celebrating the great reduction of

We are celebrating, simultaneously, the 60th anniversary of Independence and 150th anniversary of the 1857 mutiny against British rule. Some historians and most politicians call the mutiny the first war of independence. This is a dubious proposition. The concept of

Today, globalisation is equated with economic liberalisation. Of course, the Soviet Union once sought a different sort of socialist globalisation. But the Soviet Union is now gone, and globalisation is seen to be driven by the private sector. Indeed, the

In February, The Economist (the British weekly) hazarded a guess that India\’s current account deficit in 2006-07 would be 3% of GDP. Others, including me, felt it would be closer to 2% of GDP. In fact, it was just 1.1%

In February, The Economist (the British weekly) hazarded a guess that India\’s current account deficit in 2006-07 would be 3% of GDP. Others, including me, felt it would be closer to 2% of GDP. In fact, it was just 1.1%

July 2 marked the tenth anniversary of the Asian financial crisis, which flattened most Asian economies in 1997-99. China and India suffered, but survived intact. Today, Asian countries have adopted new policies — discussed below — to ensure that 1997