Public finances continue to be under strain, and a large fiscal deficit leaves the government with very little elbow room to spend its way out of trouble in case another global hurricane hits Indian shores

The data shows that the difference between growth rates in the two countries converge towards the end of every decade, but then something happens that allows China to accelerate relative to India all over again

Several important economic lessons can be gleaned from the Suzanne Collins trilogy

Getting more household savings into the financial system, and especially into risk assets, is an urgent task

Is the United Progressive Alliance’s endgame an inevitable increase in tax rates?

The pathetic state of Indian children is at odds with high hopes about the potential of a country with a young population

Our own policy debates can get very heated, but they inevitably skip the important question about what a particular law or policy means on the ground, where real people take decisions based on rational calculations

Language, rhetoric and trust are essential features in the functioning of any economy

Will the government’s response to the ongoing economic stress be radical politics or economic reforms?

The falling import cover and the domestic liquidity crunch make heavy RBI intervention unlikely, though critics are quite justified in asking whether policymakers should have explicitly signalled their unwillingness to aggressively defend the rupee

The rapid acceleration in economic growth after fiscal 2004 coincided with an increase in the investment ratio and a sharp fall in the revenue deficit

The key issue is not bonuses for Wall Street bankers, but how fast India and China grow in the years ahead

Investors may have to recalibrate their expectations in case the West heads for another 5-10 years of low growth

There are structural factors at play as well, which cannot be tackled with higher interest rates alone. This puts RBI in a spot, because it cannot be a spectator as inflation expectations cut loose but it also cannot deal with the underlying structural factors with its policy kit

Central banks in Western countries are looking beyond inflation and are trying to control other economic variables