Public Policy – Page 12 – NICKELED AND DIMED

Budget and Infrastructure 2018

Kaainat Pundir, analyses the effect of the Union Budget for FY-2018 on the infrastructure Sector. The article also delves into the role of private investment alongside budgetary allocation to boost infrastructure.
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India’s Visa Policy Reforms

“India has carried out extensive visa application reforms to bolster tourism in the country, most notably through its eVisa provision. However, the aids and interfaces for visa application remain characteristically vague and convoluted, Natasha Agarwal argues. ”
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The Budget After Demonetisation: Will the Government Reform India’s Tax Structure?

Demonetisation was meant to widen India’s tax base and increase our abysmally low tax-GDP ratio. The government could further this aim in more concrete ways through the Budget. In this article, Deepanshu Mohan talks about the possible budget scenarios after demonetisation. “Little else is required to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence…but…
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Rajan’s craftsmanship

Through this article, Deepanshu Mohan expresses his concerns about the unsatisfactory approaches adopted by most educational institutions towards learning Economics, and lists out the factors that set Raghuram Rajan apart, as a brilliant craftsman of discipline of economics. In the book Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists*, written in 2004, Raghuram Rajan and Luigi Zingales argued…
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India’s Alternative Approach Towards African Market.

In this article, Atharva argues that despite the availability of abundance of mineral reserves in Africa, the country depends on foreign economic actors and investments owing to the lack of a sustainable manufacturing sector. This makes Africa prone to exploitation, by countries that look for an external source to uplift their consumer markets. However, the…
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The Mirage of Inclusive Growth

In this article, Deepanshu Mohan speaks of the need to unlearn the theoretical neo-liberalist idea of inclusive growth, to delve into a more pragmatic approach where growth and redistribution are hinged on to each other, and how government interference is imperative to purge growth inequalities that stemmed out from the pro-market policies.
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How Gender Inclusive is MNREGA in practice?

MNREGA mandates that a third of all workers under the programme should be women. But how gender inclusive has the implementation of the Act been? This column uses nationally representative data to analyse participation of women in MNREGA. It finds that while the programme has performed well overall in terms of providing opportunities to women,…
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Make in India Vs. Made In India – A Layman’s Guide

In this essay, Kalyani Jain outlines two different economic programs ‘Make in India’ and ‘Made in India’; one the government has and another the government might promote in order to deal with the stagnating economic situation in India. The essay analyzes their pros and cons and ends by giving a possible solution to the dilemma…
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State, Market and Institutions: Changing Roles and Relationships in Economic Development Since 1950

Mohan Kumar reviews the work of leading Development Economists to understand the role of the market and the state and how the evolution of the field of Development Economics has contributed to our understanding of these institutions. [Mohan Kumar is pursuing his Masters in Diplomacy, Law and Business from Jindal Global University, Haryana] The emergence…
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Bharat Stage Norms Too Low For Volkswagen?

In light of the US Volkswagen scandal, Bharat Stage, as India’s emission norms are called, are touted to be too low to generate worry for Volkswagen cars in India. Mehak Malhotra argues that on the contrary, this is enough cause for worry about the air quality that we breathe… September 2015 was a black month…
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A Comparative Look at the Development Experience of Brazil and China

Ashwin Nair presents a comparative look and contrasts the role of the state in the economic development of two BRICS countries, Brazil and China. The Brazilian State and the Chinese state are two vastly different entities. While one has a history of military rule the other owes a lot to Maoist ideology. Today Brazil has…
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Perspectives on US Mass Incarceration

In the face of the upcoming 2016 US Presidential Elections, Kalyani Unkule provides a timely persepective on the worrying trend of Mass Incarceration in the USA Against a recent history of political polarisation, the problem of mass incarceration is being discussed as providing an opportunity for bipartisan cooperation and is steadily receiving attention from US…
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