Last September I wrote that the troubles Syria is going through may well be due to climate change – specifically, to a decline in rainfall that has made agriculture less viable and forced people to move out...
If there are two key measures of a nation’s financial health – the budget deficit and national debt – then the UK is flat on its proverbial back. Seven years after this government came to...
Has India’s economic development led to convergence or divergence? One answer can be obtained from inequality. The Gini coefficient of per capita expenditure was 0.35 in 1951 and 0.34 in 2010 – hardly any change...
There was once a young king, even younger than Emmanuel Macron, who conquered power thanks to a sagacious adviser. The young king was called Chandragupta, and he was about to inaugurate the reign of the...
Economics excites economists no end, and bores the rest to death. The Economic Survey is an ideal tome for the bedside, and a perfect cure for insomnia. Having realized this in his short tenure, the...
For two hours in the year, the finance minister is the master of all he surveys. Television cameras show him all over the country; millions watch and listen to him with rapt attention. That is...
Ever since India established diplomatic ties with Israel 25 years ago, not a single Indian premier has visited the Jewish state. PM Narendra Modi wants to change it, highlighting the intensifying bilateral partnership. PM Modi’s...
According to the BoJ March Tankan Survey, the business conditions of Japanese companies improved in the first quarter of 2017. The improvements seem larger for manufacturers than for non-manufacturers. Large manufacturers saw their business condition...
A system of taxation that has been almost universally accepted today in different countries of the world is the progressive income tax. When we say progressive it implies that the rate of taxation is higher...
The first criterion an economist applies is, how appropriate a budget is to the macroeconomic situation. If it is inflationary, the budget must deflate, and vice versa. The current supply-demand balance is benign by Indian...
The World Economic Forum in Davos is a gathering of the global elite. This year’s meeting has shown very clearly just how much the leaders present were longing for leadership themselves, says DW’s Andreas Becker....
Demonetization caused widespread distress, which the media covered profusely; they were full of emotional stories – stories of how common people suffered, and uncommon rulers reveled. It is only now that we have some basic...
