In The Media ⁽⁴⁰⁰⁾

More than 40,000 delegates from 196 countries are currently gathered in Paris to forge a new agreement to make good on the goal of holding the increase in atmospheric temperature below 2°C.Read full article More than 40,000 delegates from 196 countries are currently gathered in Paris to forge a new agreement to make good on the goal of holding the increase in atmospheric temperature below 2°C. One important component of this agreement, Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) to combat climate change, is already known. Intense negotiations are underway, however, on such issues as equity, common but differentiated responsibilities, provision of finance by developed countries, rules to ratchet up emissions beyond INDCs and monitoring of progress in implementation. Under its INDCs, India will cut emissions per unit of GDP by 33% to 35% by 2030 over those in 2005.

Listen to audio article here The liberalizing Indian economic reforms of the 1990s and early 2000s led to a significant shift in the growth rate and poverty reduction in India. Arvind Panagariya argued that the country has paid a heavy price for abandoning that path in 2004, and especially from 2009 to 2014. He detailed the return to the reforms under the present government and the impact that this return is likely to make on India’s future economic trajectory. Carnegie’s Milan Vaishnav moderated. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is grateful for the support of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations in making this event possible.

Read full article (pdf) Abstract: On the morning of August 17, most of India’s economic policymakers gathered in the Prime Minister’s house in Delhi. The mood was tense. India, said Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister, faced ‘very difficult circumstances’. So began the story titled “India in Trouble: The Reckoning” in The Economist magazine of August 24, 2013. The story went on to offer a chilling account of India’s troubles. News on the economy had been disappointing for two years, with growth falling to 4-5 per cent; consumer-price inflation had remained stubborn at 10 per cent; the current account deficit had soared to almost 7 per cent of GDP at the end of 2012 and was expected to be 4-5 per cent in 2013-14; and the rupee had dropped to an all-time low and 13 per cent below its level just three months earlier. “It is widely agreed the country is in its worst economic bind since 1991,” concluded the story.

The proposed amendment to the land acquisition Act helps both farmers and non-farmers Read full article Abstract: Critics of the proposed amendments to the land acquisition Act of 2013 have conveniently sought to frame the debate in terms of a win-lose proposition. They contend that any benefits to non-farming entities - whether they be school-going children, patients seeking hospital care, households looking for affordable housing, small businesses or large corporations - would be at the expense of the farmers whose land is acquired. But they neglect the fact that the amendments are a win-win proposition. Underlying the critics' view is the assumption that regardless of the compensation offered, farmers do not want to part with their land. Ergo, any change that simplifies or speeds up land acquisition hurts them. But is this assumption right? A recent survey published by the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Lokniti offers some answers. According to it, when asked whether they like farming, 28 per cent of the farmers reply outright in the negative. Among the 72 per cent who reply in the affirmative, a whopping 60…

Read full article Abstract: Any big change requires big ideas, decisive leadership and happy coincidence of circumstances. Nothing illustrates this better than the unfolding story of cooperative federalism in India. As chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi had often argued that the central government implemented schemes were at odds with the state’s needs and priorities. For example, schemes that provided funds for electrification were at best of limited value to Gujarat since it had already achieved near 100% electrification. This state could have spent the money provided for such a scheme more productively if allowed to use it for other purposes. In advancing this view, Modi was joined by other chief ministers such as Vasundhara Raje of Rajasthan who argued that the vast numbers of central schemes further restricted their fiscal space because many of them required matching contributions by them from their otherwise untied funds. Once these matching funds were committed to access central schemes, states were left with very limited funds for even the most important expenditure items such as enforcement of law and order. Nevertheless, this system…