In The Media ⁽⁴⁰⁰⁾

A mission to provide eyeglasses can pave the way for large-scale manufacturing and raise productivity.Read full article Today, poor vision, due to lack of access to eyeglasses, is easily the largest unaddressed disability in the world. In India alone, 550 million individuals are estimated to suffer this fate. Given that eyeglasses cost as little as Rs 200, correction of refractive error through eyeglasses constitutes the health intervention with the largest bang for the buck. The commonest eye problems result from refractive error due to which eye is unable to focus clearly on an object. The result is hyperopia, presbyopia, myopia or astigmatism. Loosely speaking, these conditions are about the inability to see objects clearly up close (hyperopia and presbyopia), far away (myopia) or both (astigmatism). The commonest condition is presbyopia, which is age-related and affects a majority aged 35 & above.

Read full article Abstract: A key feature of China, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong during their decades of miracle level growth was their high level of labour market flexibility. Once these economies opened to global markets, their enterprises could take full advantage of this flexibility, grow larger, produce at lower costs and rapidly expand the exports of labour intensive products such as apparel, footwear, furniture and other light manufactures. In the process, they also created jobs for masses that paid decent and rising wages. The end result was elimination of abject poverty within a matter of two to three decades. Though India too has opened its economy following the launch of economic reforms in 1991, inflexible labour markets have proved a serious hurdle to the emergence of large enterprises in labour intensive sectors. As a result, the economy has been slow to create well-paid jobs for the masses. Successful sectors such as information technology, pharmaceuticals, machinery, auto and petroleum refining have been capital- or skilled-labour intensive.

Read full article Abstract: More than 170 years ago, Frédéric Bastiat noted in his masterly work Economic Sophisms that the “opposition to free trade rests upon errors, or, if you prefer, upon half‐​truths.”1 Ever since Adam Smith successfully replaced mercantilist orthodoxy with free trade doctrine in his celebrated book The Wealth of Nations, free trade critics have repeatedly challenged the doctrine, offering half‐​truths to bolster their case. In each instance, free trade advocates have successfully exposed the falsehood of arguments made by critics. Although free trade has gained increasing acceptance among policymakers over time, challenges to it have remained omnipresent. The latest of these challenges has manifested itself in increased tariffs on steel and aluminum in the United States and on a number of selected products in India. At the heart of these tariff hikes has been the belief that through targeted protection and industrial policy, governments can produce outcomes that are superior to those that free trade and competition would produce.2 Intellectual inspiration for this belief in recent decades has come from writings of a group of influential scholars who have interpreted the experiences of the highly successful…

This is a budget that, despite the temptation and a good enough excuse, doesn’t stray from the Modi government’s agenda to maintain fiscal discipline.Read full article As an economist, I am grateful that the PM hasn’t given up the path of fiscal rectitude. Rejecting calls by the ‘stimulus school’, the final budget pegs fiscal deficit for 2019-20 at 3.3%, down from the revised estimate of 3.4% for 2018-19 and 3.5% of actual level in 2017-18. Growth has been sliding down for the last four quarters, and it fell down to 5.8% during the last quarter of 2018-19, the latest quarter for which we have GDP estimates. There have also been reports of a slowdown in both private consumption and private investment. So, the temptation, as well as a good excuse, to go to town with spending was there. But the PM, who has fought hard for an unprecedented five years to restore fiscal discipline, has stayed course. While closer scrutiny will have to be done in the days to come, GoI has also continued to maintain a high quality of…

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