bibek debroy Columns, Leading Columnist

bibek debroy The Indian Express Group

bibek debroy-

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Saturday 12 Mar '11Those who earn income above a threshold must pay income taxes. Taxes are not fees. Fees involve quid pro quo. They are paid for specific services. There is no such quid pro quo for taxes.
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Thursday 10 Mar '11The commerce ministry has produced a strategy paper for doubling exports in the next three years. This involves a doubling of exports from $225 billion in 2010-11 to $450 billion in 2013-14, implying a compound annual average rate of growth of 26%.
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Wednesday 09 Feb '11Everyone is interested in black money now, especially black money stashed away abroad. There seem to be five reasons behind this renewed interest in black money.
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Wednesday 02 Feb '11There has been talk of oligarchic capitalism developing in India, driven by some papers written on the subject. The Economist, in its January 27 issue, has an article on it citing some of these subjects.
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Saturday 15 Jan '11The mid-term appraisal of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan gives annual average real rates of GSDP growth for the states, actual figures for the Tenth Plan and expectations for the Eleventh Plan.
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Wednesday 05 Jan '11Inflation is clearly an issue, more than the government had expected initially. Government spokespersons had earlier talked about inflation of 6% by December 2010, later pushed back to March 2011.

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Monday 03 Jan '11Stagflation is hardly an expression that can be used in India. After all, when final GDP figures for 2010-11 are available, the economy will have grown at close to 9%.
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Friday 19 Nov '10CAG’s office celebrated 150 years and a commemorative postage stamp was released. But in a pedantic sense, 150 years isn’t true.
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Tuesday 09 Nov '10The US economy is in trouble. Growth is sputtering. Unemployment is high. Given debt and taxes, further fiscal stimuli are difficult.
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Wednesday 13 Oct '10Maurice Allais, the only one from France to win a Nobel Prize in Economics in 1988, died the day the 2010 Nobel Prize was announced. Peter Diamond, Dale Mortensen and Christopher Pissarides have won the 2010 Prize for their work on efficient functioning of labour markets.
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Tuesday 12 Oct '10Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of the World for 2010 has just been published. Several such cross-country indices float around.
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Wednesday 06 Oct '10Jacques Rogge, International Olympic Committee President, was interviewed.
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Tuesday 28 Sep '10The Cabinet has approved the National Identification Authority of India Bill and it is expected to be placed before Parliament in the Winter Session. Before reacting, it is still a Bill. It will be referred to a Standing Committee, then passed by both Houses, then receive President’s assent and then be notified.
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Wednesday 15 Sep '10The Companies Act of 1956 has been amended several times. But it needs complete overhaul. There were abortive attempts in 1993, 1997 and 2003.
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Wednesday 01 Sep '10The Chinese have a problem. They are ageing fast and one-child policy hasn’t helped. Such an adverse demographic shift, where a country greys before it becomes rich, has serious socio-economic consequences.
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Thursday 19 Aug '10Factor markets have generally been untouched by reforms and these are typically in the Concurrent list. Forests, various aspects of labour and education are some instances.
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Wednesday 04 Aug '10While no one can deny that Mani Shankar Aiyar has a tendency to shoot his mouth off, the second part of his controversial statement on the Commonwealth Games is relevant for future decisions.
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Friday 30 Jul '10There was a time when the agriculture minister proclaimed he was not an astrologer.
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Friday 16 Jul '10In September 1938, James Taylor was deputy governor of RBI. We don’t always notice it, but tucked away in one corner of currency notes is the RBI seal, with a tiger and a palm tree.
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Wednesday 23 Jun '10So far, all that China has done is relax the yuan’s peg to the dollar. It is still pegged, but to a basket, and not exclusively...
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Tuesday 15 Jun '10Lawrence Summers has several introductions. Right now, he is the director of President Obama’s National Economic Council.
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Friday 04 Jun '10The results of the West Bengal civic elections weren’t unexpected. If at all, there were question marks about the...
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Saturday 29 May '10Since 1991, product markets have largely been freed for manufacturing. Services are half-open, while agriculture is closed. But in addition to half-open services and closed agriculture, factor markets await reform.
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Friday 21 May '10There is a difference between government and governance and one should perhaps review UPA-2’s first year in...
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Monday 19 Apr '10At one level, the precise number doesn’t matter, unless it crosses into double digits. Almost all discussion on inflation is centred on WPI, point-to-point WPI at that.