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Emergency 2.0
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| 30 August, 2018,
Jayati Ghosh |
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Given the background of failure of the ruling party to fulfil any of its important electoral promises, the recent arrests of lawyers, scholars and human right activists represent the desperate measures by the ruling party to stifle, suppress, and divert all voices of criticism, opposition and dissent.
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Pakistan: Who needs a crisis?
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| 29 August, 2018,
C.P. Chandrasekhar |
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As Pakistan’s new Prime Minister, Imran Khan faces the current balance of payments, its important to look at Pakistan’s debt history, especially in light of its association with China’s Belt and Road Initiative. With IMF’s support to Pakistan in the past, it is to be seen how a proxy stand-off between a retreating power and a rising one plays out.
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Ashok Mitra
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| 03 May, 2018,
Prabhat Patnaik |
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A man of great wisdom, and generosity, scrupulously adhering to principles and willing to fight for them, but without any malice towards anyone, Ashok Mitra was a pillar of support for the Left.
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OBITUARY | Ashok Mitra, the Former Bengal Finance Minister Who Wished He Were Forgotten
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| 03 May, 2018,
Subhanil Chowdhury |
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He disliked being praised. In the last few lines of his memoirs Aapila Chaapila, he wished that he may be forgotten by everybody, he did not want his readers to remember him. Therefore, he would have strongly disagreed with this obituary of his. But those who knew him, loved him would agree that it is impossible to forget him.
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Ashok Mitra, the Marxist Economist Who Was a Fierce Critic of the Government
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| 02 May, 2018,
Paranjoy Guha Thakurta |
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On the morning of May Day, former finance minister of West Bengal, member of parliament, prolific writer, bureaucrat, economist and Marxist thinker Ashok Mitra passed away in a Kolkata nursing home. He was born in 1928 and had turned 90 on April 10 this year. He was not just an academic, an administrator, a politician and an activist, but also a writer of amazing eloquence and insight in both Bengali and English.
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Ashok Mitra (1928-2018)
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| 02 May, 2018,
Rudrangshu Mukherjee |
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He did not go gently into the good night. He raged against the fading of the light. But those, like me, who were fortunate to receive his affection knew that beneath the rage was a tender heart. No one showered affection the way Ashok Mitra did. Adieu comrade Mitra on May Day.
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Sanitation workers in India
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| 08 September, 2017,
Jayati Ghosh |
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The deeply entrenched casteist approach to manual scavenging is part of public policy and explains why the practice continues unabated and why the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in effect relies on it.
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Computer outages
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| 22 June, 2017,
Jayati Ghosh |
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While our dependency and vulnerability towards computers is becoming almost universal, the false resilience and reliability of the cyberspace is being exposed through recent system breakdowns caused due to extremely minor human errors and absence of adequate backup. In these days of cost cutting, CEOs and governments see cyber maintenance as a luxury, which itself has become a reason for its fragility.
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Growing class resistance against "Globalization"
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| 19 June, 2017,
Prabhat Patnaik |
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Universal non-class use of the term “globalisation” and its “other” “nationalism” by the bourgeoisie has enabled them to show the former as progressive and latter reactionary for all classes. But recent election results in major countries reflect the rise of resistance of the worker class against the hegemony of “globalised” finance capital everywhere. Even in India, for the first time in three decades, anti-labour policies are being challenged by strong peasant movements in many states.
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The Latest GDP Estimates
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| 13 March, 2017,
Prabhat Patnaik |
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The article discusses the possible reasons for the latest GDP estimates provided by the CSO not capturing the recessionary impact of demonetization which is an indisputable and established fact.
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Wicked Loans and Bad Banks
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| 08 March, 2017,
C.P. Chandrasekhar |
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A trail of defaults is ensuring that the NPA ratio is not stabilising, as the RBI expected it would, once assets misclassified as restructured and standard are recognised as non-performing.
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Federalism and the Goods and Services Tax
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| 16 September, 2016,
Prabhat Patnaik |
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The introduction of the Goods and Services Tax as currently visualized amounts to an interference with the “basic structure” of our Constitution of which federalism constitutes a prominent part.
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Report on the State of Food Insecurity in Urban India
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| 28 February, 2012,
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This report is an update of Food Insecurity Atlas of Urban India that was developed by the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) and the World Food Programme (WFP) in October 2002 and a companion exercise to the Report on the State of Food Insecurity in Rural India of 2001. Reviewing the relative position of the major states with respect to food security, the Report reveals an alarming situation of a permanent food and nutrition emergency in urban India. Hence in order to promote food and nutrition security for all, the Report offers certain policy recommendations emphasizing that urban food security is impacted by the macroeconomic policies and therefore, economic reforms needs to be re-formed to provide inclusive urban development.
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Changing Guard at the IMF?
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| 06 July, 2011,
Jayati Ghosh |
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The change of guard at the IMF would not make a difference as long as there is no significant change in the Fund's approach to economic policies. Despite the experience of continually getting it wrong in so many countries over so many decades, the Fund is still persisting in imposing the blatantly counterproductive strategy of fiscal austerity everywhere.
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Policy Paralysis and Inflation
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| 03 February, 2011,
C.P. Chandrasekhar |
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The price trends over the last one-and-a-half years suggest that inflation is being driven by factors which are structurally embedded in the economic environment generated by the government's neoliberal reform agenda adopted for two decades now. Further, neoliberal thinking is leading not only to policy paralysis and absurd reasoning, but also to policy responses that are contrary to what is needed.
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Patents and the Public Interest
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| 08 September, 2010,
C.P. Chandrasekhar |
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The discussion paper on the Compulsory Licencing of Patents is significant because it spells out the circumstances in which the compulsory licencing option is available to the government. The paper makes an important contribution by seeking to illustrate the implications of the flexibility available in the case of drugs and pharmaceuticals.
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What is Right with the CPI (M)
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| 07 September, 2010,
Prabhat Patnaik |
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Although the CPI (M) has been much criticised these days, the party still continues to attract some of the finest young minds of the country. What is right with the party is that it is the only consistently anti-imperialist force in Indian politics and it believes anti-imperialism is not a “fundamentalist” but a modernist position.
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Dr. K.N. Raj
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| 09 August, 2010,
Prabhat Patnaik |
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For students of my generation, Dr. K.N. Raj, who passed away recently, was a truly iconic figure. The earlier generation of economists, V.K.R.V. Rao, Bhabatosh Datta and A.K. Dasgupta were temporally distant from us; his illustrious Bengali contemporaries were spatially distant from us. Dr. Raj was centre stage, brilliant and inspiring. His precise speech, his robust socialism, his thoughtful writings and his absolute command over empirical data left us spell-bound.
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India: A Setback for Neo-Liberalism
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| 10 June, 2010,
Prabhat Patnaik |
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The current developments in India mark the beginning of a process of the polarization of society into two camps, a pro-imperialist camp supported by the Fund, the Bank, globalized finance and the MNCs, and an anti-imperialist camp led by the Left but encompassing diverse elements. The degree to which consolidation of the latter camp can be successfully accomplished depends crucially on the ability of the Left to overcome sectarianism and narrowness of outlook and unite the widest possible segments of anti-imperialist social forces.
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Controlling Food Prices
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| 23 February, 2010,
C.P. Chandrasekhar & Jayati Ghosh |
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As usual when the Union Budget is presented, all eyes will be on the Finance Minister and his speech will be thoroughly scanned for all the implications on the economy. But this time, there is one particular reason why ordinary citizens will be specially focussed on the Budget: the hope that the Government is finally going to act decisively to contain food price inflation.
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