The FRBM Act was reflective of the shared commitment across political parties towards fiscal conservatism. A decade later, the picture, as reflected in the Union Budget, is yet to change for the better. And given the interests that the current Government represents, a real departure from the...

This study analyses the behaviour of monetary and fiscal policies interaction in India using quarterly data for 2000Q2 to 2010Q1. It finds that, even after the elimination of automatic monetisation of fiscal deficit in 1997 and prohibiting RBI from buying government securities in the primary...

This paper investigates the relative importance of monetary and fiscal policies in altering real output of Bangladesh. An unrestricted vector auto regression (VAR) framework based on the St. Louis equations, is used to compute variance decompositions (VDCs)and impulse response function (IRF)...

This Tenth Nani A. Palkhivala Memorial lecture lecture centres around the role and responsibility of a central bank in a democratic structure. Central banks make macroeconomic policy that influences the everyday life of people; yet they are managed by unelected officials appointed by the...

The inaugural budget of the NDA led government has been a cause of some surprise and disappointment amongst those who were eagerly expecting a new radical dose of neo-liberal reforms. It appeared that the ‘policy paralysis’ of the past government had survive the change brought about...

The swine flu has come to India also. What measures have been taken by the government to fight against the pandemic?

This study analyses the changes in prevalence of undernutrition between the 1980s and 1990s at the national and sub-national levels in India and focuses on the rural-urban comparisons. The study exploits the demographic information available in household surveys to derive a household-specific...

China has adopted a wide-ranging program of pension reform since the late 1990s. The new pension system has replaced the pre-existing enterprise-based system. This paper analyzes the background of this reform, surveys the progress of China’s pension reform, describes its principal...

Governments frequently compartmentalize issues of reform and reconstruction into separate strategies and separate ministries (the fate of poverty reduction as well). Donors do likewise, for each has its own responsibilities; the IMF focuses on reform, the UN concentrates on conflict resolution...