National Council of Applied Economic Research
The International Monetary Fund’s 2022 Strategy to Mainstream Gender calls for an intentional and systematic approach to integrating gender into macroeconomic policies to foster strong, sustainable, and inclusive growth. This Note argues that the IMF is filling a critical gap in its mandate by mainstreaming gender into its work. It makes the case that (i)... Read More
India was an outlier on fiscal outcomes pre-pandemic, before drifting further in the high debt direction during COVID. High levels of debt limit the resources available for other priorities such as health, education and climate change abatement. At the same time, there is no immediate crisis of debt sustainability: institutional factors limit rollover risk, and... Read More
This study uses a computable general equilibrium model to analyse whether the economic relief package offered by the Indian Government to the affected parties during the COVID-19 pandemic had any lacunae or alternative policies and institutional arrangements could have been devised to minimise the economic losses caused by the pandemic in the country. The results... Read More
While digital financial services have made access to finance easier, faster, and less costly, helping to broaden digital financial inclusion, its impact on gender gaps varies across countries. Moreover, women leaders in the fintech industry, although growing, remain scarce. This paper explores the interaction between ‘women’ and ‘fintech’ by examining: (i) the role of women... Read More
Emerging markets and developing economies are currently facing major challenges from global shocks including: a slowdown in global growth; food and energy price increases; decline in risk appetite of international investors; unsustainable debts in low-income countries; and ongoing climate risks. National policies have not sufficed to meet these challenges. Efforts at the national level must... Read More
Many cities in urban India, particularly the metros, are major hotspots of air pollution with a PM 2.5 concentration level ranging above the permissible limits defined by the WHO for most of the year. Since the transport sector is a major source of air pollution in urban India, the Government of India adopted BS-VI emission... Read More
This paper describes disease and economic surveillance during COVID, along with the uses of that surveillance, and lessons learned about the pandemic from that surveillance. It ends with policy suggestions on how to gather intelligence during the next pandemic in India and how surveillance informs suppression policy. Important themes that I stress are the value... Read More
This paper examines the effect of tradable services growth on non-tradable services across Indian districts. We use a shift-share “Bartik-type” instrumental variable, that relies on changes in foreign demand shocks for tradable services, weighted by the initial district employment shares in tradable services. Using multiple rounds of the Indian Economic Censuses, we find that an... Read More
Banks play a critical role in economic growth. In India, the banking sector, dominated by public sector banks (PSBs), has underserved the economy and their stakeholders. The under-performance of PSBs has persisted despite several policy initiatives during the past decade. Meanwhile, private banks have further improved their performance and have gained significant market share. In... Read More
Data on access to credit in rural India is mostly available from periodic large-scale surveys and some primary research in different parts of India. The growth of institutional sources of credit was quite dramatic during the first four decades after Independence. There appears to have been a regression since then. There is some evidence to... Read More
