Economic Survey 2018 may not shape Budget 2018, but it’s a treasure of insights

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Since demonetisation, 10.1 mn new taxpayers have filed returns, versus an average of 6.2 mn in the prior 13 monthsNeelkanth Mishra | Last Updated at January 30, 2018 12:47 IST (This was published in the Business Standard: link) The Economic Survey 2018 (ES) is not really a precursor to the Union Budget 2018; that is, … Read more

Encouraging trends in DBT for fertilisers

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Fertilisers are the largest component of non-labour farming costs, accounting for a third or more, on average, for both kharif and rabi cropsNeelkanth Mishra | Last Updated at January 1, 2018 22:48 IST (This was published in the Business Standard: link) That the Indian farmer is in distress is among the few remaining certainties in … Read more

The GST joystick

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As the GST subsumed taxes that added up to 40% of India’s total tax take, achieving ‘revenue neutrality’ is criticalNeelkanth Mishra | Last Updated at December 4, 2017 23:24 IST (This was published in the Business Standard: link) It is now obvious to most that getting the goods and services tax (GST) started was only … Read more

Crowd control in GST

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Giving money away is not easy, even if it is to the government in lieu of essential servicesNeelkanth Mishra | Last Updated at November 6, 2017 23:28 IST (This was published in the Business Standard: link) Crowd control is as much about psychology as it is about hard policing. If 5 per cent of the … Read more

A change of stance on PSU banks

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The transition to IFRS, which Indian banks are required to comply with starting 1 April 2018, is also likely to front-load loan losses for banksNeelkanth Mishra | Last Updated at October 2, 2017 23:17 IST (This was published in the Business Standard: link) Until recent months, most policymakers seemed to be convinced that PSU banks … Read more

High Speed Rail: A necessary step forward

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A frequent criticism has been whether the funds being used for HSR would not have been better used in improving safety and expanding Neelkanth Mishra | Last Updated at September 13, 2017 23:50 IST (This was published in the Business Standard: link) A decade after Indian Railways first proposed High Speed Rail (HSR) routes, the … Read more

A fog descends on a house under renovation

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Prolonged uncertainty can be detrimental to growth: The economy may need monetary and fiscal helpNeelkanth Mishra | Last Updated at September 4, 2017 23:22 IST (This was published in the Business Standard: link) The “weak near term for a strong long-term” view of the Indian economy is now consensus. Structural changes such as millions of … Read more

Think in India, for India

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‘Think for India’ campaign would require less publicity than Make in India, and may yet be impactfulNeelkanth Mishra | Last Updated at July 31, 2017 23:02 IST (This was published in the Business Standard: link) That 70 years after Independence, with more or less continuous democratic rule, we are still far from providing basic services … Read more

The missing learning curve

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We need to build institutional memory, improve decision-making. Let’s start with dataWritten by Neelkanth Mishra | July 3, 2017 1:48:55 am (This was published in the Indian Express: link) Humans have incredible powers of learning and adaptation. Every few years, looking back, one feels the younger version of oneself was so unwise. But as human … Read more