Category: Society

• March 28, 2021

  Of Men, Women and Other Creatures

  A little book available at themabooks@yahoo.com Excerpt from the first story — Contents Maganlal Magicwallah Debu-da: Large Man in a Larger World A Flat Atop the New Market Girls Vanish The Dog and I Of Crows and Men
• June 2, 2020

  The Covid Paradox — Keynes turned around

  The Indian economy, which was facing demand deficiency and slowdown prior to theCovid-19 outbreak, plunged further with the lockdown. The present exercise represents the current problem as a typical demand constrained Keynesian equilibrium, afflicted further by demand and supply failures generated by transaction costs. The resulting scenario resembles a “supply constrained” Keynesian equilibrium.
• August 23, 2019

  Finding the Real

  Click to access 26072019-MD-HR-12.PDF
• June 19, 2018

  CNBC TV18 Column

  CNBC TV18 column.
• November 15, 2016

  The Price Being Paid

  There is an elementary piece of economic truth that remains unshaken since time immemorial. Put simply, it runs: “Nothing comes from nothing”! Or, using economic jargon, there is a price to be paid to ensure any outcome that generates comfort. At the level of the individual, a decent dinner calls for a payment. At the level of society, weeding out black money from the system calls for hardships as well. To be borne by millions of innocent common men and women queueing up in front of ATM kiosks to withdraw measly sums of cash to try and satisfy their demand for daily essentials. According to reports, the hardship has been somewhat extreme, for some senior people at least are said to have collapsed as they waited endlessly on the streets for their Rs. 2000 in cash. And died
• May 9, 2016

  Naiveté of Civil Society and the Bengal Elections

  The Holy Roman Empire – which, according to Voltaire, was neither “Holy”, nor “Roman” nor an “Empire” – lasted for a thousand years. And it took an insatiable Napoleon Bonaparte to bring it to its knees. By comparison, three decades and a half of Left rule in the state of Bengal would appear to be infinitesimally small, though it had managed to be viewed by all concerned as the Holy Bastion of Marxism during its tenure. No Voltaire was around to pronounce judgment on its Marxian virtuosity or its holiness for that matter, but few ever doubted the impregnability of the fortress. Yet, it was razed to the ground, and that too by a sundry political force, lacking any political philosophy worth noting, apart from its one point agenda to dislodge the Left. But it did have a mini-Bonaparte of sorts to chalk out its battle plans, beginning, among other things, with a much advertised fast.
• December 30, 2015

  Investigating Investment

    Published in The Telegraph, Kolkata on 30 December, 2015. Listening to the acrimonious debates surrounding West Bengal’s inability to attract high profile investments, an economist ought to ask two important questions; ques-tions which might even appear to contradict one another. First, why are investors reluctant, if they indeed are, to invest in the state? […]
• May 16, 2015

  Presidency’s Dilemma

  Intriguing things are happening in Presidency University once again. Students laid a night-long siege, demanding from the vice chancellor and other officials a uniform procedure across all disciplines for entry into the university. Having grown up in a world where infants barely out of their cradles are subjected to admission tests, their demand can hardly be described as unnatural. In fact, the very removal of an admission test itself may appear to them as a denial of a fundamental right. On the other hand, the right to “deny” clearly rests with the authorities in charge of running the institution.
• April 10, 2015

  Troublesome landing — They don’t grow land anymore

  Singur, the potato bowl of Bengal, appears to have landed in trouble again. Not on account of unwilling farmers grieving over their lost assets, but on account of overproduction by the ones who didn’t lose their land. Excess supply of the crop has pulled down prices, leading indebted farmers to slither down the precipice. According to media reports, matters have come to a dismal pass, with a section of the farmers demanding that the Tatas be recalled to help rectify the situation. Industrialization, presumably rapid, will bring along with it employment for the farmers, thereby leading them out of misery.
• March 10, 2015

  The Growth Narrative

  …The net effect is not obvious, needless to say, but if the markets expand, the credit will go to the Central Bank’s discretionary as opposed to non-discretionary monetary policy, rather than the fiscal stance of the Central budget.