Indira Rajaraman

Transparent disclosure of project clearances and delays is needed to restore the health of the banking system

The first 100 days of any government should be a period when it is allowed to get its act together, with no media pressure for faster, higher

The Planning Commission needs to be replaced by institutions prescribed under the Constitution for the functions it usurped

The most important features of the Union and Rail Budgets for 2014-15 are the micro-interventions that address food inflation

We need to anticipate the negative fiscal fallout of the Seventh Pay Commission, appointed by the UPA three years before it was due

We need to ensure that our tax structure encourages both investment and the production of output from that investment

The report on financial inclusion focuses on expanding access for deposits, but not enough on expanding access to credit

A central bank derives credibility from the financial stability it is able to deliver by responding flexibly to the need of the hour

The incident with the Indian consul in New York should be used to work out the legal minutiae of the mutual diplomatic engagement between India and the US

Intrastate inequality can only be corrected through reform of budgetary allocation formulae between districts within states

Candidates in the current state elections must be made to offer specific promises against which their performance can be measured

Any quantification of relative state shares in development funding based on outcome deficits carries perverse incentives

The land Bill will markedly slow down the pace of land acquisition and lead to further escalation in the price of land

Neither side in the face-off between Sen-Dreze and Bhagwati-Panagariya addresses the key issue of supply-side constraints in food production

Along with short-term measures to curb gold imports, address the structural drivers of the demand for gold

Property taxes are the only feasible payback stream for private capital going into urban infrastructure not amenable to user fees

When monetary transmission through the big levers is obstructed, other small levers may work to curtail inflation and enhance growth

We need politicians like Margaret Thatcher, who can articulate their economic solutions for the country

The growth path going forward has to absorb the new entrants into the labour force, estimated at 4.5 mn annually in the 12th Plan document

The entitlement blanket jostles for fiscal room with other expenditures that are far more meaningful for the poor