Demonetisation, Covid-19 brought Indian economy to its knees: Kaushik Basu

Basu worries that a 'dispirited' India may be behind the country plummeting from one of the fastest growing economies towards the bottom of the heap in a short span of four years

On June 23, 2012, soon after he decided to return to his academic life at Cornell University, I received a reply to my email asking the then chief economic advisor (CEA) what finally sealed his decision. “Diminishing marginal returns, I suppose,” replied Kaushik Basu, who had for the first time donned a policy hat as opposed to his academic one at the behest of then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, spending over two years in the role.
 
He and I had interacted closely during that period (2009-12), and it was ironically Singh who had a hand in convincing Basu to