The Planning Commission played a major role in policymaking till the 1991 reforms. In the 1970s it attracted top economists and policymaking was in the most capable hands. But after the reforms, many felt that such top-down centralised planning had outlived its usefulness.Hence the prime minister's decision to seek radical institutional change is timely. The critical question is how to replace the Planning Commission with a new institution to manage the still considerable government spending on development. There has been some talk of creating a 'think-tank' of eminent economists and other domain experts. But lack of expertise has never really been a problem in India. The essential challenge has been one of implementation and monitoring, and being able to understand grassroots problems related to implementing plans at the local levels.What is required is a grassroots stakeholder-based policy development process that makes a comprehensive effort to incorporate ideas from the field from

Jayanta Roy & Pritam Banerjee: A bottom-up model for planning

Business Standard

The time is ripe for India to make a serious bid to become a critical player in global value-chains. But it would need to ensure minimal transaction costs within and across national borders

Jayanta Roy: Speeding up trade

In my earlier pieces, I had highlighted the 21st century trade reforms that India needs to implement to solve the current CAD problems, and to help restore the economy back to a high growth trajectory. Unfortunately, trade policy does not feature prominently in the recent discussions on India's failing economy, which in large part is the result of the neglect of the next generation trade reforms. The focus is still on quick fixes when the problems are structural in nature. Trade and investment in today's world takes place in an environment defined by highly integrated global production networks. Trade in intangibles as defined by management of knowledge, data, and support services (IT and ITES) is becoming increasingly more important. The impending automation of many manufacturing and services functions is already starting to re-define the relationship between labour and capital. Such drastic changes require a highly efficient trade and investment environment (low transaction costs), a

Jayanta Roy: New institutional framework for India's trade reforms

A major 21st century trade reform: to look for greater integration with the dynamic economies of Southeast Asia

India's trade needs strategic regionalism

India must diversify its services trade away from low-cost programming if it is to remain an IT-enabled hub

Staying the world's back office

India needs to fix its connections to global supply chains, by investing in logistics and trade facilitation

The first trade reform

Focus on integrating India into regional trade blocs and helping professional services transcend borders

How India should reform its trade for the 21st century

The burgeoning current account deficit cannot be controlled by doling out export sops and other measures suggested in the Budget

Time to scrap the annual trade policy

It will help arrest economic decline but unlikely to lead to a high growth trajectory

Jayanta Roy: A sensible Budget within tight constraints

The Indian economy suffers deep structural flaws that piecemeal measures in the Budget are unlikely to solve

Jayanta Roy