Special economic zones following the enormous success of China have been widely imitated. But it is to be entirely anticipated that the results would vary greatly. Earlier avatars of SEZs in the form of Foreign Trade Zones (FTZs) and Export Promotion Zones (EPZs) were important in the export led...

The IT industry (both software and hardware) is characterised by `vast consumer side scale and scope economies which are incomparably larger than in other industries with supply side network economies like pipelines or electricity distribution. In IT the supply side economies are also...

Reform of the oil sector is long overdue. The problems in the sector emanate from the structure of central taxes and the system of subsidisation through prices. Solutions to the problems necessarily have to address both tax and subsidy simultaneously. The social losses include, misuse / wasteful...

The budget contained an announcement that the central government would actively explore the option of using an appropriate form of the ‘food stamps’ or an alternative scheme to improve the efficacy and reduce the cost of the current system of administration of food subsidies. The...

This paper discusses the trends in India's outward FDI over the last decade and then attempts to identify the driving factors for the same. The aim is to provide policy makers with insights regarding levers which would help in encouraging FDI outflows and to stimulate further research in foreign...

We bring out the fundamental and more important problems with the current framework of land acquisition in India, regulations on land and the functioning of land markets. We argue that reform is overdue and the current framework would be unsustainable in a democracy that is India. Current land...

The efficiency and efficacy of government instruments in implementing policy have been particularly problematic in India. For instance, the incentives, mostly fiscal, to boost been linked to investments, e.g., development rebate and later investment rebate; others have been linked to depreciation...

Sustained very high rate of growth (above 8% in the context today in India) would be able to achieve (since a labour productivity growth of 4 to 4.5 % is to be factored in) a labour absorption rate of 3.5 to 4% which is about a percent above the growth in the rate of the workforce. But slower...

The distortions in price based subsidisation are very severe. The direct fiscal cost of ensuring that a rupee of value is delivered to all household users of kerosene is as high as Rs.3 and when the consideration is the benefit that finally reaches the poor “below the poverty line” consumers...