Topic
Opinion & Commentary
With Trump’s victory, American exceptionalism came to an end
Fifteen years ago, I came to the United States as an undergraduate student. A few weeks after my arrival, I watched the ...Shamika Ravi on implications on govt’s demonetisation move
Speaking about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement to demonitise Rs 1000 and Rs 500 notes, Senior Fellow Shamika Ravi in this Facebook Live ...Demonetization is a net positive move
Scaling back large bills will not end crime, but it will force the underground economy to employ riskier methods In a special ...What Trump’s Presidency Means For India?
Dhruva Jaishankar spoke to BloombergQuint on the implications for India of a Trump presidency in the United States.To keep good company
There are many other questions, but the larger point is that the time may have come for a broad-based introspective review. Reams ...Over the barrel: A swadeshi index
World Bank rankings on ease of doing business ignore the complexity of the Indian landscape. An indigenous framework is needed. WAS IT ...Brics Summit overshadowed by “how to isolate Pakistan” agenda
Instead of using the Brics summit to push for greater economic growth and a greater global governance role, India sought to use ...Politics at BRICS
In a TV panel discussion Dhruva Jaishankar weighs in on three larger-than-life personalities that took centre stage at the 2016 BRICS summit ...India on the international stage
Guest interviewer Tanvi Madan, fellow and director of the India Project in Foreign Policy, Ambassador Shivshankar Menon, distinguished fellow in Foreign Policy, and Dhruva ...Progress must be made to corporatise railways: Rakesh Mohan
Rakesh Mohan, distinguished fellow, Brookings India, has said that while scrapping the separate Railway Budget is a positive move, the government has ...Pew survey results heartening for government but should not lead to...
What does India think? This is a question that those of us who work on policy issues outside of government are often ...India’s bid for “regionalism” in South Asia and what it...
The killing of 18 Indian soldiers on Sunday, which New Delhi blames on Pakistan-based militants, is just the latest incident to drive a ...Municipal bond market could be the answer to financing woes of Smart...
As India considers more flexible and reliable ways of paying for the improvement of smart cities, the largely untapped municipal bond market can ...Save me, technology; for I have (energy) sinned
Many things demand a balance, energy being one of them. Electricity, in fact, must always be in balance as grid power cannot ...“Govt’s ambitious power capacity target may lead to huge...
The Economic Times on our latest IMPACT Series paper, ‘India’s Updated (2016) Renewable Energy “Guidelines”: Bold targets, but can we meet them?’. Download ...India’s Updated (2016) Renewable Energy “Guidelines”:...
The government has announced a number of targets and support mechanisms for renewable energy (RE). Almost two years ago, the central government ...Why Hillary is a safe bet for India
The field is set. With the formal anointing of party nominees at the Republican and Democratic Party conventions in July, either Hillary ...For smart cities to succeed, strengthening local governance is a must
The lack of effective devolution of power to local governments is a major bottleneck in the essential transformation of urban India. India is ...How India reformed its petroleum sector
Political compulsions ensured that the process was done slowly, steadily and stealthily Indian newspapers have carried a series of interesting recollections by ...Think you’re being eco-friendly by using cloth bags? Think again
The most important factor for cloth bags to actually be “eco-friendly”: reuse 171 times. That’s how many times one reportedly has to ...Donald Trump official nomination for the US Presidential elections
Now that Donald Trump is the Republican Party’s official nominee for the US Presidential elections, it’s time to think about what a ...China’s reaction to Hague ruling could have negative impact on other...
China’s shrill and bellicose response during and after the ruling has only served to heighten alarm over Beijing’s intentions and behaviour among ...Is the struggle between China and India a struggle to secure their energy...
India will need to import the bulk of its fuel for this decade and the next. In another four years, India is expected ...The South China Sea arbitration ruling, and why it matters to India
The future of the South China Sea has global implications, as jurisdiction over a few seemingly minor islands legitimises control over vast ...As China’s Pakistan ties deepen, India needs a strategy to mitigate...
Much of what we have seen in the strengthened China-Pakistan alignment in the last decade is a reaction to the rise of ...Here’s how the future of the South China Sea will have global...
On Tuesday, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague released its much-awaited ruling on a case brought by the Philippines against ...Brexit, missile control and India
A diminished England, sans nuclear weapons, coupled with a fragmenting Europe, is unlikely to play its traditional role of shaping norms Two ...Divided, volatile world ahead
Brexit could not have come at a worse time. The world is a risky place, and many problems can only be addressed ...Brexit: The first major casualty of digital democracy
In the aftermath of the United Kingdom's vote to leave the European Union, we are left with more questions than answers. Dhruva ...
India has done little to bridge energy supply-demand gap
India has done very little in the last few decades by way of harmonizing its governance structures to secure its energy needs ...Critical Seoul NSG meet will have reverberations for India’s...
NSG meeting is no less important, for the potential implications it could have for relations between India and China writes Dhruva Jaishankar ...A game changer: Electricity feeder monitoring
The Government of India is proposing a bold and major scheme for monitoring, visualizing, and analyzing feeder level power supply across the ...Indian economy set to soar irrespective of PM Narendra Modi’s...
The caveats are many. But there are compelling reasons to believe that the economy will slowly but surely pick up momentum writes ...India-US relations: Energy and environment
The energy market has undergone a major structural change since 2015. The most dramatic manifestations of this change are Saudi Arabia’s decision ...India-US relations: Higher education
Over the past decade, college tuition fees in the United States have skyrocketed, making it extremely difficult for average Americans to invest ...Dhruva Jaishankar’s video chat on Pakistan and the 26/11 attacks
Brookings India Foreign Policy Fellow Dhruva Jaishankar was featured in the Times of India Facebook live discussion on Pakistan and India relations ...India’s underpowered foreign policy
Narendra Modi government needs to work with several other constituents, including state governments, corporate sector, think tanks and civil society writes WPS ...Sustainable development goals must be linked to energy and environment
Niti Aayog needs a sharp focus on weakening the link between energy demand and environmental degradation writes Vikram Mehta Niti Aayog has ...Can India’s Think Tanks Be Truly Effective?
If there is one big challenge that all think tanks face it is measuring their effectiveness writes Dhruva Jaishankar I have worked ...What the Nuclear Security Summits mean for South Africa
WPS Sidhu provides an in-depth analysis of South Africa’s nuclear position and the ramification of Nuclear Security Summits on South Africa The Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) ...The Urgent Need For India To Build A Design Economy
The “Make in India” initiative aims to create 100 million new jobs in the coming 10 years in the manufacturing sector and ...Updating Aadhaar for better privacy
Privacy with Aadhaar isn’t just an abstract issue, but related to the fundamental view of how data are to be accessed and ...The Brussels syndrome
There needs to be an international consensus on zero tolerance for all terrorism, as advocated by India and several other countries writes ...Next step in PM Jan Dhan Yojana is to help people start using their new...
A recent article in Global Government Forum quotes a Brookings India research paper on financial inclusion which calls for a model of financial inclusion which specifically caters to ...Dr Barack versus President Obama
Barack Obama’s foreign policy reflects a moral duality that has befuddled friends and enemies alike Barack Obama’s foreign policy, like the main ...Planning for Accelerating Smart Meter and Smart Grid Rollouts in India
The Electricity Policy has taken a bold move to kick-start Smart Meters in India. This discussion note discusses roll-out the options. Many ...How Make in India can be bad news for trade deal with Australia
Brookings India Chairman Vikram S Mehta explains the reason for tensions over India’s trade and manufacturing policy. In a story in the ...Tie women’s reservation bill to sex ratio of constituency
Our existing political system is unlikely to throw up solutions for deep rooted gender inequality. The Women’s Reservation Bill has been doing ...Budget fails to lay out a clear roadmap for petroleum industry
Petroleum industry is in terrible shape. Brookings India chairman and former CEO of Shell Vikram S Mehta details what the Finance Minister can ...A tale of an election and a selection
Unless the P5 recognize that a weak and inept leader challenges their own legitimacy, the UN will be encumbered by a powerless ...Union Budget: FM has chosen stability over growth
In the face of a sluggish global economy and volatile global markets Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had to convey a message of continued ...Marginal revolutions from Budget 2016
There are numerous small announcements in finance minister Arun Jaitley’s budget that must be lauded comments Shamika Ravi Most television channels track ...Budget 2016: Reduce & refocus power & diesel subsidies
Brookings India Fellow Dr. Rahul Tongia’s energy wishlist for Budget 2016 may be difficult to pull off in a single budget, it ...Interview Transcript | Growth over Prudence? Dr. Rakesh Mohan on CNBC
Dr. Rakesh Mohan, Distinguished Fellow at Brookings India, insists that the government keep up public investment in a credible and transparent fashion, during a panel discussion on ...Women who rose to the top and shattered stereotypes
Skard harbours the belief that it is women at the very top who make any sort of substantial change, but in India ...Over-Ruled: Why Maximum Governance Must Start With Minimizing Certain...
Some time ago, I missed my grandfather’s funeral because an airline’s manager hid behind rules. No, I wasn’t asking him to break ...The Data Is Unambiguous: The Odd-Even Policy Failed To Lower Pollution In...
The Delhi government’s two-week-long odd-even rule ended on 15 January, with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announcing that the plan will return in ...Xi Jinping’s strategic Middle East gambit
The Chinese president’s visit to Iran (after summits in Saudi Arabia and Egypt) is of strategic significance. What is the difference between ...“Withdrawal of sanctions on Iran a huge opportunity for India to...
Watch Vikram S Mehta on Macros with Mythili on ET Now. There’s been a dramatic collapse in the price of crude oil ...Looking forward to a big bang budget
The global economy is in trouble, but India is attracting positive comment. The finance minister must make the most of the moment. ...Support research as corporate social responsibility in India
India must build a culture of knowledge creation by fostering public support for research. Research is like defence, a pure public good which ...The global implications of Barack Obama’s speech
The US president’s swan song has eloquently, though incompletely, spelt out an ambitious but essential vision for a new world order The ...What drives South Asians to peacekeeping?
Germany’s international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle (DW), quotes Brookings India Non-Resident Senior Fellow WPS Sidhu extensively on how Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Nepal ...Delhi’s odd-even policy unsustainable
There is tremendous interest in the new experiment that Delhi government is running on the roads of the national capital. To complement ...End of the oil age
Oil will diminish in significance in a reconfigured energy system. Decades hence, 2015 might well be seen as the year the oil era ...India has played a significant role in shaping 3 key deals in 2015
2015 will be remembered for bold initiatives at the bilateral, plurilateral and multilateral level As 2015 draws to an end, it will ...Avoiding a cop out in Paris
Three of the most exciting initiatives have emerged on the sidelines of the official deliberations, and Indians have played a prominent role ...Interview | India warns country’s coal consumption to double in...
Rahul Tongia, Fellow, Energy and Environment in an interview with James Bennett, AM, ABC News, Friday December 18, on India’s coal consumption ...India and Climate Change – Spoilsport or just late to the party?
India may have been late to the emissions party, but with innovation and rapid development, it can make a disproportionate contribution to ...Delhi’s bar on cars: Using a sword instead of a scalpel for surgery
Enough has been written (mostly against) the idea to limit cars in Delhi, by license plate. Will it work? Can you enforce ...Initiatives needed from India to reduce the import of oil
Recently, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan spoke at the release of the IEA’s India Energy Outlook about cutting down of the country’s import ...Any progress on climate change will depend on innovation and global...
The climate-change relevant question is, how will the continuing compounded advance of technology impact the energy sector? How do we square this ...Chennai floods: A ‘Smart City’ must also be a ‘Resilient...
One of the most important ambitions of modern India is the 100 smart cities project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We want ...Will India accept legally binding agreements at COP21?
As world leaders gather for the global COP21 climate negotiations. Many may feel it is now or never. But the question remains, ...Smart city initiatives should recognise differences between Indian cities
Indian smart city efforts need to recognise the economic differences between its cities. Off-the-shelf technology solutions are not viable Prime Minister Narendra ...Subir Gokarn signs off addressing four broad economic themes
A change in roles means that this will be the last column of this series. Looking back over the almost three years ...Over the past two decades, every fifth suicide in India is by a housewife
The most disturbing trend to emerge out of the National Crime Record Bureau data is that consistently for over 2 decades, every ...Will oil remain the bulwark of global energy system in the long-term?
“The Future of Oil” is headed towards an interesting crossroad. The pathway will not be signposted; there will be many twists and ...Cities become battlefields of terrorism as world continues to urbanise
The recent series of dastardly and heinous attacks in places as dispersed as Baghdad, Beirut, Bamako, Kabul and Paris by myriad terrorist ...Leveraging the CSR mandate
Some institutional arrangements that can maximise the collective impact of individual contributions The Companies Act of 2013 mandates a contribution of two ...Africa: The indispensible continent for India?
Despite the Narendra Modi government’s foreign policy hyper-activism, Africa has remained a neglected continent for India. When the India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS), ...India Inc worried about rise of religious, social intolerance
Is India liberal, tolerant and democratic, or is it conservative, atavistic and authoritarian? Investors want to know Key highlights: It takes a ...How to make government missions more successful
The recent behaviour of tur dal prices suggests that the National Mission on Protein Supplements set up in 2011-12 has remained largely ...UN missions bedrock of India’s military engagement and assistance to...
India must have a serious dialogue with African countries on its role in future peacekeeping operations on the continent. India’s participation in ...Private sector, state government, civil society can take India-Africa...
With over 40 African heads of governments and states attending, the third India-Africa Forum Summ (IAFS) being held in New Delhi is ...Africa, the indispensable continent for India
Four ways in which India and Africa matter to each other The third (IAFS) in New Delhi this week, with over 40 ...Average rural consumer ends up subsidizing power for urban residents
An article in the Scientific American quotes Brookings India Fellow Rahul Tongia’s research. Rural homes regularly experience rolling blackouts during times of ...Tur travails – Three components of a structural solution to the pain...
There is no better way to understand the spike in the price of tur dal than through simple supply and demand factors. ...Great power dance at the United Nations
Coupled with the re-engagement of existing and emerging powers with the proceedings, the UNGA is becoming an important venue for a great ...Depression drives maximum farmers to suicide, not debt, finds Brookings...
Depression, and not debts, is responsible for the decades-long tragedy of farmer suicides in Maharashtra, said a paper by an American think-tank ...Simplifying bureaucracy should be PM’s new mantra
The needle of change must be shifted more sharply, democracy is not an acceptable cover for non-performance. There is a telling vignette ...Matters of valuation
The government’s multi-pronged approach, labelled Indradhanush, attempts to address a number of structural problems of public sector banks, including asset quality, writes ...Subir Gokarn on RBI Monetary Policy review
Brookings India Director of Research and former Deputy Governor of the RBI, Subir Gokarn, answers questions on the RBI Monetary Policy review in ...Shaping the Asian financial architecture
A new financial architecture that replicates the Bretton Woods framework is being built in Asia, with China playing a pivotal role. Subir ...How Far Can IndraDhanush Go?
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley recently announced the Indradhanush framework – a reform structure for transforming the public sector banks. Subir Gokarn (Director of Research, ...SGDs: India’s potential path to global power
Fact: India is home to more than 30% of the world’s extremely poor people Fact: Uttar Pradesh accounts for 8% of world’s population ...Why inequality needs a radical agenda
INEQUALITY: WHAT CAN BE DONE? Anthony B Atkinson HARVARD BUSINESS; Pages 400, Rs 1,250 Inequality is back in fashion, thanks to Thomas ...Cleaning coal instead of wishing it away
The World Bank recently announced that short of exceptional circumstances, they would no longer fund coal in developing regions. The U.S. and ...Narendra Modi’s class act on Teachers’ Day
But the challenge in education lies in enabling teachers to innovate and individualise pedagogy. Key takeaways from the Brookings India publication, Accelerating Access ...From Pittsburgh to Antalya
The G-20 may have to revert to its crisis management role, but in more complex conditions The G-20 finance ministers and Central ...VIDEO: 7% GDP suggests economy not recovering with domestic investments
Subir Gokarn pushes for government reforms in infrastructure and ease of doing business This interview first appeared on ET Now on 31 ...Space: securing India’s final frontier
The launch of the GSLV–D6 powered by an indigenous cryogenic engine is a game-changer Even as the country was agog with a ...VIDEO Yuan depreciation: India needs to protect domestic producers
Subir Gokarn says our ability to withstand shocks is greater than it was three years ago Watch his full interview on CNBC ...VIDEO: To avoid market freeze, central banks have to act
More disruptions in financial and other markets unless central banks take necessary actions to ensure markets do not freeze Watch the full ...Chinese tremors
China’s path to global economic leadership is bound to be marked by episodes of turbulence Recent developments in the Chinese financial sector ...UNSC: Misreading an opportunity
Recent news reports would have us believe that India’s chances for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) have ...Health care – how, where & how much?
In my previous column, I wrote about some patterns emerging from the National Sample Survey Office’s (NSSO’s) household survey on expenditure on ...Smart is as smart does
A few years ago, smart grids were all the rage Amitabh Bachchan was even on the cover of a business magazine in ...CSR: Corporates Should Reach out
India Inc can no longer limit its CSR involvement to the new Companies Act. It has to forge partnerships with the beneficiary ...Women voters can tip the scales in Bihar
This column first appeared in The Hindu, on July 28, 2015. Like other products of the Brookings Institution India Center, this is intended to contribute ...Educational reach and grasp
This column first appeared in Business Standard, on July 26, 2015. Like other products of the Brookings Institution India Center, this is intended to contribute ...Revealing the real strategic significance of BRICS
The recently concluded twin summits in Ufa – the summits of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) grouping and ...Profiling and targeting
Big data provides both companies and governments the ability to differentiate sharply and productively between customers and beneficiaries of welfare programmes. Used ...India’s Suicide Problem
For over a decade, farmer suicides in India has been a serious public policy concern. More recently, this has led to a ...Strategic Importance of Ufa Summits
The recently concluded twin summits in Ufa, Russia of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) grouping and the SCO ...The art of distraction
I recently returned to Delhi after several days at my home in Binsar. Binsar is a remote forest and wildlife sanctuary in ...Brics: Shaping a New World order, Finally
From the 6th Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit at Fortaleza to the forthcoming seventh Brics summit in Ufa ...Key Policy Insights
Quality Focus on Learning Outcomes: There is an unequivocal need for the education system to shift its focus from access and ...Keeping peace among peacekeepers
The word peacekeeping does not appear anywhere in the Charter of the UN. Yet, ever since the first peacekeeping operation was launched ...Think Beyond Health Insurance
Budget 2015 was creative on several dimensions but fresh thinking was completely missing in health financing. This budget, like several in the ...Looking ahead: The next 365 days
By most accounts Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has notched up a good year in the foreign policy realm, with Modi himself ...The one-year scorecard
As the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government approaches its first anniversary, the assessments have ranged from congratulatory to critical, depending on the ...Shaping India’s energy future: Ambitions, actions and obstacles
Multi-domain, multi-scale, and multi-stakeholder efforts are needed to overcome the combination of acute and chronic challenges facing India’s energy future. Analogies aren’t ...Re-starting infrastructure
While the government has taken several steps in the right direction, these measures do not add up to a credible strategy to ...A new energy
A year ago, I was requested to make recommendations on a 100-day action plan on energy for the new government. In response, ...Rainfall and the economy
The first forecast for the south-west monsoon this year caused concern. It projected aggregate rainfall during the June-September period to be 93 ...The inclusion project
A little more than a week ago, World Bank chief Jim Yong Kim praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for launching the Pradhan ...What the Iran nuclear deal means for India
The Iran deal or the “Parameters for a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) Regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Nuclear Program”, ...The great oil circle
Oil prices have played a huge part in global economicdynamics over the past several years. They rose sharply in the couple of years ...Big problem, small solution
Achhe din sparked hope. The black market bill, whilst laudable in intent, has, however, raised fears of reinvigorated “inspector raj”. The labyrinthine maze of bureaucratic ...Having your cake…
We are told early in life that we cannot both have our cake and eat it, too. Of course, this is taught ...Band-aid solutions for health problems
The Draft National Health Policy of 2015 released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, is a comprehensive ...Brightening the future with the sun and wind
India received commitments for over 260,000 MW of renewable energy during RE-Invest. While this is a great supply-side achievement, there are several ...Trysts with e-governance
This column first appeared in Business Standard, on February 8, 2015. Like other products of the Brookings Institution India Center, this is intended to contribute ...The Green Budget
This column first appeared in the Indian Express, on February 2, 2015. Like other products of the Brookings Institution India Center, this is intended to ...The Big Deal
This column first appeared in the Indian Express, on January 29, 2015. Like other products of the Brookings Institution India Center, this is intended to ...The Bilateral Imperative
This column first appeared in Business Standard, on January 25, 2015. Like other products of the Brookings Institution India Center, this is intended to contribute ...Greek tragedy – Act II?
This column first appeared in Business Standard, on January 11, 2015. Like other products of the Brookings Institution India Center, this is intended to contribute ...Over the Barrel: Oilpolitik
This column first appeared in the Indian Express, on January 5, 2015. Like other products of the Brookings Institution India Center, this is intended to ...Tipping points and Goldilocks conditions
This column first appeared in Business Standard, on December 28, 2014. Like other products of the Brookings Institution India Center, this is intended to contribute ...Enjoying the capital flows ride
This column first appeared in Business Standard, on December 13, 2014. Like other products of the Brookings Institution India Center, this is intended to contribute ...The Main Thing…
This column first appeared in Business Standard, on December 14, 2014 . Like other products of the Brookings Institution India Center, this is intended to ...Workfare as an effective way to fight poverty: The MNREGA
This article first appeared in Ideas for India, on December 11, 2014. Like other products of the Brookings Institution India Center, this is intended to ...Learning the art of deal-making
This column first appeared in Mint, on December 8, 2014. Like other products of the Brookings Institution India Center, this is intended to contribute to ...Saarc: building a constellation of stars?
This column first appeared in Mint, on November 23, 2014. Like other products of the Brookings Institution India Center, this is intended to contribute to ...Can our banks finance the economic recovery?
This column first appeared in Business Standard, on November 16, 2014. Like other products of the Brookings Institution India Center, this is intended to contribute ...Over the barrel: On oil, let’s play the ‘what-if’ game
This column first appeared in Indian Express, on November 3, 2014. Like other products of the Brookings Institution India Center, this is intended to contribute ...War, peace and international order
This column first appeared in Mint, on November 9, 2014. Like other products of the Brookings Institution India Center, this is intended to contribute to ...You can’t kill two birds …
This column first appeared in Business Standard, on November 2, 2014. Like other products of the Brookings Institution India Center, this is intended to contribute ...A five-year baseline scenario
This column first appeared in Business Standard, on October 20, 2014. Like other products of the Brookings Institution India Center, this is intended to contribute ...Modi’s delivery challenges
By all accounts Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US was triumphal: both in purely investment terms and in terms of ...Rhetoric signifying something
This column first appeared in the Indian Express, on October 6, 2014. Like other products of the Brookings Institution India Center, this is intended to contribute ...Electrified, but without electricity
No one would believe that simply owning a smartphone would be enough to go online and get connected one would still need ...A capital ladder for infrastructure
This column first appeared in the Business Standard, on October 5, 2014. Like other products of the Brookings Institution India Center, this is intended to contribute ...Modi’s prayer at the multilateral altar
This column first appeared in Mint, on September 29, 2014. Like other products of the Brookings Institution India Center, this is intended to contribute to discussion ...Energy: A Solid Pillar upon which to Build India-U.S. Relations
In this India-U.S. Policy Memo, Vikram Singh Mehta emphasizes the importance of energy as a solid pillar for building and consolidating India-U.S. ...Global Silver Linings
This column first appeared in Business Standard, on September 21, 2014. Like other products of the Brookings Institution India Center, this is intended to contribute to ...Making it work
The MGNREGS stands out as one of the Indian government’s most ambitious social schemes, with far-reaching consequences throughout the economy. The only ...The merits of going nuclear with China
This column first appeared in Mint, on September 15, 2014. Like other products of the Brookings Institution India Center, this is intended to contribute to ...The inclusion triangle
This column first appeared in Business Standard, on September 7, 2014. Like other products of the Brookings Institution India Center, this is intended to contribute ...Lessons not to emulate from Japan
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s maiden visit to Japan coincides with his 100 days in office and underlines his foreign policy emphasis on ...Good governance 101
The prime minister has hoisted his administration’s flag on the masthead of good governance. This is a welcome and timely objective. The ...For new ideas, a clean break with the past
The Planning Commission is neither a constitutional nor a statutory body, but over the years it has acquired tremendous power of distant ...Strategy and structure
This column first appeared in Business Standard, on August 24, 2014. Like all products of the Brookings Institution India Center, this is intended to contribute ...Why plumbing in India starts leaking in a few months while it lasts...
This column first appeared in Quartz, on August 10, 2014. Like all products of the Brookings Institution India Center, this is intended to contribute to ...A brave new nuclear deterrence world?
Since the dawn of nuclear weapons in 1945 two axioms have dominated the discourse: one, only nuclear weapons could deter other nuclear ...The SLR Barrier
In last week’s bi-monthly review of monetary policy, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reduced the statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) from 22.5 ...A story of the clean energy fund
The finance minister announced in his budget speech that he would enhance the resources of the “clean energy fund” by doubling the ...A transformative India-US dialogue?
This column first appeared in Mint, on August 4, 2014. Like all products of the Brookings Institution India Center, this is intended to contribute to discussion ...Explaining Expectations
Contemporary monetary policy is based on two fundamental premises. One, when inflation is above an acceptable level because of demand-side pressures, policy has to work to ...Just another set of BRICS in the wall?
There is supreme irony that the genesis of the self-consciously anti-western BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) grouping came from ...Just Another Set of BRICS in the Wall ?
Waheguru Pal Singh Sidhu outlines how due to inherent contradictions within the group and open competition between China and India, BRICS might ...
Missing women leaders
Women constitute a quarter of Narendra Modi’s cabinet, even though they make up only a little over 11 per cent of the ...Demanding to be included
In the 1977 film, Annie Hall, Woody Allen opens with two jokes that, he says, best reflect his attitude towards relationships. The first, which he ...Nudges and Pushes
I think that cricket provides great metaphors for virtually everything in life. Thursday’s Budget certainly lends itself to cricketing references. Not for ...Why multilateralism matters for India
Conventional wisdom suggests that great powers and aspiring great powers prefer bilateralism to multilateralism or plurilateralism; they consider the former a characteristic ...Why the FM must digress
By now, the budget proposals will have been finalised. The finance minister may make some last-minute changes, but these will not be ...Modi’s twin challenge- Oil and water
They say that oil and water don’t mix. Literally true, perhaps, but, speaking metaphorically, they can be an explosive combination. The mix ...Iraq: Modi’s black swan moment
In the grand scheme of candidate, and now prime minister, Narendra Modi ‘Iraq’ never featured either benignly or as a potential cause ...Beginning a new conversation on women
A focus on women citizens Riding on the aspirations of an electorate, Modi’s arrival into Delhi is commonly seen as a vote ...Iraq: Modi’s Black Swan Moment
In this article, W.P.S. Sidhu talks about the crisis in Iraq and how the kidnapping of the Indian hostages by ISIS caught ...A potential jobs breakthrough
The announcement by the Rajasthan government that it would amend the state’s labour laws to give employers in the manufacturing sector the flexibility to lay off ...US & India: Hope of deliverance
Initiatives by US President Barack Obama and Prime Minisiter Narendra Modi, leaders of the world’s biggest democracies, last fortnight evoked dramatically contrasting reactions: it appeared ...Getting down to the energy business
This may be the right political moment to resolve the dilemmas surrounding the energy policy. Energy sits at the nub of every ...Five fiscal fixes
High on the government’s priorities should be to gain control over the fiscal situation. Between the Budget for 2014-15 to be presented ...Narendra Modi’s Foreign Policy
*This column first appeared in Mint, on May 25, 2014. All views are personal. Brookings India does not hold an institutional view ...Economic & Foreign Policy Priorities for Modi’s Government
Brookings India Fellow Dr. Shamika Ravi, and Mr. R.N. Ravi, former Special Director, Intelligence Bureau of India, address questions on the economic and ...Create department of energy in PMO
The new PM should pave the way for the introduction of a bill that lays out the road map for energy independence,security ...Looking beyond Modi win: Experts analyze NDA’s uphill task
CNBC-TV18’s Shereen Bhan and Latha Venkatesh caught up with some of the most influential voices in the country to get a sense ...Three national missions on priority for the Modi government
**This column first appeared in the Business Standard, on May 19, 2014. All views are personal. Brookings India does not hold an ...Why less ladies in the Lok Sabha
Gender inequality is a serious concern in most sectors but the gap between men and women has narrowed the least in political ...Foreign policy: continuity, not change
On the last day of polling in India’s 16th general elections the final phase of which witnessed vicious, communal and extremely local ...Time of day electricity pricing: From utilities to consumers
What is the value of saving one unit (or kilowatt-hour, kWh) of electricity? Most households would think about their bill, and then ...Believing in India again
It is a matter of confidence, credibility and trust. Whatever be the political hue of the next government and whoever its leader, ...Walking the line between demographic dividend and disaster
The dominant factor that will determine whether India evolves into a middle-income nation over the next few decades is the country’s ability ...The NIF Option
Over the past few months, I have written several columns about the chronic and intensifying problems in infrastructure. To my mind, two ...Updating India’s nuclear doctrine
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will “study in detail India’s nuclear doctrine, and revise and update it, to make it relevant to ...No monkey business
Why ‘right to entrepreneurship’, promised by Congress manifesto, is a bad idea. Little else is requisite to carry a state to the ...Thirsty, hungry and sick
The second volume of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) Fifth Assessment Report was published on March 31. This volume is ...Bang for the Buck
Capital efficiency is a critical determinant of how companies perform. Return on capital employed, which measures the surplus available to the providers of ...Slippery Slope for Infrastructure
By now, all of us are used to global rankings of various kinds placing India close to the bottom of a large ...Saudi Arabia, Iran and a three-way tango
If India is serious about being everyone’s ally in the Persian Gulf, it will have to engineer a rapprochement between Saudi Arabia ...Realigning governance
In its essence, governance is about alignment. Multiple groups, each with its own menu of interests, some coherently articulated and others not, ...Perils of preserving the ancien régime
The old order changeth yielding place to new… (The Passing of Arthur) Despite the veracity of this maxim, existing members of the ...A national agenda – hopefully!
Frankly, I think we spend too much time and effort analysing the numbers presented by the interim Budget. At its core, the ...India’s Missing Women
Even though fair elections are held at regular intervals for State Assemblies and Parliament, they do not reflect the true consent of ...The alpha male syndrome
Behaviour traits of primates can be positive or negative for governance The institution of the alpha male is common to several species, including virtually ...Why energy needs a big-picture view
The word “energy” is missing from the executive and legislative vocabulary. It is, of course, liberally used, and issues like “energy independence” ...India’s travails when peace talks fail
The spectacular failure of the Syrians on both the political and humanitarian fronts has put India’s objectives in jeopardy and reflects the ...Hearing echoes of 1914 in 2014
The spread of power centres all over the word (rather than its concentration in Europe as was the case in 1914) may ...BHAG inclusion BHAG
The goals for financial inclusion need to be matched by the means being used In their book Built to Last: Successful Habits ...Finance and Sustainability: Regulatory and Strategic Dimensions
The 30th Annual Sir Purshotamdas Thakurdas Memorial Lecture CONTENTS: Introduction Sustainability Framework Sustainability and Financial Performance Regulatory and Strategic Dimensions Concluding ...The state of the state
Whether the state, as an institution, is doing the right things and has the capacity to do them are fundamental questions in a ...An evolving multilateralism
The global economy can be viewed as a rather complex balancing act between forces of integration and those of autarchy. In many ...Step on the gas
The government must make it easier for oil and gas companies to acquire assets abroad An important plank of India’s energy security ...Slow burn
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is in the process of putting out its fifth series of assessment reports. There are three ...Infra bottlenecks will dilute potential benefits of weak rupee: Subir...
Subir Gokarn: The earlier assessment was made at a time when the rupee had not depreciated. It is obviously showing signs of ...Public sector – Act V?
Act I: Idealism Beginning with the second Five-Year Plan in 1956, public enterprise was given a central role in the industrial development ...Dimming of brand India
We have messed up the present. Can we still recover the future? We are in the midst of a severe economic crisis. ...Taper tribulations
When the United States Federal Reserve began what turned out to be a series of quantitative easing (QE) measures in October 2008, ...“Un prêt du FMI est certainement une option” pour l’Inde
Subir Gokarn était le gouverneur adjoint de la banque centrale indienne entre 2009 et 2012. Il est aujourd’hui directeur de la recherche ...Fighting without fighting
A film that I still remember from my teenage years is the Bruce Lee classic, Enter the Dragon. In the film, when ...A fact check on gas
How the recent gas price hike got it right. ONGC, Reliance and Cairn, the three major oil and gas producers in the ...Reflections from Binsar
Talent, money and policy must be harnessed to search for the optimal development-environment balance The tragedy in Uttarakhand cannot be overstated. It ...
The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) is an independent, public policy think tank with a mandate to conduct research and analysis on critical issues facing India and the world and help shape policies that advance sustainable growth and development.