Op-Eds, Interviews, and Essays

8. Estimation of poverty in India, Introduction to an e-Symposium for Ideas for India, October 10, 2022.

9. Trends in Economic Inequality in India, The India Forum, (click here for pdf version), September 19, 2022.

10. Why people stay poor, in VoxEU.org, September 16, 2022.

11. A simple realistic solution to the paywall problem, (non-paywalled version), Hindustan Times, May 27, 2022.

12. How has Covid-19 affected India’s economy? Economics Observatory, June 30, 2021. (Reprinted in Scroll.in, July 9, 2021.)

13. Does India have an inequality problem? CEDA-Data Narratives, June 29, 2021.

14. India's Inequality Problem, The India Forum, July 2, 2021.

15. The real problem is of unequal opportunities, Forbes India, 12th Anniversary Special Issue, May 21, 2021.

16. 2021 West Bengal Assembly election: Did the Covid-19 surge matter? Ideas for India, May 12, 2021.

17. West Bengal’s economic performance relative to India over the last three decades, Ideas for India, May 1, 2021.

18. The Big Numbers That Could Decide Whether Mamata Returns, in NDTV.com, April 28, 2021.

19. Two Pieces on Timir and Other Poems by Sankha Ghosh - A Tribute, The Space Ink, April 23, 2021.

20. The story of Bengal’s economy, Hindustan Times, April 15, 2021

21. West Bengal: The Dilemma That Left-Leaning Voters Are Facing in This Election, The Wire, April 3, 2021.

22. India’s true self-reliant entrepreneurs, Hindustan Times, March 24, 2021.

23. Remembering My Grandfather – Manish Ghatak, The Space Ink, February 15, 2021.

24. An assessment of policy performance under the current regime, Ideas for India, February 1, 2021.

25. Relentlessly pursuing growth can uproot the tree that bears us fruit, The Economic Times, December 23, 2020.

26. Choosing Economics as a Subject, Unravel Economics, October 16, 2020.

27. The lack of mobility hinders the India story, Hindustan Times, October 9, 2020.

28. So How Bad Is India's Economic Crisis? Brace Yourself, in NDTV.com, September 02, 2020.

29. Can India Recover? (pdf version), Interview in India Today, September 7, 2020.

30. What Would Make India’s Growth Sustainable? The India Forum, August 13, 2020.

31. Comparing Rishi Sunak's Plan For UK To India's Steps, in NDTV.com, July 20, 2020.

32. We Threw Our Workers under the Bus, Reader's Digest, Indian Edition, July 2020.

33. A blueprint to protect labour rights without constraining capital, Hindustan Times, July 4, 2020.

34. State governments can be better armed financially to fight Covid-19 by issuing public health bonds, The Economic Times, June 5, 2020.

35. How to reorganise the World Health Organization – and how to finance it, in LSE Business Review, June 5, 2020.

36. The World Health Organization: A GRID for reform, in VoxEU.org, May 30, 2020.

37. Will it work? (pdf version), Interview in India Today, May 23, 2020.

38. Migrants Certainly Forced into Atmanirbhar Abhiyan, in NDTV.com, May 19, 2020.

39. The indispensability of labour in reviving India’s economic engine, Hindustan Times, May 8, 2020.

40. The Twin Crises of Covid-19 and How to Resolve Them, The India Forum, April 24, 2020.

41. Step up action to ease poverty amid this crisis, Evening Standard, April 21, 2020.

42. The World Has a $2.5 Trillion Problem. Here’s How to Solve It. The New York Times, April 20, 2020.

43. Coronavirus Will Upend the 'Profits Over People' Mantra of Globalisation, The Wire, April 4, 2020.

44. 3 Points of Concern On Government's Much-Needed Economic Package, in NDTV.com, March 28, 2020.

45. Coronavirus: How will it change us? Podcast of panel discussion, BBC – The Real Story, March 27, 2020.

46. The crumbling of India’s economy, Hindustan Times, March 24, 2020.

47. FM had a tough task, but Budget has failed to clear the smell test, (pdf version), The Times of India, February 2, 2020

48. The Delivery Deficit, (pdf version), Interview in India Today, February 17, 2020.

49. With a huge informal economy, government should increase spending, not worry about deficit, The Indian Express, January 22, 2020 (coverage in Financial Express).

50. $5 Trillion Economy By 2024? Magic Realism At Play Given Current Low, in NDTV.com, January 10, 2020.

51. Vital additions to empirical research, The Hindu, October 18, 2019. Slightly revised version in VoxDev.org, October 25, 2019.

52. What Lies Behind Abhijit Banerjee’s Nobel, The Open Magazine, October 17, 2019. Slightly revised version in Ideas for India, October 25, 2019.

53. An idea with dual impact, an interview for The Telegraph on the co-winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize, Abhijit Banerjee, October 16, 2019.

54. No Disguising The Economic Slowdown Now, in NDTV.com, October 7, 2019.

55. A revival roadmap, Interview in India Today (pdf version), September 6, 2019.

56. Why Do We Insist on Debating Politics With Our Friends and Family?, The Wire, May 22, 2019.

57. Not long-term solution to poverty but useful ‘first-aid’, NYAY e-Symposium, Ideas for India, May 1, 2019.

58. The price of NYAY, Interview in India Today (pdf version), March, 2019.

59. How the Congress can make the minimum income guarantee scheme a reality, in CNBCTV18.com, March 27, 2019.

60. Modinomics - What He Promised and What We Got, in NDTV.com, March 26, 2019.

61. Modi's five years prove that sustained economic growth is incompatible with toxic Hindutva politics, in Scroll.in, March 24, 2019.

62. The Mirage of Modinomics, (with Udayan Mukherjee), The India Forum, March 8, 2019. (shorter version in Scroll.in)

63. Walking The Fiscal Tightrope, (pdf version), Interview in India Today, February 8, 2019.

64. Can Rahul Gandhi’s minimum income guarantee proposal work? Ideas for India, February 7, 2019, the original version was published in NDTV.com on January 30, 2019.

65. Social Safety Net and Land Market Reform, in Abhijit Banerjee, Gita Gopinath, Raghu Rajan, and Mihir Sharma (eds.) What the Economy Needs, forthcoming, Delhi: Juggernaut Books.

66. Make the debate fruitful, The Economic Times, December 6, 2018.

67. On Shaky Ground, (pdf version), Interview as part of cover story on India's growth slowdown in India Today, October 19, 2018.

68. Pricing Social Returns in Economic Growth, Business Standard, October 19, 2018.

69. Interview in the LSE Annual Economics Review 2017-18, September 2018.

70. At the moment, the GDP growth is at a four-year low, Interview in The National Herald, September 17, 2018.

71. Show Me the Black Money, (pdf version), Interview as part of cover story on demonetisation in India Today, September 08, 2018.

72. Stormy Times but Stay Optimistic: An Interview with Suman Ghosh, in The Telegraph, September 03, 2018.

73. Economic Growth under Modi and UPA I and II, in NDTV.com, August 30, 2018.

74. Poverty and Inequality in a ‘Principles of Economics’ Textbook, (web version), Economic and Political Weekly of India, Vol. 53, Issue No. 24, 16 Jun, 2018.

75. The Big Bank Theory - The Need to Move Beyond the Privatisation vs Nationalisation Debate, The Open Magazine, March 23, 2018

76. Did India Grow Slower than the World when the Nehru-Gandhis were in power? in NDTV.com, March 13, 2018.

77. Commanding Heights Again, The Open Magazine, February 9, 2018.

78. Budget Signals No Achhe Din For Those Looking For Jobs, in NDTV.com, February 2, 2018.

79. Aadhaar is fine to stop some kinds of leakage and corruption. But it is no panacea, The Economic Times, January 23, 2018.

80. Gujarat Poll Results Cap BJP's 2014 Hangover, Start New Chapter in Indian Politics, CNN-IBN, December 27, 2017.

81. Why So Many Economists Are Disillusioned With the ‘Gujarat Model’? (with Sanchari Roy), The Wire, November 29, 2017

82. When Gujarat Model Fails, Bring In "Padmavati" in NDTV.com, November 24, 2017.

83. Gujarat’s growth rate of income stayed the same before and after Modi, The Print, November 9, 2017

84. Gujarat model: The gleam of state’s high growth numbers hides dark reality of poverty, inequality, in Scroll.in, October 25, 2017.

85. With Thaler’s Nobel Win, Behavioural Economics Has Officially Made Its Way Into the Mainstream, The Wire, October 13, 2017

86. India needs to create greater economic opportunities for all, The Economic Times, October 9, 2017.

87. Review Of Jean Dreze's Book, Jholawala Economics For Everyone, in NDTV.com, October 03, 2017.

88. Modinomics has turned into Muddlenomics, in NDTV.com, September 27, 2017.

89. My Most Unforgettable Teacher, (pdf version) Reader's Digest, India, September 17, 2017.

90. Meghnad Badh Rahasya’ Evokes Memories of a Movement That Continues to Haunt Bengal’s Imagination, (with Manishita Dass), The Wire, September 5, 2017.

91. Combating poverty in developing countries with a universal basic income, VoxDev.org, July 17, 2017 (shorter version in The Wire, July 21, 2017).

92. Please, Let's Call A Lynching A Lynching, NDTV.com, July 5, 2017.

93. The Rhetoric of Partisanship, The Wire, July 1, 2017.

94. Why ‘Free’ Speech Is Not Always ‘Costless’, The Wire, June 14, 2017.

95. IT Lay-Offs Reveal The Dangers That Lie Beneath, in NDTV.com, May 18, 2017.

96. A Universal Basic Income Scheme for India? in Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), Economy Watch, April 2017, Issue 14.

97. Behind the Struggle Against Erosion of Free Speech is a Fight Over the Rule of Law, The Wire, March 23, 2017.

98. Demonetisation Was Bad Economics But as an Act of Vigilantism it Served Modi Well Politically, The Wire, March 13, 2017.

99. What New Spend on MGNREGA Exposes About Notes Ban, in NDTV.com, February 1, 2017.

100. Circles in Time - Memories of Presidency College, (pdf version), Autumn Annual, 2016-17, Vol. XLV, Presidency Alumni Association, Calcutta, January 2017.

101. Economists against demonetisation - Firing cannonballs to kill mosquitoes, The Tribune, December 5, 2016.

102. Notes Ban Beats Holograms as Modi's Campaign Gold, in NDTV.com, November 22, 2016.

103. Media fumbles as NOTA wins US elections with 42% evading polls, Business Standard, 16 November 2016.

104. The Trump Conundrum, The Open Magazine, Web Exclusive, 2 November 2016.

105. Nobel prize in Economics 2016: The economy as a nexus of contracts. Ideas for India, October 20, 2016 (shorter version co-published in Business Standard).

106. "Mann Ki Baat" Or "Ban Ki Baat"? Government Must Back Off, NDTV.com, August 31, 2016.

107. Is India ready for a universal basic income scheme? NDTV.com, August 27, 2016 (longer version published in Ideas for India).

108. The price of basic income. The Indian Express, June 29, 2016

109. Brexit suggests focusing on trade and inequality may not be antithetical, The Economic Times, June 28, 2016.

110. Congrats, Britan, you've likely voted for a recession, in NDTV.com, June 25, 2016.

111. Fixit, Don't Brexit, in NDTV.com, June 22, 2016.

112. No hope left? Interpreting the West Bengal election results, in NDTV.com, May 24, 2016.

113. Spare Some Change: Mamata Hasn't Delivered Much For Benga,l in NDTV.com, April 19, 2016.

114. Modi Government Presented A UPA 3 Budget in NDTV.com, March 3, 2016.

115. How Brand Nitish Defeated Brand Modi, in NDTV.com, November 9, 2015.

116. Angus Deaton - The Real World Economist, The Indian Express, October 16, 2015 (See longer version in the Ideas for India).

117. Reservation Policy in India and Its Discontents, in NDTV.com, October 11, 2015.

118. Modi Government's Complacency Hit By Reality in NDTV.com, August 11, 2015 (with Parikshit Ghosh),

119. 'Suit-boot' or 'Jhola'? That Debate's a Trap, in NDTV.com, July 20, 2015 (See longer version in the Ideas for India).

120. Yes, a Land Acquisition Act Can Address Both Justice and Prosperity (with Parikshit Ghosh), The Wire, June 1, 2015.

121. Calling Farmer Suicides a 'Tragedy' Fails India in NDTV.com, May 2, 2015 (See longer version in the Ideas for India).

122. Empower, Don't Patronise the Farmer, The Indian Express, March 30, 2015 (See longer version in the Ideas for India).

123. The Land Acquisition Ordinance (with Parikshit Ghosh), eSocialSciences.Org, February, 2015.

124. Response to the Bhagwati-Panagariya rejoinder on MNREGA, Ideas for India, December 14, 2014 (See shorter version in The Times of India).

125. Wrong Numbers: Attack on NREGA is Misleading, Times of India, November 9, 2014. Click here for a pdf version. (Slightly longer version in Ideas for India).

126. From ‘Mess in India’ to ‘Made in India’ as a global brand?, The Economic Times, October 13, 2014. Click here for the longer Ideas for India version.

127. Ceteris Paribus, Interview at The Economie, Netherlands, September 22, 2014.

128. India has more than its fair share of super-rich and it isn’t a good thing (with Debraj Ray), The Economic Times, September 4, 2014. Click here for the longer Ideas for India version.

129. India needs more than Narendra Modi's trickle-down model, The Guardian, July 14, 2014.

130. Did Gujarat Switch to a Higher Growth Trajectory Relative To India under Modi? A Rejoinder (with Sanchari Roy), Economic and Political Weekly of India, May 3, 2014. Click here for the comment to which this piece responds to.

131. Growth in the time of UPA: Myths and Reality (with Parikshit Ghosh & Ashok Kotwal), Economic and Political Weekly of India, April 19, 2014. (Reprinted in Economic Growth and its Distribution in India (ed.s) Pulapre Balakrishnan, Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan, 2015.)

132. Winnowing fact from rhetoric: A look at what figures tell of UPA's regime (with Parikshit Ghosh & Ashok Kotwal), Economic Times, April 15, 2014.

133. Did Gujarat’s Growth Rate Accelerate under Modi? (with Sanchari Roy), Economic and Political Weekly of India, April 12, 2014. See here the version with the latest year's data.

134. Growth is Not the Victim of the UPA, it is the Other Way Round, (with Parikshit Ghosh), Hindustan Times, April 3, 2014.

135. A Look in the Mirror (with Sanchari Roy), Outlook, March 31, 2014. Click here for a pdf version, here for version with tables, and here for the Ideas for India version .

136. Gujarat Model of Development and Other Growth Stories, (with Sanchari Roy), DNA, March 31, 2014.

137. Modinomics: do Narendra Modi's economic claims add up? (pdf version) (with Sanchari Roy), The Guardian, March 13, 2014.

138. Harvard, Hard Work, and Hard Facts, Economic Times, Sunday Magazine, February 23, 2014.

139. Reforming India's Land Policy (with Parikshit Ghosh and Dilip Mookherjee), Yojana, November 2013.

140. The Land Acquisition Bill is Deeply Flawed (with Parikshit Ghosh), Ideas for India, October 23, 2013.

141. The Chit fund crisis: Should not put all financial intermediaries in the same bracket, (with Abhijit V. Banerjee), Ideas for India, May 3, 2013

142. Developing a land acquisition policy for India, (with Dilip Mookherjee), Ideas for India, and MINT, Sep 5 2012 [press coverage in Times of India].

143. Land acquisition: Is there a way out? (with Parikshit Ghosh), Ideas for India, July 16, 2012 [interview in Rediff.com and press coverage in Forbes India].

144. The Land Acquisition Bill: A Critique and a Proposal, (with Parikshit Ghosh), Economic and Political Weekly of India, October 8, 2011, Vol. XLVI, No 41. (Click here for a shorter version in The Hindustan Times, and here in Ideas for India, and here for press coverage in Forbes India).

145. Land on One’s Square Feet, Hindustan Times, New Delhi, September 21, 2011.

146. What Crisis Has Taught Economics, Financial Express, New Delhi, January 9, 2010.

147. Buying Land and Selling Kidneys, Financial Express, New Delhi, November 9 & 16, 2009.

148. No Way Out of this Plot, (with Sanjay Banerji), Financial Express, New Delhi, September 30, 2009.

149. Small is Smart, Financial Express, New Delhi, August 24, 2009.

150. Anger in the Wake of Aila (with Sreyashi Dastidar), Financial Express, New Delhi, June 11, 2009.

151. Poor Man’s Capitalism. Financial Express, New Delhi, March 23, 2009.

152. Barefoot Entrepreneurs? Financial Express, New Delhi, January 12, 2009.

153. Where is Credit Due? Financial Express, New Delhi, October 27, 2008

154. Beyond Nandigram: Industrialization in West Bengal (with A.V. Banerjee et al), Economic and Political Weekly of India, April 28, 2007.

155. Strategy for Economic Reform in West Bengal (with A.V. Banerjee et al), Economic and Political Weekly of India, October 12, 2002.

156. In an Imperfect World (with Sugata Marjit), The Telegraph, Calcutta, June 29, 2002.

157. Bengal’s Economic Survival (with A.V. Banerjee et al), The Telegraph, Calcutta, May 13, 2001.

158. Big Boom Theory (with Parikshit Ghosh), The Telegraph, Calcutta, June 4, 1999.

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Last modified: April 18, 2024