Author: Ram Manohar

Farm reform: the Achilles’ heel of any Indian government

News:   The withdrawal of the farm laws has pushed back reforms that could have helped in commercializing this sector. The farm reforms did not introduce anything that was not happening in the pockets of the country already. Yet, reforms have been rejected for vested interests. Reversal of these reforms will hamper the growth of the… Continue reading Farm reform: the Achilles’ heel of any Indian government

An opportunity for Digital India

News: India is pioneering the concept of digital public goods. This provides India an opportunity to take its made-in-India digital public goods to hundreds of emerging economies across the world. Further, owing to the advantage of digital goods over physical goods, the supply of digital public goods to other countries will act as a strategic… Continue reading An opportunity for Digital India

The gaps in the plan to tackle plastic waste

News: Recently, the Environment Ministry published draft regulations on Extended Producer Responsibility. It is set to come into effect by the end of this year. What is Extended Producer Responsibility? EPR requires the manufacturer of a product, or the party that introduces the product into the community, to take responsibility for its life cycle. It… Continue reading The gaps in the plan to tackle plastic waste

The problem of verbose policy documents – on National Electricity Policy

News: Recently, the government had indicated its intention to amend the EA 2003 and also the tariff policy. Policy documents should be crisp and should be able to convey the direction we intend on taking. However, some of our policy documents are not in line with the above-said parameters. For instance, the documents of National… Continue reading The problem of verbose policy documents – on National Electricity Policy

Opec+ should expect plenty of turbulence in the years ahead

News: The OPEC+ group of oil producers celebrated their fifth birthday in early December. They first came together to face the threat posed by the US shale boom back in 2016. However, their future wasn’t much easier. The group was on the verge of collapse in 2020, but it was saved by the covid pandemic.… Continue reading Opec+ should expect plenty of turbulence in the years ahead

Agriculture needs a booster dose

News: The cure for the farm sector’s ills lies primarily in making agriculture remunerative. Why are farmers discontented and uneasy? Income from crop farming has become insufficient for the livelihood of an average farm family: The “Situation Assessment of Agricultural Households” survey, carried out by the National Sample Survey Organisation in 2018-19, clearly indicates that… Continue reading Agriculture needs a booster dose

Avoid policy adventurism

News: Goods and services tax (GST), one of the biggest reforms in recent decades, will complete five years in July next year. It was expected that after some initial implementation difficulties, the system would stabilise and boost revenue collection along with output. But that doesn’t seem to be happening. While revenue collection has improved, partly… Continue reading Avoid policy adventurism

Let’s re-emphasize the ‘social’ aspect of our ESG investments

News: Need to start a new ‘bio bond’ asset class to support Biomedical research. In Environment, social and governance investing, while many of the investments goes to environment and governance aspect, Social-welfare investments are often neglected. But there is an urgent need to change this, especially in biomedical research, to make it more sustainable, and… Continue reading Let’s re-emphasize the ‘social’ aspect of our ESG investments

What to look at before investing in ESG funds

News: Earlier this week, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) launched NSE Prime. Environment, social responsibility, and corporate governance have of late emerged as key themes for investors in India. The asset size of ESG funds has increased nearly five times to Rs 12,300 crore over the last couple of years. In this context, recently NSE… Continue reading What to look at before investing in ESG funds

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