http://indianeconomy.org Issues & insights Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:52:19 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Ilian Mihov, Professor of Economics at INSEAD, holds forth on the lessons of the collapse of the ‘golden age’ of the late 1920s. What is the biggest lesson from the Great Depression? In my view, it is that monetary policy and the financial sector play a crucial role in economic development. ... http://indianeconomy.org/2008/09/30/biggest-lesson-from-the-great-depression/ By V Anantha Nageswaran On September 19th, the U.S. Treasury Secretary Paulson issued a statement in which he said that the Federal government “must implement a program to remove these illiquid assets that are weighing down our financial institutions and threatening our economy”. He called it the ‘Troubled Asset Relief Program’. ... http://indianeconomy.org/2008/09/26/guest-post-is-america-ready-for-truth-and-reconciliation/ Did you know that the Indian government imposes a cess on indigenously produced crude oil? The Oil Industry Development Act, 1974 based on ... http://indianeconomy.org/2008/09/20/the-cesspool-of-crude-oil-cess/ An article of mine got published in the TCS Daily on organized retail in India (The article was first drafted in late '06- early '07, so parts of it might appear slightly dated) Here is the link. Some of the comments are interesting. Here are a couple that I thought I should highlight -- With around ... http://indianeconomy.org/2008/09/16/organized-retailing-in-india/ Do Indian business houses have cultural advantages that could help them trump their global counterparts? In 1988 the Japanese economy was probably at the peak of its glory period. Many years after moving from a low-income to high-income nation within a generation, a feat unsurpassed in history, Japanese businesses were buying ... http://indianeconomy.org/2008/09/12/advent-of-the-indian-business-houses/ Unorganised and organised retail must coexist and flourish in India... After almost scaring the Tata Motors away from West Bengal, Mamata Bannerjee has now trained her guns on Reliance Retail. Well, Reliance Retail should be used to being targeted by feisty women politicians. Immediately after coming to power in Lucknow, Ms. Mayawati ... http://indianeconomy.org/2008/09/04/resuscitating-indian-retail-industry/ Now, this one is an interesting situation. The Indian government likes to tom-tom the oil subsidy bill as a proof of its socialistic credentials; the media targets the government for unfairly subsidising the expenditure of the middle class; and most economists lay the blame at the door of the government ... http://indianeconomy.org/2008/09/02/oil-subsidies-now-get-real/ Sramana Mitra, entrepreneur and strategy consultant in Silicon Valley, has a very interesting series of essays on future of multiple entrepreneurship in India. It is currently on to its seventeenth running segment and one can do no better than introduce it by quoting from Sramana's preface to her Vision ... http://indianeconomy.org/2008/08/19/entrepreneurship-vision-india-2020-2/ Why is Bengal, one of the largest sources of coal in the world, importing coal from abroad? Long-time reader and IEB friend, Joydeep Mukherji sent us this article with a comment: The West Bengal government has decided to import one lakh tonne of coal at higher rates to fuel the thermal ... http://indianeconomy.org/2008/08/05/coals-to-newcastle-and-bengal/ Writing in his latest book A Farewell To Alms UC Davis Professor Gregory Clark provides insight into the possible reasons why the English (and Europeans in general)  are on the whole considered "gentlemanly" and more "polished" (except while watching football, of course). Clark's reasoning can also be extended to explain ... http://indianeconomy.org/2008/07/15/caste-and-the-gentleman-class/