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Tag Search: “firms”

What would make India’s growth sustainable?

Much of the discussion on the economic slowdown in India in recent years – as well as on the government’s measures to tackle the present economic crisis due to the Covid-19 lockdown – is focused on th...

  • Perspectives

Covid-19: Assessing vulnerabilities faced by microenterprises

In India, where microenterprises form a crucial foundation for livelihoods and employment, the effects of the Covid-19 lockdown can potentially be significant. Based on the first wave of a dynamic, mu...

  • Notes from the Field

Does easing controls on foreign borrowing boost firm performance?

The literature shows that rigid capital-control policies adversely influence international trade, but overlooks the relationships among access to external financing, firm-level productivity, and expor...

  • Articles

The supply-side effects of India’s demonetisation

What were the effects of the 2016 Indian demonetisation that removed 86% of currency in circulation overnight, on the production side of the economy? By combining data from financial statements and su...

  • Articles

Covid-19 crisis and health of small businesses: Findings from a primary survey

In a recent statement, the Union Minister for micro, small, and medium enterprises, acknowledged that the sector is “battling for survival”. This article reports some key findings from a survey of mor...

  • Notes from the Field

Perceived obstacles among Indian firms: What happens to innovation efforts?

For countries like India where large numbers of small- and medium-sized firms cannot access formal credit and face widespread bureaucratic corruption, long-run survival and consequent distributional i...

  • Articles

Trade disruption, industrialisation, and how the sun set on British rule in India

It is argued that by keeping India open to imports of cheap British manufactures, the imperial power made it excessively difficult for Indian industry to emerge in the early 20th century. This article...

  • Articles

Prejudice in a pandemic: Covid rumours and factory labour supply

Since the Tablighi Jamaat event – an Islamic congregation held in Delhi in mid-March – led to a large cluster of Covid cases, malicious rumours about Muslims spreading the disease started circulating ...

  • Notes from the Field

How costly are flawed government responses to Covid-19? An assessment of the migrant crisis

By March-end, countless migrant workers started fleeing India’s locked-up cities and trekking home to their villages amidst the Covid-19 crisis. Sarmistha Pal argues that government’s responses until ...

  • Perspectives

Covid-19: Health, macroeconomics, and trade

There is great uncertainty around the spread and eventual end of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the possibility of extended or intermittent lockdowns. Besides the immediate health crisis and loss of liv...

  • Articles

Covid-19: Ashok Kotwal speaks with Pronab Sen

In conversation with Ashok Kotwal on the ongoing economic crisis caused by lockdown to mitigate Covid-19 spread, Pronab Sen breaks down the problem into survival of individuals and livelihoods, and th...

  • Podcasts

Covid-19 and MSMEs: The ‘identification’ problem

A recent survey of 5,000 micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) found that 71% of them could not pay salaries to their workers in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 lockdown in India. The government...

  • Perspectives