Abhijit Banerjee

Foretaste: An excerpt from Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee’s new cookbook

Read an exclusive excerpt and try out a recipe from Cooking to Save Your Life by Abhijit Banerjee, with illustrations by Cheyenne Olivier.

India’s GDP numbers are likely to be an overestimation

Given just how large our informal sector is, the overestimation could be very significant. Still the overestimation seems to be entirely missed by our leaders who are happily beating their chests about our (mostly made up) growth numbers

Focus our best academic talent in a few places to promote excellence

Presidency University is struggling to hold on to its best people today in part because as a state government institution in a poor state, it pays at least 40% less than its competitors who benefit from the munificence of the central government.

Bad economics can bite

Even if the whole thing is a mistake in pure economic terms, demonetisation could be worth it for the PM in terms of political dividends

We need a leader, not just a glorified manager

A leader is more than just a sympathetic listener. She (or he) needs to ask questions and get people to respond candidly, listen to what they are saying, and be able to engage and sustain the resulting debate.

Even if Trump loses, the anger that brought him to the fore will remain

How did the United States, a country with more than 200 years of experience with democracy, get to a situation where it is so close to electing someone who seems to be an old-fashioned fascist? To answer this, it’ll be useful to see the world from the point of view of the average American worker

Let us face it, we overplayed our hand

India needs help of Kashmiris to offset Pakistan’s dirty cross-border games

The strikes themselves Pakistan might have swallowed as a move in our age-old game of tit for tat. The propaganda, the public display of our delight at their expense, force their hand — it’s the smartphone moment. And we may very well come to regret it

Don’t blame it on our genes

Little to cheer: One Olympic medal for every 60 crore Indians

Our obsession with cricket, along with malnutrition, poor sanitary conditions and lack of public playgrounds, reflect in our Olympic medals’ haul

Brexit: If democracy has to survive, the elites have to regain their credibility

The mainstream parties have always insisted that immigrants and imports from cheaper competitors is nothing to worry about, but to the man in the street this has never made intuitive sense. When the economists were delivering results, voters were willing to suspend disbelief, but now they have no reason. Hence Brexit

We need to make our sports talent truly world class

Why not forget about national boundaries, just for cricket? To make this possible, administrators will need to work with their counterparts from other countries

We need thinking spaces like JNU and the govt must stay out of it

Universities and civil society are important for a democracy like ours, founded on a genuine idealism that we have a hard time holding on to

Not just odd-even plan, a combination of incentives, subsidies needed

In terms of alternatives to the odd-even rule, it is clear that one important downside of the proposed scheme is that it does not discriminate between those who just drive round the corner and those who drive hundreds of kilometres a day

Intimidation, imitation, economics: Why youth are taking to terror

A potent combination of intimidation, imitation and economic stagnation are the reasons for the youth taking to terror.

Peace-loving people need to break silence on growing intolerance

If the majority of peace-loving people in India choose to stay silent on Dadri-like incidents, soon we will become another Pakistan.

Police reform a must to stop State from misusing power

Every time we see State power being used with impunity, every occasion when a policeman walks into a teashop and leaves without paying, diminishes the State and breeds cynicism, writes Abhijit Banerjee.

Colleges, univs should be exciting places to teach, be taught

We need to be able to think of ways to make our institutions of higher learning exciting places to teach and be taught.

Selling insurance to poor in India demands imaginative solutions

It is difficult to sell insurance to the poor in India. The challenges are not insurmountable but demand imaginative solutions

Sanitation drive: Bring it all in from the open

If you are a natural scientist, a publication the journal Science carries enormous prestige. In the last few years Science has started to publish a small number of articles in the social sciences on topics of special importance.

Land acquisition: First, sow the seeds of security among farmers

Many years ago, Jagdish Bhagwati, a very distinguished economist long before he became one of the patron saints of the NDA, published an important paper on what he called Directly Unproductive Activities or DUP.

Delhi polls: When it comes to funding, keep it white and keep it right

At stake in the Delhi elections is the idea that it is possible to be competitive without using under-the-table finance.

Food for thought: Parties should reward their foot soldiers amply

We need parties that pay their boys decent salaries for being the professionals they could be rather than the proto-criminals they end up becoming because of the system, writes Abhijit Banerjee.

What's the plan for MNREGA? Modi has to explain

We deserve to be told why the MGNREGA has been singled out for the axe, if for no other reason than to inform our views about future programmes, writes Abhijit Banerjee.

No job is 'low' - be it desk or labour

Our prejudice against physical labour can only undermine Narendra Modi’s drive to turn India into a manufacturing hub, writes Abhijit Banerjee.

India's self-righteous policies aren't helping the poor

Any attempt to do anything 'for the poor' tends to be cloaked in such self-righteousness that hardly anyone dares to ask the necessary questions about it: does the programme itself make sense, is there anything else that we could do that would be better? writes Abhijit Banerjee.

The new plan body must have a certain oomph

Narendra Modi says that he will replace the Planning Commission with a think tank. But it will take some doing to attract high-quality people to work for it, writes Abhijit Banerjee.

The centre may not hold: how public rage may hurt India

The Muzaffarnagar riots and the mauling in elections were bad enough, but things really spun out of control with the rash of rapes and gang rapes that don't show any sign of letting up, writes Abhijit Banerjee.

Narendra Modi has to be most decisive at first

The BJP must nurture the institutions that put credible checks and balances in place. Otherwise, the street will fight back. Abhijit Banerjee writes.

Why BJP's plan of full reforms is easier said than done

One advantage of not being in power is that we can dream of reshaping the world exactly as we please. The BJP has had this luxury for some time — now the reality is about to hit it, writes Abhijit Banerjee.