India Policy Forum 2013-14: Volume 10 - Softcover

The India Policy Forum (IPF) is organized by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) in New Delhi in partnership with the Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C. It aims to examine India’s economic reforms and its economic transition using policy-relevant empirical research. The IPF comprises an annual international conference in July in New Delhi and the IPF Volume that brings together the conference papers. These papers undergo detailed revisions after the conference based on discussants’ comments at the IPF and the guidance provided by the editors.  The IPF is guided by distinguished international advisory and research panels.

The first paper in this 2013 IPF Volume evaluates the impact of laws governing the operation of India’s labour market within the organized industrial sector. The next paper analyzes India’s role in the rapid development of international production networks. The third paper examines the conduct of Indian monetary policy since the onset of the global financial crisis, focusing on the persistent high rates of inflation in India. The fourth paper provides an overview of fiscal and monetary policies in the years after the financial crisis.  The volume concludes with an assessment of the value of social audits, widely advocated as a tool for improving public accountability, in the MGNREGA program in Andhra Pradesh. 

The annual IPF Volume is globally the most cited collection of articles on India and should be useful to researchers and policy-makers in economics and political economy.

Shekhar Shah is the Director-General of NCAER, India’s oldest and largest economic think tank. Prior to NCAER, he was the World Bank’s Regional Economic Adviser for South Asia. He has worked in the financial services sector in Washington D.C. and has been the Ford Foundation’s Program Officer for International Economics for South Asia. Shekhar joined the World Bank in 1989, where he was also a principal author of the 2004 World Development Report. He has published on a range of issues relating to service delivery, governance, poverty, international trade, social policy, and monitoring and evaluation. He received his PhD in Economics from Columbia University.