Ajay Shah writing for the mass media (2006)
This is my alternate-Wednesdays column in Business Standard, except when stated otherwise.
- Adventures of the Baht, 20 December 2006. kw - Thailand, baht, encaje, pegged exchange rates, war stories of currency crises.
- How to tackle informal sector pensions, 6 December 2006. kw - co-contribution, defined contribution individual account systems based on voluntary participation.
- Pension guarantees are subtle, 15 November 2006. kw - above-poverty guarantee, capital protection guarantee (in real terms), 50% benefit rate guarantee.
- Reddy & Bernanke, 1 November 2006. kw - Indian credit policy, high inflation requires tight monetary policy, Indian monetary policy needs to be different from US monetary policy, getting back to 3% CPI inflation.
- Revel in competition, 18 October 2006. kw - airline industry, competition policy, cartel of airlines, creative destruction.
- Understanding the amazing GDP growth, 4 October 2006. kw - 8.4% GDP growth for a period of 3 years; sources of this growth; pro-cyclical (destabilising) policy framework.
- IMF and World Bank: Where do India's interests lie?, 20 September 2006. kw - IMF and World Bank reforms.
- Gloom in the US housing market, 6 September 2006. kw - US housing bust, implications for US and world business cycle, and for India.
- A debate, in Business Standard, on fiscal consolidation, 6 September 2006.
- Global diversification is core to fund management, 16 August 2006. kw - gains from international diversification, portfolio optimisation, home bias.
- Extracting information from finance, 2 August 2006. kw - implied volatility, options on fed funds futures used to make probabilites of a next rate hike, inflation expectations, central bank that is in control and flying blind.
- A debate between Bibek Debroy and myself, in Business Standard, on capital account convertibility, 2 August 2006. (Original URL).
- Financial regulation: Going from potholes to expressways, 18 July 2006. kw - FSA, principles based approach, civil law vs. common law approaches in financial regulation, financial innovation.
- Making sense of farmer suicide, 5 July 2006. kw - cotton price volatility, lack of correlation between grades, barriers to goods arbitrage, leverage, MMR, personal bankruptcy, Chapter 11, corporations in agriculture.
- Plain english versus mumbo jumbo, 21 June 2006. kw - "mystique of central banking", transparency, data should move markets, not central bank staff.
- Don't play Arjun Singh's game, 7 June 2006. kw - entry barriers into higher education, control raj, quotas.
- Listed exchanges pose unique problems, 17 May 2006. kw - Publicly traded exchanges, Listed exchange, IPO by exchange, demutualisation, conflicts of interest, three-way separation between owners / managers / trading members (brokers).
- Is infrastructure the gap between India and China?, 3 May 2006. kw - India, China, manufacturing exports, infrastructure, ports, coping costs, transactions costs of movement of goods.
- Was a rate hike required?, 19 April 2006. kw - India, Taylor principle, destabilising monetary policy, responding to the accelerated CPI growth from late 2005 onwards.
- Doing everything wrong on debt inflows, 5 April 2006. kw - restrictions on debt flows, original sin, currency mismatch, pegged exchange rates, quasi-sovereign borrowing, FII investment in government bonds and corporate bonds, ECB, currency futures, case for capital account convertibility.
- Should the State subsidise a semiconductor fab?, 15 March 2006. kw - Semindia, Sematech, industrial policy, capital intensity, land, government policy on advanced science and technology, DARPA.
- Easing capital controls; maybe igniting a corporate bond market, 1 March 2006. kw - Feb 2006 Budget proposals on easing capital controls and building a corporate bond market.
- The mess in education, 28 February 2006. kw - Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, test scores, education policy, role of State in education.
- Caution, dangerous curves ahead, 15 February 2006. kw - Indian and global business cycle, fiscal consolidation, FRBM 2008-09 deadlines, UPA spending programs, global imbalances, monetary policy must stabilise since fiscal policy won't, floating exchange rates buy monetary policy autonomy.
- Why penalise telecom?, 1 February 2006. kw - tax treatment of telecom sector, universal access, telephony for poor people, goods and services tax (GST), spectrum allocation, spectrum auction.
- Why track down Roopalben?, 18 January 2006. kw - "IPO Scam", multiple applications, IPO mechanism, disintermediating the investment banker, auctions.
- What next on the New Pension System?, 4 January 2006. kw - New Pension System, PFRDA Bill, UPA, politics of pension reform.
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