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Amartya Sen to Gita Gopinath: Influential Indian-origin economists you should know

<ul><li>Economist <keyword id="370528" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Abhijit-Banerjee">Abhijit Banerjee</keyword> became the sixth Nobel Laureate from <keyword id="6354925" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="kolkata">Kolkata</keyword>.</li><li><keyword id="9684" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Rabindranath-Tagore">Rabindranath Tagore</keyword>, <keyword id="9663" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amartya-Sen">Amartya Sen</keyword>, Mother Teresa, CV Raman and Ronald Ross are the others from Kolkata or have a connection to the city, who won the award.</li><li>Two of them are from the city’s Presidency College.</li></ul>Durga Puja might be over but celebrations aren’t over in the city of joy – Kolkata. The city celebrated its sixth Nobel Laureate with Abhijit Banerjee being awarded the prestigious award for his contribution to economics. In fact, one of the most prestigious universities of the city – Presidency college has in itself brought out two Nobel Laureates including Banerjee. Here’s a look at the city’s <keyword id="444148" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nobel-prize-winners">Nobel Prize winners</keyword> 
	
	<div type="Slideshow" msid="71592451" hostid="261" title="Kolkata has been home to six Nobel Prize winners" firstImageMsid="71592452" slideCount="6"></div>





 See Also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/news/indian-american-mit-prof-abhijit-banerjee-and-wife-wins-nobel-in-economics/articleshow/71580069.cms">Indian-American MIT Prof Abhijit Banerjee and wife Esther Duflo win Noble prize in Economics</a>

checkout the list of Nobel Prize winners from Kolkata

Kolkata has been home to six Nobel Prize winners

India has emerged as the world’s fastest growing economy. However, Asia’s third largest economy just ranked 97th among 118 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) released by the <keyword id="108578" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="International-Food-Policy-Research-Institute">International Food Policy Research Institute</keyword> (<keyword id="6557928" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="ifpri">IFPRI</keyword>). This puts the country behind even <keyword id="6354759" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bangladesh">Bangladesh</keyword>, <keyword id="41896" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Iran">Iran</keyword>, <keyword id="6355112" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Iraq">Iraq</keyword>, and <keyword id="6354767" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nigeria">Nigeria</keyword> in the hunger map. 
 
India’s policy addressing hunger and malnutrition in all age groups has a feast of questions and a famine of answers. India’s hunger, being worse than any sub-Saharan country, needs crisis management and a long term vision. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Excise-duty-in-cigarette-hiked-Tobacco-farmers-in-india-are-struggling-to-make-ends-meet/articleshow/56872791.cms">ALSO READ: Excise duty in cigarette hiked. Tobacco farmers in India are struggling to make ends meet</a> 
 Be it <keyword id="4227644" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="manohar-das">Manohar Das</keyword> of <keyword id="4227647" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="tewri">Tewri</keyword> village in <keyword id="6360371" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Jharkhand">Jharkhand</keyword>, who works in hundred days of wage-employment or <keyword id="4227646" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="shib-baksha">Shib Baksha</keyword> of <keyword id="4227645" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="amlasol">Amlasol</keyword> village in <keyword id="61773" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="West-Midnapore">West Midnapore</keyword> district of <keyword id="6357783" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="West-Bengal">West Bengal</keyword>, who works as contract labour at nearby village, the thin line that connects them is the ignorance about ‘<keyword id="2209492" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Modi-Sarkar">Modi Sarkar</keyword>’. The only thing they understand by the government is getting staples at Rs 2/kg and free goodies. However, staples alone can’t fulfill nutritional needs, as a result they end up with stunted growth and other diseases. Not everyone is as lucky as them. Their neighbours, unable to procure <keyword id="49514" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="bpl">BPL</keyword> (below poverty level) identity cards and Ration Cards aren’t entitled to these basic facilities and have to starve most of the days. Only feast they can think of is ant eggs roast during the scorching summer months. 
 
 
 
India’s overall GDP growth is expected to end at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Excise-duty-in-cigarette-hiked-Tobacco-farmers-in-india-are-struggling-to-make-ends-meet/articleshow/56872791.cms">7.1% this financial year</a>, as compared to 4.6% two years back. While food still counts as the basic requirement of human existence, India is a country that not only produces enough, but ironically, there is never enough for its ever growing population to eat. Funnily, while millions go hungry, for <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Excise-duty-in-cigarette-hiked-Tobacco-farmers-in-india-are-struggling-to-make-ends-meet/articleshow/56872791.cms">India storage of surplus food</a> has always been a problem. 
 
 
 
India’s hunger-management disaster 
While development in many sectors is acknowledged, what is lesser known is that India has also made considerable progress on many social fronts, such as fertility decline, expansion of schooling and bridging the gender gap in education, especially at the primary and lower secondary levels. However, there is one <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Excise-duty-in-cigarette-hiked-Tobacco-farmers-in-india-are-struggling-to-make-ends-meet/articleshow/56872791.cms">area of human development</a>, where India has been a disaster: tackling hunger and malnutrition. 
 
Child malnutrition rates in India are extraordinarily high- among the highest in the world, with nearly one-half of all children under 3 years of age being either underweight or stunted. Indeed, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Excise-duty-in-cigarette-hiked-Tobacco-farmers-in-india-are-struggling-to-make-ends-meet/articleshow/56872791.cms">child malnutrition rates </a>are higher in India than in many countries of sub-Saharan <keyword id="12925" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Africa">Africa</keyword>, even though income levels are significantly higher and levels of infant and child mortality are lower in India. 
 
 
 
Pediatric malnutrition Prevalence of child malnutrition in India has remained stubbornly high even after nearly a half-century of respectable agricultural productivity growth and two decades of post-reform economic growth and prosperity in the country. Adding more support to the view that child malnutrition is weakly correlated with income is the finding that among children of mothers with 10 or more years of schooling as well as mothers from the top income quintile, around one-quarter are underweight. Even in a relatively prosperous and dynamic state like <keyword id="6354766" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gujarat">Gujarat</keyword>, child malnutrition rates have been stagnant over the past decade. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/heres-how-indepay-is-making-rural-india-cashless/articleshow/57232771.cms">ALSO READ: HOW INDEPAY IS MAKING RURAL INDIA CASHLESS</a> 
 The <keyword id="121300" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="National-Family-Health-Survey">National Family Health Survey</keyword> (NFHS) found that a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/heres-how-indepay-is-making-rural-india-cashless/articleshow/57232771.cms">significant number of adults</a> in India suffer from malnutrition. Almost 58 per cent of pregnant women aged 15-49 were found to be anaemic. The Global Food Security Index also revealed that Indians lack adequate quantities of iron, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/heres-how-indepay-is-making-rural-india-cashless/articleshow/57232771.cms">Vitamin A and protein in their diets</a>. 
 
 
 
“Half of the children who die before five years of age have malnutrion as a cause in their pathogenesis. If we look at proportion of weight at birth, 23 per cent of children weigh less than 2.5 kg, which is below normal. This low birth weight has its reason in the womb, which is where they are malnourished already before being born. Low birth weight increases over time and so by the time they are three-years-old, half the children are malnourished. Because of poor sanitation we have widespread <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/heres-how-indepay-is-making-rural-india-cashless/articleshow/57232771.cms">faecal oral contamination</a>. Water and food sources have high degrees of contamination and it results in diarrhoea and other gastro intestinal illnesses, which increases the child mortality rate,” said renowned public health specialist and activist Dr <keyword id="43944" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Binayak-Sen">Binayak Sen</keyword>. 
 
 
 
State of famine 
In 1943, three million people died in the infamous <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/author_articles_all.cms?query=%22Suchayan%20Mandal%22&amp;author=Suchayan-Mandal-479239841">Bengal famine</a>. There was no shortage of grain in <keyword id="6356978" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bengal">Bengal</keyword> at that time, yet people had nothing to eat. Interpreting the Famine of 1943,<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/author_articles_all.cms?query=%22Suchayan%20Mandal%22&amp;author=Suchayan-Mandal-479239841"> Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen </a>suggested that the reason for it was the breakdown of the social arrangement in distributing food. To put the matter in a world context, every three seconds somewhere around the world, a child dies of causes related to avoidable malnutrition. "In those three seconds, the world armaments industry spends 120,000 USD in order to keep the system responsible safely in place,” Binayak Sen told <keyword id="824043" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Business-Insider">Business Insider</keyword>. 
 
 
 
Ignorant policies that do the most harm Skyrocketing prices of daily food items spell more woe for the people, who are already paying "too much" to survive. International Fund for Agricultural Development’s (<keyword id="1367836" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="IFAD">IFAD</keyword>) Rural Poverty Report-2011 states, “While international food prices have declined since mid-2008, they are still substantially higher than prior to the price surge, and they are likely to remain at 2010 levels or higher for the next decade.” The report has suggested that about 100 million of world’s rural and urban people have to remain hungry. 
 “It will remain high, the era of cheap food is over," said <keyword id="669006" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Richard-Mahapatra">Richard Mahapatra</keyword>, managing editor of Down to <keyword id="6359982" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="earth">Earth</keyword>. "This is because productivity of agriculture is low and thus impacts production. This is the supply side issue. Also the rainfed areas that contribute a signifcant amount of foodgrain is not getting the policy focus. Even though the new second Green <keyword id="24385" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="revolution">Revolution</keyword> is aimed at that, it seems to be flawed. Now, the demand side. Demand is increasing but we don't have robust distribution mechanism. So, it creates further price rise. Also, there is huge diversion of agricultural lands to other uses. Combined with low productivity, less lands and absence of distribution mechanism, we are set for high price rise.” 
 Due to the PDS (<keyword id="89442" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Public-distribution-system">Public Distribution System</keyword>) and the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/author_articles_all.cms?query=%22Suchayan%20Mandal%22&amp;author=Suchayan-Mandal-479239841">public wage programmes</a> starvation deaths have definitely come down, he contended. Often we call cheap food grain programmes as populist. They are indeed popular as poor find them useful and their starvation is avoided with this entitlement. 
 
 
 
Adult malnutrition 
“Roughly 33-35 per cent of the entire Indian population have a BMI below 18.5, which is indicative of calorie malnutrition. They aren't getting enough food to eat. More than one-third of India is on a chronic basis not getting proper food to eat. Low BMI is also restricting people’s immunity,” said Binayak Sen. 
 “Without addressing nutritional status, there can be no adequate development. Food Security Act does nothing for betterment of nutritional status of the poeple as such. <keyword id="250148" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="The-Bill">The Bill</keyword> is like 'something is better than nothing'. Five kilos of wheat per person per month make two chapattis per day. With two chapatis the nutritional question isn’t answered. This terrible nutritional deficit is yielding polarization in society,” he added. 
 
Urban malnutrition 
In villages, people stay in close bond with each other, who can be approached for help in <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/author_articles_all.cms?query=%22Suchayan%20Mandal%22&amp;author=Suchayan-Mandal-479239841">times of crisis</a>. Migrating people in cities start living in slums and ghettos, where they have to live with people unknown and untrustworthy. Moreover, people fight here to make ends meet, which actually leads to self-centric attitude. 
 
Red corridor hunger 
“People who are in chronic situation and stable famine are able to withstand only because of their access to natural resources like land, water and forest," opined Binayak Sen. "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/author_articles_all.cms?query=%22Suchayan%20Mandal%22&amp;author=Suchayan-Mandal-479239841">Access to this resources was unrestricted</a>. Designating the common properties as commodities that can be owned by corporates is restricting poeple’s right to access and in a way right to live. Any form of resistance is labelled as insurgency. First they try civil ways and then take recourse in military measures. People have to confront. Application of eminent domain needs to be questioned. Under 5th schedule, govt has to ensure people’s access to natural resources but there is not a single instances of government intervening.” 
 
“They have mapped it as red corridor but poeple’s deprivation hasn't been mapped yet," said Sen. 
 
"We need to relook at the arm forces and UAPA laws. Whole discourse in election has become restricted to attitudes to development. Development is about accessing resources. Nobody is saying there are vital issues involved. What is going to happen to the poeple whose right has been denied? State will not be thwarted in its course. There needs to be a contestaion in the level of people. They need to raise the issue.” 
 
Business Insider’s Take 
Agriculture contributes around 16 per cent to<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/author_articles_all.cms?query=%22Suchayan%20Mandal%22&amp;author=Suchayan-Mandal-479239841"> India’s GDP</a>; it is coming down over the years. But still 60 per cent people depend on this. What does this mean? Is it that it is reliable as a source of livelihood or people don't have any other source thus depend on agriculture? In both the cases, shifting people out of agriculture is going to be a tough challenge. Industries or the service sectors have their own limitation and can't absorb such a huge number of people. Strategically, this will be a blunder as we kill out food self-sufficiency.

BI Investigation: India’s food nightmare is killing millions of
children across the country every day

At a time when startups are mushrooming in India, a few desi companies have already gone far ahead in the race. <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword> and <keyword id="6354720" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ola">Ola</keyword> are making news in the US owing to the competition they pose to their US counterparts <keyword id="18635" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amazon">Amazon</keyword> and Uber. 
 While speaking to <keyword id="824043" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Business-Insider">Business Insider</keyword> at the <keyword id="69007" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="World-Economic-Forum">World Economic Forum</keyword> recently, <keyword id="154034" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Gita-Gopinath">Gita Gopinath</keyword> who is permanent faculty at <keyword id="97117" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Harvard-University">Harvard University</keyword>'s Economics department, said – “I see an upward trend in the <keyword id="6356076" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="indian-economy">Indian Economy</keyword> with higher FDI coming in, especially in new businesses. Companies like Flipkart and Ola are talked about in the U.S. and for all the right reasons.” 
 <keyword id="60820" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gopinath">Gopinath</keyword> is the third woman to have become a permanent professor at the prestigious <keyword id="53675" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="harvard">Harvard</keyword> University’s Economic Department. The post also makes her the first Indian after Nobel laureate <keyword id="9663" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amartya-Sen">Amartya Sen</keyword> to receive such an honour. 
 While reacting to the <keyword id="1948072" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Indian-startup">Indian Startup</keyword> ecosystem, she further added – “Companies like Flipkart and Ola might be termed as ‘copycat companies’ born out of ideas that have worked abroad but they are being commended for giving a stiff competition to their U.S. counterparts namely Amazon and Uber.” 
 <keyword id="7858" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gita">Gita</keyword> stressed on the need for domestic investment to further push the Indian <keyword id="34412" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="economy">economy</keyword> on a progressive path. "We need to realise that entrepreneurship is not necessarily increasing employment. The concrete economic reforms such as GST tax, biometrics for payments, fiscal federalism, <keyword id="6706196" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Unique-Identification-Number">Unique Identification Number</keyword> ie. Aadhaar are transforming the country’s economy. While it is encouraging to see FDI increasing, the real change will come with domestic private investment increasing in the country." 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/The-2016-festive-sales-Flipkart-Amazon-Snapdeal-and-Shopclues/articleshow/54657097.cms">ALSO READ: The 2016 festive sales- The winner so far</a> 
 This woman of strength also called for increased <keyword id="624" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Women">women</keyword> participation in the workforce while identifying the challenges they have to face. 
 
She concluded by saying - "The awareness has increased about the need to increase women participation in the workplace, but there are no amenities to assure that. Women need to feel safe when they go to work and this disparity is growing in urban and rural areas. Women need to be given the same opportunities in every sector, and there’s a long way to go." 
 
Picture credits: World Economic <keyword id="23897" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="forum">Forum</keyword>

EXCLUSIVE: Indian Harvard Professor Gita Gopinath says Americans are
talking about Flipkart and Ola

Long before computers and the Internet started dominating our life, these handheld compact devices with wafer-thin pages transported people from one world to another in a jiffy. They were highly portable and could accompany you anywhere (<keyword id="51958" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="40" keywordseo="YES">yes</keyword>, even to the washroom), and came with all kinds of pricing. Those who embraced them underwent a metamorphosis that changed them for the better. And the effect was for life. Yes, we are talking about books here. 
 
Below are the top 10 books that every Indian should read. The list is an eclectic mix of world literature, visionary writing with Indian perspective and a historical yet contemporary chronicle of this country that is waiting to grow in leaps and bounds. But a list is a list after all, and it does not indicate or dictate the order of preference. 
 
<ol>
	<li>
		Things Fall Apart by <keyword id="1105257" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="40" keywordseo="Chinua-Achebe">Chinua Achebe</keyword></li>
</ol> Chinua Achebe, who died earlier this year, was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor and critic. And this book is considered his magnum opus. The path-breaking novel showcases the struggle of the <keyword id="6500558" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="40" keywordseo="Indigenous">indigenous</keyword> communities against the intervention of external agents. It depicts the life of Okonkwo, a leader and local wrestling champion in Umuofia – one of a fictional group of nine villages in Nigeria, inhabited by the Ibo people during the late 19th century. A novel that truly portrays life at the grassroots. 
 
<ol>
	<li value="2">
		The Old Man and the Sea by <keyword id="823294" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Ernest">Ernest</keyword> Hemmingway</li>
</ol>
With the young outnumbering the old in a country that is bursting at the seams, this book makes for excellent reading. This small, palm-sized book is the story of an epic battle between an old, experienced fisherman and a large marlin. This is the story of Santiago, an old, unlucky man, and his young apprentice Manolin. 
 
<ol>
	<li value="3">
		The Autobiography of <keyword id="144869" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="40" keywordseo="Malcolm-X">Malcolm X</keyword> by <keyword id="880434" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="40" keywordseo="Alex-Haley">Alex Haley</keyword></li>
</ol>
Racism is raising its ugly head in all countries, including the land of opportunities called America. In this context, the story of Malcolm X, who was assassinated when he was all of 39, tells the life’s events of an extraordinary African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist. 
 
<ol>
	<li value="4">
		Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by <keyword id="15962" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Barack-Obama">Barack Obama</keyword></li>
</ol>
A story of Race and Inheritance by second term American President Barack Obama. Published in 1995 as he was preparing to launch his political career in a campaign for an Illinois office, this book effectively upholds the trials and tribulations of a young man who went on to dream big and realise the dreams of his forefathers. 
 
 
<ol>
	<li value="5">
		The Immortals of Meluha by <keyword id="182794" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Amish-Tripathi">Amish Tripathi</keyword></li>
</ol>
After a brief lull on mythological stories with contemporary perspectives, this book is something fresh and new. This is the story of Shiva (considered the Destroyer), woven to suit the modern palette. Needless to say, the book helped many return to their reading after many years. And set the stage for more such attempts to be made by young corporate writers. None like this one! 
 
<ol>
	<li value="6">
		The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni</li>
</ol>
She is a well-known name among NRI readers since long. After Irawati Karve’s classic study of Draupadi (the female protagonists of Mahabharata) in her book Yuganta (end of an epoch), Palace is another milestone. It is about reimagining the world famous Indian epic, this time told from the point of view of the amazing woman – Draupadi. It is quite relevant from today’s perspective, with a heady mix of history and mythology and rooted in Indian tradition. You will find a totally new interpretation of Panchaali’s life, manipulated by the turns of fate. 
 
<ol>
	<li value="7">
		Malgudi Days by <keyword id="1727179" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="40" keywordseo="R-K-Narayan">R. K. Narayan</keyword></li>
</ol>
This collection of 19 short stories published in 1943 continues to be the favourite of many owing to its flavoursome language. Set in a tiny village in Southern India, this book is a capturing narrative of the innocence of people against the changing values of the society. When the book was published, <keyword id="187229" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="the-New-York-Times">The New York Times</keyword> said: Everyone in the book seems to have a capacity for responding to the quality of his particular hour. It’s an art we need to study and revive. 
 
<ol>
	<li value="8">
		The Discovery of India by Pandit <keyword id="6360386" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Jawaharlal-Nehru">Jawaharlal Nehru</keyword></li>
</ol>
Political leaders today come from a different genre altogether and intellectual mastery is not a compulsory parameter of that ecosystem. But this book written by the first Prime Minister of independent India shows the country in a new light. Starting from the Indus Valley Civilisation, it goes on to trace the arrival of the Aryans and finally the rule of the British Empire. India of the past was filled with harmony and peace, but the evils of society slowly corrupted the people. It’s an analytical take, probing deep into the life, culture and philosophy of the country. 
 
<ol>
	<li value="9">
		Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation by <keyword id="44604" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Nandan-Nilekani">Nandan Nilekani</keyword></li>
</ol>
When the corporate guru-turned-bureaucrat, who is spearheading one of the most controversial projects of disbursing a Unique Identification (UID) number to every Indian citizen, shares his insight, you better sit down and listen. In his book, Nilekani elaborates on the ideas that shaped India’s past and present. And like a true visionary, he asks the key question about the future: How will India, as a global power, avoid the mistakes of earlier development models? Read it for a better understanding of the economic success story in the making. 
 
<ol>
	<li value="10">
		The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity by <keyword id="9663" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Amartya-Sen">Amartya Sen</keyword></li>
</ol> This one comes from the most elite of all as economist and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen reflects on the contemporary India. In this book, he speaks of an immensely diverse country that is standing at the crossroads. In a <keyword id="678332" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Subtle">subtle</keyword> manner, the book celebrates India’s cultural achievements, success of democracy, secular politics and attempts to remove cultural and gender inequalities while pursuing peaceful existence within its sub-continent.

10 Books Every Indian Should Read

<keyword id="6355408" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="imf" source="Orion">IMF</keyword>'s Chief Economist <keyword id="154034" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gita-Gopinath" source="Orion">Gita Gopinath</keyword> will leave her job in January next year and return to the prestigious <keyword id="53675" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="harvard" source="Orion">Harvard</keyword> University, according to the global financial institution. The 49-year-old prominent Indian-American economist had joined the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the Chief Economist in January 2019. She was the John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and Economics at Harvard University when she joined the Washington-based global lender. IMF Managing Director <keyword id="2200950" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="kristalina-georgieva" source="Orion">Kristalina Georgieva</keyword> on Tuesday announced that the search for Gopinath's successor would begin shortly. "Gita's contribution to the Fund and our membership has been truly remarkable - quite simply, her impact on the IMF's work has been tremendous," Georgieva said. Mysuru-born Gopinath is the first-ever woman Chief Economist of the IMF. Harvard University had extended her leave of absence on an exceptional basis by one year, which has allowed her to serve as Chief Economist at the IMF for three years. "She made history as the first female Chief Economist of the Fund and we benefited immensely from her sharp intellect and deep knowledge of international finance and macroeconomics as we navigate through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. "Gita also won the respect and admiration of colleagues in the Research Department across the Fund, and throughout the membership for leading analytically rigorous work and policy-relevant projects with high impact and influence," Georgieva said. The IMF said that as part of her many significant initiatives, Gopinath co-authored the "Pandemic Paper" on how to end the COVID-19 pandemic that set globally endorsed targets for vaccinating the world. This work led to the creation of the Multilateral Task Force made up of the leadership of the IMF, the World Bank, the World Trade Organisation and the World Health Organisation to help end the pandemic and the establishment of a working group with vaccine manufacturers to identify trade barriers, supply bottlenecks, and accelerate delivery of vaccines to low- and lower-middle income countries, the IMF said in a statement. Among her other key accomplishments, Gopinath helped set up a Climate Change team inside the IMF to analyse, among other things, optimal climate mitigation policies. "I would like to express my personal appreciation to Gita for her impressive contributions, her always wise counsel, her devotion for the mission of the Research Department and the Fund more broadly, as well as her widely recognised inclusive and accessible approach to colleagues and staff," Georgieva added. Born in December 1971 to Malayalee parents, Gopinath had her schooling in Kolkata and graduated from the Lady Shri Ram College of Commerce in Delhi. She did Masters from the Delhi School of Economics as well as from the University of Washington. Gopinath did her Ph.D in economics from Princeton University in 2001 and she was guided by <keyword id="147334" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="kenneth-rogoff" source="Orion">Kenneth Rogoff</keyword>, Ben Bernanke and Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas. She joined the University of Chicago in 2001 as an Assistant Professor before moving to Harvard in 2005. She became a tenured Professor there in 2010. She is the third woman in the history of Harvard to be a tenured professor at its esteemed economics department and the first Indian since the Nobel laureate Amartya Sen to hold that position. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/ril-jubilant-foodworks-bajaj-auto-and-other-stocks-to-watch-out-for-on-october-20/slidelist/87148904.cms">RIL, Jubilant Foodworks, Bajaj Auto and other stocks to watch out for on October 20</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/researchers-develop-ai-based-algorithm-that-can-detect-unseen-signs-of-heart-failure/articleshow/87136581.cms">Researchers develop AI-based algorithm that can detect unseen signs of heart failure</a>

IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath to resign and return to Harvard University

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Reuters/Toby MelvilleBritain's Bank of England Governor Mark Carney listens after delivering a speech at the London School of Economics in London, Britain, January 16, 2017</div></div></div>Bank of England Governor Mark Carney believes the bank saved up to 250,000 jobs by unleashing an unprecedented package of monetary stimulus in response to the <keyword id="6354868" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="UK">UK</keyword>'s Brexit vote.In a speech at the London School of Economics on Monday - in which he explored the relationship between inflation and economic output - Carney said the bank's decision in August <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/bank-of-england-mark-carney-interest-rate-decision-2016-8">to cut interest rates to a record low of 0.25% and introduce a new package of quantitative easing</a> had helped safeguard the UK's labour market from the worst potential impacts of the referendum outcome.<a href="http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Documents/speeches/2017/speech954.pdf">A copy of Carney's speech, circulated by the Bank of England prior to the speech read</a> (emphasis ours):"Suppose the MPC had not responded in this timely, coherent, and comprehensive way. Chart 8 shows that, given the constellation of shocks affecting the economy, opting not to provide monetary stimulus would have meant, in all likelihood, inflation around the target at the two-year point of the forecast, but an output gap of some 1½%, implying around 1/4 million lost jobs. In other words, fully offsetting the persistent effects of sterling's depreciation on inflation would have required exerting further downward pressure on domestic costs. And that would have meant even more lost output and a total disregard for higher unemployment."Here is the chart mentioned in Carney's text:<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table center"><div><div class="image on-image">Bank of England</div></div></div><a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/uk-unemployment-wage-growth-october-september-brexit-2016-12">The UK's current unemployment rate stands at a low of just 4.8%,</a> meaning that Britain is technically pretty close to achieving full employment - the point where everybody who wants a job, and is able to work, is employed.Soon after Britain voted to leave the EU, many predicted that Britain's unemployment rate would shoot up as a result of the economic downturn that the vote was expected to trigger. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/credit-suisse-impact-of-brexit-on-uk-unemployment-2016-7">In early July for instance, Credit Suisse predicted that Brexit could mean 500,000 Brits losing their jobs.</a>In their note, reassuringly titled "Mayday! Mayday!" the bank's UK economics team said that "we can expect the unemployment rate to jump up to 6.5% by the end of 2017." That translates to around 500,000 more people unemployed.However, Carney believes that the BoE's actions in August, at least in part, helped to stave off such consequences, and helped safeguard one of the most crucial parts of the British economy - namely the availability of jobs.Appearing on stage with Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen, as well as Lord Nicholas Stern, the chair of LSE's Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, and a former World Bank chief economist, Carney discussed a wide variety of topics, including the Bank's policy bias in future.Carney reiterated the stance he took at the release of last November's inflation report, saying that the bank could go either way on interest rates, either cutting or hiking as its next move."Monetary policy can respond, in either direction, to changes to the economic outlook as they unfold to ensure a sustainable return of inflation to the 2% target," he told an audience of LSE students and alumni.He hinted, however, that the BoE's next move could be to push interest rates back towards the 0.5% level of August - an interest rate that had been in place for seven years.Carney also jokingly responded to a question from the audience about the state of the British pound - <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/pound-moves-against-dollar-january-16-theresa-may-speech-hard-brexit-2017-1">which has dropped to record lows on fears of a so-called "Hard Brexit"</a> - by saying that sterling can go "up or down." <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/royal-mint-new-twelve-sided-one-pound-coin-queen-elizabeth-secure-coin-hologram-2017-1">The new 12-sided £1 coin will be the most secure coin in the world</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="N0aW1wODE6jQB25FprTUffuW8b_d13GC" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

CARNEY: Bank of England saved 250,000 jobs after the Brexit vote

The demonetization snafu and upcoming state elections will mean that <keyword id="6360189" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Union-Budget">Union Budget</keyword> 2017/18 will have a predominant electoral flavour, with a focus on employment, jobs and direct poverty reduction programmes. The <keyword id="6355261" type="POSITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Finance-minister">Finance Minister</keyword> should take this opportunity to emphasize that poverty is multi-dimensional and goes beyond income. It is perpetuated significantly by the lack of environmental services- clean air, clean water, sanitation and waste management – through a deprivation in what Amartya Sen calls, the capability to live a healthy and good life. 
 Take the case of municipal solid waste (MSW). Of the estimated 62 million tonnes of MSW generated annually in urban areas, over 80% is disposed of indiscriminately at dump yards and scientific disposal is virtually non-existent. The <keyword id="43588" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="World-Health-Organization">World Health Organization</keyword> (WHO) observes that 22 types of diseases can be prevented or controlled in India by improving the MSW management. The High-Powered Expert Committee (<keyword id="704521" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="HPEC">HPEC</keyword>) for <keyword id="4125827" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="urban-infrastructure-services">Urban Infrastructure Services</keyword> had estimated that about 275, 000 crores would need to be spent annually to meet the capital and O&amp;M needs for solid waste management in urban areas. As against this, the aggregate annual revenue of Urban Local Bodies from all sources is below 100,000 crores as per estimates of a study done for the XIV <keyword id="74136" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="finance-commission">Finance Commission</keyword>. Waste management is a local body subject, yet it is evident that urban local bodies will not be able to deliver on their own. A ready indicator of this capacity constraint is the persistent lack of reliable revenue and expenditure accounts of local bodies. The situation are improved little even two and a half decades after the 1993 Constitutional Amendments which made way for the third tier of government in India, and despite successive <keyword id="25455" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="finance">Finance</keyword> Commissions flagging this as a a major impediment in any realistic assessment of resources required by local bodies for carrying out their core functions. The central budget must set aside resources to tackle the growing mounds of waste that dot our urban landscape. However, the current approach of uncoordinated support through multiple Ministries- agriculture, finance, urban development, new and renewable energy, environment and climate change must be discontinued. Instead, the <keyword id="6357307" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Central-Government">Central Government</keyword> must provide the leadership of a well thought out strategy that addresses fundamental issues such as the capacities and resources of municipal bodies, the availability of technologies that are suitable for Indian municipal waste and the incentive structures in the supply chain of activities in MSW management. The strategy must also effectively leverage the resources of the private sector and the users of municipal services. 
 
 
The need for a larger strategy is evident also in India’s ambitious renewable energy programme, which aims to contribute to universal clean energy access and energy security, while ensuring minimum growth in carbon emissions. The programme is laudable, yet the target of achieving 175 GW of renewable generation capacity, cannot be realistically achieved without giving an impetus to indigenous manufacturing in the solar power segment in India. At present, India has a cumulative solar cell and module capacity of about 5.5 GW annually which is less than one-third of the annual requirement of about 18 GW capacity addition to be achieved in next 5 years. The main problems for the Indian module manufacturers in India is the cost of finance i.e. 12-15% which is more than double the cost in US and China. Secondly, India does not have local ecosystem of quality raw material suppliers, which leads to longer lead time for importing raw material (45 to 90 days). It results in requirement of heavy investment in working capital. The cost competitiveness for Indian manufacturer is further reduced as imported finished modules are duty free however the import of glass and some other raw material for module manufacturing attracts import duty. Finally, Indian manufacturers purchase raw material in Dollars and sell the finished product in Rupees, taking on an additional risk of currency fluctuation. Unless the entire ecosystem of indigenous production is systematically addressed, our renewable energy targets, and the full potential of their linkages with the rest of the economy, are unlikely to be realized. 
 
The Finance Minister needs to send out a strong message on the saliency of environmental concerns for the development agenda and to commit resources for awareness building towards this. He also needs to ensure that the incentives and resources of the central Government are used tactically as part of an integrated and long term strategy, which is executed in a coordinated manner across ministries and states. 
 
(This article is authored by Divya Datt, Fellow at TERI and Abhinav Jain, Research Associate at TERI)

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<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="http://pictures.reuters.com/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&amp;ALID=2C0FQE8E347Y&amp;RW=1440&amp;RH=716#/SearchResult&amp;ALID=2C0FQE8E347Y&amp;RW=1440&amp;RH=716&amp;VBID=2C0FC0QOV6R&amp;POPUPPN=1&amp;POPUPIID=2C0FQE871HLQ">REUTERS/Stephanie Keith</a>Kandy Freeman participates in a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Trump Tower in New York City, U.S. January 14, 2017.</div></div></div>Good morning! Here's what you need to know in markets on Monday.<a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/british-pound-crashing-asia-brexit-2017-1">The British pound has been hammered in early Asian trade on Monday, dropping to its lowest level against the US dollar since the "flash crash" of early October last year.</a> Sterling is down 1.18% against the dollar to $1.2031 at the time of writing (6.12 a.m. GMT/1.12 a.m. ET). The move followed a series of newspaper reports over the weekend that suggested Theresa May will likely push for a "hard Brexit" in a highly anticipated speech to be delivered on this week.Asian stock markets are falling. Japan's Nikkei closed down 0.97% on Monday, the Hong Kong Hang Seng is down 0.95% at the time of writing (6.23 a.m. GMT/1.23 a.m. ET), and China's benchmark Shanghai Composite index is down 0.84%.<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-luxottica-and-essilor-to-merge-in-53-billion-deal-ft-2017-1?IR=T">Italian eyewear maker Luxottica and French corrective eye lens maker Essilor have agreed on a €50 billion (£44.1 billion, $53.16 billion) merger, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter.</a> The deal would make Luxottica's founder, Leonardo Del Vecchio, the largest single shareholder in the combined company with about a 30% stake, the FT said.<a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/r-britain-may-change-economic-model-if-shut-out-of-eu-single-market-hammond-2017-1">Britain could change its economic rules to regain competitiveness if it were to leave the European Union without an agreement on market access, Chancellor Phillip Hammond said in a German newspaper interview published on Sunday.</a> In a thinly veiled threat that Britain could use its corporate tax as a form of leverage in Brexit negotiations, Hammond told Welt am Sonntag he hoped Britain would remain a European-style economy with corresponding tax and regulation systems.<a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/r-trump-says-brexit-to-be-a-great-thing-wants-very-substantial-cut-in-nuclear-weapons-2017-1">US President-elect Donald Trump said Brexit will turn out to be a "great thing" and says he wants stocks of nuclear weapons should be reduced very substantially as part of any deal with Russia, The Times newspaper reported.</a> Trump said he would work very hard to get a trade deal with the United Kingdom "done quickly and done properly."<a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/blackr-ock-pay-rises-for-top-execs-should-be-in-line-with-the-rest-of-the-workforce-2017-1">BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, wants the UK's biggest companies to rethink how much they pay their top execs, according to a letter that was first leaked to The Financial Times (FT).</a> In the letter, written by the head of BlackRock's investment stewardship team in Europe, Amra Balic, Blackrock states that pay increases for top executives should reflect those given to the broader workforce.<a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/wef-inclusive-development-index-uk-pay-economy-jobs-living-standards-quality-of-life-2017-1">Britain is one of the worst advanced countries for employment opportunities, pay, living standards, and social inclusion, according to a new report.</a> The finding comes from the World Economic Forum, which released a major report entitled "WEF Inclusive Growth and Development Report" on Sunday evening, ahead of its Davos conference this week.<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-trump-threatens-bmw-with-border-tax-on-cars-built-in-mexico-2017-1?IR=T">President-elect Donald Trump has warned BMW that the United States will impose a border tax of 35% on cars that the German carmaker plans to build at a new plant in Mexico and export to the US market.</a> Trump was speaking in an interview with German newspaper Bild, which on Sunday released excerpts of his comments translated into German.<a href="http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-4122626/Confidence-boost-City-warehousing-giant-public-11bn-deal-biggest-stock-exchange-listing-six-years.html">The City is gearing up for its largest stock market float in five years with the £11 billion ($13.2 billion) listing of warehouse giant Logicor.</a> The Daily Mail reports that the commercial landlord, which owns 600 premises across Europe, is reportedly considering an initial public offering in the first six months of the year in a major boost for Britain.Bank of England Governor Mark Carney is speaking at the London School of Economics this evening. The governor is giving a lecture on "Policy Issues Affecting the Bank of England" at 6.30 p.m. GMT (1.30 p.m. ET), followed by an on-the-record Q&amp;A session with Amartya Sen, Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/most-interesting-men-world-watches-rolex-breitling-jorg-gray-2015-8">These are the watches worn by the smartest and most powerful men in the world</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="N3NGJ0djpb_DdQzkXVopAvbq5AmmiuOx" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

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