The robustness of the US federal set-up

The US may want to import Indian election systems, but India needs to import genuine decentralisation from US...

BJP’s one market for farmers is a myth (co-authored with P Chidambaram)

Should India’s farmers have the economic freedom to market their produce to whoever and wherever they want at an agreed price?...

PM Modi can learn from CM Modi

In 2001, Gujarat was hit by a devastating disaster. Its economic reconstruction is worth emulating...

States cannot be left to the centre’s mercy

Not only are the States not paid what is due to them, they have also lost the powers to raise their own sales tax revenues...

Firm steps to ease the fiscal federalism tension

The Centre should not confuse uniformity for unity and must grant States the powers to levy direct taxes...

Would Chandrababu Naidu have quit NDA had there been no GST?

Had there been no GST regime, could Chandrababu Naidu possibly have resorted to other sources of revenue through state-specific taxes and not severed ties with the NDA?...

The ‘One Nation’ Fallacy in ‘New’ India

The early years of the Indian republic saw an emphasis on nation building, accomplished through a top-down policy paradigm driven by the Centre and flowing down to the States...

Has 70 Years of Redistribution From Rich States To Poor States Worked?

The previous Noise to Signal column explained how just a handful of India’s states contribute almost all of the resources for ‘nation building’...

The Protesting Tamil Farmer Pays For The UP Farmer’s Loan Waiver

On April 1, 2017, a hundred farmers from the southern state of Tamil Nadu (TN) with half shaven heads and moustaches, rolled naked on the roads in the scorching Delhi heat...