Topics Assigned by Prof Leena Mary Eapen

Topic 1: Will the future be one of jobless growth?

Questions to be addressed:
1) Explain the nature of economic growth and employment in India in the post-independence.
2) Explain the nature of labour force participation and unemployment trend in India.
3) What were the major factors and sectors/industries that contributed to high economic growth in
India?
4) What were the major sectors/industries that contributed to employment growth in India?
5) What is the future outlook on economic growth and employment in India? What do you think?
6) Summary and conclusions of your report.

Topic 2:Good and Services Tax and its impact on Indian economy
Questions to be addressed:
1) What is Good and Services Tax (GST)?
2) What are the key elements/features of the GST system? (or) How GST system works?
3) How GST is different from the previous tax system in India?
4) What are the major impediments/challenges faced in implementing GST in the Indian context?
5) What was govt’s response to the challenges/impediments faced?
6) What is the present status (including outcomes) of GST implementation?
7) What are the challenges in mobilising revenue under the GST regime?
8) Is GST reform a success in India? Suggest some solutions to make the GST system more robust.
9) Summary and conclusions of your report.

Topic 3: Growing Non-Performing Assets in the Banking sector – Is there a way out?
Questions to be addressed:
1) What is Non-Performing Assets (NPA)? (Definition used in India)
2) Track the long-term trends in NPAs in India including sector-wise contribution to NPAs. Also
provide international comparison.
3) What led to the rise in NPAs in India overtime?
4) What are the consequences of high NPAs on the Indian economy?
5) What are the various solutions proposed by experts to address the problem of NPAs in India?
6) What are the policy actions taken to address the problem of growing NPAs in India?
7) What changed recently in the RBI’s guidelines to banks on NPAs?
8) Can India resolve the problem of growing NPAs without affecting economic growth? What do you
think?
9) Summary and conclusions of your report.

1
 Topic 4: Foreign Direct Investment in India: Trends, Determinants and Impacts
Questions to be addressed:
1) Brief history of evolution of India’s FDI policy over time.
2) What are the major trends in FDI inflow into India overtime (Note: Present both aggregate and
sectoral level trends)
3) What are the major determinants of FDI?
4) What is the impact of FDI on India’s economic development (Note: Cover the findings of the
empirical studies conducted on this issue)
5) How does India compare vis-à-vis China in attracting FDI?
6) Why China is able to attract more FDI and benefit more from it?
7) Can India match with China in attracting FDI?What do you think?
8) Summary and conclusions of your report.

Topic 5: Free Trade Agreements: Impact on India’s Foreign Trade Performance

Questions to be addressed:
1) What is a Free Trade Agreement (FTA)? What are its characteristics?
2) Why, as a trade mechanism, FTAs have gained importance over time all over the world?
3) What are the arguments for and against FTAs?
4) What are the key FTAs signed by India (Note: Give details)
5) What is the impact of FTAs signed by India? (Note: Give a detailed account)
6) What is Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)?
7) Why India opted out of RECP?
8) What are the arguments made for and against India’s decision to opt out of RECP?
7) Should India improve its foreign trade prospects through FTAs?What do you think?
8) Summary and conclusions of your report.

Topic 6: How does International Commodity Prices Impact the Domestic Economy?

Questions to be addressed”
1) Explain the global trends in commodity prices.
2) Explain the impact of commodity pricefluctuations on macroeconomic variables.
3) Explain the nature of commodity prices and exchange rate?
4) Does Monetary Policy respond to commodity price fluctuations?
5) How does Fiscal Policy adjust to commodity price fluctuations?
6) How to minimize the adverse macroeconomic growth effects of commodity price volatility in
India?
7) Summary and conclusions of your report

2
 Topic 7: How to kick start the domestic corporate investment in India?

Questions to be addressed:
1) Explain the nature and sources of domestic corporate investments (Capital formation) in India?
2) Which are the sectors/industries that attracted major domestic investments?
3) What were the major factors that drives the Capital formation/investment growth in India?
4) Is interest rate a major determinant of investments in India?
5) Why pushing domestic investments is a challenge in India?
6) Suggest politically feasible solutions to encourage domestic investments.
7) Summary and conclusions of your report

Topic 8: India’s fight against COVID-19 induced Economic Slowdown Assessing the Role of
Fiscal Policy

Questions to be addressed:
1) What is the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on Indian economy?
2) What are the steps/policy initiatives announced by the government to overcome the economic
slowdown caused by the pandemic?
3) What is the economic rationale behind the government’s policy steps (Note: Apply what you
learned in the class to explain this part)?
4) What are the fiscal policy components of the government’s policy package? Is it significant?
5) What are the arguments made for and against government’s package of policies initiated by the
government to fight economic slowdown caused by the pandemic?
6) What is the impact of the package of policies (including fiscal part of it) initiated by the
government to fight economic slowdown caused by the pandemic?
7) Is the approach taken by the government to fight pandemic induced economic slowdown makes
economic sense? What do you think?
8) Summary and conclusions of your report.

Topic 9: Science and Technology Development in India – Status, Challenges and Way
ahead
3
Questions to be addressed:
1) What is the current status of science and technology (S&T) development in India?
2) How does India fare in S&T compared to other countries?
3) What are the reasons behind poor state of S&T in India?
4) What are the key challenges/barriers facing S&T development in India?
5) How to retain and attract scientific talent in India?
6) What steps India needs to undertake to make India a global leader in S&T development?
9) 7) Summary and conclusions of your report.

Topics Assigned by Prof Jayan Jose Thomas

Topic 10 . WILL INDIA BE ABLE TO REAP THE DEMOGRAPHIC WINDOW OF

OPPORTUNITY?

Questions

What are the factors affecting labour supply in India?

What has been the record of employment creation in India in the various sectors (agriculture,
manufacturing, construction, services)

What explains the low rate of female labour force participation in India?

What kind of policy measures will help to generate more employment in India?

Suggested Readings

Jayan Jose Thomas (2020), Labour Market Changes in India, 2005-2018: Missing the Demographic
Window of Opportunity, Economic and Political Weekly, August
State of Working India 2019, Chapter 3 (Strengthening Towns through Sustainable Employment)
(available online)

State of Working India 2018 (available online)

Human Development Report 2019 (Chapter 4) and Global Wage Report 2018/19, Part II (Measuring
Gender Wage gaps and what lies behind them) (available online)
http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/hdr2019.pdf)

Vinoj Abraham (2013),‘Missing Labour or Consistent De-feminization, Economic and Political

Weekly, August

Rawal, Vikas and Saha, Partha (2015), “Women’s Employment in India: What do Recent NSS
Surveys of Employment and Unemployment Show” Statistics on Indian Economy and Society,
SSER Monograph 15/1, Society for Social and Economic Research, New Delhi (available
at: http://archive.indianstatistics.org/sserwp/sserwp1501.pdf)

4
Topic11 . SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA AND THE WAY AHEAD

Questions

1. What is the relation between incomes and human development? Can a poor region achieve
relatively high levels of human development?

2. What, according to Amartya Sen, are the interventions needed from the government and the civil
society to achieve social development? What do you understand by public action?

3. What should be done to improve India’s record in the area of health?

4. What should be done to improve India’s record in the area of education?

Suggested Readings

Sen, Amartya (1999) Development as Freedom

Sen, Amartya and Jean Dreze (2013) An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions (Chapters 2,
3 and 5)

World Development Report 2018 (Overview), ‘Learning to realize education’s promise’

Human Development Report 2019 (Chapters 1 and 2)

(http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/hdr2019.pdf)

DREZE, JEAN and and REETIKA KHERA ‘Recent Social Security Initiatives in India’, World
Development, Vol. 98, pp. 555–572, 2017

Topic 12. PROBLEMS FACING INDIAN AGRICULTURE

Questions

What is the role of agriculture in development?

What have been the trends in growth of Indian agriculture?
What are the challenges facing Indian agriculture?
What are the arguments in favour of the recently enacted farm laws?
What are the arguments against the recently introduced farm laws?

Suggested Readings

Sukhpal Singh (2020), ‘Doubling Farmers’ Incomes: A Critical Review of Policy’, Review of
Agrarian Studies (available online)

World Development Report 2008: Agriculture and Development, World Bank (available online)
Chapter 2 (available online)

5
World Agriculture Towards 2030, Food and agricultural Orgnazation Chapter 2 (available online)

‘Agriculture and Rural Labour Markets in India’ (with Satheesha B), in Rajesh Raj S.N. and Komol
Singha (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Post-Reform Indian Economy, Routledge. (can be made
available)

‘India’s Rich Farmers Are Holding Up Reforms Designed to Help the Poor’, Foreign Policy, 2021 (available
online)

‘Why the Peasant is Angry?’ Frontline Issue, January 1 2021 Issue, On Farm laws in India: Articles
by Tapas Singh Modak, Sukhpal Singh, Soham Bhattacharya will be useful.

Review of Agrarian Studies Special issue on the impact of Covid-19 on rural India,
http://www.ras.org.in/index.php?id=HomePage

Annapurna Neti,* Richa Govil,† and Madhushree R. Rao (2019), ‘Farmer Producer Companies in

India: Demystifying the Numbers’, Review of Agrarian Studies

Topic 13 . INDIAN INDUSTRY: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Questions

Explain the structure of Indian industry?

Are labour laws (and the alleged absence of flexibility in the labour market) the biggest hurdle for
India’s manufacturing firms?
What are the constraints facing India’s small scale industrial units?

Suggested Readings

Jayan Jose Thomas (2019) ‘How to To Revive Indian Manufacturing,: on the need for Industrial
Policy’ Please see chapter 5 of this report: https://cse.azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/wp-
content/uploads/2019/04/State_of_Working_India_2019.pdf

Aditya Bhattacharjea (2009) ‘The Effects of Employment Protection Legislation on Indian

Manufacturing’, Economic and Politcal Weekly.

R Nagaraj (2017), ‘Economic Reforms and Manufacturing Sector Growth: Need for Reconfiguring
the Industrialisation Model’, ,Economic and Political Weekly, January
https://www.epw.in/journal/2017/2/25-years-economic-liberalisation/economic-reforms-and-
manufacturing-sector-growth

Dutta, Madhumita (201), The Nokia SEZ Story: Economy of Disappearances’ Economic and
Political Weekly, 17 December, 51 (51), 43-51.
https://www.epw.in/journal/2016/51/special-articles/nokia-sez-story.html

‘Economic Growth without Employment: The Story of Indian Manufacturing’, in Elizabeth Hill and
AmitenduPalit (eds.) (2018) Employment Policy in Emerging Economies: The Indian Case’,
Routledge, London and New York (can be made available).

6
Topic 14. INEQUALITY IN INDIA: WITHIN AND OUTSIDE HOUSEHOLDS

Questions

What are the different dimensions of Inequality in India?

How is inequality measured in the country?
Explain the trends in overall inequality in India (across households)
Explain the nature of with-household inequality in India?
What do you think are the policy measures needed to reduce inequality?

Suggested Readings:

Lucas Chancel and Thomas Piketty (2019), “INDIAN INCOME INEQUALITY, 1922-2015: FROM
BRITISH RAJ TO BILLIONAIRE RAJ?”, Review of Income and Wealth, Series 65, Number S1,
November 2019

Madhura Swaminathan and Vikas Rawal (2011) ‘Is India Really a Country of Low Income-
Inequality? Observations from Eight Villages’, Review of Agrarian Studies,
http://www.ras.org.in/is_india_really_a_country_of_low_income_inequality_observations_from_eig
ht_villages

On gender-based disparities and other issues: An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions
(Chapters 7 and 8)

DREZE, JEAN and and REETIKA KHERA ‘Recent Social Security Initiatives in India’, World
Development, Vol. 98, pp. 555–572, 2017

Himanshu, Bhavna Joshi, Peter Lanjouw (2016), ‘Non-farm Diversification, Inequality and Mobility
in Palanpur’, Economic and Political Weekly, 25 June, 2016, https://www.epw.in/journal/2016/26-
27/review-rural-affairs/non-farm-diversification-inequality-and-mobility-palanpur

Topic 15 . THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IN INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT: AND LESSONS

FOR INDIA

Questions

Should countries allow their industrial development to be guided entirely by the market mechanism
(as dictated by comparative advantage theory)?
What has been the role of government in industrial development in East Asia?
What role did government play in technology development in the US?
What are the lessons of the above in the Indian context?

Suggested Readings

Mariana Mazzucato (2011), The Entrepreneurial State, Demos, London. (can be made available).

7
Reda Cherif and Fuad Hasanov (2019), ‘The Return of the Policy That Shall Not Be Named:
Principles of Industrial Policy’, IMF Working Paper (available online)

Sunil Mani (2020), ‘Developing India’s Mobile Phone Manufacturing Industry’, Economic and
Political Weekly

Smitha Francis (2018), ‘India’s Electronics Manufacturing Sector: Getting the Diagnosis Right’
Economic and Political Weekly