Mainstream Weekly

Making Sense of the Review of the IMF's Institutional View on Capital Flows | Kavaljit Singh

Kavaljit Singh — 2022-04-22T14:28:43Z

On March 30, 2022, the International Monetary Fund published the Review of the Institutional View on the Liberalization and Management of Capital Flows. The review updates the IMF's Institutional View (IV), adopted in November 2012, followed by guidance notes on capital flows added in April 2013 and December 2015. The IMF's Institutional View is an important policy document because it provides an analytical framework for the Fund's policy advice on liberalizing and managing capital flows. (…)

- 2022

Whither India's Sovereign Green Bonds | Kavaljit Singh

Kavaljit Singh — 2022-02-12T07:01:07Z

In her Union Budget 2022 speech on February 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the issuance of sovereign green bonds during the upcoming fiscal year. “As a part of the government's overall market borrowings in 2022-23, sovereign green bonds will be issued for mobilizing resources for green infrastructure. The proceeds will be deployed in public sector projects which help in reducing the carbon intensity of the economy,” Ms. Sitharaman stated. Several Indian non-financial (…)

- 2022

India Changes Tack on RCEP Negotiations

Kavaljit Singh — 2016-10-30T11:10:15Z

Recently India abruptly changed tack by expressing its willingness to drop the three-tiered approach on tariff liberalisation under the proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement. This was communicated to trading partners at the fourth RCEP Ministerial Meeting held in Laos on August 5. India has been one of the key proponents of the three-tiered approach on tariff reduction under RCEP.
What led India to change tack? The precise reasons behind this policy-shift (…)

- 2016

Reforming the Direct Tax Reforms in India

Kavaljit Singh — 2016-07-17T16:34:49Z

On April 29, 2016, India's Income Tax Department released tax statistics after a gap of almost 16 years. Till 2000, the Tax Department used to publish All India Income Tax Statistics but the publication was discontinued for some unknown reason. No explanations were given by the authorities for the discontinuation of this publication despite numerous demands made for its release by Indian economists and researchers.
According to media reports, the government released this data after French (…)

- 2016

India-US Bilateral Investment Treaty: Not An Easy Ride

Kavaljit Singh — 2015-02-16T18:21:56Z

It's official: India and the US will resume negotiations on a high-standard bilateral investment treaty (BIT). In a joint statement on January 25 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Barack Obama, the leaders affirmed their “shared commitment to facilitating increased bilateral investment flows and fostering an open and predictable climate for investment.” Since 2008, the two countries have been engaged in sporadic discussions to arrive at such a treaty. In the coming days, (…)

- 2015

Does the India-US Bilateral Agreement on Food Security Matter?

Kavaljit Singh — 2014-11-22T20:18:31Z

After months of stalemate, India and the US have agreed to resolve their differences over food stockholdings which would open the way for future implementation of the Trade Facili-tation Agreement (TFA) of the WTO—the biggest trade deal in its entire history.
On November 13, 2014, Nirmala Sitharaman, India's Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, issued a statement announcing a bilateral agreement with the US. “We are extremely happy that India and the US have successfully resolved (…)

- 2014

G-20: Reviving the Call for a Global Financial Transaction Tax

Kavaljit Singh — 2014-11-16T12:39:12Z

The G-20 Leaders' Summit will take place on November 15 and 16 in Brisbane, Australia. The Summit is expected to discuss a wide range of global policy issues and challenges from corruption to taxation to employment to financial regulation to growth strategies. It is expected that the Brisbane Action Plan, which would be discussed at the Summit, will outline an action plan which would be implemented by the member-countries in the coming months.
Given the lacklustre approach of the (…)

- 2014

Jan Dhan Yojana: Ambitious but Ambiguous Plan

Kavaljit Singh — 2014-10-24T09:30:37Z

The Jan Dhan Yojana (People's Wealth Plan)—an ambitious financial inclusion programe—was launched amid much fanfare in India on August 28, 2014. The initial target of the Jan Dhan Yojana is to cover 75 million unbanked households by January 26, 2015. The government claims that on the inaugural day, a record 15 million bank accounts were opened across the country under this initiative. Nowhere else in the world, such a large number of bank accounts have been opened on a single day. In less (…)

- 2014

Promise and Pitfalls of BRICS' $ 100 billion CRA

Kavaljit Singh — 2014-07-14T17:23:10Z

Brazil will host the leaders of Russia, India, China, and South Africa for the 2014 BRICS Summit on July 15-17, 2014. This BRICS Summit is expected to launch the $ 100 billion Contin-gency Reserve Arrangement (CRA) and further details on the soon-to-be-established BRICS Development Bank will be unveiled.
In June 2012, Brazil had proposed the establishment of a BRICS contingent reserve pool and bilateral swap arrangement which could ease short-term liquidity pressures and strengthen (…)

- 2014

Fixing India's Bilateral Investment Treaty Framework

Kavaljit Singh — 2013-12-07T19:51:55Z

In October 2013, Khaitan Holdings Mauritius Ltd (KHML), a Mauritius-registered company owning 26 per cent equity in Loop Telecom, slapped an international arbitration notice against the Indian Government seeking a compensation of US $1.4 billion over the cancellation of its 21 telecom licences by the Supreme Court of India on February 2, 2012. The Supreme Court had cancelled 122 licences of 22 telecom operators as it found the allotment of spectrum was “unconstitutional and arbitrary” and (…)

- 2013