People's Economics is a layman’s guide to socio-economic issues in India, once a month.
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About the Author
Anirban Mahapatra
Anirban Mahapatra
Anirban, a microbiologist by training, is the author of COVID-19: Separating Fact From Fiction.
Featured Newsletter
Why Nirmala Sitharaman is wrong in chiding the corporate sector
The government and big capitalists are complicit in the state of the Indian economy, where masses of people have been pushed into an acute livelihood crisis.
Recent Editions
The sterile debate on freebies in India
The discussion we must move towards is on how best the government can provide the required social goods to everyone, aiming ultimately at every individual’s overall development.
13 Sept 2022
Fiscal fetishism and the warped narratives on state finances
The demonization of states is driven by a desire to hide the danger lurking in the central government’s finances.
09 Aug 2022
Goodbye economic planning. Hello policy anarchy
The NITI Aayog, which replaced the Planning Commission, has been reduced to a mere think tank whose officials act as mouthpieces of the government.
12 Jul 2022
Raising MSPs won’t save agriculture if costs keep rising
While MSPs have risen in the past, the steady rise in input costs has absorbed most of the increases.
14 Jun 2022
Older Editions
Why are observers ignoring the IMF’s role in the Sri Lankan crisis?
Recurrent IMF loans stymied all possibilities of diversifying the productive base of the Sri Lankan economy, leading to the current crisis.
10 May 2022
Decolonize what? The contentious terrain of reforming social sciences
There are multiple threads in the ongoing conversation on decolonization, but for a meaningful discourse, we must have an alternative on the table with political clarity.
08 Mar 2022
Mr Prime Minister, can you take chemistry out of agriculture?
A ballooning fertilizer subsidy bill, due to a rise in global prices, is pushing the government to promote zero budget natural farming, which is both unsustainable and unscientific.
08 Feb 2022
In pursuit of development: The tale of three ‘models’
Catchphrases are easy, but till social indicators don’t improve across sections of the population, no model of growth is complete or justifiable.
11 Jan 2022
Can Adam Smith challenge Manu? Caste and the free market in India
The growth of free markets or capitalism does not create better employment for Dalits. It opens up new spaces for them, but several other spaces are also concurrently shut down.
14 Dec 2021