Many Indian firms need more leverage; Internet shutdowns; "The art and science of economic policy" on Coursera; Everything is everything Ep3,4
Many Indian firms need more leverage
A grand phenomenon in Indian corporate finance has been the decline in firm leverage, from 1991-92 till today. My column in the Business Standard on Monday argues that this has an adverse impact upon economic dynamism, that more leverage in many firms is in the interest of shareholders and the overall economy.
The economic cost of small internet shutdowns
The Indian state liberally uses Internet shutdowns. On 18 July, Karthik Suresh and I wrote The economic cost of small internet shutdowns on BloombergQuint where we worry about the economic impact of these actions. We argue that even limited interruptions of Internet access have a substantial adverse impact upon India’s most important industry, IT and ITES.
The art and science of economic policy, on Coursera
Last year, Aromar Revi, Vijay Kelkar and I built a course, The Art and Science of Economic Policy. This was based on the book In service of the republic: The art and science of economic policy. This is a part of the `Digital blended learning’ initiative at IIHS. In a year, the course has 4109 `learners’, 2373 `active learners’ and 1066 completers.
Episodes 3,4 of Everything is everything
Episode 3, “Are you just one version of yourself”, 14 July, has chapters
The pinkness of Jaipur;
Investigation, prosecution, fairplay;
Amit recommends primers on classical liberalism; and
Ajay debunks hydroponics.
Episode 4, “The wrong way to fight extremists”, 21 July, has chapters
OPEC: The cartel that couldn’t;
Roving bandits and guerilla warfare;
Ajay recommends a book for every businessman; and
Amit talks about the pinnacle of cinematic storytelling.