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In RealTime posts, PIIE senior staff and colleagues discuss the fast-moving economic news, financial developments, and public policy choices confronting the United States and the world.
On April 1, the Indian Supreme Court rejected the attempt by Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceutical company, to patent a new version of the leukemia drug Glivec. The latest verdict follows previous rulings that granted compulsory licenses to an Indian generic drug manufacturer for a kidney cancer drug (Nexavar) patented by Bayer. Five important questions are [...]
Given the scale of India’s slowing rate of growth and other economic difficulties, there was one and only metric by which the new budget presented on February 28 would and should be assessed. Had this United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government fundamentally repudiated fiscal populism because it believed that such populism was no longer electorally popular? [...]
Within the space of two days, the Indian government, spearheaded it appears by the Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, has taken a series of policy steps to get India out of the funk it had been sliding into. First, it enacted measures to reduce fuel subsidies on diesel and limit the subsidy on cooking gas. Second, [...]
In Lord Richard Attenborough’s movie Gandhi, an underling of the British Empire heatedly warns his supercilious boss that Mahatma Gandhi’s impending protest march to the sea poses a far greater threat than the Raj realizes: “Salt, sir, is a symbol.” This elicits the memorable sneering put-down from the boss (played by Sir John Gielgud): “Don’t [...]
Is the decade-old Indian growth miracle over? India’s latest growth number of 5.3 percent for the first quarter of the current fiscal year prompts that worrying question. It falls short of two important benchmarks in India: It is 3 to 4 percentage points below the growth in China, and, critically, it is almost 4 percentage [...]
Is China poised to take over from the United States as the world’s most economically dominant power? This is an essential question, and yet it has not yet been taken seriously enough in the United States, where, this central conceit still reigns: The United States’ economic preeminence cannot be seriously threatened because it is the [...]
Mahatma Gandhi will be a theme of President Obama’s visit to India. For the Mahatma, eliminating the scourge of caste and improving the plight of untouchables (“Dalits” as they are now referred to) was his life’s objective and life-time obsession. With good reason. In the Indian state of Kerala, the lowest of the low were [...]
President Obama is heading to India today on a state visit that is fraught with expectations and hopes on both sides. His two predecessors, each in his own way, made a lasting impression on India. President Clinton’s reaching out to the Indian people nearly ten years ago erupted in a spontaneous dance with a group [...]
On August 15, India celebrated 63 years of independence. Many hail it as an economic powerhouse but also point to the lopsidedness of its growth. Despite being home to some of the world’s leading technology companies, poverty is still widespread, physical and social infrastructure still woefully inadequate, employment opportunities still limited, and access to basic [...]
There will be an eerie familiarity to this weekend’s G-20 meetings. Disagreements between the United States and Europe on two important issues—macroeconomic policy, and specifically the timing of withdrawal of policy support, and financial regulation—will characterize these meetings. Resolution of these issues seems unlikely. The verdict will be that the G-20 has failed, reinforcing the [...]