What North Block Needs

......In the last 20 years, we have a sea change. Agriculture is now small enough to be irrelevant in macroeconomics. We have business cycles of the kind seen in market economies, rooted in fluctuations of inventory and investment of private firms. Financial markets have become important, and the capital account is mostly open. Despite these changes, the role, organisation structure and staffing of MoF and RBI have not budged. How are good decisions obtained in public policy? A checklist of policy choices is drawn up. High quality staff work takes place, where the costs and benefits of each alternative are worked out. A debate takes place, based on this work. The people in this debate have deep roots in understanding how macro and finance works in market economies, and in the gritty details of India. In most cases, tentative thinking goes to the public, for feedback, before decisions are made..........

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