Archive for June 22nd, 2022

A review of undergraduate economics curriculum in India:

June 22, 2022

Rethinking Economics India has released its review of UG economics curriculum in India.

Summary:

The report shows that the undergraduate curriculum of Economics is falling short of students’ needs or expectations. Both microeconomics and macroeconomics are grounded in neoclassical interpretations of economic theory, barring a few exceptions. A dearth of readings and authors from India and countries of the Global South, as well as female authors, is largely prevalent combined with a lack of more recently published texts. Economic methodologies are predominantly based in quantitative components with less focus on application based approaches and lack qualitative elements.

While every one of the drawbacks of the extant curriculum structure potentially represents an opportunity that could promote curriculum
change for the better, we must keep in mind that universities as decision makers are constrained. The ‘rules of the game’, that is, the regulatory governance framework may act as a significant constraint to the autonomy of individual departments to structure or restructure their curricula. Questions pertaining to the governance of universities in India are outside the scope of this report. However, they do constitute an area of future research.

Very useful review..

Monetary system of future

June 22, 2022

BIS has a chapter in its Annual Report envisioning the monetary system of the future:

  • A burst of creative innovation is under way in money and payments, opening up vistas of a future digital monetary system that adapts continuously to serve the public interest.
  • Structural flaws make the crypto universe unsuitable as the basis for a monetary system: it lacks a stable nominal anchor, while limits to its scalability result in fragmentation. Contrary to the decentralisation narrative, crypto often relies on unregulated intermediaries that pose financial risks.
  • A system grounded in central bank money offers a sounder basis for innovation, ensuring that services are stable and interoperable, domestically and across borders. Such a system can sustain a virtuous circle of trust and adaptability through network effects.
  • New capabilities such as programmability, composability and tokenisation are not the preserve of crypto, but can instead be built on top of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), fast payment systems and associated data architectures.

Despite lots of ideas on decmtralisation, central banks will remain at the centre in future too.

Industrial Revolution 4.0: Will it be different this time for India?

June 22, 2022

V. Dhanya, Rigzen Yangdol, Satyarth Singh and Mamta Dhanda (intern at RBI) in this RBI Bulletin research article analyse how Industrial Revolution 4.0 will impact India:

Technological changes in the last decade have revolutionised the organisation of industrial production. Industry 4.0 which integrates new technologies – like Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing and analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning — into manufacturing production processes and operations, has ushered in a new era of ‘smart manufacturing’. Having been sidelined during the previous industrial revolutions, the article explores India’s readiness in adapting to the technological developments and examines the corresponding prerequisites to benefit from IR-4.

Highlights:

    • The manufacturing sector in India is capital intensive, with the organised sector contributing nearly three-fourths of the manufacturing sector Gross Value Added (GVA). The sector is dominated by low and medium R&D industries, though high and medium R&D intensive industries are increasingly playing an important role reflecting scope for benefitting from IR-4.
    • At the firm level, a panel data analysis reveals firm maturity, size, profitability and technical know-how as determinants of R&D expenditure in India’s manufacturing sector.
    • Lower than average quality of physical infrastructure and human capital could be a constraint for reaping the benefits of IR-4 going ahead.

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