Macroeconomic Policy responses to Covid-19 pandemic
Webinar Link
Meeting No: 2511 474 4175
password: policy
Abstract
The macroeconomic uncertainty created by COVID-19 is hard to measure. The situation demands simultaneous policy intervention in terms of public health infrastructure and livelihood. Along with the global community, India too has announced its initial dose of fiscal and monetary policy responses. However, more fiscal–monetary policy coordination is required to scale up the policy response to the emerging crisis. Innovative sources of financing the deficit, including money financing of fiscal programmes need to be explored.
The presentation discusses the post pandemic fiscal and monetary hurdles faced by India and the types of responses available for overcoming these challenges.
About the Speaker
Ashima Goyal
Ashima Goyal is widely published in institutional and open economy macroeconomics, international finance and governance, with more than a hundred articles in national and international journals. She has also authored and edited a number of books including Macroeconomics and Markets in Developing and Emerging Economies (Routledge: UK. 2017) and A Concise Handbook of the Indian Economy in the 21st Century (OUP: India, 2019). She edits the Routledge journal Macroeconomics and Finance in Emerging Market Economies; has provided consultancy to ADB, DEA, GDN, UNDP, RBI, UN ESCAP and WB; is active in the Indian policy debate; and has served on several government committees, including the Economic Advisory Council Prime Minister and the RBI technical advisory committee for monetary policy, and boards of educational and of financial institutions. Currently she is a Member of RBI's Monetary Policy Committee, an independent director at Edelweiss Financial Services and SBI General Insurance. She edits a Routledge journal in macroeconomics and finance and contributes a monthly column to the Hindu Business Line. She was a visiting fellow at the Economic Growth Centre, Yale University, USA, and a Fulbright Senior Research Fellow at Claremont Graduate University, USA. Her research has received national and international awards. She won two best research awards at GDN meetings at Tokyo (2000) and Rio de Janeiro (2001), was selected as one of the four most powerful women in economics, a thought leader, by Business Today (2008); was the first Professor P.R. Brahmananda Memorial Research Grant Awardee for a study on History of Monetary Policy in India since Independence (2011), which was published by Springer in 2014; received the SKOCH Challenger Award for Economic Policy (2017); Hindu College OSA Distinguished Alumni Award and 20th FLO FICCI GR8 Beti Award for Excellence in Economics (2018).
Lekha Chakraborty
Lekha S. Chakraborty is a Professor at NIPFP and elected Member of the Governing Board of Management, International Institute of Public Finance (IIPF) Munich -the world association of public finance economists.
She is a pioneer economist in institutionalising Gender Budgeting in India, with Chief Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance, Govt of India in 2004. She is also research affiliate at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, New York. Her areas of interest are Macroeconomics of Public Finance, Fiscal Federalism, Extractive sector Economics, Financing Human Development and Gender Budgeting.
She is the recipient of Infoys best PhD thesis award from Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore.
She is the author of "Fiscal Consolidation, Budget Deficits and Macroeconomy" (Sage Publications). This book has received endorsement reviews from Y V Reddy, former Governor of Reserve Bank of India; and also from Vito Tanzi, former IMF Executive Director Fiscal Affairs.
She is co-author of the book "Social Sector in Decentralised Economy: India in the Era of Globalisation" published by Cambridge University Press.
She has worked for the IMF, World Bank, the UNESCAP, the UNDP, the UN Women, and the Commonwealth Secretariat on short stints. Her work experience on macro-fiscal policy and human development spans across 8 countries, Sweden, Canada, Morocco,The Philippiness, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Viet Nam and Mexico; and more frequently in Asia Pacific region.
She was twice, an awardee of Shastri Indo-Canada programme, from Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAIT), Government of Canada. She was visiting Professor at American University (Washington DC),Uppsala University (Sweden) , Carleton University (Canada), and University of Utah, US. She has papers in national and international journals.
She is a columnist in the Indian Express, The Hindu, Financial Express, Businessline, Business Standard , The Wire, Hindustan Times and Scroll; and featured in CNBC, ANI, DD News, AIR World Air Service and Rajya Sabha.