Centre for Comparative Studies

October 7, 2016

Study suggests grading of autonomous colleges; The Hindu, 7 October, 2016

Special Correspondent |The Hindu | 7 October 2016 A study done on autonomous colleges by the Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR) here has recommended grading of such institutions to improve their overall performance. The functioning of four autonomous colleges […]
September 9, 2016

Who Takes a Call on Price Stability, the Government or the RBI?

The conjecture surrounding who will succeed Raghuram Rajan ends. Inflation hawk, Urjit Patel took over as the 24th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 5 September 2016. Urjit Patel is a well-known face, being the Deputy Governor […]
August 31, 2016

Fall of Remittance Economy ?

The South Indian state of Kerala is often slated for its low level of industrialisation and deteriorating agriculture sector, subduing employment generation in the state. The unemployment rate of Kerala stands at 7.4%, which is more than three times the […]
August 12, 2016

“Demystify the RBI” Dr D Subbarao speaking at CPPR’s 12th Quarterly Lecture

“I tried to demystify the RBI, to do away with the central bank’s image as a killer of growth”; said Dr. D Subbarao at the Centre for Public Policy Research’s 12 Quarterly Lecture on “Who Moved my Interest Rate?”. The […]
August 1, 2016

The intellectual dishonesty of God’s Own Country

  By D Dhanuraj and Deepthi Mary Mathew*   Kerala is in the grip of yet another controversy. Now, the debate is around the appointment of Dr.Gita Gopinath as economic advisor to Chief Minister Mr. Pinarayi Vijayan. The post of […]
July 18, 2016

The 24/7 Rule and the safety question

The Centre has placed the reform ball in states court pushing for a liberalised regime through the model Shops and Establishment Act to allow shops to open 24/7. PM Modi has already given a strong reasoning with his “if the […]
July 16, 2016

Effects of higher tariffs and discriminatory tax/duty levied on the growth of Man Made Fibre (MMF) industry in India

By Lekshmi R Nair and D Dhanuraj* Textile and garment industry with a market size of around US$ 3000 trillion in 2015, as per the data provided by Euler hermes.com, has served as a growth engine for many nations.    In […]
July 13, 2016

The Case of Taxing the Poor Burger in Kerala

Rahul V Kumar, Research Consultant at Centre for Public Policy Research, writes about the recently introduced fat tax by Finance Minister of Kerala in the Kerala Budget 2016-17. In this blog he asks the question of, how do we define […]
July 7, 2016

Bleeding PSUs: Why It’s Time To Retire Kerala’s White Elephants

   “It would be better if we paint the elephants white” commented veteran leader M V Raghavan on the state emblem during an assembly discussion in 1987. His remarks were on the basis of the report submitted by the Comptroller […]
June 21, 2016

Khadi Sector – Longing for Reforms

By Dr Lekhsmi Nair & Dr D Dhanuraj* A recent report in the Times of India shows that the Khadi fabric and garments sales witnessed a 29 percent growth and crossed Rs 1,500 crore mark for the first time. Though […]
May 9, 2016

Activity oriented learning – An evaluation

By Dr D Dhanuraj[1] Dr Lekshmi R Nair[2] School-level education in Kerala has for long been considered as a benchmark for the rest of the country. At the same time, despite being championed as a State with a high literacy […]
May 3, 2016

On the Question of State Debts and Intergenerational Transfers

Rahul V Kumar, Research Consultant at Centre for Public Policy Research writes how when the question of intergenerational transfers is raised in the context of debt, especially unsustainable debt of the state, the natural response from supporters of debt is […]
April 28, 2016

Evaluation of Government Interventions in Khadi Sector

Khadi sector is an over-regulated one in India, where the entire production process, sales, distribution, and marketing is fully regulated by the government through Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) . The paper examines the growth of Khadi market in […]
April 20, 2016

“We need more governance and less governments”: IAS Suhas S

“Land laws need to be simplified and systems need to be updated,” said Suhas S, IAS, Sub Collector, Revenue Divisional Officer, Fort Kochi. He was speaking at an interactive lecture by him organized by Kochi-based think tank the Centre for […]
April 18, 2016

“Why are we afraid of privately-run higher educational institutes in Kerala?” : A case for private institutes in Kerala

“I feel private universities must be allowed in Kerala,” said TP Sreenivasan, Vice-Chancellor, Kerala Higher Education Council. He was speaking at a panel discussion session recently held in Kochi titled Opening up Higher Education Sector in Kerala: A Way Forward, […]