National Council of Applied Economic Research Annual Report 2018–19 A E C R N 60 National Council of Applied Economic Research Annual Report 2018–19 NCAER ANNUAL REPORt 2018–19 i © National Council of Applied Economic Research, 2019 August 2019 Published by Professor Anil K. Sharma Secretary and Operations Director National Council of Applied Economic Research NCAER India Centre, 11 Indraprastha Estate New Delhi 110 002 Tel: +91-11-2345 2657, 6120 2698 Fax: +91-11-2337 0164 [email protected] www.ncaer.org Compiled by Jagbir Singh Punia Coordinator, Publications Unit ii NCAER ANNUAL REPORt 2018–19 NCAER | Quality . Relevance . Impact he National Council of Applied Economic Research, or NCAER as it is more commonly known, isT India’s oldest and largest independent, non-profit, economic policy research institute. It is also one of a handful of think tanks globally that combine rigorous analysis and policy outreach with deep data collection capabilities, especially for household surveys. NCAER was established in 1956 as a public-private partnership, both catering to and supported by government and by journalists, and corporate minds of India. industry. NCAER’s first Governing Body On July 27, 2013, Prime Minister Dr included the entire Cabinet of economics Manmohan Singh laid the foundation ministers and the leading lights of the stone for the new NCAER India Centre private sector. These included names (NIC). like C. D. Deshmukh, J.R.D. Tata, John Phase 1 of the NIC, consisting of a new Matthai, and Asoka Mehta. The Ford office tower, a new conference centre, Foundation provided substantial, early the NIC Plaza and ample underground financial support, combined with support parking was completed in 2019. Staff from the Finance Ministry and Tata Sons. shifted to the new office tower, now Over more than six decades, NCAER’s named the John Matthai Tower after Governing Body has included almost NCAER’s first President, at the end of every prominent Indian economist and August 2019. NCAER staff now work industrialist, including Dr Manmohan in a pleasant, light-filled, ultra-modern Singh as a member during 1976–82, and facility that would match the facilities Ratan Tata as President during 1994–98. of any think tank globally. The NCAER NCAER’s current Governing Body is Library, staff cafeteria, and other facilities headed by Mr Nandan M. Nilekani, continue to operate from the original the creator of Aadhar and the former A. P. Kanvinde Parisila Bhawan, which Chairman of the Unique Identification will be architecturally restored in Phase Authority of India, Co-founder and 2 starting the end of 2019. This major former CEO of Infosys Ltd, and now upgrading of NCAER’s physical facility the Non-Executive Chairman of the is part of a long-term expansion plan to Infosys Board. NCAER has been led grow NCAER’s human, social, systems, since 2011 by its ninth Director General, and financial capital. Dr Shekhar Shah, who joined NCAER NCAER’s research falls into five from the World Bank where he was last thematic areas: the Bank’s Regional Economic Adviser • Growth, macroeconomics, trade, for South Asia. international finance, fiscal and monetary NCAER’s iconic campus located in the policy; • heart of New Delhi has been home to The investment climate, industry, some of the best economists, statisticians, infrastructure, domestic finance, labour, land, and urban; NCAER ANNUAL REPORt 2018–19 iii • Agriculture, natural resource NCAER researchers pursue a mix of management, and the environment; their own and bespoke research for • Poverty, human development, equity, governments and industry with their gender, and consumer behaviour; and support. The institution is also supported • Scientific collection, innovation, and by long-term research grants from curation of economic and social data. international and national donors, core support, and income from NCAER’s NCAER faculty generate and analyse endowment. NCAER was among the empirical evidence to support and inform two largest members worldwide of the public policy choices in these areas. Think Tank Initiative, covering 43 policy NCAER’s core strengths in primary data research institutions in 20 countries collection provide a strong foundation for receiving competitive core funding from its work. In late 2017, NCAER took a an international donor consortium during major step forward in this direction with 2010-2019. the establishment of the NCAER Data As an increasingly networked institution Innovation Centre. with a growing number of overseas NCAER regularly brings expertise, and domestic non-resident, visiting evidence, and informed debate to the researchers, NCAER maintains extensive public discussion of important policy links in India and outside with major choices with its numerous outreach think tanks and universities,. Some and public policy events. The annual of these include NBER, the Chicago India Policy Forum (IPF, now in its 17th Council on Global Affairs, the Brookings year), and the Neemrana Conference Institution, the University of Michigan, (which celebrated its 20th anniversary the University of Maryland, Columbia in December 2018) are both NCAER’s University, Stanford University, the marquee initiatives. The IPF proceedings London School of Economics, Oxford are published in the annual India Policy University, Australian National Forum, one of the highest citations-ranked University, Monash University, and the economics journals out of India. NCAER Asia Global Institute in Hong Kong. has been publishing its quarterly, refereed, NCAER’s links in South Asia include international journal Margin: The Journal almost all the major economic think of Applied Economic Research, for over five tanks in the region. decades. JAER is distributed by SAGE For further details, please visit Journals. www.ncaer.org The new NCAER India Centre. iv NCAER ANNUAL REPORt 2018–19 Contents NCAER | Quality . Relevance . Impact iii The Institution 1 Governing Body 1 Founding Governing Body Members in 1956 2 General Body 2 Director General’s Message 5 Activities 17 NCAER Events 17 NCAER Research Programme 29 NCAER Publications 53 NCAER Research Staff Activities 63 Staff and Resources 85 The NCAER Research and Administrative Teams 85 NCAER Library and Information Services 91 NCAER Finance 93 NCAER Human Resources 94 NCAER Publications 95 NCAER Information Technology 96 NCAER General Services 98 NCAER Accounts 99 Abbreviations and Acronyms 122 NCAER ANNUAL REPORt 2018–19 v The NCAER India Centre at various stages of its construction. vi NCAER ANNUAL REPORt 2018–19 The Institution Governing Body The Governing Body of NCAER, headed by its President, includes prominent persons from government, industry and academia, and is elected by the General Body of NCAER. The Chief Executive of NCAER is its Director General. The General Body includes all members of the Governing Body, representatives of government, public sector corporations, corporate houses, other institutions, and individuals. The Governing Body met twice during 2018–19, on August 28, 2018 and on March 13, 2019. The General Body met on August 28, 2018. President Nandan M. Nilekani Non-Executive Chairman of the Infosys Board, Bengaluru, former Chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India, New Delhi, and Co-Founder and former CEO, Infosys Vice President M. S. Verma Former Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, New Delhi, and former Chairman, State Bank of India, Mumbai Members Mukesh D. Ambani Chairman, Reliance Industries Limited, Mumbai Surjit S. Bhalla Chairman, Oxus Research & Investments Private Limited, New Delhi Yogesh C. Deveshwar Chairman, ITC Limited, Kolkata Ashish Dhawan Founder and Chairman, Central Square Foundation, New Delhi Subhash C. Garg Secretary, Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, New Delhi Deepak S. Parekh Chairman, HDFC Limited, Mumbai Rajendra S. Pawar Chairman, and Co-Founder, NIIT Group, New Delhi Shekhar Shah Director General, NCAER, New Delhi Secretary Anil K. Sharma Professor and Operations Director, NCAER, New Delhi NCAER ANNUAL REPORt 2018–19 1 Founding Governing Body Members in 1956 John Matthai J.R.D. Tata Chairman, State Bank of India Chairman, Tata Industries Ltd C.D. Deshmukh Asoka Mehta Union Minister of Finance Member of Parliament T.T. Krishnamachari J.F. Sinclair Union Minister of Commerce and Industry General Manager, Burmah-Shell Oil Storage and Distributing Co. of India V.T. Krishnamachari Ltd Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission N.R. Pillai Secretary-General, Ministry of External Affairs General Body Life Members Donor Members Bimal Jalan Bata India Ltd Subir Gupta DCL Polyesters Ltd D.N. Patodia ICICI Bank Ltd State Bank of India New Zealand High Commission, New Delhi Institutional and Corporate Members Ordinary Members National Dairy Development Board Agarwal Maheswari & Company National Stock Exchange of India Ltd EPW Research Foundation NIIT Ltd Martin & Harris (P) Ltd Reliance Industries Ltd SidhoMal Paper Conversion Co. (P) Ltd CESE Ltd 2 NCAER ANNUAL REPORt 2018–19 Governing Body Members meeting in the Board Room of the new John Matthai Tower for the first time on March 13, 2019. NCAER ANNUAL REPORt 2018–19 3 Interior of the NCAER India Centre. 4 NCAER ANNUAL REPORt 2018–19 DIRECTOR GENERAL’S MESSAGE It is a great pleasure to present It was the end of the 10-year run of the NCAER’s 63rd Annual Report for global Think Tank Initiative, providing 2018-19. core support to NCAER, the largest of over 40 think tanks in 20 countries, in an The first Governing Body of what was unprecedented experiment to strengthen briefly called the Council for Economic independent think tanks and their role and Industrial Research met on May in policymaking. It was also the coming 4, 1956. On the suggestion of many, into fruition of NCAER’s National the Council’s name was changed to the Data Innovation Centre (NDIC), the National Council of Applied Economic Research on August 25 that year. In fulfilment of a vision to bring and keep his inaugural address on December 18, NCAER at the cutting edge of data 1956, President Rajendra Prasad noted, collection and curation, particularly “It gives me great pleasure to open the for field surveys.