Articles by T N Srinivasan

In assessing India's experience with the definition and use of poverty lines, one has to keep in mind their normative and monitoring roles. After reviewing the evolution of poverty lines in India from a historical perspective and critically discussing some issues relating to current official poverty lines, this paper assesses whether it makes sense to anchor these lines in average energy norms. It concludes with a new approach to the measurement of poverty, besides providing some suggestions for broadening its conception and commenting on some of the current poverty alleviation policies.

B S Minhas, who died on August 30, was a distinguished economist and a down-to-earth policy analyst. Many of his research papers remain classics and many of his observations on policy two and three decades ago remain relevant even today. Minhas was also one of unimpeachable character and integrity who was not afraid to speak his mind, not infrequently in blunt language. The quality of his mind and his ability to convey the unvarnished truth without fear of consequences earned him the respect of politicians in and out of power.

Exchange Rates, Deficits and Capital Flows T N SRINIVASAN, NIRVIKAR SINGH Lal, Bery and Pant (2005, hereafter LBP) assert that

Much of the policy debate on India's fiscal deficits, exchange rate management and reserves management policies is either model-free or uses ad hoc models. In order to understand some of the puzzles in India's current macroeconomic situation, a coherent intertemporal model is required, in which both private and public savings and investment behaviour are behaviourally specified, and growth, government deficits and other macroeconomic variables are determined in equilibrium. The goal here is to provide some starting points for further theoretical analysis, which could then be used for empirical work that could have policy relevance.

T N Srinivasan SANJIVI GUHAN, who passed away in Chennai in February, was are markable person whose career spanned a wide spectrum: an IAS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre who served with great distinction in several capacities at the centre and the state, India's executive director-alternate at the World Bank, senior economist of the Brandt Commission, professorial fellow at the Madras Institute of Development Studies and a member of the governing board of Kalakshetra. As a civil servant he worked for many prominent politicians and earned their respect as well as affection. Although he was a statistician by training, he was an economist by practice and instincts. His formidable capacity to analyse issues logically and coherently and his fammilitary not only with the literature in economics but also in moral and political philosophy enabled him to get to the core of any economic problem without being distracted by excessive use of a purely technical apparatus. He was sufficiently at home in Sanskrit and Tamil literatures to quote from both as needed. He and his wife Shanta were patrons of the arts who counted many artists, including the late, legendary, Balasaraswathy and her family, as personal friends His unimpeachable integrity and genuine concern (in word and deced for the welfare of the poor arc chracteristics shared by few. His death has created a void that is very difficult, if not altogether .impossible, to fill.