Letters: Missing economists

The editorial “Economists wanted” (January 8) rightly laments that economic advisers in various ministries are not up to the mark. For example, even after reducing tax rates from 97 to 30 per cent, why does India still have a black money problem? No noted or unnoted economist has offered a solution. It appears to me that India does not have economists at all. What we have are economists who have studied from books or lectures prepared on the basis of material available in foreign countries. In other words, they are all dependent on borrowed ideas. You have mentioned Kaushik Basu, Chief Economic Advisor, whose successor is to be named in August 2012. His main job till today has been limited to writing an Economic Survey report or forecasting GDP growth rate or delivering speeches. This job can be done by any person who has some working knowledge of economics or written some articles here and there.

S C Aggarwal New Delhi

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