Articles by J Dennis Rajakumar

There is concern that corporations have borrowed too much, and that therefore bank balance sheets are strained as well. Contrary to this popular view, it is argued here that the company finance data of the corporate sector in general does not suggest that this is so.

Revisiting the MCA-21-based estimates of the size of the private corporate sector in the rebased National Accounts Statistics, it is argued that the use of a single blow-up factor for non-government non-financial public and private limited companies could be leading to an overestimation of gross value added and gross savings. If there has to be a blow-up, it should be done separately, given the distinct characteristics of public and private limited companies.

The new series of national accounts statistics raises the estimates of saving and investment, but it also reconfi rms the trend of a decline in domestic saving and capital formation in recent years. Analysing available data, this note attempts to understand the statistical differences in how saving and capital formation are measured in the new series.

Revisiting an old debate about terms of trade of agriculture vis-à-vis other sectors in the Indian economy, it is argued that the ToT of agriculture has remained favourable for a large part of the post-liberalisation phase, with it being most favourable since the mid-2000s. This is despite rising costs of production, high rural inflation, and rising human labour costs. It is further argued that large farmers seem to have benefited the most from the favourable ToT, which helps understand the narrowing inequality between rural and urban India, along with rising inequality within rural India.

An analysis of corporate sector earnings and spending reveals that since liberalisation in the early 1990s, Indian companies have become increasingly dependent on foreign inputs, while foreign companies operating in India continue to focus on marketing their products here. Undeniably, the corporate sector has been and is a major contributor to India's current account deficit.