Articles by Nagesh Kumar

There is now a growing recognition of the importance of regional economic integration in Asia for generating growth impulses from within, especially in the wake of the east Asian crisis. Voices emanating from different parts of the region support pan-Asian cooperation and integration. Against this background, the paper examines the relevance of a broader approach and outlines a roadmap for regional cooperation in Asia.

This paper examines the relevance of a multilateral framework on investment from a developing country perspective in the light of available evidence on the role of FDI in development. It also suggests the policy options that developing countries may consider at the Cancun Ministerial Conference on the issue of Trade and Investment. Further, it reflects on the approaches to make different elements of a possible multilateral framework on investment more pro-development and balanced, in case a negotiating mandate is unavoidable at Cancun.

Export-led growth has been the mainstay of the spectacular performance of the Indian software industry. However, continued growth at the blistering pace set in the 1990s faces significant challenges in the form of growing scarcity of talent, rising wage costs and emerging competition. Besides, the recent slowdown in the US has lowered growth estimates for the infotech industry. The Indian software industry cannot afford to be complacent if it wants to maintain its position as a premier purveyor of software services. The industry will need to consolidate its strengths and move up the value chain if it is to maintain its head start on the competition. Most importantly, it will have to invest substantially in R and D and create linkages to encourage career prospects for researchers in engineering.

While in general it is admitted that host governments' policies may play an important role in extracting the benefits of FDI for development, a more exact analysis of the relative role of different policy measures in shaping the magnitudes and quality of FDI inflows is not available. Such an analysis has become even more important now in the context of the new international trading regime under the aegis of the WTO which covers issues which have an important bearing on the ability of national governments in regulating the patterns of FDI inflows. This paper presents some findings of a comprehensive attempt to quantitatively analyse the role of structural, geographical and policy factors in shaping the patterns of MNE activity. The focus is on the role of host government policies and on the implications of the emerging WTO regime in their light.

This paper reviews the performance of the Indian economy during the 1990s in terms of certain broad macro-economic indicators. It provides a brief sketch of the economic reforms so far, analyses their impact and makes recommendations for the second generation of reforms.