New Wine without a Bottle

New Wine without a Bottle Jayati Ghosh Report of the Committee on Trade Policies Government of India, Minirtry of Commerce, December 1984.
THERE is a hoary old joke about the impossible search for an economist with only one hand, who would be incapable of saying 'on the one hand ... but on the other hand ...' The Report of the Committee on Trade Policies may reaffirm one's faith in the possibility of a one-handed economist (or a group of eminent economists), in terms of the commendable consistency of its policy proposals. But it raises another conundrum: while all the 'fingers' of economic analysis in the Report point to one set of conclusion, the 'index finger' of policy advice points continually to the polar opposite.