Opinion | How can the BMC help Mumbai recover?

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) needs to focus on funding medium and long-term urban upgrades that will serve the dual purpose of making Mumbai more productive and more resilient to public health shocks in the future. Isalyne Gennaro and Harshita Agrawal, researchers, Artha Global talk about the urban governance interventions and structural reforms, stressing on the need for raising revenues from legitimate sources and modifying the current method of budgeting for expenses.

Excerpts below:

“One way to improve revenues is to bolster property tax collection. Though collection has increased lately, the BMC still fails to get back the Rs 15,000 crore outstanding from non-payment and disputes. Using administrative and human resources more efficiently for collecting outstanding property taxes, while important, will not be adequate.

The 2016-17 Economic Survey showcases how tools based on Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) can improve maintenance of property records and help assess tax potential in Jaipur and Bengaluru. Using and institutionalising adequate land management tools can ensure reliable collection of revenues. The city authority must also consider monetising the land it owns as a steady source of large revenues.”

Read the full article here.

Opinion | Gold buying for investment purposes also makes it easier to reduce imports of actual bullion

India’s rising gold imports are increasingly driven by investment demand rather than traditional consumption. Niranjan Rajadhyaksha explores what this means for the rupee, foreign exchange reserves, and economic policy.

Industrial policy now has broad World Bank approval but the case for universal adoption remains unclear

The World Bank has endorsed the idea of industrial policy with some conditions, reversing its stance of the early 1990s. What its new paper doesn’t address, though, is what happens if every country goes for it.

Opinion | India’s widening current account deficit amid global uncertainty: At what point do alarm bells ring?

India’s current account deficit may touch slightly above $84 billion this year, raising concerns amid global uncertainty. But does it signal trouble yet—or just a phase of manageable external imbalance?