Capital Appreciation

Festschrift is one of those German expressions,like weltanschauung or schadenfreude,that pack so much meaning in one word that despite the formidable pronunciation challenge they present to most English-speakers....

Festschrift is one of those German expressions,like weltanschauung or schadenfreude,that pack so much meaning in one word that despite the formidable pronunciation challenge they present to most English-speakers,they have become invaluable,irreplaceable items in English vocabulary. This book is a festschrift for Montek Singh Ahluwalia. That means,as the subtitle says,this is a collection of essays in Ahluwalias honour. But festschrift,classically defined,means a book in honour of a person to commemorate an occasion. However,you dont need an occasion to put out a book in Ahluwalias honour. He has been a deserved recipient of a festschrift for a while. The question is does the book do justice to the idea. It mostly does. This reviewer found three imperfections in an otherwise impressive and interesting collection of essays.

First,although the editors give a well-written account of Ahluwalias career,they choose not to tell a few stories about his public policy adventures. Surely,a few good tales wouldnt have been out of place. Second,the editors do a fine job of introducing the essays by discussing their arguments with clarity and by giving a broad,public-policy perspective,but their decision to engage in vigorous intellectual debate with one of the essayists (Surjit Bhalla) looks odd. It makes for great reading (as does Bhallas essay),but it looks odd because the reader wonders whether this is really the purpose of an introduction. If the editors took the trouble of contesting Bhallas arguments,maybe the essayist could have had an opportunity to have a counter. But,then,where would it end?

Third,two of the essays are not quite the quality of the rest and they stand out. First,Jaimini Bhagwatis essay on Indias capital markets. Nothing wrong with it except that an essay that doesnt go beyond the very familiar incremental capital market reform,low-level household sector participation in capital markets,weak domestic debt market,etc is not terribly inspiring. The same close encounter with familiarity is the problem while reading Anne O. Kruegers essay on Indias trade.

Story continues below this ad

Keep these minor blemishes aside and you have a good collection. Every reader will probably have a different list of essays they liked the most. Heres mine: Bhalla on growth,interest rates and exchange rates (to be read with the editors counter of his arguments) takes on what might be called the monetary policy orthodoxy; Ashok Gulati on agriculture makes a robust case for private investment-led (public investment-supported) and market-linked farm strategies and is particularly educative for those who might be taken in by the usual narratives on farming; Martin Wolf on Indias place in the world writes elegantly on how much heft India carries on the global stage and how it should be used and this is probably the books best essay; Sunil Jain and T.N. Ninan on Indias services sector is a one-stop data/analysis store and goes someway in rectifying the anomaly that while we read a lot of narrow-focused accounts on Indias services sector we rarely encounter a comprehensive report.

A word on data as well as tables,graphs,equations,etc. The book has quite a bit of all this. Does that mean a reader,whos keenly interested in economic policy and is acquainted with the general terms of the discourse but feels put off by tables and charts,should skip this book? Not in the least. Most of the arguments are clear even if you skip the data sets.

A last quibble. The publishers introduce Acharya and Mohan in the back flap. But the short paras dont say Acharya was the chief economic advisor and Mohan was deputy governor,RBI. Surely,among the posts these two held and hold now,these recent stints are the most relevant when introducing them as editors of a collection of essays on economic policy?