XKDR Newsletter - Issue 30
Tax exemption for startups • Do court vacations matter? • Towards a paperless world • Reforming land laws • How to get a 10x gain in FDI • Global Tech Wars and more.
Who is "innovative"? Unpacking the process of tax exemption grants to startups.
Aneesha Chitgupi, Karthik Suresh and Diya Uday study the institutional design and functioning of the Inter-Ministerial Board set up under Section 80-IAC of the Income Tax Act. They find that the IMB's processes are not optimised to deliver the statutory intent of tax exemptions to startups. They identify the bottlenecks that must be targeted for change and question the current incentive structure for startups to innovate.
Read the full article here.
Do court vacations matter? Evidence from the Bombay High Court.
Court vacations in the Indian judiciary are often criticized for contributing to case delays. Drawing on seven years of data of civil suits and commercial suits from the Bombay High Court, Tushar Anand, Pavithra Manivannan and Bhargavi Zaveri-Shah present some first estimates on how court vacations impact two aspects of court productivity: case disposal rates and case schedules. They find that,
Court vacations have a statistically significant impact on the number of cases filed and disposed of on a daily basis. However, these differences disappear over time.
Vacations do not substantially affect the overall duration of the case, even as they have a small effect on the initial phases of cases filed during court vacations.
Read the full article here.
OP-ED & COMMENTARY
In his Business Standard column, Ajay Shah asks whether policy reversals fuel policy risk or inhibit private investment? He argues that in a democracy, policy twists and turns are normal. However, what matters is a coherent policy process, strategic thinking, and the quality of policy outcomes. As long as there is a structured approach to policymaking through knowledge-based processes, public consultation, and intellectual consensus, policy risk remains manageable. Private investment thrives on optimism about movement towards improved state capability and consistent policy, rather than short-term deals or propaganda.
In their article for the Indian Express, Nimai Mehta, Arjun Krishnan and Diya Uday write on digitisation and its limitations to reform land laws. They argue that while digitisation is a step towards addressing some administrative capacity challenges, it fails to address the underlying legal and institutional challenges that perpetuate India’s land-related problems identified by the Economic Survey 2023-24. Instead, India needs a multi-pronged approach that encompasses legal reforms to strengthen property rights, streamlining regulations, and facilitating efficient land markets, alongside complementary measures to promote land consolidation, improve land records, and enhance women’s land rights.
Ajay Shah discusses the need for better economic reforms in India to get a 10x gain in FDI, in his article for the Business Standard. He lays out the data on goods exports growth (3.3%) and net FDI in India growth (-1.5%) to show that the conventional policy strategy (e.g. an emphasis on infrastructure or PLI) is not delivering positive growth rates. He highlights the problems of currency controls, arbitrary state power, central planning, delays in courts as contributing factors.
VIDEOS AND PODCASTS
New episodes of XKDR’s YouTube series Big Ideas - conversations with some of the leading thinkers of today - are out:
Dream of a paperless world, with Anjali Sharma: Ep 27
Aawas, a digital address for every resident of India, with Ashok Pal Singh: Ep 28
New episodes of Ajay Shah’s YouTube show Everything is Everything with Amit Varma are out:
Knowledge Lost and Knowledge Regained, Ep 63
The Global Tech Wars, Ep 64
Understanding India's Pensions Disaster, Ep 65
Don't Mess With the Price System, Ep 66
Ajay Shah speaks with Rahul Ahluwalia on industrial policy for the FED Dialogues podcast.
EVENTS
We hosted Seminar #9 of the Indian Legal System Reform series on 6th September 2024.
Siddarth Raman presented XKDR’s approach to evaluate court reforms. Watch the talk here.
Karan Gulati and Anjali Sharma discussed TrustBridge’s work on uncertainty and delays involved in arbitration matters at the Supreme Court. Watch the talk here.
This is a monthly seminar series that brings together researchers, policymakers, practitioners, civil society members, and other stakeholders to discuss, debate, and explore potential improvements for a better legal system and policy pathways for effective implementation. Write to us to participate as a speaker/ audience.
XKDR Forum is an interdisciplinary research and policy organisation harnessing knowledge and capabilities across diverse fields of economics, law, public administration, engineering, statistics and science. We welcome your comments and suggestions on our work. Please write them to us here.