10th Conference of the NIPFP-DEA Research Program

As part of the NIPFP-DEA Research Program, we have been running a conference series in the fields of macroeconomics and finance. The 10th of these conferences was a joint effort with Journal of International Money and Finance: a subset of the papers will appear as a special issue on the Macroeconomic and financial policy challenges of China and India. The materials of the conference are up on the website.

Cost-benefit analysis of UIDAI

At the main page for this project, there is a paper, the full spreadsheet where you can modify assumptions and explore alternative variants of the calculations, a video of the presentation, a non-technical summaries, and some media treatment of this work.

Did the Indian capital controls work as a tool for macroeconomic policy

A recent article: Did the Indian capital controls work as a tool for macroeconomic policy, Ila Patnaik and Ajay Shah. IMF Economic Review, page 439--464, volume 60, 2012.

At the main page for this paper, you will find all the materials: a video presentation, PDF paper, link into the journal, a compact summary on voxEU.

Modified dates for financial law seminar

In consideration of a number of requests for extension of the last date for paper submission for Financial Law & Policy: An Inter-disciplinary Approach, the dates for submission of paper and intimation of shortlisted papers have been extended which are as follows:

Crucial Dates

• The last date for submission of the completed paper: November 12, 2012 (23.59 hrs)
• Intimation of shortlisted papers: November 20, 2012
• Date of the seminar: December 01, 2012

Other details about the seminar are as provided in my earlier post.

Approach paper released by the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission

The Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC) is rethinking the legislative foundations of the Indian financial system. FSLRC was setup by a notification on 24 March 2011 and asked to submit its findings on 24 March 2013. FSLRC constitutes the first time in Indian history that a large-scale re-examination of multiple laws in a sector is being undertaken.

FSLRC has released a compact approach paper showing preliminary findings about the strategy that will be adopted. The release of this report is part of the consultative mechanisms that have been followed within the Commission. The Commission has invited feedback from experts and interested parties on this document.

Finance and law: Call for papers

National Seminar on Financial Law & Policy: An Inter-disciplinary Approach (December 1, 2012) Organised by National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi in collaboration with National Law University, Delhi

The National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), New Delhi invites papers for a national-level seminar titled "Financial Law & Policy: An Inter-disciplinary Approach" to be held at the National Law University, Delhi (NLU Delhi) on December 1, 2012.

Background

The financial sector in India is currently governed by more than sixty legislations along with a plethora of rules and regulations. This has led to a lot of ambiguity in the legal framework applicable for doing business in the country. The problem gets compounded by the fact that many of these legislations were enacted more than sixty years ago, with objectives and purposes that are largely not in sync with the realities of the present day globalised competitive world.

Realising the need to address these issues and for formulating a legal framework geared up to facilitate growth of the financial sector in the future, the Government of India set up the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC) on March 2011 under the chairmanship of Justice (Retd.) B.N. Srikrishna. The mandate of FSLRC involves overhauling these existing legislations and laying down a policy and legislative landscape geared towards creating a more coherent and dynamic financial environment. This exercise will also involve identifying regulatory gaps and overlaps seen in the existing system. In this regard FSLRC is focusing towards of rewriting and harmonizing the existing financial sector laws in the country, to bring them in tune with the requirements of a modern financial system.

In an evolving financial world, FSLRC intends that the new legislations will cater to the requirements of a large and fast growing economy. This is indeed a unique challenge not only because it is the first time in the history of independent India that such a large scale organised legislative reform initiative is being undertaken but also since the work involves absolute cutting edge inter-disciplinary research involving law, economics and finance.

For fulfilling its mandate, FSLRC has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with NIPFP whereby NIPFP is engaged in providing research and technical support services to FSLRC; managing the process of conducting the core legal, public policy, economic research for the various working groups established by FSLRC and drafting of the relevant draft legislation.

However, this ambitious reform will be meaningful only if a culture of inter-disciplinary thinking and research can be encouraged in Indian academia. In this context the NIPFP is organising a national level seminar on "Financial Law & Policy: An Inter-disciplinary Approach" at NLU Delhi, on December 1, 2012.

Topics

To engage with a wider audience in a constructive debate over the various issues of contemporary relevance raised in FSLRC's Terms of Reference (available at http://finmin.nic.in/fslrc/fslrc_index.asp), the broad issues from which the authors may choose are:

1. Appropriate means of oversight over financial regulators and their autonomy from the government;
2. Consumer protection as an aspect of financial regulations;
3. Role of the Central Bank in financial market regulation and supervision
4. Resolution of financial firms;
5. Principle-based or ruled-based legislation: what will work in India?
6. Unified regulator or sectoral regulator: which will work in Indi?
7. Financial Regulation and competition policy
8. Emergency powers in systemic risk situation
9. Legal process in financial regulation

Procedure

The author(s) has to submit the completed, original and unpublished paper with the Seminar Co-ordination Committee by November 1, 2012 (23.59 hrs). The Seminar Co-ordination Committee will be responsible for evaluation and selection of the top 5 papers. The authors of the 5 selected papers will be invited to NLU, Delhi to present their papers before an elite panel composing of legal practioners and members of FSLRC.

Word Limit: The paper must not exceed 5000 words (excluding footnotes or endnotes).

Format: The paper must be in Times New Roman font, character size 12 and with 1.5 spacing. Footnotes or endnotes must be in Times New Roman font, character size 10 and with single spacing. No specific style of footnotes/endnotes is required. However, the footnotes/endnotes must be written in a uniform style and provide necessary information.

Submission Procedure: The Paper must be mailed to ankur.saxena@nipfp.org.in in soft copy (pdf format) by November 1, 2012 (23.59 hrs) along with:

• Duly filled-in attached registration form (soft copy)
• Presentation in .ppt/.pdf format that the author seeks to use in the course of the presentation (optional)

Please note that the subject of the mail should be 'Paper submission'.

Eligibility: Papers may be contributed by any person (academicians, researchers, practitioners, students etc.) interested in contemporary financial regulations.

Co-authorship: Papers may be works of joint authorship.

Publication of selected papers: The 5 selected papers will be published on the NIPFP website with appropriate disclaimer.

Composition of the Seminar Co-ordination Committee

The Co-ordination Committee Comprises of:

Chairman:

• Mr. Dhirendra Swarup, Member Convenor, FSLRC

Moderator:

• Prof. Ajay Shah, Professor, NIPFP

Evaluators:

• Mr. Rajshekhar Rao, Advocate, Supreme Court of India
• Mr. Somasekhar Sundaresan, Partner, J. Sagar Associates
• Mr. Risham Garg, Assistant Professor of Law, NLU Delhi

Contact Person:

Mr. Ankur N. Saxena, Legal Consultant, NIPFP, email id: ankur.saxena@nipfp.org.in

Other Relevant Information

Crucial Dates

• The last date for submission of the completed paper: November 1, 2012 (23.59 hrs)
• Intimation of shortlisted papers: November 15, 2012
• The date of seminar: 1 December, 2012

Expenses:

The authors of the selected papers will be provided boarding and lodging facilities at NLU Delhi.

Venue: National Law University, Delhi Sector 14, Dwarka, New Delhi- 110078

REGISTRATION FORM

National Seminar on Financial Law & Policy: An Inter-disciplinary Approach

Name of the Author(s):

Designation:

Institute/Organisation:

Title of Proposal/Paper:

Contact Number:

Email :

Seminar today at NIPFP: Tarun Ramadorai on individual investor behaviour on the equity market

At 4 PM today, Tarun Ramadorai will do a seminar titled "Understanding India's equity trading behaviour". This uses unique data from NSDL about the behaviour of individuals on the equity market. Please do join us in this.

Opportunities in the Macro/Finance Group at NIPFP

The Macro/Finance Group at NIPFP offers opportunities for interesting and important policy work which is connected with the ground realities of India's economic reform. One of the important projects being undertaken, at present, is research support for the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission.

Policy work is highly inter-disciplinary. The policy group at NIPFP is particularly looking for people with a knowledge of financial regulation and law. Deep practitioner knowledge, about the ground realities of law and regulation are important. Equally important is the instinct of looking beyond the present and envisioning the future, drawing on strong foundations of public economics and international experience. We welcome interest in these positions by people with strong capabilities in at least one of these areas, and curiosity about the other. The ideal candidates would have read the Percy Mistry and Raghuram Rajan reports, and have familiarity with the things being talked about in this blog.

The Macro/Finance Group at NIPFP is a conducive research environment including a modern office. Compensation is generally superior to that seen in government academic institutions. There is joint work and spillovers of knowledge with the quantitative research team within the Macro/Finance Group.

If this interests you, please contact Anurodh Sharma (anurodh54 at gmail.com) with your resume by 22 June 2012, where you clearly identify where your interests and capabilities lie.

NIPFP-DEA Research Program: third MOU going out till 2014

From August 2007 onwards, the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) of the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has collaborated with NIPFP on a new kind of research arrangement titled the `NIPFP-DEA Research Program'. This institutional innovation induces capacity building in the fields of macroeconomics and finance at the Macro/Finance Group of NIPFP, original academic and policy papers in these fields which are released into the public domain, and policy advice in these fields for DEA.

Earlier this month, the third MOU was signed for the NIPFP DEA Research Program, thus carrying this working arrangement forward till March 2014.

R. Gopalan, Thomas Mathew, M. Govinda Rao and Manoj Govil at the signing ceremony

John Vickers seminar

John Vickers is the author of an important new government committee report in the UK, where he is proposing an approach through which the exchequer limits its exposure to bailing out / recapitalising banks, while simultaneously allowing a flexible approach in policy for the remainder of finance. He will do a seminar at NIPFP titled "Stability and competition in UK banking" at 3 PM on 21st (Wednesday,

i.e. tomorrow). Please do join us in this.

Our 9th research meeting, 15 and 16 March

The program is up. Do join us.