Deepak Parekh Report on Infrastructure Financing

I have mentioned about this report many times in my blog. The newspapers continue to make a mention of the aspects of the report. Despite so many discussions in public domain, the report could not be found anywhere ( I make a note of the same here and here. I tried various govt. websites but could not locate the report. This was quite irritating. I could see in my Blog Stats, many people had come to the blog hoping to get a link to the report.  

Finally, I found the report. The report is put on a website (PPPIndia) floated by Infrastructure Division, Dept. of Eco Affairs, under Ministry of Finance (FinMin), India. On FinMin website, there is a seperate link for the Infra division but there is no mention of the PPPIndia website.

I had visited the PPPIndia website earlier and found the committee was formed by the above division. After visiting the website after a longtime I found the report.

I think Finance Ministry’s website should have atleast provided a link to the report. The report is pretty important and Finance Minister P.Chidambaram has mentioned of it in his Budget Speech this year.  

It would have been much easier to locate the report. I am not sure, how many knew the report is out in public domain. Even on the PPPIndia website it is not mentioned anywhere on the homepage and once has to go to a link named Policy & Procedures to find the report. When there is link called financing shouldn’t it have been there as well?

Anyways, go through the report now, as it should have some new ideas on financing the huge infrastructure deficit. Let me go through it and see if I can comment on the same.

Assorted Links

1. WSJ Blog as usual has some excellent posts. It points to a new research paper which says yield curve is a good predictor of recession. Another one points to the text of letter by Bernanke to Senator Schumer explaining Fed’s response to financial markets turmoil. Another one on US inequality. Finally, read the entire assorted section.

2. Willaim Buitler’s blog is getting quite popular for its super ideas. One should read all the posts especially his ideas on Central Bank as a market maker. He has put his idea in 4 posts.

3. Rodrik has 2 posts. One is Arvind Subramanian’s response to aid. However, it is the second one, which caught my eye:

Suppose a large trading nation is found to export huge quantities of products which have not been subject to proper regulatory oversight at home and create important risks for the buyers. And suppose further that importing nations have had to face serious repercussions as a result. When pressure is brought on the exporter of hazardous products to tighten its act and to increase regulatory cooperation with other nations, the country scoffs and says: ”this is a domestic matter; we do not need any international oversight or pressure.”

No I am not talking about Chinese toys. I have in mind instead complex financial instruments sold by the U.S.–which having been improperly evaluated by U.S. rating agencies and hence mispriced, and having been marketed abroad in huge quantities, are now wreaking havoc in financial markets everywhere.

4. Fin Prof has a nice post on Fed’s functions.

5. Apurv has some nice posts on his blog. I am not a techie at all (those knowing me would appreicate the fact) but love the developments in the industry. First is on this firm which has managed to crack the i-phone code, Second on first ever website and third check out his video on Gmail.

6. Shankar Acharya is an economist who always provides caution on India growth story.  I had written about one of his papers here. In BS today, he points to more evidence, this time on health indicators in India. Pretty disturbing facts.