Meet the right man in wrong job: Kaushik Basu never cut out to
be govt economist  Bibek Debroy, ET Bureau Mar 18, 2012, 10.56AM
IST  After Arvind Virmani left for IMF, Kaushik Basu became
chief economic adviser (CEA) in 2009. Kaushik Basu's academic
credentials are impeccable. Every age band (say of 10 years) has
prominent Indian economists, and in the 55-65 age band, Kaushik
figures at the top.   But it's more than that. CEAs, despite
lateral entry, are perceived to be government economists. The
contrast is with academic economists. We have had several CEAs.
I can't think of any CEA who has had such an impressive and
wide-ranging array of academic publications (papers, books). His
books on revealed preference, development, industrial
organisation and collected papers are a testimony.  Sari Painter
And it's more than even that. Kaushik writes for the popular
press, a rarity in Indian academia, though this is changing now.
Some of these popular essays have been published as books and
there is the mammoth Oxfo