Prasanna Mohanty

Prasanna Mohanty is a journalist, researcher and author with a career spanning over three decades. He primarily writes on various facets of Indian economy, including growth and development, trade and taxation, sectoral and climatic challenges, from policy and governance perspectives using data as a key tool.

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How India can cast off food security’s foreign crutch

by Prasanna Mohanty |Jun 25, 2026

With appropriate policy responses, import dependence in edible oils, pulses and fertilisers can be reversed.

Water intensity of paddy, maize and sugarcane makes ethanol production an unsustainable choice

by Prasanna Mohanty |Jun 18, 2026

There are concerns regarding ethanol production, not least among them the water intensity of crops such as paddy, maize, and sugarcane that currently predominate this space.

Should India pursue coal gasification to become self-reliant in fertiliser and oil & gas?

by Prasanna Mohanty |May 19, 2026

Coal can be as clean as any other energy source and make India self-reliant in fertiliser and oil & gas, as China and South Africa have proved. but for that, the country will have to pursue coal gasif...

Together with reverse migration and a deficit monsoon, the rural jobs crisis may precipitate a livelihood crisis.

Jobs vanish in villages as MGNREGS fades, VB-G RAM G faces delays: Here’s why

by Prasanna Mohanty |Apr 23, 2026

Together with reverse migration and a deficit monsoon, the rural jobs crisis may precipitate a livelihood crisis.

Following the violence, Uttar Pradesh announced an interim hike in minimum wages from April 1.

BT Explainer: What brought Noida factory workers to fight on streets

by Prasanna Mohanty |Apr 15, 2026

Along with stagnant wages, longer working hours, contractual engagement, rising cooking gas and cooked food prices, the absence of a union and collective bargaining has produced a volatile mix

Shattered dreams: How India’s nano fertiliser strategy came a cropper

by Prasanna Mohanty |Apr 14, 2026

India's nano-fertiliser ambitions, which promised to make the country self-reliant in fertilisers, have fizzled out due to doubts over efficacy.

India isn’t atmanirbhar in fertilisers yet

BT EXPLAINER: Why the West Asia war may not trigger a fertiliser crisis in India

by Prasanna Mohanty |Mar 19, 2026

India has significantly ramped up fertiliser production in recent years and now has the potential to become self-sufficient

The doubtful job promise: ELI pins too much hope on large companies

by Prasanna Mohanty |Aug 2, 2025

The new Rs 99,446 crore incentive to create 35 million new jobs in the formal sector over two years pins too much hope on big companies.

India has traditionally been a low fiscal spending state compared to developed economies

Rebooting Economy XXVII: Fiscal mismanagement threatens India's economic recovery

by Prasanna Mohanty |Sep 14, 2020

Not only India's relief packages are grossly inadequate it is not even spending enough to revive demand in the crisis-hit economy; what is needed is clear: more fiscal spending, not "keeping the power...

The best years of growth in national income and income share of the bottom 50% and the middle 40% happened during the "Nehruvian socialism" period

Rebooting Economy 70: The Bombay Plan and the concept of AatmaNirbhar Bharat

by Prasanna Mohanty |Feb 27, 2021

The Bombay Plan, authored by the doyens of industry in 1944 first envisioned state planning, state ownership and control of industries to make India "self-sufficient" long before Nehru's ideas took ro...