Varun Agarwal

development and energy @Kennedy_School

[Varun Agarwal @varundotcsv]

nigeria's electricity consumption per capita has practically stayed flat in the past 15 years :/

[Justin Sandefur @JustinSandefur]

@oliverwkim The 2026 refresh of @toddjmoss's fridge.

[Oliver Kim @oliverwkim]

Sobering reminder that hyperscaler data centers will consume as much power as whole countries in Africa

[Varun Agarwal @varundotcsv]

The impact of this distribution was seen evenly in the IAS as well, as i had shown in an article for TCPD

Indian bureaucracy, till nearly 2010, was filled mostly with humanities graduates!

https://t.co/H8CAB5RFt3

[Paul Novosad @paulnovosad]

Striking differences in what kind of bachelors degree people are getting from the Chinese and Indian education systems.

India: Humanities, Law and Business dominate, Science and Engineering are only recent.

China: Engineering, Engineering, and Engineering

[Varun Agarwal @varundotcsv]

second favourite was by @yuenyuenang

[Varun Agarwal @varundotcsv]

my favourite critique of AJR 2001 in the past couple of days. pinpointed and raises a simple question from the perspective of interpretation of economic analyses and obscure variables

[Arvind Subramanian @arvindsubraman]

How has India's Goods and Services Tax (GST) performed, 7 years after its introduction?

A new paper in @epw_in by @FelmanJosh, co-authors from @CEGIS & me highlights several noteworthy findings: https://t.co/Mj7m8RQks3.

Un-gated version here: https://t.co/UKtKARRXZS

1/

[Milan Vaishnav @MilanV]

Important article by @arvindsubraman et al: Predictions of an enormous GST bounty have not been realized. States have experienced a fiscal bonanza while the union has not. Even after compensation ended, states avoided a fiscal cliff due to economic uptick https://t.co/ih4Ij9JES4

[Varun Agarwal @varundotcsv]

new work out in epw today:

https://t.co/vehAQN8jJd

[Econ Grad Student @trashy_quilibrm]

i got "rational consumer" lol

[Yamini Aiyar @AiyarYamini]

An extremely important and timely intervention by Jishnu Das that is a must read for all who do policy in India. Resonates with some ideas I shared in a column last month reposted below
https://t.co/Ir2vdMXVzA

[Varun Agarwal @varundotcsv]

of course tax rate changes contribute to this but the key idea is that government revenues as % of gdp have been low which restricts expenditure and increases debt

[Arvind Subramanian @arvindsubraman]

The April GST number (₹ 2.1 trn.) is a record

But focus must be on revenues, net of refunds, not on headline collections

Despite recovery from the pandemic & better implementation, GST revenue for FY24 @ 6.1 % of GDP has still (after 7 years) not surpassed pre-GST level

1/

[Varun Agarwal @varundotcsv]

working on this was such a great learning experience!

[Arvind Subramanian @arvindsubraman]

My piece in @bsindia with @FelmanJosh and colleagues on how to read the GST data to understand revenue performance: https://t.co/2htnXxqelV

[Varun Agarwal @varundotcsv]

Was a pleasure analysing the TCPD-IAS dataset to write this piece. One interesting finding is that on average, an IAS officer today has lower educational attainment (re: degree credentials) than 40-50 years ago. Major dip seen since the 90s.

[TCPD @TCPD_Ashoka]

In this Trivedi Centre for Political Data Columns piece, Varun Agarwal writes about "Experience over Education: Has the Educational Attainment of IAS Officers changed since the 1960s?"
Read here:https://t.co/i4FJNwliTW

[Varun Agarwal @varundotcsv]

@adam_tooze - "is this India's moment or the end of the world as we know it?"

[Varun Agarwal @varundotcsv]

keeping aside the privacy angle, in a country where the frontline bureaucracy (especially the BLO) is already overburdened, throwing in such confusing and frankly, redundant policy is harmful and irresponsible

[Supriya Sharma @sharmasupriya]

If you are wondering why you’re being forced to link your voter ID to Aadhaar, read this piece by @UmangPod

In short: “Aadhaar is voluntary” is a lie

https://t.co/YiQ7NKG2UI

[CivicDataLab @CivicDatalab]

More than 184 have died & over 110K people are affected by Assam floods. Assam needs all our attention & support. We at @CivicDataLab have curated a list of links to monitor on-ground situation & contribute support to ongoing relief efforts. https://t.co/qr31VaKsFt

[Nibir Deka @nibirdeka]

Trying to push as much #AssamFloods news to highlight this issue nationally

[Varun Agarwal @varundotcsv]

this was sooo good but went towards the end when everything was almost sold out. jealousy is looking at people carrying away the books you wanted for billing

[Shashank Bhargava @shashankbhrgv]

Every year we organise the Annual Book & Bake Sale in Delhi. People donate books and baked goods for it, and we sell them at v low prices (between Rs 20-200). And all proceeds go to a charity or a cause.

This year we got over 4k books, and the collection is FANTASTIC! A thread:

[CivicDataLab @CivicDatalab]

Our bandhus @preethical @kabeer3391 & Jeeno George analyzed 5 years of Public Procurement Data to spot gaps in tendering of maternal & child health related services across districts in Assam. With this, we present a case of how Open Contracting Data can improve decision-making:

[CivicDataLab @CivicDatalab]

Data meets Dialogue at Assam! @CivicDataLab in collaboration with @DataPortalIndia brings together govt, CSOs & researchers for shared learning on how govt data can help decision-making. #DataDialogues

🗓 March 21 & 22, 2022
📍 AASC, Guwahati

Register at https://t.co/JNbtMerqVX