Research Director and Senior Fellow Niranjan Rajadhyaksha writes in Mint on the relevance of expanding India's direct tax net. Excerpts:

"One of the ironic economic facts today is that most of the poorest people in the world live in countries such as India that are classified as middle income countries based on average incomes. These countries are unlikely to get enough foreign aid but they do not have the deep fiscal resources to help their poor either directly through redistribution or indirectly through the provision of public goods that will raise their ability to earn extra income. Countries such as India are thus trapped between the very poor countries that get a lot of foreign aid and the wealthy ones with very strong tax collections."

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