ADVISE AND CONSENT
An early front-runner in the race to succeed the truth-prone Kaushik Basu as chief economic adviser is MIT professor Abhijit Banerjee. The Government has been trying to lure Banerjee, an expert on poverty, and co-author of the bestselling Poor Economics, into joining Planning Commission as a member. It will certainly improve its poverty estimates. But he may prefer the more significant job of chief economic adviser. Like Basu, Banerjee has no previous experience in Government and is a specialist in microeconomics. Perfect equation.