Chief Economist & Political Strategist, CrossASEAN Research

Prasenjit K. Basu

PK Basu has 34 years experience covering Asia's economies and markets (equities, fixed income and currencies), including 20 years covering the global economy. He was Chief Economist (SE Asia & India) at Credit Suisse First Boston for 5 years, and Chief Asia (x-Jpn) Economist at Daiwa Securities for a similar period. Among other roles, he was global head of research at Maybank Kim Eng, Malaysia equity research head and chief ASEAN economist at Macquarie, ASEAN economist at UBS and the first chief economist at Khazanah Nasional (where he was co-head of research, and led all agri-business initiatives). PK Basu started his career in the Asia Service of WEFA (Wharton Econometrics) in Philadelphia in 1990, rising to be Director of their Asia Service in June 1994. 
PK's book, "Asia Reborn: A continent rises from the ravages of Colonialism and War to a New Dynamism" won the Tata Literature First Book Award (non-fiction) for 2018. It is the first single chronicle of the modern economic and political history of the whole of Asia (from Iraq and Turkey to Korea and Japan, and everything in between), told from an Asian perspective.

Chief Economist & Political Strategist

India: Strengthening Recovery Will Defy the IMF's Pessimism on FY2020/21 Growth

Economic Recovery Is Gaining Momentum, but Monetary Stimulus Would Help

India's 2020 Reforms Will Usher in a Decade of Spectacular Growth from 2021 On

Big Bang Reforms, Support for Consumers & Flexible Labour to Boost India

India: Uniquely De-Leveraged, and Poised for a Capex-Led Rebound in a Low-Brent World

India: Abundant Green Shoots of Recovery, but FY20 Fiscal Math Remains Challenging

CrossASEAN Research

At CrossASEAN Research we strive to produce unbiased and differentiated on the ground insights on companies across South East Asia. Our Research is produced for the most part after face to face meetings and conversations with company management to dig deep into the long term vision and strategy of the companies we cover. We seek to deliver investable and actionable themes on sectors and markets across SE Asia, often in collaboration with other Insight Providers across the region, pooling the vast experience of the analysts within the Smartkarma Ecosystem. We also offer bespoke work and tailor made trips for our clients. 

Insights across South East Asia

Macroeconomics

<p>The 2020 Monsoon Session of parliament will go down in history for ushering in modern India’s most transformative economic reforms. Farmers (hitherto obliged to sell their produce to a monopsonist within each state) are now free to sell to whoever they wish (including directly for export), and the famously inflexible labour market has been ingeniously freed up.</p><p>Economic reforms that economists have salivated over, but which politicians considered too hot to handle, have now been delivered by the Modi government. The simplification of labour laws (with 44 laws cut to 4 simple codes), and particularly allowing employers to take employees on (renewable) fixed-term contracts, makes India's labour market as flexible as any in Southeast Asia. The removal of the dead hand of government from vital parts of the economy – with the associated opportunities for pelf they provided to politicians and bureaucrats – has naturally resulted in an avalanche of political criticism, as most policies are in India.</p><p>But the benefits to the national economy are certain over the decades ahead. The flexible labour market will bolster investment in labour-intensive manufacturing, which (like Japan in the 1950s, Taiwan and South Korea in the 1960s, Malaysia and Thailand in the 1980s, China in the 1990s) will help draw labour from low-marginal-productivity work on farms to much higher-productivity jobs in manufacturing. And as workers are drawn away from farms, those that remain there will see some improvement in their productivity -- benefitting additionally from the elimination of the intermediaries between farms and retailers, which will boost the prices earned by farmers. Early evidence that the farm-sector reforms are working is the 32% YoY increase in tractor sales in the last quarter (July-September 2020). The reforms, coupled with the IBC (Insolvency &amp; Bankruptcy Code) and GST, will provide a significant fillip to medium-term economic growth. We are positive on Indian equities on a 12-18 month view.        </p><div><p>      </p></div>

The 2020 Monsoon Session of parliament will go down in history for ushering in modern India’s most transformative economic reforms. Farmers (hitherto obliged to sell their produce to a monopsonist within each state) are now free to sell to whoever they wish (including directly for export), and the famously inflexible labour market has been ingeniously freed up.Economic reforms that economists have salivated over, but which politicians considered too hot to handle, have now been delivered by the Modi government. The simplification of labour laws (with 44 laws cut to 4 simple codes), and particularly allowing employers to take employees on (renewable) fixed-term contracts, makes India's labour market as flexible as any in Southeast Asia. The removal of the dead hand of government from vital parts of the economy – with the associated opportunities for pelf they provided to politicians and bureaucrats – has naturally resulted in an avalanche of political criticism, as most policies are in India.But the benefits to the national economy are certain over the decades ahead. The flexible labour market will bolster investment in labour-intensive manufacturing, which (like Japan in the 1950s, Taiwan and South Korea in the 1960s, Malaysia and Thailand in the 1980s, China in the 1990s) will help draw labour from low-marginal-productivity work on farms to much higher-productivity jobs in manufacturing. And as workers are drawn away from farms, those that remain there will see some improvement in their productivity -- benefitting additionally from the elimination of the intermediaries between farms and retailers, which will boost the prices earned by farmers. Early evidence that the farm-sector reforms are working is the 32% YoY increase in tractor sales in the last quarter (July-September 2020). The reforms, coupled with the IBC (Insolvency &amp; Bankruptcy Code) and GST, will provide a significant fillip to medium-term economic growth. We are positive on Indian equities on a 12-18 month view.              

DSP BlackRock Liquidity Fund (DSLQYDG IN)

Modi's Blitz of Economic Reform Will Transform Farm Sector and Labour Market