Times are changing and the whole world has turned right. Left initiatives are falling by the wayside. Some are being destroyed. (JNU - a bastion of left thought) The drift is clearly visible in Economic and Political Weekly. Its iconic position as a journal with high quality academic papers in economics, politics, management, gender studies is eroded now. It is an internationally known journal and getting published in it was a milepost in one's career.
It does not attract serious economic papers anymore. The fraternity of economists has decided that it has bent too leftwards to be objective. Senior bureaucrats used to read it regularly and contribute to it. They have stopped doing so. This has been stated in one of the invited pieces from past illustrious contributors.
For one thing, the generation of economists who wrote in stylish English and has a political economy angle to their discourse is extinct. Younger economists are more technical in their approach. Their reading is poor and career aspirations high. Their choice of subjects is also different.
I go through each EPW issue by force of habit and get saddened each time. Each reading guaranteed plenty of stimulus and food for thought in the past. Now it feels so tired and the topics are also tertiary.
