Angus Deaton on Indian researchers

After a recent comment on an EPW article inIndia Development Blog, I was reminded of a comment by Angus Deaton and Valeri Kozel on Indian researchers and EPW. It is in the paper "Data and Dogma: The Great Indian Poverty Debate" by Angus Deaton and Valeri Kozel. It is available from Deaton's papers and says:

"Another lesson for researchers from India is the importance of high-quality domestic researchers. Analysis by foreign scholars or by World Bank researchers can often be helpful, but it has a quite different effect from a domestic debate among local researchers, policymakers, and the press. Although few countries currently have India’s group of domestic researchers who can work with the basic data, it should be noted that this is a relatively new phenomenon in India too.The Indian press also plays a distinguished role in the debate, not only through the dailynewspapers that regularly give attention to new findings on poverty, and regularly carry seriousop-ed pieces, but also through the presence of Economic and Political Weekly, in the pages of which much of the Indian debate took place. EPW is a cross between an academic journal (it has equations, and econometrics) and a magazine, such as The Economist. It provides rapid publication and acts as a unique bridge between research, the press, and policymakers, and itcould well be emulated in other countries, including many rich countries. "
And there are many more laudatory mention of Indian researchers like Minhas and the empirical work done in India.