Title: Sustainable economic governance: learning from Kautilya's Arthashastra

Authors: Rishi Manrai; Utkarsh Goel

Addresses: Symbiosis Center for Management Studies, Symbiosis International University, Noida – 201301, India ' Indian Institute of Information Technology Allahabad (IIITA), Deoghat, Jhalwa, Allahabad, (UP), India

Abstract: Sustainable economic governance requires effectual rules and policies and their effective implementation. Arthashastra written by Kautilya more than two thousand years ago discusses various best practices on governance of markets, economics and trade to ensure happiness and wellbeing of the subjects. Most of the wisdom of Arthashastra are still relevant and are being adopted knowingly or knowingly by present day governments. This paper discusses the teachings of Arthashastra on critical economic policy areas and their key elements and tries to relate its application with present day scenario. The paper discusses how Arthashastra lessons on public finance, trade, taxation and administration have been or can be incorporated in Indian context to achieve the ultimate objective of sustainable economic governance. The paper further combines the key teachings on economic governance and presents a model which can act as a guide for good economic governance.

Keywords: Arthashastra; trade; taxation; public finance; sustainable; economic governance; Kautilya.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICBM.2017.086091

International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, 2017 Vol.15 No.2, pp.241 - 253

Received: 14 May 2016
Accepted: 29 Sep 2016
Published online: 24 Aug 2017 *

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