External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Former Ambassador of India to the US Karan Singh, and 15th Finance Commission Chairman NK Singh in New Delhi, on Wednesday. (Express Photo: Anil Sharma)

Noting that the world is passing through “a severe crisis of multiple kinds”, NK Singh, Chairman of the 15th Finance Commission, said on Wednesday that the “prescription” that to “deal with more debt is to incur more debt” looks “bizarre”.

Singh was speaking at the launch of his new book, Endeavours: An Ensemble of My Life, which goes beyond economics and policy and into his passions: from classical music and homeopathy to his travels and time spent in Japan.

Answering Singh’s question on global debt, economist Minouche Shafik — most recently the President of Columbia University, but before that a Deputy Governor of the Bank of England — said advanced economies, who seem to be able to get away with ever more higher levels of debt, seem “politically incapable of getting to grips with their fiscal situation”.

On the…