Northeast BJP wins
It’s at least 2:1 in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as India’s ruling party with its allies has managed to win a majority in Tripura and Nagaland, while Meghalaya voted in a hung assembly
The macro-economic landscape has changed over the last month
Post-budget developments have altered India’s economic scenario slightly but enough to warrant high-level policy attention.
Prepare for a deluge of clever tools spawned by generative AI
Their application as professional aids by artists, engineers and others could prove transformative.
Booze policy must beat its licence raj hangover
It has been both a pluralist wonder and social dilemma, with supply clamps making space for a brew of rent, pelf and political intrigue. Relief may lie in a less mixed-up policy response.
States have a large role in ensuring capital formation
States have a pivotal role in driving capital expenditure, given that their collective spending on this count now exceeds the Centre’s and their ability to optimize outcomes is significant.
Relieve the unfair burden of staying single in India Inc
The concept of ‘me time’ and its importance may be poorly appreciated and seen as a reward for the married lot in a workplace, but for the unmarried, it can be looked upon as an excuse
Gendered social networks are in the way of women’s career paths
We must break gender-aligned patterns of social contact that are found to rob women of job and advancement opportunities
The country must work at raising productivity growth
India displays wide gaps on this between sectors and we have data that can help shape a policy response
A magical box has been unveiled to enchant and educate students
The Jaadui Pitaraa for foundational Indian schooling can work wonders if rolled out as envisaged.
A memo on geopolitics sent in 1946 retains its relevance
More than three quarters of a century after it was written, George Kennan’s long telegram—it ran to 5,500 words—from Moscow to his bosses at the US State Department remains arguably the most influential diplomatic document of all time
Widen out consumption to avert an income trap
Weakened consumer spending points to an uneven economic recovery that could lead India into a middle-income trap before 2047 unless we enable a broad-based consumption boom
Covid’s origin mystery is for scientists to solve
The lab-leak theory has gained buyers in the US even though China denies it outright and has Occam’s razor on its side. History needs to record the truth of how Sars-CoV-2 emerged.
The crash of Adani share prices is not just about retail investors
The stock prices of Adani Group companies have been falling for close to five weeks now.
Smart contracts can revolutionize the way we transact
In an earlier column, I dug into the premise behind central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) in an attempt to try and understand how these new digital instruments align with the two-tiered banking system we have come to depend on for over 400...