China has begun the New Year, 2023, by reopening its economy and freeing its people from the harsh Covid-19 lockdown conditions they had been under for the past couple of years. It had to happen sooner rather than later, I thought. Either the world’s second largest economy would cave in, forcing the government to abandon… Continue reading The Locked-Down Giant Awaketh
Even as last year ended, there were rumblings of the possibility of the free foodgrain distribution scheme being extended beyond 2022. This is the additional 5kg of foodgrain that was offered free to households eligible under India’s PDS (public distribution system of heavily subsidized foodgrain) during the Covid pandemic. It must have brought tremendous relief… Continue reading Indian Economy Once More in Election Mode
It will soon be a year since Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Besides the toll it has taken on Ukrainian lives and livelihoods, there is a huge cost being imposed on countries around the world. In terms of food and energy shortages, and their high prices. Thankfully Ukraine is able to export foodgrains under an agreement… Continue reading When E = R x NT²
In a high-inflation environment, it’s perhaps time to look at how consumers are being affected and how they are managing to cope. In Europe, of course, the impact of the war in Ukraine is being most directly felt, I would imagine. What with temperatures dropping, and prices and interest rates rising. Elsewhere too, it is… Continue reading Wintertime, and the Living Ain’t Easy
The recently concluded state assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh yielded results along expected lines. It’s just that no one could tell the extent of the BJP’s landslide victory in Gujarat, nor how close it would be in Himachal. And it was India’s two leading national parties slugging it out in both states. These… Continue reading Another Landslide Victory and What it Says About the State of the Indian Economy
We should have seen it coming. The economic slowdown, after a couple of terribly volatile years, caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. While the first year of the Covid pandemic prompted strict lockdowns in many countries adversely impacting the services part of the economy, manufacturing chugged along, even if a little slowly. Thanks to that, international… Continue reading How Advertising Agencies and Brands Should Negotiate 2023
They say a week is a long time in politics, but what a tumultuous month or so it has been for Britain and the world. It was political upheaval and changes prompted by some very irresponsible economics. If one includes the leadership changes that went before this most recent one, Britain begins to resemble Italy.… Continue reading Britain’s Time of Reckoning
With so many summits and conferences going on this month in the Global South, and many of them in Asia, I thought it might be a good time to reflect on India’s place in Asia. Also, how Asia and the rest of the world think of India and our position in Asia. We like to… Continue reading India @ the Heart of Asia
More importantly, can it afford to? At the start of the 2007/08 Financial Crisis, many international commentators talked of the possibility of deglobalization, perhaps out of fears that the global financial system had grown too large, too fast, and that tougher regulation might force them to shrink their operations. Whether the regulatory system forced them… Continue reading Is the World Deglobalising?
Reading about China’s 20th Communist Party Congress that took place last month in Beijing, it’s good to think about what its message is to the Communist Party, to the people of China and to the world. As the world’s second-largest economy and one of the most populous, if not the most populous, countries in the… Continue reading Cold War with China Not What the World Needs
Peripatetic Perch 