In March 2018, President Trump said that “Trade wars are good and easy to win.” As economies and markets roil in the throes of the year-and-a-half long US-China trade war, it is perhaps time to ask who is a trade war good for and what impact it is having on business and ordinary people. By… Continue reading Just Who Is a Trade War “Good” For?
It has been several months and quarters of agony for the Indian automobile industry, what with vehicle sales falling. The rapid growth rate registered in the 2004 to 2013 period seems to have sputtered to a slow growth, if that. Newspapers and magazines are suddenly full of news about falling vehicle sales and job losses;… Continue reading Stuck in the Slow Lane
While the news in and out of India in recent days has been, quite rightly, hogged by the Kashmir issue, I would like to draw your attention to the economic slowdown in India. There probably isn’t a soul anywhere in the world who hasn’t heard of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s invitation to foreign investors, “Make… Continue reading A Made-in-India Economic Slowdown
The recent wave of protests in Hong Kong are making news headlines for a variety of reasons. From the draconian nature of the extradition bill proposed by Mainland China, to the intensity and massive turnout of the protesters, to the violent reaction by the Hong Kong police, everything was captured by television news channels. The… Continue reading From Gateway to China to Getaway Island?
If you happen to own Arendt’s books and read them a long time ago, it’s time to dust them off your bookshelves and read her all over again. I regret I did not read her earlier, but I am glad I have discovered her wonderfully sharp intellect and detailed expositions of totalitarian regimes now. Why… Continue reading The Relevance of Hannah Arendt
If, after watching news of the recently concluded G20 Summit, you got the impression that the global economy is chugging along fine and that countries were getting along fine, you can attribute it to one person: the world leader with the world-leading tweet! After firing off a set of confrontational tweets in customary style, Trump… Continue reading G20: A Summit in Need of Statesmanship
As we digest news of the slowest rate of economic growth in India in many quarters (5.8% in Q4 of FY 2019) and the highest rate of unemployment in 45 years at 6.1%, all the talk of our demographic dividend of the past 15 years is fast evaporating into thin air. More relevant now, would… Continue reading Is India Adequately Schooled for the Technological Age?
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
The last time the Western world traded with China and it led to wars, it was of the opium kind, in which India too was involved. That was over a century ago. The opium trade with China and the exploits of the East India Company have since been evocatively recreated for us in fiction by… Continue reading Global Growth on a Slow Boat to China
“The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom… You never what is enough until you know what is more than enough.” - William Blake. This might be a strange note on which to begin the new year, but not if one looks at the signs all around us. Listening to some world leaders, you might… Continue reading A Decade of Excess, and the Scars are still Visible
