Now that I have finally finished reading Michael E Porter’s The Competitive Advantage of Nations, I thought I’d write about its relevance in today’s globalized world. Like many business and economics books that I have been writing about recently, it wouldn’t be fair for me to review this book either, for the same reasons. I… Continue reading Porter’s Competitive Advantage of Nations in Today’s Globalised World
If we thought that the 2008 Financial Crisis is the worst crisis the business world has seen this century, we had better think again. Close on the heels of that, we had the Covid-19 global pandemic, and we are still in the grip of a regional war with global repercussions, plenty of geopolitical tensions, as… Continue reading Davos Man Ready to Face the Challenges of the 21st Century?
India was late to the EV party, as it began its journey of electric mobility only in the past decade. It seems like it wasn’t a policy priority either for the Indian government, with our Roads and Transportation Minister, Nitin Gadkari once even quipping on a television news discussion, “What’s the hurry?” This, when the… Continue reading India’s EV Foray Running Out of Steam
Four decades after globalization of business began, I think we can all agree that it is widespread and well-entrenched. And while there is a lot of talk of deglobalisation, about which I wrote recently on my blog, I not only think that globalisation is here to stay, I think it has become much more complex… Continue reading Which Shoring Makes Best Sense for Globalised Business
Inflation has been a global problem since last year. Ever since Covid-related lockdowns were lifted and people started buying goods and services just like in the days before Covid-19. Except that thanks to the lockdown, manufacturing facilities couldn’t ramp up production levels to meet the surging demand. Neither could shipping companies handle the surge in… Continue reading How Stubborn Can Inflation Get This Year?
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
Finished reading the second of the three books my aged father gifted me for my birthday this August, and as someone who has read Kazuo Ishiguro, I have to say it is completely out of character with anything he has written before. I could tell from the book’s title itself, When We Were Orphans that… Continue reading Neither Orphans, Nor Detectives
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?
Peripatetic Perch 